From esylum at binhost.com Sun Jun 4 23:59:12 2006 From: esylum at binhost.com (esylum@binhost.com) Date: Sun Jun 4 23:59:40 2006 Subject: The E-Sylum v9#23, April 4, 2006 Message-ID: <003201c68854$6803d5b0$5e6414ac@laptop035> Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 9, Number 23, April 4, 2006: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2006, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. WAYNE'S WORDS Among our recent subscribers are G. R. Tremblay, Wayne K. Schroll, Sandra E. Marxen, Bob Leuver, courtesy of David Ganz and George Kimmich, courtesy of Nick Graver. Welcome aboard! We now have 918 subscribers. This week we have a number of interesting reader queries on topics including an 1876 numismatic periodical, the best wood for library shelving, sources for archival bookplates, and Civil War identification discs. Closer to home we have a new E-Sylum archive feature that should make it easier to locate past articles on the NBS web site. And speaking of Internet resources, we have excerpts from a great New York Times article on the rapidly increasing body of online texts and the future of books. Even closer to your Editor's heart is an upcoming auction including items from my own collection. (Yes, I collect more than just books...) And finally, do you suffer from "collectile dysfunction"? Read on to find out. Have a great week, everyone! Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society BRYCE BROWN LITERATURE PRICE LIST AVAILABLE Bryce Brown writes: "I invite all E-Sylum readers to browse through my newly-updated numismatic literature price list. Many new items have been added this week. June special for E-Sylum readers: 10% off all items PLUS free shipping with your $100 order. Contact me via email at numismatics@att.net or visit http://home.att.net/~numismatics/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html " DOUG WINTER'S GOLD COINS OF THE NEW ORLEANS MINT: 1839-1909 Dave Ginsburg writes: "On behalf of Doug Winter, I want to let everyone know that his latest book, "Gold Coins of the New Orleans Mint: 1839-1909" has just gone to press. The publisher, Zyrus Press (www.zyruspress.com) expects that it will be available in late June or early July. This volume represents an updated edition of the author's "New Orleans Mint Gold Coins: 1839-1909", which appeared in 1992. This edition includes color photographs of each plate coin (over 100 in total), updated population estimates, comments on each coin's typical appearance (strike, surfaces, luster, coloration and eye appeal), and a discussion of die characteristics, major varieties, significant examples and auction record prices. As a "special treat", this edition includes a history of the New Orleans Mint and an illustrated overview of its operations by Greg Lambousy, Director of Collections of the Louisiana State Museum (a copy of Mr. Lambousy's article on the history of the New Orleans Mint that appeared in the March 2003 issue of Numismatist is available at http://lsm.crt.state.la.us/mintex.htm), and my essay discussing "How Gold Coins Circulated in 19th Century America", both written especially for this book. The press run for this edition is expected to be between 1500 and 2500 copies." CORRECTION: COIN WORLD'S COIN VALUES MAGAZINE Beth Deisher writes: "Thanks for the mention of Roger Burdette's article on the proposed 1942 half dime in the current issue of Coin World's Coin Values. Please note the name of the publication is NOT Coin Prices. (Coin Prices is a magazine published by Krause.) For those who do not receive Coin Values as a supplement to Coin World, it is also available on newsstands throughout the nation (Borders, Barnes & Noble, BooksAMillion and Wal-Mart -- to name a few) and is in the September 2006 issue." Mark Ferguson adds: "I am the U.S. Values Analyst for "Coin Values," meaning I do all the valuations for the magazine. We really appreciate the wonderful acceptance of this publication by the market since its introduction in 2003 and let me say that it's been an overwhelming challenge trying to keep up with this unprecedented bull market we've been experiencing during these past few years. Most dealers and advanced collectors have really been gracious and helpful to me. Thank you all very much!" [I'm sorry for the oversight - I had the issue right in front of me and still got the title wrong. Anyway, be sure to check out the articles in each issue - there are gems within. -Editor] E-SYLUM MASTER TABLE OF CONTENTS DEBUTS John Nebel has created a new master index of E-Sylum articles on the NBS web site. It?s one big huge page listing ALL individual E-Sylum articles in chronological order. This lets people scan the entire list or use their browser?s FIND feature to locate articles of interest. The page will be updated automatically as new issues are posted to the archive. Because of its size the page takes a few seconds to load even on a broadband connection, but once loaded it can be scrolled or searched very quickly. Many thanks to John for his volunteer efforts on our behalf. NBS webmaster Bruce Purdue contributed as well, with his suggestion to add some navigation links to the page. This new master table of contents should be a very useful tool for anyone searching for articles on particular topics. Be aware that some (OK, many) article headlines may not be terribly informative, and remember that the contents of the articles should be fully indexed in search engines like Google. So if you can't find what you're looking for in the table of contents, try a web search. Here's the direct URL for the master table of contents: http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_toc.html As examples of how the master table of contents can be used, two later items in this issue list E-Sylum articles on specific topics - the 1913 Liberty Head Nickels, and Bolen medals. ANS ONLINE CATALOGS UPDATED In a note to the ANS Yahoo mailing list Thursday, Sebastian Heath of the American Numismatic Society writes: "In preparation for the start of the Graduate Seminar, the public versions of the ANS library catalog and object database have been updated with information current as of yesterday (Wednesday, May 31st). These can be searched via the page: http://www.numismatics.org/search/ " To subscribe to the ANS mailing list, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amnumsoc-l/ 1876 ROBERT MORRIS NUMISMATIC PILOT PERIODICAL INFORMATION SOUGHT Edith Willey writes: "I am trying to find out some information about a flyer-type of numismatic ephemera: "Numismatic Pilot to Ancient Coins and Their Uses". It also says "La Grange, Kentucky Vol. 1 No. 1 1876". It refers to Robert Morris L.L.D. of La Grange, KY. There are two pages, front and back, 1-4. On page four it talks about the American Association of Numismatists. Have you any knowledge of this? It is about the size of a newspaper." [I'm away from my library. "Numismatic Pilot" sounds very familiar, but I don?t think I have any issues. Can anyone fill us in? -Editor] NATHAN EGLIT'S LIBRARY NUMERING SYSTEM Regarding Steve Pellegrini's question about his copy of "Coins of the Popes", David Gladfelter writes: "I believe that the Coffin book was in Nathan Eglit's library and that the number had to do with Mr. Eglit's shelving system. I have a different book from his library (a catalog) with his signature and the number 34. Nathan Eglit is one of Pete Smith's 1400. He is best known as the author of "Columbiana, The Medallic History of Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Exposition of 1893" published in the 1960s. He was a charter member of the Token and Medal Society (TAMS) and an associate editor of its journal." QUERY: BEST WOOD FOR LIBRARY SHELVING? Ed Perkin writes: "A while back there was much discussion on what everybody thought was the ideal home library. It was very interesting. My question is similiar in that nature yet still different. I plan on building my own shelves for my home library and am curious to know two things. First, is there a type of wood that is better for library shelves? I do not like metal and besides, working with metal is quite difficult and frankly I do not really know how to do it. The second is, what type of wood do others favor?" ARCHIVAL QUALITY BOOKPLATES SOUGHT Fred Reed writes: "I, like many members of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society and readers of The E-Sylum (probably) would like to find a source for numismatic or historically-oriented bookplates for the volumes in our libraries. If any reader knows of a source for archivally safe, custom designed bookplates (in other words, unique designs submitted by the individual collector), please let us know" JOEL MALTER LIBRARY SALE ARTICLE The May 29, 2006 issue of Coin World has a nice article by Jeff Starck (p112) on the upcoming sale of the Joel Malter numismatic library. Starck interviewed the 75-year-old Malter at length. Here are some quotes: "The end of my life is close and I thought, 'I don't want to be six feet under when my library is disposed of," Malter said, "What makes a collection so holy you can't disassemble it and let other guys collect it?" Malter began buying numismatic literature before World War II, when he was 10 or 11 years old. "I never passed by a bookstore that I didn't go in. I never passed up a coin book as long as it was adding to my library..." To view the auction catalog, see: http://www.maltergalleries.com THE FORD COLLECTION: THE AMERICANA SALE OF THE CENTURY Regarding Alan Weinberg's commentary on the most recent Stack's sale of the John Ford collection, George Fuld writes: "Alan's comments were most enlightening. I had the privilege of cataloging Ford's tokens and medals. I cataloged over 5,000 pieces (or lots). So far, the only parts sold have been the Hard Times Tokens and the struck copies. His merchant tokens are amazing and his political medals and tokens are probably the best ever sold. The four Nova Constellatio patterns remain to be sold. It is easy to picture seven more sales!! This is truly the Americana sale of the century." Tom DeLorey slyly writes: "Which one will contain the Western Assay Bars?" Bob Lyall writes: "I think it should be put on record that John Ford's first sale (to my knowledge) was his West Indian coins (plus some world countermarked coins) which were sold in London by Glendining on 16th October 1989 and expertly catalogued by Peter Mitchell of Baldwins. The evening after the sale, Baldwins invited buyers to a dinner party at Rules Restaurant just off the Strand in London, which was a quite delightful evening in the oldest restaurant in London. Indeed, Rules has another reason for fame. The Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, entertained Lily Langtree there frequently. Again, for the record, those collectors of plugged and countermarked "joes" might like to know there were some 34 West Indian and North American pieces in this sale." [Ford consigned important material to various sales throughout his lifetime, but I think the Glendining sale was the first where he was identified by name as a consignor. Has anyone compiled a listing of earlier consignments of Ford material? -Editor] AMERICANA IN THE NEXT AMERICAN NUMISMATIC RARITIES SALE John Kraljevich of American Numismatic Rarities writes: "ANR's next auction catalogue is online now at anrcoins.com. This sale is one of our semi-annual sales that gets into some more obscure material, including an extensive group of counterstamps, a collection of colonial currency, a group of Naval medals including a Henry Lee obverse cliche I'd never see before, some important Washingtonia, Conder tokens and other world coins, a pedigreed collection of encased postage, and some very neat related material like Civil War-era postage stamp envelopes and significant collection of Civil War-era cardboard money. QDB, Frank Van Valen, John Pack, and myself all worked on the exonumia -- we all enjoy it, know something about it, and like the break it provides from box after box of type coins that sometimes run together. It's hardly cost effective, but it lets our geek-factor get a chance to play. Of course, we all had fun U.S. coins to work on, too. The Springdale Collection of Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles is a beautiful group. There is a MCMVII $20 from the collection of Mrs. F.C.C. Boyd from another private consignor. Over 100 lots of half cents are included, including some from leading collectors. Gobrecht dollars and Pan-Pac $50s are represented by multiple pieces. It's a neat sale. The auction will be held in Rosemont in conjunction with the Mid-American Coin Expo June 21-23." [The counterstamps and Civil War numismatica were consigned by yours truly, so bid early, often and high. These collections were formed over 25 years, but I made the decision that it's time to set them free and move on to other areas of numismatics. The encased postage stamps are the highlight of the consignment, including many of the scarcer merchants. Here are a couple of my favorites: http://www.anrcoins.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00036935 http://www.anrcoins.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00036938 I began forming the collection in the early 1980s while working with Bob Kincaid and Fred Reed on the research that became Fred's landmark book on the subject. Access to Bob's population estimates allowed me to purchase some overlooked rarities with as few as 2 or 3 examples known. Besides the Civil War history connection, it was their rarity that attracted me to the series. Many of these are rarer than 1804 Silver Dollars or 1913 Liberty Nickels, yet are far more affordable. Less comprehensive as a collection but equally rare are the related postage stamp envelopes and cardboard scrip. The consignment also includes a Confederate Half Dollar Restrike, the accompanying Scott token, and a 1861-O U.S. Half Dollar with the famous obverse die break that led some to speculate that they may have been among the last coins struck by the Confederate States of America before they closed the captured New Orleans Mint. These I purchased from the legendary Bust Half collector, Chuck Erb of Pittsburgh. http://www.anrcoins.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00035801 http://www.anrcoins.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00035800 http://www.anrcoins.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00035798 http://www.anrcoins.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00035799 Merchant counterstamps were another field I got into, this time as a result of a presentation by Roy Van Ormer at a meeting of the Western Pennsylvania Numismatic Society. When Dave Bowers auctioned Roy's counterstamps in 1987 I purchased several from the sale and subsequently added more by purchasing from dealers and private collectors. Like encased postage stamps, these coins are also teeming with history and many are rarer than hen's teeth. For fun I pursued a set by undertype, collecting one of every different U.S. coin type I could find. At the time this was a way of putting together a poor man's type set, for a counterstamped Bust Dollar could then be had for less than a comparable circulated coin without such a mark! Here are a few examples: http://www.anrcoins.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00035889 http://www.anrcoins.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00035890 http://www.anrcoins.