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. 

Loving the Unloved: 1802 Cent, Colorful and Corroded

Collectors are known to search – diligently – for the “perfect” coin. 

Usually this translates to the “highest graded” coin “for the money.” Seminars on condition grading are offered at all ANA coin shows. And, the every seat is sold.

Young numismatist and baby boomers (a bimodal group) eagerly learn to delight in smooth fields, sharp details, and strong strikes.

1802 Draped Bust relic cent exploding with Corrosion.

And, there is nothing wrong with that. I like new cars. Plus, we got a new lawn mower -- a red one. Smooth, sharp, strong.

But relics?

Here, we have a beautiful cent. It challenges us to consider its story. It was spent, lost, and then found. It is 200+ years old. It is likely a dug coin, so it came to collectors late. No provenance.

Think of it as raw history. It looks the part. It is a perfect survivor, a relic.

It is a mystery. Who lost it?

The aesthetic of relic cents is one of bold colors – copper turning in the fall season, electrons breaking from their orbits. 

At a deeper level, we can appreciate that Mother Nature was taking this one back.

That is, until I stepped in to save it.

Loving the unloved is unadulterated collecting. No worries about grade, value, and rarity – all the silly things that many obsess about. No, this one is just for me.

Just for me.

Old Sails: French Galleon on Jeton is Guided by the Dophin in 1605

Here we have a ruddy French galleon that is being guided “against all hazards” by a dolphin.

The ship is fully rigged with majestic fore and aft castles. The curvature of the gunwales is amplified with an artistic flair; bold planks and two decks of cannon complement the broadside. The shrouds and stays are nicely detailed. The sails are furled.

The waters appear relatively calm with a few large curls just aft of the vessel. The crowned dolphin leads on the starboard side; its tail gallantly protruding upwards.

French Galleon guided by a Dolphin
It is a hopeful image that a new King will lead to prosperity and peace.

It is a beautiful design despite the rather neglected condition of the piece. This jeton of 1605 was handled for a few decades and then set aside. A deep brown and red patina has engulfed the fields thereby accentuating the ship. A deep old scrape cuts the ship across the fore and main masts.

Despite its injuries, it is a nice piece for the ship collector.

The legend reads: MARIA OMNIA CONTRA. This roughly translates to “Maria (the queen, and second wife of Henry IV) will prosper against all odds or hazards.” Note that Henry of Navarre (also known affectionately as “the good king Henry”) was King from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the House of Bourbon.

Henry IV married Maria de Medici in October of 1600. She gave him a son (the future Louis XIII) in 1601. As heir to the throne, the future king was known as the Dauphin of France.

Henry IV was brutally assassinated in May of 1610. He was known for being compassionate towards his people, but the fervent Catholics and the Protestants hated him for his stance on religious tolerance.

The dolphin represents the French province of Dauphine and has long been part of the French Arms. Of note, the dolphin also has symbolic significance and represents prudence.

And so, we are left to piece together the message of the jeton. The legend on the obverse helps us here, as it reads: DELPHINO  TVTIOR IBIS. This translates to: “Your path will be more about thanks to the dolphin.”

I believe that the piece is celebrating Maria and her son Louis XIII (the Dauphin) who will eventually lead France towards prosperity.

As always, I welcome any comments/corrections on the translation or its meaning.

Coins (Cobs) from Shipwrecks: A Necromancer's Delight

Big and Bold.
Spanish Colonial cobs are wonderful coins that are
heavy in the hand and rich with history.

Coins from shipwrecks are very popular these days.

They have always been on the Necromancer's List.

Whereas most collectors chase after mint state and high-condition coins, the shipwreck collectors are willing to make trade-offs: provenance is prized at the expense of condition. This phenomenon represents the nexus where necromancers meet set collectors.

It is small patch of common ground. But, it is a place that represents the best that relic collecting has to offer.

The necromancers revel in spirits that are contained (have contaminated) the coin. Like in a conch shell, the sounds of the sea and the ship splintering apart are present.

But even the set collectors cannot escape the kratophany that characterizes a shipwrecked coin. After all, the allure of these relics goes beyond condition grades. Despite best efforts, no amount of rationalization can reduce the mystique of a shipwrecked coin.

Pictured here is an unusual survivor: An 8 Reales from Potosi. It was struck high in the Andes from a mountain of silver (Cerro Rico) in the 1630s. The cob was carried by pack animals to Lima, shipped via galleon to Panama, where it was packed across the isthmus, and loaded on the San Estevan y Los Angeles, a merchant ship.

It is essential that you have a certificate
for a shipwreck cob like this one

On the 11^th of August 1639, the San Estevan was in a convoy comprised of the Armada de la Guardia de la Carreera de Indias. The San Estevan was carrying 324,000 pesos in silver, plus gold ingots. The ship was separated in a storm off Bermuda, so it made its way towards Spain alone.

Captain Juan Ortado de Solier decided to head to Cadiz Bay to avoid pirates, but his luck ran out when the ship ran into a squadron of Barbary Corsairs just off the southern tip of Portugal. The San Estevan took evasive action and sailed north towards Lisbon. But the Corsairs were closing in.

The Captain defiantly ran the ship aground right under the guns of the Portuguese fort at Paredes. Conflicting stories say that the ship was set afire, others say the ship simply broke apart.

Soon afterwards, salvors recovered all of her cannon, three anchors, but only three chests of silver specie. The rest was buried under the sand.

All of this action was witnessed by this Piece-of-Eight. This cob is a direct link to this history. It was there -- center stage. It was part of a small group of fifteen coins discovered by divers in the 1970s and held by a Portuguese family until the 1990s. I purchased it from Dan Sedwick several years later. This cob has been a delight to own.

If you want to conjure up spirits from the past, then hold a shipwrecked coin in your palm. The darker emotions born of loss and destruction are potent and imbue shipwreck coins – like this one – with an energy that can be felt every time you hold it.