Ancienti

I have just been buying a few coins for gift purposes, these days. Non-ancient, a few Meiji era gold/silver coins at a pretty reasonable price for these. Also a few Marcus Aurelius denarii, of which I’ve given one away already. Also, it seems that Common Bronze has raised their price on semi-cleaned Roman coins. Oh, well. I think I have enough of those for now. Right now, trying to sell off a gold American Eagle, and am on the lookout for another pirate coin, a 2 escudo doubloon. That’s about it, I guess. Keeping busy.

In other happenings in my coin collecting life, which I may or may not post pics of here, I bought (finally bought) my pirate coin. It’s a genuine piece of 8, 8 reales minted in Potosi, Bolivia in 1689. This is smack dab in the middle of the Golden Age of Pirates. That, well I guess I could link to the pic I have of it on my blog. I also picked up a bargain, a 20 kopek Russian coin from 1869 (100 years before my birth year), which I picked up on eBay for $4. Not bad for a silver coin. I have my eye on some gold there, also from about that period, but I did get outbid on a 1769 coin from the Netherlands, which I was going to buy for a friend who is also turning 40 this year. Oh well. So it goes.

I don’t know how regularly, now, that I’m going to update this site. I found out when I got back from my trip back last November that I can’t keep up the pace of buying and/or cleaning these old coins any more. I just don’t have the spare cycles. But it doesn’t mean that I’ve lost interest, as you can tell by my last couple posts. Occasionally I will obtain an ancient coin or five, mostly because I really like giving them away. For $15 you can give someone something that seems like it’s worth a lot more. And also occasionally, you see something that has such a cool history, or aesthetics, or meaning, and you have to get it. So we’ll see what I can come up with here. Cheers.

The legionary denarius looks very nice, and I paid a really good price for it. These tend to go fast, I found, poking around VCoins and places where they’re sold. If you snooze, you lose. This one that I got I happened upon by an email update of new items from a place called Ancient Imports, which is a great place. The owner gives you a slip with your coin with a really full attribution, including relative rarity of the coin. I have gotten widow’s mites from him before, as well as others, and I’ll probably go again. But anyway, right now I am considering what I am going to be doing as far as ancient coins go. I am not as gung-ho as I used to be. Right now, still looking for a piece of eight, but that’s about as close as my desire goes. Who is to know what the future brings? We shall see what we shall see.

I’ll be going on a month-long trip to Korea in early November, so I won’t be buying any coins from now till I get back. (Perhaps, though, I might order some within a few days of my return, so that I’ll have some things waiting for me when I get home!) And I’m really busy, right now, finishing something in my professional life, so I don’t think I’ll be able to clean any more coins until then, too. So consider this an announcement of hiatus. I’ll be back in December and hopefully, I’ll go on some shopping sprees in preparation for the holidays. Until then, keep on scrubbin’!

Spending a leisurely Columbus Day doing a little online window shopping around the various stores I haunt. Still no piece of 8 or doubloon I want to plop my money down for. Am getting ready, though, for a trip to Korea in November, with the parents. They’re kinda old, so I thought I’d better make time for them, because you never know and all that. Therefore, that last Alexander AE and some other coins am I preparing to give as gifts to various personages that I have had the fortune to interact with in the past. I’ll make an announcement when I’m about to go, as I’ll be taking most of a month off. And there you have it.

Just got back from a wedding in Texas, an Indian wedding (eastern). That was an experience, let me tell you. But anyhow, I received that Probus antonininanus, and it’s pretty nice. Still looking for a piece of 8 from the golden age of pirates, but I don’t think I’ll be getting a doubloon anytime soon, until my financial situation stabilizes. Haven’t been cleaning, after ruining those shirts, and realizing I’d have to dress appropriately when operating the dremel on dirty liquid. Let’s see if I can get motivated anytime soon. Cheers.