Metal Porn Friday. Post some Pictures!

Weiss

Mentioned that I'd gotten that tiny Venezuelan gold piece last week with the proceeds from selling a property.
Still can't find locally what I'm after as a trophy for that sale: Interesting, unusual, ounce-ish gold or platinum coin

But the same dealer who'd offered me the small Venezuelan piece offered me this big flat gold piece the same day. Dealer had no idea what it was. I couldn't read what it said. Couldn't tell purity. Couldn't tell denomination. Didn't know what country it was from. And it was holed, and a little wavy, too. Pass.

But something about it intrigued me. Asked if I could take a picture and went home to investigate.

Figured it was Ottoman because of the mark in the middle. The Ottoman empire was one of the longest living empires in world history, lasting over 700 years and covering much of eastern Europe and the middle-east. That mark in the middle is called a "Tughra". It's a stylized signature representing the king, from a people who don't use images or pictures for fear of creating false idols. From there I was eventually able to figure it is an Ottoman 2 Rumi Altin (Roman Gold), from the reign of Mahmud II, dating from 1816. Approximately 5 grams, .900 pure, and about as big as an American half dollar but much thinner. Most of the sources I found said the hole was "typical" or "as often found", but none said why that was the norm. Dug deeper and finally found that it was a tradition that friends and family would give Ottoman brides circulating gold coins to decorate their wedding dresses. Turks still use the practice of adorning clothes with gold (or gold plated) coins to this day to make them seem more traditional. This piece likely decorated many wedding dresses in the last 200 years. Of course I bought it

Stopped by another dealer on Tuesday of this week. They have several rolls of really good Mexican silver that they've taunted me with for years now. Asked if they were ready to sell finally and they said "no". Again. But they brought out a roll of 1978 100 peso silver coins. These are maybe my least favorite Mexican 20th century bullion pieces. At 20 grams they're an odd weight. And at .720 purity, they're about as low silver quality as you can find. But it's an original roll, and they're all brilliant uncirculated. And they're just big, fat, nearly 50-year old silver coins. And they offered them to me for essentially melt. So they came home with me, too. What can I say? I'm a sucker for rolls of big silver coins.

ricko

@Weiss... I like that gold coin and thanks for the history along with it. Cheers, RickO

Weiss

That Venezuelan piece, because I thought it made a cool picture:

LukeMarshall

Latest two peace dollar pickups