I've been gone a while; been ill

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

It's certainly been a lousy February.  I evidently got a bad sinus infection and my optic nerve became inflamed in one eye. After a frustrating week of phone tag with the eye institute, (who perpetually claimed not to have the referral) I finally got in.  Other than examining me and scheduling an MRI to make sure that it wasn't a tumor or MS causing the swelling (and to run up the medical bill), the doc pretty much did diddly squat for me, other than telling me that this condition usually heals on its own, even though I told him about the swelling on the right side of my face and family history with sinuses.  (My dad even had pretty much the same incident with his eye, back in the '80's).  After trying Benadryl to no avail (although it worked like a charm when I had an adverse reaction to a certain type of antibiotic), I asked a co-worker with sinus problems what to do.  Zyrtek worked to take down the swelling in my face and the healing started.

I wasn't able to do much at first, with checking here.  I had to stay with my parents temporarily, for transportation reasons.  The day that we went downtown to the coin shop was the day things started to turn around.  We got two coins, a Titus Sestertius (Sear RCV 2463, old RIC 614 (this type: https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/sear5/s2463.html .  and my first English hammered coin, an inexpensive halfpenny attributed to Edward II.  I have no English hammered references, but wildwinds shows no halfpenny type for Edward II.

However, comparing Edward II and III's coinage, the style seems more like the pictures of Edward II.  The only inscription which is visible is on the reverse, from the 9'oclock to midnight section of the long cross.  I'm not able to make out what it says, it's worn and I only have one good eye currently, but the lettering is very large.  There's also a small, circular beaded border around the bust.  There's no size or weight given (and no reference number), but I guesstimate the coin is about 16 mm.  I think it's this type: (wildwinds). The 'DON' looks very much like what I'm seeing.

 

Per the coin, maybe they just screwed up and it's a smaller penny?  There also might be a chip at around 6 to 8 on the obverse (but it's difficult to tell which side is up on this example.

Let's hope that these two coins will bring good luck.  My Titus example is perhaps in Fine condition with some surface pits.  If I had to guess, it's a BD survivor (the one pit has that purply color).

I still have a ways to go and my dad says that it'll be a gradual process.  Still, I've seen much improvement since Thursday.

I'm eternally grateful to my parents for all their help but I'm also very excited about returning home later this week.  I'll have to have faith that my eye will make a full recovery, but the steady incremental improvement is promising and my morale has improved tremendously since last week.  Although I missed the independence of being home, family time has decreased my stress level exponentially and also caused me to appreciate things more.

I'm also hoping that the MRI will turn up nothing.  My dad said he had to go through a lower tech equivalent back then.  I have a headache about once every two or three years, blood in my nose is a great rarity, and there's no pain.  I also don't have muscle weakness.  If anybody here's had something like I did, please pm me.

I hope I'm not being a big baby and boring you all.  There's many people worse off than I.  However, for someone who almost never gets sick (and not having a primary physician caused problems as well - although my boss gave me the name of her doctor and he's in an ideal location!), this has been the worst crisis of my life so far.  With me, it seems like something bad happens in February and March is usually the resolution month.  

I also haven't been able to participate with posting coins.  Even though I have data backups with me, it'd be more trouble than it's worth to dig them out.

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by Nerosmyfavorite68

[Roman Collector]

OMG, @Nerosmyfavorite68! I'm sorry to hear of your health problems. Get well soon! Here are coins depicting lots of healing deities!

Here's to a speedy and complete recovery:


Troas, Alexandria, 3rd-2nd c. BC.
Greek Æ 13.5 mm, 2.20 g, 11 h.
Obv: Laureate head of Apollo, right.
Rev: AΛEΞAN above horse grazing left, monogram beneath, thunderbolt in exergue.
Refs: Sear 4028; BMC 17.10,18-20; SNG Cop 81-82; SNG von Aulock 7546.


Severus Alexander, AD 222-235.
Roman Provincial Æ 27.2 mm, 8.75 g, 6 h.
Marcianopolis, Moesia Inferior, Legate Um(brius?) Tereventinus, AD 226-227.
Obv: AVT K M AVP CEVH AΛEZANΔPOC, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: HΓ ȢM TEPEBENTINOV MAPKIANOΠOΛIT-ΩN, Asklepios standing facing, head left, holding serpent staff.
Refs: AMNG I 1027; Moushmov 696; Varbanov 1685 (same dies).


