From esylum at binhost.com Sun Jan 6 21:32:34 2008 From: esylum at binhost.com (esylum@binhost.com) Date: Sun Jan 6 21:33:00 2008 Subject: The E-Sylum v11#01, January 6, 2008 Message-ID: <009701c850d5$902aa870$6401a8c0@corp.cmdinfo.com> Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 11, Number 01, January 6, 2008: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2008, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. WAYNE'S WORDS: THE E-SYLUM JANUARY 6, 2008 Among our recent subscribers is Richard Giles. Welcome aboard! We now have 1,106 subscribers. This week we open with news from no less than three active numismatic literature dealers and one retiring numismatic librarian. Next, we have an obituary for Graham Pollard, author of the new Renaissance Medals catalog. Myron Xenos provides a review of the Canadian Numismatic Bibliography and the Wilsons offer their review of the new Whitman 'Guide Book of Lincoln Cents'. In follow-ups to previous articles, Pete Smith and Craig McDonald comment on dealer Harold M. Hess, Karl Moulton discusses 1793 Philadelphia newspapers, Tom DeLorey provides information on varieties of the 1922 "No D" Lincoln Cent, and Martin Purdy comments on the legal tender status of Scottish banknotes. In the news, word of a robbery of London dealers Dix, Noonan Webb has just been released, a Forbes article advocates the private printing of paper money, Venezuela revives the locha denomination and Zimbabwe reverses its decision to phase out a banknote denomination. To learn which world mint is 100 years old this week, read on. Have a great week, everyone. Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society LITERATURE DEALER JOHN BURNS AT THE JANUARY 2008 FUN SHOW Numismatic Literature dealer John H. Burns writes: "I will have a two table booth (1245 & 1247) at the F.U.N. Convention in Orlando, FL January 10-13, 2008. I will have approximately two tons (4000 pounds!!) of new, out of print and antiquarian books for sale." [If you're attending the show, please stop by and say hello to Big John. You'd be hard pressed to find a bigger display of numismatic literature anywhere, so stop, browse, and add to your library. -Editor] CHARLES DAVIS FEBRUARY 2, 2008 NUMISMATIC LITERATURE SALE Numismatic Literature dealer Charles Davis writes: "My next auction sale catalogue consists of duplicates from the American Numismatic Society and has a closing date of February 2. Highlights include complete original sets of SNG Copenhagen, SNG Lockett, SNG Lloyd, SNG ANS and some 50 odd parts of the above and other Sylloges, plus a uniformly bound early set of The Numismatist, a complete set of Mason's Magazine, two original Crosby Early Coins, Red Books including three first editions, and runs of the American Journal of Numismatics. Catalogues will be mailed next week and will be available at the Spink/Davis booth at the New York International." GEORGE KOLBE SALE #105 - THE DR. DANIEL LEONCE KOPPERSMITH LIBRARY [Numismatic Literature dealer George Kolbe forwarded the following press release for his upcoming sale of the core numismatic library of Dr. Daniel Leonce Koppersmith, featuring key works on archaic & classical greek coins and kindred topics. -Editor] On March 20, 2008 George Frederick Kolbe/Fine Numismatic Books will sell at auction the core numismatic library of Dr. Dan Koppersmith. Beyond the dazzling array of standard references and often rare specialized die-studies in the library, perhaps the most remarkable thing about it is the uniformly superb condition of the contents. The library is perhaps best described by the collector, who writes in the introduction to the sale: "My library has been carefully and thoughtfully assembled over the past fifteen years. In my opinion, it contains all the important references for Archaic and Classical Greek Coins, including every Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum produced to recent date. Condition is generally exceptional, as worn copies have been replaced. Most of the books are bound, as described in the catalog. The library was much larger, but less important works were removed, leaving an extremely important, concise core, if over one hundred feet of literature can be described as concise. In my opinion, the auction catalogs are all the essential ones for Archaic and Classical Greek Coins, again with less important catalogs culled to minimize space. I wrote an article published in The Celator to this end (Volume 21, Number 5, May 2007), which is reproduced here through the kindness of the Publisher/Editor, Kerry K. Wetterstrom." Among the sale highlights are a complete set of the Numismatic Chronicle, complete from 1838 to date; as previously mentioned, a complete run of the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, including exceptionally fine original sets of SNG Danish and SNG von Aulock, along with all of the recent volumes published in various countries; superb sets of the original editions, mainly leather-bound, of the great series of multi-volume ancient coin collection catalogues, including Forrer's Weber collection, Grose's McClean collection, the Jameson collection, and Macdonald's Hunterian collection. Also featured are Leonard Forrer's complete, unusually fine, 29 volume set of Greek Coins in the British Museum, all in the original blue cloth bindings; Edward T. Newell's superb original set of Babelon's Trait? des Monnaies Grecques et Romaines; Dr. J. Hewitt Judd's original Die M?nzen von Syrakus by Erich Boehringer; a complete, very fine original set of von Fritze & Gaebler's Nomisma; Georges Le Rider's very fine leather-bound set of Die Antiken M?nzen Nord-Griechenlands; Oscar Ravel's own set of his rare, still important two volume work on Corinthian staters; and a pristine original example of Svoronos' Les Monnaies d'Ath?nes. Other consignments following the Koppersmith library will feature important numismatic works on a wide variety of topics covering the numismatic spectrum. Copies of the printed catalogue may be obtained by sending $15.00 to George Frederick Kolbe, P. O. Box 3100, Crestline, CA 92325. Telephone: (909) 338-6527; Fax: (909) 338-6980; Email: GFK@numislit.com. The catalogue will also be accessible free of charge, several weeks before the sale, at the firm's web site: www.numislit.com. ANS LIBRARIAN FRANK CAMPBELL RETIRING MARCH 31, 2008 American Numismatic Society Librarian Francis D. Campbell writes: "On March 31, 2008, I will retire from my position as Librarian of the American Numismatic Society. I have been with the Society since 1958 and have been its Librarian since 1975 and, as such, have come to know many of those in the numismatic community who you also count among your readers. Therefore, I thought the E-Sylum would be the best way to inform them of my retirement and to let them know it has been a pleasure to share the resources of this Library with them over the years. [Frank's ubiquitous presence will be sorely missed. We wish the best of luck to him in retirement, and I look forward to inviting his successor(s) to also participate in the E-Sylum forum. -Editor] OBITUARY: RENAISSANCE MEDALS AUTHOR GRAHAM POLLARD 1929 - 2007 Charles Davis writes: "In the December 23 E-Sylum, you published a notice on the new work by Graham Pollard on Renaissance Medals in the National Gallery. Regrettably I received the below note that he passed away two weeks ago. Graham Pollard died Monday December 17 after a relatively short illness - a malignant brain tumour was diagnosed in September. His wife Maria died three weeks earlier (25 Nov) after a long battle with cancer. There will be a joint funeral sometime in mid-January. An obituary of him appears in The Independent" [Here are some excerpts from Pollard's obituary, written by Dr. Mark Blackburn, Head of the Department of Coins and Medals at the Fitzwilliam Museum. -Editor] John Graham Pollard, numismatist, museum curator and civic campaigner: born Gillingham, Kent 25 December 1929; Keeper of Coins and Medals, Fitzwilliam Museum 1966-88, Deputy Director 1969-88; Fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge 1967-97 (Emeritus), Librarian 1980-95; married 1963 Maria Seri (died 2007; one son); died Cambridge 17 December 2007. Graham Pollard was the leading authority on Italian Renaissance medals in the post-war period. He will be best remembered as the author of the multi-volume catalogues of two of the greatest collections in the world, those of the Bargello Museum in Florence and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. But as a curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge ? whose coin and medal collection he did much to enhance ? his influence was far wider, as he shared his knowledge and judgement with students, scholars, collectors and dealers. He registered for a London University external degree in Geography, but had to abandon it in 1948 when he was called up for National Service. On his return in 1950, he was appointed a Museum Assistant and assigned to the Coin Room to work under Harold Shrubbs. With encouragement from the museum's director, Carl Winter, he decided to apply to Cambridge University to read History, and rapidly taught himself sufficient Latin to pass the entrance exam, entering Pembroke College in 1951. He continued to work part-time for the Fitzwilliam during the first two years of his degree, and was given leave for the third. On graduating in 1954 he was appointed Junior Assistant Keeper, and promoted to Keeper of Coins and Medals in 1966 and Deputy Director in 1969. Pollard's interest in medals had been fired by chance soon after arriving in Cambridge. In a fire-sale at an antique shop he saw a tin bath containing several hundred medals, and hastened home to borrow money from his father to buy them. The Italian connection came somewhat later and for a different reason. His first trip, in 1957, was with a group of friends wanting to look at Italian architecture, and he was bowled over by the experience. On a subsequent trip, in 1961, he went with Jack Trevor in search of fossils at the mine of Bacinello in southern Tuscany. In the nearby town of Grosseto he met a young schoolteacher, Maria Seri, who two years later would become his wife. Renaissance Medals was due to be published in January 2008 and launched in Washington with an international symposium, but when last September Pollard was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the production was accelerated, so that in October an advance copy was couriered to Cambridge in time for him to appreciate it. This massive catalogue of two volumes, running to more than 1,100 pages, is truly the crown to a distinguished numismatic career. He and Maria were a devoted couple, and his final illness, though short, was heart-rending, as she herself was battling with the terminal stages of a cancer, which took her just three weeks before him. To read the complete article, see: http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article3276263.ece BOOK REVIEW BY MYRON XENOS: CANADIAN NUMISMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHY Myron Xenos writes: "Back in the early nineties, a fellow from County Cork, Ireland struck up an e-mail exchange with me. His name is Darryl Atchison, and he was putting together a bibliography of Canadian numismatic literature, no easy task considering the Atlantic Ocean would slow down anyone without a computer. As the years rolled by, I would send him some items, and, considering the enormity of such a project, figured that this might fizzle out somewhere along the way. "Oh, me of little faith - what should arrive at my office in December but a monstrous two-volume work of art titled Canadian Numismatic Bibliography. This beautiful set contains 1,114 pages of great information laced with hundreds of photos and illustrations of coins, books, people, and items of ephemera, many seldom seen. There are 95 pages of index to make life easier as we all look to see if our names were mentioned or to actually make our research a bit easier. "Three hundred signed and numbered sets were printed on acid-free paper. A list of 125 original subscribers is present on the page before the index. The work was published by the Numismatic Education Society of Canada, with a grant from the J. Douglas Ferguson Research Foundation. "The two volume work is neatly organized, and after 23 pages of introductions, acknowledgements, and historical background, begins with general numismatics, pre-Confederation coins, medals & tokens and continues for another 1000 pages covering a wealth of written material from all sorts of Canadian resources. "I believe many of Darryl's bibliographies will end up on library shelves where future numismatic writers can go to get a jump-start on their research. Darryl's efforts equal the size of Dave Bowers' two volumes on U.S. silver dollars. Congratulations to all involved in the project." [I had the opportunity to meet Darryl and review the CNB manuscript at Heathrow airport in London last summer. I'm proud to have been one of the charter subscribers to the project and agree with Myron that it's an "instant" classic - a monumental effort that will pave the way for numismatic researchers of the future. Being across the pond in Ireland, Darryl was actually among the last to get his copy of the final printed books. His comments follow. -Editor] Darryl Atchison writes: "I received my copies of the CNB about two and half weeks ago and spent some time looking through the books over the holidays. I was very pleased with both the overall quality and presentation of the books, but I was disappointed with the quality of some of the photos in Chapter 12 - like my own for example (and a few others like it). "However, I was quite surprised at the very high quality of many of the other photos. For example, if you look at a lot of the images (such as the coins, medals and banknotes) under reasonably good magnification, the images don't break apart into dots. I showed the book to my father-in-law yesterday and he spent two hours just going through volume two. He used a magnifying glass which is how I found this out. He has no interest in Canadian numismatics but was still quite impressed, I believe. Anyhow, try out a magnifier for yourself and I think you'll be amazed at what you can see." CANADIAN NUMISMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHY READY FOR PRINTING http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n26a02.html WAYNE'S LONDON DIARY 1 JULY, 2007 http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n26a13.html BOOK REVIEW BY JOHN AND NANCY WILSON: WHITMAN GUIDE BOOK OF LINCOLN CENTS [This week John and Nancy Wilson offer their review of the new Whitman 'Guide Book of Lincoln Cents' by Q. David Bowers. -Editor] "A Guide Book of Lincoln Cents" by Q. David Bowers continues the series of ?Guide Book? and other ?Official Red Book? guides published by Whitman Publishing. This full-color, 304 page paperback covers Lincoln Cents from the speculation about the design before its release in 1909 to a sneak preview of possible designs for 2009. Bowers gives a detailed analysis by year of all information the advanced collector needs to know about that coin. For each year general information about that year as well as numismatic information specific to that year is also given. Detailed prices for all grades as well as certified populations by grade are given by coin. Detailed striking and sharpness are given by date and mint. Full color pictures of the coins show additional details described in the text. The book gives advice on analyzing color and strike as well as information on being a smart buyer. Market realities and establishing fair market prices are detailed. There is information on errors, patterns, and varieties in the series. The book is a must for all advanced collectors of Lincoln Cents. The book may be purchased online from the publisher at www.WhitmanBooks.com as well as from book sellers, coin dealers and hobby retailers for $19.95." BOOK REVIEW BY MIKE MAROTTA: WHITMAN GUIDE BOOK OF LINCOLN CENTS http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n53a02.html ROYAL CANADIAN MINT CELEBRATES CENTENNIAL [The Royal Canadian Mint issued the following press release on January 2, 2008. Happy birthday! -Editor] One hundred years ago today, Governor General Earl Grey activated the press to strike a fifty-cent piece, Canada's first domestically produced coin. What would become known as the Royal Canadian Mint was officially open for business. "To celebrate the centennial of the Mint is to celebrate the history of Canada," said Mr. Ian E. Bennett, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint. "Over the past century, the Mint has played an important role in the economic and social fabric of our nation, by creating circulation and commemorative collector