Byzantine Silver & Bronze Coins

Lot 4657    SESSION 17 (11.30AM FRIDAY 29TH JULY)    Byzantine Silver & Bronze Coins

Estimate $150
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $90

ANASTASIUS I, (A.D. 491-518), AE follis (large module), issued 512-517, Constantinople mint, (18.88 g), obv. diademed draped bust to right, DN ANASTA SIVS AVC, rev. M over mintmark CON, Officina **D* stars either side, cross above M, (S.19, DOC 23f, BMC 24-27, R.337). Dark green and earthen patina good very fine and rare in this condition.

Ex CNG private purchase January 2013, coming from Stack's Bowers Galleries (& Ponterio) Sale 172, 16 November 2012 (lot 11900 part) from the collection sold as the Demarete Collection, being the collection of Elvira Clain-Stefanelli (item No.4415 from her collection) with her packet.

Elvira Clain-Stefanelli (1914-2001) was born in Bucharest, Romania and studied history at Franz Joseph University. She received a masters degree in history at the University of Cernauti. In 1939, she married Vladimir Clain-Stefanelli (1914-1982), whom she met in Rome. The Clain-Stefanellis later moved to Berlin and were conducting research on coins in 1943 when they were sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp because Vladimir's passport had been stolen and used by an "enemy of the state."
The Clain-Stefanellis emigrated to the United States in 1951. Elvira worked at Stack's Coin Galleries before joining the Smithsonian Institution in 1957, where Vladimir had been curator of the Division of Numismatics for one year. Over her several decades at the Smithsonian, she grew the US National Numismatic Collection (NNC) from approximately 60,000 pieces in 1956 to over 960,000 pieces in 1982. She was appointed Executive Director of the NNC in 1983 and served in that role until her retirement in 2001.
She was an accomplished author, especially noted for her Numismatic Bibliography (1984), a work listing over 18,000 publications on all facets of numismatics.
In 1994, Clain-Stefanelli was appointed to the newly-formed Citizens Commemorative Coin Advisory Committee and served on the committee until her death in 2001.
She is regarded as one of the greatest numismatists' of the 20th century.