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expat

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Posts posted by expat

  1. As shown above in many examples, improperly mixed compositions can tone dramatically along the lines of imperfection. Even on silver coins such as this .925 silver/ .075 copper 1000 Yen

     

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    • Like 3
    • Heart Eyes 1
  2. My first ancient coin, which I won in a competition 2 days ago and can't wait for it's arrival.

    Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161.
    Æ dupondius, 28mm, 12.7g, 6h; Rome mint, AD 157.
    Obv.: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS PP IMP II; Radiate head right.
    Rev.: TR POT XX COS IIII, S-C; Annona standing right, foot on prow, holding rudder and modius set on knee.
    Ref.: RIC 969.
    From the Sulla80 Collection

     

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    • Like 13
  3. 4 hours ago, Steve said:

    Holy crap, expat => that's a fantastic first coin!! (congrats) ... wow, a nice big Dupondius!! (very well played)

    🙃

     

    Man, I bought my first two coins at the same time ... here they are (just in case you wanted to see 'em)

    Hi

     

     

    Valentinian I, AE 19 (below)
    Minted AD 367--375

    Weight: 2.7 g
    Diameter: 19 mm

    Obverse: D N VALENTINIANVS P F AVG, diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right
    Reverse: GLORIA ROMANORVM, emperor walking right, head left, dragging captive and holding labarum, TES B in exergue
    Reference: RIC IX Thessalonica 16a

    Ex-stevex6

     

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    Claudius II Gothicus (below)

    AE Antoninianus

    Weight: 3.2 g
    Diameter: 18 mm

    Obverse: IMP C CLAVDIVS AVG, radiate and draped bust right
    Reverse: LIBERT AVG, Libertas standing left

    Reference: RIC VI 62 Rome

    Ex-stevex6

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    ... yah, they weren't nearly as sweet as your first blood!! (again, congrats!)

    Thanks. There were 5 coins to choose from in the competition and that one appealed to me the most, although I had not the slightest idea about what I was choosing if I won it. Now I can read up about it and take my own images when it arrives

     

    • Like 3
  4. 2 minutes ago, robinjojo said:

    That is a beautiful coin and an excellent start!

    The reference for your coin is in the description, RIC (Roman Imperial Coins) 969, which makes your coin a Roman Imperial coin.

    Thank you, I have a lot of learning to do, and am going to enjoy every minute of it.

    • Like 1
  5. After saying a week or so ago that I am looking to start collecting ancient coins, I have just won my first in a giveaway contest over at CT. It is from a member there and apparently came from a collection by @Sulla80

    Now my total ignorance is showing. Can someone tell me which ref to give it when it arrives. Roman Republic, or something else.

    Here is the description and posters images

    Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161.
    Æ dupondius, 28mm, 12.7g, 6h; Rome mint, AD 157.
    Obv.: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS PP IMP II; Radiate head right.
    Rev.: TR POT XX COS IIII, S-C; Annona standing right, foot on prow, holding rudder and modius set on knee.
    Ref.: RIC 969.

    From the Sulla80 Collection.

    I can't wait for it to arrive, I am like a kid in a sweetshop at the moment, excited as heck. Sad but true

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    • Like 21
  6. In the mountains at the weekend and stopped at a village to stretch the legs and partake of a beverage. We came across someone who was selling stuff that he had created. We often come across weavers who use local reeds to make baskets and hats etc. This guy was carving rocks that he finds in the river valley. We left him a business card with the offer to display and sell his stuff in our shop which sells only artesania from many countries. We took with us 4 turtles of different color rock for our personal collection of figures. They are about 3in long, 2in wide and 2in high. The first image looks more like a fat seal as the head broke apparently and had to be redone, shortening it in the process

     

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  7. 25 minutes ago, Alegandron said:

    Mammoth Tusk Carvings

    I had bought these in China, carved, from Mammoth tusk imported through the land port Manchulia, China, from Siberia, Russia. Since then, I understand now it is illegal to import Mammoth Tusk, similar to the Elephant Ivory laws. At the time I purchased them and brought them home, Mammoth was not an endangered species (being extinct), therefore there were no problems. Now, it looks like Custom Laws have changed. Like Ivory, existing pieces are grandfathered (as I understand the changes.)


    Mammoth Tusk - Russia find China carved Chinese Zodiac BOAR and RABBIT
    Mammoth Tusk - Russia find China carved  Chinese Zodiac BOAR and RABBIT.JPG
    Mammoth Tusk - Russia find China carved  Chinese Zodiac BOAR and RABBIT underside.JPG
    I am the Boar, my wife's Zodiak is the Rabbit.

    Those are lovely and I think you are correct in that already being in possession from before the laws were changed is OK. Just can't sell them on.

    • Like 1
  8. 42 minutes ago, robinjojo said:

    Here, we are entering the world of phosphate minerals.  Phosphate minerals include a very well known one, one whose role played an important one in human civilizations throughout the globe: turquoise.  

    We have have here is not turquoise. This is a half nodule of the phosphate cousin of turquoise, variscite.  While turquoise is a phosphate of copper and aluminum, variscite is a phosphate of aluminum.  The nodule contains a complex of phosphates: variscite (blue green areas), crandallite (yellow banded areas), and wardite (the dark gray banded areas and eyes). The nodules occurred in a contact zone where the variscite became altered into these other phosphate minerals, meaning that they were formed at the expense of the variscite.  