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00035887 I hope my old friends find good homes, and look forward to adding the catalog to my library (and getting extra copies for my kids, so someday they'll know where the seed money for their college fund came from). -Editor] LARGE CENT TAKES A BEATING FROM COUNTERSTAMPS One of the pieces John Kraljevich had fun cataloguing for the June ANR sale is an 1802 large cent nearly beaten to death with counterstamps. It was one of my favorite coins as well. With permission I'll quote the catalog description: "One of the most interesting countermarked large cents we've ever encountered, marked by three different Boston area silversmiths with a total of 16 stamps! The rims have been hammered or "spooned" in to create a high rim, but abundant detail remains on the large cent. The Davis and Brown mark, Brunk D-174, was the hallmark of a silversmithing partnership based in Boston ca. 1802-1820. Their mark is listed in Brunk only on an 1801 cent also stamped with the Bradbury mark and four eagle marks, identical to the piece seen here. That Bradbury mark, Brunk B-1003, and the eagle "pseudohallmarks" used to imitate more expensive English silver, were used by Theophilus Bradbury, active as a silversmith in Newburyport, Massachusetts until his death in 1803. An oval mark incorporating an eagle and Bradbury's name is seen on the reverse. His marks are known only on large cents dated 1802 and earlier. The final mark is the most enigmatic, unlisted by Brunk, but seemingly the mark of Boston silversmith John MacFarlane, active ca. 1796. Perhaps these Boston silversmiths knew each other, or perhaps their businesses and effects were purchased by one of the three, but this coin draws them together in a most appealing way." http://www.anrcoins.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00036977 [This is about as far away as you can get from a high-grade type coin, but it sure has character. -Editor] MEMBERS OF THE CITIZENS COINAGE ADVISORY COMMITTEE E-Sylum reader Kavan Ratnatunga in Sri Lanka was the first to locate the web page for the U.S. Mint's Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee. The members are: John K. Alexander Leon G. Billings Bill Fivaz Dr. Rita Laws Dr. Mitchell Sanders Donald Scarinci Kenneth Thomasma Dr. Ute Wartenberg Kagan Sherl Joseph Winter http://www.ccac.gov/aboutUs/members.cfm David Ganz adds: "It's not the Mint, but an independent entity." [Dave's correct - the committee was set up by Congress as an independent advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the themes and designs of all U.S. coins and medals. According to the web site, "The CCAC serves as an informed, experienced and impartial resource to the Secretary of the Treasury and represents the interests of American citizens and collectors." Dave ought to know - he was a member of the CCAC from 1993 to 1996. There are short biographies of each of the current members on the web site. The committee's next scheduled meeting is June 21. The web site is very sparse however, and does not (that I can find anyway) state which committee member fills which role as defined by the enacting legislation. As I suspected, we do have some E-Sylum subscribers on the current committee, including Dr. Ute Wartenberg Kagan of the American Numismatic Society. -Editor] WHO WANTS THE CENT ABOLISHED? Dick Johnson writes: "The leading proponent of abolishing the cent is Representative Jim Kolbe, R-Arizona. He has introduced legislation in the House in past sessions and plans to do so again in coming weeks. Despite the rising costs of the cent?s metal components ? zinc and copper ? no one gives much hope for the passage of Kolbe?s bill. It will cost the U.S. Mint more to strike billions of the lowest denomination coins each year than their face value. Americans, according to numerous polls, do not want the cent eliminated. This despite the fact they cart cents home in change and pile them up on top of the dresser, or place them in jars, mostly without returning them to circulation and agreeing this is somewhat of a nuisance. Also there is a strong lobby, backed by the zinc industry, Americans for Common Cents, which supports continued striking of the cent. Congress, apparently, is nonplused about the cent crisis. It does not see the $13-14 million shortfall as serious, as long as the total seigniorage of U.S. coins is on the positive side. Congress cannot continue to stick its head in the sand for long, however. It will have to face up to the problem in the future. The answer, in this writer?s opinion, is to overhaul the entire U.S. coin structure at one time (a la the European euro), plan ahead, and incorporate some new coinmaking technology. Even the successful New Zealand recoinage plan took over twenty years. America is already behind in this planning. CNNMoney.com, which is the internet home of Fortune, Money and other business magazines, released an article June 2, 2006, which covered this situation in depth. It includes comments by Congressman Kolbe, Mark Weller, head of Americans for Common Cents, and others. It?s worth the visit: http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/01/news/newsmakers/penny/ " CIVIL WAR ID DISC INFORMATION SOUGHT Larry B. Maier, Esq. writes: "I am doing research on Civil War identification discs and in the process I am trying to identify die-sinkers and manufacturers of same. I have read a number of your on-line articles dealing with the dispersal of Scovill dies to 18 museums by Bruce Bazelon. Several Civil War identification discs bear a striking resemblance to Scovill products, especially the eagle style on certain merchant's tokens. I would greatly appreciate any information you could provide on these subjects, or any leads that might help my research such as how to contact Mr. Bazelon or the names of any museums that might have received id disc dies." KERENS, TEXAS GOLD COIN HOARD UPDATE Dave Ginsburg writes: "My thanks to those who have written about the Kerens, TX hoard of gold coins that I asked about a few weeks ago. I've discussed the hoard with members of the Navarro County (Texas) Historical Society and it is generally believed that the hoard represents the accumulated savings of the owners of a large cotton plantation - so it looks like I can forget any colorful bank robbery stories! However, the presence of so many San Francisco double eagles is intriguing, especially in light of John Kleeberg's 1999 article in American Journal of Numismatics #11 about the mint-marked coins found in 1936 in the Hull, TX hoard. I'm still in the midst of my research, so I'd welcome any additional information." WILL POLYMER NOTES MAKE "PAPER MONEY" TERM OBSOLETE? Howard A. Daniel III writes: "I read Don Cleveland's item with much interest because polymer is becoming VERY popular in Southeast Asia. Here is how I see it. The Standard Catalog of World Paper Money (SCWPM) has mostly "paper" pieces in it but there are also other products like leather, cardboard, etc. The idea to re-title it as the Standard Catalog of World Printed Money (SCWPM) is not a bad idea and more closely identifies ALL of the pieces in the three volumes produced by Krause Publications. And as new products are developed, will they still be printed? ZIMBABWE $100,000 NOTE BUYS LOAF OF BREAD The Times of London published an article Wednesday about a new high-denomination note needed as a result of high inflation: "A New $100,000 banknote will be issued in Zimbabwe today. With a value of about 67p, it is worth only the price of a loaf of bread. Its introduction comes as the economy buckles under the highest rate of inflation in the world, currently at 1,042 per cent. The note makes its debut barely four months after the Reserve Bank introduced the $50,000 note, the highest denomination at the time. In only two weeks the Zimbabwe dollar has lost half of its value." ?Last week I filled a single trolley with $30 million of groceries, and I had to count out 600 notes of $20,000 at the checkout counter,? John Robertson, an economist, said." To read the complete story, see: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2205477,00.html BUTTON-JAR FIND: 1912 NEW ZEALAND FOOTBALL GOLD MEDAL According to a report published this week, "A British collector has paid ?3624 ($NZ10,800) for a rare medal a New Zealand woman has been keeping in her button jar. Daniel Parker, of Gawber, in Yorkshire, bought the Barnsley Football Club FA Cup winners' medal on the Internet from an elderly woman who inherited it when her brother died two decades ago." "Mr Parker said he had used savings he had earmarked for his new home to pay for the medal, but had since been offered up to ?10,000 ($NZ29,800) by other collectors. "I did some research and saw that other FA Cup winners medals from the 1940s and 1950s had sold for ?5000 and ?6000 so I knew it was worth it. I also thought it was important it came back to Barnsley." To read the complete story, see: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3687102a4560,00.html NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE ON THE FUTURE OF BOOKS E-Sylum subscribers Harry Waterson and Dick Johnson pointed out a great article in the May 14, 2006 issue of the New York Times Magazine titled "What Will Happen to Books?" It's a long and detailed article, a fascinating read. As someone who?s been around the Internet since before it was even called that, the possibilities of digital publishing are something I've been aware of for years, but the implications aren't obvious. This article does a great job of painting a picture of the future of books, and how the interconnection of online knowledge will change our world. The article mentions CMU Professor Raj Reddy and his "Million Book" project, which we've discussed here before. I used to work for Raj and he's an amazing individual. "In 2004, he borrowed 30,000 volumes from the storage rooms of the Carnegie Mellon library and the Carnegie Library and packed them off to China in a single shipping container to be scanned by an assembly line of workers paid by the Chinese. His project, which he calls the Million Book Project, is churning out 100,000 pages per day at 20 scanning stations in India and China. Reddy hopes to reach a million digitized books in two years. The idea is to seed the bookless developing world with easily available texts." "In several dozen nondescript office buildings around the world, thousands of hourly workers bend over table-top scanners and haul dusty books into high-tech scanning booths. They are assembling the universal library page by page. The dream is an old one: to have in one place all knowledge, past and present. All books, all documents, all conceptual works, in all languages. It is a familiar hope, in part because long ago we briefly built such a library. The great library at Alexandria, constructed around 300 B.C., was designed to hold all the scrolls circulating in the known world... Since then, the constant expansion of information has overwhelmed our capacity to contain it. For 2,000 years, the universal library, together with other perennial longings like invisibility cloaks, antigravity shoes and paperless offices, has been a mythical dream that kept receding further into the infinite future. Until now." "Corporations and libraries around the world are now scanning about a million books per year. Amazon has digitized several hundred thousand contemporary books. In the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford University (one of the five libraries collaborating with Google) is scanning its eight-million-book collection using a state-of-the art robot from the Swiss company 4DigitalBooks. This machine, the size of a small S.U.V., automatically turns the pages of each book as it scans it, at the rate of 1,000 pages per hour. A human operator places a book in a flat carriage, and then pneumatic robot fingers flip the pages ? delicately enough to handle rare volumes ? under the scanning eyes of digital cameras." "The least important, but most discussed, aspects of digital reading have been these contentious questions: Will we give up the highly evolved technology of ink on paper and instead read on cumbersome machines? Or will we keep reading our paperbacks on the beach? For now, the answer is yes to both." "Once a book has been integrated into the new expanded library by means of this linking, its text will no longer be separate from the text in other books. For instance, today a serious nonfiction book will usually have a bibliography and some kind of footnotes. When books are deeply linked, you'll be able to click on the title in any bibliography or any footnote and find the actual book referred to in the footnote." "The static world of book knowledge is about to be transformed by the same elevation of relationships, as each page in a book discovers other pages and other books. Once text is digital, books seep out of their bindings and weave themselves together. The collective intelligence of a library allows us to see things we can't see in a single, isolated book." To read the complete article, see: http://tinyurl.com/ntrla INDEX OF E-SYLUM ITEMS ON THE 1913 LIBERTY NICKELS The following is a list of twelve E-Sylum articles on the topic of the 1913 Liberty Nickels compiled by hand from the new master table of contents on the NBS web site: http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_toc.html NEW 1913 LIBERTY NICKEL PUBLICITY http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v06n22a05.html 1913 NICKEL TALE DEBUNKED http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v06n23a15.html MISSING 1913 NICKEL APPEARS http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v06n31a04.html 1913 LIBERTY NICKEL - ART KAGIN CONNECTION http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v06n36a05.html 1913 LIBERTY NICKEL BOOK IN WORKS http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v08n07a09.html 1913 LIBERTY NICKEL TRADES HANDS http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v08n23a14.html 1913 LIBERTY NICKEL AT WHITMAN'S ATLANTA SHOW http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v08n42a26.html 1957 ANA CONVENTION 1913 LIBERTY NICKEL EXHIBITOR MYSTERY http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v09n17a07.html 1957 EXHIBIT OF 1913 LIBERTY NICKEL http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v09n18a04.html ROCHESTER CLUB'S 1913 NICKEL DISPLAY http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v09n18a05.html QUIZ ANSWER: THE OTHER NICKELS IN THE 1913 LIBERTY NICKEL CASE http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v09n20a22.html MORE ON THE ORIGINAL HOLDER FOR THE 1913 LIBERTY NICKELS http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v09n21a18.html INDEX OF E-SYLUM ITEMS ON BOLEN The following is a list of three E-Sylum articles on the topic of Bolen medals compiled by hand from the new master table of contents on the NBS web site: http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_toc.html BOLEN COLLECTION SURFACES http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v01n08a05.html MUSANTE'S BOLEN BOOK NEARING COMPLETION http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v05n10a03.html BOLEN BOOK PUBLISHED http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v05n21a02.html BILL GROSS EXHIBITS STAMP COLLECTION Arthur Shippee writes: "In the Sunday May 30 New York Times is an article by Matthew Healey, "Stamp Exhibit shows complete 1800's set" on the Washington 2006 World Philatelic Exhibition. It highlights the collection of William H. Gross." Bill Gross is the famous bond investor mentioned in the November 6, 2005 E-Sylum when he completed his collection with a high-profile trade with Donald Sundman, brother of NBS Secretary-Treasurer David Sundman. MOST EXPENSIVE STAMP TRADE http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v08n47a04.html "Some of the rarest and most valuable American and foreign postage stamps are being displayed in a once-in-a-decade event, the Washington 2006 World Philatelic Exhibition." "Mr. Gross said in a telephone interview on Friday that he collected stamps as a child and resumed the hobby in the early 1990's as a way to "reconnect with my childhood." He said he was determined not to "get clipped"; his mother had once tried to invest by buying sheets of new stamps from the post office, only to find later that they were worth nothing more than their face value. Mr. Gross, 62, said he decided to bring his investment experience to bear and researched the historical trends in the auction prices of rare older stamps before immersing himself in the hobby again. He found that over the long term, scarce