coins which are a true testament to Canada's rich heritage and values." The Mint's Ottawa facility, which occupies the same premises on which the Mint was founded, produces hand-crafted collector and commemorative coins, gold bullion coins, medals and medallions. Established in 1976, the Winnipeg Mint is a high-tech, high-volume manufacturing facility where Canada's circulation coinage is produced, as well as coins for countries around the world. "Throughout 2008, the Mint is celebrating its employees who, both past and present, have contributed to its remarkable success," added Mr. Bennett. "Their combined efforts and overwhelming dedication have made the Mint one of the most innovative and respected in the world." To commemorate its centennial, the Mint is producing a high-quality limited edition book which will describe the corporation's rich history in both text and photography. Numismatic coins marking this special anniversary will also be issued mid-year. In addition, Canada Post has announced that, in June, it will recognize the occasion by issuing a commemorative stamp in the Mint's honour. This year, the Mint is inviting visitors to stop by its Ottawa and Winnipeg facilities, to take a tour, browse the boutique and be a part of its anniversary celebrations. To mark the occasion, the 100th visitor every day will receive a special commemorative gift. The Mint will also be taking an opportunity on Canada Day to open its doors and celebrate its centennial with fun-filled family activities. To read the complete press release, see: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/January2008/02/c6229.html [We'll look forward to the new book on the history of the Royal Canadian Mint. Is anyone familiar with the project? I was unable to locate a listing for any books on the mint's web site. -Editor] To visit the Royal Canadian Mint web site, see: http://www.mint.ca/ DICK JOHNSON ON MEDALS BY THE GORHAM COMPANY Darryl Atchison asked me: "Do you know anything about the Gorham Company - particularly anything on medals they made? I noticed a few pieces in the Stack's December sale but had never heard of this firm before. There is a published history on the company which I found on Abebooks but I don't think it covers anything on their medals." [I had heard of the firm but was unfamiliar with their medals, although later I recalled the Bryan Money medals made by the company. I had forwarded Darryl's query to Dick Johnson, and his response appears below. -Editor] Dick Johnson writes: "Like their life-long competitor, Tiffany & Company, Gorham issued medals as well - but not as many. I have listed just over 100 medals that I can document Gorham made, in contrast to 943 Tiffany medals. "You must be aware there was just no firm in America which could strike large important medals in the later part of the 19th century. If you wanted such a medal you had to have it struck at the U.S. Mint or order it overseas, usually in France or England. There were diesinking firms -- in Boston and New York City -- and a flourishing handful of medal makers in Philadelphia. For the most part, however, these firms did not have a press large enough that could strike a 2-inch or larger medal. "Thus the jewelry companies of Tiffany and Gorham filled the niche for large and important medals. You could order a medal from either of these -- in any size to any specifications -- and they would solve the problem of design, obtaining a qualified artist to create the models and have the medals produced and finished. "Often when the artist received such an order for a medal, he would design and model this, then bring the models to one or the other for production. Some of America's greatest artists did this. Saint-Gaudens used both firms. "Both firms had major sales offices in New York City. But the medals were produced elsewhere, Gorham in their Providence Rhode Island plant, Tiffany in their Newark New Jersey silverware plant. You could think of both firms as 'manufacturing jewelers' but often they would subcontract actual production, in whole or in part, to other manufacturers. "This was to the benefit to all. The customer got the best America could produce, with the prestige of a Tiffany or Gorham name. The jewelry firm found the best artist, the best manufacturer, and could negotiate the best price with these for their continued business. The jewelry firm earned a decent profit, which they certainly deserved for either making or administrating the making of the item, at a decent price for the customer. "That is how Tiffany came to use the services of a tiny medal-maker, Deitsch Brothers and the talents of Henri Weil, in less that a year after this medal maker was established. Notably for Saint-Gauden's Franklin Bicentennial Medal of 1906 (Saint-Gaudens delayed its issuance to 1908 however). Henri Weil went on to purchase the medal business from the Deitschs and build the Medallic Art Company, along with his brother, Felix Weil. The firm began to thrive after World War I. "In the 1920s medal customers began going direct to Medallic Art Company for their important medals. In early 1930s Tiffany gave up any direct manufacturing of medals and sent all their medal jobs to be made by this firm, even though the name Tiffany & Co would appear on the medal. "Gorham did less subcontracting and more production of medals by casting for which they were so proficient. Thus Saint-Gaudens sent them his 1906 Massachusetts Civil Service Reform Association Womens Medallion to be cast. "Among Gorham's first medals were for two New York City theaters (1876), they did medals for five American Expositions (from 1895 Cotton States to 1909 Alaska-Yukon- Pacific), a large number of anniversary medals. But were extremely active in producing municipal war service medals for returning WWI servicemen, as was Tiffany. "An interesting medal history is the William Henry Nichols Medal for the American Chemical Society New York Section. It was first produced by Marcus & Co (a minor jewelry firm) from 1896-1901, then by Gorham from 1902-1937, and finally by Medallic Art Company after 1938. "Gorham employed their own factory artists who created models, Florent Antoine Haller (late 1880s) and Edwin E. Codeman two decades later. Most medal work was by outside artists for the most part." For more images of Tiffany, Gorham Bryan Money medals, see: http://fao-coins.info/bryan/bryan.html GLEANINGS FROM RECENT NUMISMATIC PUBLICATIONS [Every now and then I plow through my stack of recent numismatic periodicals and catalogs and note some of the items that catch my eye. As always, your questions and comments are appreciated. What have YOU seen lately that deserves a mention? -Editor] ELIZABETH JONES PRODUCTION PLASTER The January 7, 2008 issue of Coin World has an article (p4) about material relating to former U.S. Mint Sculptor-Engraver Elizabeth Jones in the upcoming Heritage auction (Sale 454, Lot 3430). The "Archive of Elizabeth Jones Appointment Documents and Production Artwork" includes her Senate Resolution (dated September 29, 1981), Presidential Appointment Certificate, Three Sketches for Medals, and a Production Plaster for 1982 the George Washington Half Dollar Obverse. Jones' Washington Half is a groundbreaking coin which opened the door for the torrent of modern commemorative issues to follow. A production plaster pedigreed to Jones would be a centerpiece of any modern commemorative collection. And where else can you get a Chief Engraver's Presidential Appointment Certificate? It will be interesting to see what the lot sells for. http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=454&Lot_No=3430 CIVIL WAR MONEY OF S. STEINFELD The Fall/Winter 2007 issue (#14) of The Numismatic Sun from Stack's has a nice article (p14-16) by Q. David Bowers on "Civil War Money Issued by S. Steinfeld". Simon Steinfeld of New York first caught my eye as an issuer of Encased Postage Stamps, but he also issued Civil War Tokens. I collected both. Dave has always been interested in Encased Postage Stamps, and his articles on the topic in The Sun and its forerunner Rare Coin Review helped spark and maintain my own interest in the series. As always, the publication also features a very extensive fixed price list of numismatic literature - a great source for important and hard-to-find books. BEST CHRISTMAS AD My vote for the best Christmas-themed ad from a coin firm goes to Coin Rarities Online, run by Dave Wnuck and John Agre. See the December 17, 2007 issue of Coin World (p66) for an example. It features a Massachusetts Pine Tree Shilling with the tree cleverly decorated for the holiday with colored ornaments and presents below. The copy notes that "no coins were harmed in the making of this ad". The firm's web site features some neat coins and medals. Can anyone tell us more about the 1815 50mm white metal map medal? It has a map of the Western Hemisphere on one side, and the Eastern Hemisphere on the other. http://www.coinraritiesonline.com/index.php?page=search&task=det_item&item_i d=1001 NUMISMATIC IMAGES ON AMERICAN PAPER CURRENCIES The catalog for the January 15, 2008 Stack's sale of the Lawrence R. Stack Collection of numismatic images on American paper currencies. Paper money picturing coins is an interesting topic that has attracted a number of collectors in the past, including former American Numismatic Association President George Hatie. While I never collected them myself, I always appreciated these curious notes. This 189-page color catalog is the most comprehensive treatment ever written on the topic, and it's sure to be a valuable reference work for future collectors. LAWRENCE R. STACK COLLECTION OF ANCIENT GREEK COINS The catalog for the January 14, 2008 Stack's sale of the Lawrence R. Stack Collection of Ancient Greek Coins is a stunningly beautiful record of an important collection of numismatic masterpieces. The photography and presentation are absolutely gorgeous. While there's been much discussion of whether computer technologies are making printed catalogs obsolete, technology is also reducing the cost and increasing the quality of printed catalogs. Long live the catalog! MEET THE INDUSTRY Numismatic News has a section called Meet the Industry. It's unclear to me as a reader if the articles contained within are independently written and edited, or if they're just full-page advertisements in the form of articles. The fine print at the bottom of the page does say "Special Advertisement Section." Perhaps the layout is intentionally ambiguous, although I think the end result is a win-win all around. It's interesting to learn more about the background and history of the firms in our industry, something that ordinary ads don?t always provide. Two of the better ones I've read recently were in the December 25, 2007 issue - Northwest Territorial Mint (p40-41) and Modern Coin Mart (p42-43). COLONIAL JACK & HIS TOKENS The cover article of The Numismatist's January 2008 issue is "In His Shoes: The True Story of Sailor Jean and Colonial Jack" by William D. Hyder. "On a bet ... a Boston newspaperman ... set out in April 1903 to walk to every U.S. state capital under the pseudonym 'Sailor Jean' while pushing a 'trolleyette,' a wheelbarrow made from galvanized iron, wood and a bicycle wheel." As part of the bet his sponsor would publish a book about the journey. To defray expenses, aluminum souvenir tokens were struck and sold along the route. A book never materialized, but the man, John Krohn, made the journey not once but twice, walking thousands of miles each time. Only his tokens live on to tell the tale. A great story and a great article - a perfect example of what makes numismatics such an interesting hobby. See below for a note from Terry Trantow about this article. TAMS JOURNAL, THE NUMISMATIST, AND EXONUMIA ARTICLES Terry Trantow writes: "I find it refreshing that the January 2008 issue of The Numismatist features an exonumia story as their feature item on their cover, while the Token and Medal Society (TAMS) continues to struggle from a lack of such articles and support. "ANA member William D. Hyder has produced a wonderful work about a portion of the life of John Krohn, who had issued two storecards as ?Colonial Jack? and ?Sailor Jean?, circa 1908, to finance his travels across the United States. I see this American Numismatic Association issue as a milestone in its direction of the future of their magazine content. "As a longtime member of both ANA and TAMS, I have to think we may be approaching the time where it may become desirable for these two organizations to combine for the benefit of both numismatists and exonumists. While I would abhor seeing TAMS dissolve as an entity, perhaps becoming part of the ANA may the only way for it to survive [with this most recent ANA issue, perhaps it should become part of TAMS!]. "Coin collecting for the most part today is dull: there is much talk about record coin prices which are beyond the budget of most ANA members, or of mint errors or new US Mint editions, which seem to wish to produce new designs for coin varieties to the Public. "Exonumia offers a far more interesting venue, requiring one to delve into the past to recapture the history of a particular piece. In my opinion, the production of new US coin designs won?t begin to offer competition to the current collector market that exonumia provides." MORE ON HAROLD M. HESS Regarding Mike Greenspan's query about dealer Harold M. Hess, Pete Smith writes: "I wrote a series of articles for Penny-Wise on people important to our hobby. The January 15, 1991, issue had this on Harold Hess: 'Dealer in choice early copper around 1982 to 1984. Stopped dealing abruptly in 1984 because of personal problems.' " Craig McDonald writes: "I too remember Harold's catalogs. At one time I had a full run, but sold them several years ago when by necessity, I had to thin out my holdings of publications. I only bought one coin from him that I remember, my Ryder 16 Vermont. His catalogs were printed on stock with backgrounds that depicted early 20th century newspaper ads, if I recall correctly. I also seem to recall that his last catalog simply stated that for "serious personal reasons" (possible paraphrase) it would be his final catalog." QUERY: HAROLD M. HESS FIXED PRICE LISTS http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n52a15.html FEDERAL RESERVE PUBLICATIONS Regarding Bob Neale's item about Federal Reserve publications on the Panic of 1907 Len Bailey of Littleton Coin Company writes: "Thanks for the great article. Bob is correct - these publications (along with many others) are still available from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Many of these pubs are available online to view or download at: http://www.bos.frb.org/genpubs/index.htm FEDERAL RESERVE PUBLICATIONS ON THE PANIC OF 1907 AND OTHER TOPICS http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n52a06.html THE MINT, YELLOW FEVER AND 1793 PHILADELPHIA NEWSPAPERS Regarding our earlier discussion, Karl Moulton writes: "The 1793 Philadelphia newspapers weren't really interested in the new Mint. They normally printed acts of Congress which pertained to the start up and legal weights of the denominations that were to be issued, but that's about all that was ever seen. "The daily operations were left to the Officers - Mint Director David Rittenhouse & Chief Coiner Henry Voigt, who had there hands full taking care of business within the new establishment. "During the 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic (mid-August through October), the newspapers ceased for the most part. There was only one that continued to print something throughout the ordeal. One must understand the severity of the tragedy and the panic that took hold within the city. There was nobody who could even keep up with the names of the dead - only the number buried at the end of the day. "More about this, and Dr. Rush's involvement can be found in my 'Henry Voigt and Others Involved with America's Early Coinage' book; which includes a March 31, 1792 newspaper citation regarding the establishment of the United States Mint." CONTEMPORARY NEWSPAPER REFERENCES TO PHILADELPHIA MINT SOUGHT http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n53a08.html ON THE 1922 "NO D" LINCOLN CENT VARIETIES Last week Mike Marotta mentioned Chuck Daughtrey's assertion that the 1922 "No D" Lincoln Cent varieties "are all due to a grease-filled die, not some complicated restoration of a damaged die..." Tom DeLorey, former Senior Authenticator of the American Numismatic Association writes: "Two of the 1922 'No D' cent varieties are indeed caused by grease filling the mint mark in the die, but the third (Die Variety 2) was most definitely caused by the overenthusiastic polishing down of a damaged die." ON THE LEGAL TENDER STATUS OF SCOTTISH BANKNOTES