Lord Marcovan's "Eclectic Box of 20" Collection

(September 2016- note for CoinTalk readers: since this collection contains Ancient, World, and US coins as well as exonumia, I'm putting it in the "Coin Chat" forum for lack of any better ideas. It is mostly copied and pasted from Collectors Universe. As of this posting, all the hyperlinks go to subthreads over there, until I can get everything reposted over here... assuming I ever get that far! Over on CU, I periodically bump it when additions or changes are made to the set. Please forgive any faux pas- I only recently started using this 2007 account here, so I'm a "nine-year newbie"!)

~*~*~ Lord Marcovan's "Eclectic Box of 20" Collection ~*~*~

In 2013, I decided to pare down my collections and simplify to a single "Box of 20" for everything, hopefully to focus a bit more on quality than quantity. Still, pursuing quality is an ongoing challenge on my budget.

The idea is a freestyle "Box of 20" collection with no parameters or restrictions except that the coins must be certified and the collection is limited to twenty pieces. (When one comes in, another must go out.) Otherwise, anything goes.

In a way, I have narrowed my focus by limiting myself to just twenty slabbed pieces, but on the other hand, I've opened up my horizons to pursue whatever catches my fancy, be it ancient, medieval, modern, or even some tokens and medals. It sort of feels liberating to be freed of the constraints of collecting "sets". Now I can collect what I like and not be a slave to any predetermined "structure". But as the coins get nicer, I suspect it will become more and more difficult sentimentally for me to stick to the "one in, one out" rule.


Ancient Greece (Thessaly), silver "Rhodian Mercenaries" drachm struck by King Perseus of Macedon, ca. 175-170 BC




Ancient Roman Republic: silver denarius of moneyer L. Furius Brocchus, ca. 63 BC




Ancient Roman Empire: silver "Capricorn" denarius of Vespasian, struck by Titus ca. 80-81 AD




Ancient Roman Empire: orichalcum sestertius of Hadrian, struck ca. 134-138 AD, ex-Boston Museum of Fine Arts




Ancient Roman Empire: silver denarius of Septimius Severus, ca. 193-211 AD




Ancient Byzantine Empire: gold tremissis of Justinian I, ca. 527-565 AD




England (Anglo-Saxon): silver penny of Aethelred II, struck ca. 997-1003 AD




Medieval Croatia (Ragusa): silver grosso portraying St. Blasius and Christ, ca. 1372-1438




Netherlands (Gelderland): "St. John" type gold gulden (florin) of Arnold van Egmond, ca. 1423-1472




German States (Teutonic Order): silver 1/4 thaler of Grand Master Maximilian of Austria, undated (ca. 1615)




Great Britain: silver "South Sea Company" shilling of George I, 1723




France: silver jeton of Louis XV, "Aurora in cloud chariot", undated (ca. 1740)




Great Britain: gilt proof halfpenny of George III, Soho Mint, 1806




United States: gold 5-dollar half-eagle, Liberty Head type, 1842-D (small date)




United States: bronze Civil War token, "Our Little Monitor" type, 1863




United States: proof copper-nickel 3-cent piece, Liberty head type, 1888




Great Britain: gold half-sovereign of Queen Victoria, 1901, from the Terner Collection




German States (Saxony) silver 3 mark proof, Battle of Leipzig centennial commemorative, 1913-E




USA: silver commemorative half dollar, Pilgrim Tercentenary, 1920




Canada: gold 100-dollars proof of Elizabeth II, Canadian Unity commemorative, 1978



Oh- and if anybody cares that much (which I have difficulty imagining), there are archives showing the evolution of this set from its humble beginnings. Those are in the second post of the Collectors Universe thread.

 

*whew*

OK, I think all the hyperlinks work now. I had to fix the code 'cause the code from the quirky CU site doesn't work here. The bright side is that I think if I copy and paste the code from here to the NGC boards, it should work there?

Eventually I guess I could start a gallery here, too.

Should also note that as of this first post in early September 2016, the set as seen above is already outdated. The 1913 Saxony proof 3-mark is gone, as is the 1978 Canadian $100 gold piece. I sold those to finance the purchase of a proper dSLR camera setup and accessories, which is something I've been needing to do for at least a decade. All the nice pics and slick Photoshop templates you see above are other people's work. I'm still struggling up the learning and equipment curves in that regard.

I have replacements for those two coins that just went away, but one is off at PCGS and the other is still pending as of this post, so they'll have to wait until the next update.

If you've read all of this, you're a patient soul. Thanks.

 

Well, only twenty in my slabbed set, at any given time.

I do have a secondary collection of (raw) engraved coins (love tokens and hobo carvings and such- interesting "creatively damaged" coins), which I will post when I catch up on imaging those (after I get my new camera setup).

 

Thanks, all.

Actually, as of this post, two of the coins shown above (the Ragusa grosso and the Teutonic Order 1/4 thaler) are off being graded at PCGS, and two of the ancients (the Vespasian Capricorn denarius and the Hadrian sestertius) have yet to make the journey to NGC Ancients.