Gordian III, with Tranquillina, A.D. 238-244
Roman provincial AE 4.5 assaria, 12.80 g, 28.2 mm, 7 h.
Moesia Inferior, Tomis, A.D. 241-244.
Obv: AVT K M ANTΩNIOC ΓΟΡΔΙΑΝΟC // CABINIA TPA / NKVΛΛINA, confronted laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Gordian right and diademed, draped bust of Tranquillina left.
Rev: MHTPOΠON-TOV TOMEΩC, Hygieia standing right, feeding serpent from patera; Δ< (ligate) in lower left field.
Refs: AMNG I (Pick) 3534.


Elagabalus, AD 218-222.
Roman provincial Æ assarion, 2.36 g, 16.1 mm, 12 h.
Moesia Inferior, Marcianopolis, AD 218-222.
Obv: ΑVΤ Κ Μ ΑVΡ ΑΝΤΩΝΙΝΟC, laureate head, right.
Rev: ΜΑΡΚΙΑΝΟΠΟΛΙΤΩΝ, Telesphoros standing facing, wearing hooded cloak.
Refs: AMNG I 910; Varbanov 1421-22; Moushmov 652; SNG Budapest 191.

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Thanks for the well-wishes!

It also was a huge morale-booster to bring my Grace Internet radio.

Barring setbacks I'll be at home by this weekend.  The improvements are slow but steady.  The bum eye is trying to focus in on text now.  And we can only really count from Thursday night, when we figured out the right medicine.

I forgot to add that the proprietor of the coin store is very nice and in addition to giving us a deal on the two coins, he also threw in a couple of badly-needed coin boxes.

That particular store focuses primarily upon U.S. coins. There's usually only 2 or 3 trays of medieval and ancient.

Assuming I get well, I guess the next project will be figuring out why my PC intermittently freezes. It's an AMD with 128 gig of Corsair RAM.  I doubt it's a virus.  When it does freeze, it's windows explorer which goes wonky and the restart button won't work.  Although there were no freezes for a year and a half after building it.  I suspect the culprit is the Corsair RAM (a lot of horror stories online, I updated the firmware which briefly alleviated the problems).  The clock has also had problems, even from the inception of the PC.  I'd have to sync it when I turn on the pc.  The clock is the second possible culprit.  The third is that I disabled automatic Winblows 10 updates.  Although I've manually updated (and the updates haven't had positive results - one even briefly wreaked havoc with the soundcard).  I was able to disable it with a workaround that I found on youtube.  I checked the setting that I had a metered connection and not to check on  a metered connection.  When I get home, I'll turn on the dreaded updates.   When it started doing it, the freezes would be almost like clockwork at around the same time on the same day.  However, I've been turning off the PC lately because I anticipated being gone from home.  Last time I started from a cold start, the clock worked perfectly, no syncing.  I usually hit restart.  The Windows updates now are mainly just security, I'm told.

Next time I'll go back to Intel and I will NOT be using Corsair RAM and I'll be avoiding RGB RAM.  The innards all have RGB. Also PM me if you have any ideas about this problem, please.

 

[John Conduitt]

Glad you're on the mend.

The Edward coin says:
EDWAR R ANGL DNS HyB
CIVITAS LONDON

It's from the London mint. 16mm is about right for a halfpenny. The legend and crown make it Class 10ab (2), 1301-1305, which is Edward I (Spink 1437).

Edited March 1, 2023 by John Conduitt

[CPK]

Sorry to hear of your troubles @Nerosmyfavorite68! Hope you have a speedy recovery!

Nice coin, much nicer than my only hammered English coin (silver penny of Elizabeth I.)

Any photos of the Titus sestertius?

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Thanks for the good wishes!

The photo is of the wildwinds example, not my decrepit example.  I had meant to post the URL but Microsoft edge is annoying about how it copies URLs.   No, per the Titus.  I have problems with coin photography and it's one of those hard to photograph dark coins.  The coins were a real morale booster and I picked out the only Sestertius there.  Happily, most of the coins there were raw coins this time.  There was a super nice slabbed Athenian owl, but it was $1500 (although probably 2-or three hundred would have been knocked off, I thought that was a bit much.  The owner was quite nice to us and I was pleased to know that my guess of what dealer was the supplier was correct.

There was a nice (non-slabbed) Caligula As, list price $225 (probably $180 after discount), but I wasn't sure if I had the type.  That was about the nicest coin, other than the owl, and the nicest of the reasonably priced ones.

I had been wanting an English hammered coin, so I was pleased with having an inexpensive example.  The two types that I want are Henry VIII's facing bust type and an Oliver Cromwell portrait.

If the pickings had been slimmer, I would have went with the Flavius Victor, to fill a hole in the collection.

 

[John Conduitt]

33 minutes ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

Thanks for the good wishes!

The photo is of the wildwinds example, not my decrepit example.  I had meant to post the URL but Microsoft edge is annoying about how it copies URLs.   

