ANA Summer Seminar

Tip on the rooms: When I was much younger I stayed in Loomis three times. Its a typical college dorm room but much newer when I was there. From then on, I stayed in one of the 4 room suites at the edge of Campus (book early). It is more expensive but worth the slight upgrade; yet still a college dorm room.

One year James Wiles was in the same suite. I did not realize he was an instructor as our paths rarely crossed or I should have kept him up all night with questions!

How was the food? My favorite part of every SS was eating breakfast outside in the crisp air on the patio with a view of Pikes Peak. Cleared my head for the classes after an evening at the "Lounge."

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

For a buffet the food was great with a decent among of choices. Not 5-star but I did gain 5lbs lol. And yes, eating on the upper patio with the picturesque mountains in the background and a crisp Colorado breeze in your face was nice but I was generally too busy talking coins and BSing with John, Mike & Isaac to really take in the views.

 

Yikes! Normally there was only one or two others out there - must be popular now. Was this the first time you met John face-to-face? I never met him but will walk up to him sometime and say hello.

I've noticed that many CT members have known each other for several years - thus I miss out on the jabs and inside jokes.

 

Yes Insider, of course you have. I just could not figure out what the big deal was. And I do greatly appreciate all the time you spent with me 6 months ago when I revived the thread "Cabinet Friction, stacking or wear." As far as the opening ceremonies I attended two years ago, I really don't remember anything, they were completely unremarkable. Two weeks ago, this man seeing the hunger and willingness to learn in my eyes and skipping opening ceremonies to pour knowledge into me.... I will NEVER, EVER forget that!!

 

If you go again, I recommend that you sign up for Shamhart's class.

 

I just did some playing around. IMO, a professional can grade a coin in hand in 6 sec. or less. IMO, it would be better to take between 6 sec and 10 sec. Problem is...TPG's are not machines and none of them could possibly keep up that rate ACCURATELY. The bulk SE guys are faster than 6 seconds also not accurately. That's why lot's of 70's are 69 or 68 to me.

 

Loved the summer seminar! Nice meeting you, Aidan.

 

That's a different bird altogether. Bulk ASE graders are probably the entry-level graders that are moving up from receiving or encapsulation duties. They have some basic on-the-job training, but no experience. Yeah, they develop it quickly for ASEs, but that's about it, and I'd guess the sane ones try to get into grading other stuff as soon as possible. Why people go ga-ga over modern bulk 70s is beyond me.

 

That's not the way it was at some TPGS's five years ago when I looked in. If what you think is true, things have changed.

 

Hi there! I was one of the instructors of the class, so I can answer some of these questions.

While the mints did often cut new dies, mint records and our practical experience suggest that their dies were much tougher than the steel ones we cut in class. Data from the Shrewsbury mint in England, and the Zecca in Venice suggest that typical lifetimes for medieval dies were ~15,000 strikes for the trussel (upper) die, and ~35,000 strikes for the pile (lower) die. When striking 20% Ag / 80% Cu billon, mild steel dies will not survive more than a few hundred strikes (before: https://www.instagram.com/p/1HAYRpkQ6k, after: https://www.instagram.com/p/1WCuV2EQ5F). Hardened tool steel dies obviously last longer.

Furthermore, nondestructive metallographic analysis of some medieval dies has been performed (see "Four Early Medieval Coin Dies from the London Waterfront", M. Archibald, J. Lang, G. Milne, The Numismatic Chronicle, Vol. 155, 1995), and it suggests that, generally speaking, they used the best steel they had available for the die faces, and the second best steel they had available for the die bodies.

We also tried an experiment with tool steel die faces welded to wrought iron die bodies, and those dies were an abject failure; they fell apart after a few hundred strikes.

This course focused on early medieval dies, which generally appear to have been cut primarily with punches. The degree to which dies were engraved vs punched varies greatly by time and place, and can be difficult to discern without looking at a large number of examples.

Our students used simple geometric punches to create their dies, in combination to create features and letters as you suggest. Each punch set included a rectangle (letter upright), a large crescent, a small crescent, a serif triangle, a small triangle, a small line punch, and a beading punch.

Thanks,
Brian.

 

(double post)

 

Who were the other instructors, just curious...sounds like fun!
How long did it take the average student to make a die?

I knew you taught the grading class with Mike. That plus the "lounge", plus this mini-seminar proves you were very busy and enjoy teaching. Thanks for the links in your post

 

Bart Saxton was my co-conspirator. And thanks! I think everyone had a good time, we certainly enjoyed teaching the class, and we hope to be back next year.

We had a total of six hours, split into two three-hour sessions. The first session was spent facing and polishing a die blank, laying out the design, and making and hardening a punch. By the end just about everyone had finished these tasks.

The next session was spent sinking the design, and striking tokens. With a complete set of punches and a prepared die blank, most students sank their die in about an hour, some faster, some slower. It depends on the complexity of the design, and how obsessive you are about punch placement. We then struck a bunch of tokens with each student's die in Aluminum, silver, and billon, using a die we had created for the other side.

Different Brian, though I certainly enjoy teaching! I taught the mini-seminar and worked in the mini-mint in the ANA museum all week.

 

Are you the guy with the long red hair?

And you guys got to use silver but we had to use pewter at the mini mint!?

The SS was a great time had by all, instructors & students alike, that's for sure!

 

And here's a thread with my mini mint tokens you may have missed...

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ana-coins.281490/

 

You and Bart did good @Brian F , I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I made a die in chicken scratch.

 

I was also in the Medieval die making class and thoroughly enjoyed every nanosecond (I also already praised it heavily earlier in this thread, but since it has appeared again). It was extremely difficult and frustrating, as the medium is very unforgiving, but it gave an unindelible appreciation for the medieval money making process - unobtainable from anywhere else I know of. Those people had tough jobs.

I hope the ANA offers the class again. I would seriously consider going through the entire process a second time. Or a slightly more advanced class that combined punching with some simple engraving.

And Bart Saxton is the billon man!!! We struck a few coins in billon, some in brass, some in silver, most in aluminum. GREAT class... it's all coming back to me like one of those dramatic movie flashbacks as I type... voosh voosh...

I also happened to capture a photo of the work space.


The disemboweled bowling balls held the dies firmly in place during punching. A group of actual punches sit on the table to middle left not far from a hammer that struck their varied shapes into the steel. We also used magnification visors, which helped immensely. The little frame with cut out shapes next to the upper hammer also kept the Sharpies steady for marking punch locations.

Again, it was a great experience and definitely worth the trip out to mountainous Colorado Springs. My only regret is that I don't have the equipment at home to build on and practice what I learned. I would love to do more of this.

 

For the curious, I do have a few more photos - with faces edited out - from the ANA's "Making Money the Medieval Way" summer seminar. These show the final, and quite cathartic, hammering process. The third picture shows a struck coin. The photo does not do it justice, though it does give an idea of the types of designs that the class created. I thought this one was rather good.

 

When I first heard it I thought "making money the medeival way" was a class about how to cherrypick ancients at shows and online

 

Not monopoly money.