LOOSE CHANGE: AUGUST 23, 2020

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V23 2020 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 23, Number 34, August 23, 2020, Article 31

Here are some additional items in the media this week that may be of interest. -Editor

I missed this when it was published on August 4, 2020 - Elena Stolyarik of the ANS wrote about ancient myths on Roman Coins. -Editor

Many coins at the American Numismatic Society illustrate human interpretations of the universe and religious beliefs regarding human destiny. Among these are various samples from the ANS Roman collection having mythical and mythological themes.

One of the great illustrations of astral imagery from the Early Roman Empire, strongly connected with Julius Caesar's heritage, is found on a silver denarius of Augustus struck circa 19–18 BC. This coin has the Emperor's image on the obverse and the famous Caesar's Comet on the reverse (fig. 1). The comet, which appeared some four months after assassination of Julius Caesar, was interpreted by the Romans as a sign of his deification and became a powerful symbol in the political propaganda of Augustus, Caesar's great-nephew and adoptive son.

In his blog The Rational Optimist, Frank Robinson addresses that allegedly counterfeit $20 that sparked the arrest leading to the death of George Floyd. Here's an excerpt. -Editor

It all started when a store clerk called police, accusing George Floyd of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. In all the vast Floyd coverage, no one seems to have examined that $20 bill story.

Counterfeiting is actually a pretty elaborate operation, and nothing ties Floyd to a counterfeiting ring. If the bill was fake, the far likelier explanation is that Floyd himself was the innocent victim of someone else's passing it off on him.

I'd still like to know what happened to that $20 bill. Is it in an evidence locker? Has it been reviewed by the Secret Service? Where will it end up in the future? If genuine, returned to Floyd's family? Locked in an archive? A museum? A private collection? Maybe a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request could at least reveal the bill's photo or serial number. -Editor

To read the complete article, see:
George Floyd and that $20 bill (https://rationaloptimist.wordpress.com/2020/08/17/george-floyd-and-that-20-bill/)

Remember the North Carolina aquarium that gathered up 14 years worth of coins tossed into a fountain? They finally finished counting them. -Editor

After weeks of cleaning and more than 10 hours of feeding coins into a bank's coin counting machine, the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores knows how much in coins was sitting at the bottom of one of its water fixtures.

It wasn't quite in the six-figure range, as some had hoped, but the winning guess was only $1 short.

"Drumroll please … there was $8,563.71 in pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters," aquarium director Liz Baird said in a news release. Facebook user Amy Campbell had guessed $8,562.

The water fixture was installed in 2006 and became something of a wishing well over the next 14 years, the staff said.

When they finally drained the waterfall, the aquarium found 100 gallons of loose change — plus some "long-forgotten children's toys, pacifiers and military challenge coins" — sitting at the bottom.

Lonnie Burke, an aquarium security guard who helped lug the coins out, said the change was "more than a foot-and-half-deep" in some places.

Some guys have all the luck - two prospectors in Australia quickly found two monster gold nuggets. -Editor

Gold diggers in southern Australia have found two huge nuggets worth $350,000 AUD ($250,000 USD) in historic goldfields.

The pair of nuggets weigh in at a combined 3.5 kilograms (7.7 pounds) and were found on the same day near Tarnagulla in the state of Victoria, as shown on Thursday's episode of "Aussie Gold Hunters" on the Discovery Channel.

Prospectors Brent Shannon and his brother-in-law Ethan West found the nuggets in a matter of hours with the help of West's father Paul West, according to a Discovery Channel press release.

The pair had been waiting months for a permit that would allow them to start searching for gold in the area, according to the release.

Speaking of gold, Martin Kaplan passed along this NGC blog article including thoughts from multiple hobby leaders. Thanks, See the complete article online. -Editor

Gold trading above $2,000 is truly a significant milestone — one that finds the yellow metal enjoying a huge amount of well-deserved attention in the mainstream media. Many of us veteran numismatists knew this lofty summit would be achieved at some point, yet now that it is a reality, is there a new playing field and rules? Will this virtually unprecedented demand perhaps drive gold even higher and potentially out of the reach for many would-be collectors? So much excitement and so many questions.

