Italian, Russian & French Coins Stand Out in UBS Sale

Spent more time looking through the upcoming UBS Auction 73 catalog and discover several additional delights. There was an impressive run of French material, and more importantly in todays market, there was also a fair sized run of Russian coins.

Most impressive however was the very large selection of Italian numismatic items. In addition to coins from unified Italy, this sale offers substantial groups of many Italian States issues including Medieval silver issues from Savoy and early gold coins from the Vatican and Venice, Colonial Italian coins from Somalia and Eritrea, a nice Tuscan medal, a scarce Mezzo Scudo of 70 Soldi from Venice and many other interesting items such as this sharply detailed 2 Doppie of Genoa stuck under the rule of the Biennial Doges in the name of Conrad II. These coins are distiguished by their date, 1616 for this coin, and the mint masters or magistrates initials, which in this case are IZ for Joseph Zinus. A similar example grading gVF and with some heavy doubling sold in January 2007 for $2,400, but I would expect this example to sell closer toit's estimate of about $3300.