Regarding last week's item about the call to legalize Scottish banknotes for use in England, Martin Purdy writes: "I understand that Scottish notes are technically not even 'legal tender' in Scotland, so it would be a hard task to afford them that status in England! Martin adds: "Here's a reference from Wikipedia, under 'Legal tender': Scottish notes are not legal tender anywhere in the UK, including Scotland where only the coins are officially legal tender. Although this is the case, Scottish notes are widely accepted in return for goods throughout the UK; they have a similar legal standing to cheques or debit cards, in that their acceptability as a means of payment is essentially a matter for agreement between the parties involved. To read the complete Wikipedia entry, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender#In_the_United_Kingdom [Actually, the article did discuss some of these details, but I cut those parts for brevity. It's an interesting topic. In all the months I spent in London this summer, I only came across one Scottish note in change. If it had been a nicer specimen I would have just kept it as a souvenir for my collection. But it was pretty beat up and to see what would happen, I asked the merchant to exchange it for a Bank of England note. No problem - he gave me another note immediately. -Editor] POLITICIANS CALL FOR SCOTTISH BANKNOTES TO BE HONORED IN ENGLAND http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n53a16.html DIX NOONAN WEBB ROBBERY REPORTED [As the 2008 FUN show and the anniversary of last year's robberies of dealers following that show approaches, this article about a similar robbery in the U.K. is a timely reminder for attendees of all coin shows to be on their guard at all times. -Editor] A chest of antique coins worth up to ?300,000 was stolen by a gang in a sting on two auctioneers as they drove away from a exhibition centre. Experts fear that the collection, which featured two gold coins of priceless historical value, could have been melted down. One of the coins can be dated back to 1826 and was worth up to ?35,000. The gang of about six men and two women targeted two men from Dix Noonan Webb, the auctioneer, in South Kensington, London, when the coins had been displayed at Earl?s Court Exhibition Centre. It is believed that the gang sabotaged the men?s car and followed them from the centre. Details of the elaborate sting have only just been released by the police as they continue to hunt for the gang. Detective Sergeant Neil Phillpot, from Notting Hill CID, said: ?We believe this was an organised crime involving at least seven suspects. We are keen to trace them and believe they may be from Central or South America.? Piers Noonan, of the auctioneers, said: ?One five pound coin made in 1826 during the reign of George IV was worth ?30,000 to ?35,000 alone. ?We can trace its history from a Sotheby?s sale in 1854. It has always been rare and always been appreciated. It?s so rare it?s recognisable to collectors and almost unsellable in the public domain. ?The people who stole it got it for nothing and may just melt it down for a scrap dealer for about ?500.? A mint condition ?2 coin worth ?15,000 to ?18,000 and smelted in 1820 was also among the collection, which also included rare coins from Tibet, Austria, France, Australia and Burma. Mr Noonan added: ?It?s a huge loss. What we are talking about are several items which are unique and have been cherished for 200 years which could now be in a melting pot. It?s very disrespectful. To read the complete article, see: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3111669.ece FUN SHOW COIN HEIST NETS $4 MILLION HAUL http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n02a10.html FBI REOPENS D.B. COOPER HIJACKING CASE [In the past we've discussed various kinds of currency associated with crimes, such as the ransom money from the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping and airplane hijacker D.B. Cooper. This week there was a story on National Public Radio noting that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is reopening the D.B. Cooper case. The NPR was site has the text of the article and images of some of the recovered notes paid to this enigmatic criminal. -Editor] Last month, the agency reopened the case of the airline hijacker known as Dan "D.B." Cooper, who bailed out of a Northwest Orient airplane with $200,000 in extortion money in 1971. Cooper vanished after the jump, and his true identity has never been discovered. Now, the FBI is releasing sketches of the legendary hijacker, a map of the area where he could have landed and a handful of photos from the case. They've also unveiled a Web site dedicated to solving the crime. "Help us solve the enduring mystery," the Web site entreats. "Who was Cooper? Did he survive the jump? And what happened to the loot, only a small part of which has ever surfaced?" FBI agent Larry Carr said he hopes the clues will jog someone's memory. The mystery unfolded the night before Thanksgiving in 1971 when a man calling himself Dan Cooper used cash to buy a one-way ticket to Seattle at the Northwest Orient Airlines (now Northwest) counter in Portland, Ore. During the flight, Cooper handed the flight attendant a note saying he had a bomb in his briefcase and wanted $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes. When the flight landed in Seattle, Cooper took the money and parachutes and let the 36 passengers go. He then directed the pilot to take him to Mexico City. At about 8 p.m. ? somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nev. ? Cooper went to the back of the plane and jumped into the pitch black night in the midst of a driving rainstorm. The plane landed safely, but no trace of Cooper was ever found. Nine years later, 8-year-old Brian Ingram found $5,800 of the extortion money when he was vacationing with his family. Ingram, who is now 36 and lives in Mena, Ark., said he found three bundles of deteriorated $20 bills while looking for firewood on the sandy banks of the Columbia River near the Washington-Oregon border. Ingram said he got to keep only half of the money ? the other half was turned over to Northwest's insurance carrier, which had paid the $200,000 extortion. To read the complete article, see: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17840873 To view the FBI D.B. Cooper case page, see: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec07/dbcooper123107.html RAISING HELL: PRICE OF HELL MONEY HAS GONE UP Michael Sullivan writes: "I thought your E-Sylum readers would be interested in this article from the New Straits Times, Aug. 20, 2007: ?Paying More for ?Hell? Currency? by Sim Bak Heng Johor Baru (Malaysia): Currency appreciation is not restricted to this world. It happens in the netherworld as well. Since July 1, the value of ?hell? currency has gone up. And people have had to fork out up to 20 percent more to buy the paper money commonly burned as an offering to the dead during the Hungry Ghost Festival which began last Monday. But this is not all. The prices of joss sticks, candles and the paper items such as cards, planes, houses and servants traditionally offered, have also gone up by 10 to 25 percent. The Malaysia Worship Items Dealers Association said the higher prices for these items, mostly imported from China, was inevitable because of the appreciation of the yuan and the withdrawal of subsidies for the manufacturing in China. FORBES ARTICLE ADVOCATES PRIVATELY-PRINTED CURRENCY [On New Year's Eve David Kranz of Numismatic News posted a blog entry discussing an article from Forbes magazine suggesting that the same scanners that read prices in stores could process "home-printed money" as well. Nick Graver also noticed the article. He writes: "Two authors (Ian Ayres & Barry Nalebuff) advocate printing 'money' at home on the computer, which then is used for 'one-time' payment of a purchase." Here are some excerpts from the Forbes article. -Editor] The U.S. Treasury makes money the old-fashioned way, by printing it. While greenbacks have lots of positives, we think the Treasury should let others get into the business of issuing money. If people could do it themselves, the result would be an even better currency. That's right. Why not print money at home on your laser printer rather than go to the ATM? Today, we can do this with stamps; the illustration shows postage produced by stamps.com. Security doesn't have to come from the Crane paper stock, the engraving or a metal strip inside the note. It could come from a two-dimensional bar code. When you give your money to the merchant, the merchant would scan it to ensure that the note is valid. After the scan the merchant can then just throw your cash away. No need for Brink's trucks and security. The scan could accomplish the transfer of balance. In essence, you would have single-use money or a single-use debit card. There are several ways in which bar-code money beats dead-president money. For starters, if you lose your wallet, you could cancel the notes and get a refund. In addition, your cash could be earning interest. When you go to print cash, money would be taken out of your bank account and cached in an escrow account. Until the money is spent, you could be credited with interest. Just as people buy custom ringtones for their phones, you would be able to buy custom images for your cash. Indeed, you could even spend money with your picture in place of Andrew Jackson's. Citibank puts your picture on credit cards. Why not have your picture on cash? We are already close to making this work. Most stores have scanners to read price tags. The same scanners could read your notes. You might still need old-fashioned currency to pay taxis or newsstands, so our proposal makes more sense for eliminating $20, $50 and $100 bills. Telephone calling cards are essentially cash in the form of a PIN code. Here the PIN would be printed on the note. Single-use credit card numbers are essentially a way of printing your own money. It is worth emphasizing that what we propose is not a return to the free-currency chaos of the 19th century, when banks issued notes backed sometimes by gold and sometimes by nothing but hopes. The bar-code notes would be backed by genuine U.S. Treasury dollars. When you print your note, your money is put aside until the note is cashed. To read the complete article, see: http://biz.yahoo.com/fo/071221/a210626019afc848d8ebbbfc05f03325.html To read "We can do it with stamps, why not currency?" by David Kranz', see: http://www.numismaticnews.net/watermark/PermaLink,guid,31c0af7a-a29f-461d-b8 40-104df9d3ddae.aspx DENVER MINT OKLAHOMA QUARTER STRIKING CEREMONY PLANNED "A ceremony commemorating the striking of the Oklahoma quarter is next week in Denver. "Gov. Brad Henry and first lady Kim Henry are scheduled to attend the ceremony set for Wednesday at the U.S. Mint's plant in Denver. "The tail side of the Oklahoma quarter is a design depicting Oklahoma's state bird ? the scissortail flycatcher ? in flight with its tail feathers spread. The bird is in the center of the coin, with a field of Indian blanket wildflowers around the bottom half. At the top is the word Oklahoma and just below that is the year of statehood, 1907. "Henry asked Oklahomans to come up with suggestions for the state's quarter. Nearly 1,000 submitted written ideas. Oklahomans were given the chance to vote online for their favorite designs; the top five choices were sent to the mint. The U.S. Commission on Fine Arts selected the design. "The other four final designs depicted the Pioneer Woman statue in Ponca City, which is of a woman and child that is meant to honor the courage of the homesteaders who came to Oklahoma. The designs featured other elements meant to convey the state's history and character, including oil derricks, a peace pipe, a windmill and the state's shape." To read the complete article, see: http://newsok.com/article/3188239/1199336012 FACETED GOLD BAR MONEY FOUND AMONG REMAINS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATION [Nick Graver forwarded this article about an interesting archeological find at the bottom of a Russian lake. Among the artifacts discovered were what the article called "a faceted gold bar, which was a monetary unit of the time" and "gold wire rings used as small change". Is anyone familiar with such numismatic items? -Editor] "An international archeological expedition to Lake Issyk Kul, high in the Kyrgyz mountains, proves the existence of an advanced civilization 25 centuries ago, equal in development to the Hellenic civilizations of the northern coast of the Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea) and the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. "The expedition resulted in sensational finds, including the discovery of major settlements, presently buried underwater. The data and artefacts obtained, which are currently under study, apply the finishing touches to the many years of exploration in the lake, made by seven previous expeditions. The addition of a previously unknown culture to the treasury of history extends the idea of the patterns and regularities of human development. "Last year, we worked near the north coast at depths of 5-10 metres to discover formidable walls, some stretching for 500 meters-traces of a large city with an area of several square kilometers. In other words, it was a metropolis in its time. We also found Scythian burial mounds, eroded by waves over the centuries, and numerous well preserved artifacts-bronze battleaxes, arrowheads, self-sharpening daggers, objects discarded by smiths, casting molds, and a faceted gold bar, which was a monetary unit of the time. "Some artifacts are stunning. A 2,500 year-old ritual bronze cauldron was found on the bottom of the lake. The subtlety of its craftsmanship is amazing. Such excellent quality of joining details together can be presently obtained by metalwork in an inert gas. How did ancient people achieve their high-tech perfection? Also of superb workmanship are bronze mirrors, festive horse harnesses and many other objects. Articles identified as the world's oldest extant coins were also found underwater-gold wire rings used as small change and a large hexahedral goldpiece." To read the complete article, see: http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20071227/94372640.html VENEZUELA REVIVES THE LOCHA COIN DENOMINATION [An article published New Year's Day on Bloomberg.com discusses the revival of an old Spanish-based coin denomination in Venezuela - the locha. Here are some excerpts. -Editor] Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's latest effort to reduce Latin America's highest inflation rate revives a coin rooted in Venezuela's colonial past: the ``locha,'' based on the old Spanish ``piece of eight.'' The locha is worth 12.5 cents, or an eighth of a new ``strong bolivar,'' a currency that debuted today with seven new coins and six new bills. Chavez says the new bolivar, created by lopping three zeros off the old currency, will simplify pricing and help slow consumer price increases. ``During the 1940s and through the 1960s, the locha was one of the most popular coins,'' Armando Leon, a director of the central bank, said in an interview in Caracas. ``It circulated during a very long period of stability.'' Chavez may be bringing back the locha to restore confidence in the economy amid the fastest inflation in almost five years and shortages of milk, eggs and sugar. The locha was an adaptation of a 19th-century coin called the ochava, Leon said. Both were derived from the ``piece of eight'' monetary system imposed by Spanish colonial rulers. The locha used to cover the cost of a bus ride and a loaf of bread, said Enrique Bernal, a professor at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, who has published a magazine on coin collecting for the Venezuelan Numismatic Society since 1980. It was so common that people used it to measure food, ordering cheese by the locha, he said. Some shoppers insist the locha will mean higher, rather than lower, prices. ``The store is always going to round up,'' said William Vivera, 34, an electrician in Caracas. ``The locha's going to be hard to manage for consumers and for stores.'' To read the complete article, see: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aPD0NkaWR35E ZIMBABWE REVERSES DECISION TO PHASE OUT ZIM$200 BANKNOTE According to news reports, "Zimbabwe's central bank on Monday reversed its decision to phase out a ZIM$200 000 banknote and pumped ZIM$33-trillion into markets to try ease a severe cash shortage that has left thousands of shoppers stranded. "Banknotes have recently joined the growing list of items in short supply, with thousands of desperate consumers besieging banks in the run-up to the Christmas and New Year holidays. "Central