New Acquisition

[Airhead]

Thought some on the forum would be interested in a holiday "souvenir" found in a junk shop in SE Asia. It is definitely silver but I am unsure of the purity and weighs 1.9 kilos.

 

[Melon]

Is it a bowl? Intriguing. How would you go about testing the purity of something like that? Or are you not bothered? How did you arrive at a price for it? 

So many questions about this mysterious item!! 

[Airhead]

What it is purporting to be is a Song Dynasty 50 Tael Silver ingot or Sycee. It is known as a “flowery Sycee” due to the ridges and ripples around th edge caused as the metal cools and contracts in the mould and indicates high purity of around 98% to 99%. I am sceptical as Chinese items are quite often forged. With Sycee they do use high grade silver as the market value of a Sycee is well in excess of the silver content.

The price I paid was what they asked I would not like to give the exact figure, but it was a good deal. I am unsure how to test it’s purity other than finding someone with a precious metal verifier or taking it to a bullion dealer who would probably have experience in the verification of metal content. I intend to take it to Christies in London to be appraised so might stop off at one of the London PM dealers. Failing that one of those kits from fleabay.

[Melon]

6 hours ago, Airhead said:

What it is purporting to be is a Song Dynasty 50 Tael Silver ingot or Sycee. It is known as a “flowery Sycee” due to the ridges and ripples around th edge caused as the metal cools and contracts in the mould and indicates high purity of around 98% to 99%. I am sceptical as Chinese items are quite often forged. With Sycee they do use high grade silver as the market value of a Sycee is well in excess of the silver content.

The price I paid was what they asked I would not like to give the exact figure, but it was a good deal. I am unsure how to test it’s purity other than finding someone with a precious metal verifier or taking it to a bullion dealer who would probably have experience in the verification of metal content. I intend to take it to Christies in London to be appraised so might stop off at one of the London PM dealers. Failing that one of those kits from fleabay.

Good luck, it's an interesting looking hunk of silver for sure! 

Let us know what you find out at Christies 

[KRMint]

That thing looks really cool lol. Nice find. 

[CadmiumGreen]

Just found this in the latest weekly issue of Coin World...

[daca]

1 hour ago, CadmiumGreen said:

Just found this in the latest weekly issue of Coin World...

If the item bought by Airhead is real, he could be in big trouble. Les hope this is just a "tourist souvenir".

[Melon]

9 hours ago, daca said:

If the item bought by Airhead is real, he could be in big trouble. Les hope this is just a "tourist souvenir".

Why would he be in trouble? 😮

[daca]

3 hours ago, Melon said:

Why would he be in trouble? 😮

From the article posted by CadmiumGreen the piece (if authentic) appears to be part of the China culture heritage, that means Airhead  will need a special license to export the piece (hard to get under a communist regime), if caught trying to leave the country without this license he faces hefty fines and jail time.

If the piece was already outside China without proper papers this means was smuggle out ......... very big problem.He will never be able to sell the piece, at least not at an auction.

[Melon]

34 minutes ago, daca said:

From the article posted by CadmiumGreen the piece (if authentic) appears to be part of the China culture heritage, that means Airhead  will need a special license to export the piece (hard to get under a communist regime), if caught trying to leave the country without this license he faces hefty fines and jail time.

If the piece was already outside China without proper papers this means was smuggle out ......... very big problem.He will never be able to sell the piece, at least not at an auction.

Yikes!! 

@Airhead - if in doubt, you can always bury it! According to this thread, it'll be the UK government on the hook for it's legal status if it's buried 😆

 

[daca]

6 minutes ago, Melon said:

Yikes!!

He will be OK as long he has the proper documents of  provenance and ownership.

 

In my country (Romania) I can own a culture heritage piece of my country, I can sell the piece to anyone, including foreigners  (after I receive a special accord from the Minister of Culture, they have first dibs), however the piece will never be allowed to exit the country. 

[Melon]

2 minutes ago, daca said:

He will be OK as long he has the proper documents of  provenance and ownership.

 

In my country (Romania) I can own a culture heritage piece of my country, I can sell the piece to anyone, including foreigners  (after I receive a special accord from the Minister of Culture, they have first dibs), however the piece will never be allowed to exit the country. 

Given he found it in a "junk shop", I'm going to say 99% chance it's not an original and 99.99% chance it doesn't come with paperwork 😄

[ShaolinStacker]

3 hours ago, Melon said:

Yikes!! 

@Airhead - if in doubt, you can always bury it! According to this thread, it'll be the UK government on the hook for it's legal status if it's buried 😆

 

Based Hans Herman Hoppe Quote

[Melon]

47 minutes ago, ShaolinStacker said:

Based Hans Herman Hoppe Quote

Huh?

[ShaolinStacker]

29 minutes ago, Melon said:

Huh?

