2 May 1591 (from Antwerp): “S. P. optime nepos. Litteras tuas argumenti plenas gratissime accepi. Tu nondum quae ego cum Woudnellii mercibus miserum, intellego. Accipies autem, spero. Nummos quos apud Askum vidisti, novi memoria, eosdem enim mihi ostendit olim, quae desiderat, desideranda sunt, potis quam possidenda, quis enim Pescennium Nigrum ex AE? Si vellet carere aureo suo Caro, haberet à me Alex. Magnum, aut Philippum eius patrem, etiam ex auro, extra omnem controversiam antiquum, praeterea integerrimum. Scis, et scit quantum auro sint ponderosiores prisci hi nummi, qua milli declinantis Imperii, sub quo Carus. Theatrum meum recudo, eius media pars recusa ante annum fuit, inter quam folium quod Britannicas continet; itaque illud iam mutari non potest. De huius virginibus quod tam benè mereri studeas, te laudo plurimum” – comments on various plates of the Theatrum but without numismatic relevance (Paris, Fondation Custodia, Frits Lugt Collection, 1972 A-3; Hessels 1887, no. 196, p. 473-474).
['I knew from memory the coins which you saw at Aske’s house. For he once showed me the same ones. What he desires are to be desired, rather than possessed. For who has a Pescennius Niger in bronze? If he should wish to be without his gold Carus, he would have from me an Alexander the Great, or his father Philip, and of gold, ancient beyond any argument, and particularly well-preserved. You know, and he knows, how much heavier these ancient coins are than those of the declining Empire, when Carus was.' (partial translation from Burnett 2020b, p. 156)]