WildIdea's reflections on 2021 additions
WildIdea
Posts: 1,877 ✭✭✭✭✭
Greetings friends, as 2021 comes to a close I'm naturally reflecting on the year. Like others here, I'm feeling like sharing my current thoughts as a way to help process my feelings around my involvement in collecting.
At first I felt like some of the other year end reports were so in-depth that I would never have the time to add mine. That my year was so prolific that I couldn't invest the time to cover all my additions. That my relationships around collecting leveled up beyond expectation and description! Then it dawned on me that I don't have to cover everything and decide to just show 3. Not necessarily my favorite, the most valuable or noteworthy. Just 3 that are fun to talk about publicly. Some pieces I like to just keep private for me, is that weird? Anyway, before I get to those, I'd like to precursor with a bit of what happened to me around pandemic that changed my actions and mindset around collecting....
Sometime before the pandemic virus was landing on US soil and catching our attention here in early 2020, I was actively collecting medallic art from WWI adding a piece pretty regularly. I have been actively buying and selling for the last 20 plus years and when the pandemic had my businesses closed 7 weeks, I naturally slammed my wallet shut on frivoulus spending. In this period I was evaluating my spending habits and even after we were back to work production I was on a self imposed holiday from buying coins for what I hoped would be a year, just to see if I could do it. I was doing well and at times, I would see simply KILLER pieces offered that I would normally have snatched up, only to watch them sell just to see what it felt like. It wasn't easy. I was doing well not buying, feeling that it more mature to not buy something than to actually indulge. I found the feeling to be as cool or nicer even than spending and adding. If I ever felt I was missing something in my life collection wise, I could always just get out what I already owned and bond with that more. I gave a lot of other topics attention too and I felt as in control as ever in my collecting........Then around 7 months in I had a slip. An early bird email pops in my phone that's holding a piece on my top 10 buy on sight lists. I thought if it's under 500 I'm buying it! was 325.00 and I was off the wagon....... These medals are usually nicer in hand and don't make it better when I see them for the first time, my appetite grows the more I see in hand. Then I just started allowing myself to buy again. Pandemic has basically taught me to live a bit more for the here and now. To take opportunities that are in front of you. Mix that with basically being grateful to be alive and working like crazy with nowhere really to go, I just jumped in the collecting current and let me take me where it will. Of note, one I passed on I was able to buy when it was offered again by another dealer a year later....meant to be. Although I wasn't able to make a year without buying, I feel it was a good exercise and recommend the practice.
I was really crushing it this year and would love to get into all my newps, but will just get into three, the first wasn't going to be on the list at all. Purchased and in hand are two different things to me and this piece showed up on on Dec 23, so 2021 it is. I've only known of this piece in manuals and online pictures, never seen offered and kinda a dream coin. Walther Eberbach pieces are a core for me and they don't often show up for sale. Britannia Rules the Waves showed up overseas in a group of Eberbach offerings and had me flipping out! It's somewhat outside the Totentanz series a bit larger at 85 MM, it's a monster piece. Literally with British naval power depicted as an drooling monster taken on by a miniature Sigfreid (Germany), the reverse showing an undersea boat as the super weapon that could take on and neutralize the monumental forces.
I had good solid bids on the whole run of Eberbach that I didn't own and was still getting outbid, so my strategy changed and I pulled off several and focused on this one piece. I noticed that this piece comes with a different variety on the reverse as shown in my Art of Devastation manual. I would own them both if I could, but I like this version if I had to choose. The simpler incuse submarine boat version is also on another W.E. medal. It appears the casting facility was adept at repeating parts of the reverses, this will take more investigations. In the end of that auction, I suppose no one got them all, but we all ended up with something and that pleases me. An evenly dispersed and valued market is good for everybody.
The second piece was one I always seem to come to late and was stoked to finally catch up to an example. Skulls and Skeletons are a collecting theme in general for me and Goetz's K-196 Verdun offers so much more than that.
WWII was always a huge interest to me as both my bio Grandfathers saw action in Europe and India. My Grandmother making Douglas Dauntless planes in CA. Both my Grandfathers passed young and both my Grandmothers remarried WWII veterans, both in the navy. Grandpa Nick a sailor on the USS Vestal a support ship to the Arizona and on ship during Pearl Harbor attacks. Even my great uncle a POW for 3 years in Poland and death march scenario survivor. I worshipped these guys and drank up all they said, influenced by their experience. My search for WWII understanding let me to WWI and earlier periods which has left me referring to WWII as a "rematch". A good book for understanding these epic trench battles is The Arms of Krupp. The Krupp dynasty's early perfection of casting steal and forging breach loaded riffled cannon that outmatched muzzle loaded brass artillery of the day. How once these cannon started firing it was impossible to shut them off! The 10 month battle of Verdun was a baseline test of what you get when you actually use deterrent weapons.
I always thought this medal was simply death abusing Germania, but on closer inspection it is Frances Marianne being hassled by Death wearing a British hat. The reverse showing France's Clemenceau head on a pin piercing a heart and spectacles depicting shortsightedness. To record the senseless killing of soldiers on both sides. Wilted olive branch.
