How actively do y'all sell and/or trade coins?

A question for the grammar police among us: Where do you stand on the English subjunctive? I was taught it was required when appropriate but that was fifty years ago. More recently I have heard the opinion that the "Fiddler on the Roof" needs to be corrected to, " If I was a rich man."

Research when the obsession with strict spelling and grammar began and, more importantly, why. I never believe that speaking correctly was snobbery but there was a time when it was used more viciously than the color of the shirt collar. It has not been many weeks since we made a concerted effort here to drive off a poster notable for his particularly poor mechanics. I felt a little guilty watching but was not unhappy to see the attempts to bring culture to the heathen.

 

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Congratulations on your 11 years.

I'll pass on any further confusion, like the posts above.

You have my permission to once again quote any part of my opinion and say that it "doesn't matter". I won't even get upset. How about we move on to the next topic...

 

Was/Were has always bothered me too. I read several sources recently and the consensus seems to be:

If you are stating something contrary to fact, use the past subjunctive.
"If I were rich, I'd buy an Akragas decadrachm."

If you are stating something which is not necessarily contrary to fact, use the past indicative.
"If I was rude to you, I apologize."

 

Of which you seem to have very little : - )

 

As some friends told me when I lived in Brooklyn "Youse-guys in the South shouldn't say you-all"

 

I'll bet some of the abbreviations used in texting must make you almost suicidal. :>)

 

I have just recently begun selling my coins. Getting rid of some of the lower quality ones I naively bought for under $10 and thinking they were a 'steal'. On top of that I have been e-mailing back and forth with a fellow collector and am testing out his method. He will often go to a show and pick through the 'junk bins' and toss them on ebay starting at 2 bucks (what he paid). He has gotten some stellar results. While it may not work the best for me I find it fun and relaxing. Plus if I do make a profit (my sales on ebay this week paid for the Pecunem coin) it is a bonus.

The only problem with this method is that all of the coins I pick out of the bins I generally want to keep myself. I have some Newfoundland cents up right now that I had a lot of trouble hitting the 'submit' button because I really like the coins. I can honestly say there was a couple of American coins that I bought that never made it up onto ebay and will reside in my collection as an example of the type. I am not the biggest collector of American coins and care not about having 'key dates' or anything of the like. I simply just one common example of a lot of the types. They don't have to be amazing. I like and respect the design of early American coinage and find much of it quite beautiful (that lady liberty was a fox).

As for the grammar I try to do my best but I admit that I am fairly out of practice since I graduated Uni and let my writing skills fall to the side of the road. Hopefully that will all change soon though! I have just heard that there is light at the end of the tunnel and when my term ends at the job I currently hold another will be waiting for me (fingers crossed) in my previous workplace. I just have to convince them to bring me back! It is then a two year term (eek that is a committment) during which I can take the necessary classes to qualify for my M.A. in Classical History! Also, I may be able to take those classes for free (sometimes I enjoy working for a University)

 

Isn't that often the case.

 

Lol, I don't text.

I hope I am not coming across as a grumpy old man. As long as I can generally read a post on the internet, grammar never bothers me in an informal situation. Its simply on something like a book I paid money for, or the prospective first work assignment which is what a resume is, I find lack of even running a paper through the simplest of spell checkers maddening.

 

I think I'll start typing like this: "F1gur471v3ly 5p34k1ng"

"TH15 M3554G3 53RV35 TO PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG TH1NG5! 1MPR3551V3 TH1NG5! 1N TH3 B3G1NN1NG 1T WA5 H4RD BUT NOW, ON TH15 LIN3 YOUR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 1T 4UT0M4T1C4LLY W1TH OUT 3V3N TH1NK1NG 4B0UT 1T, B3 PROUD! 0NLY C34RT41N P30PL3 C4N R3AD TH15."

 

It could be interesting to know how many can read that. Its clear as glass to me.

 

My username should tell you that I can

 

It seemed easier to read quickly than reading it slowly.

 

"Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."

 

Those two 'trick' paragraphs are far easier to read than the last chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses-- 4000+ words in one tedious run-on sentence. No letter substitutions, no scrambled words-- just utterly unreadable (to me) due to lack of punctuation.

An oldie but goodie:

 

Just to get this back a few centuries, coin collectors can study word spacing (or the lack of it) on Roman coins. When you took Latin I, the teacher should have pointed out that the Romans did not usually leave a space between words. If you were in school before political correctness took over, you may have been shown the illustrative example "JESUSISNOWHERE" which changes meaning depending on whether you break after the O or the W. Collectors with sufficient variety might even be able to show an example of dots used as separators but these are not consistent or even common between each word on the same coin. Some dots are found in the middle of words so may be a secret mark as much as punctuation. We might call this the beginnings of punctuation but it really does not have meaning as grammar. Relatively few coins even have a complete sentence (even if you allow for abbreviations) so grammar on coins is a small specialty at best.
Nero's two asses have full sentences (but abbreviates PR and drops the VE from Que). Who has an ancient coin with a sentence? It became more common in the medieval period. When did the first comma or other sign of grammar appear on a coin?

The reverse of this Laodicea mint, Septimius Severus denarius has as extensive use of dot (abbreviated) word separators as I have seen on a Roman coin. Still, they are precursors of spaces rather than grammar aides.

 

I thought it was Kanook?

 

Mbyae yes, and mbyae no...

 

Ive noticed that on some ancients but never put much thought into it. I didnt even know some may specialize in it, but I shouldnt be surprised.

Both Neros are cool.

 

What no apostrophes?

Go back and read the tutorial young man!