Post by admin on Jan 8, 2008 21:46:38 GMT 1
Read this on www.coinpeople.com
"I was browsing through an old French dental journal today when I came across an article which was illustrated with Roman and Byzantine coins. My attention was of course caught, and I read the article with growing horror as I realised its import.
Apparently some time in 1906 a rich American tourist, one Henry Rikelseenk, was in Naples and had broken his upper dentures. Presumably wanting to have something a bit different and distinctive to replace them he decided to have the replacement made entirely from gold, specifically from the gold of antique coins. Rather than simply melting them down to supply the metal (which would have been bad enough) he asked the dental technician to cut the portraits out of nine aurei, solidi, and an Augustale of Frederick II from Sicily: apparently several American technicians had refused to do this, but eventually the one in Naples agreed to perform the act of vandalism. The portraits were curved slightly to make them the proper shape, and soldered into a curved bridge, all the while being careful not to damage them.
Luckily (?) he was sufficiently impressed by the magnitude of the task (he was destroying coins which at the time were valued at 30,000 francs equivalent to about £1,000/ $5,000 even then) to photograph the coins prior to the vandalism, so we do have a record of the coins, and also the resultant bridgework."
"I was browsing through an old French dental journal today when I came across an article which was illustrated with Roman and Byzantine coins. My attention was of course caught, and I read the article with growing horror as I realised its import.
Apparently some time in 1906 a rich American tourist, one Henry Rikelseenk, was in Naples and had broken his upper dentures. Presumably wanting to have something a bit different and distinctive to replace them he decided to have the replacement made entirely from gold, specifically from the gold of antique coins. Rather than simply melting them down to supply the metal (which would have been bad enough) he asked the dental technician to cut the portraits out of nine aurei, solidi, and an Augustale of Frederick II from Sicily: apparently several American technicians had refused to do this, but eventually the one in Naples agreed to perform the act of vandalism. The portraits were curved slightly to make them the proper shape, and soldered into a curved bridge, all the while being careful not to damage them.
Luckily (?) he was sufficiently impressed by the magnitude of the task (he was destroying coins which at the time were valued at 30,000 francs equivalent to about £1,000/ $5,000 even then) to photograph the coins prior to the vandalism, so we do have a record of the coins, and also the resultant bridgework."
