Metal Detecting 4-24-15

Last Friday I spent a few hours metal detecting near the house of a lady Kim works with.  In the first couple of minutes, I hit a nice signal by the back walkway, and started digging.  About an inch down I uncovered the grave marker for Copper the dog (1965 - 1969), and decided that I had better move to another spot. ("Oh, yes!" said the lady who owns the property, when I mentioned it to her later. "The previous owner had three dogs. They're all by the sidewalk.")

I surveyed different spots around the yard. I found four pennies, a dime, a wing nut, a bolt, a nail, two pull tabs, several bits of gutter flashing and can slaw (I hate gutter flashing and can slaw).  Finally, right before I left, I found this quarter-dollar:

This first photo I took because it's the first 2015 coin I have found.  Looking through the change, there were quite a few more, so I guess they have been around and I just didn't notice them.  I think this Homestead Monument quarter has a nice design; almost-but-not-quite symmetrical, rather bold, nice textures without being too busy. I've seen better, but as far as our recent quarters go this one is one of the good ones.

I found this in change and thought it was funny because it sure looks like it was found by a metal detectorist. Discolored, dirt-encrusted, like the ones I pull out of the ground. Someone dug this up in the recent past, I bet.

And speaking of which, I did some detecting for the first time in many months. A couple of months ago, as I was entering my house, I dropped a large coin--either a half dollar or a dollar. It hit the concrete one time (Kim and I both heard it) and then disappeared. I thought it must have fallen into the snow.

So a few days ago, I got out the detector and searched all around our porch and sidewalk. I did not find my big coin, but I did find $.68 (including the quarter and a few pennies from the back yard).  Some of it is from the past ten years, so it was lost by our family; some of it had been there longer, I am sure. I never have thoroughly searched our yard, so I am sure there is more change around.

...But where did that big coin go? I think it might be lodged up against the porch or in the bushes where I can't get to it, and where it's masked from my metal detector by its proximity to the downspout, underground pipes, buried scraps of gutter flashing, etc. Darn it! Maybe it will turn up. I think it was a big ol' Eisenhower dollar, so it should have been hard for it to hide.

LICINIVS

 

This was a great find for me.  I picked up this ancient Roman at the coin show last weekend for $8, which I think was a great price, considering the detail and full legends.  The photos don't do it justice: in real life, it has a nice, even, clean look to it, although it's very dark (I think someone cleaned it with olive oil, which often darkens old bronze.)

Anyway, it was unattributed when I bought it, but the legends are so clear that researching it was quite easy.

This was minted under Emperor Licinius sometime around AD 321-324.  It was minted in Heraclea, in present-day Turkey, on the Black Sea.

The legend on the obverse ("heads") reads: IMP C VAL LICIN LICINIVS P F AVG, which is the abbreviated "Imperator Caesar Valerius Licinianus Licinius, Pius Felix Augustus."  The portrait strikes me as having a little more natural feel than some of the ones I've seen.

The reverse says IOVI CONSERVATORI, or "Jupiter the Protector," and depicts Jupiter holding a statue of Victory. To his right is an eagle holding a wreath, and to his left at his feat is a captive.  Beneath his feat, in exergue, is the mint mark: SMHA, representing Sacred Money of Officina A of the Heraclea mint.

Next to Jupiter is an X over II plus a broken I, referred to as "mu" (as in the Greek letter.)  This is the denomination: 12 ½.  The thing is, nowadays, no one really knows for sure: 12 ½ of what?

Licinius ruled a divided empire. Toward the end, his big rival was Constantine the Great. Licinius held out for quite a while (he became emperor in 308), but Constantine was always looking for ways to undermine him.  In 324, after a war, Licinius was captured, but briefly spared due to the pleading of his wife, Constantine's sister. A year later Constantine had him hanged on suspicion of plotting against him.

Ah, history.

Art, Coin, Garden Miscellany News

Art: A few days ago I created a lame sketch of Kim. It's nothing at all to brag about. I can, however, brag about Erin, who creates wonderful page-filling watercolors and encourages her sister to do the same.

Coin: I received a gift certificate for the Louisville Numismatic Exchange. The horrible thing about that is that it's so finite. I look at it and think, "I can spend this, and then it's all over. I'll be able to get nothing else." It makes it very hard to decide what to get. Over the past month or so, though, my coin-collecting obsession has ebbed, as it does from time to time. Now spare me-time goes to a few other Web sites, reading, and brushing up on various game rules. Numismatics will come back with a vengeance soon enough.

Garden: It's only January 11, but the warm mooshy weather gets me in the mood for diggin'. Due to said weather, my hollyhocks are sprouting, and the daffodils and crocuses (and perhaps some tulips) are coming up. That could be trouble. I'd sure like some bitterly cold weather to kill off both garden vermin and whatever is making me sneeze (besides my head cold). I've been talking big to Erin about my garden plans this year, but I need to remember that I tend to bite off more than I can chew. My big new plan for this year's garden: Watermelons.

