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I obtained my PhD - and a few coins

Roerbakmix

By Roerbakmix
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Roerbakmix

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Last week, on the 10th of October, I defended my PhD thesis in clinical epidemiology / vascular medicine. It was a fantastic day, and I enjoyed every single moment of it. To distract me a bit from the coming defense, I bought a few coins, but also a very neat coin cabinet. 

First, the cabinet. I considered buying a custom-made cabinet from Zecchi (Florance, Italy), but shipping was rather expensive. So, for about two years or so, I was looking for a second hand cabinet with little success until last August when this nice Italian cabinet was offered:WhatsAppImage2024-07-24at22_44_14.jpeg.2b5013b0c5d6e0a61ffea38434cb0885.jpeg 

It was sold by a 'Carla Pesenti' from Albino, Italy to the Dutch person from whom I bought it. It is signed with

P.F.

MMXXII

95

image.jpeg.0e301e49da9221b4983c3c9f743711c2.jpeg

... but so far, I haven't been able to find the maker. The cabinet is made of Mahogany and Walnut, at least, that's what a patient of mine told me when I showed him the photo's (before his retirement, he worked as an antique furniture restorer and dealer). 

Obviously, this cabinet had to be filled with my sceatta's. There are four drawers with 48 3x3 cm square holes, 6 drawers with 20 5x5 cm holes, and deep drawer for artifacts.  It's amazing how much cooler my collection looks in this cabinet, see for example one of the four sceatta drawers:

image.jpeg.1b9a8b22b7bec2efd12e76098858fd17.jpeg

... it looks cool both for gold coins:

image.jpeg.8dbb5f26f85ae64fbc05590469561f41.jpeg

... as well objects with a deep-black patina (though the photo makes it look browner than it is in reality):

image.jpeg.4adf8988c8a79efb784b1499e9904047.jpeg

Anyway, I bought a few nice coins as well:

#1 This cool series Q IE sceatta illustrates what makes sceattas so cool: a very rudimentary design.

image.jpeg.10d2bc0fd6d47d27460a298d3f19436f.jpeg

EARLY MEDIEVAL, Anonymous. Denomination: AR Sceatta (Series QIE), minted: ;
Obv: Crude diademend head to the right, cross and pellets before
Rev: Fantastic bird to the left, cross before, pellets behind.
Weight: 0g; Ø: mm. Catalogue: . Provenance: Ex. M. Kerr, who found it in march 2023; acq.: 09-2024
Find location: Bourne, Lincolnshire Published: EMC 2024.0343.
 

This coin was offered by a metal detectorist in the UK who I helped identifying his Saxon finds - he was so kind as to offer it to me first. When I studied it, I discovered only one other example, which is in the collection by @Nap:

Lot nuber 1230

At first, I thought it was only a reverse die match, with a very similar obverse. But looking at the obverse with more attention, I found out that the obverse of @Nap's coin was actually made by a re-cut obverse die. I discussed this with Martin Allen from EMC and Tony Abramson; neither of them know of another example from the sceatta coinage where a die has been re-cut. So - pretty cool. Now that I have a bit more time, I might write down a short blog for a numismatic journal such as BNS. 

#2 a coin that was part of a hoard. image.jpeg.5145eb88811568b443e2b4a2d584576d.jpeg

This series H sceatta is one of the more common varieties of series H. It was part of a two-coin hoard, found in England (the registration in PAS is still pending, somehow, but the coins were returned to the sender. He showed me the treasure report, so I have no reason to doubt him). What's cool is that the obverse shows the imprint of the other coin in a thick layer of brown, green and black patina. I will obviously not clean this! 

#3 a rare merovingian denier.image.jpeg.7b5ee6a9eae16d4ed6fe9589c5dfffff.jpegMerovingian coinage is still very much obscured to the collector: nearly all reference works are in French and published in the late 19th or early 20th century. A constant number of finds is auctioned by the French auction houses who do a great job in attributing them. This coin was offered to me by a French collector, who tried to ID it but couldn't find it in the reference works. I, by chance, immediately recognized it as a few days prior, one of the largest Merovingian collections was sold by a Swiss auction house. It listed two identical (but not die-identical) examples which sold for crazy money (1300 CHF and 470 CHF) as they were listed as 'probably unique'. This is probably the third example now known. I couldn't find it in the standard reference works, but found a two other examples with the same reverse. 

image.jpeg.98d0066ed5442ee59619d9c44a3abe78.jpeg

 

(I'll continue this thread later!)

Best!

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Hrefn Veteran

Hrefn

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11 hours ago, Ocatarinetabellatchitchix said:

Congratulations for the new PhD. With you and Jean Claude ( @Qcumbor ), we have at least two doctors here on NF…….

There is at least another.image.jpeg.5c85162341ba584487c092024698579b.jpeg Hearty congratulations, @Roerbakmix.  And great coins.

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Tejas Veteran

Tejas

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Congratulations on both the PhD and the nice cabinet. This reminded me that it will be 25 years next year since I obtained my PhD. The day after the defence of my thesis I went to Baldwin‘s and bought myself a Sceatta as a little reward. Unfortunately, the coin was stolen in a burglary a couple of years later.

Edited by Tejas
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Roerbakmix Rising Star

Roerbakmix

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Thank you all for the kind comments! 

On 10/19/2024 at 2:48 AM, Ocatarinetabellatchitchix said:

Congratulations for the new PhD. With you and Jean Claude ( @Qcumbor ), we have at least two doctors here on NF. Talking about medicine, lately I am afflicted by persistent itching in places that I do not wish to name on this forum. Can you help me please? I can send you photos by PM if possible. Thanks in advance.

@Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, also thank you for the very detailed pictures. Impressive, it's quite severe! As discussed, is likely the because of your intensive 'usage' in combination with poor hygiene 🙂 

What a pity, @Tejas, that your PhD-related sceatta has been stolen. Hope it might turn op. Do you have pictures of it?

 

Edited by Roerbakmix
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Tejas Veteran

Tejas

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15 hours ago, Roerbakmix said:

Thank you all for the kind comments! 

@Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, also thank you for the very detailed pictures. Impressive, it's quite severe! As discussed, is likely the because of your intensive 'usage' in combination with poor hygiene 🙂 

What a pity, @Tejas, that your PhD-related sceatta has been stolen. Hope it might turn op. Do you have pictures of it?

 

Nope, this one is gone for good. I had pictures of other coins which were stolen and I got a lot of them back. One batch came to the market excatly 10 years after the burglary. They were offered to a Paris auction house by a man from Morocco. The auction house impounded the coins and I got them back. One coin a Suevian solidus turned up at another Paris auction house, but the auction house (Bourgey) refused to act and the coin was sold on and dissappeared again. 

Suevic solidus in the name of Honorius (Stolen coin) - Münzen (colleconline.com)

Edited by Tejas
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