Look what I found in my garage!

[Andrew McCabe]

Whilst clearing out my garage of old junk this weekend in preparation for a house move, on emptying a box that contained other material I'd last seen in the 1990s (such as 5 inch floppy discs), I came across the below pictured bag of coins, which I poured out on a cardboard box and snapped in situ. There are a bunch of WRL copies and other museum repros, but there are also a great many very interesting ancient and modern coins.

What have I got, and what on earth will I do with them!!!

NB, unlike in most "gold found!!!" coin bags, that thing that looks like a gold guinea is not in fact a "Good Old Times" brass gaming token, but looks and feels to me as if it's a real 1787 gold guinea. I've a vague recollection of owning such a coin about 30 years ago but I really assumed that I'd sold it, and everything else in the bag, somewhere in the 1980s.

[Molinari]

That's a pleasant surprise.  Altogether you could get a really nice coin if you sold them.  I hope for your sake the gold is real!

[Mat]

Nice cache

[Jay GT4]

Andrew your stories always make me smile.  Did you find an EID MAR in there to replace the one you sold? 

[Andrew McCabe]

Andrew your stories always make me smile.  Did you find an EID MAR in there to replace the one you sold?  

Not yet, the coins are back in the bag so I've only this photo to go on. I can see a couple of nice denarii of Trajan and quite a few 1st-2nd c AD bronzes, other ancients range from Macedonian to Sasanian. The highlights seem to be the modern silver, in fact nearly all the silver-colour coins are silver, or proof. There's an attractive 1824 shilling, actually a very rare date (at 10pm in the pic), an 1813 Irish halfcrown (centre of pic with Hibernia seated), various Victorians, misc. crowns of the world in silver. Even the wholly modern types, the Juliana guilder, the William Tell 5 Fr, the 5 DM, the Kennedy half (appears in hand to be proof), and the wheat sower franc, are all silver examples of types usually seen in Cu-Ni, and several of the Elizabeth decimals are proofs e.g. the 5p/10p at 1pm. So much for handling modern proofs with soft gloves, some bag marks will do them no harm at all. Quite how this nice bag escaped a sale process decades ago escapes me. I do recognise all the coins as vestiges of my teenage collecting interest, but really assumed all were gone long ago as I've vague recollections of a couple of Coin Fair sale transactions involving modern silver and ancient bronzes.

[David Atherton]

I had a fairly similar thing happen to me as well recently. While cleaning out a storage closet I came across a box which held some bric a brac from my childhood. To my surprise an army pouch of WWII era coins from Europe was tucked away at the bottom of the box. The coins were given to me by a lady friend of my mother's when I was 12 or 13 years old. From what I understand the woman's husband toured most of Europe during WWII as a US service man and collected these coins as cheap souvenirs. I think I may have looked at them once or twice when I was a kid. Unappreciated at the time they were packed in the box while I was away at college. The pouch contains British, German, Italian, and French coins, with a whole lot of coins from other countries thrown in. Presently they are stored in a ceramic dish on my study desk and are no longer forgotten. I wish my mother's kind friend was still alive so I could tell her how much they are appreciated now. Apparently she saw a budding interest in me which I would not fully realise for many years.

[Arados]

With your imminent relocation i wonder what other goodies you will find lurking around in your garage or elsewhere Andrew ?

[Andrew McCabe]

With your imminent relocation i wonder what other goodies you will find lurking around in your garage or elsewhere Andrew ?

A second copy of Riccio's book on Roman Republican coinage from the 1840s also turned up. An album with photos of my collection as it was in the mid 1990s (some rather good coins, and good photos too, all pre digital celluloid film). The spare charger with a US plug for the camera I use for my coin photos. An old and good loupe. A wad of Notgeld banknotes from 1923. A bag of aes rude that someone gave me to catalogue and that I'd mislaid. Unpacking my apartment is like disassembling a Russian doll. One never knows what's going to be in the centre.

Somewhere I've a 5 pound unmarked aes rude bar. Picture below. I know it's somewhere here. No one would want this brick:



Breaking news. I've just found a set of boxes containing a Polaroid close-up macro camera with annular flash light and a custom made stand set up to take exactly 1:1 black and white photos of both sides of a coin against black backgrounds. This I recall was standard coin dealer equipment in the 1980s and 1990s. Shortly after I bought it for the very steep price of £700, digital photography was invented and I put it away. Of no current use or value, I've considered chucking it in past house moves but couldn't bear to do so. I spent about 15 minutes trying to find a website or google image that illustrates the setup but it's evidently a very rare camera, or at least rare in this configuration. It might make for an interesting antique 20th century sculpture if set up as a display item! The below EID MAR photo was taken with this camera:

[Jay GT4]

Andrew, even though it's little more than a slug.... that coin is AWESOME! 

[Arados]

Call me strange but i particular like your rude bar Andrew, do you remember if your brick had any depictions on it and was it possibly found in a votive deposit, additionally do you have any idea of the date ?

P.S No obligations Andrew, i´m sure you are very busy at the moment. I just thought that it would be interesting to find out more about aes rude bars.

Arados

[Sosius]

I bet you find some great stuff at the bottom of your sock drawer too!   

[Meepzorp]

Hi Andrew,

Maybe you should consign that extra copy of Riccio's book on RR coins to an auction house in Italy or San Marino. In the book section of this forum, I remember briefly discussing that book with you - because I have a copy. I bought mine from a dealer in San Marino several years ago. It's an interesting book.

Meepzorp

[Meepzorp]

Andrew, even though it's little more than a slug.... that coin is AWESOME! 

Hi Andrew and Jay,

I agree. 

Meepzorp

[Meepzorp]

I bet you find some great stuff at the bottom of your sock drawer too!

Hi Sosius,

You just have to hope that it isn't moving.

Meepzorp

[Meepzorp]

I bet you find some great stuff at the bottom of your sock drawer too!

Hi Sosius,

If it is moving, you have to hope that it doesn't bite.

Meepzorp

[Jay GT4]

Hey Meep.  I notice you always have seperate replies for seperate quotes.  Not sure if you know this but you can insert multiple quotes from different users into one post.  When you hit reply scroll down to the posts past the Message box and press "insert quote" from the top right.  You can then edit parts you don't want to quote and then type a response after the quote.  You can then repeat for other posts you want to quote and reply to. You just keep moving down the line.  When you're done click "POST".

Just a tip in case you didn't know!