German 5 Mark Silver "Eagle" Two Tone Plain Bezel Coin with 24" Chain

Each one of these real coins from around the world is first layered in pure bright silver. Then the figures of each are highlighted and brought to life with rich pure 24KT gold and pure silver. This breathtaking and exclusive work turns these coin into stunning and true works of art. Each coin is hermetically sealed against wear in clear, hard acrylic coating. Each coin comes mounted in a gold filled bezel (frame), on a 24" rope chain with a jewelry box. The coin is a little smaller than the size of a U.S. half dollar.

THE COINAGE OF OLYMPIA c. 432-c.421, from the 87th Olympiad to Stater (Silver, 12.09 g 7), late 420s, signed by Da… Eagle standing right, wings spread, holding, with his beak, the neck of a snake whose head rises up to strike left at the eagle’s head; the remainder of the snake’s body passes round the eagles neck and down to the ground where it is grasped by the eagle’s talons and ends in a coil below the eagle’s tail; to left and right, in small letters, ; above, countermark of an owl left with facing head. Rev. F Thunderbolt, with wings above and volutes below; all within a circular border of pellets. BMFA 1202 (this coin). Seltman 140a (BN/, this coin). Warren 918 (this coin). Extremely rare. Very attractively toned. Countermarked, otherwise, good very fine. From the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, NFA VIII, 6 June 1980, 178, and of E.P. Warren (the reference to the Greenwell collection in the NFA catalogue seems to be an error). This is one of the most noble and life-like eagles to appear on the coinage of Olympia. Its battle with the snake is portrayed in an extremely dramatic manner: the snake is doomed since the eagle is just about to break its neck, but his head, raised up above the eagle’s, is poised to strike. The reverse is also uncommonly well made with the thunderbolt, the letters, and the encircling border of pearls perfectly placed. The engraver who cut the dies for this piece was justly proud of them, and in a first at Olympia, added his signature, DA, to the obverse die (these letters reappear on the reverse of the magnificent Zeus issue of 416; (see lot 62, below). The owl countermark was ascribed by Seltman to Tegea. Another example, possibly from the same punch, appears on a hemidrachm, lot 60, below. LEU90, 58

Denarius. 32BC. 3.02grams. Egypt camp Antony mint. Antony. Crawford 544/37v ANT AVG IIIVIR RPC. Obverse: galley. Reverse: eagle standards, LEG XXI retrograde ie IXX GEL. Specific gravity 8.85 compared silver 10.4, thus it appears an ancient plated imitation with error legend but possibly a clever white-metal forgery. Very unusual. Extremely Rare. This piece has been subject to much online discussion, as to whether it is or is not a plated ancient forgery, or whether it is made of white metal or silver plated, or whether it may have been overstruck. Seeing the coin in hand and after close examination there is no evidence of an overstrike at all. The style is perfectly correct and ancient. There is surface corrosion and lamination. At the rear of the galley on the obverse there does seem to be a break showing a core but it is curious that there is not clearer evidence of a copper core despite the many laminations. I examined the coin with a microscope and other than at the rear of the galley could see no direct evidence of plating. The coin is struck. The metal surface does not appear to be of pure silver - it may be debased or of a different metal. It seems that both possibilities remain open - that it is a plated ancient forgery, or that it is of white-metal, either ancient, or less ancient, possibly 19th century, though the latter is unlikely as it would be easier to use a sixpence worth of real silver if the intention was to deceive a collector.

Retirement has never sat well with former Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn. Now the ghosts of a still-unsolved case are returning to haunt him, reawakened by a photograph in a magazine spread of a one-of-a-kind Navajo rug, a priceless work of woven art that was supposedly destroyed in a suspicious fire many years earlier. The rug, commemorating one of the darkest and most terrible chapters in American history, was always said to be cursed, and now the friend who brought it to Leaphorn's attention has mysteriously gone missing.
With newly wedded officers Jim Chee and Bernie Manuelito just back from their honeymoon, the legendary ex-lawman is on his own to pick up the threads of a crime he'd once thought impossible to untangle. And they're leading him back into a world of lethal greed, shifting truths, and changing faces, where a cold-blooded killer still resides.