I attended a coin show & also attended a rock show this weekend. Both shows added to my collections. First up is a beautifully toned 1924 1 Lats from the Republic of Latvia. This coin is about the size of a US quarter. It was minted during that period after the 1917 Russian Revolution (which afforded Latvia freedom) and before 1940 when the Soviet Union annexed it again. The mintage of this particular coin is supposed to be 10,000,000 pieces. It is not an uncommon coin but its catalog price is $40 in EF and $400 in BU. My eyes have trouble seeing EF wear on this coin but the dealer sold it to me as an EF coin. I would technically grade it either AU58 or low end MS. Thanks for letting me share & please post your coins from Latvia.
These rocks are from the area around Madagascar. This rock is formed & found below sea level. Samples are commonly called “Ocean Jasper” or “ocean agate”. These particular stones have been tumbled to the smooth shapes depicted. If you have a pretty jasper or agate rock in your collection, please post it here.
Please post your coins of Latvia (Early 20th Century or post 1991) Not speaking the language of Latvia, it was interesting to learn about the monetary system used in Latvia. 100 Santimu = 1 Lats Minor coins are called Santims, Santimi, and Santimu depending upon the denomination of the coin: 1 Santims 2 Santimi 5 Santimu 10 Santimu 20 Santimu 50 Santimu On the larger denomination Lats & Lati are used depending upon the denomination of the coin: 1 Lats 2 Lati 5 Lati Latvia declared their independence from the USSR in 1991 and once again used the same monetary system of 100 Santimu = 1 Lats.
See if you can find yourself this one personaly I love it LOL 1st Republic 1918-1939 5 Lati 1931 Coat of Arms & Girls Head
Yours is a good looking coin and appears to have original surfaces. I have one of those (silver dollar sized 5 Lati) coins but it was dipped to "blast white" & is not as nice looking as yours.
Latvia also issues 1 lats circulation coins with lots of different designs. I have several of these: http://www.bank.lv/en/money/1-lats-ls-1-in-short Christian
No Latvian coins, but I do have a "rock". To me it's pertified (agatized?) wood. To those in the know it's araucarioxylon arizonicum:
When the USSR "invited" themselves into Latvia in 1939-40 they called in all the Latvian currency. But instead of destroying it like you would think they would - they put it all in vaults and kept it for years. Later on in the mid-1980s they started opening up those long closed vaults and started selling the coins off in a boutique in Moscow, and through a mail order business called Mezhnumizmatika. As with all stuff that they sold then, the prices for the time were exorbitantly high. Somewhere in all my stuff I have a pricelist from that business that I remember when it came the postage stamps from the USSR were ripped off by a postal clerk or someone. I would like to dig out the list and image it - it has also the early USSR coins in silver and the gold medals that were sold to tourists.
Hello Kanga, That is a boulder (or rather a slice of a boulder). It looks to be about 0.5 meter diameter.
Quartz crystal from Mount Ida Arkansas I got this boulder on my second trip to Mount Ida Arkansas. Its the biggest rock inside my house. On a subsequent trip to Arkansas, I tried my luck at finding diamonds at Murfreesboro Arkansas but came up empty handed.
i have a beautiful piece of tumbled dinosaur coprolite you can even make out some of the fine bones in the sample.
