|
Post by geoff on Jul 9, 2012 15:44:12 GMT -5
PM sent! Perfect timing everyone. Good work lol. I get home from the slope on Thursday. I was worried it would come at the beginning of my hitch and making everyone wait two weeks. I'll head out to the Kuparuk River after work tonite and collect some quartz pebbles.
|
|
grayfingers
Cave Dweller
Member since November 2007
Posts: 4,575
|
Post by grayfingers on Jul 9, 2012 16:46:31 GMT -5
North! To Alaska, It's gone north, the box is gone. Glad it will reach you at a convenient time. The box remains a large one. In order to downsize back to a med box one would need rocks that are substantially more expensive than my humble agates and jaspers. I believe I have maintained the value and bulk for those that follow. Thanks for the opportunity to participate, it was fun to see so many new materials up close! This forum has given me much, and I am pleased to have participated in this. The box as it arrived. What I took out. Helen, thanks for the Tomahawk, earrings and the bubble agate. I passed on the Rodo, as I am not set up to work soft stones. *Oops* Upon cleaning up the boxing area I discovered a piece of Pyrite escaped, added it to my took section. What I put in. Bisbee Malachite that Chad recently sent to me. He would like to get to see how they turn out. So whoever wants to give it a go, please post pics of the finished stones. The markings are to indicate the plane to cut to give the best chatoyance. He is a very generous person, I believe this stuff is expensive. And some slabbettes. St. John's Flower agate (somewhat rare, no longer mined) Baby Brazilians. The rest were self-collected. Montana agate A couple specimens; both Montanas, The dark one is 3/8 " thick, was cut from an unusual nodule from the lower Yellowstone, The small one is from the upper Gallatin. Local Jasper/Chert This stuff works like Aventurine. I find it sometimes as river cobbles. One very tightly packed LFRB. No rattles, and I taped it a bunch more to reinforce it for the long trip north. Confirmation # 0311 2550 0002 7887 5888 Three hour turn-around, yea! With any luck, the box should make it to Geoff on Thursday! Yea!! Bill
|
|
|
Post by geoff on Jul 9, 2012 19:35:28 GMT -5
Bahaha. The unconstitutionality of drug testing welfare recipients. Cool glass doodad!
|
|
deedolce
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since October 2006
Posts: 1,828
|
Post by deedolce on Jul 9, 2012 20:10:04 GMT -5
Lol, took a minute to figure out what you were talking about Geoff!
Yes, beautiful glasswork Helen!
Love seeing all the ins and outs of the everchanging rockbox!
|
|
|
Post by helens on Jul 9, 2012 22:36:48 GMT -5
Whoa... Bill, thought you were trying to downsize?? You didn't downsize!!! Isn't the coin on the tomahawk kewl? It's minute... but.. WHO"S HEAD is on the teeny coin? I'm glad you liked the doo dad Jake:)!! It's actually one of my signature pieces that no one else does. It's a 'thistle', or an atom, or a nebula, or a dandelion head, or a christmas ornament. It's my favorite 'shape' I guess:). Nice shot!!
|
|
grayfingers
Cave Dweller
Member since November 2007
Posts: 4,575
|
Post by grayfingers on Jul 10, 2012 10:49:41 GMT -5
WHO"S HEAD is on the teeny coin? I can only speculate, but the helmet appears to be a conquistador's helmet. The crest is a curisioty, while the helms were crested in metal, this one looks as though it has a partial brush, like the Roman helmets, They were not usually crested in anything but the metal, though the Spanish sometimes would wear plumey feathers at the rear of the crest. Or, it could be a Lakota helmet, they wore captured ones that were re-decorated. "Some of these battles took place as far as the Southern border of Lakota territory which is the modern day state of Kansas. Records of these battles were often recorded on relics collected from the enemy. It is quite possible that a helmet such as this would have been handed down through a family - imagine generations of warriors sitting around a fire listening in awe to the tales of bravery of their Grandfathers as the light flickers across such a helmet." Still, the stars on the mediallion don't look like Native American decoration. Gonzalo Pizarro y Alonso (1502 – April 10, 1548) was a Spanish and younger paternal half-brother of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of the Inca Empire. Hernando Desoto
|
|
|
Post by helens on Jul 10, 2012 19:32:37 GMT -5
Well, there is a huge anomaly across the board with the piece... stars, spanish conquistador helm... on a teeny coin in a Tomahawk. I sent it along so several people could see it on the way. Who would take the time to make such a thing and WHY?
Hrm... maybe a artist with spanish / settler / native indian roots made it as a symbolic piece to stand for their heritage? Sounded like your background, so thought you should have it:).
|
|
|
Post by Pat on Jul 10, 2012 20:39:03 GMT -5
Where and when was it made? Any indications?
|
|
|
Post by helens on Jul 10, 2012 21:22:22 GMT -5
Pat, none at all... you saw it, isn't it odd looking? But the teeny coin inside the tomahawk was an awful lot of effort to go through for just decoration??
|
|
|
Post by Pat on Jul 10, 2012 21:30:14 GMT -5
Helen, it reminds me of clothing made in Asia. The jackets etc had American sayings on them. However, they didn't make any sense. They just grabbed words and logs/icons etc that they thought were American. This might be that sort of thing.
|
|
|
Post by paulshiroma on Jul 10, 2012 23:30:09 GMT -5
Bill, that's some great stuff you packed in! Looks like we're stuck with a LRFB LOL! Paul
|
|
|
Post by helens on Jul 11, 2012 2:19:50 GMT -5
I don't think it's from Asia, but I won't say it's not possible. I got all that odd jewelry from an Estate sale of an old rock collector who died like a decade ago, and when his wife passed away, their kids cleaned out all their stuff so they could sell the house. It could have been an estate sale of parents stuff from when I was a child, and would have been the same items.