bank governor Gideon Gono, who said the bulk of the country's currency was outside the banking system, blames the banknote shortage on a rampant black market and foreign currency trade. "Earlier this month, Gono introduced ZIM$750 000, ZIM$500 000 and ZIM$250 000 notes and announced that the ZIM$200 000 bill - which he says is mostly used by foreign currency traders - would be put out of circulation on January 1. "All banks in Harare's central business district were flooded with customers hoping to withdraw money ahead of the New Year holiday on Tuesday. "Gono said the cash crisis is a sign of an ailing economy, which critics blame on Mugabe's controversial policies such as the seizure of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks." To read the complete article, see: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw200712311346099 31C549818 GEORGIA COUNTY HONORS CIVILIAN HEROES WITH COMMEMORATIVE MEDALS [An E-Sylum reader forwarded this story about a county in the state of George which honors civilian heroes with commemorative medals (called "coins" in the article. -Editor] The Placer County Board of Supervisors honored eight people this month for outstanding community service, presenting them with commemorative coins created for a county citizen-recognition program. The board created the program in December 2002 to recognize outstanding citizens who have long track records of community service, have performed heroic acts or participated in little-known, but commendable feats. Supervisors choose recipients from their districts. The commemorative coins feature the county seal on one side. On the other side are the word "hero" and the image of an eagle with a star and sun rays in the background. That second side of the coin was designed by J. Randal Smith, an Auburn native who is a nationally known artist. His design won a competition coordinated by the Arts Council of Placer County. To read the complete article, see: http://www.rocklintoday.com/news/templates/community_news.asp?articleid=5743 LESSON FOR NUMISMATIC RESEARCHERS: VERIFY YOUR SOURCES The rumor-squashing web site Snopes.com recently followed up on a story involving New York's mayor Fiorello La Guardia. There's no numismatic content to the story, unless you count collecting 50 cents from every person in a 1935 courtroom as numismatic. But the account of the researcher's steps in verifying the source of the story is enlightening and inspirational for numismatic researchers. To read the complete article, see: http://www.snopes.com/glurge/laguardia.asp LESSON FOR NUMISMATIC BUYERS: DON'T BELIEVE EVERY PROVENANCE TALE YOU HEAR Speaking of unverified stories, E-Sylum readers know one should always be wary of tales told by sellers of numismatic items. One recent eBay lot is a case in point. I won't publish the specifics, but someone in the know clued me in to the real story. The seller wrote a tale about how the lot was an old time collection of large cents found in his family home, full of "Old Stuff from the 1920's to the early 1990's". Included was a family tree and pictures of the coins displayed in a Whitman album. There are no close ups of the coins, which look like brown blobs in the photo. The real story? One of our subscribers sold this very same Whitman album (empty) to the seller a few weeks ago. The album bears a Whitman logo that was used only in 1972, yet the seller talks about the collection's owner passing in 1965! FOOTBALL COIN HUMOR Dick Johnson writes: "Thanks to Mona Ridder of the Cumberland Times-News who found this on the Internet: A guy took his blonde girlfriend to her first football game. After the game, he asked her how she liked it. ?Oh, it was great.? she replied, ?especially the tight pants and all the big muscles. But I just couldn?t understand why they were killing each other over 25 cents.? Dumbfounded, her date asked, ?What do you mean?? ?Well, they flipped a coin, one team got it and then for the rest of the game, all they kept screaming was: ?Get the quarterback! Get the quarterback!? I?m like ... Helloooooo? It?s only 25 cents!? FEATURED WEB PAGE: 1799 PETER KEMPSON CALENDAR MEDAL This week's featured web page is from the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, featuring a calendar medal designed by Peter Kempson. "This calendar medal for 1799 was designed to be carried in the pocket or purse and is a kind of forerunner of the modern pocket diary. The obverse gives the date of every Sunday in the year, plus some key dates from the Christian calendar. On the reverse are the dates of the new and full moons, the law terms and certain important anniversaries." http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1970N233 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 Sun Jan 13 22:39:25 2008 From: esylum at binhost.com (esylum@binhost.com) Date: Sun Jan 13 22:43:45 2008 Subject: The E-Sylum v11#02, January 13, 2008 Message-ID: <002501c8565f$10658670$6501a8c0@corp.cmdinfo.com> Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 11, Number 02, January 13, 2008: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2008, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. WAYNE'S WORDS: THE E-SYLUM JANUARY 13, 2008 Among our recent subscribers are Chris Neuzil and Joseph D. McCarthy. Welcome aboard! We now have 1,109 subscribers. This week we open with discussions of the catalogs for two upcoming sales, one of numismatic literature and one of Americana. On a very different topic, next is a review of a book on the coins and currency of the middle east. My numismatic diary for this week touches on the Daniel Carr Amero patterns and the 1933 Washroom Warrior medal. In responses to last week's issue, David Schenkman discusses William D. Hyder's January 2008 Numismatist article, and George Cuhaj discusses the Gorham Company archives at Brown University. Responding to last week's announcement of the pending retirement of ANS Librarian Frank Campbell, we have some appreciations of Frank's work by three E-Sylum readers. So you thought the American Numismatic Society used to be in a tough neighborhood? Try Baghdad. To learn about the "Jack Bauer of librarianship", read on. Have a great week, everyone. Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society CHARLES DAVIS FEBRUARY 2008 NUMISMATIC LITERATURE SALE CATALOG My copy of the February 2, 2008 Charles Davis numismatic literature sale catalog arrived recently. As always, Charlie's lot descriptions contain good tidbits of interesting information, and I find myself learning new things about some books I thought I was already familiar with. My area of interest is U.S. numismatic literature so I can't comment on the extensive selection of literature on ancient numismatics, but I thought I'd mention a few interesting U.S. lots. I've always enjoyed reading the "house organ" periodicals issued by 19th century U.S. coin dealers. Lots 101-103 feature the Thomas Elder publications 'The Elder Monthly' and 'The Numismatic Philistine'. Lot 107 is the 1990 Money Tree reprint of Ed Frossard's 'Numisma', "the most lively and libelous periodical in American numismatics." Two interesting 20th century productions are: Lot 130, a complete set of Jim Kelly's "Kelly's Coins and Chatter and Lot 193, a complete set of the 1940's Numismatic Review by Stack's. Lot 118 is a copy of Augustus Heaton's 1893 'A Treatise on the Coinage of the United States Branch Mints'. Estimated at $100, this little 54-page volume was "the first work to draw attention to the scarcity of the coinage of the branch mints." It's a scarce work in itself, and considering that it launched the mintmark collecting craze that today fuels stratospheric price levels for rare branch mint coins, any collector, dealer or investor who specializes in these ought to have a copy in their library. STACK'S JANUARY 2008 AMERICANA SALE CATALOG The January 15-16 Stack's Americana sale is a whopper. At 496 pages the catalog showcases the firm's largest (and possibly the finest) offering of Americana ever. The sale opens with a great selection of continental and colonial currency, featuring a nice selection of early American private scrip issues. Next up is the French Colonies collection of Robert A. Vlack, author of the definitive 2004 book on the subject. Over 150 specimens are plate coins from that important work. The sale also includes the John P. Lorenzo collections of St. Patrick's coinage and New Jersey coppers and Part 1 of the Michael K. Ringo collection of Contemporary Counterfeit English and Irish Halfpence. I asked Roger Sibioni about the sale and he writes: "John Kraljevich cataloged Mike's counterfeits and this catalog will probably serve as the major reference piece for English/ Irish counterfeit halfpence for some time. The collection has a great preamble introduction on Mike and this emerging area of collecting by Vicken Yegparian." Also included is Ringo's collection of American silver and coin silver tableware, many of which have numismatic connections. I was pleased to see a note that "photos of single item lots not photographed in this catalogue may be found online". Hip, hip hooray! I've been advocating this bifurcated approach to numismatic cataloging for some time. This is one of the first instances I've seen where the printed and online catalogs of a sale diverge. Usually these are carbon copies of one another, but it only makes sense to take advantage of the unique properties of each medium to present the sale in the best overall perspective at a reasonable cost. The U.S. medal section features many important specimens including Comitia Americana and Libertas Americana medals. The Civil War section features a number of interesting pieces, including a so-called "Rebel Half Dime" (lot 7233). The sale ends with a selection of U.S. coinage including some nice early gold. http://www.stacks.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00082877 One lot bibliophiles will appreciate is one of 400 deluxe leatherbound copies of Dave Bowers' 'A California Gold Rush History, featuring the treasure from the S.S. Central America.' "The inside of the front board incorporates a pinch of 'authentic gold dust from the S.S. Central America' behind a plastic 'window' for added Western appeal. The book is protected by a heavy and precisely fitted slip cover of rugged construction. Printed on heavy coated stock, the volume includes a life-size glossy color photo of a Justh and Hunter ingot from the wreck. This luxurious presentation volume was originally offered only to buyers of substantial Gold ingots salvaged from the S.S. Central America and each book cost some $1,000 to produce." http://www.stacks.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00088401 Other notes and comments on the sale are welcomed. Will the catalog become a classic reference? What was it like in the sale room? See "John Lorenzo's Frontenec Sale Purchase" later in this issue. REVIEW: COINS & CURRRENCY OF THE MIDDLE EAST I recently received a copy of the 2006 book from Krause Publications, 'Coins & Currency of The Middle East' by Tom Michael and George Cuhaj. While far from my normal area of interest, the continuing news from that region of the world makes a good topical subject for a book. I found it interesting and think others will, too. Covered countries include Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Somaliland, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The time period covers that last quarter-century or so. The book is a useful handbook-style compendium of information on not just the modern coins and paper money of the region, but military tokens, medals, challenge coins, propaganda leaflets and more. The cover and title page describe the book as "A Descriptive Guide to Pocket Collectible" and that's a fitting description. It is clearly intended for a Western audience, particularly people who served in the military and diplomatic corps in the region, and their friends and family members back home. Every generation of soldiers brings back souvenirs of their deployment, and people will be naturally curious to learn more about them. This book is a "World War II Remembered" for today's generation. The 272-page card covered book is profusely illustrated in color, and lists for $17.94 retail. It seems a natural product to market directly to returning servicemen and their families as well as collectors. I don't know that many dealers would rush to buy it (except for resale to collectors) because of the low value of most of the items listed. Few are listed at over $100 and many if not most are under $10. There aren't many "hidden treasures" that the book could help a bargain hunter locate. But for the collector or "average joe" with an interest in the topic, the new book is an invaluable companion. Tom Michael writes: "George and I had a lot of fun doing the Middle East book and I think that shows in the end product. I tried to keep the text light and airy. Our original intent was to make this for the service personnel and their families, though our marketing people completely re-wrote the back cover copy and only distributed the book to bookstores and through the numismatic trade. George and I wanted it in the PX's." "Everyone we worked with liked our idea also, but sometimes you just can't get the marketing and sales staffs to work for something different. I think the designer did a great job of creating a book for the service personnel, just as we intended. It's one of my favorite books that I have done over the years." The book absolutely has the look and feel of a military theme throughout. While the illustrations and price listings (in two grades, "Worn" and "New") have the familiar Krause flavor, they are augmented with many large color photos of U.S. military personnel in the region. Critics could argue that the selected photos have too much of an officially- sponsored military publication flavor to them, with page after page of soldiers handing out candy to delighted children, smiling doctors administering vaccines and relief workers handing out supplies to grateful locals - nary a Green Zone checkpoint or car bomb aftermath among them. But that's not what the book is meant to be about. I found it a pleasant relief from the headlines and think others will too. The photos are good quality, printed on glossy paper. As a numismatist I take issue with the layout of paper money photos, however. For visual effect the designer made two choices - one of them I can live with, but the other greatly limits the book's usability for research purposes. The first choice was to lay out the photos at slight angles, and while reading the book I found myself tilting my head like a quizzical dog. That part I got quickly used to and I came to appreciate the not-your-average-coin-catalog feel. But the other choice - to lay out the photos with the front of each note overlaying the back - was grating. With parts of the back design of nearly every note obscured, it felt like the numismatic content had a gaping hole. While I realize that numismatists are not the primary target readers, I was disappointed with this choice - for me, I'd much rather trade the space used for ancillary photos for space to properly illustrate each note. For bibliophiles there is a useful multipage section on books relating to the conflicts. For fun, there are also sections on comic books, propaganda leaflets and memorabilia, including the famous decks of "most wanted" cards. I'm glad the editors decided to include these items, as they often accompany the coin and paper money souvenirs brought home by veterans. Overall I was quite pleased with the book. I think it will be well received in its target market, and should still be of interest and use in the numismatic market despite the banknote illustration shortcoming. In the category of nitpicks I feel compelled to note there are some misplaced apostrophes in the narrative text that would have given my grammar teachers conniptions. The only error that was jarring to me was the misspelled heading for the Appendices section (on p262, "Appenices"). I hope the military readers among us help promote the book by posting notices on various military web sites and blogs. And if anyone has a connection with people stocking the PX, put in a good word - I think the book would be a good seller. It's a little outdated now as we enter 2008, but still quite useful and interesting. George Cuhaj adds: "It was our first full color book from the KP Numismatic staff, thus quite a learning curve. It was the first in a long time to have coins and paper combined. The idea was not to show every item, so not every banknote got illustrated. The positive military photographic spin was intentional. We had plenty bad images in the public press and decided that our book would have a different tone." NEW BOOK IN PROGRESS: