I went to a coin show with scarlettina and littleelfhat this morning, and it was a tiny show, about 12 dealers at a small hotel. The dealers in antique and medieval coins who I was hoping to visit weren't there at all, so I spent my time digging through a treasure chest of foreign coins that were marked "1/2 Off": the clearance bin.

This brought out the childish glee in me, because it was a *good* treasure chest. There were Edwardian shillings, a farthing, an East African coin showing lions (for scarlettina, recently returned from Kenya), a black zinc coin from 1940s Germany, a beautiful Churchill commemorative, 3 pence and Victorian half pence, a coin from pre-unification Germany (meaning before Bismarck's unification, a 1-kreuzer coin from the tiny 1850s principality of Baden with tiny leaves), not to mention a Chilean eagle and French Moroccan francs.

I bought the lot for lunch money. None are of special numismatic value, but they are quite beautiful.