Projects by Zenacast, metal coin sets of the ancients
Created by Arthur Pittsley Solomon's Pentacles 44 ancient Talismans Kickstarter
Creating metal coin sets from ancient times for gaming, divination or collecting
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Backerkit invites and pledge switching.
almost 3 years ago
– Thu, May 13, 2021 at 01:53:43 AM
Hello to all
Backerkit Invites
I will be sending out 5% of the backerkit invites out tomorrow (or possibly later tonight). Backerkit likes creators to send out 5% of their invite first to make sure everything is working well before sending them to everyone. Its a good idea since if there is a problem 5% can be fixed easier than 100%.
If all goes well then the remaining 95% go out tomorrow.
Pledge Switching
I have set the pledge manager to allow backers to switch their pledge levels. Since there is a lot of additional addons available I am aware that backers may want to remove some of their pentacle sets to add a goetia or tarot set and this switching of pledge levels will help make that much easier.
There is a message on the welcome screen telling how to switch pledges and on the addon page also.
My wife's Instagram and Facebook page if you want to see some more images.
Pledge manager and addons status
almost 3 years ago
– Sun, May 09, 2021 at 04:27:12 AM
Hello to all and I hope everyone is doing well.
The pentacle coin production continues with nothing new to report.
The Goetia molds
Some good news about the goetia coin set addon, it seems that I was remembering the 2 sided molds as being a lot more worn then they really are.
I had a good look at the 2 sided goetia coin molds this week and they are still very serviceable and should be fine for casting a lot more 2 sided sets, the goetia coin molds have 20 cavities each (coins cast per mold) and the worst mold has 5 unusable cavities with most molds only 1 or 2 unusable cavities.
I think there is plenty of good spins left in these molds, certainly enough that I wont need to limit the number that can be added to rewards.
mold showing good and bad cavities
the green circle shows a nice clean edge of the coin where the metal enters the cavity while the red circle shows how the mold rubber has been torn and will leave a lump where the metal fills in the torn spot. I will just mark these bad cavities as unusable and remelt the coins and with so few cavities bad it will not be an issue at all.
The discoloration is because this mold has been spun about 250 times, you can see the heat affects the edges the most since it is concentrated on a small area.
Pledge Manager
The backerkit pledge manager invites (survey) should be going out next week and will have addons for both 1 sided and 2 sided goetia sets and since many has asked we will have my tarot and ancient zodiac sets also.
I will set the pledge manager to allow backers to switch their rewards so they can add or remove sets and have also added a pledge setting of 0 sets for backers that want to choose from the addons available and will not be restricted to the Solomon's 44 pentacle sets and will be able to choose any addons in a à la carte fashion.
pricing should be $36 for a goetia set, $85 for a tarot set, $20 for a major arcana tarot set, and $16 for an Ancient Zodiac set, all these sets are coins only. (these prices should stay but might change $1-$2)
(tarot set will be lowered nicely since we now have a faster/more efficient procedure for the hand finishing)
I may do a stretch goal pack with the pendants and ring from the Goetia project as an addon also (we are deciding about the rings).
I still have a few more things to determine with the addons so it may delay the backerkit invites for a few extra days since this is all getting figured out while we are working on the 44 pentacles coins.
If you do not want any addons then nothing will change for you and your rewards should ship out in June (earlier than the September estimated delivery)
For backers that add any Goetia or Tarot addons then your rewards will most likely ship out in September/October since there is additional casting needed for them.
I will have an update right before sending out the backerkit invites for the survey and will have some better instructions for changing your pledge level.
Its a big change that was kinda unexpected but I think we can roll with it pretty well and not change the outcome to much.
I do want to thank all the backers that posted with their support for the Goetia addons, it made it really easy to make the addon decision.
My wife's Instagram and Facebook page if you want to see some more images.
Coin casting, the too hot melting pot, goetia coin set requests
about 3 years ago
– Tue, May 04, 2021 at 09:07:25 AM
Hope everyone is doing well
Spring is rolling into summer here in Iowa and we can see snow and 70F temperatures within the same week so its always a n interesting time of year for me.
The Casting
Coin casting is proceeding along about as expected and we are about 1/2 of the way through the casting, we had a bit of a glitch this past Friday (you may have seen the photos already if you suscribe to my wife's Instagram)
The saga of the too hot melting pot.
it seems the melting pot started out a bit to hot for some reason and made it all the way up to 850 degrees before all the magic smoke escaped from the control box. (once the magic smoke escapes from something it no longer works)
only kidding about the magic smoke it was from the melting relay :)
It seemed one of the relays failed, causing it to stay on (should have turned off at 820 degrees) until it burnt up.
this is the bad relay
it should look like this
I didnt take a picture of my relay, so this image is from the internet.