CALENDAR MEDALS AND STORECARDS George Fuld writes: "The featured web site on January 6th about calendar medals brings up a topic that I am now working on. From January, 1956 to February, 1974, my father and I published over 250 pages on Calendar Medals and Store Cards in The Numismatist. Elston Bradfield, the editor, had the intent to publish a summary of the articles as a reprint. "Now that digital printing has arrived, I am preparing to republish these articles as a hard back book. This will include all the Fuld articles as well as a fine compilation of British calendar medals by James O. Sweeny. Sweeny's study of British calendars, privately printed in 2003 traced more than double, the medals found by the Fuld's. "Scanning the articles is now underway, and the book should be available within the next six months. It will retail for under $50. I would welcome inquiries from people if such a book would be of interest. This will influence the original press run. Contact George Fuld at fuld1@comcast.net." [The booklet by Sweeney is titled "Three Hundred Years of British Calendar Medals" (28 pages, 2003) -Editor] FEATURED WEB PAGE: 1799 PETER KEMPSON CALENDAR MEDAL http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n01a30.html NEW MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FINANCE OPENING [This week Reuters covered the opening of the Museum of American Finance in its new home near the New York Stock Exchange. -Editor] The museum located at 48 Wall Street will display gold bars, numismatic treasures, interactive exhibits on entrepreneurship and more. With its 30,000 square feet of space in a landmark building, the museum will also serve as the de facto visitors' gallery for the New York Stock Exchange, Lee Kjelleren, the museum's president, said. "Our purpose is to bring Wall Street to Main Street and to show the importance and richness of our financial markets and promote a deeper understanding," he told reporters at a preview. Increased security after 9/11 has meant the Big Board is off limits to the public, but at the museum a short distance away visitors will be able to see the action from the world's largest stock exchange on large video screens, he said. But the museum isn't all numbers-crunching or the "dismal science." Displays include coins salvaged from Spanish treasure ships to the New World, a gold ingot weighing 60 pounds, ticker tape from the Great Crash of 1929 and a Treasury bond bearing the first use of a dollar sign. Ever wonder who is pictured on the $10,000 bill? Lincoln's Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase. But eventually the museum hopes to display a $100,000 bill. That features President Woodrow Wilson. The museum will open to the public on Friday, with admission charges of $8 for adults and $5 for children and seniors. To read the complete article, see: http://ca.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idCAN0961033320080109 For more information on the Museum of American Financial History, see: http://www.financialhistory.org/ ON ANS LIBRARIAN CAMPBELL'S RETIREMENT Joel Orosz writes: "We frequently toss off cliches like "a lifetime of service," but in Frank Campbell's case, cliche has become demonstrable fact. Consider: when Frank joined the American Numismatic Society, I was one year old. Upon his retirement, I will be an AARP card-carrying fifty-one year old. The ANS library existed before Frank dedicated a lifetime of service to it, but its richness and scope today is essentially his creation. He leaves that collection a fit monument for his life's work. Truly, the next ANS librarian will have to quote Jefferson, speaking of following Franklin as ambassador to France: "No one could replace him: I merely succeed him." Roger S. Siboni writes: "When a few of my Colonial numismatist friends and I including Ray Williams, Roger Moore, Jack Howes and Neil Rothchild all took a research trip to the ANS Library, we asked Frank for volumes and volumes of material on various subjects ranging from inscribed Maris', to Vatican coinage that may have inspired St. Patrick Halfpennies to John Work Garrett's original notebooks. Frank cheerfully handled our many varied requests. In fact, Frank saw how much fun we were having, and he decided to just put out on the table the original partnership agreement forming Machin's Mill. The very same clandestine partnership that produced some of today's most highly sought after colonial coinage. We were speechless!" George Kolbe writes: "Over the years, what has been most striking in terms of Frank Campbell's half century stewardship of the American Numismatic Society Library is his unwavering devotion to preserving, maintaining, and expanding the library and, at the same time, making its vast resources available to all serious students of numismatics. But we all know this. "In personal terms what I particularly like about Frank is his utter lack of pretension. In the course of visits to the society's stately headquarters building in Audubon Terrace, Frank and I would often venture out to lunch in the neighborhood after exploring the treasures of the library. In the early years this was perceived to be perilous. Yet Frank was completely comfortable in a changing neighborhood-he grew up there. "We might visit a cafe favored by locals, a deli or, heaven forbid, we even went to McDonald's on occasion. Often, we would take a stroll afterwards; once or twice we detoured to walk by the large complex where Dr. Sheldon and Dorothy Paschal lived while at Columbia University Medical Center. Other times we absorbed the local atmosphere and talked about not much of anything and everything. These are my favorite memories of an uncommon man who I am proud to call a friend." SO THAT'S WHERE THAT'S BEEN HIDING Ray Williams writes: "It pays to clean off your bookshelves occasionally! I don't know if any of you have ever misplaced any coins, paper money or books... and have had them reappear after you had given up on ever finding them. That happened to me over a year ago... I thought I had misplaced a grouping of colonial notes. I figured they would show up sooner or later. After about six months I was starting to wonder if they fell off the table (blame the cats) into recycling or a garbage can. Just a couple weeks ago I was looking for several books for David Fanning, and in the process I found a wooden box propped upright like a book. It had my missing notes and my Abel Buel spoon! What joy I had at being reunited with the missing items. Has this happened to any E-Sylum readers?" [Absolutely. I've certainly had that experience, and I'm sure many of our readers have, too. And some of us have discovered surprises tucked in books we've purchased - things long forgotten by their owners and overlooked by the booksellers. Anyone have tales to tell? -Editor] ON WIKIPEDIA AS A RESEARCH SOURCE [On Tuesday Ed Snible published a blog post about the use of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia as a source for numismatic information. Some excerpts are published below, but I encourage readers to take a look at the complete post. -Editor] Last July's issue of The Celator contains an editorial from Kerry Wetterstrom. Kerry has decided he can no longer accept articles that reference Wikipedia. Kerry won't accept articles citing Wikipedia because 1) "trolls" are creating deliberate falsehoods in it, 2) Universities are banning the site and 3) An excellent Celator submission had errors in rulers dates and the source was Wikipedia. Errors in regnal dates don't bother me. ... However, authors should also consider that citing Wikipedia makes them look kinda dumb. It is better to obtain the books and articles cited in the ===References=== section of the Wikipedia article and see what the experts actually said! [I have to agree with Ed that citing Wikipedia is risky, although I'm of two minds on whether it should be banned altogether. Some Wikipedia entries are downright marvelous; others, not so much. But one has to take ANY reference from ANYWHERE with a grain of salt and due skepticism. This very topic came up at the office this week as I was doing research for a proposal for our company's board of directors. The best source we were able to find for a certain bit of information happened to be on Wikipedia. I was very much against using it initially, but after cross-referencing some key bits and pieces to check accuracy we decided to include it. -Editor] To read Ed Snible's complete blog post on Wikipedia, see: http://digitalhn.blogspot.com/2008/01/wetterstrom-bans-wikipedia.html ROYAL CANADIAN MINT RELAXES COIN IMAGE STANCE Dick Johnson writes: "The Royal Canadian Mint backed down from charging the City of Toronto a ton of money for using the illustration of a Canadian cent in an advertising campaign, designed to elicit favorable opinion for a proposed cent tax increase. We first reported on this in The E-Sylum October 7, 2006 (volume 10, number 40, article 24). "The RCM had sent an invoice of $47,680 for the use of illustrating the image of a shiny 2007 Canadian cent. When the invoice arrived, $10,000 was cited for using "one cent," $10,000 for the campaign phone number 416-ONE-CENT, and $27,460 for uses such as the onecentnow.ca web address. " 'Everyone should understand that they can't get a free ride from the mint when it comes to them using our intellectual property,' said an RCM official. The minimum invoice for use of a coin image or term in ads is $350, plus a royalty of about 2% of an ad campaign's value. Schools and news organizations are exempt. "The official would not disclose other fee ranges, but said "they are normally different from public institutions and a commercial enterprise. "The Royal Canadian Mint is doing extremely well. They are leading the world in some of the ethnology they have developed. Their order books are completely full for the entire 2008 year for custom minting for other countries. They don't need to engage in such harassing tactics. "In other countries, the illustrations of a country's coins are considered the property of the people. No mint, to my knowledge, has ever charged for the illustrations of coins they manufacture. This was a first for Canada and a very ill-advised move on the part of the RCM. It should have been rejected and should not be repeated in the future." To read the complete article, see: http://torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2008/01/10/4765409-sun.html CANADIAN NEWSPAPERS TOUT CENT DEMISE http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n40a24.html TAMS AND THE EDITOR'S DILEMMA David E. Schenkman writes: "I found Terry Trantow's comments in the January 6, 2008 E-Sylum interesting. Unfortunately, in recent years the Token and Medal Society has had problems getting enough original material for the "TAMS Journal." As editor of that publication for the past twenty-five years, I'll point out the obvious: we can only publish what members submit. And, to those who complain that the issues are not as large as they'd like, I can only ask, 'when did you last write an article?' "I certainly understand the allure of submitting an article to "The Numismatist" instead of the "TAMS Journal," and I don't fault anyone who chooses to do so. However, if the Token and Medal Society ceases to exist due to lack of support, who will publish the myriad of specialized articles on esoteric topics that have appeared over the years in that organization's Journal, not to mention the many books that have been sponsored by TAMS? The ANA? I hardly think so. "As for William D. Hyder's article 'In His Shoes: The True Story of Sailor Jean and Colonial Jack' in the January 2008 'The Numismatist' which Mr. Trantow praises, I enjoyed reading it several months ago when it was sent to me for review. However, as I pointed out when I returned my comments page to the editorial staff of "The Numismatist," the author evidently was unaware of the fact that there is a second type of Colonial Jack token, which he issued in 1911 to promote another walk. This omission is surprising, especially in view of the fact that these tokens are not especially scarce. Even more surprising is the fact that the article was published without being revised to include mention of the missing token (I offered to photograph the piece but was never asked to do so, although I assume my comments were forwarded to the author). "So I must disagree with Mr. Trantow's assessment of the article as "a wonderful work." It was well written and entertaining to be sure, but incomplete." TAMS JOURNAL, THE NUMISMATIST, AND EXONUMIA ARTICLES http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n01a12.html MORE ON GORHAM COMPANY MEDALS George Cuhaj writes: "It was nice to read the Gorham request in the January 6th E-Sylum. The archives of the Gorham Manufacturing Company are now in the library at Brown University in Providence. "There is a fellow who cataloged the collection for the University and can do individual research projects for a fee. There are some very interesting Gorham Co. plant photos on the website but the buildings are now all demolished. I do not know if he ever did a full listing of medals or segregated out the medallic artists from the designers of silverware and other items. "I made use of his services researching a Pennsylvania Railroad Medal issued in the 1920s, and he was able to produce a copy of the workroom order ticket for it. "The contact information is Mr. Samuel Hough, The Owl at the Bridge LLC, 25 Berwick Lane, Cranston, RI 02905- 3708, owlbridge@verizon.net. He has done extensive work on the artisan employees of the company, regarding time of employment and special project information. "I had Mr. Hough look up info for me on a Pennsylvania Railroad Heroic Service Medal which I've known about since the 1970s (one is in the ANS collection, unawarded), I acquired two others in the 1990s (one awarded and one unawarded). He was not able to find info out about the original 1923-24 order, but did find a work order and pricing schedule sheet for a modification to a duplicate die made in 1929 changing the legend name of "Pennsylvania" to "Long Island", using the same central steam locomotive motif. I had not seen or heard of a LIRR medal until that documentation was uncovered, but about 4 months later, a LIRR modified legend awarded medal shows up in the July 2007 Coin Galleries sale!" DICK JOHNSON ON MEDALS BY THE GORHAM COMPANY http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n01a10.html MORE ON SCOTTISH BANKNOTES Fred Schwan writes: "I have a little to add about Scottish notes. As an emergency measure Scottish notes were made legal tender during World War II. This status may have been in Scotland only or in some combination of UK constituents. My original source for this information was well-known and now long-missed collector Bill Benson. He collected Scotland seriously and of course I seriously gather information about WWII so we had a small intersection there. I would be pleased to learn any additional details." ON THE LEGAL TENDER STATUS OF SCOTTISH BANKNOTES http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n01a17.html MORE ON THE 1922 "NO D" LINCOLN CENT Regarding the item on grease filled dies and the 1922d Lincoln Cents, Carl Honore writes: "The way to tell if the die has been filled with grease would be to look at any blurring of details in the design other than the date. I would check the coins for possible deformities in reverse as well as obverse designs. "For excessive die polishing, I would look for scratches in the coin's fields (which would, or course, show as raised areas in the fields). In the case of the Lincoln cent obverse, the design is rather simple compared to the buffalo nickel (famous for its three legged variety caused by die polishing.) This can be tricky however. I am not sure when the dates became part of the regular die punching process along with the legends and the main profile, but it could be that some of these so called grease filled dies could be mis-punched dates. Of course this would not be the case AFTER the dates were fixed." ON THE 1922 "NO D" LINCOLN CENT VARIETIES http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n01a16.html ANOTHER MAP MEDAL: DRAKE'S VOYAGE Regarding the 1815 map medal offered by Coin Rarities Online, Gar Travis forwarded the following web page: "Illustration: The Silver Map of the World. Both sides of a medal struck off at the time of Drake's return to England, commemorating his voyage around the world. The faint dotted line shows the course sailed by him in the Golden Hind." http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19765/19765-h/images/img-171.jpg To view the 1815 White Metal Map medal, see: http://www.coinraritiesonline.com/index.php?page=search&task=det_item&item_i d=1001 AUCTION ANTICS: JOHN LORENZO'S