That highlighted quote in the thumbnail is from Hans Herman Hoppe

Based meaning - Awesome

 

[Melon]

53 minutes ago, ShaolinStacker said:

That highlighted quote in the thumbnail is from Hans Herman Hoppe

Based meaning - Awesome

 

To be honest I'm not even sure where that image comes from, it's not in the original post on the thread I tried to share 😂

[ShaolinStacker]

Yeah, I was wondering, but glad it's there hahahahaha. It's from a famous book by a philosopher Hans Herman Hoppe called "Democracy the God that failed". Basically the idea is that Communists, advocates of Democracy, Welfare parasites, & Socialists are a direct threat to private property and property rights and therefore must be physically removed from society. Preferably via Rotary Aircraft of some sort. Democracy is basically just mob rule parading as justice.

[999magnum]

I think Airhead skipped town.

[AgCoyote]

On 15/12/2019 at 14:46, ShaolinStacker said:

Based Hans Herman Hoppe Quote

How in the world did a Hoppe fan end up in a place like Venice Beach?:) I love Hoppe, he is the most brilliant philosopher of our time.

[ShaolinStacker]

6 minutes ago, AgCoyote said:

How in the world did a Hoppe fan end up in a place like Venice Beach?:) I love Hoppe, he is the most brilliant philosopher of our time.

You'd be surprised at how many of us there are in California. California was almost exclusively red until late 90s. The state has just been subverted by allowing illegal immigrants to vote virtually stripping the native Californians of representation. Furthering Hoppes case. Yeah Hoppe is great I've just moved past libertarianism as its completely toothless against the forces that subvert it.

[AgCoyote]

Just now, ShaolinStacker said:

You'd be surprised at how many of us there are in California. California was almost exclusively red until late 90s. The state has just been subverted by allowing illegal immigrants to vote virtually stripping the native Californians of representation. Furthering Hoppes case. Yeah Hoppe is great I've just moved past libertarianism as its completely toothless against the forces that subvert it.

You're exactly right that Hoppe recognizes a purely libertarian society's weakness against those forces. It's so true.  There are plenty of conservative/libertarian types in California it's just Venice Beach is something of a left wing magnet.

What has happened to California is very tragic indeed. I feel for the decent native born population there. Their home has literally been stolen from them and destroyed in their lifetime. I'm originally from the South but live in AZ these days. I have to say visiting Los Angeles for the first time a few years ago was an extremely eye opening experience.

I hope a second term of Trump will bring about a very rigorous enforcement of immigration law and hopefully deportation of these uninvited guests. It's so damn offensive when these Democrats say undocumented immigrant. I'm sorry they are illegal and willfully breaking and disrespecting our laws.  Do Americans have a right to unlimited immigration into Mexico or Canada? Of course not, nor should they.

I fear we will rue the day we allowed so many people in from a neighboring country that we've had past conflict with.

[mr1030]

I moved to Southern California when i was a kid in 1969, and it is a shame how much it has deteriorated since the '80's and '90's.  It used to be such a beautiful place to live. Not any more and it is way too over populated.  I am retiring in 3 1/2 months and moving to Arizona,  and I can't wait.  Nothing left in California that I will miss.

[Airhead]

Sorry, have not skipped town, just been away.

Took the item to Sharps Pixley in St James London and had the silver content verified. Results of which was, pause for dramatic effect, negligible (bugger).

I was not that surprised as I only paid £50, so worth a punt but this time no banana. It does make a very ornate paperweight and I am using it as such.

As far as “cultural appropriation” is concerned my views are not in line with current politically-correct virtue signaling especially where China is concerned.

[RacerCool]

On 15/12/2019 at 11:02, daca said:

From the article posted by CadmiumGreen the piece (if authentic) appears to be part of the China culture heritage, that means Airhead  will need a special license to export the piece (hard to get under a communist regime), if caught trying to leave the country without this license he faces hefty fines and jail time.

If the piece was already outside China without proper papers this means was smuggle out ......... very big problem.He will never be able to sell the piece, at least not at an auction.

This reminds me of various Jackie Chan movies which deal with the issue of culturally important objects being smuggled out of China. One of the best simply for the amazing action is "Legend of Drunken Master". Though of course most of his movies have amazing action scenes, along with the humor.

On 16/12/2019 at 16:47, AgCoyote said:

What has happened to California is very tragic indeed. I feel for the decent native born population there. Their home has literally been stolen from them and destroyed in their lifetime. I'm originally from the South but live in AZ these days. I have to say visiting Los Angeles for the first time a few years ago was an extremely eye opening experience.

And San Francisco used to be a beautiful city. But I visited there a couple years ago and wow, it's literally a filthy dump now.

On 17/12/2019 at 07:32, mr1030 said:

I moved to Southern California when i was a kid in 1969, and it is a shame how much it has deteriorated since the '80's and '90's.  It used to be such a beautiful place to live. Not any more and it is way too over populated.  I am retiring in 3 1/2 months and moving to Arizona,  and I can't wait.  Nothing left in California that I will miss.

Oh great. That's a side effect of California going down the toilet: now they all come to Arizona. 😁

You're likely going to Prescott, Tucson, or Phoenix. But Phoenix is growing out of control, in my opinion. Way too big and only getting bigger, with everyone escaping both California, and the midwest and northeast winters.

[JakeBB]

Bring it to the shop and we can xrf gun it for purity cool purchase!