The RCC ESSAY Contest

Well, here it is as promised, my first RCC contest. The contest runs
from now until midnight, Wednesday, September 23, 2003 (Eastern
Daylight Time, that is, New York City time) so you've got ten days to
enter. The contest is open to everyone who reads this message on RCC,
anywhere on the planet. I've decided to have both first and
second-place prizes:
First prize is a Roman Imperial silver denarius of Septimius
Severus (AD 193-211) featuring the emperor's portrait on obverse and
the god Mars on reverse. A very decent collectible coin, retail value
probably about $30.
Second prize is also Roman, a bronze As of Trajan (AD 98-117)
featuring emperor's portrait on obverse, and uncertain standing deity
on reverse. A well-worn coin, like most bronzes of the era, but the
emperor's portrait is clear, and he's a more famous emperor. Plus, if
the coin were in better condition, it would be the first-place prize

How do you enter the contest? You must post to RCC a short essay
describing one coin from your collection, focusing on the history and
culture behind the coin. A link to a photo of the coin is useful, but
is not necessary. Your essay should describe the inscriptions and
designs on the coin, placing them in the context of the culture that
issued it. For example, if I were describing the first-place prize
coin, I would first give a quick biography of Septimius Severus, then
describe the meaning of the titles abbreviated in the legend, then
move on to the reverse design, explaining who Mars was, and why a
Roman emperor would want to invoke a warrior deity. You might also
want to touch on other factors, like metal content (why was your 1943
Lincoln cent struck on steel?) or legislation/politics (a Morgan
dollar might prompt mention of the Bland-Allison Act and Bryan's
involvement with the Free Silver movement). You don't need to be
long, but you should try to be both interesting and informative. Here
are the rules for judging, etc:
1. All contest entries _must_ be posted to the newsgroup
rec.collecting.coins to be eligible for this contest. Please post to
this same thread so that I can easily find all essays. I want these
essays to be available to the whole group. Please do not email me
directly unless you have a question or comment that you don't want to
post on RCC.
2. Only one essay per person, please. I am relying on your honesty
and integrity here, so don't let me down.
3. I will judge the essays based on whether I find them informative
and entertaining. I am not an English teacher, so I won't disqualify
you for spelling/grammatical mistakes, but please try to use correct
spelling and grammar as this makes your essay easier to read. I will
_not_ base my decision on the actual coin itself, i.e. its
rarity/age/cost/photo quality/etc. An excellent essay on a 1943
Lincoln cent would beat a poor essay on a High Relief Saint. As
mentioned above, links to photos are appreciated but not required, and
the presence or absence of a photo will not be counted in the judging.
Coins of any country and time period are acceptable,and I will do my
best not to show favoritism to any country/time period. So, while I
appreciate it if you decide to write about a Parthian coin, doing so
will not increase your chances of winning.
4. For purposes of this contest, I will define "coin" somewhat
loosely to include tokens that could be exchanged for goods and
services, i.e. Conder tokens, U. S. Civil War tokens, etc.. However,
medals, silver rounds, etc. that did not and were not intended to
circulate are not included.
5. All decisions are made by me and are final. If you disagree,
you can give out your own prizes.
6. Winners will be announced in rec.collecting.coins after the
contest ends. Winners should contact me by email with their shipping
addresses.

Well, that's all. Now amaze me with your knowledge and writing
skills!

-Robert A. DeRose, Jr.

Sounds good, I'm in!
My essays usually run 1-1.5K words.

If I may throw something in here. Could we NOT have comments submitted on
essays? For example, if someone mentions the SBA as being a beautiful coin,
don't start a flame-war about it. Let's leave the essays as they stand and let
Bob decide. After all, it's his contest.

Jerry

"Robert A. DeRose, Jr." announces:

Well, here it is as promised, my first RCC contest. The contest runs
from now until midnight, Wednesday, September 23, 2003 (Eastern
Daylight Time, that is, New York City time) so you've got ten days to
enter. The contest is open to everyone who reads this message on RCC,
anywhere on the planet. I've decided to have both first and
second-place prizes:
First prize is a Roman Imperial silver denarius of Septimius
Severus (AD 193-211) featuring the emperor's portrait on obverse and
the god Mars on reverse. A very decent collectible coin, retail value
probably about $30.
Second prize is also Roman, a bronze As of Trajan (AD 98-117)
featuring emperor's portrait on obverse, and uncertain standing deity
on reverse. A well-worn coin, like most bronzes of the era, but the
emperor's portrait is clear, and he's a more famous emperor. Plus, if
the coin were in better condition, it would be the first-place prize