I mostly got rocks, but there was jewelry, household appliances, that kind of thing. Nearly everything they had was from the 1970s or earlier. I mean they had transistor radios that were vintage when I was a kid. Everything was OLD OLD OLD. The reason that was so interesting was because the coin part was sooo teeny. Who would bother making a mold that small for such a teeny coin to sit in the middle of a teeny tomahawk?
|
|
grayfingers
Cave Dweller
Member since November 2007
Posts: 4,575
|
Post by grayfingers on Jul 11, 2012 8:26:30 GMT -5
Well, whatever it is, it is very nice, and I like it! Here is another shot, sorry about the poor focus.
|
|
|
Post by Pat on Jul 11, 2012 10:20:23 GMT -5
I googled "fractional coins". Some have the stars all around the perimeter. Did not find any set in a tomahawk or similar item. The idea of a fractional coin looks like it is in the right direction. However, finding it in a setting could indicate the coin is set in a souvenir.
|
|
grayfingers
Cave Dweller
Member since November 2007
Posts: 4,575
|
Post by grayfingers on Jul 11, 2012 13:22:50 GMT -5
I had to go cut some wood this morning, hence the rushed photo. I took a couple more that turned out better. . . not bad for a 6 year old inexpensive Kodak. Perhaps a closer look overall will provide better clues as to identity and age of setting. Oh yeah, the medallion is 1 centimeter.
|
|
|
Post by Pat on Jul 11, 2012 13:31:29 GMT -5
May be a souvenir watch fob set with a fractional coin of the dates Don suggested?!
|
|
grayfingers
Cave Dweller
Member since November 2007
Posts: 4,575
|
Post by grayfingers on Jul 11, 2012 13:53:37 GMT -5
So Don, You think this is a 1 cm silver coin? That is cool, never knew they made coins that small, and had never heard of fractionals. I assumed it was a pewter medallion.
|
|
grayfingers
Cave Dweller
Member since November 2007
Posts: 4,575
|
Post by grayfingers on Jul 11, 2012 13:59:18 GMT -5
Just a thought, though there are tomahawks used by Amer. Indians that resemble this style, most were a simple design with a single blade, some with a pipe opposite the blade. I think they were designed from Royal navy boarding axes, for trade with the natives. Could this be a European battle axe?
|
|
|
Post by helens on Jul 11, 2012 19:53:29 GMT -5
Here's a thought... see if you can do a silver test on the coin... if it's a COIN or a Fractional coin, it would be silver. If not, and it was made for decoration, it would not be.
I didn't pay much for it, again, estate sale, so whether it's a 'find' or not, it's yours either way.
If it's NOT silver... then odds are good it's a trinket as Pat suggested. If it IS a trinket, then the mystery is back for WHY anyone would make a teeny weensy coin that is not very indian looking to put in the middle of a tomahawk?!
I didn't think it was Lady Liberty... because wouldn't all those have the YEAR stamped at the bottom of the bust?
Another thought... try to soak the little coin out of the tomahawk... maybe xylene?? Any other suggestions for what to soak in? And see if it's stamped on the back. If it IS also stamped on the back, it's NOT a trinket made to sell, because no one's going to stamp/mold something for a piece of jewelry that will never get seen.
Roman is not out of the question, but I don't think the design is roman, because I've seen roman coins with no year stamps. US coins all have year stamps that I've seen.
I like Don's 'trade token' idea too. It's not hard to 'mint' coins, and if you have bullion or raw silver, you melt it down and make whatever you like. That would then make sense to 'mint' it in a teeny head, with the REPLICA stars around it, the way the REAL fractional coins would have, to give it a more recognizeable feel, but mostly to have uniformity in size and metal content.
But check for silver first, any jeweler can tell you if it's silver or not. If it's silver, then worth soaking it off the tomahawk to see the back of the coin.
|
|
|
Post by helens on Jul 11, 2012 20:04:13 GMT -5
I had a question about the tomahawk itself too. Now I'm no silversmith/goldsmith so maybe I'm wrong, but that doesn't LOOK like a lost wax piece the way others do. It's too rough.
On the other hand, I have seen a casting process using real raw clay instead of wax, and of course, clay would have more grain, which would account for the lumpier nature of the tomahawk? I did not see lttle mold lines on the edges. If it's a molded piece, and was so roughly made that they didn't even bother polishing the surface, leaving it looking so lumpy, why would they bother polishing off the mold lines? But there are no mold lines...
Finally... the piece is HEAVY AS HELL for it's teeny size. So what's the base metal? LEAD?
|
|