Collecting Resolutions for 2018

It is 2018!

Let’s celebrate collecting this year! And, let’s be thankful too! We are lucky to have this hobby.

My resolutions:

*Know that all collecting is cool. We share the same kink in the brain, an extra bundle of neurons that keeps us in hunt mode. Put another way, we muse about coins, tokens, and all that is small and round.

I will chase after relics, talismans, ships, and Jamestown pieces. But also, I will be kind to those who love the new and shiny – not everyone is a necromancer!

*Know that all collecting is a creative act. We are erecting skyscrapers. Put another way, we enjoy assembling sets that have our fingerprints all over them.

Quite simply, I will love the unloved.

A site celebrating New Beginnings.
Jamestown: 1608 Church,  Barracks, South Palisade.
And of course, Captain John Smith surveying the James.

*Know that all collecting is about meaning. We cope with a sometimes violent and unpredictable world by appreciating beauty and learning about the past. Put another way, we relish art and knowledge.

I will finish my book: Bent, Holed, & Folded: Coin Talismans for protection against misfortune and witchcraft in Colonial Jamestown. Then, I will start on something new: Old Sails, Talismans, … who knows?

*Know that all collecting is about sharing. Although we are master solitaire players, we dilate when others ask. Put another way, we enjoy the company of our collecting brethren.

This is a tough one for me, as I am such an introvert. Still, I will give at least one presentation this year; and I will attend more local coin club meetings. And of course, I will continue this blog.

I have put up a New Page from the BHF book: It is the Chapter on the Kings Touch Pieces that I profiled in a series of blog posts at the beginning of 2017. Check it out! The book is done but for one last edit and the addition of illustrations. It was 2.5 years of research and writing – whew! Yes, in some ways, I hate for it to be done.

Happy New Year to all that visit this blog.  Keep collecting! 

Old Sails. Dutch Cog Ship is Now Safe in 1577

I relish finding a 16^th century ship coin. 

Post-medieval sails are not easy to find, and this Dutch Cog is certainly an old vessel. The coin – a jetton, actually – is dated 1577, but the ship has old styling.  Cog ships were common in the North Sea from about the 12^th century on – it was a popular design, particularly for cargo vessels, that lasted centuries.

This 1577 Dutch jetton has felt the touch a hundred inquiring fingertips.

The single main sail hoisted on a central mast gives the ship it’s distinct, and medieval, look. Two bold stays keep the mast in place. The aftcastle is multi-decked and towers above the gunwales. I imagine the forecastle to be impressive as well (although smaller); a hint of a heavy bowsprit can be seen through the fog of wear. Note the anchors hanging at both bow and stern.

I suppose one could argue that the ship is an early Carrack, but we need to see more sails for that. The gunwales are arched with a rounded stern, a characteristic that reflects both cogs and carracks. Of course, ship designs evolved slowly, bit by bit.

This ship is on a starboard tact. The legend above the ship – PORT SALV – suggests that the vessel is entering a safe harbor. The translation reads: safe passage or safe carry or safe harbor.

A bit of history is needed to interpret the wording along the edges. The legend – CALCVLI ORDINVM BELGII – translates to: “an establishment of a united group at Belgium.” More concretely, the words mean a “calculation of orders in Belgium.” This phase represents the action of the Estates-General of the Netherlands to unify Ghent against the Spanish, known as the First Union of Brussels.

In January of 1577, seventeen provinces joined together to oppose the Spanish occupation. This unification is celebrated on this jetton.

And, the merchant ships, I suppose, were safer for it.

The obverse (not shown) has the legend: 1577 CVM PIETATE CONCORDIA. The words translate to read: “with dutiful harmony.” Clasped hands, two conjoined hearts, all beneath a crown, make up the design – that pretty much says it all.

This jetton is pictured in Mitchiner (#2412). His example, too, shows a ship shrouded by an early morning fog. Unfortunately, the vessel is the first element to fade away.

But of course, a cool ship like this has invited centuries of inquiring fingertips – I know this because I have touched it too.

Collecting Jamestown: Part 21. French Liard

Jamestown collectors often forget that the settlement lasted beyond the 1620s. The fort period is generally considered to have ended on 24 May 1624 when James I revoked the Virginia Company charter.

Henceforth, Jamestown became a Royal Colony.

 

The palisaded fort fell to ruin. Houses and outbuildings were built over postholes. Horse-drawn plows churned the topsoil.

Several seventeenth century coins have been unearthed that reflect the transition. One of these is a 1656 French liard that was found along a brick foundation of a timber framed structure located in the center of the old fort site.

The house is believed to have belonged to either William Drummond or Richard Lawrence. It was probably built between 1630 and 1650 (but certainly before new building initiatives were established in 1662). The house was destroyed by fire, as the site was filled with ash.

Perhaps the house was razed on 19 September 1676 during Bacon’s Rebellion. Both Drummond and Lawrence burned their homes on this date to show their support for the Rebellion.

