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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ryro, post: 5260753, member: 91461&quot;]First off, Io Saturnalia!</p><p>Like most of you, I eagerly anticipated Saturnalia&#039;s arrival. And thanks to the overflowing generosity of my Saturn this year my anticipation was doubled!<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie100" alt=":wideyed:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p>I initially recieved a small strange box from a name I didn&#039;t recognize. Immediately I rushed it to my study/office/man cave and placed it atop a tall cabinet to avoid looking at it (out of sight, out of hands ripping open the box ahead of Saturnalia<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie93" alt=":troll:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />).</p><p>Shortly after this I recieved a second box.</p><p>My wife told me a heavy box arrived for me? I said, I&#039;m not expecting any heavy boxes. She handed it over to me and cold sweats kick in as I&#039;m realizing this was a second box for Saturnalia<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie101" alt=":woot:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie100" alt=":wideyed:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie83" alt=":singing:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p>I&#039;m humbled and a little dopey. But I recover and put this large box next to the smaller box. </p><p>Fast forward to eaaarly this morning. </p><p>Like a kid on Christmas, I wake up before the alarm goes off, peel the bottles of bourbon off myself<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie6" alt=":cool:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />and hurry to the study<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie77" alt=":pompous:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p>I open the box and there is a box inside that. One that looks just like this:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1219765[/ATTACH] <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie101" alt=":woot:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />.</p><p>Fast as my keyboard clackers can I open the box to reveal...</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1219766[/ATTACH] </p><p>WHOA<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie77" alt=":pompous:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p>But wait! What&#039;s that underneath this amazing Celtic double tangential proto coinage?</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1219768[/ATTACH] </p><p>Another piece of Proto money... but this time it&#039;s silver<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie54" alt=":hungry:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> in a separate flap with a large, thick n beefy piece of Celtic ring money!</p><p>But what&#039;s that underneath?</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1219770[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Oh, only the best portrait, now, in my collection!!!</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1219774[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1219785[/ATTACH] </p><p>Ever get a gift,&nbsp; stand up and your knees are weak and not ready to hold you? Yeah, now I do as well<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie50" alt=":happy:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p>I hope my pics do them justitia (though, I can see now they need a reshoot):</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1219776[/ATTACH]</p><p>(Soak in that grizzled general turned emperors portrait. And note the Abundtia&#039;s face and symbolism that she had come to my homestead)</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1219779[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1219777[/ATTACH]</p><p>(The silver piece is even more mesmerizing in hand and weighs a perfect 7 gr!)</p><p>Wonder if one of my Celtic ancestors could have possibly guessed or imagined that some 2 millennia later an ancestor of thiers would hold one of their old coins?</p><p><br /></p><p>But, [USER=91461]@Ryro[/USER] you ask, what about the second, heavy box? What about it?</p><p>Oh, my friends, it was filled with <i>wonderful things...</i></p><p><i>[ATTACH=full]1219791[/ATTACH] </i></p><p>Those will have to wait until I&#039;ve helped my kindergartener finish his homework!</p><p>But first: pardon the wiki c and p job, but to help folks not in the know...</p><p>A common custom was the election of a &quot;King of the Saturnalia&quot;, who would give orders to people, which were to be followed and preside over the merrymaking. The poet <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus" rel="nofollow">Catullus</a> called it &quot;the best of days&quot;.</p><p>Thanks so much to my Saturn, [USER=105389]@bcuda[/USER] for making this Saturnalia the best day of 2020 for his wholly undeserving patron of his. For this I nominate [USER=105389]@bcuda[/USER] this year&#039;s KING OF SATURNALIA!<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie33" alt=":cigar:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p>More to come...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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