46 replies to this topic

[Master of Coin]

Hey folks! I just wanted to let you guys know that something very strange has happened just in the last few weeks. As some of you know, I have been making coins for George's world for several years now, including the iron coin of the Faceless Man. Mintage now stands at a bit over a thousand. The first 500 pieces took about two years to sell. The second 500 have sold just in the last couple of weeks! I was suddenly SWAMPED with orders from ebay and my online store and private requests. It appears that a bunch of denizens of another forum have adopted the Faceless Man as their group "challenge coin" and they've all bought them, by singles or pairs or dozens or as many as five dozen at a time. I had to call a halt to roll sales just so I could keep enough singles to fill small orders! So I am currently gearing up to do a fourth pressing, hopefully within the next couple of weeks. But just wanted to give you a heads-up before these other guys scoop them all up.

As before, I am still offering a special deal to the Ice and Fire forumites for direct sales by paypal, singles are $10 each with free shipping in US, $1 per coin shipping outside.  When rolls are available again they will be $60 for a roll of a dozen, paper-wrapped and specially mint-sealed. (some folks are collecting intact unopened rolls)  I can be contacted directly at        maringer at arkansas dot net       to make arrangements if you are interested. Please mention this board when emailing.

Be well!
Tom Maringer
mintmaster

[Tomer]

Looks awesome. Is it possible to ship to Israel?

Also, I didnt quite understand the deal were getting, and also, how can the paypal transaction can be carried out (or where).
Sadly I dont have my money for the Longclaw replica, atleast I can have this cool thing!

[servethe_Realm]

What a cool talent, I love the Aegon, Visenya and Rhaenys coin! And of course the Faceless Man coin. How does one get into minting?

[Master of Coin]

Tomer, on 21 May 2012 - 07:53 PM, said:

Looks awesome. Is it possible to ship to Israel? Also, I didnt quite understand the deal were getting, and also, how can the paypal transaction can be carried out (or where). Sadly I dont have my money for the Longclaw replica, atleast I can have this cool thing!

Hello Tomer! Yes I can ship to Israel. The nice thing about a small thin object like this is that it can be mailed in an ordinary envelope. For a single coin it's light enough that it does not need a customs declaration. I gave my email address above, where I accept paypal. I wrote it out longstyle so that robot dataminers could not snag it. Just put it back together.    maringer at arkansas dot net   See?  It would be $11 for one coin shipped to Israel.

servethe_Realm, on 21 May 2012 - 08:04 PM, said:

What a cool talent, I love the Aegon, Visenya and Rhaenys coin! And of course the Faceless Man coin. How does one get into minting?

Hello ServeTheRealm! Yes it's an unusual thing nowadays. They heyday of private mint shops was probably 1750 to 1850 where the centers of the business were Birmingham England and Providence Rhode Island. Today most minting of pins and badges and buttons and such is all outsourced and modern computer controlled machining techniques and they use low melting point zinc alloys (pot metal) and electroplating. I got into it because of Tolkien... I wanted to see and hold in my hands the silver pennies that Frodo needed to buy Bill the pony. I searched all over and nobody was making them. Just when I despaired I chanced upon an antique screw-type manual coining press that was available! It weighed 2500 pounds and had just TWO moving parts and was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen... like something directly out of Leonardo's sketchbooks. Even though it was an antique, not many collectors are interested in such massive machinery, so it was being sold for barely over the melt value of the metal. I HAD to buy it, if only to save it from the scrap-heap.  And then of course I had to learn how to make dies... and then I had to come up with blanks to strike on the dies... and twelve years later here we are! I have a webpage here:
http://www.shirepost.com/Coinage.html
that might answer a few more questions. Towards the bottom of that page there's a workshop-tour link:
http://www.shirepost.com/ShopTour.html
The blue one is that first press I mentioned. Since then I have come up with several more. The green Waterbury Farrel is my current favorite and most of the GAME OF THRONES coins are being minted on that press.

[servethe_Realm]

Truly amazing! Its very inspiring that you followed your dreams and what a chance encounter it was finding that machine!

[Dracarya]

Wow! I will be hunting this down once I get some monies. $11/£7ish to ship to England?

[Tomer]

Master of Coin, on 22 May 2012 - 08:19 AM, said:

Hello Tomer! Yes I can ship to Israel. The nice thing about a small thin object like this is that it can be mailed in an ordinary envelope. For a single coin it's light enough that it does not need a customs declaration. I gave my email address above, where I accept paypal. I wrote it out longstyle so that robot dataminers could not snag it. Just put it back together. maringer at arkansas dot net See? It would be $11 for one coin shipped to Israel.

I see that rolls are a dozen- how much do you take for 4,5 coins? I know myself and I am bound to lose it a few times
Also, do you know if putting a small whole in it is possible? would be awesome to make a necklace out of it.

