[Ancients] Welcome the New Members. Post a Coin and a little about Yourself.

Your post is just what I imagined it would be like, Ray -- inspirational and tender hearted. You are a man to be admired because you exemplify your faith in the way you live your everyday life. You enrich this Forum in many ways. Thank you.

 

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Opposite side of Wales is where we lived when I expatriated. Lived in Llanbdr-y-Fro, near Cardiff. My Son-in-Law was from Bridgend.

 

Thanks for the kind words, @AussieCollector ! I think Seleucid coins are beautiful and still reasonably priced. Get em' while you can!

 

All right, maybe if I highlight the double strike? This coin was struck twice by the dies, on both obverse and reverse, but the obverse is the more interesting one. First is just the coin, as before:

And now, on this copy, I've outlined the second copy of the head (which must have been the first one struck, since the other one is on top of it and partially obliterated the first image):

I hope this helps you. (For what it's worth, I was never able to get those "Magic Eye" pictures that were popular in the 90s to work for me- no matter how long I stared at them, I never saw the sailboat, or whatever was supposedly hidden in them. I guess this must feel similar to you.)

 

Ohhhh, Man! That's cool! I didn't see that. My eye/brain was looking for something much more subtle. That second strike is rotated clockwise a bit as well. Please have the record reflect that my heart is pounding! I love it. Thanks for posting that, @Parthicus!

 

Well, I am Michael from Berkeley, CA. I basically advise start-ups these days on a part-time basis. I basically take a little equity in exchange for advice and advisorship. I've been in finance, private equity, and venture capital since 1998 when a start-up software company I co-founded was sold. I started collecting ancients at age 11 and continued until I was 18. I had a collection of about 100 coins including 8 of the 12 Caesars. However, I sold my first collection to help pay for college.

I started collecting again just a couple of years ago by purchasing four large uncleaned hoards and attributing them. Lots of late roman bronze so I am well represented as far as the fourth and fifth centuries go. Lately I've been buying coins of emperors that I don't have as I am attempting to get a coin of each ruler. I'm becoming increasingly interested in the provincial coins of the Imperial period as well as Alexandrian tets.

I like to travel and spent 2011 and 2012 just traveling around the world, seeing the sights. I found the forum on April 28th, 2017 and have been actively posting since then. I've found it a great resource and source of camaraderie. Before, collecting was kind of a solitary pursuit and not social at all. Now, it is very social and engaging. So I can say I was really lucky to stumble across the forum during a google search on cleaning-up uncleaned coins.

 

To follow up on my story from Page 2:

Here are two articles from November, 1995 and January, 1996 about the men who operated the boat I came in. They pled guilty and were sentenced to 16 months in Federal Prison.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/19...guilty-pleas-two-dozen-refugees-cuban-gunboat

http://articles.latimes.com/1996-01-13/news/mn-24184_1_cuban-refugee

The article states that the men claimed the death of the young woman aboard was the fault of the Cuban government, which chased the boat and opened fire on it.

And being there in the middle of that, I have to say their statement was pretty accurate. We were indeed shot at, and about 20 minutes later we were chased by boats, which chased us for the next 3 hours. They were threatening to sink us and kill us all. I could actually hear their shouts. Had we slowed down at all, we would have all been dead. I saw her die. I was next to her, and I had a broken foot which was not treated for 7 days until the group of migrants were sent to Guantanamo Bay. There they had break the fracture again and reset my foot as it had started to heal improperly.

I'd love to say that was the worst of it, but I remember in Guantanamo seeing a woman snap out in frustration and grab her 5 year old daughter and run into a mine field. Luckily she didn't step on a mine, but it took the guards nearly 4 hours to get them out of there. Lots of people snapped. Many had seen their loved ones die at sea, and now they were stuck in an American base in Cuba, surrounded by mine fields and with nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no idea when they were ever going to get out. Thats enough to drive some people insane.

Here is another coin...my Tet of Gallienus

 

Wow that's intense

I'm glad that experience is over for you but sorry you had to go through it. I'm sure I was probably at home playing with Legos in Nov. 1995...

 

@Sallent the fact that people go through so much to get here makes me realize just how lucky I am. Knowing people die trying to get here and enjoy our freedom is why I joined the military.

Nobody should suffer just to live in freedom.

I haven't identified this coin, but the eagle on the reverse reminds of an eagle poster the best non-commissioned officer I ever met had on the wall in his office.

 

You must be the oldest at the CT. And, that (Semantic Web) is a new technology which is still a baby tech as far as I know. Interesting and the effort at that age is appreciated.

By the way, a bit off-topic, but, not totally off-topic. How is this Semantic Web useful for People with Disabilities? I guess those disabilities are not Physical Disabilities, but, Learning Disabilities (LD) (Ref: http://www.ldonline.org/ldbasics/whatisld ).
And, this Semantic Web thing looks like somethings like "Teaching Machines to Learn". But, have we ourselves already learnt? (Read facts about LD on that website and see more than 15% of population have LD and this percentage figure is probably increasing.)

Now, I'll make a "speculative" claim.
We need to learn the money/coin first, to its integrity.

Ps: I guess it is not necessary to tell about myself here as I'm not an ancient coin collector, at least, not in conventional way. Still, I can show this picture in this thread - https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coin-without-any-number-figure.299880/page-21 - which may also be found as the "ancients", more than 5000 years old, and also relevant to LD. By the way, I'm 153.

Ps2: Please, don't reply to this post here. And, thanks for your understanding for allowing this a bit off-topic post here.