I had been wanting an English hammered coin, so I was pleased with having an inexpensive example.  The two types that I want are Henry VIII's facing bust type and an Oliver Cromwell portrait.

Ok fair enough 🤣 Although I think that demonstrates you have no chance of identifying it without getting the correct obverse legend and the ID of the crown, as well as the denomination (best determined by the weight). The portraits are more or less the same for the three Edwards, and the different legends and elements appear for each of them in some form, so the combination is important. Edward II is actually not that common. Way, way cheaper, though, than a Cromwell portrait.

Edited March 1, 2023 by John Conduitt

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Yes, I'll have to focus on recovering before spending money on coins.  I just don't think there is much, if any, legend left on the Edward II.  That probably explains the lack of any reference.  The piece is in rather grotty shape.  Being down one eye also didn't help.  I had to guess which side was up on the obverse.   

Coin purchases are on hold until I recover.

[Prieure de Sion]

8 hours ago, Roman Collector said:

Here's to a speedy and complete recovery:

All coins of emperors who were killed young. What examples!
 

😂😂😂

Sorry about that - I had to write this.

[Prieure de Sion]

8 hours ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

It's certainly been a lousy February.  I evidently got a bad sinus infection and my optic nerve became inflamed in one eye.

I know those days and weeks when you might also despair and everything collapses on you. I wish you with all my heart good and speedy recovery! 

And maybe it helps you to stop by here from time to time - even if it only helps to get other thoughts now and then.

Again all the best and that everything turns to the good.

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Although the inflamed optic nerve did take 75% of the sight in one eye at the worst point, it is slowly but steadily improving.  I can at least function relatively normally, even now. It is true; the other eye compensates.  I'm in immensely better shape mentally than I was at this time last week.

The medical practice sure let me down, however.  I had to experiment and find my own medicine.

My dad, who had almost the exact same thing long ago said that it will be a slow but steady process.  The eye doctor also said that most get 'most sight back and some get all. It heals on its own, once the swelling stopped.  Getting the swelling stopped was the big thing.  That didn't happen until Thursday.

 

[kevikens]

Looking at the Seaby publication I see that it does list a half penny for Edward II (Seaby 1472,  Coins of England and the UK ), Weighing the coin should settle the matter. The silver penny of his reign should be close to 22 grains) and a half penny of about half that weight. There are about 15.4 gains to a gram.

Edited March 1, 2023 by kevikens
New info found

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Ok.  I don't have a scale, at the moment.  It's one of the things I cheaped out on.  Except in cases like this, the dealer weighs the coin, anyway.

I'm pretty good about estimating size.  I'd say it's about 16mm.

I know very little about English hammered, but aren't most of them found like Byzantine coins, really worn?  If I were to give mine a grade, it'd be G/VG. The coin was more of a morale booster than anything else.

I haven't looked inside the coin boxes, but I think there are 'holders' (probably flips) inside.  I may or may not be able to use those.  The old PVC ones do come in handy for gold.  I don't like the rigid ones for that. If it's those plastic hard holders, that'd be useless.  However, the boxes are what I needed.  Three extra boxes will last me a few years.

My morale is high and I've been steadily improving each day.  The weather's been exceptionally good for late Feb.-early March.

 

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by Nerosmyfavorite68

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

My flips and gloves are 30 miles away, but here's the best photo I could manage of the Edward.

What I think is going on; it's heavily clipped.  Could it be a heavily clipped penny?  However, the "DON" on the reverse isn't obliterated.  Or is it just a clipped halfpenny?

 

 

 

 

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

While better than my normal photos, they aren't all that great.  Does the crown yield any clues?

 

That would have to be an awful amount of clipping to have been a penny.  Do you think it's a clipped halfpenny?

 

[AETHER]

Feel better sir!

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

It's nice to be home!  I should now be able to access my coin images.

 

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

There's been slow but sure improvement in my right eye. I was feeling good enough to make a coin purchase today.  I also filled a hole, Magnentius, as a throw-in.

[John Conduitt]

On 3/1/2023 at 8:25 PM, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

My flips and gloves are 30 miles away, but here's the best photo I could manage of the Edward.What I think is going on; it's heavily clipped.  Could it be a heavily clipped penny?  However, the "DON" on the reverse isn't obliterated.  Or is it just a clipped halfpenny?

Quite a lot has happened to it. Clipped and perhaps chipped too.

The reverse doesn't usually tell you much, but this one does. The N in DON is Lombardic, which means it is probably a later coin. More interestingly, the ends of the cross are split. That is not something you see on Edwardian coins. That is the design of a Henry VIII 1st coinage halfpenny.

Edited March 4, 2023 by John Conduitt

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Ah, thanks much!

It's a little bit disappointing that it's not an Edward II, but it's nice that my crappy picture yielded some clues.

