I just looked at the title, and thought, that only leaves 323 days until the end of the year. Give it three weeks and the year will be 1/6th gone. And what have I done? Well, apart from moaning about the cold, worrying about WW3 and putting off the housework? I know they are all important things, but they aren’t real achievements are they?
I’m getting ready to put a few better bits on eBay for work and, at home, to catalogue my collection of plastic transport tokens. Here’s a question for you, what are collectors of transport tokens called?answer (in the US at least) is Vecturist). In the UK, they just call us anoraks. Even coin collectors look down on us as being peculiar. The hobby is much more developed in the US. There are also more serial killers in the US. I’m not saying the two things are linked, but you have to wonder . . .
The pictures for today are two pieces of coin jewellery. The header picture is a 1901 penny which has been cut away and made into a brooch. It’s fine work and it’s a shame the pin is missing. It isn’t much worn, which makes me think it was probably made in about 1901, maybe as a piece of mourning jewellery for Queen Victoria. It is very dark and the patina may have been artificially applied.
The other is an enamelled bronze brooch (also lacking a pin) which has had a farthing mounted in the centre. This, as the inscription shows, is definitely a piece of mourning jewellery. The maker’s mark is “W.J.D” which is W. J. Dingley, a Birmingham manufacturer of everything from high quality trophies to mass market badges.
When I found them (I was going through one of the junk boxes) I thought of adding them to my collection, as I have a few bits of coin jewellery, but decided against it, as it’s time to start cutting back, not adding to the burden of whoever has to sort out my collections.
If things had gone a different way I may, by now, have become a leading authority on mourning jewellery. Instead, I’m a shop assistant. Sic transit gloria mundi, as they say.
Penny Brooch – front view
Penny Brooch showing rear view with Britannia and the date 1901
With modern penny for size comparison
I learned two new words here today, vecturist and anorak. 🙂
Always a good day when you can learn two new words. 🙂 Glad I could help.
You know I find them fascinating
🙂 People with enquiring minds, a subject we covered in the shop today, will always find things interesting.
Is being an expert on mourning jewellery a crowded field? I ask as one who didn’t even know it was a field at all.
If they held a national conference, they probably wouldn’t need to book a concert hall, I admit. But I would expect them to need a bigger room than The Friends of Boris Johnson.
I really like the one on the bottom. The one at the top is spoiled a little bit from my point of view by the heavy dark in there more
It’s very much a question of taste – they both have their merits. The framed farthing sits well in the hand, being quite weighty, but it is a lot darker, I admit.