How do you enter the contest? You must post to RCC a short essay
describing one coin from your collection, focusing on the history and
culture behind the coin. A link to a photo of the coin is useful, but
is not necessary. Your essay should describe the inscriptions and
designs on the coin, placing them in the context of the culture that
issued it. For example, if I were describing the first-place prize
coin, I would first give a quick biography of Septimius Severus, then
describe the meaning of the titles abbreviated in the legend, then
move on to the reverse design, explaining who Mars was, and why a
Roman emperor would want to invoke a warrior deity. You might also
want to touch on other factors, like metal content (why was your 1943
Lincoln cent struck on steel?) or legislation/politics (a Morgan
dollar might prompt mention of the Bland-Allison Act and Bryan's
involvement with the Free Silver movement). You don't need to be
long, but you should try to be both interesting and informative. Here
are the rules for judging, etc:
1. All contest entries _must_ be posted to the newsgroup
rec.collecting.coins to be eligible for this contest. Please post to
this same thread so that I can easily find all essays. I want these
essays to be available to the whole group. Please do not email me
directly unless you have a question or comment that you don't want to
post on RCC.
2. Only one essay per person, please. I am relying on your honesty
and integrity here, so don't let me down.
3. I will judge the essays based on whether I find them informative
and entertaining. I am not an English teacher, so I won't disqualify
you for spelling/grammatical mistakes, but please try to use correct
spelling and grammar as this makes your essay easier to read. I will
_not_ base my decision on the actual coin itself, i.e. its
rarity/age/cost/photo quality/etc. An excellent essay on a 1943
Lincoln cent would beat a poor essay on a High Relief Saint. As
mentioned above, links to photos are appreciated but not required, and
the presence or absence of a photo will not be counted in the judging.
Coins of any country and time period are acceptable,and I will do my
best not to show favoritism to any country/time period. So, while I
appreciate it if you decide to write about a Parthian coin, doing so
will not increase your chances of winning.
4. For purposes of this contest, I will define "coin" somewhat
loosely to include tokens that could be exchanged for goods and
services, i.e. Conder tokens, U. S. Civil War tokens, etc.. However,
medals, silver rounds, etc. that did not and were not intended to
circulate are not included.
5. All decisions are made by me and are final. If you disagree,
you can give out your own prizes.
6. Winners will be announced in rec.collecting.coins after the
contest ends. Winners should contact me by email with their shipping
addresses.

Well, that's all. Now amaze me with your knowledge and writing
skills!

-Robert A. DeRose, Jr.

"Robert A. DeRose, Jr." wrote in message
om...
Well, here it is as promised, my first RCC contest. The contest runs
from now until midnight, Wednesday, September 23, 2003 (Eastern
Daylight Time, that is, New York City time) so you've got ten days to
enter. The contest is open to everyone who reads this message on RCC,
anywhere on the planet. I've decided to have both first and
second-place prizes:

Probably a long shot but here goes:
http://www.angelfire.com/ns/scottishmoney/sib2.html

BTW this site is not technically available, all the links are broken but the
page still works until I can decide what to do with the text and images, ie
burn them to a CD or just purge them.

Dave

Scottishmoney wrote:
Probably a long shot but here goes:
http://www.angelfire.com/ns/scottishmoney/sib2.html

BTW this site is not technically available, all the links are broken but the
page still works until I can decide what to do with the text and images, ie
burn them to a CD or just purge them.

Dave



Burn the entire site onto a CD ....then send me a copy :-)

Ian

In article , Ian spoke
thusly...


Scottishmoney wrote:
Probably a long shot but here goes:
http://www.angelfire.com/ns/scottishmoney/sib2.html

BTW this site is not technically available, all the links are broken but the
page still works until I can decide what to do with the text and images, ie
burn them to a CD or just purge them.

Dave



Burn the entire site onto a CD ....then send me a copy :-)

I would vote for Burn It too. Too much good info to just send it in
to never, never land forever. About 6 months ago, when I got burned
out on managing all the html and crap on my site, I took down about
half of the stuff on it. Once I figured out how to manage it better
and got stoked about it again, I was glad that I had a backup of most
of the stuff I took down.

