What is provenance?
Provenance: This term plays a decisive role in the coin trade today. Provenances are worth their weight in gold. The same antique coin with a proper provenance can cost several times more than it would without provenance. So what is provenance?
Definition of provenance
The word provenance comes from the Latin ‘provenire’. The word means to emerge or appear, and that is precisely the meaning of provenance. Provenance encompasses where a coin – or, of course, a picture or antique object – comes from, as well as all the moments in which it has seen the light of day. This can be in the context of an auction, which is the most common case. However, it can also be an exhibition or a listing in a scientific publication.
The word ‘pedigree’ is colloquially used as a synonym for the term provenance.
Why is provenance important?
One of the central points of contention in cultural property protection is the question of when a coin that has entered a country by means that can no longer be verified is legally present there. To this end, many countries have specified key dates in their new cultural property protection laws – usually the date on which the law came into force. If provenance clearly shows that a coin was already in a country BEFORE this legal reference date or has had the correct import and export documents since this reference date, the legal status of the item is relatively clear and easy to prove.
Why then do not all coins have a provenance?
Unfortunately, before the discussion about the protection of cultural property, the provenance of a coin was of little interest. This means that in the past, many collectors did not make a note of where, when and from whom they acquired a coin.
Furthermore, as the sale of antique coins via auction has only become the norm since the introduction of digital photography, there is no proof of sale for many coins. They changed hands as part of sales from stock or during coin exchanges.
There are even coins that certainly originate from a very old collection but are not pictured in the auction catalogue with which the collection was dissolved. This is because taking photographs before the First World War was so expensive that most auctioneers only photographed the most expensive coins.
The fact that a coin has NO provenance does not mean that it was not already in the country before!
What about coins minted after ancient times?
Awareness of the importance of provenance currently only exists in the field of ancient coins and extremely expensive US coins, which are valued by investors. In both cases, the focus is on the security of the investment. In the field of ancient coins, investors protect themselves against the possibility of the coin being reclaimed by a state when it is resold (which, incidentally, happens very, very rarely, but receives enormous attention due to the large press coverage). Investors in US coins protect themselves against counterfeits.
The discussion on the protection of cultural property has been driven mainly by archaeological circles. Since historians and museum curators tend to dominate the field of medieval, early modern and modern coins, hardly anyone is interested in the origin of the coins. For this reason, only a few collectors record the provenance of their pieces, and it is not often stated in auction catalogues.
Should I write down where my coins come from in future?
We can only advise every collector to carefully document where their coins come from. This is not only useful in the event of a sale, but also if it should turn out much later that one of the pieces is a forgery. Many established coin dealers belong to an association whose members guarantee the authenticity of what they have sold, far beyond the limits required by the state. But even then, a collector must first prove that they bought the coin from the dealer and how much they paid for it.
It is also an insurance issue: if your coin collection is stolen, you can prove its value.
What should I do with the old coin slips?
Be sure to keep them! They often provide additional evidence of where a coin came from and when it was sold.
What constitutes good provenance?
There are also differences in quality when it comes to provenance. As a general rule, the further back the provenance goes and the more renowned the collection and auction house from which a coin originates, the better the provenance.
How can I reconstruct a provenance?
In recent years, several companies have specialised in reconstructing lost provenances using AI and large databases for a fee.
However, you can also conduct your own search. Our partner Sixbid offers access to all auctions held at Sixbid since 2000 in its Coin Collector’s Archive, as well as digitised printed catalogues from before 2000 in its Classical Archive. All of this can be accessed via a simple word search.
Text and images: Ursula Kampmann
