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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marsyas Mike, post: 3903815, member: 85693&quot;]I recently came across an interesting book called <i>Out of the Past, The Istanbul Grand Bazaar</i> by Burton Y. Berry (Arco Publishing Co., 1977).&nbsp; Mr. Berry was in the US Consular service posted to Turkey, starting in 1928 (the Preface is dated 1974).&nbsp; He wrote this book about his experiences as a collector.&nbsp; Mostly the book deals with textiles, glass, metal, weapons, etc. - he collected a little of everything.&nbsp; But the last two chapters are devoted to coins, one on Byzantine, the other on Greek, including professional-grade old school black and white plates. </p><p><br /></p><p>His anecdotes are both charming and horrifying.&nbsp; Apparently gold Byzantine coins pretty much flooded the Bazaar c. 1928-1940s, but with very few collectors, these were often just melted down after some desultory cherry-picking.&nbsp; Here is an excerpt:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1029042[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>More small-scale and pretty funny, I thought, was the practice of Anatolian peasants saving gold coins they came across to give to their dentist for some new gold teeth!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1029041[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I left other info as thumbnails so this post isn&#039;t gigantic.&nbsp; Ah, to be a time-traveler... </p><p><br /></p><p>Happy Thanksgiving to all![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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