George Floyd, the Minnesota man who died last week during a botched arrest, was been accused by some reporters as being wanted for the forgery of a $20 bill.

"Forgery" would mean he made it himself. He was accused of passing a forgery, knowingly or unknowingly. Most people don't even look at their change, they just spend it at the next place.

According to August 2019 article, the U.S. Secret Service is working with [Minnesota] retailers to stop the flow of counterfeit money coming into the Twin Cities. If cashiers, who work with money all day long, need education to spot fake notes why should anyone expect that a regular citizen would recognize it? I have the skills to detect counterfeit currency, but since the pandemic I have been touching the bills I receive as little as possible. https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2019/08/13/trying-to-be-very-aware-twin-cities-retailers-on-lookout-for-counterfeit-cash/

Here is a January story on $900,000 of counterfeit US currency seized by Customs and Border Patrol in Minnsota. https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/counterfeit-bills-seized-at-minnesota-border-international-falls-china/89-920a8623-b78c-4d52-a735-6eb913ffd98d

Kharosthi coin inscription, Unicode

The coin:

Indo-Greek, Menander I (165-135 BC), drachm 2.34g 16mm

The obverse Greek inscription: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ (Basileos Soteros Menandrou; of King Menander, the Savior)

The reverse Kharosthi inscription: 𐨨𐨂𐨱𐨪𐨗𐨯 𐨟𐨟𐨪𐨯 𐨨𐨅​𐨣𐨪𐨯

The reverse inscription usually appears in coin catalogs as Maharajasa tratarasa Menamdrasa; “The Savior King Menander”. The Kharosthi might appear in a table at the end. It's real text here. (You may need a font to see it.) You can cut and paste it to other documents.

One of my hobbies is trying to put coin inscriptions into computer format. Hopefully I came close. Step one was glancing at the Unicode Kharoṣṭhī proposal, especially the table at the end.

This is what I came up with:

Ma-u-ha-ra-ja-sa 𐨨𐨂𐨱𐨪𐨗𐨯 𐨨𐨂𐨱𐨪𐨗𐨯
ta-ta-ra-sa 𐨟𐨟𐨪𐨯 𐨟𐨟𐨪𐨯
Ma-e-na-d-ra-sa 𐨨𐨅​𐨣𐨪𐨯 (using a zero-width space to help position; using ra instead of the compound dr) 𐨨𐨅​𐨣𐨪𐨯

Deep dive into Ex-Numis provenance search

A Gift for Polydektes blog is excited to announce that Dr. Jonas Emmanuel Flueck will be presenting a detailed look at the ancient coin provenance searching software Ex-Numis via Zoom later this month.

I blogged about this in in 2016.

The presentation will be Saturday May 30th 1pm EDT. To attend please RSVP Ed Snible. This presentation is hosted by the Bronx Coin Club and the Ancient Numismatic Society of Washington DC.

Dr. Jonas Emmanuel Flueck created a computer system that uses digital image recognition to match coin images to an extensive database of sales catalogs. Five years ago he founded Ex-Numis, a provenance rediscovery service for ancient coin collectors and dealers.

Dr. Flueck will tell us about the importance of provenance for both legal and scholarly reasons, his technology and database of almost one million ancient coins, and what he has learned about provenance in today’s ancient coin market.

Dr. Jonas Emmanuel Flueck is the executive director of the auction house “Lugdunum GmbH” (Switzerland); a former treasurer at the IAPN; the general secretary of the Association of Swiss Professional Numismatists; and the founder of Ex-Numis.