Ancients: Gettysburg Show Newps

Your wife sounds like a keeper. Make her feel special.

 

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I'm hoping to see Andy Singer at Fredericksburg VA Friday for the VNA show but the organizers have not seen fit to post a dealer list. He is much stronger in medieval coins but has supplied some nice ancients over the years and is a nice guy to talk to at any opportunity.

 

Here's a better image of the Mysian bronze. I find these coins with glossy black patinas extremely difficult to image. If you adjust the lights so that one part of the coin looks good, another part looks positively awful, etc. This is the best I'm going to manage with this one.

 

I agree but think you have done a good job here. When shooting black (AKA the absence of light), you are really shooting the glare from the surface rather than the surface itself. You will tend to emphasize surface irregularities making it necessary to say the coin is 'better in hand'. I suppose this is worse on a black background but I have not been happy using a white background either. The question is just how much light you are willing to accept in your definition of black. When you hold the coin in hand and wiggle it, you see a lot more light than you realize and can accept on a still photo. I really like the reverse of your image but do not have a suggestion on how to improve the obverse.

 

That's a precise summation of my struggles with this coin. I trust most of us have such coins, and know exactly how much better they look in hand. I'm not happy with the image of the obverse either, but it represents about the 50th try, and frankly, I'm done with it.

 

How have I not posted on this thread yet? Ugh...
Very nice coins JA, especially the new pic of the Mysian bronze piece.

 

A bunch of nice coins for sure. I've been watching this thread, reading it as it goes.

I have yet to go to a local coin show. They have one here and a coin club. I asked a local coin shop about the shows and the club. They said they don't deal in ancients at all. I may go there one day anyways and check.

 

There are thousands of local shows and hundreds may have a single ancient coin or more. Still, that is not a great percentage. Friday I will drive over 100 miles to a show (3+ gallons of gas or $10). I feel lucky to be able to be that close to a show likely to turn up coins I will want and friends I will enjoy seeing again. Replace these numbers with 1000 miles and $100 and I would wish I lived somewhere closer. In my area, there will be 4-6 shows worth attending each year with a chance of actually buying something. I have it good --- real good!

 

Yes you do. There are a couple of good sized shows here a year, and even those usually have 2 partial ancient dealers a few world coin dealers. If I wish to go to a world/ancient coin show I have to book a flight. I say this, and STILL consider myself lucky because we happen to have an ancient coin club in town. Its 25 miles away from me, but still "in town". Most ancient collectors cannot say the same.

 

I find it interesting that we failed in our attempt to found an ancient coin club despite the fact that we have enough people who buy such things that the small local show will draw three ancient/medieval only dealers and a couple more that carry some ancients along with their World. Part of the difference is that I am out East where cities are closer to each other and people will drive a hour to a show but would not to attend a club meeting. My benefit from being near a local club in the 80's was that several members were more advanced collectors than I am so they had cast-off that I might want. Now I know people with nice collections but the stuff they want to get rid of is like the stuff I have to get rid of and neither of us wants each other's cast-offs. That would make a club with us as members just a matter of having someone to show what you got since the last meeting but not much in the way of buying and selling to each other.

 

Wow JA, coins are great, i new you would have fun digging through all those coins, did you buy a modern stuff??? nice to have the wifey go with you, my wife would rather stick hot coals in her eyes, than go to a coin show with me.

 

John, this is the first show I've been to wherein I could browse ancient coins for hours and still have more to see. So even though I collect some moderns, I didn't go looking for any.

I did, however, come across this Hard Times Token in a pick bin for five bucks. I know nothing of HT tokens other than what's in the wikipedia article, and I assume this is a fairly common type. It's pretty gunky to be sure, and I've got it soaking in distilled water at the moment. After that, acetone. There appears to be a halfway decent coin under the slimy skin...

 

Back in the period when I was leaving US coins and beginning in ancients, I took quite a liking for Hard Times Tokens but after getting the cheap ones (a half dollar then) I let them go in favor of ancients. Yours is one of the commons as are those below. It helps if you have enough interest in US history that you can get the jokes on some of them. My favorite is the donkey/turtle. Of course you can get them MS and slabbed if that is how you collect.

 

No thanks. I'm one of those oddballs that likes coins that have done their duty.

Beautiful set of tokens!

 

Hard Times Tokens Greatest Hits! I love ancients but wouldn't mind have each of those.

 

Hard Times tokens are neat. I've been studying them extensively in the past several months, as my home town was the location of a major mint for the series and I hope to publish a history and catalog of their issues.

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=4970

 

Your token is Rulau HT 16 (or 16A, if the edge is reeded). It was struck by the Scovill Manufacturing Co of Waterbury, CT, from dies engraved by the Englishman William Eaves.

 

Thank you Bill. I enjoyed reading the notes you included in your FORVM gallery, and your collection of course.

 

Neat coin Big John, i don't collect hard time tokens, but i do have one.



A little off topic,
I went to my ma in law's, she was doing some yard work and found a metal that her husband got from work,it was a little dirty,so i cleaned it the old Ancient way.
My Father in law worked for Boeing for 40+ years, he worked on the Minute Man project. cleaned up pretty good. No metal detector needed...

 

The 1863 Indian is a Civil War Token not a Hard Times. HT tokens were in the 1830's when there was a shortage of large cents. CW tokens were to fill the need for small cents. While both are interesting, I prefer the HT because they are bigger and nastier in a political sense. Most CW tokens are positive message patriotics or advertising. Perhaps the US should stop making cents (which cost over a cent to make) and authorize private issues for circulation. Considering how candidates sling mud these days, I suspect the issues for 2016 would be 'colorful'. I wonder if Republican restaurants would take Democrat pennies or vice-versa.