Ancients =>ERROR => yup, I bought myself anutha sweet error!!

that's VERY neat stevex!

 

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Thanks for the coin-compliments, comrades ...



=> the reverse almost looks like a mirror-image and/or looks a bit like a negative of the obverse (opposite image and opposite toning ... the darks and lights are completely opposite) ... yup, it is pretty neat, eh?





NOTE => I thought I'd copy the OP coin-photo over to this page, so people don't have to keep flipping back-and-forth to the start to take a peek after reading my above-comments ...

 

That's an exceptional coin Steve...Congrats big time! When I collected Civil War Tokens I had 3 or 4 brockages but yours is top shelf...Crown Royal ++
BTW, JA are you going to send in the tractor to get graded? Looks F/VF to me but with a little environmental damage going on.

Bruce

 

They had a tractor parade at the fair, and I was hoping they would stoke the thing up. I mean, when's the last time you saw a steam-powered tractor driving around? But the owner told me it wasn't road-worthy, and if you looked at it closely, you could see various hairline cracks in the main cylinder and piston rods. If you tried to start the engine, probably it would just fall to pieces.

BTW, that small engine on the side of the main engine was used to power a threshing machine. You backed the tractor up to the thresher, then attached a belt to the small engine wheel to transfer power to the thresher. Pretty clever, eh?

 

I don't know much about ancient mint errors, but I've sometimes wondered what the bottom coin of a brockage pair would look like. I'm assuming that the strike of the coin above it would cause the features to go mushy, and I wonder if some of the coins that we assess with a weak strike might have been the coins sandwiched between the die and the top coin. I wonder if there's any way of differentiating between a normal weak strike, and the bottom coin of a brockage pair...

 

Wow Steve, i just saw this thread after i posted mine coin, awesome look'in error...we both have the grapevine, brother coins...

 

While I know this is a wonderful coin, and very interesting to boot, I'm not sure why the draw to brockage/error coins. For that matter, I don't understand the attraction for fouree's either (even though I own a few). Someone care to enlighten me?

 

they're cool ...

I guess all ancient coins are pretty much one-of-a-kind, but these errors just seem a bit more one-of-a-kind, know what I mean? (maybe it's still a bit of left-over modern-day coin mentality?)


Oh, but I have never purchased a fouree ("yet")

 

I certainly do not go out of my way to hunt one down.

 

Curiously, my wife was very intrigued with the one fouree I collected. The idea of ancient counterfeiters fascinated her. As far as collecting errors goes, well - why even collect coins? If you have an answer to that, my wife would like to know, lol.

 

I think ancient errors are cool, because it makes me visualize the poor dude sweating-away, swinging his mallet and then "boooinnngg!!" he makes a mistake ... maybe he takes an embarrassed look around, or maybe laughs to his buddy and then forgets about it and merely keeps on swingin' ...


ummmm, or maybe they make him drink molten silver as a warning to the other dudes!!

 

Or maybe he gets a whip across his back.

 

I have always said anyone who likes error coins could just have a bloody field day with ancients. I am glad you appreciate and like them Steve.

 

Yah med-man=> I love 'em




Ummm, but I only have "2" ... this one, and that hideous piece o' crap that Doug hates!!

 

Sorry guys, but I don't know what a fouree is. I'm a wanabee ancient collector and am trying to learn as much as I can before I take the plunge. Thanks!

Bruce

 

A fouree is a plated (usually silver) ancient counterfeit coin. It is unknown if it was criminal counterfeiters or the government in short supply of silver. Hmmm, makes y0u wonder, eh?

See Forum's ancient counterfeits theme page - http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=1501&pos=0#Numismatics.

 

Bruce, a fouree is Ancient made fake, to look like a coin made at that time...here's a couple of mine..
Octavian( Augustus)




Julius Caesar

 

Guys, this is not a thread on ancient counterfeits but one on errors. To get us back on the track I'll show my fourree brockage of Hadrian, fourree core of a mule of Clodius Albinus (with a rather Septimius looking portrait) and Commodus reverse and fourree mule of Septimius Severus with Caracalla reverse. The Hadrian is a special coin because it shows most clearly one fourree technique where they sprinkled powdered silver solder between the core and outer skin to make them stick together tightly. It glistens in a little diamond shape pit on the reverse neck.

I'm sure the Hadrian was an error but mules may have been intentional by makers who wanted to protect themselves from accidentally taking their own handiwork back in commerce.

I'f anyone really wants to know more than anyone wants to know about fourrees, I offer my pages:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/fourree.html

 

I have heard this before, but I have never read any sources documenting "official" fourres except for the emergency issues in Athens. So, save for that coin, I regard all fourrees as contemporary counterfeits made to fool shopkeepers.

 

I have to admit that I have only heard this discussed on forums, but I've never seen a source quoted.