FRONTENEC SALE PURCHASE [Tales of collector and dealer behavior at coin auctions are entertaining glimpses into the dynamics of relationships among people in our hobby. U.S. colonial coin collector John Lorenzo published the following account of his "most memorable & unusual purchase" this week in the Yahoo Colonial Numismatics forum. I'm reprinting it here with minor edits. It concerns a coin in his collection which is now up for sale in the latest Stack's Americana auction. -Editor] With the sale almost upon us and I guess with basically all the talk & private queries about the coins completed and answered I will give my most memorable & unusual purchase within the collection which surrounds the NJ Copper M.15-J variety. Entering Frontenac I knew this was the most under-catalogued coin in the sale from the Boyd duplicates. At that time and still today in my opinion it is the Second Finest Known and tied with the Fourth C4 Coin which was graded AU in the Fourth C4 Sale. I had not discussed my research with Bill Anton Jr. on this sale but he would generally call me a week before most sales and ask me what coins I thought were good or no good or over catalogued, etc. - he always tested my knowledge but I guess he always wanted to hear my opinion - just in case there was something EXTRA - he may have overlooked (not often) - which was fine. During the day of the sale one regular bidder of Colonials who was of Bill's generation who I had seen all the time but never got his name since he never bought much and never really interfered with my purchases in the past - always sat next to Bill. His catalog was always COVERED with notes so I knew this guy did his homework. When the bidding started on M.15-J it when up the normal expected path and as usual if I really wanted a coin and if it was not a R7/8 Bill would generally let me have it - (but then again usually in most cases once a coin went above $1,000 I would generally pass as that was my mental/budget limit). Then something strange happened - this gentleman next to Bill kept nagging him & loudly - telling him - Bill - what's wrong with you - BID! - BID! After about 30 seconds of this ORDEAL as I was only two rows behind hearing all of this - Bill got up and at the top of his lungs right in the middle of the auction yelled out SIX inches from this guy's ear "I AM GIVING THIS COIN TO JOHN LORENZO BECAUSE HE IS A COLLECTOR!" The auctioneer started laughing, this guy turned RED as a tomato - I started laughing - and Bill almost missed sitting back in his seat - no one else picked up on the scene in terms of the significance of this coin although the auction stopped for at least a minute. I won the coin. With each coin of course having its own unique set of circumstances, U.S. Colonial collectors from my experience over the years unquestionably have a higher passion and knowledge base than collectors of any other coin series within U.S. Numismatics. Usually, when a numismatist arrives in U.S. Colonials - he never really leaves ... even after his collection is sold. It was after this sale that J.Griffee initially came to me and pressured me to publish the initial New Jersey Condition Census in Penny Wise - the rest is history. WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY FOR JANUARY 7, 2008 On Monday evening I had the pleasure of attending the third meeting of the numismatic social club I started here in Northern Virginia. Eight of us met for dinner at a restaurant in Herndon, VA. The good news for me was that the location was within walking distance of my office. The bad news was that my son Christopher had basketball practice and I had to run home to deal with our other two kids while my wife took him to the school gym. But after some racing around I made it back to the restaurant in plenty of time for a post-dinner drink and numismatic "show and tell". I sat next to Chris Neuzil. It was the first time we met. I invited him at the suggestion of Joe Levine - he collects U.S. Mint medals relating to the War of 1812. He's also our newest E-Sylum subscriber. Another E-Sylum subscriber that I met for the first time that night was Bill Eckberg, who recently submitted his review of Karl Moulton's book. I invited him at the suggestion of Tom Kays. It was a pleasure to meet them both. In addition to Chris, Bill, Joe and Tom were "regulars" Dave Schenkman, Wayne Herndon and Roger Burdette. Dave started off our show-and-tell by passing around three different tokens of John Krohn, subject of the cover article in the January Numismatist. I passed around a number of recent numismatic publications, including the Sotheby catalog of the Washington/Lafayette Order of the Cincinnati and 'Striking Change' by Michael Moran. My numismatic display was a set of Daniel Carr's Amero coin patterns, which we've discussed earlier in The E-Sylum. Tom Kays passed out copies of a numismatically-related fiction article 'The Gallows Man' from an 1850 Southern Literary Messenger. But none of us could top Joe Levine, who passed around a galvano of the famous Huey "Kingfish" Long Washroom Warrior Medal. Cast in bronze, the galvano measures 9 1/2" x 8 1/2" at the extremities. In the shape of a toilet seat, it commemorates the night in 1933 when the drunken politician had an altercation in the men's room of a Long Island nightclub. The medal was struck by Medallic Art Company. While visiting Medallic Art in the early 1980s Joe spotted a plaster model for the medal and paid for a galvano to be made for him. The evening ended all too soon for me, but it was great to have the opportunity to rub shoulders with some great local numismatists. Our next meeting is scheduled for February 12th. HUEY LONG WASHROOM WARRIOR MEDAL: HOW MANY WERE STRUCK? http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v04n33a09.html BAGHDAD'S BRAVE LIBRARIAN [The following are excerpts from a lengthy Christian Science Monitor article published this week. -Editor] Like most librarians, Saad Eskander, director of the Iraq National Library and Archive in Baghdad, has to deal with a number of disturbances: people speaking loudly in the study area, lost books, and the occasional sniper fire or Katyusha rocket attack. "Our building was rocketed a few times," says Dr. Eskander, in the same level tone he might use to describe a trip to the grocery store. "It was mortared and part of our fence was destroyed.... Stray bullets and sometimes snipers' bullets smashed some windows as well, including my office." Though none of Eskander's staff have been injured in these attacks, five have been killed in sectarian violence, and death threats have displaced dozens of his 300-plus staffers. Eskander hardly seemed the Jack Bauer of librarianship as - during a recent tour of the US - he recounted his experiences in the Cambridge apartment of his colleague, an archivist at Harvard University. A slight man, Eskander is soft-spoken and not easily excitable. His wire-rimmed glasses and slick sports coat belie the stereotype of librarians committing 30-year-old fashion faux pas. But then again, Eskander is not your typical librarian. "I heard before visiting the National Library and Archive that it was damaged, but I did not know the extent of the damage," recounts Eskander. "I was astonished when I found it in a total ruinous state." Eskander was also confronted by an unraveling security situation. If ever there was a place on the proverbial wrong side of the tracks - even by Iraqi standards - the National Library and Archive was it. It is sandwiched between Baathist militant strongholds, Al Qaeda hotbeds, and an American military base. Eskander has watched US helicopters rain down fire on targets just outside the library. Security around the library has noticeably improved since late September, says Eskander. Recent community efforts combined with US and Iraqi military campaigns have purged many fighters from the area. "Culture is important, especially secular culture and especially an institution that documents the cultural and scientific achievements of a nation," says Eskander. "The country was on the verge of dismemberment and institutions like us and like the Iraqi Museum could play a role in the fact that they provide common symbols to all Iraqis. We are not a sectarian institution; we are a national institution." To read the complete article, see: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0109/p20s01-wome.html SURPRISE! YOUNG ADULTS ARE USING LIBRARIES [Joel Orosz forwarded an article from the Philanthropy News Digest at the Foundation Center's Web site about a study which found that "Younger, Wired Adults Use Libraries Most". He writes: "It looks like there is hope that we will have someone to buy our books when we go to the great bindery in the sky...." -Editor] A new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign finds that young adults are the biggest users of public libraries, the Associated Press reports. According to the study, 21 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 30 looking for answers to questions related to health conditions, job training, government benefits, and other concerns turn to libraries, compared with 12 percent of the general adult population. Moreover, these young adults visit not only for the access to computers and the Internet that libraries provide but also for the reference materials, newspapers, and magazines. The study noted that library usage drops gradually as people age. According to the study, 62 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 30 said they visited a library in the past year, compared with 32 percent among those age 72 and older. The study also found that library usage is lower among those without Internet access... A 1996 report from the Benton Foundation warned that Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 were the least enthusiastic supporters of spending tax dollars to maintain library buildings, but since then many libraries have rearranged spaces to accommodate expanded computer usage. "It was truly surprising in this survey to find the youngest adults are the heaviest library users," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet Project. "The notion has taken hold in our culture that these wired-up, heavily gadgeted young folks are swimming in a sea of information and don't need to go to places where information is." To read the complete article, see: http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=198900051 HANG YOUR BOOKS FROM THE RAFTERS [Found recently while looking for other things. -Editor] "Love this storage idea for sticking your books up in the rafters. I get rid of books as fast as I can, but I overflow my shelves all the time and end up colonizing the floor with tottering heaps. Better to colonize the ceiling!" To read the complete article, see: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/10/hang-your-books-from.html FEATURED WEB PAGE: 1933 HUEY LONG WASHROOM WARRIOR MEDAL This week's featured web page is the 1933 satirical Huey "Kingfish" Long "Washroom Warrior" medal from the Wayne Homren consignment in the American Numismatic Rarities Lake Michigan & Springdale Collection sale in June 2006. Shaped like a toilet seat for good reason, see below. Obverse with fist and jaw caricature, MCMXXXIII and PUBLICO CONSILIO PRO RE IN CAMERA GESTA around, BY / PUBLIC ACCLAIM / FOR A DEED / DONE IN PRIVATE / SANDS POINT / AUGUST 26 / 1933 on seven lines on reverse with Medallic Art's logo below. [I hated parting with this one but perhaps I'll snag another example for my collection someday. The catalog description is in error when it places the location of the incident in Sands Point, Louisiana. I believe the incident occurred in Sands Point, Long island. -Editor] http://www.stacks.com/lotdetail.aspx?lrid=AN00035876 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 Sun Jan 20 21:56:30 2008 From: esylum at binhost.com (esylum@binhost.com) Date: Sun Jan 20 22:01:19 2008 Subject: The E-Sylum v11#03, January 20, 2008 Message-ID: <003d01c85bd9$3a5b4530$6401a8c0@corp.cmdinfo.com> Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 11, Number 03, January 20, 2008: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2008, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. WAYNE'S WORDS: THE E-SYLUM JANUARY 20, 2008 Among our recent subscribers are Joseph D. McCarthy and Tom Mulvaney. Welcome aboard! We now have 1,110 subscribers. This week we open with three items of NBS news - a report on the recent meeting at FUN, the latest issue of The Asylum, and a survey on the greatest works of American numismatic literature. Next we have news of the death of numismatic literature dealer Jerry Walker and 1980s coinage reform advocate Diane Wolf. Students of the numismatic products of Matthew Boulton will learn about an upcoming conference in honor of bicentennial of the coiner's death, and E-Sylum subscribers report on the recent FUN convention and Stack's Americana sale. Also, an E-Sylum subscriber describes his amazing eBay find of the previously unseen Adams Academy U.S. Mint medal. Also this week we reprint a great article about the Cleveland Fed's concentration camp money exhibit. In responses to last week's issue, we have more tributes to retiring ANS librarian Frank Campbell, and further complaints about overlapping images in numismatic publications. In the news there is a new (yes, NEW) Moffat & Co. mint. And in numismatic crime news, there have thankfully been NO reports of dealer robberies following this year's FUN show, not that I've heard anyway. Also, a theft may have been averted at the Dahlonega Gold Museum, and in New Zealand, police are offering a record cash reward for information on the recently stolen medals. No numismatic diary this week, although I did receive in the mail a nice 1959 Gold Celeston I bought on eBay January 3rd. After dinner this evening I was my three-year-old daughter Hannah's play toy, as she sat me down in her room, put a blanket over me and pretended to give me a haircut and a makeover - a real Norman Rockwell scene. Then it was time to play doctor. Remember the coin magnifiers my kids got for Christmas? Well, Hannah pulled one out, examined my chin and declared "You got a bad boo-boo". But wouldn't you know it, next she plucked three cents, a nickel, a dime and a dollar bill from her Minnie Mouse coin bank and proceeded to examine them under the glass. Attagirl! To learn about another redheaded young lady (a famous actress) who collects ancient Judean coins, read on. Have a great week, everyone. Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society NBS MEETING HELD AT JANUARY 2008 FUN SHOW Fred Lake writes: "The Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS) held a meeting at the Florida United Numismatists coin show in Orlando, Florida on Saturday, January 12, 2008. "Ron Benice was the scheduled speaker and he presented his talk, 'Florida Paper Money, an Illustrated History, 1817-1934', to an audience that included Ken Barr, Bill Bierly, Craig Eberhardt, George Fitzgerald, Fred Lake, John Roberts and Bill Youngerman. "Ron's presentation included his showing copies of the finished book to individual attendees and a discussion of the different segments of commercial publishing followed. Many thanks to Ron for bringing his interesting talk to the meeting." LATEST ASYLUM ISSUE IS ON THE WAY David Yoon, editor of our print journal The Asylum writes: "I've sent another issue of The Asylum (vol. 25 no. 4) to the printers. Here are the contents: * D. Wayne Johnson: A Wall of Medal Records * John W. Adams: The Story Behind the Castorland Jeton * Leonard Augsburger (compiler): One Hundred Greatest Works of United States Numismatic Literature: A Survey" [While The E-Sylum is an electronic publication free to all, the Asylum is mailed free only to paid members of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. While the $15 U.S. membership fee is unchanged for 2008, due to increased postage costs NBS Secretary-Treasurer David Sundman writes: "We will be switching to Standard Third Class postage but are giving members the option to upgrade to first class mailings at $20. Memberships outside of the U.S. are now $25." There is a membership application available on the NBS web site at this address: http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_member_app.html -Editor] 100 GREATEST WORKS OF AMERICAN NUMISMATIC LITERATURE As editor David Yoon noted, the next issue of The Asylum will contain a member survey for the Numismatic Bibliomania Society's ?One Hundred Greatest Works of United States Numismatic Literature? project. Len Augsburger is leading the effort. He writes: "As discussed at the NBS general meeting at the Milwaukee 2007 ANA, we are conducting a membership survey to identify the ?One Hundred Greatest Works of United States Numismatic Literature?. Our goal is to form a collective appraisal of the most important United States literature and to present a new collecting framework for experienced and novice bibliophiles alike. "As a first step, the NBS Board has identified a candidate list of several hundred items which will be published in the next Asylum issue. We invite readers to suggest additional candidates; these will be reviewed and a ballot will be sent to the NBS membership for voting. "We purposefully leave the definition of ?greatest? open to each individual member. This may be the most scholarly, most influential, most ubiquitous, or even most notorious. The survey and will reflect the overall opinion of the NBS membership and results will appear in a future issue of the Asylum. "Additionally, an offprint may be prepared illustrating the One Hundred Greatest works, along with additional commentary, and future surveys may similarly cover other numismatic arenas. Please forward comments and suggestions on this candidate list to me at leonard_augsburger@hotmail.com." [If you have strong opinions about American numismatic literature, this survey is all the more reason to become an NBS member. -Editor] NUMISMATIC LITERATURE DEALER JERRY WALKER Charles Davis writes: "I heard that Jerry Walker passed away on January 13. Jerry was a dealer in numismatic literature both on Vcoins and eBay having moved from California to Florida several years ago. I think his reputation can be summed up by pointing out that he had a 100% positive feedback on eBay. My sympathies go out to his wife Brenda and his family." [Let me extend sympathies as well on behalf of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society and our E-Sylum readers. -Editor] U.S. COINAGE REDESIGN ADVOCATE DIANE WOLF 1954-2008 [New York Sun this week published an obituary for Diane Wolf, a leading advocate for redesigning U.S. coinage in the 1980s. Did any of our readers know her? Tell us your stories. -Editor] Diane Wolf, who died January 10, was a philanthropist based in Manhattan and Washington, D.C., who once made headlines for masterminding a plan to redesign America's currency. Wolf died at 53 during a medical procedure at NewYork- Presbyterian Hospital, her family said. While serving as a presidential appointee of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts in the 1980s, Wolf became an advocate for redesigning the nation's coinage. "The designs are nice, but they're dull and outdated," she told the Los Angeles Times at the time. Wolf, who was a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center but never practiced, treated her job on the Fine Arts commission as a full-time job, her father said. She also sat on the boards of the National Archives, the Kennedy Center, and National Public Radio. In New York, she was a benefactor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick, and the Whitney. Born March 16, 1954, in Cheyenne, Wyo., Wolf was raised in Denver. Her father was an oil executive. She got a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree in early childhood education. She taught briefly at an East Side private school before studying law. Wolf is survived by her parents, Erving and Joyce Wolf of Manhattan, and two brothers, Daniel and Matthew. To read the complete article, see: http://www.nysun.com/article/69718 To read Dave Harper's tribute to Wolf on Numismaster, see http://www.numismaticnews.net/buzz/Hobby+Owes+Debt+To+Diane+Wolf.aspx ZYRUS PRESS ISSUES CATALOG [Uriah Cho of Zyrus Press Publishing forwarded the press release for the firm's new book catalog. -Editor] Now available from Zyrus Press: the new 2008 Hobbies and Collectibles Catalog featuring nine new book releases from a team of experienced and seasoned authors. The catalog presents a diverse array of titles, including the long anticipated Numismatic Photography, by Mark Goodman, and Collecting Sports Legends: The Ultimate Hobby Guide from Professional Sports Authenticators, a division of Collectors Universe. The 2008 catalog also introduces an entirely new line of books ? The Official Strategy Guide Series ? by numismatic expert and professional auction cataloger Jeff Ambio. Collecting and Investing Strategies for U.S. Gold Coins, set to release in February, will be followed in May by the second release, Collecting and Investing Strategies for Walking Liberty Half Dollars. Strategy Guide books on Barber Coinage and the Seated Liberty series are scheduled to release in late 2008. All backlisted numismatic favorites are listed by category. A few of our best sellers are: Photograde, The Authoritative Reference on Buffalo Nickels, A Buyer?s Guide to Silver & Trade Dollars, and Gold Coins of the New Orleans Mint. Copies of the Zyrus Press Hobbies and Collectibles Catalog are available for FREE to the retail public and can be ordered by calling (888) 622-7823. Fax or e-mail requests may be sent to (800) 215-9694 or info@zyruspress.com. MORE NOTES ON RETIRING ANS LIBRARIAN FRANK CAMPBELL David F. Fanning writes: "I've known of Frank Campbell's pending retirement for some time, but it is still sad to see the official announcement. Frank has been a tremendous asset to the American Numismatic Society, and I have always found him a pleasure to work with. Some numismatists tend to criticize the ANS for appearing to focus all their attention on the relatively few with serious money. As someone who does not fall into the moneyed camp, I can say that Frank single-handedly dispelled any notion I might have that this was the case. "I frequently e-mailed him about ANS Library holdings for use in my research, and he was always prompt and courteous in his responses and would photocopy what I needed and pop it in the mail at no charge. While I am an ANS member, I did appreciate his willingness to help me out when many would have seen me as simply pestering him for free information. He will be missed." Dan Hamelberg writes: "The ANS library really took form under Frank's watch. 50 years at it. Unbelievable. Those familiar with the vast resources contained in the library of the ANS know that it has been Frank's stewardship along the way that brought the library to prominence. During the first 50 years of the ANS, the great numismatic literature was maintained by some of the more involved members of the ANS. Since the ANS really had no permanent home until Broadway and 155th, the library started a serious climb to significance during the next 50 years. During the last 50 years, the library has seen tremendous growth and refinement. Thank you, Frank. "Personally, Frank has been most helpful in assisting me with refining my own library of U.S. numismatic literature. More recently, he was instrumental in the discovery of the Watkins broadside sale of 1828 within the confines of the ANS library; the first numismatic auction sale listed in Attinelli. When I had the idea of creating facsimile copies of the sale and making them available to collectors, Frank was most helpful in making the Watkins broadside available to me. The complete story of the Watkins sale will appear soon in the Asylum, and the facsimile of the broadside will soon be available to collectors." MATTHEW BOULTON CONFERENCE PLANNED FOR JULY 2009 Paul Sherry writes: "I managed to order a copy of Robert Ward?s book on Robert Mylne. It?s been a great read and I can highly recommend it. I tell everyone I come across about the secret Boulton collection. "While we are talking about Matthew Boulton I thought E-Sylum readers would be interested a planned conference in England on Matthew Boulton. I know it only occurs in 2009 but it?s always nice to get plenty of notice. I would be interested to know if any of our readers will be attending - please take plenty of pictures for the rest of us! Dick Johnson once wrote (speaking of Boulton) ?Every numismatist should build a shrine to this one man? (E-Sylum vol. 7, no. 26, art. 22). With a little editing in Photoshop I was able to print a great copy of the Lemuel Francis Abbott portrait of Matthew Boulton in the conference announcement. Just have to get it framed and it will become part of my Boulton shrine. [Below are excerpts from the Boulton conference announcement. -Editor] The year 2009 will mark the bicentenary of the death of the Birmingham entrepreneur Matthew Boulton (1728?1809). A major international conference is being planned to explore the historical significance of Boulton in his several roles as pioneering industrialist, natural philosopher and patron of the arts. The event will be hosted by the University of Birmingham in association with the University of Central England in Birmingham on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 3?5 July 2009. Call for Papers will not be issued until the autumn of 2008. However, the organisers invite expressions of interest in the conference project as described below, together with suggestions for future planning and possible sponsorship. A number of other events are scheduled to take place in venues around the city of Birmingham during the bicentenary year. The main attraction will be a display of the products of the famous Soho Manufactory which Matthew Boulton opened around 1765 on a green-field site just outside the city. This exhibition is being organised by Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery and will run from June until September 2009. In addition, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts (situated on the campus of the University of Birmingham) is planning an exhibition of the tokens, medals and coins struck between 1787 and 1813 at the Soho Mint. This display will be open for public viewing for 12 months from April 2009. Delegates will therefore have the opportunity to combine the academic activities of the colloquium with the major civic events designed to celebrate the remarkable life of Matthew Boulton. The organisers will also be arranging visits to his private residence Soho House, to the Birmingham Assay Office (established in 1773 at Boulton?s instigation), and to the Birmingham Central Library which holds the Archives of Soho. This manuscript collection contains the family and business papers of Matthew Boulton and his principal partner, the steam engineer James Watt. It is generally regarded as the biggest and most illuminating business and industrial archive to survive for the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. To read the complete conference announcement, see: http://www.cbamh.bham.ac.uk/matthew%20Boulton%20Conference%20Flyer.pdf UPSETTING MACHINES: HOW AND WHY http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v07n46a22.html ALAN WEINBERG AND THE JANUARY 2008 FUN SHOW Alan V. Weinberg writes: "I've just returned from the annual Orlando January FUN show and continue, after all these years, to be impressed with the entire production by an attentive show staff of orange-jacketed FUN officials. For me, this has always been the 2nd "best" show in the USA to the summer ANA conventions and, in some respects, like bourse table fees, surpasses the ANA. Third now are the Baltimore shows where once stood the Long Beach shows. "Although the FUN January show continues to be isolated to the North Side Hall B - a long walk from the hotels and seemingly out in the middle of nowhere, whereas until three years ago shows were in the more accessible halls facing International Drive - this has not noticeably impacted dealer, public and collector attendance. And this despite this year's simultaneous NYC International Show with attendant multiple auctions. "The bourse room was full, apparently sold out and the aisles crowded with attendees. The Heritage Platinum Night auction was something to behold, the attendance overflowing. A newly re-discovered Harold Bareford-pedigreed 1793 S-11c Mint State large cent sold for $240K hammer. The 1792 fusible alloy cent, not at all aesthetically attractive with unremovable black hard crust still adhering, sold for $525K plus the 15% commission or $603,750. The special one night session of premium coins lasted 'til 1:30 AM, exhausting some dealers who went through the previous setup day and the first open bourse day. "I roomed with Sequim, Wash collector/researcher Steve Tompkins, long an early draped and capped bust quarter connoisseur. He allowed me to read his manuscript with plates of his forthcoming 400+ page tome on the varieties of early quarters 1796-1838. The book is in its final form with just a few additions, plates and editing to be done. I was very much impressed by the quality, coverage and "readability" of the manuscript and the extensive enlarged plates, which often sell a book, were magnificent. "This book will have the same effect on the series as large cents' Penny Whimsy and Overton's half dollar book had on their respective series. Although my interest in this series is quite marginal, after seeing the manuscript I fully intend to order a copy. "Steve will have his book printed in the U.S., bypassing China (where Whitman Publishing's books are printed at much lower cost but with high quality), as Steve wants hands-on control and the printing will not be nearly as massive as Whitman's books. Thus, the 1796-1838 quarter book will retail for approx $89.50, pre-publication orders projected for $75 instead of the presumed China publication cost of perhaps $35. Publication will be probably mid-summer 2008 as Steve adds the last touches with extensive cooperation among collectors and dealers. At FUN alone, Steve (who brought his photography equipment and set up at 'Babe' Binette's bourse table) photographed several 1827 original quarters and an 1827 copper restrike brought to the show especially for his project. Definitely a reference to be anticipated! "I exhibited non-competitively in two FUN cases my 1792 patterns and 1793 chain and wreath cents and a superb silver Libertas Americana medal. It was the first time these coins have left the bank. Previously I'd exhibited rare medals and tokens at FUN but never before coins. I was a bit wary of hand-carrying these coins to and from the show - what if the plane crashed? "By exhibiting non-competitively I could exhibit the coins and accompanying commentary the way I wanted to, not having to abide by the strict labeling rules for competitive exhibits. And that also allowed me to disassemble the exhibit late Saturday for flying home rather than be compelled to exhibit 'til mid-Sunday. I have found that it is extremely rewarding to exhibit at a major show. So many "jaded" longtime dealers and collectors were in seeming awe of these seldom -seen rarities and thanked me profusely. I'd tired of keeping these in a dark bank vault and wanted to share with others in the hobby what can be accomplished in 50 years of serious collecting. "The exhibit also had an "odd twist" - two superb electrotypes of the 1792 Wright quarter and the 1792 Birch cent (the only two copies exhibited and so-labeled), both of which have eluded me all these years. The commentary on these two electrotypes reflected that there are certain rare coins that are "opportunity-only" rarities - regardless of the decades collecting, the money and the contacts you may have, you literally have to wait through generations before the coin becomes available. That is true rarity. "Exhibit chairman Dick Wells told me of an advanced collector sauntering over to the exhibit area, leaning over to look at my exhibit, leaning more closely in disbelief, removing his glasses and placing his nose tip on the case glass, incredulous at what he was seeing. It was a genuinely funny story as Dick re-enacted what he saw. Throughout the show, I saw groups of experienced collectors gathering and talking at my exhibit as if that was "Mecca". I have to admit that as I set up the display, I couldn't believe I owned such coins." [I sure wish I could have been there to see Alan's exhibit. I told him how it reminded me of the time I was setting up an exhibit at an ANA summer convention. John Pittman had an exhibit nearby. I told "Big John" Burns ? ?you'd better not look at that exhibit over there?, pointing to Pittman?s. He couldn't resist the temptation and came back drooling and hyperventilating over the ultra rarities he saw in the case. Not coincidentally, Alan replied that it was John J. Pittman's legendary exhibits that inspired him to show his coins, tokens and medals over the past few years. I also wish I could have been a fly on the wall the year I set up an exhibit of rare numismatic ephemera from my collection. Ken Lowe of The Money Tree later told me how he accompanied John J. Ford to look at the exhibit, and at every turn Ford said things like - "I've never seen THAT" - "Never seen THAT either!" "Now where in the hell did he get THAT?" When you can stump someone like Ford, you know you've got something. What good is having a great collection if you don't