and high-quality specimens appreciated at least as well as the economy in general and provided a sound way to put serious money into collectibles. At first, Mr. Gross pursued collecting out of the public eye, exhibiting his stamps under the pseudonym Monte Carlo at national philatelic gatherings. He later went public and continued to develop his collection under his own name." To read the complete article, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/us/28stamps.html WORLD COINS WEB SITE Regarding Dennis M. Gregg's search for a great world coins web site, Larry Gaye writes: "Try http://www.zeno.ru/, a wonderful data base of incredible depth that keeps growing." [This is the Oriental Coins Database, featuring photos of over 31,000 coins. -Editor] PHOTOMICROGRAPHS VS MICROPHOTOGRAPHS Dr K.A. Rodgers of Auckland, New Zealand writes: "The observation in the last issue on 'microphotographs' vs 'photomicrographs" in the last issue brought back fond memories. This was a matter that had come up frequently in one of my former incarnations. I published a lot of such images and learned early on that usage all depended on editor and publisher's style manual. It had little to do with the venerable Webster or any other dictionary, but everything to do with who was paying for publication. Indeed it was from a US publishing house that I learned the words of an American arguably even more famous than Webster: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." MARTIN PURDY ON TRANSACTION PRICE Last week, responding to Martin Purdy in their discussion of New Zealand coinage reform, Dick Johnson wrote: "He states "Final bills will be made out to the last cent, as above[before], but if you pay in cash, the final total will be rounded up or down to the nearest ten cents, as appropriate, just as they are to the nearest 5 cents at the moment." THAT is the definition of "transaction price" - after rounding up or down." Martin Purdy writes: "I stand by what I said. Here is Dick's original paragraph for reference, with a further comment from me to follow: "The dime is now the lowest coin in circulation. All prices are now quoted in multiples of 10 cents while the cent remains a "money of account." Contracts and quantity sales and purchases can be quoted in the old cents ? or even fractions parts of a cent! ? but the "transaction price," when the final check is written, it is in a multiple of a dime." Once again, no. The only time you will pay in multiples of 10c is if you pay in cash. If you use a credit or debit card, or write a cheque, you pay to the last cent, not the last ten cents. In exactly the same way as we have been paying down to the last cent by all means other than cash since 1990, even though there have been no circulating coins smaller than 5c during this time. And the reference to "fractions of a cent" is about 35 years out of date, as I noted." CORRECTION: CHINESE PENALTY FOR COIN DEFACEMENT Regarding last week's item on the penalties for coin melting in Taiwan, Ken Berger writes: "Doesn't "... not over one year but less than seven years" just mean less than one year?" Bob Lyall caught this as well. He writes: "I somehow think the penalty for defacing coin in China is not likely to be "not over 1 year or less than 7"!! A lot of negatives, but I suspect a typo for between 1 and 7 years." [Many thanks to our sharp-eyed readers for all of their corrections. -Editor] THE MYSTERY OF THE STOLEN COINS The Telegraph of India sponsored a writing contest, and one of the submissions is "The Mystery of the Stolen Coins." "The next day Raj Mukherjee could be seen driving his green Ambassador down the posh Mandalay Road. He drove up to a mansion of red bricks and ivy. On the left hand side of the gate there was a faded plate that read ?Richard Davidson: Numismatist? As he walked into the grounds there was an old world charm to the place ? the house looked a century old. There was also a sad neglect to the place." ?I collect old coins as you may have figured out. There are in my collection both valuable and invaluable coins...but they are all my treasured pieces. Recently I made a bargain ..a fantastic one if you ask me! You must have read of the Gangarampur unearthing..." To read the complete article, see: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060602/asp/jamshedpur/story_6301213.asp BOOK: IN FLAGRANTE COLLECTO - CAUGHT IN THE ACT OF COLLECTING So why do we collect? Every one of us could articulate a different set of reasons for why we've been attracted to our hobby. A new book by a New York University art professor explores the collecting impulse. Below are excerpts from the book's promotional web pages, but my favorite description appeared in a review by W.O. Goggins in the June 2006 issue of Wired magazine: "In Flagrante Collecto can help anyone survive, ahem, 'collectile dysfunction' Part cultural anthropology, part memoir, this encyclopedia of obsession does for collecting what Darwin did for natural selection. Visually, it's The Origin of the Species by way of Andy Warhol." "In Flagrante Collecto explores and catalogues our impulse to acquire the incidental miscellanea of the past. From author Marilynn Gelfman Karp?s perspective, collecting is a calling, not a choice, and in this book she examines the impulse to acquire and its modus operandi, describing the essential reasons why anyone collects anything from gold coins to fingernail parings." http://www.inflagrantecollecto.info/ "According to author Marilynn Gelfman Karp, collecting is a calling; and those who are driven to collect unloved objects are the purest collectors of all. In this literary and sophisticated celebration of humble objects, Karp shares her passionate insights on what she calls the "rapture of the capture." In Flagrante Collecto is a vividly illustrated book that is equal parts cultural history, personal memoir, and coffee table objet d'art. The 1000 color photographs that fill this book tell stories of lost and found objects. Ignored by many, these figural matchbooks, buttons, erasers, cigar rings, pictorial seed packets, and other items are hunted and gathered with Ahab-like tenacity at flea markets, antique shops, and collectible shows worldwide." http://www.hnabooks.com/index.php/d///0810955407/ Dick Johnson adds: "Novelist Anatole France once said: "It is good to collect things, but it is better to go on walks." So walk on over to the coin shop and buy something!" LEAST COMPETENT BANK ROBBER? According to a Reuters report, "A would-be Japanese bank robber asked staff how he should carry out the crime before meekly obeying a request to leave and then accidentally stabbing himself in the leg with a knife he was carrying." To read the complete story, see: http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=12395591 FEATURED WEB SITE: COINS AND CONSCIENCE This week's featured web site is suggested by Ron Benice. He writes: "I'd like to nominate an online exhibition at the Harvard Business school entitled "Coin and Conscience: Popular Views of Money, Credit and Speculation." It contains seventy works of art from the last five centuries depicting coins or paper money in various guises ranging from wheels on a chariot pulling the world to something being dispensed by the devil." http://library.hbs.edu/hc/cc Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. For more information please see our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/. There is a membership application available on the web site at this address: http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_member_app.html To join, print the application and return it with your check to the address printed on the application. Membership is only $15 to addresses in the U.S., $20 elsewhere. For those without web access, write to: David M. Sundman, Secretary/Treasurer Numismatic Bibliomania Society, P. O. Box 82 Littleton, NH 03561 For Asylum mailing address changes and other membership questions, contact David at this email address: dsundman@LittletonCoin.com To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, just Reply to this message, or write to the Editor at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com Those wishing to become new E-Sylum subscribers (or wishing to Unsubscribe) can go to the following web page: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All past E-Sylum issues are archived on the NBS web site at this address: http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_esylum_archive.html Issues from September 2002 to date are also archived at this address: http://my.binhost.com/pipermail/esylum From esylum at binhost.com Mon Jun 12 09:04:49 2006 From: esylum at binhost.com (esylum@binhost.com) Date: Mon Jun 12 09:05:58 2006 Subject: The E-Sylum v9#24, June 11, 2006 Message-ID: <006f01c68e20$c9e2f5f0$8d07000a@laptop035> Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 9, Number 24, June 11, 2006: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2006, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. WAYNE'S WORDS Among our recent subscribers are Dr. Richard MacMaster, courtesy of Dave Bowers, Bill Bugert, courtesy of Dick Johnson, Bill Yarger, Remy Bourne, Peter Mosiondz, Jr., David M. Walsworth and Canan Ozbil. Welcome aboard! We now have 925 subscribers. Who will be number 1,000? Due to technical difficulties, this week's issue did not go out until Monday morning. Sorry! And speaking of difficulties, regarding the mangled date on last week's issue, Harold Levi writes: "I know, this was a test to see how many readers would notice the wrong date on the last issue - - April 4, 2006? A year or two ago, Karl Moulton, in one of his fixed price catalogues, commented in the description of one of the 1880s auction catalogues that there were no airmail stamps in the nice run of stamps listed in the catalogue. I asked Karl the same question, was this a test?" Well, Harold was the first reader to report noticing the E-Sylum date problem and Karl was second; David Gladfelter was the third. Thanks for keeping me honest! At least we nipped the problem in the bud. As noted in an earlier E-Sylum, "The New York Times used the new millennium to fess up to a mistake that had appeared on its front page every day for more than a century." http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v03n01a03.html And how many noticed the YEAR in that issue's header? 8-) http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_esylum_v03n01.html On another topic, I don?t know how to configure our email system not to tell people to send submissions to esylum@binhost.com, but please don?t. Always email them to me at whomren@coinlibrary.com. This is more of a problem for people who use the Digest option. Since we only have one issue a week digests are unnecessary, so if you subscribed to the digest option, consider changing your subscription. When you hit Reply to a regular (non-digest) version of an E-Sylum issue, your reply will go to the correct address. This week's lead item will be a shocker for those who haven?t heard the sad news. Next is a report on results from George Kolbe's 100th numismatic literature sale, followed by reports on new books on coins and medals ranging from Elizabeth I to outer space. Also in the shocker category is a report from Forbes magazine that investors in the Central America gold treasure apparently have yet to be paid, and the proceeds have gone missing. Two articles discuss the disposition of bank corporate archives, one dispersed long ago but another, dating to 1803 which may someday be made available to researchers. Inquiries this week range from a verification of John J. Ford's signature to an 1871 Strobridge sale lot of Magdalen Island coinage. Query answer topics include the Feversham Hoard, the Devonshire sale catalog, the two versions of the Delieb-Roberts book on Matthew Boulton, Civil War identification discs, and an outpouring of information on The Numismatic Pilot. Ever wonder where the phrase "a Penny for your thoughts" came from? Read on to find out. Have a great week, everyone! Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society JOEL MALTER 1931-2006 As we noted last week, Joel Malter was recently interviewed by Coin World about the sale of his numismatic library. "The end of my life is close and I thought, 'I don't want to be six feet under when my library is disposed of," Malter said." Joel Malter passed away in the early hours of Monday June 5. George Kolbe writes: "I attended Joel Malter's library sale Sunday; it was a phenomenal success. On Monday I received a call from a friend attending the remainder of the auction to inform me that Joel died in the middle of the night. Before I left the auction I had congratulated Joel on its remarkable success and shook his hand; he was in good spirits. As I am sure Joel would have liked, the sale continued. When our time comes, as it must, I cannot imagine leaving on a higher note." Chris Hoelzle of Laguna Niguel, CA writes: "Joel Malter, who was VERY pleased with the results of the first day of the auction of his 45 year collection of Numismatic Literature on Sunday June 4, went to bed a happy man. He awoke at 4 am, collapsed and died. Efforts to revive him failed. I attended lot viewing at the Malter library in his home Saturday evening and Joel was well and in good spirits but seemed tired from all the work involved in setting up the auction. During the Sunday auction, he seemed very alert and was involved in calling out late phone and mail bids in to Michael Malter (his son) the auctioneer. The day was horribly hot - more than 100 degrees in the library that served as the auction room. Joel took a break during the afternoon when the lack of breeze and the high temperatures were getting to us all. After the bidding was closed for the day, Joel came back and seemed to be in good form - congratulating bidders, helping them pick their lots from his beautiful library shelving and helping reconcile the invoices. Everyone left the auction at about 7 pm in an upbeat mood. Wonderful books, and a great feeling of friendship and enjoying a once in a lifetime chance to purchase items from such a tremendous library. At 7 am Monday morning, I received a phone call from Michael Malter telling me what had happened to his father. I was in shock. It was one of those events where once I had hung up the phone, I just shook my head trying to decide whether it was real or just a bad dream. The family decided that the auction would go on. Everything was in place - bidders in attendance from as far away as the UK, the internet live auction connection, the mail bids, phone bids - everything was in place. The family uniformly stated that they "knew" that Joel would want the auction to continue. The family was very shaken by the events of just a few hours prior. Michael had a family friend, who is also an auctioneer, call the lots. After just a few bumps during the first few lots, all went smoothly. As a real family-run operation, the various family members would tell us privately about his love of the books, his wonderful home and the pride he had in his library. I remember talking with Joel a few years ago about his fabulous book collection and he told me that he wanted to make sure the books would go into the hands of other collectors of numismatic literature when he no longer needed them. A gentleman to the end - he made sure that we got the benefit of his life's work." On Thursday, Mike Malter posted a very nice farewell letter to his father on the Malter company email list. Describing his father's entry into the coin business in 1961, he wrote: "A large family required a change in occupations. He now took a huge chance ... and ventured away from teaching and to start his own company that dealt with his love of history and coins. Joel L. Malter and Company was born with its world headquarters in the garage of his Venice home. They say that timing is everything and my dad had just that touch. When he got into the coin business in the early 1960's there was a plethora of coins and collectors and little competition. He