A last gift of seven gold coins which he had not 

 been able to present himself reached the Museum 

 a few days before his death, a moving s\nibol of 

 Paul A. Straub's purposeful dedication. 



In addition to the main donation in 1949 of 1,79:3 

 gold and 3,855 silver pieces, Straub o\er the years 

 ga\c 67 other gold coins and 31 siKer pieces. The 

 entire donation amounted to 1,860 gold and 3,886 

 silver coins, or 5,746 pieces in all. 



It would require a special publication to do justice 

 to the overall significance of the collection. There are 

 27 10-ducat pieces represented in this collection, and 

 even heavier coins including a 25-ducat piece of 

 Transylvania struck in 1681 in the name of M. 

 Apafi (fig. 72), a 25-zecchini piece struck in the name 

 of the Doge of Venice Giovanni II C^orner (1709- 

 1 722), and a 50-zecchini coin of Paolo Renier of 



X'enice (1779-1789) (fig. 71). The great rarities 

 contained in this collection are many; one example is 

 the Russian 1882 gold 3-ruble piece of Alexander III, 

 of which only 6 ]3icces were struck (fig. 73). Not mucii 

 the lesser in im]jortance is the collection of silver 

 coins. There are, lor instance, 50 multiple talcrs of 

 the Brunswick duchies. Among them, five are 10- 

 taler [)ieces. No references in other collections could 

 be found, for instance, for the medallic piece dated 

 1677 (fig. 74) struck in the name of Johann Friedricii 

 of New Liineburg.'' ' 



''- Mentioned without other references by John S. Daven- 

 port, Ort'rslzf Multiple Talus of the Brunswick Duchies and 

 Saxe-Lauciihuro (1956), p. 61), no. 211. See also R. Multhaui-, 

 "Mine Pumping in ;\gricoIa's Time," USAM Bulletin 218- 

 i'ontributions from the Museum of Ilistojv awl J echnolo/^v, Washing- 

 ton, 19')'J, p. 115, fig. 1. 



PAPER 31: HISTORY OF THF: NATIONAL NUMISMATIC. COI.I.KCTIONS 



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