“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid.” 

~Valery Alekseyevich Legasov was a Soviet inorganic chemist and a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.

Who Knew

I’m sitting here watching Chernobyl, a series by Johan Renck, released in 2019. I’m watching it for a second time. Simultaneously, I’ve completed an order on Ebay for 8 ancient coins, era approximately 300 B.C. to 93 B.C. All were acquired for around $20-$30. You might be asking, ‘what inspired this purchase now?’ and I’d have to say it happened by way of an eye-catching lot listed by a local auction house I follow; a two coin set issued of the Southpark Characters, by Agoro licensed for the famous animation cartoon.

Never in a million years would I have dreamed a pop-culture trading coin released in October of 2025 would lead me to the ancient coins of 300 B.C. but here we are.

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Chernobyl just blew its roof off, and with it dissolved the cohesion of the USSR. The film indicates this rupture by a muted but exponential quaking of an apartment in Pripyat as a woman walks past her window, the faint glow in the distance of a sinister, uncontrollable fiend escaping into the fabric of this earth. The tyrannical Titan has been struck, but the sinking is slow, invisible, the radiation seems to work from the inner core of the regime outward, and it is relentless. God was executing a precise blow.

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This film is exhausting, constantly we ride on the lies through every scene, the truth screaming in everyone’s faces but the hearers don’t listen – refuse to listen – and instead perpetuate the lie. And the one becomes a dozen becomes a thousand and reality is warped.

This film is brilliant.

Goofy Cartoon Characters, But So Aesthetically Pleasing

I love these coins, the colors, the proportions, and how satisfying to see that the background is also cohesive between each of the coins. I think repeatedly, why? How am I so attracted to these things when I’m a grown woman and never followed Southpark anymore than the general public when I was in my twenties? It’s the aesthetic aspect, the curves, colors and lines and they are such happy looking little characters…

It’s Called By Numismatics, The Chase

And that’s not all of them. There are five sets of ten each increasing in rarity. I was so mesmerized by the prospect of what is called blind boxes that I went online even before the auction was over and purchased two additional boxes from a reseller so I could experience the anticipation of….did I get the elusive gold coins? When these things happen, I roll with them. Life is short, buy some blind boxes of amazing coins and experience something different in life, it’s worth it….maybe even golden worth it. I’ll have to update my findings with you once I’ve received and opened the Agoro treasure chests.

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This film drives the viewer through the radiation filled corridors of a nuclear disaster, foreboding and claustrophobic, you breath the softly floating snow burning orange, your skin feels a nonexistent vibration of radiation….how these people suffered. How people suffer under the effects of Communism.

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Algorithms

Of course if you search one coin the invisible workings of the internet delivers you many, many coins. In a random video I watched a coin dealer named Harry on the other side of the United States (Oregon precisely), pick up a small dark coin from a collection tray. ‘Here’s a denarius from biblical times.’

I was struck. Jesus could have carried that coin in His pocket, I thought. Maybe it was one of the silver coins Judas received in a pouch from the Pharisees to betray Him. And so, the die was struck.

I’m not smart. If I were smart I’d have the idea first. I am far from having the idea of collecting coins from biblical times first. But at least I stumbled upon it now just for the sake of my own joy of the prospect of owning a coin that circulated during that time period. And there are many to choose from. Some I find aesthetically pleasing and others not so much. The fascination of experiencing that ancient coin was too powerful to ignore.

To start my collection, I bought the denarius from Harry and his coin shop. I vetted him, no worries. It’s perfect really since he was the one who introduced me to ancient coins in the first place. I’ve since added the 8 coins I spoke of earlier to start a base for the collection. I find some so interesting that I’m acquiring them regardless of when they might have circulated.

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Jesus, God….the engineers just looked directly into the raging inferno of the dragon’s core, their faces — the flesh is going to melt off.

This film…..

When my thoughts drift to nuclear fission, my mind never fails to superimpose this biblical text:

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

Revelation 8

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Experiencing vs. Admiring Coins

The Southpark trading coins are shiny and encased in plastic. I have no desire to take them out – though I did take them out to carefully wipe the fingerprints off the polished surface. Yes I know the danger of damaging them, but it was my first purchase and they weren’t my fingerprints so, they had to go:) The first purchase can never be forgotten. I like that about collections. It’s the unsophisticated and unlearned approach that is ultimately most endearing, the rest are acquired with increasing scrutiny and knowledge. But those first endeavors always hold a special place in the heart, because of the flaws.

The ancient coins, on the other hand, I don’t want behind plastic, sealed away and untouchable. This is not where the value lies for me. I don’t care how fragile they might be or how much wear I might put on them, I want to hold them and experience them in a completely different way than the modern pop coins of Southpark, which look perfectly at home in their protective cases.

Some Greek craftsman working in his shop struck that 293 B.C. coin with his fingers and hands and sweat, it traveled in the coin purse of a traveling merchant to spend it on grain, or a pouch of water or maybe a fine glass of wine for his wife. I want to experience that coin, 2319 years later….

Twenty Twenty Six

An Endless Quest

Now I haven’t even touched on how this lead me also to the Keepsake Memory box my father left me. I thought he was keeping his spare change in a box tucked into the bottom of the case, perhaps collected in part upon certain celebratory events throughout his life.

Little did I know what interesting treasures he was keeping in that box:) It deserves a whole post unto itself – if only because it was my daddy.

Hope everyone is having a beautiful winter, lots of snow here. Until next time, many blessings friends~