soon learned the tricks of the trade and turned what started out as a one man coin business into one of the largest and most successful firms of its type in the world by the 1980s." [Thanks to Larry Mitchell for forwarding a copy. -Editor] Kerry Wetterstrom, Editor/Publisher of The Celator writes: "I was just told this morning about Joel's passing and I did know him and his son Mike, who has been managing the family coin and antiquity business for some time now. Quite tragic and sad, especially considering the timing -- the day after the sale of his beloved library. Or perhaps it was a blessing as at least he was able to enjoy the fact that his books fetched record prices. I printed a two-part article by Joel about his library and how he acquired various rare titles over the years in the March and April 2006 issues of The Celator. Joel was a pillar in the ancient coin hobby in the U.S., and many collectors (and dealers) think of him as their mentor. He was the founder of the (new) Numismatic Fine Arts, a name acquired from Edward Gans, and subsequently he hired Bruce McNall to work for NFA. When Bruce and Joel decided to part ways, Bruce purchased the rights to the NFA name from Joel. Interestingly enough, today the rights to the NFA name are co-owned by Classical Numismatics Group (Victor England and Eric McFadden) and Freeman & Sear (Rob and Tory Freeman and David R. Sear). Eric, Rob, Tory and David all are former employees of NFA, and I believe that the hope is to revive the firm's name someday, and restore it to its former glory, so-to-speak. Of course, Joel continued on with his eponymous coin firm after selling NFA to Bruce McNall, and he built a business dedicated to collectors by a collector. Joel's deep knowledge and love of numismatics was reflected in the just concluded sale of his library. Joel and I shared an interest in the coinage of ancient Egypt. While I was still in high school, I was given a copy of his Auction No. II (Joel L. Malter & Co., Inc., held on Feb. 23-24, 1978), which contained many Egyptian rarities. This catalogue was my primary reference for many years, and when I finally met Joel in person at a Los Angeles coin show in 1983 (C.O.I.N. or the Convention of International Numismatists, held just prior to the San Diego ANA, as I then drove from L.A. To San Diego with Frank L. Kovacs, another California dealer whose library rivals Joel's for ancient numismatics), I told Joel this and he seemed quite pleased by this little fact." [Many thanks to everyone who forwarded information to me for this issue. I contacted Malter's office for confirmation and was asked not to publish anything until Mike had a chance to respond. Since I was unable to get out a timely special issue, I waited until our usual publication date. Our thoughts go out to the Malter family. -Editor] KOLBE 100TH SALE RESULTS The results of George Kolbe's 100th sale are in: "On Saturday, June 3, 2006, George Frederick Kolbe/Fine Numismatic Books conducted their 100th auction sale, issued in four catalogues, at the Long Beach, California Coin and Collectibles Expo. It was a remarkable success. The pre-sale estimates came to $317,000 and 90% of the lots sold for a total of $496,000 (including the 15% buyer premium, as do prices noted hereafter) Highlights include: a remarkably fine copy of Ricaud de Tiregale?s superbly produced 1772 work on Russian medals @ $5,865; Pope Innocent XI?s superb large paper copy of Claud du Molinet?s classic 1679 work on Papal medals @ $6,325; an exceptionally fine 1875 ?Nova Constellatio? edition of Crosby?s classic work on American colonial coins @ $11,212; one of only five large paper copies of Hickcox?s 1858 work on American coinage @ $40,250; a complete set of the American Journal of Numismatics @ $14,950; Copy No. 1, signed, of Newcomb?s work on 1801, 1802, and 1803 cents @ $1,725; a fine copy of the rare 1870 edition of the Maris work on 1794 cents @ $5,175; an original 1876 edition of Attinelli?s Numisgraphics @ $2,760; a superbly bound set of the first four large format Chapman Brother Auction Sales issues with plates, ex Harry W. Bass, Jr. Library @ $43,700; B. Max Mehl?s own Deluxe Leatherbound Edition of the famous 1941 William F. Dunham Auction Sale Catalogue @ $4,370; an unusually nice 1870s United States Treasury Department ?Vignette Book,? containing over 140 superb bank note engravings executed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing @ $9,200; and other lots too numerous to mention. A small number of copies of all four catalogues, including a prices realized list, are still available and may be obtained by sending $25.00 to the firm." NEW BOOK ON TOWER MINT HAMMERED SILVER COINS OF ELIZABETH I Paul Withers writes: "This morning we got the proofs of our book 'The Galata Guide to the Pennies of Edward I and II back from the printers. We are working on a book 'Anglo-Gallic Coins' which is going to have all of the very latest material and research. As well as which Galata Print Ltd is pleased to be publishing a new volume entitled "The Hammered Silver Coins Produced at the Tower Mint During the Reign of Elizabeth I" Size A4. Card covers. 84 pages, 18 of which are plates of illustrations of the coins, either photographs, or superb line drawings of punches. Price ?24 plus ?2 postage. Elizabeth inherited a currency that consisted largely of her father's debased coin, though by the opening of her reign the mint was once again striking in sterling silver and was producing the same denominations that had been struck by her grandfather and his predecessors. The coins however contained only two thirds as much silver as those of Henry VII and there is ample evidence that Elizabeth's hope was to restore not only the denominations but also the weights to what they had been in earlier times. But turning the clock back was not an option. Spain was transporting the treasure of the New World to Europe and the increased use of money in England required a new approach. Setting her dream aside, Elizabeth experimented with different combinations of denominations, and by the end of the reign had chosen a set that then remained unchanged until the introduction of decimal coins three and half centuries later. This excellent new work is written by I D Brown, C H Comber, and W Wilkinson, who may be known to some of you as David, Chris and Wilkie respectively. Even more of you may know the writer of this note, who stood on one leg and squinted through a camera viewfinder to take the photographs for the illustrations. Such books as this are not written without a great deal of painstaking effort and this one has been under construction for many years, each of its authors bringing his own special talents to the project. Chris Comber has an eye for the unusual, Walter 'Wilkie' Wilkinson an eye for detail, while David Brown, the one with the computer, was left to write the text and put it all together. The authors resisted the temptation to produce a catalogue with rarity ratings and check boxes as such an approach to the hammered coinage is not appropriate, but their hope is that they have produced a book that students of the Tudor series will find helpful and informative whether they are collectors or students of history. A photograph of each coin type is shown as is a line drawing of the finer points of the illustration so that identifying features may be spotted on worn, damaged or clipped coins." For ordering information, see the Galata web site (www.galata.co.uk) or email Paul at Paul@galata.co.uk. 2006 SCANDANAVIAN COIN AUCTION PRICE YEARBOOKS AVAILABLE Morten Eske Mortensen writes: "I am certainly happy to be able to inform, that the printed 2006 editions of the Scandinavian Yearbooks covering the full calendar years 2004 + 2005 now are in the hands of the editor and at this time have been mailed to all those who have ordered it and thus made the project be realized. Many thanks for your support! Danish vol. includes 6.000 entries. Swedish vol. includes 4.000 entries. Norwegian vol. includes 4.000 entries." For more information, see: http://home.worldonline.dk/mem/info/demodatabankSCANDcatlist.htm NEW BOOK ON ASTRONAUT MEDALS Howard Weinberger writes: "Katie Jaeger recommended that I contact you regarding the new release of my second book on the Robbins Medals struck for the U.S. astronauts that were flown aboard the manned space missions. The title is "The Robbins Medallions - Flown Treasure from the Manned Space Program". The Robbins Medal tradition began with the first manned Apollo mission, Apollo 7, in 1968. Every manned mission since has had a Robbins Medal struck to honor and commemorate for the astronauts. One of the astronauts decided on a memento to take with him aboard the mission. He hired the Robbins Company in Massachusetts to strike a small silver medal that depicted the mission emblem on the obverse. The reverse would have the mission dates engraved. Each medal is serial numbered. These flown treasures numbered anywhere from a 100 to 450 on a mission and were the private property of the astronauts. They were given to family, close friends, and important workers who helped the program. They are now among the most coveted of all flown space artifacts. NGC has now begun grading and encapsulating the medals. The second book covers all medals, populations, which were flown, mission crews and dates for all medals after Apollo, including Skylab, ASTP, Shuttles and ISS. Here is the review site of the first book. http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/202/300/charlotte/2000/07-31/pages/reviews/nonf iction/robbinsmed.htm Here is a link to Collectspace.com where the buzz the biggest. http://collectspace.com/ubb/Forum12/HTML/000152.html " [The new book is priced at $39.95 plus $5 shipping. I knew that astronauts often took coins and medals aboard missions, but wasn't aware there was such an organized series of medals. For ordering details and more information about the books, email Howard directly at: assetalt@aol.com. -Editor] SPMC AUTHOR'S FORUM AT MEMPHIS PAPER MONEY SHOW Dennis Tucker, Publisher of Whitman Publishing writes: "At the Memphis Paper Money Show on June 16, Whitman Publishing author Q. David Bowers and president Mary Counts will share the dais for a talk on books about paper money. This is part of the Society of Paper Money Collectors' annual Authors Forum. Dave will offer insight on how The 100 Greatest American Currency Notes (coauthored with David Sundman) went from first-draft manuscript to beautiful coffee-table book. Mary will talk about the role the publishing firm plays in bringing numismatic books to the hobby. Audience members will receive complimentary copies of the 100 Greatest book and the Guide Book of United States Paper Money. Dave will also have a scanner set up at the Whitman booth, to capture images of scarce and rare notes. E-Sylum readers are invited to stop by and say hello, or have some of their "pet" notes scanned for possible use in upcoming books." FAUVER BOOKS ON EXONUMIA REVIEWED In the introduction to his upcoming auction #75, Joe Levine of Presidential Coin & Antique Company writes about consignor Benj. Fauver and the books he published on exonumia: "Fauver was a collector of tokens; mostly those which appealed to his fascination with American and European history. One of his first interests was Civil War tokens. He was an early member of the Civil War Token Society and served as its Treasurer for thirty years. He was the voice behind ?Horatio Speaks? a regular and sometimes controversial column which appeared in the Journal of the CWTS. In 1982, he authored 'Exonumia Symbolism & Classification, A Catalogue of Kettle Pieces and an Examination of the Symbolism and Classification of Kettle Pieces and of American Exonumia of the Hard Times, Compromise, and Civil War Periods'. This was followed by his six part definitive study of American Counters. Both of these efforts, especially the first, are much more than mere listings of types and varieties. An attempt is made to place the tokens in historical context and to explain the symbolism of the devices used to ornament them. The result is that the reader is intellectually challenged ? no small feat for a numismatic work in this field!" To read the complete catalog, see: http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/adimg/prescoin.htm FORBES CENTRAL AMERICA ARTICLE FOLLOWS THE MONEY: SHIP OF FOOLS? Nick Graver writes: "The June 19 issue of Forbes Magazine has a several page story on the Central America gold treasure that has never been shared by the investors who financed the recovery!" "Where is Tommy G. Thompson? Not so long ago the marine engineer from Columbus, Ohio was everywhere, raising $55 million in equity and debt financing and promoting the latest underwater technology to salvage gold from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. He once gave frequent press interviews and authorized books and TV documentaries to commemorate his recovery of a vast sunken treasure from the shipwrecked S.S. Central America--hundreds of gold Double Eagle coins, bars and ingots valued at $100 million to $400 million. Some of that loot went on national tour; an estimated $100 million was sold in heavily publicized sales and auctions. Today Thompson, 54, is hard to find. His last residential address in public records: a trailer park in Fort Pierce, Fla. No one answers the phone there or at his former Columbus address. Investors who financed Thompson's Recovery Limited Partnership haven't seen a penny of returns, 19 years after the recovery of the treasure, and fear that Thompson left town with many millions." To read the complete article, see: http://www.forbes.com/magazines/forbes/2006/0619/158.html Fred Holabird writes: "I was interviewed for about 3 hours by Gottfried. I expected a long, in-depth article full of the kind of details that everyone has long wanted to see in print. What they published is nothing like what was discussed, unfortunately. It is very unfortunate that one of the great treasures of America is smeared by bad business. I hope the web can get untangled, and the public can one day find out what happened. Meanwhile, the SSCA gold is very real, but the new gold, the cash, seems to have vanished." THE HOMREN COLLECTION SALES Many thanks to all of you who wrote about the items I consigned to the June American Numismatic Rarities sale. Here are a few samples: George Fuld writes: "Your ANR consignment is awesome!!" Joel Orosz writes: "I've always admired your ability to convert your knowledge into cool collectibles. It definitely shows in your library, and also now in your exonumia collection. Could be a downside though--in the future, when you introduce yourself as Wayne Homren, some folks will say, "Oh yeah, you sold all that--that--STUFF in the ANR sale!" Nick Graver writes: "What a beautiful catalog! You and your family should be so proud of the way things are presented. Congratulations on the whole idea of collecting those interesting pieces, then giving them new homes, and helping your college fund." John Kraljevich, Dave Bowers, John Pack and the whole team at ANR did a great job, and I'm still getting used to the idea of being a consignor. It was an unusual feeling to see an ad for the upcoming sale with a number of my pieces pictured. But as the TV hucksters say, 'but wait ... there's more!' My collection of Pittsburgh Obsolete Currency is consigned to the July R.M. Smythe sale. The notes will be available for viewing at the Memphis paper money show next week. I've seen a draft of the catalog text and they've done a nice job as well (thanks, Bruce!). This is another collection I've assembled over a 25-year period. A conversation I had with paper money dealer Tom Denley at the Pittsburgh ANA convention confirmed what I'd learned over the years: Pittsburgh notes are RARE! In an article he wrote for the Civil War Token Journal about some Pittsburgh cardboard scrip, Larry Dziubek pointed to what may be the reason - flooding. The Pittsburgh area has been hit with a number of devastating floods over the years, and