No worries, I'll try to get a better camera tomorrow.
Thanks. My weirdo buddy knows all sorts of strange facts about various coins, including the history and what the propaganda point was for the images depicted, manufacturing methods, dates and places of manufacture, etc...
If you watch documentaries, you may have seen 'em out on digs and identifying coin finds as they come out of the ground, or after they get cleaned up. He used to live in the UK and was on that Time Team series a few times. He's now got a shop in Hallowell, which is where I met 'em. He comes up to the house a few times a year but he's weird and like a coin savant, or something.
Wow that sounds incredibly interesting. I bet he has some stories
He's not the most interesting buddy that I have. I spent a lot of time in academia, but I attended a different university than the next one I'll tell you about.
His name is John and he's a big, geeky looking guy. He's pretty much the kind of guy you'd expect to see at a Dungeons and Dragons convention - and he goes to them.
He has a Ph.D. and that's not unusual for my buddies. I know lots of folks who have doctorate degrees.
Except...
John majored in history.
He didn't just major in history, he majored in the middle-ages.
He didn't just major in the middle-ages, he majored in English weapons. Yes, his entire body of research has been about English weapons. It gets worse...
It wasn't just any weapons - and it wasn't armor. No, he's very fluent in those subject, but he further specialized in pole arms.
So, he's pretty much the only specialist in English pole arms from the middle-ages - on the entire planet.
He pops up in the occasional documentary, as well. He's fluent in many other pole arms, as well as other weapons and armor. But, damn it, he's the world's foremost expert in English pole arms from the middle ages.
He can, and does, give whole lectures on the subject. He's now a professor of history, but that's his discipline.
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