Cool and Collected

    A Chinese gambling operation in Walker St (now Carroll St), in 1904. PHOTOS: SUPPLIED

    Lotto’s poetic oriental origins

    Every Saturday as thousands of Kiwis hold their Lotto tickets in eager anticipation of becoming overnight millionaires, few would realise they're part of a tradition that goes back to Otago’s 19th-century Chinese gold seekers.

    A serving of history

    Italian maiolica lustred salver, circa 1520. PHOTO: OTAGO MUSEUM

    A serving of history

    ln the European spring of 1957, Dora de Beer was holidaying in Rome having recently arranged the shipment of a small but exciting group of Italian ceramics to Otago Museum in Dunedin.

    A tale of a head

    Both sides (above and below) of a Julius Caesar denarius, minted in January-February BC44. At...

    A tale of a head

    Almost from the beginning, coins were decorated on their obverse (the "heads" side) with designs, some abstract or geometric, other naturalistic in the form of all manner of animals and insects - about 100 types are now known.