Athenian Owl pocket piece

Last time I had an ancient coin in my carry-on, the airport security tried to confiscate it.

 

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Really...why would they want to do that?

 

Well, the easy answer is of course that no. You likely will never find one for that price. Sure, lots of people will insist you can but they don’t live in the real world. An average decent example will cost roughly $200-300 and higher depending on grade. There really isn’t much lower though it is true there have been anomalies where one can get them cheaper but very worn (and worn examples are rare). One weird cheap eBay example Doesn’t make the market.

 

The difference here is the definition of 'decent'. The old fashioned idea of a pocket piece is not a coin in a slab or specially protected but a coin that can be fingered nervously and worn away with years of loving manipulation. You don't want a decent coin that belongs in a 'proper' collection but one that can sacrifice its being for your needs. To me, the best choice would be a large bronze uncleaned but with detail lurking beneath encrustations. After carrying it for a while, one might uncover core metal under the surface deposits and after a few years of finger contact, perhaps there will be nothing left but polished metal lacking patina. I have always suspected my Galba sestertius served some Victorian gentleman as a pocket piece for some period of its existence. Who can prove it did not? There is no patina. I wonder if it was Mint State in 1850 and put in a drawer when the man died in 1900? That, too, will remain a mystery.

When I first started carrying keys in the 1960's, I holed a bronze with no visible detail and put it on my key ring. After about ten years, I saw emerge a profile that I thought was probably Septimius Severus and possibly Provincial but another ten years took away that apparition and left a combination of pits and polished high places. I stopped carrying it when my keys grew in number and I did not want the extra weight. The concept of a pocket piece is the exact opposite of our role as curator of coins entrusted to us by the ages. We expect to use it until there is no more of it to be used. Don't use a decent coin. Use one that needs love.

 

True, but I suspect when most people say they want an ancient coin "pocket piece" they really mean an ancient coin to carry in a protective flip, just to have available for periodic admiration and to show other who may be interested. It sounds like that is the type of use Silverlock intends.

 

That is exactly what I have in mind TIF. The leather guitar pick holder, which I modified by adding a second piece of letter to prevent the coin contacting with the clasp, is a small pouch from which I can produce the coin for interested folks to handle. I’ve found a lot of people are stunned when I hand them the pebble I’m fiddling with and tell them it’s a meteorite. I expect the same reaction when I pull out a 2400 year old owl. No significant damage should be done to it (though I agree it could be dropped) from being handled from time to time.

 

I agree a large bronze is satisfying to handle and carry. I originally started this idea with a large orichalcum bronze of <somebody> that I carried in my pocket in traditional pocket piece fashion. The yawns it elicited when I showed it to people made me think an upgrade was in order.

Don’t worry, I won’t use a collectible coin even for this non-pocket piece pocket piece. Truth be told the one pictured at the top of this thread is my eighth attempt. The other seven were too nice when I received them. The surface issues of this one made me think my hunt was finally over and I had a coin that would actually benefit from a little handling. I released it from the slab and it’s pretty rough.