I lost a day of work yesterday, but I'm happy to say it was for numismatic reasons! Last night, Robert Hoge at the ANS gave a presentation on the Massachusetts Silver in the ANS Collection. It was a PowerPoint presentation and very well done. The ANS holdings of Massachusetts Silver are extensive. After his presentation, the floor was open for questions and observations... I guess this is why these events are called "Conversations". Then Megan passed around trays of all the Massachusetts Silver for observation in the coin! Some coins were missing as they were on loan to exhibits elsewhere, but it was still an impressive sight to see. I had fun!

The event started at 5:30, so I left work earlier so I could have some fun in the library and researching my ladle. It is obvious that there is a Queen Anne Shilling in the base of the bowl on my soup ladle, but it's not so obvious that the bowl was made from a British crown as both the obverse and reverse are completely gone from the hammering to give it its shape. But the rim and edge lettering are intact, giving the regnal year of the monarch.

I tried to identify the monarch by comparing the edge lettering with different crowns in the ANS collection, to no avail. The silversmith work on the ladle had increased the diameter of the Crown's edge so that proportions are off. It might be possible to ID the monarch, but very difficult - so I gave up. It was fun to try though.