Currency for the Current-sies

Our barony voted us in as baron and baroness.  The barony jokingly calls people in that position (that is, voted in, but not yet invested) Nextcellencies.  We had the benefit of time to follow around the baron and baroness (Their Excellencies) to understand better how things are done, a really nice opportunity (big thanks to our predecessors!).  Meanwhile we had to start thinking about some things, like tokens to give out at our investiture.  

A variety of media came to mind and ultimately we decided pewter coins would be nice.  We’d not worked in pewter before so my other half did what he does so well--dove in, research mode activated, and a snowstorm of ideas started coming together.  We decided on images, got help from a friend who’s worked with metals, starting talking through this with her, had several meetings, and made multiple attempts at crafting coins in different ways.  Finally, we settled on pouring molten pewter (it has a fairly low melting point so can be easily melted) into a high heat plastic square holding a metal impression in it on the one side and then quickly using a metal stamp with another impression on the top side.  The three of us spent hours making over 100 coins, remaking them when they came out crooked, uncentered, with too much pewter over the edges, etc.  Many went back in the pot to melt and try again. With time running out many hours were spent buffing edges with a Dremmel to make the coins look neater and remove sharp spots, then holes were drilled in each so they could be strung on a ribbon.  While not modern day machined perfect, I had to allow that medieval coins weren’t perfect either.  I think we did all right.






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