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Sincona 19 (The SINCONA Collection - Part 3)


IgorS

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Not to worry, you will be able to buy many coins from this sale at a discounted price later.

Just curious: here we are in March, 2015, seven months after IMIS made his prediction. Have many of the Sincona 19 lots appeared for sale at discounted prices?

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viceversa article "who was cederman?"

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Видеоверся статьи "Кем был Сёдерман?"
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I think Sincona Collection is the perfect name for the Russian coins Sincona is selling for the past 3 years and will be selling again this coming fall. The reason is simple - they belong to Sincona, thus the name.

Was just reading this ugly business between Basok and Arefieff on CM. Arefieff indicates that Soderman sold his silver along with gold in the 60's. Is that the case? I recall Gold/Platinum auction attributed to Sodermann, don't recall silver. Is that why the Sincona collection is anonymous?

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His silver coins were offered in 1968 Hess Leu auction. But very little sold, probably due to high reserves. Why do you think Sincona collection is anonymous? It has a name - Sincona collection. Yes, looks like many coins belonged to Sodermann at some point, it is obvious, the pictures are in 1968 Hess Leu catalog - those can be called Ex Sodermann, so what?

I am not very happy about that Basok and Arefiev business. My opinion - much ado about nothing. If Sincona was not involved in the equation - no-one would even notice, since it is not that important information altogether - Arefiev spoke to Sodermann, received a letter, GM books for sale, blah-blah - who cares. IMHO.

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I don't care personally, but from what I see it is (to some degree) a result of a somewhat annoying and unprofessional nature of their promotion...

I may be wrong, but I believe that Candidate, who just posted above, is associated with Sincona. ;)

 

Whoever that Sincona rep in charge of dealing with Russian forums might be, I quite enjoyed this level of engagement with the collectors, and I hope that other auctions would provide this much online access to their upcoming auctions in the future. I know that there are at least 2 MiM experts who curate almost daily on Russian coin forums. They are knowledgeable and experienced people, and I often read their posts, but I do wish that on occasion they would show more restraint in their forum posts. (And I believe that Basilio/Kapustin has become much more measured and less vitriolic in the last few years). I would applaud MiM if they shared their upcoming auction's coin pics on forums, like Sincona does, as well as posted articles about more interesting coins from their auctions.

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In my recent communications, especially with young collectors of Russian coins, I discovered that many of them have absolutely no idea who Leonid Soedermann was. Wait a minute, why did I write his name as Soedermann and not Sedermann or Sodermann as one may find written by others? Who was he, that enigmatic man with the last name Soedermann? In <st1:country-region w:st="on">Finland, and later in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Switzerland, he lived under that very name, but spoke and wrote using very good Russian, and when he signed his name in Russian, he signed it as Leonid Sergeevich Sedermann. He was a very private person and his whole persona was shrouded in an aura of mystery and that very mystery has always been a source for assumptions, rumors and myths about him.



In the mid-80ies in the Journal of the Russian Numismatic Society, Randolph Zander told a story how in 1964 in New York, where Soedermann visited as a member of the International Association of Professional Numismatists (IAPN) for an annual congress, they met and traded some rare coins with each other. For the pattern rouble of Alexander I, Soedermann took a set of pattern nickel coins of 1911 that came from the auction of King Farouk collection. Zander wanted that pattern rouble very much and was fully aware that the trade was in Soedermann’s favor.



Soedermann was a member of IAPN, which, by itself is a big achievement. To become a member, besides an impeccable reputation, one has to be recommended by three active members, preferably from different countries, and if there are no objections from any member, the candidacy goes up for voting and has to receive 66% of “yes” votes. All abstained votes are counted as “no’. Soedermann had a coin store in Helsinki, called “Coins and Medals Ltd.,” and in the beginning of 1960s he was a member of IAPN. According to Zander’s impression Soedermann was more a collector than a dealer and between his own collection and his store inventory he had the best collection of Russian coins outside of the Hermitage.