--
Stu Miller
Coins in the News - Coin Newspaper (Updated Daily):
http://www.TheStujoeCollection.com/news.htm

In article , Jerry
Dennis spoke thusly...
If I may throw something in here. Could we NOT have comments submitted on
essays? For example, if someone mentions the SBA as being a beautiful coin,

You're doing it on the SBA too?!?!?! Crud, now I have to find a new
topic. :-)

I was actually thinking about the opposite of your thoughts on the
idea. I would have suggested putting each essay in its own thread
with a title of 'RCC Essay: yadda, yadda, yadda' so each one could
branch off into its own (actual coin related!) discussion. I would
hope no flaming about the essays would be involved, though.

Not my contest, though, and I don't want Robert to think I am trying
to butt in on it. I do plan on doing one but I may not have enough
time to do the research I want to do in order to get it right...and
the spelling and grammar part frightens me - as it should frighten
anyone who might read my effort. ;-)


--
Stu Miller
Coins in the News - Coin Newspaper (Updated Daily):
http://www.TheStujoeCollection.com/news.htm

"Stujoe" wrote in message I would vote
for Burn It too. Too much good info to just send it in
to never, never land forever. About 6 months ago, when I got burned
out on managing all the html and crap on my site, I took down about
half of the stuff on it. Once I figured out how to manage it better
and got stoked about it again, I was glad that I had a backup of most
of the stuff I took down.

--
Stu Miller

Some of the reasons it is down:
1. Currently not enough time to manage it.
2. Had to fix a lot of errors on it, this was done but I still don't like
it.
3. Image harvesters selling images from my site on CD's and pawning them
off on ebaY.
4 Image harvesters using images to sell probably fraudelent auctions on
ebaY.
5. Health problems during the summer(overcome

It may come back up, maybe at a later time, when I can recreate it in some
fashion which I like, and with larger copyright notices to stop the
harvesting. The latter was the main reason the site went dasvidaniya last
month. It won't be immediate though.

Dave

On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 13:46:56 +0100, Ian
wrote:



Scottishmoney wrote:
Probably a long shot but here goes:
http://www.angelfire.com/ns/scottishmoney/sib2.html

BTW this site is not technically available, all the links are broken but the
page still works until I can decide what to do with the text and images, ie
burn them to a CD or just purge them.

Dave



Burn the entire site onto a CD ....then send me a copy :-)

Me too.

You could sell copies on ebay, or put them on to
Kazaa/Napster/WinMx/Morpheus..!? Zip it all up for download...!

Thanks
Darren

"Robert A. DeRose, Jr." wrote:

Well, here it is as promised, my first RCC contest. The contest runs
from now until midnight, Wednesday, September 23, 2003 (Eastern
Daylight Time, that is, New York City time) so you've got ten days to
enter. The contest is open to everyone who reads this message on RCC,
anywhere on the planet.

The Tragedy of the French Five Centime

It's a truism of archeology that coins are the most common cultural
artifacts. Money, after all, was something that was rarely
deliberately destroyed or discarded, yet ancient sites are littered with
the coins of little value that were randomly lost. These objects were
'not worth the effort of retrieval', and have become a valuable means of
dating the strata in which they are found.

These common, everyday objects, which passed from hand to hand in daily
commerce, also illuminate the thoughts and aspirations of the people
that used them. Their monarchs, their religions, their mathematics,
their art, their business practices, even their hopes and dreams, their
perception of themselves are illustrated in their coinage.

Yet a coin need not be ancient to have that same power. As the pace of
change has accelerated in the last two hundred years, old truths and
beliefs have passed away, sometimes under bitter and tragic
circumstances. While we have the contemporary account of these changes,
photographs, recordings, and even living witnesses, I still feel that
actually handling a coin from the time and place provides an insight, or
at least a focus for introspective contemplation, that is lacked by
other methods.

I am forced to imagine such sweeping changes of history when I hold my
five centime coin from France, dated 1916.

A Bronze coin, it has received no special handling in it's journey
through time, and would grade VF, I suppose. It's a nice-sized piece of
metal, about the size of an English penny of the same period, and weighs
5 grams, with a diameter of 25mm.

