-Letter of 16 Oct. 1649 (from Westminster to Leiden): "Amico suo colendissimo summae spei eruditionisque Juveni Nicolao Heninsio Simondsius Deuusius Eques Auratus & Baronettus SPD Ante novem annos, doctissime Juvenis, parentem tuum clarissimum Danielem Heinsium etsi mihi penitus ignotum codicillis compellavi, et singularem ipsius ex responso ad me misso qua eruditionem qua humanitatem expertus sum, filiumque ipsius tanto simillimum patri se probaturum patri non despero. Sesquianno circiter elapso a viro gravissimo Joanne Smetio Ecclesiae Noviomagensis Pastore monitus te lectissimum in Italia Thesaurum numarium aureum argenteumque voenalem lustrasse, valoremque pro eo obtulisse non contemnendum, summopere verebar ne moras de die in diem nectendo, et imtempestiva licitatione eundem amitteres; ideoque serio cum amico illo meo colendissimo per literas egi ut te citissime moneret ea in re festinandum, tibique jam summopere gratulor quod tam pretiosae penus antiquariae potitus sis.
Et cum ulterius a Smetio nostro intellexerim te aenea etiam centum quadraginta octo praestinasse numismata atque ex aureis et argenteis aliquot dumtaxat conservaturum, caetera vero amicis tuis permisssurum pretio, id enixe a te rogo, ut quidquid tibi non usui sit futurum mihi indulgeres, qui non solummodo Romana aenea, aurea, argentea, et subaerata quinque ferme millia, typis, lemmatis, metallo, in moribusve inter se apicibus differentia summis coacervaverim impensis, sed etiam luculentum de eisdem bono publico opus, Theatrum Numarium Romanum appellandum edere decreverim.
Utinam regnum hoc Angliae nuperis etsi caedibus intestini belli et flagitijs foedatum urbemque Londinensem petere tibi mens esset, gratissimus mihi esses hospes atque de redundantibus tuis transigeremus numis, meosque non tantum Romanos, sed et Graecos aliarumque gentium vetustissimos lustrares, atque de tota re antiquaria summo saltem meo cum emolumento colloqueremur.
In aureis rarioribus tibi maxime cavendum ne novitia et adulterina pro veris et genuinis in serie tua reposueris, ego enim qui Abrahami Ortelij exteri, Joannis Harrisoni Angli, aliorumque aureos coemerim, summa illos vel incuria, vel errore, id genus fucatos inter indubie antiquos admisisse nonullos reperi.
Ubi veros nactus eram aureos, aut argenteos, uti in M. Antonij, Cleopatrae, Julij Caesaris, Othonis, Helvij Pertinacis, aliorumque moneta fictitia, nuperorum planorum improbitatem ex ipsius fili differentia facile deprehendi, in Pescennio vero Nigro ex ipsis elementis, a vetustiorum caelatorum peritia omnino abhorrentibus, fraus mihi suboluit. Vale clarissime juvenis, et voti mei tam justi compotem me efficias. Dabam Vismonasterij postridie Idus Octobreis Julianas MDCXLIX"
(Amico suo colendissimo summae spei eruditionisque Juveni Nicolao Heninsio Lugdunum Batavorum in Belgio
To his most respected friend and the great hope of learning, Simonds D’Ewes, the Knight and Baronet, sends greetings
Nine years ago, most learned young man, I greeted your father by letter although he was completely unknown to me, and from the reply he sent to me I encountered both his unique learning and his kindness, and I do not despair that his son will prove exactly the same as his father. About a year and a half ago, when I learned from the very serious-minded Johannes Smetius, the Pastor of the Church at Nijmegen, that you had examined a very choice treasure of gold and silver coins in Italy that was for sale, and that you had offered a value for it that was not contemptible, I feared greatly that you would delay and become embroiled from day to day, and that you would lose it by through reckless bargaining. So I wrote most earnestly to my most respected friend that he should urgently advise you to be quick in the matter, and I congratulate you greatly that you have taken possession of such a valuable collection of antiquities.
And when later I learned from our Smetius that you had also bought 148 bronze coins and that you would keep only some of the gold and silver ones, and that you would grant the others to your friends at a price, I earnestly asked you that you would give me whatever would not be of use to you, since I have not only amassed – at great expense - about 5000 bronze, gold silver and billon Roman coins, which differ in their types, inscriptions, metal or unusual letters(?), but also because I have decided to publish a splendid work about them for the common good, which will be called the ‘Roman Coin Theatre’.
I would hope that you might be minded to come to this kingdom of England, although it has been disfigured by the recent disasters and afflictions of civil war, and to the city of London. I would be very pleased if you would be my guest and we could spend time on your duplicate coins, and you could go through mine, which are not only Roman but also very ancient ones of the Greeks and of other peoples, and we could talk about the whole of antiquity with great profit to me.
You must take great care, in respect of the rarer gold coins, that you have not placed in your collection any modern or false pieces instead of the true and genuine, since in buying gold coins from Abraham Ortelius from abroad, from John Harrison from England, and from others, I have found some fakes of that kind have been let in among the certainly ancient, through great inattention or mistakes.
When I have acquired genuine gold or silver coins, such as of Mark Antony, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Otho, Helvius Pertinax and invented coins of others, I have easily caught the dishonesty of the recent fraudsters by the difference of the particular fabric; in the case of Pescennius Niger the fraud was detected by me from those particular aspects which are completely alien to the skill of the ancient engravers.
Farewell, most ditinguished young man, and allow me to have what I so truly want. Given at Westminster on the 16 October 1649
To his most respected friend and the great hope of learning, the young man Nicolaas Heinsius, at Leiden in Belgium) (Leiden University Library, MS BPL 1920)
