Auction 17
Ladies and Gentlemen, with reference to many conversations and messages sent to our e-mail, we intend to prepare the April auction in an open system. Our team is still at the stage of finalizing the record number of transactions for the January auction, but now that the work has started, as promised, we are opening our event and at the same time let us mention the collection that we have the honor to present at the very beginning.
At our 17th auction, we will offer you a collection of szóstak coins of Jan Kazimierz from the collection of Mr. Łukasz Ciura, a specialist in these coins. Łukasz Ciura is the author of the first comprehensive study of these coins entitled “Szóstaki krone Jana Kazimierza” as well as the author of articles devoted to the minting of Jan Kazimierz in numismatic periodicals. It is worth mentioning that the above-mentioned book is not only a catalog of szóstak coins, but a very comprehensive numismatic study covering a number of issues, starting from an outline of the functioning of crown mints, analysis of the ordination and mint rate, ending with a discussion of varieties and analysis of curiosities. While creating this work, the author gathered a collection of szóstak coins, which constitutes its important foundation. Nearly 200 of the 298 coins from the offered collection are illustrated in this catalogue.
The collection includes 298 crown szóstak coins: 109 from the Kraków mint, 87 from the Bydgoszcz mint, 22 from the Poznań mint and 80 from the Lviv mint. This collection, created over a decade, is a typological collection whose main principle was to obtain new varieties, at least in readable states of preservation. Consequently, all coins in the collection differ (there are no so-called doubles), at least at the level of the inscription variant. There is no shortage of beautifully preserved examples and those whose condition is combined with rarity. Speaking of rarity, let no one be misled by the realistic scale of rarity related to availability on the numismatic market with which the szóstak coins are described in Ł. Ciura’s catalog. It corresponds to the Czapski scale (Cz.), i.e. R1 is R1 (Cz.), R2 is R2-R3 (Cz.), R3 is R4-R5 (Cz.), R4 is R6-R7 (Cz.), and R5 is R8-R* (CZ). The presence of a large number of rare items is undoubtedly a characteristic feature of this collection, which makes it impossible to quickly recreate it even if appropriate resources are available.
The offered collection has no precedent in terms of both the number and quality of collections of szóstak coins offered so far at numismatic auctions in Poland. Moreover, it seems that in the Royal Poland section, the offer of Ł. Ciura’s set of szóstak coins is worth noting as a significant event on the Polish auction market. Our auction will probably be the only opportunity to purchase such an interesting collection with unique provenance for a long time.