this could account for why so few examples of early paper money of any kind have survived. Some of the Bank of Pittsburgh notes (including the uncut sheet of 1815 scrip) came from Emerson Smith. Emerson was a banker, and one of his first assignments was to liquidate the assets of the Bank of Pittsburgh when it went out of business in the Great Depression. After supervising the sale of the bank's real estate, furniture, safes & etc., there were several boxes of records left unsold. He asked his boss if it would be OK to buy them himself. He got the OK and hauled them home. Inside were piles of correspondence dating back decades. He sold these to stamp and autograph dealers. He also found a few uncut sheets, some cancelled notes and a few other pieces of obsolete currency, which he kept after selling duplicates to friends and dealers. My favorite note is probably the 25 cent scrip by the Butchers of Allegheny. This is the plate note in the Hoober book on Pennsylvania Obsolete currency. I may be proven wrong, but to the best of my knowledge it's unique. I did some digging in the microfilms of local Civil-War era newspapers and found a wealth of articles about the scrip, which was recalled after a lawsuit was filed. I wrote the story up for The Clarion, the journal of the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists and The Historical Magazine published by the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. There was no room for any of this in the auction catalog, but I'll make the information available for anyone who wants to further research the note. -Editor] PNC BANK INVENTORIES RIGGS BANK ARCHIVES At least one bank's archives have been kept intact for posterity. As part of its purchase of Riggs Bank of Washington, D.C., PNC Financial Services gained control of the bank's archives, a treasure-filled store of materials from Riggs Bank and its predecessors, dating back to 1803. Archivist Mary Beth Corrigan is reviewing the materials in a basement one block from The White House. "A few months after buying Riggs, PNC hired Ms. Corrigan part time to cull through 1,200 ledger books, some weighing as much as 40 pounds and dating back to 1803 -- covering the history of Riggs, which was founded in 1836 by William Corcoran, and several predecessors. Many books had been neglected, relegated to a damp basement. She also has tried to get a handle on more than 100 letters from U.S. presidents -- many of them former Riggs clients -- countless signature cards, stock certificates and currency that predates the establishment of the Federal Reserve." "The records show how Riggs collected $7.2 billion in gold for the federal government's purchase of Alaska, that it financed the 1909 North Pole expedition led by Robert Peary, that it handled arrangements for Elizabeth II's first trip to the United States as queen of England and that it funded the renovation of the Capitol dome during the Civil War -- work that Mr. Lincoln insisted be done as a way of restoring national confidence." "PNC wants a full accounting of what it has by the end of the year so it can make a decision about what to do with the collection -- which also includes checks signed by non-Riggs clients George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Those documents were acquired by Riggs in the 20th century. All options are being considered -- from donating the artifacts to a museum to preserving the collection in a PNC building. But the bank promises something will be done." To read the complete article, see: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06160/696839-28.stm $100 BILL ERRORS FOUND IN DELAWARE - AUTHENTICITY DISPUTED According to an article in the Delaware State News, "At least 64 misprinted $100 bills that are missing their seals and serial numbers were delivered last week to banks between Harrington and Maryland's Eastern Shore, a Dover coin shop owner said." "Steve Bryan, owner of Midatlantic Coins in Dover, hopes to collect all the bills... He's seen six so far, although some customers opted not to sell. Ten notes, he said, have surfaced at Midway Slots in Harrington. He became aware of the bills last week when a casino employee brought one to him." "The mistake, the shop owner said, happened in the third part of the printing process, when the treasury seal and serial numbers are stamped." "Raymond Gesualdo, owner and manager of First State Coin Co. in Dover, doesn't want anything to do with the bills. "What they are is stolen," said Mr. Gesualdo, who has been in the coin and currency business since 1972. He said someone brought a couple of the $100 notes to his shop Saturday and were refused sale." "When we saw the notes and saw the cutting was irregular, knowing how the production process runs, there's no way they could have come through the bureau," Mr. Gesualdo said. He also reported the bills to the Secret Service and said an officer agreed that the money must have entered the marketplace illegally." "Mr. Bryan said he could tell a counterfeit from the real deal - and these $100 bills are genuine." To read the complete article, see: http://www.newszap.com/articles/2006/06/07/dm/sussex_county/dsn05.txt MARGOLIS ON THE FORD FRANKLIN MEDALS BY LAGEMAN Dick Margolis writes: "A couple of belated comments on Alan Weinberg's extremely interesting report on Ford XIV, which I was very happy to attend. The pair of Franklin medals by Lageman (I don't know whether they are by the father or the son, both of whom were engravers) were struck in Holland, not Germany. JJF told me years ago that he owned this pair, so I've been quietly waiting in the wings ever since for the opportunity to acquire them. The Fernand David sale (J. Schulman, March 11, 1930) is the last prior public offering I am familiar with, and David only had a silver specimen. Comparison of its illustration in the David sale catalogue indicates that it is a different example from Ford's." PRIOR SALES OF JOHN FORD COLLECTION MATERIAL In response to last week's question, George Fuld writes: "As I believe I related earlier, Ford sold many coins through Bowers and Ruddy. Ford sold all his U. S. coins (including a mint red roll of half cents) starting in 1979 to raise money for his projected expenses at the Garrett sales. His main interest was the Nova Constellatio patterns which he eventually bought (these have not yet been auctioned by Stack's). While I was Americana maven at B&R, Ford consigned a number of collections to be sold, at least one under his name about 1982-3. The major group was his collection of Hitler medals with his name attached.. Also were his souvenir silver spoons, a collection of belt buckles, some Civil War tokens and several others that I do not recall. A perusal of the B&R catalogs from 1980 will reveal others. I did sell copies of many of his consignments through Lake Books a year or so ago. Thus, I think the 1989 Ford sale was only one of a series of consignments over the years." JOHN FORD SIGNATURE COMPARISON SOUGHT Leon Worden writes: "Through eBay, I recently purchased a 1959 copy of the Adams-Woodin pattern book. Inside the front cover is penciled a name that appears to read, "John Ford." I'm wondering if anyone knows what John J. Ford's signature looks like? Does anyone have a picture of it on a web site somewhere? Also inside the cover is the name, "J.L. Massetti, L.M. 343," which I'd think refers to an ANA life member..." 1871 STROBRIDGE SALE MAGDALEN ISLAND LOT INFORMATION SOUGHT Darryl Atchison writes: "I was hoping that one of the E-Sylum readers would be able to provide me with the lot description, price realized and buyer of lot no. 44 in the William Harvey Strobridge auction sale conducted on Dec. 5 - 7, 1871. This lot was comprised of two 'mysterious' halfpence tokens from Magdalen Island. Most of our readers will be familiar with the large, attractive copper penny token issued c1815 which depicts a seal on one side and some dried cod on the other. However, the present whereabouts of any halfpence tokens is unknown despite the fact that Sir Edward Thomason records their manufacture in his autobiography entitled, Memoirs During Half A Century, which was published in 1845. I would also be extremely interested in hearing from anyone who may have heard any 'rumours' concerning the whereabouts of the two pieces sold in the Strobridge sale or otherwise. I can be contacted at atchisondf@hotmail.com. Thank you." THE FEVERSHAM HOARD In response to Philip Mernick's earlier query on the Feversham Hoard, Bob Leonard writes: "The Feversham "Hoard" isn't a hoard in the usual sense, but the coins recovered from the wreck of the British frigate Feversham. Besides Joseph R. Lasser's article in The Numismatist, February 1989, the best description and listing is to be found in the auction catalogs: Christie's, New York, February 7, 1989, "Coins from the Wreck of H.M.S. Feversham" (lots 852-1080), and Stack's Public Auction Sale, Americana, Colonial and Federal Coins, Medals and Currency featuring Coins from the H.B.M.S. FEVERSHAM and LE CHAMEAU Shipwrecks, January 12, 13, 1999." Stack's divided the "American" coins from the "foreign" coins in their catalog, so the Feversham items are cataloged as lots 1-48 and 1146-1190. (Incidentally, Michael Hodder alerted me that lot 47 is NOT a Massachusetts silver coin, though listed in that section. Neither is lot 48, apparently.) The coins sold in 1999 may have been unknown to Lasser at the time of his 1989 article. Also, the catalog of the Jeffrey Hoare Auctions, London, Ontario, sale of February 26-27, 1993, contains some Feversham coins in addition to other shipwreck coins and other material (I lack this catalog). Other coins were sold in two Coin Galleries auctions, July 13, 1994 and April 15, 1998 (don't seem to have these either). The latter citations are possible through searching the ANS Library Catalog for "Feversham," which brings up a total of 11 records including a few more articles. Unfortunately, this is probably not a complete listing, and Mr. Mernick is encouraged to develop one if he can." [In addition, Darryl Atchison forwarded to Philip Mernick all Feversham references in the yet-to-be-published Canadian Numismatic Bibliography. Many thanks for everyone's help. -Editor] MORE ON THE DEVONSHIRE SALE CATALOG In October Jerry Platt inquired about the date of "The Duke of Devonshire's sale" referred to in Medallic Illustrations. http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v08n43a10.html Ted Buttrey of the Fitzwilliam Museum adds: "The Duke of Devonshire's collection was sold by Christies (London) in two sales, 18 March and 26 March, 1844. The first sale included only ancients (wonderful stuff); the second had British of all periods and a bit of foreign -- largely coins but a good number of British medals. Lot 551: "Oliver Cromwell: a small oval, obv. his head, rev. the olive tree, and 1, larger, struck on the battle of Dunbar, rev. the House of Commons, both by Simon.. the latter very fine; and a cast. 3" Bought by Warrington for 1/6/0. The second piece is Hawkins 13. Platt is asking after Hawkins 15 which is described by H. as unique, "a mere dab in lead". There is nothing else in the auction catalogue (I've been through it twice) that refers to anything that would fit Hawkins 15 or the Battle of Dunbar. Hawkins 15 seems to have been a pretty nondescript item anyhow, so I suspect that it was the third piece in Lot 551, described by Christies only as "a cast". " TWO VERSIONS OF THE DELIEB-ROBERTS WORK ON MATTHEW BOULTON Darryl Atchison writes: "Further to my earlier query concerning the two texts authored by Eric Delieb and Michael Roberts on Matthew Boulton ... it turns out that the two publications are identical in every respect except for the title including the illustrations and plates." Here's Darryl's original submission: http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v09n16a13.html COLLECTORS OF CITY DIRECTORIES SOUGHT George Fuld writes: "Does anyone collect city directories of the Nineteenth century? I started to collect directories about 1955, obtaining many 19th century ones from Baltimore and New York. When studying token history, directories are invaluable for dating issues since addresses change so often. Most of the directories in the Ford Kolbe sale were originally from me. I am curious how many people collect them. I'd be happy to talk to anyone about this. Contact me at fuld1@comcast.net" SUBSCRIBER PROFILE: RICHARD MACMASTER Dave Bowers writes: "I am forwarding your latest (and, as always, excellent) E-Sylum to my sister and brother in law (Dr. Richard and Eve MacMaster) The MacMaster duo is currently working on a Whitman project about Civil War money, and Robin is a "pet" proofreader for Whitman Publishing." SUBSCRIBER PROFILE: GEORGE KIMMICH George Kimmich writes: "I ran into a good friend of mine, Nick Graver, when I was shopping last week. He and I share a long-standing mutual interest in numismatics, including exonumia. Nick was waxing eloquent about the value of the wide ranging numismatic topics covered in your weekly newsletter and said that "the best thing he could ever do for me was to 'introduce me' to your newsletter". He shared a recent example, and I went directly to your website and enrolled as a 'subscriber' myself. Thank you! I retired recently after 34 years as a faculty member in Biochemistry at the University of Rochester. I have multiple numismatic interests, but Civil War Tokens are of particular interest and have held my attention the longest." [Welcome to Richard, George, and all of our recent subscribers. Word of mouth is our best advertisement. I really appreciate it when subscribers recruit others into our ranks. Our little "online clubhouse" is getting bigger all the time, but the more the merrier. -Editor] THE NUMISMATIC PILOT Regarding Edith Willey's query about The Numismatic Pilot, Bill Malkmus writes: ?In the Winter 2004 issue of The Asylum (Vol. XXII, No. 1, pp. 2-35), Ken Lowe, in "American Numismatic Periodicals from 1860 to 1960," devotes a paragraph to The Numismatic Pilot: "Another periodical of note was The Numismatic Pilot, subtitled To Ancient Coins and Their Uses, produced by Robert Morris, in LaGrange, Kentucky, in November 1876. This newspaper-like periodical apparently was the first in the United States to be devoted exclusively to the study of ancient coinage. However, it seems to have only run for four issues ending in June 1877. Additionally, in the first issue, Morris noted that The Numismatic Pilot was to be published monthly as the organ of The American Association of Numismatists, in what must have been another early attempt, in name if not in fact, at creating a national numismatic organization." Joel Orosz writes: "Robert Morris, born August 31, 1818, lived in LaGrange, Kentucky, and was a noted collector of Greek and Roman coins in his day. He was very active in the masonic order, and composed the poem "The Level and the Square" that is still memorized by Masons today. A biography and portrait of Morris are found in Mason's Coin Collector's Magazine, Vol 1, No. 4, August, 1884. I have in my library two periodicals published by the American Association of Numismatists, of which Morris was Secretary. One is undated, while the other is dated January 1875. The latter says that the AAN was founded in 1871 as a branch of the American Holy Land Exploration, and the purpose of the AAN was to introduce the science of numismatics into the curriculum of schools and colleges. I don't know when Mr. Morris--and the AAN--died, but neither is still of this world." Remy Bourne writes: "It was offered free and scheduled on a frequency of 6 times. Printed on newsprint in a 12"x18" format. Publisher: The American Association of Numismatists. Probably owned by Morris. Vol. 1. No. 1. October, 1876. 4 pages. Free. Printed on newsprint. Vol. 1. No. 2. December, 1876. 4 pages. Free. Printed on newsprint. Vol. 1. No. 3. February, 1877. 4 pages. Free. Printed on newsprint. "The" was added to the title for this issue only. Vol. 1. No. 4. June, 1877. 