As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on world economies, the oft referred to "safe haven" looks especially attractive. Gold is overwhelmingly the choice of many individuals and institutions seeking to preserve their savings, and they are scooping up gold bars and coins in record volume. For others — specifically we in the numismatic community — well, it just adds a bit of a higher price tag and another layer to the more bullion-related coins that we have been eyeing for our own collections.

Bibliophiles and treasure hunters alike should enjoy this story from Norfolk, England. -Editor

While most of England was on lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic, archaeologist Matt Champion was working solo at Oxburgh Hall, a moated Tudor mansion in Norfolk.

As part of the site's £6 million (roughly $7.8 million USD) roof restoration project, workers had lifted the floorboards in the estate's attic for the first time in centuries. Probing the recesses beneath the boards with gloved fingertips, Champion expected to find dirt, coins, bits of newspapers and detritus that had fallen through the cracks. Instead, he discovered a veritable treasure trove of more than 2,000 items dating as far back as the 15th century.

The cache is one of the most remarkable "underfloor" archaeological finds ever made at a National Trust property, the British heritage organization says in a statement. Together, the objects offer a rich social history of the manor's former residents.

British nobleman Sir Edmund Bedingfeld built the manor house in 1482, reports BBC News. His descendants live in the home to this day.

This story from The Virginian-Pilot is non-numismatic, but should be of interest to history buffs and colonial coin collectors. -Editor

The English colonists who settled the so-called Lost Colony before disappearing from history simply went to live with their native friends — the Croatoans of Hatteras, according to a new book.

"They were never lost," said Scott Dawson, who has researched records and dug up artifacts where the colonists lived with the Indians in the 16th century. "It was made up. The mystery is over."

A team of archaeologists, historians, botanists, geologists and others have conducted digs on small plots in Buxton and Frisco for 11 years.

Dawson and his wife, Maggie, formed the Croatoan Archaeological Society when the digs began. Mark Horton, a professor and archaeologist from England's University of Bristol leads the project. Henry Wright, professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, is an expert on native history.

Teams have found thousands of artifacts 4-6 feet below the surface that show a mix of English and Indian life. Parts of swords and guns are in the same layer of soil as Indian pottery and arrowheads.

The evidence shows the colony left Roanoke Island with the friendly Croatoans to settle on Hatteras Island. They thrived, ate well, had mixed families and endured for generations. More than a century later, explorer John Lawson found natives with blue eyes who recounted they had ancestors who could "speak out of a book," Lawson wrote.

The Toledo Blade reported that coin dealer Tom Noe, recently released from prison, plans to marry a former prison guard. -Editor

Tom Noe, the Coingate figure recently released from prison, is preparing to wed a former guard who worked at the southern Ohio state prison where he was once incarcerated.

Noe, 66, applied Aug. 10 for a marriage license in Vinton County where his bride-to-be, Tammy L. Mitchell, 51, resides in Zaleski. She worked as a general activity therapist and then correctional officer at the Hocking Correctional Facility near Nelsonville, Ohio from 2004 until December, 2015.

After completing less than 12 years of an 18-year state sentence on theft and racketeering charges, Noe's sentence was commuted by Gov. Mike DeWine and he walked out of prison April 21 to return to the Toledo area. The release was primarily tied to the spread of coronavirus at Marion Correctional Institution, where he was imprisoned at the time, and came despite a unanimous recommendation from the Ohio Parole Board that he not be granted clemency.

Noe had been convicted of 29 charges, 25 of them felonies, for stealing $13.7 million from two rare-coin investment funds totaling $50 million that he managed on behalf of the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, the state-run insurance fund for injured workers.

To read the complete article, see:
Noe gets license to marry former prison guard (https://www.toledoblade.com/local/courts/2020/08/18/tom-noe-gets-license-to-marry-former-prison-guard/stories/20200817108)