Skepticism: The poinsettia didn't kill me, nor did I retch, hallucinate, or get the vile squelchies. I sat by my phone for hours and hours awaiting a call from those "Mythbusters" guys, but they must not read this blog.

Dreams: I couple of nights ago, I dreamed I was on the Moon with two other astronauts. I was collecting soil samples, and found a bunch of mud at the bottom of a crater. Inside the mud were greenish spots that looked like algae. It was amazing. We were very excited that we might have found both water and life on the Moon.

Games: 1) I got the board game "Puerto Rico" for Christmas, but I'm not up on the rules yet. Looks pretty cool, though, and maybe I'll get a chance to play it soon. 2) Also, after a three-year absence, I'm working on getting back into my Dungeons & Dragons campaign. We'd pick up right where we left off. I've mentioned it to my fellow gamers, and it was met with a very positive reaction, and now that I've brought it up I'm sure it's expected so I guess I better get cracking. 3) Kim and I played "Seafarers of Catan" for the first time last weekend. We played with Brooke and David. It was fun, and I'm looking forward to playing it again with some of the game board variations. David won. Kim had a remarkable showing. I performed very poorly, which has happened with alarming frequency in recent "Catan" games.

Movies: Brian, Kevin, and I saw "Children of Men" last Friday, and it was very good. Though I found the story engaging, I was equally impressed by how the movie was put together technically. It was a finely crafted film. Some of the sequences were very clever. And if you ever wanted to see a tense action/thriller movie in which most of the good guys never so much as touch a gun, this is it. (Spoiler: Actually, none of the good guys touch a gun, I think. But you don't realize this until half way into the movie. That's when you find out some of the good guys are bad guys.)

My third coin club meeting

I am now a card-carrying-member of the Louisville Coin Club. I was voted in yesterday (no "nays," thankfully) and applauded (scatteredly). All as sort of an afterthought, or more like a sidethought, when I raised my hand after break and asked if I was a member.

I arrived at the meeting a few minutes late, sat in the back row, and witnessed en media res a rancorous exchange between the President, some club officers, and one of my fellow members. As I missed the beginning, I don't know what set off this powderkeg of emotion "Listen, if you want to take a vote and revoke my membership, I'll leave." "No one is asking you to leave." "...Because I think I'm a member as much as anyone else, and I'd like to have my say." "I'm sorry you didn't feel like you were being listened to, but we have some business to conduct..." Something like that.

I'm new enough that I can't pass judgment on other members. Also, if some of them find this blog, they'll probably figure out who I am, decide I'm a total smartass, and make my numismatic life yet more difficult, so all I'll say is that I love them all dearly. Anyway, after a few minutes, things settled down and everyone discussed the upcoming coin show.

That world-coin guy, Mike (I think...?) and I sat in back and swapped coins. I think he took some pity on my beginnerishness and gave me a good trade. Sure, I'll post some pictures eventually, if you insist.

Something else I should take pics of is my New England Asters. Why wouldn't everyone in the world want these things in their yard?

Here's another one in wretched shape. It's impossible to attribute with any surety, but it's probably Constantius II, between AD 337 and 361. The reverse is posted first; if you use your imagination a bit, you can make out the large standing soldier on the right spearing the fallen horseman to the left and below. I knew it to be a CONST- something or other, and some kind fellows on another site used their superior experience to narrow it down more.

The Japanese coin, a 10 sen silver piece, is upside down. I accidentally photographed it that way. It's an easy mistake for American Me to make. So sorry.

I was attracted to that coin the moment I saw it; what a cool dragon. The coin is in good shape, and I like the detail evident. It's Meiji 38 (that is, 1905.)

Same with the NZ shilling. I saw that and thought, "Oooh, neat-o." Nice design, nice shape, must obtain.

I got five ancient Romans at a that coin club auction. They are in bad shape; one could be a couple of Lincoln cents that were melted together and buried in someone's backyard for ten years, for all I know. Another has a barely recognizable obverse and reverse, and is unattibutable. Pictured here is my favorite, which I identified as minted in Constantinople during the reign of Valentinian, A.D. 364-367. That's a barely recognizable Constaninople mintmark in exergue, under the feet of what would be the emperor holding a laborum and Victory. The legend is along the lines of RESTITVTOR-REIP, though one can only read the RESTI and the TORREIP. One the obverse, one may read the VALENTINI and AN-before that awful gob of corrosion cuts it off.

Like I said, it's in awful shape, but (except for that big bronze pimple that obscures Valentinian's face) it strikes me as very pretty. As a collector, unworn, sharp coins are the ultimate prize. But there is something lovely and romantic about a well-worn coin, as if each finger that handled it, every odd encounter, every year it passed through took its toll in metal and detail but left behind within the coin some kind of spark. And speaking as a painter, I like that which is hinted at, left to the viewer to fill in. The emperor's legs drop down flatly out of a mist of wear and corrosion; the bites taken from the edges of the coin make the coin seem more three-dimensional; the copper gleam of the beads (pearls?) on Valentinian's headband have a pleasant color.

I could do without the blob, though.

I gave this coin to a young friend for her birthday- I hope she spends some time wondering who held it more 1,600 years ago.

