Thoughts On VAMming

An example of Numismatic forensics.

H.L. Hunley was a submarine of the Confederate States of America that played a small part in the American Civil War, but a large role in the history of naval warfare. The Hunley demonstrated both the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare. She was the first combat submarine to sink an enemy warship, although the Hunley was not completely submerged and was lost at some point following her successful attack.

The Hunley discovery was described by Dr. William Dudley, Director of Naval History at the Naval Historical Center as "probably the most important [American underwater archaeological] find of the [20th] century." The tiny sub and its contents have been valued at over $40 million, making its discovery and subsequent donation one of the most important and valuable contributions ever to South Carolina.

The crew was composed of Lieutenant George E. Dixon (Commander), Frank Collins, Joseph F. Ridgaway, James A. Wicks, Arnold Becker, Corporal C. F. Carlsen, C. Lumpkin, and Agustus Miller.



LT. DIXON'S GOLD COIN:
THE LEGEND OF THE GOLD COIN

THE LEGEND: For over a century, an oral tradition-a legend-was passed down involving Lt. George Dixon, who commanded the CSS Hunley

Hunley on its final assignment, which turned out to be one of the most important missions in naval history. According to the legend, Dixon was in love with a beautiful young woman from Mobile, Alabama, named Queenie Bennett.

To keep her sweetheart safe from harm, Queenie gave George Dixon a gold coin, as a good luck charm. Again, according to the legend, George kept the coin with him always, in his pocket, rubbing it with his thumb while he dreamed of the day when he and Queenie would be reunited.

During the Battle of Shiloh, George was shot point blank. A bullet ripped into the pocket of his trousers and struck the center of the gold coin. The impact was said to have left the gold piece bent, with the bullet embedded in it. Queenie's good luck gift had saved his life.




Many such legends were created during the Civil war. Was this one true? For 137 years, no one knew whether the story was true or merely a romantic tale from long ago.

During the excavation of the H.L. Hunley, the gold coin was discovered next to the remains of Lt. George Dixon. It was deeply indented from the impact of a bullet and traces of lead were discovered on the coin. The coin, a $20 dollar gold piece, was minted in 1860. One side bears an image of Lady Liberty. The other side, which has a federal shield-and-eagle symbol, had been sanded and inscribed by hand. It clearly bears four lines of cursive script with the following words:

Shiloh
April 6, 1862
My life Preserver
G. E. D.
The reverse side of
Dixon's gold coin.


Maria Jacobsen, Senior Archaeologist on the Hunley project and the one who actually first found the coin, said shortly after her amazing discovery, "Some people may think this is a stroke of luck, but perhaps it's something else. They tell me that Lt. Dixon was a lady's man, perhaps he winked at us yesterday to remind us that he still is."

Our definitions of the word differ greatly then...... In all fairness to Roger, I would agree that the vast majority of his work and study, I too would consider forensic in nature, as would I think that the efforts involved in the creation of guides (78 Long Nocks, 78-CC, 02-O).... Other things though, (such as the efforts in classification), I consider to be nothing more than an example of the complication that you mentioned, and will someday have to be straightened out.

Roger researches documents contemporary to the coins (facts, truth, numismatic DNA and RNA)..... Most of the trash found on the internet is nothing more than repeated, speculative sensationalism..... Any study in forensics must be founded in fact or laws and principles of scientific basis.

Do not mistake anything that I have ever said as forensic in nature..... Roger has never provided insight to me about the M&O press.... This was all strictly of my own concoction, and I had my own personal reasons for interest in it.... Roger is a person whom I hold in great esteem, and I serve as his disclaimer to all thoughts of press function and operation as being my own..... He was my mentor to the people and events that made the history, everything that I now believe in... (everything short of the press and a few isolated cause and effect issues)..... while I hold no position of credibility, my statements should not be considered as having any degree of forensic flavor.... I do stand behind at least 99.9% of all I have said previously though, based solely on my own understandings of what is possible and what is not.

edited to add:

Let me give you an example of numistmatic forensics..... Most people feel that the New Orleans mint coins (in general) were weakly struck, (something to do with the press).... logical assumption merely by gazing at the coins I imagine..... Investigation into the matter of why the dies supplied to that branch mint had such a low service life however concluded that the cause was lack of sufficient annealing capabilities for the planchets..... the planchets were hard when coined..... That is a FACT, arrived at through research of mint records.....

I added my own conjecture to that fact in that compensation was afforded either through first, increased striking pressure (which would have had negligible positive effect on the issue of bringing up the design)..... or secondly, decreasing the eject positioning of the upper die, which would bring up the design, but at cost of hardship to the dies..... that is cause and effect, (forensics).... (but merely speculative forensics), as I have no documentation to support my part of the scenario.