4 pages. Free. Printed on newsprint. Also, Earl of Crawford showed no ending date of this publication. I will check current owner of this publication to see if any of the other three issues are in the collection. You can find this information and a photo of the periodical in my book: American Numismatic Periodicals. 1860-1960. an illustrated collectors guide. Book 1." Karl Moulton writes: "Morris was a dedicated and well versed American numismatist who happened to be primarily interested in Ancient coinage. He had made a trip to the Holy Land in the late 1860's, where he bought numerous coins from the locals. He became an ardent supporter of historical research through his association with the American Association of Numismatists, of which he was the club Secretary. This American branch was begun in conjuction with the American Holy Land Exploration - which had been established in 1869. The President was Rolla Floyd of Joppa, Palestine, while the Vice President was E.T. Rogers in Cairo. Thomas Ward of Philadelphia was the honorary American director. According to promotional announcements, there were 7,000 members worldwide. Morris actively recruited for members in this country. He sent out many flyers and started various publications, beginning in 1870, regarding the study of Ancient coinage. One of the later ones was the Numismatic Pilot in 1876. If memory serves, there were 4 to 6 issues with that title. Among his writings were articles in the American Journal of Numismatics, various newspapers and church pamphlets, and several Masonic publications, of which he was also a member. A biography and sketch of Morris is included in Mason's Coin Collectors' Magazine, August 1884. In there, he states he was friends with William E DuBois, who was among other things, the assistant assayer at the Philadelphia Mint and the curator of the Mint Collection of "Specimens of Ores and Coinage". This writer has Morris' personal scrapbook from the 19th century in his library. Among the various flyers and newspaper articles is perhaps the only extant copy of a membership certificate from the American Association of Numismatists. Membership to the AAN was without fee. Their charter reads in part "Our association is a union of Coin-Students desirous of increasing our own stores of ancient numismata from the fountain-head of supply (the East); of combining our personal influence to introduce the science of numismatics into schools and colleges as a handmaid to history." There had been 15,000 coins (mostly bronze) distributed, and many more were offered for sale, beginning at $1.00. While it can't be proven specifically, this worldwide association of Ancient coinage scholars (including several in the U.S.) could well have been the seed for Dr. George Heath's idea to form the American Numismatic Association a few years later." David Gladfelter writes: "Morris also put out a 56 page folio on the coins of Suetonius's "Twelve Caesars," both hard and soft covered. The style is a bit pedantic but the plates are well done. On the back cover is a plug for "The American Association of Numismatists" of which he was secretary. The president was Rolla Floyd of Joppa, Syria, the VP the Hon. E. T. Rogers, formerly a diplomat in Cairo, later in London, and the treasurer H. J. Goodrich of Chicago. The notice states: "This society was originally a branch organization of the American Holy Land Exploration, established in 1869, and had the same regulations, officers, etc., as the parent stem. In 1877 the Society was placed upon an independent footing, and a formal application is now (May 1877) ready to be made to the Legislature of Kentucky for an act of incorporation under the name in the caption. In the meantime, all persons interested in numismatic pursuits are welcome, without fee, to membership with the society and to the issues, gratuitously, of our organ, the NUMISMATIC PILOT, published semi-monthly. The specific aims of the American Association of Numismatists are: "1. To collect in foreign countries, import, describe and distribute ancient coins, illustrating the history, religions and manners of ancient people. "2. To publish numismatic works, and to aid in a larger dissemination of such literature among our private and public libraries. "3. To supply colleges, public institutions and individuals with full collections of historical coins, arranged and described under the full light of the science. "4. To reproduce rare coins and medals of historic interest, of which the originals are unique and cannot be obtained in this country." This organization and its periodical may have folded for lack of dues, or its intent to copy rare coins may have offended collectors and museums. You know what I know about it. Could this be a topic for our master sleuth, Joel Orosz, to develop into a Printers Devil column?" PRIVATE COPIES OF THE E-SYLUM ARCHIVE Stephen Searle writes: "I am wondering if you might have a compressed file of the entire E-Sylum archive, either by year, or just the whole thing. With hard drives being so inexpensive now, I wanted to suck down the whole archive to my computer for easy searching and having to do it file-by-file would be very time consuming." [Now that we have the master table of contents it might be worthwhile considering publishing a CD of the first nine volumes after the end of the year. NBS President Pete Smith would like to gauge demand - how many copies might sell? Any thoughts on the topic would be appreciated. -Editor] THE FATE OF THE GREAT LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA Regarding the recent New York Times Magazine article about book-scanning and the future of books, Ken Berger writes: "The article stated: "The dream is an old one: to have in one place all knowledge, past and present. All books, all documents, all conceptual works, in all languages. It is a familiar hope, in part because long ago we briefly built such a library. The great library at Alexandria, constructed around 300 B.C., was designed to hold all the scrolls circulating in the known world... ". But, don't forget, it & its books were destroyed by fire. So, one place is not necessarily a good idea." [The article discusses the fate of the library of Alexandria. But the Internet archives are only aggregating digital COPIES of the original works, which are returned to the contributing libraries. The originals continue to be dispersed around the world. One danger though is that once scanned, some libraries may attempt to deaccession some of their books. While good for book collectors, this is not such a good idea for the preservation of knowledge. When microfilm came along and many libraries filmed their newspaper holdings, many decided to sell the originals. Some went to paper mills and other sets were broken up and sold individually to collectors by middlemen. But the long runs of original newspapers were either lost or scattered to the winds, and the libraries were left with only poor microfilm copies. Now that better electronic imaging technology is here the originals are unavailable. -Editor] FURTHER DISCUSSION ON THE INTERNET AND THE FUTURE OF BOOKS Arthur Shippee forwarded another article from the New York Times on the Internet and the future of books. Here are a few excerpts: "Hovering above the discussion of all these technologies is the fear that the publishing industry could be subject to the same upheaval that has plagued the music industry, where digitalization has started to displace the traditional artistic and economic model of the record album with 99-cent song downloads and personalized playlists. Total album sales are down 19 percent since 2001, while CD sales have dropped 16 percent during the same period, according to Nielsen BookScan. Sales of single digital music tracks have jumped more than 1,700 percent in just two years." "Liberating books from their physical contexts could make it easier for them to blend into one another, a concept heralded by Kevin Kelly in an article in The New York Times Magazine last month. "Once text is digital, books seep out of their bindings and weave themselves together," wrote Mr. Kelly in an article that was derided by Mr. Updike in his BookExpo polemic. "The collective intelligence of a library allows us to see things we can't see in a single, isolated book." "Does that mean 'Anna Karenina' goes hand in hand with my niece's blog of her trip to Las Vegas?" asked Jane Hamilton, author of "The Book of Ruth" and a forthcoming novel, "When Madeline Was Young." "It sounds absolutely deadly." Reading books as isolated works is precisely what she wants to do, she said. "When I read someone like Willa Cather, I feel like I'm in the presence of the divine," Ms. Hamilton said. "I don't want her mixed up with anybody else. And I certainly don't want to go to her Web site." To read the complete article, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/books/05digi.htm WORLD COIN WEB SITE FOLLOW-UP Dennis M. Gregg writes: "Thank you for your tireless work and dedication to our hobby - I truly look forward to each issue. I had missed reading one issue in which you discussed coinarchives.com. Shortly after asking you about a world coin database, I realized you had already discussed this site - which IMO, is the best on the net to date. Thank you. Please also thank Larry Gaye for his oriental coins database - I've bookmarked it for future reference." HISTORY OF "PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS" A subscriber writes: "When did the saying "a penny for your thoughts" start, and how much would that penny be worth today? This was Yahoo!'s 'Question of the Day' for June 9, 2006. Sometimes it's interesting to know how the general public perceives numismatics." The Yahoo article notes: "The phrase was mentioned in 1522 by Sir Thomas More in his work "Four Last Things." Playwright John Heywood included "a penny for your thoughts" in his catalog of proverbs published in 1546 or 1562. These are the earliest recorded uses, but the saying probably dates further back, as the penny itself has a long history." To read the complete article, see: http://ask.yahoo.com/20060609.html CIVIL WAR ID DISC INFORMATION In response to last week's question from Larry B. Maier, Esq., Dick Johnson writes: "I have no record of these Civil War discs in my Scovill papers but it is possible they were produced by Scovill. Unfortunately Scovill did not sign these but my question is: What is the best "diagnostic" for Scovill-struck items? The closest I could think of would be the quality of the edges of their struck pieces. Scovill early on used collars and thus their pieces have nice flat edges with a sharp rim/edge juncture that forms a perfect 90 degree angle." Joe Levine, who has handled hundreds of Scovill tokens and medals in his Presidential Art auctions, adds this: "In the higher conditions, the surface of Scovill items appear almost proof-like. Of course, as these wear this surface diagnostic is worn away. But I concur that the overall indication is the higher quality of Scovill items." QUERY: BEST WOOD FOR LIBRARY SHELVING? Last week Ed Perkin asked about the best wood for library shelving. David Ganz writes: "My experience is that Home Depot wood (typical pine) that is either stained or polyurethaned works well. The key is to brace every 18 inches to preclude bowing. I have done this many times in my law office and for home numismatic library and the distance between posts is more important than the wood or the protective covering." E-SYLUM SUBSCRIBERS ON THE CITIZENS COINAGE ADVISORY COMMITTEE Last week we noted that E-Sylum subscriber Dr. Ute Wartenberg Kagan is a member of the U.S. Mint's Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee. Donald Scarinci writes: "Actually, we have two subscribers on the Citizen Coinage Advisory Committee. I serve with Ute." 1913 LIBERTY NICKEL CASE UPDATE George Fuld writes: "Maybe there were TWO "original" cases for the 1913 nickels. In the new book, it refers to a six coin case (page 54) with five slots for the 1913's and a copper buffalo. I am still sure I saw a six coin case when visiting Eric Newman - it had five empty slots and the copper buffalo nickel still in place." [I don?t have my copy of the book handy, but I did recently come across an old Coin World article by Paul Whitnah about the nickels, and it also describes TWO cases ? one after Col Green and one before. The article didn?t list his sources of information, though. -Editor] PELLEGRINI ON THE GOETZ MEDAL SALE IN KASSEL, GERMANY Steve Pellegrini writes: "A few weeks ago the enormous Bottcher collection of Karl Goetz medals was auctioned at the Ramada-Plaza in Kassel, Germany. I think it is safe to say that this was the largest auction ever devoted to one medallist. Harald Moller a well-known dealer in German coins and medals prepared the auction and its catalogues as well as acted as auctioneer for the 3-day event. Moller issued 3 catalogues for the separate auctions. The opening auction was devoted to a large varied selection of general interest German medals. The last day was devoted to Herr Bottcher's extensive collection of Kaiser Reich gold, modern talers and crowns and German colonial coins. But it was the Goetz collection scheduled between these two sales which drew the crowd - and rightly so. Bottcher's collection of Goetz medals was almost complete. It may well have been complete, the few medals missing may have been pulled or cherrypicked in advance. One surprising absentee was the iconic '5 Mai' Lusitania Sinking medal of 1915. But there were no complaints. There was more than enough on offer for even the most enthusiastic buyer. For a collection this impressive the catalogue which accompanied its sale was most unimpressive. The photos were not of the greatest quality, although as I understand it they were not cheap. There were no descriptions of the lots aside from Keinast number and grade. It seemed obvious from the first that this catalogue would serve Goetz collectors and dealers as checklist and pricelist for some time to come. A little more effort in producing a first rate catalogue would not been out of place. Even a brief biographical intro of Goetz or at least of the collector Bottcher who built the collection would have been interesting. A numismatic essay placing Goetz the medallist in context with his contemporaries would have even been better. I have to admit to being spoiled rotten by the boffo catalogues that have accompanied Stack's serial auction of the J.J. Ford collection. But although this catalogue is very mundane, as most German auction catalogues are, I have no doubt that it is destined to become an instant classic - at least with Goetz collectors like myself. In fairness though, it only purports to be an auction catalogue and so it is." The prices of Goetz medals have risen dramatically over the past 4-5 years. There are many more collectors interested in these medals than ever before. I believe some of the influx of new Goetz collectors has to do with the advent of eBay. Its vast numismatic listings afford enormous exposure of previously unfamiliar material to modern collectors. Surely this is where many US collectors got their first exposure to Goetz medals. I don't know one collector who wasn't stopped in his tracks by his first glimpse of Goetz ' infamous 1920 'Black Shame' medal. I know the first time I saw it my reaction was 'What the Hell is that?' And what that is, is usually the beginning of a new Goetz collector. "It seems all things Goetz have become expensive. A signed and annotated first edition of Gunther Keinast's 1968 book 'Medals of Karl Goetz' brought $1,000+ in a recent George Kolbe auction." "I have often heard that Karl Goetz was the most popular medallist in Germany during his lifetime. And in the 56 years since his death he has become the most collected medallist in the world. Both these statements are probably true. Only if the second part of that statement is true would a one-man auction of nearly 7,000 items have been attempted, or been successful and profitable." WHERE (AND HOW) THE PUBLIC KEEPS RARE INHERITED MEDALS Dick Johnson writes: "I wasn?t surprised at the item in last week?s E-Sylum of the New Zealand woman who placed a rare gold medal in her button jar. Inherited from her brother, he won the medal for football, but she was obviously unaware of its value. I had the chore once, of informing a gentleman of the value of a valuable Panama Canal Worker?s Medal with one bar (bestowed for six year?s work constructing the canal early in the 20th century). Inherited from his uncle, he placed the medal in his fishing tackle box, along with fish hooks and lures! Needless to say it became pretty well nicked and scarred after twenty years or so in that tackle box tray. As diplomatically as I could I had to tell him: "You put a $500 medal in your tackle box and took a $50 medal out to show me." Almost every "Antiques Roadshow" program some owner seems to brag about how he mistreated some inherited item. Kinda makes you want to dispose of everything before you die, doesn?t it? Let your stupid relatives blow the money instead of ruining your prized collectibles." LATEST MEDIA REPORT ON ESCALA FALLOUT Stephen Pradier forwarded a link to a new and very lengthy Fox News story about the fall of Greg Manning's House of Escala: "Manning, 59, is one of the best-known figures in the stamp collecting business. Indeed, he rose from trading stamps as a Boy Scout into the most powerful industry player in North America. In 1993, he took his auction firm public as Greg Manning Auctions International, with the goal of becoming a one-stop powerhouse for all collectibles, from coins and baseball cards to stamps, art and comics. Manning was among the first to offer loans to mom-and-pop stamp dealers ?