Many rumors were circulation about Soedermann. I do not know which ones were true and which ones were myths. Soedermann himself was a very reserved man. Not long before Zander passed away, I visited him and we spent a few very pleasant hours reminiscing about old times. Zander was under impression that before the communist revolution, Soedermann lived in St. Petersburg and was just as a former officer of Russian Army, Gustaf Mannerheim a descendant of Finnish Swedes. Presumably, that was the reason why he went to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Finland after the revolution. The fact that he himself signed his name in Russian as Sedermann is very typical of former Russian citizens where it is common in documents to substitute letter “oe” for “e”. And as far as numismatics is concerned Soedermann's had an old and deep connection to the business. According to Bernhard Brekke, Soedermann’s wife was Ilyin’s distant relative. Nobody knew the whole story of that connection just as nobody knew the exact circumstances of problems and of future Soedermann’s divorce from his new country, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Finland. In our conversation, Zander repeated what he said before, that Soedermann was very unsociable, difficult to deal with especially in business and projected an impression of a tough cookie.



According to known facts, but unknown reasons, Finish authorities asked Soedermann to leave the country and allowed him to take all of his belongings, including his coins. The coins were presumed to be the reason for frictions, nobody knew the extent as to how or why. There was even an assumption that Soedermann was a Russian spy. Out of all countries to move to he chose <st1:country-region w:st="on">Switzerland, and spent the rest of his life there. Many leading European auction houses, beginning from the late 60s, were constantly offering his coins for sale. The coins were always sold anonymously and did not have any attributions connecting them to Soedermann. One of those houses was Schweizerischer Bankverein (SBV). Remember that name; its descendants will appear in my story later. Some of those sales, a Bank Leu sale for example, became a landmark sale for Russian coins. Assumptions that certain coins belonged to Soedermann were often confirmed by small pieces of known information and sometimes by simple deduction.



From Vsevolod Arefiev, I know that Soedermann once offered him a COMPLETE set of the Georgy Mikhailovich catalog, including unpublished plates for the coins of Peter I, but negotiations were often delayed and Soedermann eventually sold that set to Spink in London. Not many museums, and even more so private collectors, can claim ownership of a set of that rarity. I also know, as a fact, that Soedermann sold Ted Uhl, an American paper money dealer, two of the rarest banknotes of Russian Alaska, 10 and 25 roubles. The rumored price of that sale was $10,000. Also rumored, but never confirmed, was the information that Soedermann was the owner of an incredible collection of Russian silver artifacts and other antiques.



For some time, the numismatic world lost sight of Soedermann’s coins, but recently, many of his coins have been offered by several auctions in a row by SBV’s descendant, Sincona. After the merger of SBV and UBS, the numismatic department of SBV became the numismatic department of UBS, but then later separated from the Bank and became Sincona. One can think whatever one wants, but most of SBV’s and UBS’s staff, as well as their storage bins are at Sincona’s disposal. It is doubtful that Sincona will state Soedermann’s collection and the provenance of the purchased coins on their invoice, but taking into consideration all the secondary signs of coins belonging to his collection, even an indirect reference to that outstanding numismatist is a tremendous plus to any coin, as great as it is.



Many great names in Russian numismatics, and authors of irreplaceable works, knew Soedermann and dealt with him. Such names like Zander, Brekke, Divo and many others. As they say, there is no smoke without a fire, and even though most of the information about Soedermann, the man, remains unknown, there is no doubt that he was an extraordinary person. He was a man, without any doubt, deserving of respect and if the coins from his collection could tell stories, what interesting stories they would be.







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I looked at the coin in Chicago. Very nice! Good luck to the owner! There were a few other nice coins there that will appear in the same auction - 1729 Peter II fox face rouble in MS64! 1725 Catherine I Mourning rouble in AU50 with all of the feathers still present on the eagle, including eagles breast! I've never seen an eagle with all the feathers on the Mourning roubles.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just curious: here we are in March, 2015, seven months after IMIS made his prediction. Have many of the Sincona 19 lots appeared for sale at discounted prices?

To that fact, I just noticed something on M-DV. In October of 2012 (1st sale of the Sincona collection?) this coin went for $535.

1_5040ccd069fcf.jpg

 

It looks like this coin was resold just a month later in (Nonmember 18th 2012, Imperial Auction House Auction 23 Lot 210), only this time it was graded as Proof not just UNC, and was sold for $946 :shock:

1_5092885325e64.jpg

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