It took quite a while to reseach the three coins that I could find enough detail on to research, and it was lots of fun.

From the mint of Thessaloniki

I spent some time last night doing detective work on a beat-up Roman bronze. I think I almost have it narrowed down; it appears to me to have been minted sometime in the Fourth Century, and I’m almost certain it’s from Thessalonica. I don't know whose portrait is on it, but I most strongly suspect Constantine or Constantine II.

This ancient coin stuff is a whole ‘nother crazy road.

Mailing something to Marengo, Indiana. Marengo always makes me think of lemon meringue pies. And caves.

You might be astonished by how little knitting I’ve accomplished since last week, but if you were, you’d be a freaking fool. I saw knits being knitted, and I saw knitters, and I complimented at least one sweet knitter on her project, but no knits for moi.

I attended my second coin club meeting yesterday. Met Mike, who may be the club’s only collector of world coins. It sounds like we might have a lot of trading we can do. When I told him what I had extras of, he seemed very interested. Collecting world coins is kind of lonely, I guess. When I told the gathering (when forced to stand, as a potential club inductee, and state what it was I collected) that my overriding interest was world coins, the general response was befuddled headshakes and nods toward Mike.

I’ve realized that my favorite thing about coin collecting is the detective work. The process of finding something unidentified, odd, or unexpected, and then figuring out what it is and why it exists and how it fits into some broader cultural context…that’s loads of joy.

When will I have something to post about art?

With David's help, I made pesto yesterday. Drank a Guinness supplied by David, and we all had a two-family standing-up light dinner of pesto, crackers, cheese, and cherry tomatoes.

I hit a few banks today in a search for halves. No rolls, but some loose ones. Also, one kind little teller gave me four Eisenhower dollars--not worth more than a dollar each, really, but fun anyway. One is very smooth, so I guess it was someone's "pocket piece" they carried around, maybe rubbed habitually. I don't really need them, and they wouldn't sell for anything, but I hate spending them...so I guess I'll look for someplace fun to spend them or give them to someone as a surprise. Too bad my kiddos are so far away from losing baby teeth.

Another coin that would be cool to have, speaking as one who loves both coins and Halloween, is a coin that would have been used by Vlad Tepes. From Wikipedia,

"Vlad III the Impaler (Vlad Ţepeş IPA: ['tsepeʃ] in common Romanian
reference; also known as Vlad Dracula or Vlad Drăculea; November or December,
1431 – December 1476) was voivode (prince) of the principality of Wallachia, now
part of Romania. His three reigns were in 1448, 1456 to 1462, and
1476."

Slot machines are the worst thing to ever happen to half dollars. It's like there's some kind of giant sausage grinder slowly sucking them all in and spitting them back out into neatly wrapped rolls of ugly, patheticly marred coins.

For me, the tricky part about searching rolls is effectively channeling the rejects afterwards, and replacing them with new ones to search. One does not want bank tellers to groan when they see you coming, so you want to minimize how much you inconvenience them. I've selected one bank as the "dumping ground" for reject rolls.

I tore up many of my pumpkin vines two days ago, on Saturday. I left some healthy ones, with developing fruit, intact. Maybe there will be some late enough for Halloween after all. Also, it looks like the New England asters are getting ready to open a few early blooms. I love those girls.

Last night I had a dream that was sort of like the movie "Relic"; I was in this big museum and there was a giant bug creature that was stalking people. This sort of evolved into a second dream in which I was in a large, mazelike basement with a bunch of people, including a friend; we were fighting/outrunning zombies. The last part of the dream involved us trying to get through a flooded room that had zombies lurking in the murky water.

I did not knit this weekend, but I watched people knit for a while.

Recent Developments

I still haven't knitted any.

Searched half-dollar rolls over the past few days; found two silver clad, plus a couple recently minted coins in good shape to fill holes in the album. I only need two more to complete my collection of Kennedy half dollar business stikes. Complete it to my satisfaction, anyway. Well, at least I can call it "complete," but I'm sure I'd still find ways to add to it. It never really ends.

I delivered a pumpkin to C&H last night. They were appropriately appreciative ("Gee...thanks," and later, from another visitor to their house, "Why is there a pumpkin in your kitchen?") Maybe I'll start a campaign to get everyone to carve a jack-o'-lantern for Labor Day. There are more pumpkins ripening (or maybe rotting in this wretched heat) at this moment.

I've done no painting, either. Not in any form.

The cherry tomatoes are coming in strong, and the blackberries, though not plentiful from only one fairly new bush, are big and fat. I'll have to look for recipes that call for small amounts of blackberries, or make up my own.

I haven't done any knitting.
***
Do you know what a vecturist is? It's someone who collects transportation tokens. I only have a few transportation tokens, so I don't count.

That touches on one thing that fascinates me about coin collecting. Not only is there a seemingly infinite number of coins to collect, there is also an infinite variety of categories for collectors. And so much weird, out-of-the-way, esoteric, oddball corners to the hobby. There are even people who collect and study coin containers and display devices. Or so I've heard.