In the mid-19th century, the British Museum acquired a collection of Italian coins by Baron Carl Kolb. Baron Kolb lived in Rome for many years, where he was engaged in business. After studying in Trieste, he founded his own trading company in 1827, and later headed one of the largest private banks in Rome. Kolb continued to maintain contacts with the Germans, opened the doors of his home to travelers and his compatriots who lived in Italy. The baron often acted as an intermediary, reselling works of art, and there is an opinion that he did not collect this numismatic collection either, but only concluded another resale deal.
Thus, about 1,600 coins ended up in the British Museum: silver soldi, cattrino, grosso, many low-grade examples made of billon, etc. The most valuable finds were several gold tremisses. The total price was lower than the price of another, much smaller collection, which was sold to the British Museum at about the same time by Kolb's friend Johann Pfister.
The coins were minted in different regions of Italy and in different periods. Most of them belong to regions such as Tuscany, Etruria, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Campania. Among the ancient and medieval coins were almost new (at the time of the sale of the collection) soldi, minted in the 20-30s of the 19th century. Probably, such a variety was of great interest to the museum.
Source:
britishmuseum.org
