-Letter of 16 Oct. 1647 (from Padua to Nijmegen): "Begins on lamps. [p. 7] In nummis colligendis post ultimas meas operae multum impendi. Aereos tamen nullos comparavi, quod et pluris aestimentur, et revera sint, quam argentei, ut tu recte judicas; ac proinde etiam fraudi valde obnoxiam hanc mercem noverim: adeo quidem, ut ipsi hic Antiquarii, qui tota vita nihil aliud egere, facile impingant, ac decipiantur; quod Romae mihi aliquoties vidisse contigit. Sed his technis peregrinos ut plurimum circumveniunt. Exspecto igitur occasionem, qua integrum numismatum aereorum studium pretio commodo ad manus meas pervenire possit, et quidem tale, quod ab homine perito collectum fuisse constet.
Nummos argenteos septingentos circiter habeo, et quidem probae notae quosdam, inter quos Drusus pater Germanici, quem nusquam hactenus vidi. Habeo et Neronem cum Agrippina pulcherrimum, et Vespasianum cum filiis, Gordianum quoque Africanum juniorem, Balbinos duos, Diadumenianum et nonnullos alios ex rarioribus, Caligulam cum tribus sororibus, pluresque hujus notae, ex Consularibus praesertim. Imperatorum multi tamen mihi desunt, Pescennius, Didius Julianus, Gordianus Afr. pater, Pertinax, Clod. Albinus, Pupienus, Maximus, aliique ex posterioribus. Operam tamen dabo, ut seriem totam absolvam, antequam ex Italia discessero nec deërunt occasiones, ut spero. Jam enim vidi, quos comparare possim: si alios commodiori pretio venales non invenero.
Florentiae apud virum nobilem septingentos aut octingentos circiter vidi argenteos, cum centum et duodecim aureis, quibus nihil elegantius in tota hactenus Italia [p. 9] monstratum mihi est. Numerus quidem exiguus est, ipsi tamen nummi rari omnes sunt, et magno cum judicio selecti. Videres illic Liviam cum Augusto, Caesoniam cum Cajo, Arricidiam cum Tito, Fl. Titianam Helpen, Albiam Terentiam, Juniam Fadillam, Sulp. Memmiam, Calpurniam Pisonis, Galeriam Fundanam, et hujus ordinis multas. Non patiar mihi elabi hunc thesaurum. Possessor vir est opulentus, sed qui nihil hic intelligat. Ex hereditate enim paterna ad illum devenere. Aureos illos malim abesse. Augent enim vehementer pretium.
Romae nummi pluris longe fiunt quam in aliis civitatibus. Imposuit mihi tamen ille qui Pescennium cum tribus caeteris centum scutatis vendi ut plurimum asserebat. Fit enim nonnunquam, ut vilissimo vendantur pretio ab imperitis: ut ego Gordianum Africanum pro decem assibus cum aliis nonnullis bonae notae nummis, pro quibus singulis tantumdem solvebam, comparavi. Sed de hisce rebus jam satis."
(Since my last letter I have spent much effort in collecting coins. However, I have bought no bronze ones, because they are may be valued at more – which indeed they may be – than silver, as you rightly judge. I have further learned that this trade is greatly subject to fraud; so much so that even the antiquarians here, who have done nothing else in all their lives, easily encounter it and are taken in, as I have happened to see sometimes in Rome. But they get round foreigners as much as possible with these arts. I am therefore looking forward to the time when a clean cabinet of bronze coins may come into my hands at a reasonable price, and in such a way that it may be agreed that it has been collected by a man of experience.
I have about seven hundred silver coins, and indeed some are of good quality, among which are a Drusus the father of Germanicus, which I have never seen before. I also have a very fine Nero with Agrippina, a Vespasian with his sons, the younger Gordian Africanus, two of Balbinus, a Diadumenian and several other from the rarer ones: a Caligula with his three sisters, and more of such quality, especially among the Republican ones. I lack many of the emperors, Pescennius, Didius Julianus, Gordianus Africanus the father, Pertinax, Clod. Albinus, Pupienus, Maximus, and others of the later ones. Nevertheless, I will make the effort to complete the whole series before I leave Italy, and there will be no lack of opportunities, I hope. For I have already seen which ones I can buy, if I shall not find the others for sale at a more reasonable price.
In Florence I saw in the possession of a nobleman about seven or eight hundred silver coins, together with one hundred and twelve gold coins, and nothing finer than them has been shown to me in the whole of Italy so far. The number may be small, but they are all rare coins, and chosen with great discernment. You can see there Livia with Augustus, Caesonia with Caius [Caligula], Arricidia with Titus, Flavia Titiana Helpe, Albia Terentia, Junia Fadilla, Sulpicia Memmia, Calpurnia the daughter of Piso, Galeria Fundana, and many of this sort. I won’t allow this treasure to escape me. The owner is a rich man, but he understands nothing of this, since they have come to him from his inheritance from his father. I would prefer it if those gold coins had not been present, since they greatly increase the price.
In Rome, coins make much more than in other cities. The man, who declared that Pescennius with three others be sold for a hundred scudi at the most, cheated me. For sometimes it happens that they are sold at a cheap price by the inexperienced, as when I bought a Gordian Africanus for ten asses with some others of good quality, for each of which I paid the same amount. But that’s enough about such things) (G. C. in de Betouw (ed.), De lucernis veterum reconditis in agro Neomagensium suburbano (Nijmegen, 1783), pp. 6-11).
