Featured What is a "CircCam", you ask? Look and see! And post yours!

Those two show their age nicely.

(Except for the green crud on the 1922 3d. I'd have to try to remove that without affecting the otherwise nice toning. Acetone and a toothpick, I think- or a hardened rose thorn.)

 

Well, you certainly don't want to go at it too hard and mess up that nice original toning, but if you soak the coin in acetone and then get out your loupe and either a toothpick or rose thorn to work at that green crud, maybe it'll come off and leave the original "skin" beneath intact.

(Toothpicks, bamboo skewers, and rose thorns are often hard enough to use as fine-pointed tools without being hard enough to scratch the metal of the coin.)

Cleaning loose grime and surface deposits off a coin needn't always be a no-no, IF you're working carefully and not disturbing the underlying surfaces and toning.

The only downside to this is that removing surface deposits off a coin can sometimes reveal untoned "new" metal beneath, which might not match the rest of the toning.

But I think that threepence might respond well to a short soak and a little fine work with a bamboo skewer on the green deposits.

 

Alas, I did not win that Elizabethan coin.

But since I lost that, it allowed me to get this one.

How about a gold DirtCam from the Crusader era?

Sicily (Norman Kings): gold tari of Guglielmo I ("William the Bad"), ca. 1154-1166 AD


I was light in the medieval gold department and needed to address that.

Though I could have pursued rounder examples with better strikes and flans, this one "spoke" to me, and I had to have it. And I'm going to leave most if not all of the dirt on it when I send it off to PCGS. (Might give it a very light brushing with a soft brush, at most.)

This is an interesting cross-cultural coin with both Islamic (Kufic) inscriptions and Christian iconography. The collision of these cultures during the Crusades produced some interesting hybrids like this, with Christian rulers imitating Islamic coinage. (In this era, the Muslims were often the more technologically advanced culture.)

 

I really love the Portuguese coinage of that era, and many of their copper-nickel coins acquired the ideal "CircCam" appearance, for some reason.

That one is no exception. Not only is it a handsome CircCam but it's just a really nice coin design. Elegant and classically inspired without being too elaborate.

 

Thanks. Hopefully fixed now.

 

Here is a newp from mere moments ago, but I did not buy it for myself. I bought it for one of you, as this is going to be part of just one of the prize lots in the upcoming July giveaway! @Nathan401 has put up another nice lot of goodies.

Stay tuned - as of this post I do not have the new giveaway launched just yet. I hope to, within the next 24 hours or so from this posting. Watch the link in my signature line. I will update that link from the June giveaway to the July one when the latter is posted.

 

Yes, in following your example for Independence Day, I wanted something 1776, 1876, or 1976. Something fun and interesting but not too horribly expensive (just paid my mortgage payment today).

So I hit upon the idea of a "Centennial CircCam".

It's your fault for putting up such nice goodies for the July giveaway. I knew I had to up my game when I saw what you were donating!

We will keep everyone in suspense about that for just a few more hours.

Y'all watch my sig line link...