Lord Marcovan's "Eclectic Box" collection as of January 3, 2019

The Zurich cityview seems to be the most popular based on feedback I've received in these periodic update threads. A crowd-pleaser, it would seem! That doesn't surprise me, since it's an important coin in this collection (which still lacks any full-thaler pieces). What does surprise me a little is that it beats out so many pieces that cost more than it did.

The Persian gold toman was not merely bought for being a handsome gold piece (though it is). i bought it specifically for the date, as 1817 was the year of the birth of Bahá'u'lláh. I was raised in the Bahá'í Faith. So it isn't only a nice coin for my collection- it has a personal, religious, and family tradition aspect as well. Twenty years ago (when these were much less expensive), I bought one for my mother and had it mounted in a nice custom display holder. I'm on the road to Florida as I type this, headed down to visit her (today is her 75th birthday), so when we get to her house I'll take a picture of hers!

The Perseus drachm, struck to pay mercenaries in the Third Macedonian War (which he lost to the Romans), is neck-and-neck with the 1806 British gilt proof halfpenny for the most monetarily valuable piece in this present lineup. It is but a tiny crumb that fell from @AncientJoe's absolutely mind-blowing Colosseo Collection. I'd gladly gobble up his castoffs any time, but for the fact I couldn't afford them! I had to stretch for this one (and he gave me a good price).

Your new C.D. Peacock token is beautiful. I quite like the color and toning on it. Nicely done! I'm proud to have been an influence for such a nice purchase, if unintentionally.

Thank you. I live for comments like this, when they're sincere, as yours is.

Well, it just so happens that there is a very nice Teutonic Order 1/4-thaler of this type up for sale on MA-Shops. It is not quite as high grade as mine, but it has killer CircCam contrast- better contrast than my coin- and if I didn't already own the one I do, I'd be all over that one! I like them about equally.

That's a nice little coin I couldn't pass up recently. It's a common type- I often have found them in bulk lots- but as @ddddd mentioned, it's a cool design, and this one is in uncommonly nice grade. Even though it is the finest- and only- 1874 graded by PCGS (which surprises me), it still was reasonably inexpensive. With my Best Offer accepted by the eBay seller, it only cost me a smidgen over fifty bucks after shipping.

I've now come to prefer attractively toned brown (BN) and red-brown (RB) coppers over full red (RD) ones sometimes.

It would indeed be fun to compare the scene on the coin to the modern view, if we knew the right vantage point. I'll bet some of those church spires are the same as they were in 1739.

Interesting trivia footnote: if you look above the cityscape on the coin (zoom in on the full Trueview for max resolution), it says "TIGURUM". This obviously is derived from the Roman name Turicum (=Tigurum, =Zurich). The Romans founded the city in 15 BC. All of this I learned from the Wikipedia page, which goes to show how educational a hobby numismatics can be. Coins make learning fun!

Views of Turicum/Tigurum/Zurich today:

@cladking- nice to see you here, Sam! @everyone else- cladking was an early numismatic mentor and pen pal of mine in the early 1990s, pre-Internet forums. So I count that comment as high praise. Amazing, this whole Internet thing. I used to have "coinversations" with Sam in the old days, in which replies took a week or two to arrive! We've come a long, long way in such a relatively short time.

@PlanoSteve - I always look forward to your detailed commentary on these updates. I thought the missing-clad-layer dime was cool, and at the time I was without any post-WW2 material in this collection. Needed to add some modern stuff to mix things up and make 'em more properly eclectic, y'know? And I would have given that coin a place here if I could have slabbed it under the Economy tier, as I mistakenly thought I could. But with the Errors tier costing $65++, no thanks! No sense in spending $90-ish after fees to slab a $60 coin! Not there, anyway.

But I do intend to slab that 2008 Austrian 10-Euro that brings up the rear of the present lineup, even though it's only a $29-ish coin.

And as far as inexpensive moderns go, there are two more pieces in the collection that did not get posted in this update because I do not yet have pictures of them. Both were acquired for less than 30 bucks- already in PCGS plastic. One is an Australian Kangaroo silver bullion coin (similar to the one on offer in my present giveaway), PCGS MS70, and the other is a 2018 USA silver proof Cumberland Island quarter, PCGS PR70 DCAM. (I can see Cumberland Island on the horizon from part of my daily commute, so I wanted our region's National Parks quarter.)

So the Eclectic Box has officially reached 50 coins now, though only 48 are shown here.

The memento mori motif of course long predates its use on pirates' Jolly Roger flag, as you noted, but as seen on that token, there is indeed a strong resemblance. As to the YouTube song clip you posted, I liked it! Listened to the whole thing.

Thank you! Obviously you "get it". I'm glad you liked the varied nature of historical periods here. That's part of the master plan, in addition to a mix of countries and cultures.

I've seen that "birthyear by centuries" theme done by several people, and it's always interesting. In fact, maybe I should try just such a thing as a subset of this collection. For instance, one coin on my target list is a dated sixpence of Queen Elizabeth with a certain look. And especially a 1565. (I was born in 1965.)

Eventually I'd like this collection to include at least one coin from every century coins have been made, from the 7th century BC to the 21st century AD.

Thanks for taking that long look and posting detailed comments. Have you done anything with World coins yet? I saw your post about your collection recently, but don't remember the whole list offhand.

I didn't consider that a hijack at all. It's an interesting theme to collect on, and I might try to see how many xx-65-dated coins I can add to this collection along the way. So y'all have inspired me! I can try that theme myself, and make it one of the subthemes of this collection. Thanks for the idea!

That Sasanian coin is cool, and was not frightfully expensive. Less than sixty bucks, as I recall. And some of that squiggly script is actually a date, so we can know the specific year it was struck!

You're correct- I have owned two King John pennies, though not at the same time. I sold the first one to @Aethelred back when I was keeping to the strict 20-coin limit ("Box of 20" rule). Since I dropped that restriction and let the collection grow (now a "Box of 50", haha), it was time to get another. This King John penny in the current lineup is not as sharp as the previous bygone example, but it has that fun hoard pedigree, being from the Gisors Hoard. So I lost a few grade points but gained a coin with avery detailed history. Coins with known hoard provenance, like shipwreck coins, can be fascinating.


Thank y'all for the comments. They are the most satisfying thing about sharing the collection.

 

The Taras Owl is in my top five favorites, if not top three.