 

Oh! Sallent.
Here is a virtual hug.
I am glad you made it.
Back then did anyone even consider
PTSD of Cuban escape survivors?

 

Just for those who might be interested in the Semantic Web:

http://jp29.org/semantic.htm

and:

Http://jp29.org/rdfaprimer.php

 

I viewed your all pages here: http://jp29.org/index.htm

and also viewed and read this "W3C for Disabilities" carefully : http://jp29.org/wpowca.htm .

You have much knowledge and spent much effort that are highly appreciated. However, we can do something easier and better. Anyway, this thread is not the proper place for that, it can be talked further in that thread in "Coin Chat" forum I gave its link in my previous post.

 

1971 baby -> moved quite a bit as a kid and my dad traveled all the time. In '79 we moved to Brazil and then back to the states in '81 or so. Between my dad's travels and my own I amassed a small hoard of circulated foreign coins.

I remember going through them trying to figure out where they all were from, what denominations they were, putting some in 2x2 flips others in plastic cases and arranging and sorting them out. It was fun. Gradually, my coins went into the closet, then the attic.

Joined the Army out of high school in 1989 and went to Baumholder Germany for my first duty assignment as a cannon crew member on a m109 SP Howitzer. Desert Storm erupted, but didn't go. Elected to go to Fort Sill, OK back in the states for my second duty assignment and was assigned special duty as a post Lifeguard which should have lasted 6 months, but turned into 2 years. Sure it was the most cush job anyone could have in the Army, but even so Ft. Sill ain't my favorite place and I should have stayed in Germany. Got off active duty and stayed in the Army Reserves until 2000 when I graduated college. My Army Reserve unit was deployed to Afghanistan soon after I got out. Now that I'm older, I realize I was actually pretty lucky to have missed all live armed combat. I appreciate all those that had to suffer through such events.

Found my coins at one point but gave them to my nephew, then he gave them back soon after - not interested. I neither was too interested in the old foreign coins and so there they went back into the closet.

Got married - had a kid - moved a couple times - work, work.

I've always been a voracious reader but sometime around 1994 or so I realized books - some books - had value. My hobby became book collecting with a focus on bibliomysteries and books about books and like coins this sometimes required a rather large outlay of capital so I started bookscouting. I scoured Goodwill, Salvaition Army stores, and hit all the estate sales looking for books to turn into cash. Rare bookstores were more plentiful back in the day and I could buy a book for a few dollars that had a Retail value of, say 100 bucks, and I'd sell it to the bookstore for 30-40 cash or 50-60 in store credit. I'd work like this over the course of a few months and soon I'd have enough to buy a 2-3-4 hundred dollar book that in reality I had very little cash outlay for. Nowadays, I still collect the books but the core focus of the collection is on Literary Forgeries of which there are, at present, some 4-500 volumes and I'm selling (bookscouting) books to buy coins! All my book buddies are aghast!

I rediscovered my old coins back in 2012 and it seems and old interest was rekindled. Decided to collect my birth year set then that of my wife and daughter. Then US type. All entombed and high grade or exceedingly attractive and crazy expensive.

On the PCGS forums back in 2016 @Aethelred challenged @lordmarcovan to a coin duel which spawned the "Numismatic Gladiator" games. The games were meant to show how one could collect and enjoy numismatics even without a huge budget.

I won NG III with an 1851 US Large Cent and then was notified there was to be a Championship round with all of the previous winners facing off against each other. I thought for sure I'd be crushed but to my surprise I won the whole shebang (NG X) with an eight and a half dollar Constantine I silvered campgate.

NG X took place just over a year ago and I have not bought a single US coin since!

46 Ancients !! I just counted.

I suppose I have to show my 1st, the Constantine campgate, which started my ancient love:


Just want to say I'm very grateful to @Aethelred and @lordmarcovan for turning me onto Ancients and bringing me over to CT. I also appreciate all of you for being so welcoming and allowing me to soak up all of your knowledge everyday. I don't post too much but read everything here. I've tried to be more active as of late but suppose I'm still a bit apprehensive in that the knowledge I might have pales in comparison to the wisdom evident here.

Thanks!!

-Doug

 

My name is Albert. My friends call me Al which I hope all you will. I am 56 years old and retired after working for the US Navy as an Explosives Safety Technician at a submarine base in the Pacific Northwest. I recently finished building an acoustic guitar which I am trying to learn to play. I also love fishing and target shooting. I just got a flintlock Kentucky Rifle and am finding I really enjoy it. It's part of the love of history that drew me to coins. I am also building my first wooden ship model.

I started collecting US coins back around 1974. About 5 years ago I started to dabble in early modern and medieval European coins. Mostly from Germany, Poland and Austria. Than I got into hammered British and French coins but my main interest is Roman. I like to think I specialize in Roman Imperatorial coins. I have a few but most are beyond my reach.

 

Cool story! I have KILOS of world coins from all my career travels. Never look at them much. I plan to have my Grandkids sort them and learn.

Here are a few:

 

I can't think of a better use of grandkids, or a better way to teach them.

 

One of my Granddaughters is half-Korean (father deceased). She is 9, and really beginning to take some interest in Coins. I gave her a 100-Won coin from the early 90's from some of my bidness travels... she is even MORE turned on to the concept of coins! This is an ANCIENT to her! (And, it is from her Heritage.)


I pulled this from the web...basically the same one I gave her...

 

@Alegandron - that is good stuff.

 

Hi Everybody. I'm Gavin. I teach classical and medieval lit at a small liberal arts university in West Tennessee. I like bagels and coins of Constantine because they are delicious and affordable.