Digger's Diary: The Arcadius Anomaly (repost from one of my old Treasurenet threads)

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by lordmarcovan, Nov 30, 2016.

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  1. Bing

    Bing Illegitimi non carborundum Supporter

    Too bad the reporter didn't report accurately, but it seems to be the norm for our modern day media. But still, a great story and a wonderful find.
     
    Bing, Dec 12, 2016
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  3. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan 48-year collector Moderator

    Yeah, I don't totally blame her for flubbing some of the facts. I can see how stuff like this in general (and my written copy in particular) could easily be confusing for a novice.
     
    lordmarcovan, Dec 12, 2016
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  4. asheland

    asheland The Silver Lion

    Awesome thread!
     
    asheland, Feb 25, 2018
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  5. Ryro

    Ryro Trying to remove supporter status

    I continue to be impressed and frankly sometimes in awe of how freaking cool you guys are! Good eye @lordmarcovan:borg: And thanks @asheland for digging this up. I had not seen it before.
     
    Ryro, Feb 25, 2018
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  6. ancient coin hunter

    ancient coin hunter 3rd Century Usurper

    That's pretty cool. Thanks for sharing the thread @lordmarcovan !
     
    ancient coin hunter, Jul 10, 2018
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  7. Milesofwho

    Milesofwho Omnivorous collector

    It’s fun to reread this. When are you going to write about the Ming medallion? Well, I should probably let you finish your other story first.
     
    Milesofwho, Jul 10, 2018
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  8. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan 48-year collector Moderator

    There is an old, not-very-well-written thread I did 11 or 12 years ago about the Ming Medallion out there in cyberspace, I think. Gavin Menzies devoted about six pages to it in his relatively recent book, Who Discovered America?.

    I promised someone I'd write that one up for The Numismatist, but once that formal article is written, it might be fun to also post an informal, more personal version here (like my old Treasurenet thread, if that still exists - but tidied up and more narrative.)

    The silly little "Orangeburg Story" you alluded to has been fun. I do need to wrap that up. Working on it reminded me on how delinquent I am on the Ming Medallion writeup. (That was my New Year's resolution, and here It's July 10th, already! Where did the year go?)
     
    lordmarcovan, Jul 10, 2018
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  9. Milesofwho

    Milesofwho Omnivorous collector

    Milesofwho, Jul 10, 2018
    #28 + Quote Reply
  10. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan 48-year collector Moderator

    Meh. I don't mind. It's kind of fun. :)
     
    lordmarcovan, Jul 10, 2018
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  11. Milesofwho

    Milesofwho Omnivorous collector

    I guess so. Do you have an image of the medallion?
     
    Milesofwho, Jul 10, 2018
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  12. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan 48-year collector Moderator

    tyjgmnzhzv43.jpg
     
    lordmarcovan, Jul 10, 2018
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  13. Milesofwho

    Milesofwho Omnivorous collector

    What a neat medal. Is it uniface? What does it translate to? Shame about the context.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2018
    Milesofwho, Jul 10, 2018
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  14. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan 48-year collector Moderator

    Yes. Uniface.

    Here.

    The old pix have long since gone bad, but that's the gist of it.
     
    lordmarcovan, Jul 10, 2018
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  15. Milesofwho

    Milesofwho Omnivorous collector

    Thanks for finding it! I still regard the Chinese-Native American contact as hogwash, but it’s pretty neat that you dug it out of the ground. It’s formatted closely to various Ming and Qing pottery marks. Like the reign title and great [dynasty name] format. Here is a similar plaque. It’s formatted like the pottery is. https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=1850&lot=186
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2018
    Milesofwho, Jul 10, 2018
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  16. lehmansterms

    lehmansterms Many view intelligence as a hideous deformity

     
    lehmansterms, Mar 29, 2019
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  17. lehmansterms

    lehmansterms Many view intelligence as a hideous deformity

    As it turns out, it was I who corrected their erroneous, original attribution of that follis to Maximinus I - gave them side-by-side images of coins of the two Maximini to demonstrate the great difference between the coins of the mid 3rd and the early 4th centuries. This was back in, oh, 2002 or so, if I recall correctly. I was helping a young lady do some research for a master's thesis. Her subject was coins found in seemingly unlikely places. I saw the original website and the error, and got in touch with the museum. As noted, they did change the attribution in the linked text - but they also removed the coins from public display at around the same time. Too anomalous for a little local museum to try to explain and deal with. Plus, I suspect they may have attracted the attention of a few too many of the tinfoil-hat crowd.
     
    lehmansterms, Mar 30, 2019
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  18. asheland

    asheland The Silver Lion

    Cool to revisit the same spot today! One day I’m coming down that way to see this area. :)
     
    asheland, Oct 24, 2021
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  19. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan 48-year collector Moderator

    @asheland is referring to the pictures I took of the “Arcadius Anomaly” site this afternoon.
     
    lordmarcovan, Oct 24, 2021
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  20. Tejas

    Tejas Well-Known Member

    Hm, I live in Roman Turicum, have visited every Roman site in a perimeter of hundreds of kilometers, but have never found so much as a single Roman coin.

    Great find and interesting story.
     
    Tejas, Oct 25, 2021
    #39 + Quote Reply
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  21. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan 48-year collector Moderator

    In the time before I bought this coin, I would not have known where you meant when you said “Turicum”, and would have had to look that up. But since I do own that coin, I instantly knew which European city you live in, or near. :)

    I’d love to see it someday.

    For what it’s worth, I never found a Roman coin when I went detecting in England for a week. I thought I had found an Æ3 at one point when I dug a small, greenish disc. (We were on a site where I had seen someone else find a Marcus Aurelius sestertius). But my “Roman Æ3” turned out to merely be an 18th century flat button with its shank broken off.

    So the only Roman coin I’ve personally found was in a very unlikely place, on a colonial site in the Southern United States.
     
    lordmarcovan, Oct 25, 2021
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