The obverse, designed by Jean Baptiste Daniel-Dupuis, to which is signed
his last name, depicts a bust of "Liberty" facing right, in a phrygian
cap, the ubiquitous symbol of the new Goddess which often appeared on
early US coinage as well. Liberty, the battlecry of the Revolution
that ended in a regicide and precipitated the Reign of Terror, as France
sought equilibrium between the ideals of the Revolution and the
political realities of running a country. "Republique Francaise" runs
the legend, 'French Republic', the 1916 incarnation of that balancing act.

The reverse was also designed by Daniel-Dupuis, and shows "Republique
protegeant L'Enfance", Republic instructing Childhood, as near as I can
translate it. The legend shows the French motto, the high-minded
'Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood', "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite". Bas
relief of billowing sheets and artful curls in the serifs give a
Neo-Romantic look to this face of the coin. An artist of immense
power, Daniel-Dupuis was a prize-winning medallist and engraver and his
works have served as models for coinage right down to the present.
There is a realistic look to his figures, and an ornate sense of
decoration that evocates Imperial opulence, even though the issuing body
was the French Republic. It is very much 'Belle Epoque'.

What a struggle to attain those lofty ideals, in the year of the Battle
of Verdun and the Somme Offensive! Through convoluted treaties and
alliances , intrigues and bumblings, the continent had plunged headlong
into a war unlike any before or after it. Representative government had
not prevented it, and national pride of all the belligerents had urged
it forward. But this war, with it's aging empires and nascent
republics, was not the colorful calvary charge and gallant infantry
action of decades past, it was a war of slaughter and carnage, cruelty
beyond anything humanity had ever imagined. It had been carried forward
by troop mobilizations that could not be recalled, as great events ran
over and ahead of little men.

It was the Industrial Revolution turned loose against the flesh of men.
Machine guns, airplanes, poison gases that rose in the air from
artillery units and sank to linger in the deep places of trench warfare,
tanks, telephones, landmines, barbed wire, and the mass production of
massive numbers of high explosive shells had made death a wholesale
business. The casualty counts were so appalling and the conditions so
barbaric that men went mad. A German general became so hopelessly
depressed by this reality that he conceived a massive offensive, the
entire purpose of which was to kill so many men that both sides would
sue for Peace. Instead, it brought more slaughter and unburied dead as
an entire generation gave their lives for no good cause that can be
discerned.

And in that dark and hopeless time, this little 5 centime was passing
from hand to hand, from housewife to baker, from child to headmaster,
from widow to undertaker, a token of exchange bearing it's noble
proclamations "Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood".

When, at last, the killing stopped, the Peace imposed such terms that
another war was inevitable. Nations were created and abolished with the
stroke of a pen. No voice was heard to gainsay it. And yet, men are
only men, and attempted as best they could to see the consequences, to
remake the world after this war, this war which had
changed...everything. For only history has the advantage of clear
perception, and in the fog of current events, outcomes are hidden.

As the decades passed, and the faults of the Peace became the Seeds of
even Greater War, this small coin continued to fulfill its function, a
lubricant for commerce. Too small to be a spoil of war, and lacking any
intrinsic metal value, it eventually made it's way to my hand, a
souvenir of a long-departed time and place.

What to make of it's optimistic message? Of Liberty, Equality and
Brotherhood? Having been coined in the midst of monumental chaos and
destruction, when the only equality attained was the equality of the
grave? For after that war, all the illusions were swept away, and the
stylish grace of it's allusional figures and Neo-Romantic lettering were
as passe as last week's soup.

Now it was clearly evident that no one can see all ends. Now it was
clearly evident that the best intentions cannot sway or stay the course
of larger events unleashed on the world. Now it should have been
clearly seen that truth, compassion and mercy are the best that we can
offer to each other in a 'world gone mad'.

Ironically, the coin's designer had long ago met a fate not dissimilar
to the one that awaited his native France. On November 14. 1899, one
year after being made an Officer of the Legion of Honor, Daniel-Dupuis
was murdered in his sleep by his depressive wife, who then took her own
life. A murder/suicide that foreshadowed that war which awaited the
nation his coin served.

I do see this personal note for optimism. The coin came to me in an act
of Brotherhood, a gift from fellow RCC denizen Mark Green, unasked and
unexpectedly by mail. Thanks, Mark, you gave me a lot to think about
and a piece of history to hold in my hand, a small souvenir of that
place and time when Innocence was surely lost.

Alan
'enjoyed the process'