I had a spare relay and the melter was up again in about 1 hour
or so it seemed at first until the new relay was also heating up a bit to much and since the failed one was burned to much to notice that like the relay above it was a 40 amp relay when the spare I had replaced it with was a 25 amp so there was no casting for a couple of days until a new 40 amp one was purchased.
Its all together now and working just fine.
That's about all there is to report for the production status at this time as it all seems to be still on schedule.
Past Goetia coin Kickstarter.
I have had many backers contact me about the availability of goetia coin sets (from my past project) unfortunately we did not have any extra sets after the project was finished and have been busy with other projects since.
We may however be able to do a second run (possibly) after this project is all shipped.
The main problem with a second run will be that the 2 sided coin sets molds are very used and may cast coins with small "glitches" or "extra bumps here and there", not every coin will have problems but many may.
The good news about the glitches is with the "ancient" look of the goetia coins these small imperfections will look right at home and should not be an issue if not within the sigil design area.
The 1 sided coin molds will not have any problems since they have only cast about 1000 sets (most backers chose 2 sided sets so the 1 sided molds have a lot of life left).
These sets will be offered to backers from this project first and after they are all shipped then to backers from my other projects, it is doubtful if they will be offered to the general public.
(anyone that has contacted me up till now will be able to get them also)
the goetia production would be after the 44 pentacles rewards have shipped or possibly as a addon option through the survey for shipping together (after the non goetia addons rewards have shipped of course)
To get a better idea of the number of backers interested in a survey addon for combined shipping or just interested in a goetia set please leave a comment or just comment with a yes.
My wife's Instagram and Facebook page if you want to see some more images.
Final days and extra pledge info
about 3 years ago
– Mon, May 03, 2021 at 12:34:36 AM
A big thank you to everyone who has backed this project (and also to everyone who has just had a look) with almost 2000 supporters I feel that the decision to reduce the extras and just focus on a low cost set of pentacles was the right way to go.
I thought that a no frills project with just the basics might be a welcome start to 2021 and will hopefully allow me to ship much earlier than the stated delivery date.
For USA backers wanting to add extra sets to their pledges you can adjust your pledge amount by the cost of your sets, if your sets costs are $18 then you can add extra sets for that amount.
of course single set backers should change their reward to a 2 set to get a lower set cost and a 2 set backer should change to a 3 set reward since there are discounts for the higher reward levels.
You can add sets at your early backer price if you are an early backer.
international backers will have an additional shipping cost depending on the number of sets, the 3 set shipping saver is the best cost over 3 sets that and it will be at least $15 extra shipping for each set added (USPS is $15 or more per pound after 2 pounds)
USPS does have a flat rate 20 pound box at $90 that will probably fit 20 sets if anyone needs that let me know .
At this time there will be no pledge manager (keeps the cost down) but I will have a question in the survey if extra sets are wanted at that time.
the survey will go out when we are close to shipping so shipping address's will be accurate.
For all the backers asking about addons for my past projects being available unfortunately at this time that would add a huge complexity to this project since I am not prepared for the additional time and process.
I will most likely make old coin sets an addon option for my next project since I will know in advance to plans for the extra.
My wife's Instagram and Facebook page if you want to see some more.
Again thanks to all the past and present backer for showing so much support for my projects
Arthur
2,193 backers brought this project to life
about 3 years ago
– Mon, May 03, 2021 at 12:34:26 AM
Thanks to the 2,193 backers that have supported this project, I now have 2,957 sets (or 130,108 coins) to make. (please don't interrupt me when I am counting or I have to start over)
I will not be sending out the survey until about 2 weeks before the rewards are ready to ship to hopefully avoid any shipping address changes.
For backers new to Kickstarter you will be asked to fill out what is called a survey with your shipping address and any other information I will need to send you your rewards so don't worry that I don't have that information yet.
The shipping date of September 2021 was used to cover any unseen issues that could pop up during production so at this time we are well ahead but we still need to
1. make 44 production molds
2. cast all the coins.
3. finish all the coins.
4. package all the coins.
so being ahead of schedule on the first day is not really a factor.
(there are lots of little things in between all the steps but you get the picture.)
My wife's Instagram and Facebook page if you want to see some more.