    The result is that nodules were mined in the 1930s and 1940s at a location known as the Little Green Monster Mine, in Utah.  The nodules varied greatly, with some having large areas of almost emerald green variscite mixed with other phosphates, while others were almost entirely crandallite, or were hollow.  The size of the nodules varied from a couple of centimeters to large nodules of fifteen centimeters or more.  The Little Green Monster Mine has long been closed, but occasional specimens are  found on the mine dumps, although the quality of these finds don't match the beauty of the original mined nodules.  Slabs of complete nodules do come to the market from time to time, but finding a complete, unbroken half nodule is a difficult task to complete.

    These nodules are uniquely American.  

    Variscite, AlPO4•2H2O

    Little Green Monster Mine, Clay Canyon, Fairfield, Utah Co., Utah, United States

    Half nodule, 11.5cm x 8.2cm x 4cm,  516.4 grams

    From the Charles M Noll Collection

    633754415_D-CameraVariscitephosphatesFairlfieldUtahhalfnodule11.5cmx8.2cmx4cmexChasMNoll516.4g6-12-22.jpg.38aa39c254142626304142f5d0988363.jpg

     

    Fantastic. First time I have seen one, thanks for sharing

    • Like 1
  9. The two above look like water snails. Nice finds. We live 100 yards from the beach and walk it every day. We really look forward to the morning after a combination of high tide and a storm. We have found many great pieces that way. Here are two entire specimens, a sea urchin and a seahorse.

     

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    • Like 5
  10. Seeing the Nautilus above, this takes pride of place in our shell collection. It was found and we were granted permission for it to be retained by us. I have placed a silver dollar against it so you can judge its size.

     

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    • Like 9
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  11. 8 hours ago, Paddy54 said:

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    Paddy, that is a great Nautilus. Generally unchanged for about 500 million years. The word nautilus is derived from the Greek word ναυτίλος nautílos "sailor", it originally referred to a type of octopus of the genus Argonauta  also known as 'paper nautilus', which were thought to use two of their arms as sails

    • Thanks 1
  12. 4 hours ago, robinjojo said:

    Yes, quartz family gemstones (opal, agate, jasper, chert, rock crystal, amethyst, citrine, Prasiolite or green quartz) have been used by humans going back millennia in the form of amulets, rings, Intaglios, seals and other objects for decorative and everyday use.  There's also flint, not a gemstone, but an important mineral in the evolution of early human history.  With a hardness of seven, on the Mohs scale of one to ten (one being talc and ten diamond) it is easy why this material was a favorite of the ancients.

    Here's my yellowish green Babylonian frog weight, called "Euphrates", created during the first half of the second millennium BC.  She is comprised of a type of agate known as dentritic agate.  The dark inclusions are manganese crystal growths that formed between the cryptocrystalline quartz crystals, extremely small, and fibrous in nature.  The inclusions have a fan or branch like shapes.

    This is a wonderful object that crosses between being an antiquity and an object of mineralogical and lapidary interest.

    I acquired this object from Harlan Berk, back in 2017.  It came out of a private American collection, where it was acquired in 1981.

    7.3 cm x 4 cm.

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    Lovely frog. We have some carved tortoises very similar. I cant find them so assume they are at our mountain home. Going there next week so will have a look.

    • Like 1
  13. 2 minutes ago, Paddy54 said:

    Our mantel is home to many animals carved from all sorts of materials.

    I love the Angel fish and barnacles. 

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    They are great Paddy. We have about 200 animal figures carved from Jade, Turquoise, Soapstone and other minerals on display in our shop.

    • Thanks 1
  14. Agate is something that fits well on this site. Ornamentally, it was used for the seal stones of Ancient Greek warriors and is part of Minoan history. Before that, to the 3rd Millennium BCE, polished agate was used  as jewellery in the Indus Valley Civilisation.

     

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    • Like 9
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  15. 29 minutes ago, Parthicus said:

    I have some cool fossils that I bought, but of course it's much more fun when you find them yourself, so I'll show those instead.  First off is a bunch of shark teeth from a famous site called Big Brook in central New Jersey.  The sharks and other marine fossils found here are from the end of the Cretaceous period (c.66 million years old).  This is a RIker mount display case of just shark teeth from the site (I've also found various fish fossils, a few types of shells, and even a couple of mosasaur teeth (an extinct group of swimming reptiles- think crocodiles with flippers instead of legs).  While these are easily recognizable as sharks, the particular species are all extinct:

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    Next is a site closer to where I live now, the Calvert Cliffs of the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.  This site is of Miocene age (c. 14 million years old).  Many of the shark teeth and other fossils are from species that still exist.  In the group below, the sharks include the extinct Snaggletooth shark, an extinct Mako relative, and an extinct Tiger, while extant (still-living) species include Tiger, Sand Tiger, Bull, Hammerhead, Six-gill, and Angel sharks.  The bottom rows also include sting ray, drumfish, barracuda, and porpoise.

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    There are no fossils found in or immediately around Baltimore City (no exposures of fossil-bearing rocks), but there are a few minerals around.  My local city park has lots of mica that weathers out after storms.  Here's a few pieces I've found (they are about 2 inches [5 cm] long):

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    An impressive display

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