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 Replies: 8 / Views: 1,993 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
865 Posts |
I had someone tell me an interesting story about the hash marks over George III's face and just wanted to see if anyone more knowledgable than I would know anything about this. He said people would gouge out his face on these circulated pieces because he wasn't the most popular guy. Anyone else heard of this? Thanks for checking it out!   |
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Moderator
 Australia
16861 Posts |
While "Mad King George" may not have been the most popular fellow, few would have bothered using the coinage to make a political statement. Besides being illegal, it would have rendered the coin less easily spent, as people might have assumed such damage was an attempt to hide a forgery - and fake copper coins were a big problem back then.
Also, if the goal was deliberate mutilation, I think they'd have gone for the face or the neck, rather than the side of the head.
I haven't seen very many politically defaced cartwheels. I have seen two other kinds of defaced cartwheels: coins that were used as dishonest weights (they are supposed to weigh exactly 1 avoirdupois ounce and were widely used as one ounce weights by the general public) by having had some weight trimmed off. Second, are love tokens - coins where one or both sides are smoothed off completely and new designs engraved onto them.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1351 Posts |
If you get a nice big slab of soft copper the temptation was to make marks,graffiti ETC
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
865 Posts |
Thanks for the replys. Sap, makes sense what you are saying.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
36878 Posts |
I have seen coins with scratches across the throat, which would seem more appropriate to show a dislike for a ruler.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1757 Posts |
Just wayward thinking on your part - whenever one appears in high grade and you are thinking of reaching for your wallet - you LOOK at the rims as these are so prone to rim bruises even in AU or UNC. Its the nature of this BIG BEAST.
John Lorenzo
United States
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New Member
United Kingdom
13 Posts |
I'm not aware of any incidence of similar mutilation on these coins, so imagine the story is just a fanciful explanation for a poor and damaged example. The cartwheels are fairly common, even in quite reasonable grade, and proofs are not off the scale either.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
I have one somewhere with similar damage but someone has modified the rims too - I assumed it has some sort of use.
Also, it is very easy to mark these, so I see the temptation.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
865 Posts |
Thanks for the replys everyone. I have seen others with this kind of damage so I was thinking maybe the story is true. Thanks for the info colonialjohn.
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Replies: 8 / Views: 1,993 |
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Posted 02/18/2014 08:31 am
