NathanB

Love the funny gif's and the great energy here, Ryro! Glad you got a coin that brings you such joy.

Hey, Kali, you did indeed post some terrific humour, and I do not believe for one minute that you had any nefarious motives in doing so. So to see my comments must have been a very unpleasant shock. Unfortunately, in a world of countless memes, I do think it's important for people to know the origins of this particular set of characters. So although I think it's important that people understand the origins of the Wojak memes, I do feel bad for raining on your parade, as it were. Your numismatic humour was both very creative and truly hilarious. Also, I do enjoy all your contributions on this forum.

Just to clarify, I agree that innocent things can be co-opted by extremist groups, as is the case with Pepe the frog. However, in the case of the Wojak memes, the opposite has occurred. These memes got their start in the alt-right, but are now widely used by people who do not know their origins. When I first saw the "Chad" character many months ago, I could see its origin very clearly just in its basic design, and that is what motivated me to bother to research these memes, which I later learned were called Wojak memes.

Hi Donna! To answer your question, I don't know. But about the Pepe meme, I think the blogpost kind of elided over its use. I don't think this was to minimize or justify that usage--I think the writer was essentially assuming that their readers were all fully-versed in why that meme had become so objectionable. So as I read it, the article is saying, "look, here's a meme element with an innocent core that has been co-opted by extremist groups. Now here's another meme element with even worse origins." For the record, while I can't stand either set of memes, the OP's numismatic humour was genuinely funny.

Ah-ha! Found it--a blog post I read some months ago, from none other than the truly hilarious "Classical Memes for Hellenistic Teens." https://csmfht.substack.com/p/why-i-wont-post-wojak-memes The post still leaves some unanswered questions, but it's worth reading. Note that all my comments about these "Wojak" memes that I dislike so much apply to the memes themselves, and not to those who unknowingly use them.

The particular characters in this meme (and in many others) always strike me as somehow related to white supremacy. Does anyone know anything about their origin? I love memes, but I will never bite if I see these characters.

It is important to remember that there is no single objective version of history that is completely factually true and truly exhaustive. Everyone has an agenda, and everyone has biases--whether they realize them or not. Cassius Dio? Agenda: to make his patrons look good! Plutarch? To make moral judgments and inferences about character. Thucydides: besides demonstrating a more rigorous way of writing history, to show how the war between Athens and Sparta was "a great war, and more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it." Caesar? To win fame and glory for himself and put his spin on how the West--er, Gaul--was won. (Of course, I do greatly simplify here.) To use these kinds of primary sources, we have to read them critically. A historian who uses primary sources in this way can write a history. The history that that historian relates will concern itself with the issues and agendas that that historian has. In the past, such histories often concerned themselves with "great men." (Indeed, I still have on my shelves my childhood books like 100 Great Kings, Queens, and Rulers of the World, and Augustus Caesar's World. As an adult, I actually worked my way through the entirety of the Folio Society's 8 volume edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. And since it has been about 25 years since, I need to return to it!) More recent historians have sought to look at not the great men, but ordinary people. How did they live? What were they like? How did they interpret the world around them? What were the currents that produced the evolutions and sudden changes of the times? Then there are the various "isms"--Marxists would look at history and produce narratives about the evils of capitalism and the necessity for revolution. The Freudians took to history their psycho-analytic approach. Queer theory has looked at treatment of homosexuality, gender, and so on. An author might even study the same history and write more than one history! Nowadays, Mary Beard's book Emperor of Rome is getting talked about. But she also wrote SPQR earlier, with a very different agenda. (I haven't read the former, but heartily recommend the latter!) History from the very beginning was always being written and rewritten according to the agendas and biases of the writers. Although I haven't been a Christian for many years, I still think C.S. Lewis's essay "On the Reading of Old Books" is useful here in pointing out one thing. Lewis wrote, if you were forced to read only one kind of books, past, present, or future, you obviously couldn't read the books of the future. He suggested that--if you were forced to choose only one--you should read the books of the past rather than those of the present. Why? Because the past writers would not make the same kinds of mistakes that modern writers make. Lewis's idea wasn't that past writers were better, or that modern writers made too many mistakes, or even that one shouldn't read current books. Rather, he was saying that it's easier to spot the biases of past ages than to spot those of our own that we are accustomed to. Nowadays, we have many more ways of writing history than existed in Lewis's day. Each brings something to the table. I would submit that we have something to learn from all the ways that history has been told over the ages (even if at times we are learning in spite of a writer rather than because of them!). To really understand the past, we need to read widely, both in terms of primary sources and histories that use them. We might have our own preferences about the kinds of history we think are most accurate, or the kinds that are the most enjoyable to read, but we simply can't say that the questions that we want asked are the only ones that could be asked, or should be asked.

The thing about bullion is that it can be sold for the dealer's precious metal value only. If an ancient gold coin is worth more than a little more as a collectible than as bullion, then the dealer runs the risk of future possible tax penalties if it is listed as bullion.

That is a wonderful idea, and I think it's worth pursuing. I also think asking here is a good idea, too. That said, I think it's important to specify a price, and also a time range. How much money are you willing to spend? Also, do you have time to wait for a special coin at auction, or do you need to buy it quickly? The answers to these two questions will directly affect your options and the ability of others to give you good advice. As far as my proverbial two cents' worth, I always think a good gift for a good friend would be a coin from Augustus' or Tiberius's reign celebrating Agrippa. The only reason our second summer month is named after Augustus is because in Agrippa he had the support of a highly intelligent, incredibly loyal ally and champion. Here's an image of a coin-type that--if it were available--would be *waaay* too much for me. But it may not be too much for you. The picture below is courtesy of the Former Place from which we all came: The motif of hands clasped in a handshake is also a nice one. Here's one from Vcoins: Another consideration is this: what kinds of interests does your friend have? That could also come into play. I think my only hard and fast rule here would be this: give a coin with good eye appeal. It might be VF and have very good eye appeal. On the other hand, it might be heavily worn, with many problems, but because it is so scarce and in such high demand, it could be relatively expensive. Unless there is a very particular piece that your friend is after, I would say to take that money and spend it instead on a less rare coin with eye appeal. Finally, because you are putting thought and feelings into this, I think that the coin that you decide on will be a suitable gift for your friend, who will look at it as a symbol of your friendship. I hope you will show it to us once you've purchased it.

ϜΘΦ! 😂

I used to work in a coin shop that saw a lot of modern fakes. US "seated Liberty" dollars were one of the most common ones. Most of the fakes were pretty bad and I could tell by sight. Regardless of the skill involved, the weight would often be way off. In this case, nothing in the pictures makes me question the coin. That said, I would recommend getting a small scale. You can pick them up very cheaply on Amazon. That, and buying from reputable dealers, should keep you pretty safe.

You mis-named the thread. "Max Thrax Pax." There. Fixed it for you! 😉 Sorry, I just couldn't resist! As for the issue itself, I hope your "R" is just a fibre in a randomly weird position.

Badly Behaved Butting Bovine Bull Basileos Bronze Seleucus I Nikator, AE 18 mm. (If you think it has bronze disease, by the way, let me know!)

Thank you! I figured it had something to do with that part of the body, but both my guesses were wrong.