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Message:: [QUOTE="Plumbata, post: 3556092, member: 96864"]I love threads like this, the coins are wonderful and stories quite thrilling in their own way. It's always refreshing to see that juicy cherries are still waiting to be harvested even if one may have to climb a ways to find them! I suppose "Cherry picking" moreso involves recognizing that something is misattributed and much more special than advertised, versus merely lucking upon good deals. I lack the handy references to effectively compete with pro-pickers yet but have gotten several sleeper "uncertain/unknown" coins in addition to plenty of the good deals we all love to happen upon. As I believe [USER=85693]@Marsyas Mike[/USER] had aptly stated in the past, I too am primarily a "good-deal collector" though some specializations are starting to coalesce from the nebulous and varied coin acquisitions. I'm much better at cherry-picking antiquities/artifacts, in no small part because it is necessarily a much more intuitive vs analytical process where convenient encyclopedic references don't really exist, and because there is generally less competition to begin with. I'd like to submit a piece which is a perfect fusion of both coin and artifact, the item at the left in this lot sold as "LOT OF 4 ANCIENT BRONZE ARROWHEADS" which I obtained for 23.50 shipped:[ATTACH=full]945197[/ATTACH] To the casual observer they are all pretty generic 6th-3rd century BC "Scythian" style bronze arrowheads, but when I scrolled by I about jumped out of my chair! I had read about such items years before but had never actually seen one until then, woohoo! That goofball on the left is no ordinary arrowhead, but a rare transitional "coin" made to facilitate trade between and among the Greek colonists and local populations in the Black Sea region in the latter half of the 6th century BC. Many of us have seen the solid cast bronze "arrowhead proto-coins" like the 5 examples surrounding the column of socketed arrowheads below, which have surfaced in enough archaeological excavations in contexts where proper coins would otherwise be found to support the belief that they were a relatively standardized medium of exchange in the western Black Sea and Danube region, with many found at Istros for example. [ATTACH=full]945215[/ATTACH] What is special about the item in question is that it was cast with a proper socket like the actual war-arrowheads above, but its tip/blades remained unfinished (or perhaps it was cast in a mold dedicated for making coin-arrowheads) and its socket was filled with lead to bring it up to a more acceptable weight for rudimentary currency purposes. Some relevant albeit roughly-translated footnote extracts from "ABOUT SOME DISCOVERIES OF ARROWHEADS - MONETARY SIGNS IN SOUTH - WEST DOBRUJA" by Gabriel TALMAŢCHI: <blockquote>18 Such discoveries emerge at Histria in the area of the Roman thermae I, in the section S XII, in a bed of pavement made of mixed Greek material, according to SUCEVEANU 1982, p. 16; about mentioning other similar discoveries at Histria see at POENARU BORDEA 1974, p. 319; finally, some data of interest on our subject were provided to us by our colleague and friend Iulian Bîrzescu. Thus, in the sector T, arrowheads-monetary signs have been discovered in specific context for the archaic or classical period (discovered during the last years). More exactely, the most numerous arrowheads-monetary signs emerge in the above mentioned sector in contexts of the last third of the 6th century B.C. Some of these arrowheads have lead inside the fixing aperture. Very few arrowheads-monetary signs have been discovered in earlier contexts, from the first half of the 6th century. But the presence of the latter can help us to argue their issuing beginning with the middle of the 6th century B.C. and not in its second half, maybe even in the last two decades of the first half of that century. 22 Their discovery “mixed“ sometimes with proper fight arrowheads, in the autochtonous environment, can offer the hypothesis of finding some arrowheads already transformed, or arrows which are going to be transformed. In the final stage of producing and circulation of these monetary signs, we cannot exclude some piles of arrowheads in which some are accepted with a monetary value, without being transformed, and from one situation to another, the rod was filled with lead, to obtain a proper weight. At the same time, it is possible that the same master produced in different patterns, but in the same workshop, both monetary signs and arrowheads necessary as offensive fighting material.</blockquote> The 4 larger solid "spindle" arrowhead proto coins are between 3.03-4.21g. The rare lead-plugged arrowhead coin is 4.68g and 24mm, with the lead representing at least 2.5g to 3g I'd estimate.[ATTACH=full]945249[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]945251[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]945252[/ATTACH] I've never seen another one for sale and in the few archaeological publications I've found referencing them there are only a handful recorded. So yep not the sort of "coin" you were likely looking for but I thought it a good opportunity to share one of my more arcane prizes. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> And while it's not ancient, here's a superb "cherry-picking" score my coin-collecting grandfather plucked from his winnings in a penny-poker game in 1961. It was one of his most prized possessions, and now resides in good company both ancient and modern in my collection: [ATTACH=full]945258[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]

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