I'll pm you to make sure the email is correct.

Edited by Tomer, 22 May 2012 - 05:55 PM.

[Master of Coin]

Yes I can do 4 or 5 singles, but they are still $10 each. Singles come in archival plastic flips with printed inserts. Rolls are just 12 coins together in a mint-sealed paper wrapper.

Yes it's possible to drill a hole to make a necklace. But iron is not a very good material for a necklace, it leaves rust-colored marks on your skin. So I make brass ones for wearing. It's $1 extra for each one to be drilled and set with a ring.

[SamanthaofTarth]

Email sent!

Payday is coming, so I am treating myself.

[Prince Lodey]

Thanks Tom - just ordered, I was missing a couple coins in my collection.  Glad to hear business is going well!

[Master of Coin]

I just finished the striking on the fourth pressing of the Faceless Man iron coin. The press counter finally stopped at 1,576 after every blank was mashed. I'm still working on finishing and rolling. They will be avialable to ship on Friday June 1! I've got them in my online store as always at https://secure.gcmco...products_id=291, $5 shipping is added to each order no matter how many you buy.

But for members of this forum doing direct paypal orders I'm offering singles with free shipping in US for the time being, and $1 per coin for shipping outside.

Also, something NOT found in the online store or elsewhere... is rolls of a dozen coins at half price... $60 / roll! Limit 12. Again, free shipping in US and $12 outside for any number of rolls up to 12. The rolls are rather cool and some people are actually collecting them intact. They're in printed paper wrappers with custom mint seals on the ends, good paper. To open a roll you don't have to bang it on an edge like those real-world bank-rolls. You squeeze hard between opposite corners and it bursts open! Nice touch when you're handing out coins to a group!

They'll be ready to ship Friday!

Have fun!

Tom

Edited by Master of Coin, 29 May 2012 - 09:35 PM.

[The Last Reyne]

First a bought a few coins and they look great. Second, have you considered offering the coins as necklace medallions? I think some of these would look great on a leather cord.

Edited by The Last Reyne, 01 June 2012 - 03:11 AM.

[SamanthaofTarth]

My 12 coins have been ordered, some in brass for jewellery, some in Iron, some drilled for jewellery: some twice, some once. In other words, Tom had a right daft and awkward customer, so a BIG Thank You Tom for being so willing to work with my requests. Can't wait to get them in hand and start putting my jewellery plans into action.

[SamanthaofTarth]

My coins arrived this morning! Love them!! Thanks once again Tom.

[Master of Coin]

You're very welcome! Sounds like they went through the mails just fine. Good luck stringing them together and all! Have fun!
Tom

[SamanthaofTarth]

They arrived a-okay. And I didn't even get hit for six with any import tax which is a double bonus. And I am having fun. The double-drilled coins are now strung together as a bracelet and I'm working on the necklace as we speak.

[A Bear covered in Fluff]

Wow this is really cool!
If you went to any convention artist alley this summer you'd sell out for sure in the first day.
With the season finale, your business will only improve!

I would love to get a roll
how do i contact you? lol
also since you do metal work maybe i can ask you if you do commisions If you did jewelry as well

Edited by DontCallMeLadyFluff, 07 June 2012 - 11:08 PM.

[Master of Coin]

Hi DontCallMeLadyFluff: Glad you enjoy! I've sent a PM with contact info. Yes I do a lot of other items besides GOT coins. Lately I've been into buttons... as in sew-on buttons for clothing and costumes. I became interested in buttons because of the famous episode in THE HOBBIT where Bilbo loses his waistcoat buttons on the doorstep of the goblin cave. I knew that metal buttons were made in much the same way as coins, really just a coin with the addition of a loop-shank on the back, but I always thought of them as the "poor stepchild" of coins. But in doing research about equipment and techniques I discovered that it was really the other way around. Matthew Boulton was a buttonmaker in Birmingham in the middle 1700s, at a time when buttons were an integral part of clothing fashion, and people would change their buttons to keep up with the latest trends. The mechanical techniques and especially the artistic innovations taking place in the button industry went far beyond the staid and traditional work being done at the Tower Mint, where coins were still being broadstruck by hand because that's the way it had always been done. Despite staunch resistance from the mintmaster, eventually Boulton was tapped to completely rebuild the mint based on the modernized equipment he had invented, including the collaring rim-forming method still in use today.

My daughter set me up a flickr page with some photos that she took of a small selection of my pins and buttons and knobs.
http://www.flickr.co...184@N07/sets/  

Have fun!
Tom

[KiNgDeeM]

Master of coin I emailed you a few days ago.

[The Last Reyne]

If I wanted to buy some coins and have them drilled for a necklace how would I put in such an order?