Old coins 4

This one is a copper turner from Scotland, during the reign of Charles II (c. 1639 - 77). It has a crowned "CR" (Charles Rex) on the obverse and a barely discernible thistle on the reverse (I may have these backwards).

It's Fish Knife Friday #17

This one's a bit chunky and crude...

Happy tiki

I made this guy many years ago as a sort of totem. At the time, I had taken a keen (if misplaced) interest in shamanism. He is made from a hunk of bald cypress wood that I found washed up on a beach. The feather is probably that of a hawk or an owl - also found on a beach but illegal to possess. Technically, any non-game bird feather is illegal to possess in the U.S. is illegal to possess without a permit, including blue jay, flicker, and seagull feathers, among others.

This law makes every kid who sticks a gull feather into his or her sand castle at the beach a federal criminal. Thus, I call for the immediate trial and incarceration of these delinquent miscreants post haste. Let us fill Fort Leavenworth, Kansas with their evil, plotting criminal minds and rid the world of this ongoing threat to our security and well-being.

More stuff I pulled out of the water #8

These little stone spheroids are thought to be old millstones - not the big round affairs with the square hole in the middle, but smaller stones. I'm not sure what they would have milled, but I found them downstream of an old mill site when I was a young lad. They came from a gravel bed in Duck Creek, near Smyrna, DE, and I found them when I was about 9 or 10 years old while poking around in the creek for crayfish. They are probably archeologically significant (in context), alas, in my youth I failed to understand the importance of such things.

SMLE

When starting this blog, I was reluctant to post "modern" weapons, meaning basically centerfire rifles and pistols. However, it would seem that I've already violated that principle in several posts (this one, this one, and this one), so it now seems like not such a bad idea. This is especially so since I've posted a number of WWI, WWII, and even Vietnam items, making my previous decision to shy away from centerfire weapons kind of moot. Thus, I'm going to post some of the "real" guns from my collection.

This rifle is a Britsh Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) rifle, Mk 4. It is chambered in .308 (the NATO cartridge) rather than the original .303 British. It's a good, robust shooter - not as accurate as the German Gewehr Mauser '98 due to the way the action functions, but the SMLE is rugged and field worthy. This example appears all original, and has not been sporterized or otherwise altered. SMLE's are still used in places formerly occupied by British forces, and I suspect that somewhere in Afghanistan, someone is still taking pot shots at our troops with a venerable SMLE.

Incidently, the SMLE was used as the basis for the blasters used by the Jawas in the original Star Wars movie (now called "Episode IV"). Also, Han Solos's blaster is basically a relatively unaltered "broom handle" C 96 Mauser pistol. How's that for trivia?

A painting? Again?

Yup. This is a pelican at the Tavernier Wild Bird Center in the Florida Keys. I adopted her through a donation, and felt compelled to do a painting of her sitting on the roof of the pelican shelter there.

Old coins 3

This one is a copper liard from the Spanish Netherlands, 1710.