The French copper was found in a disturbed builder’s trench. After the fire, the trench was re-dug to salvage the bricks. A brick robber might have dropped it. Or, maybe it was dropped when the building was being built or modified. Other artifacts such as pipe stems, ceramics, pottery, tiles, and other domestic bits suggest a late 1600s TPQ.

The liard was minted in Lyon with D mint mark. The obverse depicts Louis XIV. The coin was valued at about three English pence at the time. They circulated infrequently in English America: This one did!

As such, a liard such as this belongs in every Jamestown collection.

The coin is readily available in the marketplace. I purchased it from a dealer in France (via EBay). The piece is colored in a mosaic of red, brown, and black; a hint of grainy corrosion gives it a delightful grounder vibe that is akin to the one found at Jamestown.

Why not seek out a nicer one you ask? Well, the necromancer eschews the shiny one, reaching instead for a similar piece. A relic should look the part. It is magical for its association to Colonial Virginia. After all, collecting by context does not demand that you chase the nicest one, just a similar piece.

Finally, a note for those who follow this blog: Thank You. My intent going into 2018 is to write every other week. This is how I enjoy the hobby. I strive to write on Sat/Sun mornings, but sometimes (like today), my wife and dogs pull me away ... into the snow! 

Collecting Jamestown: Part 20. Krauwinckel Jettons

Jettons have poured from the Jamestown site since the first shovel pricked the ground.

Along with Irish half-pennies and pennies, these thin counters represent the most common “coins” dug from within the palisades of the fort.

Krauwinckel Jettons

But they are not really coins. Rather, they are counting pieces. They were produced in great numbers and are not rare. Jettons were typically sold in packets of 50 or 100. At least one full packet was brought to Jamestown.

The term “jetton” (or “jeton”) is derived from the French “jeter” and means “to cast” as in casting or moving markers on a counting board. Arithmetic problems could be solved very quickly using this method. The use of jettons was on the wane during the first quarter of the seventeenth century – replaced by paper calculations using Arabic numerals.

The jettons found at Jamestown were made in the Krauwinckel workshops during the late 1500s and early 1600s. The pieces were imported from Nuremberg. The standard reference for these pieces is Mitchiner’s 1988 catalogue: Jetons, Medalets and Tokens: The Medieval Period and Nuremburg. Check it out.

Krauwinckel jettons were discovered all across the Jamestown site. In the first season of digging, seven jettons were unearthed from Pit 1 in 1994. Alongside the jettons were Nueva Cadiz beads, book clasps, a matchlock plate, many jar and bowl fragments, of course a slew of pipe stems, plus a complete cabasset helmet!

But the largest of cache of jettons was to come a few seasons later.

A longhouse, of mud and stud construction, known as the Factory yielded a whopping 99 jettons. Thirty-one were discovered on the cellar floor. And, 54 more were mixed in the backfill from the 1610 rehabilitation of the fort when Lord de la Warr arrived and had the longhouse razed. The remaining 14 jettons were closer to the surface and not in a sealed context.

The Factory has been interpreted as an industrial and trading center. It also might have served as a supply depot. It makes sense that the jettons were found there, as they might have been used as intended – for accounting. Alternatively, some historians have argued that they were used for copper trading with the natives. This is an open debate.

Either way, Hanns Krauwinckel jettons are storied relics of Jamestown and belong in any Colonial North America collection. Similar jettons have been found at other seventeenth century colonial sites.

Collecting Coins is about Magic & Creativity: Without it ... You Are Dead.

This blog has been dormant for a while – a couple of months. But the collecting has not stopped. Collectors cannot stop. It’s not an compulsion, mind you; rather, it is a creative drive.

As Sigmund Freud remarked (and I paraphrase): the collection is dead once the hunt and acquisition stops. I would add that part of the collector dies too – some bundle of neurons rot away after the last coin.

BTW, Freud was an avid collector of antiquities – his “dirty gods” as he called them.

This blog needed a break: a rest.

So, I spent the summer in distraction mode. Oh, I continued to think about relics and magic. But I was mind wandering.

Free Your Self.
Go into D-mode and swim across the Bay.
Collect whatever amuses you.

This is when your brain shifts into default mode. This D-mode describes the way your neurons click when you are walking in the woods and trying to avoid slippery rocks. Great ideas just pop into your head during these times -- or at least they are supposed to. I was just looking for a nudge.

As a divertissement I pondered various muscle cars. What an exciting era: NHRA Junior Stock. Some of my favorites were the ’62 Mopars – side fins? My first cars were Novas: ’68 and ’70 – no, side fins, but a lot of look-back.

Do muscle cars have the magic? Do they have the heart and soul of their past owners resonating within the sheet metal? I think they do -- just as coins contain the passions of those who spent, saved, and collected them.

If you can’t feel the magic, then you are … well, dead.

And, I have never met a dead collector. Collecting is a gift.

Collecting is also a state of mind, a kink in the brain – a magical kink at that. Finding meaning in an accumulation of objects is a funny thing. Ponder that while you are walking in the woods and trying to avoid slippery rocks. So, have I decided to let this blog get weirder? Why not? Relic coins are where the action is. I plan an all-out assault on the new and shiny ... .

After all, I am a necromancer. That is my quest.