- giving them huge cash advances and up to 90 days repayment time to divide up and sell collection lots that they otherwise couldn?t afford to touch. The sales took place through his auctions, and Manning made money on all sides of the transactions. ?This can work quite nicely if you keep churning it,? explains Keith Harmer, who sold his family?s prestigious century-old stamps business, H.R. Harmer, to Escala in 2004. ?I never issued credit like that, but Greg did it with fervor. He had a touch of the gambler. And when he went public, he had the biggest pockets of anyone in the game to write the biggest checks.? To read the complete story, see: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198526,00.html BEST WISHES TO NANCY GREEN John and Nancy Wilson of Ocala, FL write: "We want to congratulate and wish recently retired ANA Librarian Nancy Green a healthy and happy retirement. Nancy served ANA for many years in an efficient and outstanding manner. She will be greatly missed and difficult to replace. We hope she stays involved in the numismatic hobby." COLORADO SPRINGS COIN SHOW DURING ANA SUMMER SEMINAR Ken Hallenbeck writes: "In reading Volume 9 Number 22 of E-Sylum and mention of some of the classes offered by the ANA Summer Seminar I'm offering a plug for our Colorado Springs Coin Show which is always the weekend (Fri-Sat-Sun) between the two weeks of the seminar, this year on July 7, 8, and 9. The popularity of this show continues to grow and we've recently increased the floor space from 15,000 to 20,000 square feet. As of a few days ago we have 80 dealers and 165 tables! Bus transportation will be provided free to and from ANA headquarters to the show. Nearby motels and restaurants offer quality and inexpensive services. ANA participants will be cruising the bourse floor, including many of the instructors." ON HOBGOBLINS A subscriber writes: "I found the quote about 'hobgoblins' in last week's E-sylum intriguing. I asked my brother about it. He thought it was one of H.L. Mencken's famous lines. Then I consulted Bartlett's and found out it was from Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1841 essay, Self Reliance: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do . . . . Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today." QUIZ QUESTION: FICTIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS What fictional characters were winners of the Medal of Honor? I'm thinking of one in particular from a 1960s television show, but I'm sure there were others. Any guesses? FEATURED WEB SITE: NINETEENTH CENTURY ART WORLDWIDE This week's featured web site is suggested by Katie Jaeger. She writes: "It's a magnificent e-journal called Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide. The Joy Sperling article on Art Unions in the link is comprehensive and fascinating, and I submit it because the American Art Union generated a three-medal series by C.C. Wright that is familiar to many of us. What I hadn't known about was the 17-medal Art Union of London series, which includes an awesome medal of William Wyon. I'm sure our British members know all about this, but the rest might find it pretty interesting." http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/spring_02/articles/sper.html Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. For more information please see our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/. There is a membership application available on the web site at this address: http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_member_app.html To join, print the application and return it with your check to the address printed on the application. Membership is only $15 to addresses in the U.S., $20 elsewhere. For those without web access, write to: David M. Sundman, Secretary/Treasurer Numismatic Bibliomania Society, P. O. Box 82 Littleton, NH 03561 For Asylum mailing address changes and other membership questions, contact David at this email address: dsundman@LittletonCoin.com To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, just Reply to this message, or write to the Editor at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com Those wishing to become new E-Sylum subscribers (or wishing to Unsubscribe) can go to the following web page: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All past E-Sylum issues are archived on the NBS web site at this address: http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_esylum_archive.html Issues from September 2002 to date are also archived at this address: ht From esylum at binhost.com Sun Jun 18 23:36:19 2006 From: esylum at binhost.com (esylum@binhost.com) Date: Sun Jun 18 23:37:27 2006 Subject: The E-Sylum v9#25, June 18, 2006 Message-ID: <005501c69351$8836bac0$d3bf11ac@laptop035> Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 9, Number 25, June 18, 2006: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2006, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. WAYNE'S WORDS Among our recent subscribers is Gerald Buckmaster. Welcome aboard! We now have 928 subscribers. Jeff Reichenberger writes: "Happy Father's Day to all E-Sylum fathers. I wanted to relate one of the favorite gifts I received this year from my 5 year old daughter. It's a card actually, a five inch embossed replica of the obverse of a Washington Quarter. However the motto reads "In DAD We Trust". On the inside it says, "Don't ever change". Apparently the designer of the card assumes the obverse of the Washington Quarter will never change. My first numismatic Father's Day gift!" This week brings news of some more new numismatic publications. 2006 should be a great year for bibliophiles. But don't think we're ever likely to run out of good ideas for numismatic books - Dick Johnson provides a list of ten titles that have yet to be written, and they aren't all in jest. In the feedback category, Dave Perkins chimes in with a response to George Fuld's query on collecting city directories, and Bob Evans discusses the recent Forbes article on the Central America treasure investors. >From the popular press we have some nice articles on topics as diverse as the U.S. Institute of Heraldry, the private manufacture of U.S. cent planchets, and coins found in New York City parking meters. To learn the numismatic connections to Ball jar lids and Zamboni machines, read on. Have a great week, everyone! Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society DAVID SKLOW, NEW ANA LIBRARY DIRECTOR John and Nancy Wilson, Ocala, FL write: "While looking for various things on the ANA www.money.org and while looking at the Staff page we found that David J. Sklow has evidently replaced Nancy Green as the Director, Library and Research for the ANA. David is a very skilled and competent researcher in the numismatic field. Back in the 1980's David owned a company in Michigan that sold numismatic references through mail bid auctions and fixed price lists. In the early 1990's David had a company in Florida that held auctions via mail bid sales. On a few occasions he also took tables at coin shows and sold numismatic literature. We purchased books from David and were always treated very fairly. Some of these references are still in our library. David worked for the Money Tree for their last few auctions and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Several years ago he went to work for the ANA as a Numismatic Researcher. We have known David for many years and find him very knowledgeable and competent as a numismatic researcher and bibliophile. We want to congratulate David and wish him the very best in what appears to be his new job with ANA as the Director of the Library. We want to commend the ANA Executive Director Chris Cipoletti for making this appointment. We are sure he will do an excellent job for ANA in this very important position. It will be nice to congratulate David in person at the Denver ANA this coming August. Please go to the ANA web site (www.money.org) to see a listing of all the Staff at ANA, which includes David as the ANA Library Director. You can E-mail David at and congratulate him on his new position. His ANA E-mail is sklow@money.org" HISTORY CHANNEL: MODERN MARVELS MONEY EPISODE Karl Moulton writes: "I wanted to let all E-Sylum readers know about a new Modern Marvels show on the History Channel about American Money. It is scheduled to air for the first time on Monday, June 19 at 11pm EST. I was fortunate to be able to contribute some information and images from my post card and stereoview collection. The producer told me that it will re-air throughout the summer, so please check your local listings." The following description is from the History Channel's web site: "How does America make money--literally? We visit the United States Mint and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving to see the secretive government facilities where our legal tender is generated. With a storied past as tantalizing as the wealth they create, these mints can spit out fortunes in an hour and keep our economy flowing." For a schedule of upcoming episodes, see: http://www.historychannel.com/modernmarvels/?page=upcoming NEW BOOK: FIFTH EDITION PATRIOTIC CIVIL WAR TOKENS George Fuld writes: "The fifth edition of Patriotic Civil War Tokens by George and Melvin Fuld has now been released. The 64-page 1960 pamphlet has grown to 433 pages and a fold out plate. Just shows what can be accomplished when a committee (not yours truly) revises something!! Cost is $35 and can be ordered from Jud Petrie, P O Box 10553, Portland, ME 04104 or exonumist@aol.com." Jud Petrie, CWTS Book Manager adds: "All prices include shipping, handling and insurance. The retail price is $35.00, member price $30.00 but members may obtain it for $25.00 for orders received by July 31. Also, any new member joining the CWTS at the ANA convention in Denver may also get it for $25.00. A dealer/volume discount is also available. To reduce the inventory of the 4th Edition of the Patriotic book a steep dealer discount has been offered - a case of 12 books for $120, while supplies last. We have also just received the latest reprinting of the Storecard book. There are a number of 'cosmetic' changes to the book, the text remains the same. This time it will have a dust jacket (printed in copper ink), the highest quality cloth cover, gold ink over black background on the spine, and a 'round' binding... and according to Al Hoch, it is the highest quality book Quarterman has ever produced. The retail cost is $100, CWTS member price remains $85. However due to the limited quantity, there will be no dealer/volume discount this time. Hamm's book on the issuers of Indiana Merchant Civil War tokens is now out of print with no plans on reprinting it. I have 16 unbound copies that will be offered for free to CWTS members at the ANA convention. These have the front and back covers, and all pages, but no spine or binding. First come, first served, and again, only while supplies last." ADAMS WORK ON JOHN LAW AVAILABLE George Fuld adds: "ANS Notes and Monographs 167 on John Law by John Adams has been released. I don't know the cost, but whatever it is, it's well worth it. Truly an amazing research job on a little known series. Simply subperb!!" NEW BOOK: RESERVE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND 1973-2004 Kerry Rodgers and Martin Purdy note that a new history of The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has just been published. "Innovation and Independence: The Reserve Bank of New Zealand 1973-2004" was authored by Dr John Singleton with Arthur Grimes, Gary Hawke, and Sir Frank Holmes, published by the Auckland University Press. For more information, see: http://tinyurl.com/qytpg THE E-SYLUM ON CD-ROM Last week we broached the topic of making back issues of The E-Sylum available on CD-ROM. Martin Purdy writes: "Count me in!" Dan Breen writes: "I would be interested in a CD of the E-Sylum archive. Since I subscribed, I have been reading the past issues starting from the beginning and I've just completed volume five. Thank you for all your efforts on The E-Sylum, I enjoy reading it every Monday morning." Kerry Rodgers writes: "I would love the whole of Bibliomania on CD but ONLY if it had a decent searchable index by author, topic and date. Not too familiar with this stuff but life it too short to scroll through page upon page." [At least Google does a fair job of making content findable, but that would be lost on a CD. I'd love a good E-Sylum index myself, but I'm too busy creating it to have time to index it. Kerry adds: "I note that editors NEVER index their own creations. Some dedicated soul pops out of the woodwork and tells you they have been working away at it for the past ten years and do you think anyone would like it?" ON COLLECTING CITY DIRECTORIES Dave Perkins writes: "This is in reply to George Fuld's posting in last week's E-Sylum "Does anyone collect city directories of the Nineteenth Century?" I collect Detroit, Michigan City Directories which I use for researching the Detroit Civil War Store Card tokens, other tokens and counterstamped coins. They are a great source to "discover the issuer behind the token." In addition, quite a few of the merchants and businesses that issued the tokens placed advertisements in these same city directories. This often yields additional information about their business. I have published numerous articles in the Civil War Token Journal and the TAMS Journal using this information (and with information from other sources I have acquired). Despite advertising to buy Detroit city directories for many years it took me almost 10 years to acquire my first ones. If I remember correctly, I eventually got the following years: 1837 (reprint); 1856-57; 1861; 1872-73; 1875-76; 1876-77; 1882; 1884 and about one per decade through the 1940s. My favorite and the best for my Civil War Token research was the 1861 directory. I was never able to locate original copies of the 1862-64 directories, key directories for the tokens issued during the Civil War. My great-great grandfather, Wm. Perkins, Jr. issued two Detroit Civil War Tokens. One was for the Perkins Hotel and the other the Perkins Grocery & Provision Store. I once went through the 1861 city directory line by line and located many employees of the two businesses. Later while doing genealogical research on my family it turned out that two of these employees were relatives, having married daughters of Wm. Perkins, Jr. About a year ago I purchased a CD on E-Bay with directories from the 1860s and eventually acquired many other years from the same source. I printed the 1862-1866 Directories on archive type paper and had them nicely bound. I now have a pretty complete library of Nineteenth Century Detroit city directories." DICK JOHNSON: TEN NUMISMATIC BOOKS I?D LOVE TO READ Dick Johnson writes: "Here is a list of ten numismatic books I would purchase and love to read if they existed: 10. Confessions of an Illicit Coin Slabber. 