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
Wanted: Roman Emperor. Lifetime position. Unlimited benefits. Good grasp of military budgets essential. People skills encouraged. Good chance of assassination. Apply today! For all the power of the Roman emperors, they had a dismal survival rate. Only about 30% died of natural causes. Everyone else died of assassination, warfare, orContinue Reading
BuzzFeed recently uncovered an old video of now-presidential hopeful Ben Carson expressing the belief that ancient Egyptian pyramids were granaries rather than the archeologically accepted explanation of them being tombs. When asked, Carson acknowledged that he still holds this belief. “My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramidsContinue Reading
I would have loved to have been in the programming meeting at Spike TV the day the miniseries Tut was conceived. I envision some very brave visionary suggesting that what the network really needed to round out its schedule of Cops, Jail, and World’s Wildest Police Videos was a historicalContinue Reading
PBS is currently airing the six-part drama Wolf Hall, originally created for BBC2. It’s set during the reign of the Tudor king Henry VIII, a popular topic of British historical dramas, but with a unique focus. Rather than focusing on Henry himself, the focus is on Thomas Cromwell, a middle-classContinue Reading
Let’s take history back from the historians. This is the message of History for All by Hashtag History. Now, I’ve got nothing against popular culture history, so long as it bears some resemblance to actual history (which is why I can enjoy The Tudors but not Sleepy Hollow, for example). Continue Reading
If you’re into dinosaurs. you probably know that the Brontosaurus does not officially exist. At some point in time, it was decided that skeletons labeled brontosaurs were really skeletons of apatosaurs. You likely weren’t told this debacle happened all the way back in 1903 in the wake of the GreatContinue Reading
More than two years after his remains were identified and 530 years after his death, King Richard III of England will be laid to rest (again) on March 26. Historical Significance of Richard III’s Burial This is quite likely the last burial of an English king, as modern monarchs areContinue Reading
This is my favorite WTF image in a long time. Dating from 1555, it’s a Renaissance image. I don’t officially know the story behind it, but there’s a good discussion of it on Reddit. Says sl99: ‘Flaisch macht Flaisch’ is from the old German proverb ‘Fleisch macht Fleisch, fisch machtContinue Reading