| Stephen Album Rare Coins > Auction 48 | Auction date: 18 January 2024 |
| Lot number: 132 Price realized: 325 USD (Approx. 299 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: UMAYYAD: AE fals (2.03g), al-Daybul, AH117, A-A204, very clear mint & date; six examples of this type, probably all dated AH117 (but some may be 119), sold in our previous auctions; porous surfaces as on all known examples, F-VF, RRR. Estimate: 200-250 USD Starting price: 160 USD |  |
Match 1:
| Stephen Album Rare Coins > Auction 48 | Auction date: 18 January 2024 |
| Lot number: 1709 Price realized: 170 USD (Approx. 157 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: UMAYYAD: AE fals (1.71g), al-Daybul, AH117, A-A204, date boldly clear, mint name only partially legible; six examples of this type, probably all dated AH117 (but some may be 119), sold in our previous auctions; porous surfaces as on all known examples, F-VF, RRR. Same reverse die as lot 207 in our Auction 43, thus confirming the mint name. Estimate: 120-160 USD Starting price: 100 USD |  |
Match 2:
| Stephen Album Rare Coins > Auction 48 | Auction date: 18 January 2024 |
| Lot number: 393 Price realized: 170 USD (Approx. 157 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: RASSID: al-Muntasir Da'ud, 1258-1290, AR mansuri dirham (1.70g), Sa'da, AH672, A-A1086, very clear mint & date in the obverse margin, ruler cited as al-muntasir billah da'ud in the reverse margin, EF, RRR. Dirhams in his name are confirmed only for Bukur 658, Sa'da 665 and 674 (and now also 672), and Zufar 663, 670, and 678. All other dirhams dated during the reign of al-Muntasir lack his name and cite only the founder al-Mansur 'Abd Allah and are therefore classified as posthumous issues al-Mansur, type A-1083. Estimate: 200-300 USD Starting price: 170 USD |  |
Match 3:
| Stephen Album Rare Coins > Auction 48 | Auction date: 18 January 2024 |
| Lot number: 646 Price realized: 550 USD (Approx. 507 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: MUGHAL: Babur, 3rd reign, 1504-1530, AR shahrukhi (4.52g), Badakhshan, A-2462.1, variant of Rahman-01, eye-shape central cartouche on obverse; probably dated, date off flan, clear mint name, VF, RRR. The only other examples of this variety are a mounted example sold in the Oswal Auction 66, Lot 151 (same dies), and the previous lot in this auction, also from the same dies! Estimate: 150-200 USD Starting price: 120 USD |  |
Match 4:
| Stephen Album Rare Coins > Auction 48 | Auction date: 18 January 2024 |
| Lot number: 1708 Price realized: 100 USD (Approx. 92 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: UMAYYAD: AE fals (3.90g), Qinnasrin, A-184, Bone-3.1b, first half of kalima within two circles, 4 annulets between the two circles // 2nd half of kalima in center, mint formula around, choice VF, RRR. Of the 30 examples of Qinnasrin on Zeno, all are the common type Bone-4, nothing like this one. Estimate: 100-150 USD Starting price: 85 USD |  |
Match 5:
| Numisma SA > Auction 139 | Auction date: 14 December 2023 |
| Lot number: 27 Price realized: Unsold | |
| Lot description: Portugal - Sebastião I (1557-1578) Gold - Engenhoso, undated; SEBASTIANVS.I.R.PORTVG / +IN-HOC-SIGNO-VICES; G.64.04, JS Se.11; 3.78 g; VF With a value of 500 Reais, the Engenhoso of D. Sebastião belongs to the select group of Portuguese coins of exceptional rarity and value. It is a "sought-after" piece in any public or private collection, even though it is difficult to acquire, given the scarce number of specimens that have come down to our days. However, above all, this coin bears witness to the first and unique technological innovation in monetary production in Portugal, which took place in 1562, with the use of a press invented by João Gonçalves, na artist from Guimarães, which made it possible to manufacture cast gold coins, in series, with a uniform quality, regular weight and na edge that could not be clipped, "without it being seen, and perceived" (Manoel Barbosa, 1732), this last a fraudulent practice which at that time was of great concern to those responsible for the Mint, as can be seen in the monetary law of 2 January 1560. The historical importance of this technological "leap", symbolised by the Engenhoso, cannot be overstated. It began to be developed during the reign of King João III, when João Gonçalves received sixty thousand reais from the king to build a device to manufacture coins, a fact attested to in a permit of 30 October 1553. Henri II of France was equally concerned with innovating the technology involved in coin production. In a document dated 3 March 1553, i.e. about eight months before the permit of Dom João III, he granted the position of "master and director of the machines for the production of cast coins" to Aubray Olivier, who would become the inventor of this process. Even if we do not know if this "invention" took place autonomously in France and Portugal, it is certain that the use of these presses was quickly abandoned in both countries, since the costs of such coin minting were much higher than hammered coinage. Manufacture of the Engenhoso is said to have taken place between 1562 and 1566, with no copies from 1564 being known, but those issued undated, to which the one shown here belongs, may be attributed to 1564 or to a date after 1566. The typology and legends of the Engenhoso follow that of the Cruzados introduced by the monetary law of 1560, with the Shield of the Kingdom, accompanied by the letters SEBASTIANVS.I.R.PORTVG, on the obverse, and the Cross of Christ, surrounded by +IN-HOC-SIGNO-VICES, on the reverse. Regardless of the different craftsmanship, the main difference between the hammered cruzados and those produced by João Gonçalves' press, lies in the well delineated border (with 3 distinct types, Gomes, 2013, p. 224), in order to make it more difficult to clip and, in the legend on the reverse, the intentional substitution of VINCES by VICES, where, as a rule, the I is accented with a tilde, providing a reading identical to that of the full word. This situation does not arise with undated examples, as is the case with the coin under consideration here. In short, the result is that the Engenhoso of D. Sebastião is nowadays a coin of exceptional rarity, of a technological innovation that tried to supplant, without success, the hammered coin technique, then more than two thousand years old, which, in Portugal, after the short-experiment undertaken with Antonio Routier's device in 1649, was only abandoned definitively in 1677. Starting price: 15000 EUR |  |
