Notae Numismaticae - Zapiski Numizmatyczne (11.2016)

ELIZA WALCZAK

the topics connected with the history of the territory along the northern coast
of the Black Sea, including the coinage of this region."
Terlecki developed and enriched his numismatic collection by personally
finding specimens in various locations or purchasing them from local residents
and dealers in antiąuities. The Historical and Archaeological Museum of Kerch
still keeps the catalogue manuscript which I. Terlecki prepared for his collection
in 1902.12 The catalogue features as many as 892 numismatic specimens: 90 gold,
51 electrum, 284 silver, 46 potin, and 357 bronze coins as well as 1 leaden coin.
The entire work is divided into chapters devoted specifically to mints (Pantica-
paeum, Apollonia, Phanagoria, Sindica, Olbia, Chersonesus) and the coinage
of the Bosporan kings. The characteristics of each coin are given under the fol-
lowing headwords: reference number, reign, year, metal, name (denomination),
reference to the numismatic catalogues by Platon Burachkov,13 Christian Giel,14
or Bernhard Koehne,15 condition, rarity designation, a description of the physical
properties, and the value in francs. Descriptions would sometimes contain images
such as coin imprints or drawings, details on the coin-find locations, or the coin
sellers. In 1911, because of his deteriorating health and the need to ensure
the materiał security of his wife and four children, he decided to sell his collection
to the Hermitage. When it tumed out that the authorities of this museum were
not interested in his offer, he intended to put his collection up for sale through
the agency of the auction company of the Egger Brothers in Vienna. In the end,
no auction was ever finalized,16 but the Moscow-based numismatist Theodor
Ferdinand Prowe purchased most of Terlecki’s collection in autumn 1911.17

11 According to A. Szemiothowa (1958: 341-343), Ernest Babelon mentioned I. Terlecki’s collection in his
famous work on Greek and Roman coinage, Traite des monnciies grecąues et romaines. Unfortunately, I have not
been able to find confirmation of this information in any of the voIumes of the Traite....
12 TERLECKI 1902.
13 BURACHKOV 1884.
14 GIEL 1886.
15 KOEHNE 1857.
16 For morę on the unpleasant circumstances of this transaction, see BOROVKOVA 1999: 96; IZBASH-
-GOTZKAN 2016: 217-218. N.V. Fedoseev (2002: 168) notes that a typographical catalogue was issued
for the purposes of the auction and suggests that it may have been based on the manuscript from 1902.
The same information is given in V.N. Borovkova and T.A. Izbash-Gotzkan. FIowever, the auction catalogue lists
of the Egger Brothers make no mention of a transaction referring to Terlecki’s collection; likewise, Terlecki
himself does not mention any catalogue issue in his letter to A. Berthier de la Gardę.
17 V.N. Borovkova and T.A. Izbash-Gotzkan State that Prowe put Terlecki’s collection up for auction
in 1914, but the auction catalogue for 1914 (BRUDER EGGER 1914) features only a handful of coins from
the north Black Sea region: some staters of the Bosporan rulers on pp. 26-28, nos. 504-577, pis. IX-XI; in regards
to Panticapaeum: p. 6, nos. 96, 97, pl. IV. For both the previous (1912) and the later auctions (between 1914
and 1917), there are no coins of the North Black Sea region that may be deemed as having been obtained from
Dr Terlecki. In theyears 1917 and 1918, the Prowe family lost most oftheirproperty as the result ofnationalization,
and T. Prowe was forced to gradually sell his collection. In 1924, he was arrested and his collections confiscated.
A smali portion (Bosporan bronze coins) went to the Historical Museum in 1927, but the major part was sold