9. How To Design a Modern Coin. 8. The Western Gold Bar Controversy ? The 24 Karat Truth. 7. Coin Grading By Ouija Board: A More Accurate System. 6. Coin Con Catalog ? A Comprehensive List of Criminals in Numismatics. 5. The Secret History of Walter H. Breen. 4. The Red Book of Numismatic Literature. 3. ANA Politics, Scandal and Rumor ? The Truth Revealed. 2. The Official History of the United States Mint. 1. Coin Engraving Through The Ages." [Number 6 is a topic I've been curious about for some time. We've discussed some "Numismatic Ne'er-Do-Well's" in the past - murderers, thieves, adulterers, pedophiles, plagiarists, etc. It would make for an interesting read. [Number 4 is another interesting one, and right on target for bibliophiles. Charlie Davis' book on American Numismatic Literature is a great reference, but long outdated as far as pricing goes. Denis Kroh's book on ancient coin literature is also long out of print. A compact, up-to-date reference to numismatic literature would be most welcome. As with any such book, the hard part would be deciding what to include in the limited available space, and by what criteria. What are your thoughts, readers? Are any such books already in the works? Anyone willing to tackle a new project? Other ideas (serious or otherwise) for books that aren't but ought to be? -Editor] IN GOD WE TRUST RULING UPHELD According to press reports, "A Sacramento federal judge on Monday tossed out atheist Michael Newdow's challenge to the phrase "In God We Trust" as the national motto and its inscription on coins and currency. Newdow argued that the slogan violates the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which keeps government out of religion. But U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. points out in an 18-page order that the federal appellate court with jurisdiction over California held in a 1970 opinion that the motto "has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion." "The same appellate opinion disposes of Newdow's claim that the use of the motto on coins and currency amounts to government coercion to proselytize or evangelize on behalf of monotheism, Damrell wrote. Newdow said Monday he is optimistic about his chances on appeal to the 9th Circuit." To read the complete article, see: http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14267137p-15078920c.html BOB EVANS ON THE FORBES CENTRAL AMERICA ARTICLE Last week we published a link to a Forbes magazine article about the investors who backed the recovery of the S.S. Central America Treasure. The gist of the article was that the investors hadn't yet recovered their money. Bob Evans was a key member of the project team, and he was interviewed for the article. He writes: "I would like to respond to this article, but it is hard to know where to begin. It is such a slanted piece, and one where I believe the writers had the conclusions in their minds before they even began the research. I was interviewed at length, but I notice that my commentary was completely absent from the article, probably because I had mostly flattering things to say about our accomplishments, and about Tommy Thompson: stuff that did not fit their pre-conceived notions. Such is journalism." GERMAN CARNEGIE HERO FUND RESURRECTED According to the June 2006 newsletter of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, "After 72 years of inactivity, Andrew Carnegie?s German hero fund, which was taken over by the Nazis in 1934, has been resurrected, thanks to the efforts of a private citizen in Mannheim. The ?Carnegie Stiftung fuer Lebensretter? (CSL), or Carnegie Foundation for Rescuers, was re-established April 15 on receiving recognition from the German courts as the only heir of the original fund. Andreas Huber, 36, the visionary behind the effort, said the reconstruction of CSL was a ?painful? process and that it took hard work to get permission from the authorities to rebuild." [The article pictures a prewar German Carnegie Hero Fund medal. With the resurrection of the German Fund, perhaps a new medal is in the offing. Walter Rutkowski of the U.S. commission will be going to Germany in July to participate in a ceremony for the new German fund. -Editor] To read the newsletter, see: http://www.carnegiehero.org/pdfs/ISSUE6.pdf TARGETED AUCTION SEARCH FOR 1876 MEDAL PROJECT SOUGHT Ron Abler writes; "I've run into a snag gathering data for my book on 1876 Centennial medals. Published literature on the subject is scarce, with relevant medals mostly being included piecemeal under other categories, such as Washingtonia, so-called dollars, and Mint medals. I recognize that a treasure trove of information lies hidden in auction catalogs, especially those from the late 19th and early 20th century, but I am at a loss as to how to proceed. Simply collecting catalogs willy-nilly seems wasteful of money, time, and shelving space, and older catalogs can be unaffordable. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might conduct a targeted search for auction catalogs that actually contain offerings of 1876 medals and ways to collect the information without going broke in the process? My collection strains the budget too much as it is." DENVER QUARTER LAUNCHED On June 15 the Denver Post reported on the rollout of the new Colorado quarter: "The new Colorado commemorative quarter received rock-star treatment Wednesday during a launch ceremony at the state Capitol. More than a thousand people - mostly coin collectors, children and their parents - braved the heat to be among the first in the country to palm shiny "Colorful Colorado" coins, some delivered by a horse-drawn Wells Fargo coach to the west steps of the Capitol." "Country music blared, two F-16 fighter jets from the Colorado Air National Guard buzzed the crowd, and volunteers with the Colorado Historical Society, in period costume, handed out bottles of water to folks sweltering in the heat." "The Colorado quarters feature a mountain scene, trees and the phrase "Colorful Colorado." They should start turning up as change in regular transactions sometime in July. Some 650 million Colorado quarters will be minted over a 10-week period in Denver and Philadelphia." To read the complete Denver Post article, see: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3937573 More color on the event was provided by the Durango Herald: "As the opening chords of Pink Floyd's "Money" played over loudspeakers, Gov. Bill Owens pasted a replica of the quarter on a large map of the 50 states, joining 37 other quarters that have been released since 1999. Treasury Department officials say 140 million people are collecting the quarters. "There has been an enormous surge of interest in coin collecting in the United States the last few years, and much of the credit goes to the 50 State Quarters program," said Sandra Pack, assistant secretary of the treasury. Despite temperatures in the upper 90s, people queued up to trade $10 for a roll of some of the first Colorado quarters, while volunteers from the Colorado Historical Society handed out free coins to children in the crowd." To read the complete article, see: http://tinyurl.com/jc4p5 FERRARI COLLECTION INFORMATION SOUGHT Bruce Perdue forwarded the following query from Karel Langenaken about the coin collection of Philippe de Ferrari: "For more than 30 years I have researched the all-time greatest philatelist: Philippe de Ferrari or Ferrary or Ferrari-La Renoti?re. His stamp collections were sold by the French government from 1921 to 1925. He was also a major numismatic collector. I believe this collection was also to be auctioned, but I can not find anything about these sales. I was told that in Clain-Stefanelli's Numismatic bibliography there are some references to Ferrari. Would you be so kind to provide me some more information in this regard?" JOHN J. FORD SIGNATURE Last week Leon Worden asked for a copy of John J. Ford's signature to verify an inscription in a book he owns. Jim Spilman writes: "JJF and I did a considerable amount of cooperative numismatic research together in the late 1960s through mid-1970s era and I have a considerable correspondence file with numerous examples of his signature. John normally signed his letters and notes with only his initials JJF. When he used his "full" signature it was JJFordJr - a continuous but legible scrawl." Jim attached scans of two letters with examples of John's signature. I forwarded them to Leon. He writes: "What great service -- thanks to which I can say that the name written inside the cover of my book is absolutely NOT the signature of J.J. Ford!" ON THE CASE OF THE 1913 NICKEL CASES Michael Schmidt writes: "If there was a second case for the 1913 Liberty nickels it must have come before the coins were purchased by Col. Green. Eric Newman does own the case that came with the nickels from the Green estate and it has slots for eight nickels not six. It held the five nickels, two pattern buffaloes (one in copper and one with out the designer's initial.) The eighth coin was also a buffalo but I don't remember if it was a pattern or a regular issue. Eric was involved with the break up of the Green collection and he acquired the set directly from the estate so that was the holder that Green had. So the only other possibility for a second holder would have to be if Samuel Brown had one made. I have never heard of Brown displaying the set in a case." FEDERAL OFFICE OF HERALDRY AND THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES Arthur Shippee alerted us to a great article published Tuesday in the New York Times about the Institute of Heraldry, the U.S. government's "chief guardian of insignia and heraldic tradition." "According to legend, the eagle in the seal faced the arrow-holding talon in times of war and switched its stern gaze toward the olive branch in times of peace. The eagle's glare did indeed get reversed ? just once, by President Harry S. Truman in 1945. But only, it turns out, to correct the grievous heraldic error that President Rutherford B. Hayes had made 65 years before, when he designed the first seal to adorn White House invitations. "In point of fact, the viewer's left is the dexter side, the honorable side on any shield," said Joe Spollen, head sculptor at the heraldry institute, which among its other duties nurtures rules and terminology from the Middle Ages. "The sinister side, on the viewer's right, is the less honorable." And so Truman, after learning the truth from the director of the heraldry office at the time, switched the gaze from sinister to dexter, where it remains today." "The institute, conjoining modern images with ancient traditions, designs the shoulder insignia unique to every military unit and supervises their production. It designs military medals, with the Iraq Campaign Medal being one of the latest. It also, together with the captains, designs a custom coat of arms for every new ship in the Navy." "The founding fathers wasted no time in devising a distinctly American seal. In 1782, years before the Constitution, Congress adopted the same two-sided Great Seal visible on every dollar bill today, describing it in full-fledged heraldic argot. On the front side is the familiar eagle, "holding in its dexter talon an olive branch, and in his sinister a bundle of 13 arrows," and in his beak a scroll inscribed "E pluribus unum." On the reverse side, "a pyramid unfinished" and "in the zenith an eye in a triangle, surrounded by a glory, proper." >From the beginning, the Great Seal's eagle faced the dexter talon; why President Hayes switched directions for his similar-looking presidential emblem is lost to the ages." To read the complete article, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/13/washington/13heraldry.html ART UNION OF LONDON MEDALS Regarding the Art Union of London, Scott Miller writes: "A total of 30 different medals were issued, the last being by Alfred Gilbert for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887. For more information, see "The Medals of the Art Union of London" by G. K. Beaulah, BNJ 1967." HUEY LONG WASHROOM WARRIOR MEDAL: HOW MANY WERE STRUCK? Web site visitor Alexa Foreman of Atlanta, GA writes: "I was researching the Washroom Medal since I have one that belonged to my great great Uncle, and found the E-Sylum mention of it. Can you give me a basic history of the medal?" I knew there was some basic information on the American Numismatic Rarities web site (because my example of the medal is in their upcoming sale), so I directed her to the lot listing: http://www.anrcoins.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00035876 She wrote back asking, "How many medals do you think exist?" The auction listing and earlier E-Sylum articles have a good bit of information on the medal and list sources for more, but do not cite the number of bronze examples struck. Anyone know? WASHROOM WARRIOR MEDAL http://coinbooks.org/esylum_v04n32a15.html WASHROOM WARRIOR MEDAL INFO SOURCES http://coinbooks.org/esylum_v04n33a09.html ODD DENOMINATION OBSOLETE NOTES IN SMYTHE?S JULY AUCTION Dick Johnson writes: "If you collect odd denominations you must get R. M. Smythe?s catalog of their July auction sale. Their major consignor had the specialty of this fascinating numismatic challenge ? how many different denominations can you acquire? The New York auction house, specializing in financial history, is claiming that number is over one hundred! There are some gems in this sale: Notes of British penny and multiples, even of mills ? that was Thomas Jefferson?s creation of one tenth of a cent ? and of cent multiples and fractions galore. I had seen 12 ? cent before, but never 12 1/4 cent ? there?s one in this sale. Pick any odd number, 16, 87, 90, for instance, or odd amount ($1.25) and you are likely to find an obsolete notes of that denomination represented. Colorful cover, some great material from a great auction house. All lots, nearly 2,500, are on line at the firm?s website, www.smytheonline.com or you can order the printed catalog for $25. I found this sale's pre-auction publicity notice on the web. It is one of the worst I have ever seen. Part of the first paragraph is missing. The rest is crammed into a box of gray text that is very poorly written ? and very difficult to read! The culprit is news-antique.com. Click on this only if you insist: http://www.news-antique.com/?id=781537&keys=currency-confederate-obsolete " JAR LIDS TO COINS: MANUFACTURING CENT PLANCHETS IN EASTERN TENNESSEE The Appalachian Journal published a nice article on June 13 about the manufacture of cent planchets in Eastern Tennessee: "Jarden Zinc Products has produced in the neighborhood of 4 billion (yes, that is a B) copper-plated penny blanks this year, which the U.S. Mint then casts into pennies." "Since 1982, every penny in your pocket, gathered in jars, chest of drawers, on the floor of your car, beneath the couch cushions, has been produced by Jarden. Jarden is a division of the Rye, N.Y.-based Jarden Corp. Originally, Jarden was the Ball Zinc Products Co., which arrived in Greene County in 1968. The 350,000-square-foot plant opened in 1970. About 24 years ago, Jarden morphed from producing Ball jar lids to the penny blank when Congress decided that manufacturing a penny that was 97 percent copper was too expensive. That year, Congress switched the penny from copper to zinc." "Jarden is North America's largest zinc user." "Jarden makes coin blanks for 20 diverse nations, reaching from New Guinea to Malawi, from Lebanon to the Fiji Islands. And our no