The Technique of Discovery

E10　—　Lay them side by side, turn the difference into a question

Other subjects teach repetitions that someone has already found. This subject alone is different.

Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama　／　Reading time (main text): course text ~8 min + textbook ~208 min = ~216 min　／　Beyond the text: 13 exercises · 6 coins · 8 readings · 1 references

What this course teaches you to do

• You can set two cases side by side and write out the common and the different separately.
• You can turn the difference into a question.
• You can go looking, yourself, for material that tells against your own hypothesis.
• You can tell "an amusing coincidence" from "a coincidence worth investigating."
• Can compare descriptions of the same subject from multiple chapters and turn differences in perspective into questions.
• Can describe a 'transitional boundary' not as a single year but as a range, and treat that range itself as information.

TEXTBOOK

Lessons (8)

1. Line them up — not alike, but under different conditionsLine up not what resembles, but what shares something while differing in conditions.
2. Separate — write out the common and the different, mechanicallyWrite out the common and the different mechanically, in two columns. Start from the interesting bit and only what you wanted stays.
3. Turn it into a question — ask from the differenceAsk about the common and you arrive at an answer already given. Ask about the difference and you step onto an unexplored road.
4. Try to break it — skip this and it stays a hunchCounter-example, alternative explanation, bias in selection. Seek these three yourself and only then is a hypothesis a claim.
5. Reading About the Same Coin in Two ChaptersThe same silver coin can appear different from the perspective of its makers versus its users. The reward of cross-referencing lies in this very difference of viewpoints.
6. Describe Transitions as a Span — From Hammered to Milled CoinageA transition does not happen in a day. Describe the boundary as a span, using the four points: order, first, adoption, and last.
7. Seeking Counterexamples — How to Strengthen a HypothesisStrengthen a hypothesis with counterexamples. If it breaks, fix it by adding conditions, and state any unfixable counterexamples in the conclusion.
8. Turning Chance into Scholarship — The Pot, the Heavy Machinery, and the DetectorEven if a discovery is accidental, it is the recording that makes it a science. When, where, and with what it was found—this is the essence of its value.

Case studies — applied in the materials (8)

• Newton's Great Recoinage　Britain　1696　The mint in the Tower of London
  One half of §3. The scene where Newton stood on the side of restoring the fineness.
• A town of cash, a country of paper　Japan　1835　the gold mint, Edo
  The other half of §3. Check in the original why Japan stood on the side of lowering.
• The eight reales　Spain　1649　The Potosí mint
  One of the 12 stops holding coordinates on all five axes. Good practice for finding something to line it up with.
• "Not worth a continental"　United States　from 1781　The states after the fighting has passed
  Also one of the 12. It holds four B-axis tags — the stop with the most coordinates of all.
• The pillar dollar　Spain　1732　The Mexico City mint
  Section 5. The narrative of the issuers. Please compare this with the Pillar Dollar from the American section.
• The country of the Spanish dollar　United States　the 17th–18th centuries　A colonial port in the Caribbean
  The other part of Section 5. The narrative of the users. Please note that there are various theories and reservations regarding the origin of the dollar sign.
• The pillar dollar　Spain　1767–1773　The Potosí mint
  Section 6. The "end," forty-five years after the decree. Here you can get a real sense of the span of the transition.
• The silver of Massalia　France　the end of the 6th century BC–the 5th century BC　An olive grove at Auriol, Provence
  Section 8. A story of chance and record, of how a broken pot carried France's oldest coin hoard.

Assessment

13 exercises in this course (7 check, 0 compare, 6 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.

References

• MANTIS — ANS collection database — American Numismatic Society　The American Numismatic Society's collection database (based on Numishare). Allows searching by mint, hoard, and findspot, with visualization on maps and charts.

Only works and primary sources whose existence has been verified are listed.