Last is Goet'z K-157 Pope Benedict XV's Support. The K manual give a few lines of clues, but I see more going on here. Europa is often depicted on Goetz medals and shows up as a woman riding a bull. It's imagery based on Greek mythology, a good wiki search and read. Never the less, I see Death riding the Bull into the maw of fire and the Pope looking off almost standing out of his throne to go help. Dove in the lower hiding his head. On the reverse, it took me a minute to see what the Pope is hauling out of the sea....it is a woman with princess buns! This is Europe he is trying to save, but alas, a British soldier is saying hold on! Wait a minute, are you sure we want to do this? Offering a large sum of money to the Pope. The satire is thick and pretty bold to call out the Pope back then in real time! Hey, Im pretty cynical, so although I haven't independently verified that the Pope took British money, I suspect his influence was given to the highest bidder, maybe not.
The piece is in fantastic condition in cast iron with just the right amount of orange patination in the crevices making the medal that much more luscious to view.
Listen, I'm hung up on there medals! The history and what I learn while I try to decode them has taken me for a ride!! This period and the 20 years between fighting wars is the most interesting at this point for me at the moment. I really don't think of myself as a coin collector anymore, but more of an art collector. It's been an interesting transformation to me and I'm better for it. No telling where this will go from here, one piece leads to another. Thanks for being with me on this ride! Here is to healthy and fortunate 2022 to all, WildIdea
Comments
What a great write-up and fantastic medals!
8 Reales Madness Collection
Exceptional medals. It is too bad that so many numismatic collectors pay little attention to such interesting items, instead wasting their time on things like 1881-S Morgan Dollars.
Thank you! I particularly like your recent write up and review. Looks like they are in the right hands with your work on the pedigrees and whatnot. Way to go!
Thanks 291fifth! I'm immersed, but I wouldn't say Morgans are without historical significance. When the Krupp's were casting the worlds steel train tires, we were fighting our civil war and subsequent indian wars. Imagine the California gold rush eventually playing out and spreading into the hills of Nevada and discovering the Comstock Load! Then onto the Dakota Homestake and supplying the branch mints with raw materials to finance a nation! A nation that grew enough to impact these future world conflicts. The history is interconnected. Of coarse I have a few Morgans in my collection! Although the series didn't capture my attention for long, it helped teach me US history and the US minting process and TPGS. I still have a circ CC, a toned up 04-0 and common 65 DIMPL laying around, I wouldn't say I wasted any time with them.
One of the reasons I appreciate cast medals is that a lot of times they were poured and finished by the artists themselves or were working directly with a casting facility. We know George T. Morgan designed the Morgan Dollar and that they came out of the US mints, its just that we really don't know the people who actually made them. When I hold a medal I'm that much closer to the artist and almost feels like I'm shaking their hand myself.
Great write up and nice medals.
You still casting your own medals - really enjoyed those threads as well and would love to see what you are up to!
My current "Box of 20"
Thanks Bob13!
Yes, I have been working on new medals. This year I was able to find the time to make this new "Ship of Fools" tribute with a VW split bus. My goal is to make 5-6 Grateful Dead song tributes and this would be on that top 5 list. With casting requiring a couple days for some pours and several more days to finish, it's surprising I was able to make as many as I did this year. I've been trying to make them thinner and this piece is about ⅓ thinner that my first efforts. Then they go bye bye and I have to make some more. I was making some just before Sturgis this year for our Rally venue and the temperature was so high it was drying out my sand before I could finish working with it. Added another level of challenges I had to work through, but it improved my casting game in the end.
You know, I feel my collection has morphed into three distinct sections. The first being mint made US and foreign graded material, second would be cast material mostly WW1 related and the third being my own creations. I can't decide what I value the most. Lately WW1 material has been getting the most attention, but I have to say that what my own pieces are right up there in importance to me. They're my babies. It is really where my soul will leave its mark on this planet. Collecting has def influenced me and give me a solid target to shoot for. I have considered making a war themed medal before and I have a few ideas, but I just can't seem to muster the interest required to even start. I have a fascination with the topic for sure, its just that the world has so many of them in it already and I don't think I could add to the conversation in a meaningful way. That, and I feel there's simply a disporpotionate number of coins and medals with Choppers, Buses, Skulls and counterculture on them. Frankly, I'd rather talk about Love, Peace, Tolerance and Creativity. How to follow your dreams and be Creative with your Freedom!! This is what my art will be talking about. With that said, I'm poised to start making a new model in the next few weeks. I'm also currently building my first air cooled VW engine with a friend and this has taken over my casting area. Sand and crank bearings don't mix, so I"ll mostly be carving wax models and casting after the engine is complete or find another place to cast.
Here is a few shots of what designs I've made up so far. I have cast Bronze and Silver, working towards cast iron but need a furnace that can reach 2400* to be successful there. Silver is like casting butter, very forgiving. Brass was rougher on the sand. I have a feeling cast iron will be easier than working with brass, but I shall see. I want to do it out off tradition to the medalists I'm collecting.
My wife and I love to catch Dead and Co and vend when they come close and I was stoked to see the reactions people had to some of my Dead medals. I was loving the responses and we had a total blast. Something fun you don't see every day on the lot. I feel the more variety the better this feeling can get. I don't sell many, but I don't care, Its not about that. I feel I could make something with wide appeal but my heart wouldn't be in it as strongly. I just do these for me and what I'd like to see in my collection. If someone else digs it, then that's cool too.
Outstanding! Thanks for the update!
My current "Box of 20"