Although the general wisdom is you don’t clean coins (although I sometimes do anyway, which I will cover in a future post), cleaning Roman coins is actually a hobby in and of itself, and its one of the first things I got into when I dived down the numismatic rabbitContinue Reading
The New York Penny is a problematic term. First of all, it was called a duit, not a penny. Second, they were never made in New York. And, third, they were never even meant to be in New York. When the Dutch Republic founded New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island inContinue Reading
With all of my showcase pieces selling out last month, I’ve made a couple more. This one isn’t as over-the-top as I originally planned. I found the extra embellishments just took away from the overall piece, so I scrapped them. The Coin The coin is an Egyptian 5 piastres fromContinue Reading
My coin jewelry pieces for Reminted Jewelry have slowly been getting more complicated. The first one was never actually for sale; it’s meant for steampunk conventions (whether I’m vending or not). It’s three strings of amethyst and crystal featuring a Victorian shilling. It’s completely over-the-top, which is my usual steampunkContinue Reading
One of the things I love about art fairs is interacting with children. I’ve had very few troublesome kids. Some completely don’t care what I do, but some of them are really curious once they figure out it’s all money. Some are impressed with their age. I carry around aContinue Reading
One day, a call from my dad went something like this: I was going through your mother’s things and found this…coin? Something round. Seems old. Roman? Figured it had to be yours. It did not, in fact, belong to me. When I was a kid, my grandfather tried getting meContinue Reading
Coins are one of the most basic ways governments have historically spoken to their people. Frequently, they tell you who is in charge. In the Roman Empire, money traveled faster than news. A change of portraits on coinage was how people often learned there was a new emperor. Many monarchies,Continue Reading
I’m trying to have something to say about every emperor I have a coin for, but Valentinian I has been difficult, even though he was a pretty good emperor. He is known as the last great emperor of the West. After his death, the Western Roman Empire accelerated in itsContinue Reading