However, the coin's main purposes were to get me in the door of English hammered, and as a morale booster.  I didn't expect it to be much - it was one of the cheapest coins in the ancient trays. 

Now that I'm home I can free it from its cardboard and put it into a flip.  It's a dark coin and slightly more visible under strong light.  I think I graded it aVG/VG (not counting the clipping and possible chip).

The day of the coin store was when my recovery started.

Thanks much for your help!

About how much is a halfway decent (like good fine) silver, facing bust of Henry VIII?  Also, around what does an oliver Cromwell in F-VF go for?  I would assume a few hundred for Cromwell.  Even though I had sympathies for the king, Cromwell is one of my favorite figures of English history.

P.S.  I just purchased a Carausius with an unusually nice patina today (mail order).

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Are there any sites with pictures and descriptions?  Wildwinds seems to be a bit spotty for English hammered?

[John Conduitt]

22 minutes ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

Ah, thanks much!

It's a little bit disappointing that it's not an Edward II, but it's nice that my crappy picture yielded some clues.

However, the coin's main purposes were to get me in the door of English hammered, and as a morale booster.  I didn't expect it to be much - it was one of the cheapest coins in the ancient trays. 

Now that I'm home I can free it from its cardboard and put it into a flip.  It's a dark coin and slightly more visible under strong light.  I think I graded it aVG/VG (not counting the clipping and possible chip).

The day of the coin store was when my recovery started.

Thanks much for your help!

About how much is a halfway decent (like good fine) silver, facing bust of Henry VIII?  Also, around what does an oliver Cromwell in F-VF go for?  I would assume a few hundred for Cromwell.  Even though I had sympathies for the king, Cromwell is one of my favorite figures of English history.

P.S.  I just purchased a Carausius with an unusually nice patina today (mail order).

Henry VIII halfpennies are usually in that sort of condition. Much like Edwardian halfpennies. Neither are worth a huge amount like that - a few tens of dollars. The nice ones suddenly get into the hundreds because so few are nice. Having said that, you can get perfectly acceptable Edward I coins for well under $100.

Oliver Cromwell portrait coins were technically not circulation coins, because he died while they were experimenting with the design. So you don't get many below XF and you are talking thousands for one of those, if you can avoid all the fakes (you would not buy one from eBay, or even a trustworthy seller who didn't know them well). Even the non-portrait shillings and sixpences from the Commonwealth are hundreds of dollars. The only cheap coins from that period are the portraitless, anepigraphic pennies and halfgroats, but you're still looking at $100 plus for anything but the worst coins.

Carausius is quite tricky to get in good condition. He has some great portraits.

[John Conduitt]

Just now, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

Are there any sites with pictures and descriptions?  Wildwinds seems to be a bit spotty for English hammered?

Not that cover the whole period. Rod Blunt's website is far and away the best for identifying certain coins from Henry II to Edward III, but is patchy on some denominations. You might even use Numista but it's slowly being built, like Wildwinds. Otherwise, you can get Spink's 'Coins of England 2022 pre-decimal edition' for about $30. It lists all the coins, without the detail of Rod Blunt's website, although you need good eyesight to see some of the photos.

[DonnaML]

23 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

 Otherwise, you can get Spink's 'Coins of England 2022 pre-decimal edition' for about $30. It lists all the coins, without the detail of Rod Blunt's website, although you need good eyesight to see some of the photos.

You can also buy it from Spink as a downloadable pdf for 23 GBP, which of course would allow you to enlarge the photos. See https://spinkbooks.com/products/coins-of-england-the-united-kingdom-2023-pre-decimal-issues-downloadable-pdf .

I bought the two Spink catalogs by Maurice Bull covering English gold and silver coinage since 1649, respectively, as pdfs. 

Edited March 4, 2023 by DonnaML

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

My MRI came out negative for cancer or MS!  My coworkers were amazed when I told them about the lack of care I received from 'Dr. Nick' (I nicknamed him after the Simpsons' character).  He did literally nothing for me (not even antibiotics) and brushed off my assertion that half my face was swollen and I said there was pressure on my eye (even though the nurse noticed the massive pressure differences through her measurements).  I had to find my own cure to the swelling.

It was probably a bad sinus infection, which caused the optic nerve to inflame.  I had to find my own medicine.  I have a long way to go, but the vision is slowly coming back in my bad eye.  Even Dr. Nick said that it would heal on its own, once the swelling was fixed (I had to fix it myself).  Pretty sad, considering I went to a specialist institution.

I'll just have to have faith that it heals.  My dad had the exact same thing, way back when.  He said it takes a while.

It's slow, but there is steady improvement, day by day.

As celebration, I'll order myself a coin!