show it off? More collectors should follow Alan's example - c'mon, share once in a while, and show off your stuff! If you find it difficult to comply with the official show rules, like Alan you can display your prize possessions at most major shows Non-Competitively and have more freedom, setting up late or tearing down early for travel reasons. Non-competitive exhibits also needn't follow the exhibit judging guidelines, although I would encourage non-competitive exhibitors to at least keep them in mind, for the guidelines are geared toward making exhibits a better experience for the viewer. -Editor] Jim Halperin writes: "Anyone who didn?t check out Alan Weinberg?s pre-1793 U.S. Mint exhibit at FUN missed the highlight of the show - at least it was for me. The 1792 Fusible Alloy cent (J-2) is the finest in private hands, and his Half Disme is a screaming gem. The Silver Center cent (J-1) and copper disme are no slouches either, and his Libertas Americana medals are gorgeous. "Alas, Alan?s Birch cent is an electro, but there?s no visible edge seam so it might well have fooled me had it not been noted as such. The best part was that Alan, who is a walking numismatic encyclopedia, was there to answer all my questions, and tell me the history of each coin and just about everything else about them that any numismatist would want to know. What a treat! Now if only I could?ve talked him into showing me his Massachusetts silver..." HERITAGE PLATINUM NIGHT HIGHLIGHTS Speaking of Heritage's Platinum night, here are a few lots I thought worth highlighting: 1818 1/2RL New Spain (Texas) Jola Half Real: "The Texas jolas were made by Jos? Antonio de la Garza of San Fernando de Bexar. While that locale may not ring a bell, its current name surely will: San Antonio. San Fernando de Bexar was the capital of Texas (then a province of New Spain) during the 1810-1821 War of Independence. Apparently, community leaders prevailed upon the governor of the province, Lt. Col. Manuel Prado, to authorize Manuel Barrera to coin 8,000 copper coins to facilitate commerce in March 1817. "In 1959, a group of approximately 60 specimens was discovered during excavation work along the San Antonio River. The area of the find was once a 19th century campground used by cowboys. A few others have been discovered since, virtually all of which have been dug. Apparently they did not circulate long, so most are not greatly worn but, having been buried, most do show corrosion." http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=454&Lot_No=2644 1865 Seven-Piece Silver and Nickel Proof Set With Original Box: "Just five months after the surrender of General Lee and the Army of North Virginia and the subsequent cessation of hostilities of the Civil War, Mr. and Mrs. G.R. Oat celebrated their silver wedding anniversary. An event that would otherwise be lost to history is commemorated by this proof set of seven silver and nickel coins, its custom-made holder, and presentation card. "The case does not appear to be from the Mint, but was probably made by a local jeweler. The dark brown leather case is in remarkably fine condition with only slight rubbing on the corners and next to the clasps. And the hook-shaped clasps are still fully functional. An ornate gold stamp is centered on the top and reads: Oat. / September 8, 1865. Inside, a blue velvet board held the coins with raised protective rims around each hole. The presentation card is pinned to the blue silk inner liner of the lid. It is written on a calling card with the name Mrs. Henry C. Howell below a handwritten note that reads: Presented to Mr. & Mrs. G.R. Oat / at their silver wedding / Sept 8th 1865 http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=454&Lot_No=3038 1792 1C Washington Getz Pattern Cent: "Robert Morris wanted examples of the proposed coinage to help passage of his bill, and apparently conscripted silversmith Peter Getz of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Morris was earlier responsible for the production of the extremely rare 1783 quints and marks, from a prior attempt at a national coinage. For the 1792 pieces, Getz based his design on John Gregory Hancock's Baker-16 1791 Small Eagle cent, since the devices matched the bill's specification of a head of Washington and an eagle. Baker-16 was made to secure a Federal coinage contract, and it was ironic that Getz would copy the design in his own attempt at securing Mint employment. "All efforts by Morris and Getz were for naught, because the House of Representatives (and President Washington) opposed presidential portraits on coinage on the grounds they were too monarchial. Congress instead eventually enacted legislation on April 2, 1792, designating "an impression emblematic of liberty" as the obverse device." http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=454&Lot_No=2650 To read the complete press release on the sale, see: http://coins.ha.com/common/info/press/default.php?ReleaseID=1474 STACK'S JANUARY 2008 AMERICANA SALE REVIEW Regarding this week's Stack's Americana sale, Ray Williams writes: "From the point of view of someone who was trying to obtain several specific notes, the colonial paper seemed to go for a strong price. The French Colonials were vast and varied. There were many affordable pieces along with some great rarities. Bidding on the French colonials was dominated by one specialist in the field, but all who wanted to obtain some economical examples (myself included) were able to easily do so. "There was then a short run of colonial type coins where the nice pieces brought a good sum. The two Higley Coppers both went to the book, the first for the opening bid of $90K and the second for $135K (opened at $115K). The Continental Dollar sold for $30K to the floor. Then came the section I most anticipated - The Lorenzo collection of NJ Coppers. I was anxiously awaiting the catalog where I thought I'd be seeing about 95 varieties but the collection had 86. There were still several varieties I needed and I was able to pick up one. "The cataloging of NJs was very unusual in that after the lot description by the Stack's cataloger, there were often notes by the consignor which were taken from the flips. I can see both positive and negative aspects to this type of cataloging, but I haven't come to any personal conclusions about it yet. "The highlight of the Sale for many of those present was the Mike Ringo Collection of counterfeit British and Irish Halfpennies. There was a wonderful two page introduction written by Vicken Yegparian and over 250 lots beautifully cataloged by John Kraljevich. This is only the first part to be auctioned of a rather large collection Ringo assembled over the years. Mike Ringo was well respected and liked within the colonial collecting community. He'll be sorely missed by all. "This is the first daytime auction I've attended by Stack's. My past experiences were all evening auctions. The auction moved along smoothly and efficiently. There were refreshments before, during and after the auction, and "refreshments" might be an understatement. Telephone and computer bidding did slow things down a little, but I didn't mind the occasional delay - it gave a chance to breathe. Although Stack's rotated the auctioneers, the bidders didn't get a break. I was in the room from 12:15 until after 7:00. I had an interest in everything except the French Jetons, so I used that time period to check the hotel plumbing. It was just long enough for me to make it back when that first Massachusetts Silver piece was hammered. "This auction was like a mini-convention of the Colonial Coin Collector's Club. Many of those present were also in attendance at the C4 Convention in Boston this past December. It's always a fun time when collectors of like interest get together, talk coins and compete at auction. That's friendly competition for the moment... If (or when) the Anton or Groves collections come to auction, I believe history will be made through "full contact" floor bidding. I need to start working out now!" ADAMS ACADEMY U.S. MINT MEDAL DISCOVERY Coin World had a great article about the U.S. Mint Adams Academy medal found on eBay by anonymous collector "jonathanb", who happens to be an E-Sylum subscriber. Here's how he described his find in a post on the Collector's Universe forum December 19, 2007. -Editor] A medal for the Adams Academy is the alphabetically-first school medal listed by Julian as struck at the US Mint prior to 1892. He describes it as follows: SC-1 Adams Academy Starting in 1876, the mint usually struck one gold Adams Academy medal each year for Henry Mitchell. The last was produced in 1892. A letter from Superintendent James Pollock to Mitchell, of September 11, 1876, mentioned that the relief was very bold on the obverse die. In the second quarter of 1889 four bronze medals were struck but not reported in the annual list of medals struck. ...and that's it. Most of the other medals described by Julian were actually described, with obverse and reverse designs and full legends, diameter, and so on. Many of them are pictured. This has nothing. The 1986 Price Guide to Julian, produced by Rich Hartzog, has pictures for many of the medals that were unpictured in the original book. There is no picture for SC-1 in the price guide either. For selected medals, the price guide also lists a count of auction appearances located by Carl Carlson. There are no auction records listed. As far as I can tell, the mint records say that some medals were struck, but nobody had found one even to know what they looked like. The paper money folks have a term for this, SENC (Surviving Example Not Confirmed), for cases where they know that a note was issued by a particular bank but where nobody has located a copy. I'm very happy (very happy! very happy!) to report that Julian SC-1 is now CONFIRMED! To read the original post at Collector's Universe, see: http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=26&threadid=626285 ), and Jonathanb adds: "It's a neat piece. There could be 15 more, but do they still exist? Stuff gets lost permanently over time, and gold stuff gets melted. I sort of expected that someone would pop up and say "What's the big deal? I have three of them!" but I haven't heard anything. "It's too bad that there haven't been any updates to the Julian reference since it was published 30 years ago. It seems that there's no update planned. I've been going through auction records for U.S. Mint medals trying to figure out which ones are truly rare and which ones aren't. It's difficult to figure out what's known and what isn't. I thought that this was a new discovery when I bid on it, but it could just as easily have turned out not to be. I was lucky in several different directions." And speaking of eBay bargains, jonathanb adds this note about the deluxe leatherbound copy of Dave Bowers' 'A California Gold Rush History' in the Stack's Americana sale that I mentioned last week: "Based on the timing I suspect that this copy is one that was snagged on eBay last year for a grand total of $150 (plus shipping, darn). The last copy that Stack's sold went for nearly $6,000, including premium. It'll be interesting to see what this one brings. Could be a tidy profit for the consigner, if I'm right." CLEVELAND FEDERAL RESERVE BANK EXHIBITS CONCENTRATION CAMP MONEY [The Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 issue of the MPC GRAM (#1584) had a great article by on Ronna A. Novello a new Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland exhibit of Holocaust currency. It is reprinted below with permission under a standing agreement with MPC Gram. -Editor] Through December 27, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland is displaying a special exhibit, ?Questionable Issue: Currency of the Holocaust,? at its Learning Center and Money Museum. The exhibit is presented with the support of the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage. Once they were deported to the ghettos or concentration camps, Holocaust victims were issued scrip (pieces of essentially useless pieces of paper) by the Nazis in exchange for their confiscated valuable currency. Each ghetto and camp had its own distinct scrip and coins, often with hundreds of different issues. Compared with the more pressing issues of life and death during the Holocaust, the existence of scrip didn?t seem to matter much to historians. Until now. Steve Feller, a physics professor at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, wrote the catalog for the exhibit and co-authored, with his daughter Ray, the book Silent Witnesses: Civilian Camp Money of World War II. Feller was a graduate student at Brown University in the ?70s when he went to a coin show that changed his life. A collector since he was a kid, he stopped at a dealer?s table displaying money used at the Theresienstadt (Terezin) concentration camp. He bought a set of seven notes for $10. A week later, at a coin shop in Providence, R.I., he learned even more about this little-known aspect of concentration camp and ghetto life. ?It represents what happened from a different viewpoint,? explains themustachioed, silver-haired Brooklyn, N.Y. native. Feller spoke with the CJN while in town for the exhibit?s opening. ?You can talk about the camps and six million murdered, but when we see the money they had, it becomes personal. They speak through that money; they used it everyday.? The idea for camp scrip developed early in the Third Reich. In 1933, political prisoners at Oranienberg, a camp near Berlin, were allowed to receive money from relatives. They were escorted into town to buy things they needed, then taken back to camp. Realizing they were losing money with this arrangement, the Nazis created a camp canteen, with prisoners forced to exchange the circulating currency of Germany for scrip from the camp. ?The money they gave the prisoners was virtually worthless, since there was nothing backing it up,? Feller explains. As the Reich?s tentacles spread across Europe, ghettos were established, and the use of scrip burgeoned. ?Warsaw, Krakow, Lodz, they all had ration coupons and scrip money,? Feller notes. ?The scrip was designed by ghetto residents and printed or minted there.? In the Warsaw Ghetto,, where 500,000 people, mainly Jews, were imprisoned, a secret underground currency developed, separate from the Nazi occupation currency used in daily transactions. Hand-drawn designs in the secret currency relied heavily on symbolism. Strong Zionist feelings influenced the designs, thought to be printed from linoleum plates. When the Nazis used a Star of David on their official currency and armbands for the Jews, their objective was to humiliate and dehumanize their victims. But in the underground, those symbols were a badge of pride, explains Feller. On the 50 groszny-note in the Warsaw Ghetto underground, for example, 18 Stars of David stand defiantly on one side of a barbed wire fence. On the other side, facing the stars is a flame, enveloping the hated SS symbol. These secret currencies, created and used only by the underground, could express the true feelings of the artist, since the designs didn?t face Nazi scrutiny. Official ghetto and camp scrip distributed to the Jews by the Nazis was governed by different rules. The Nazis applied stringent guidelines to the designs for these currencies. In Theresienstadt, official scrip notes were designed by Jewish inmate Petr Kien. The notes featured a portrait of Moses holding the Ten Commandments. Although the camp commandant approved the initial design, his superior, the infamous Reinhard Heydrich deemed the image ?too normal.? The image was revised to make the hair curlier, the nose more hooked, and the fingers gnarled and twisted, explains Feller. The grotesque visage was more in line with the Nazi image of the Jews. ?In 1943, the camps had official scrip issues from Berlin, and regulations still exist about what they were used for,? Feller continues. Premium notes were given as rewards for work, as incentives. They were not designed as a circulating currency. In some cases, they were given as payment for slave labor and could be bartered for food or other items. Evidence of the scrip is found in numerous writings. In Silent Witnesses, Feller quotes a passage from Auschwitz survivor Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and author of Man?s Search for Meaning. "Just before Christmas, 1944, I was presented with a gift of so-called gift premiums issued by the construction firm, to which we were practically sold as slaves. The firm paid the camp authorities a fixed price per day per prisoner. The coupons cost the firm 50 pfennigs each and could be exchanged for six cigarettes, although they often lost their validity. I became the proud owner of 12 cigarettes. But more important, the cigarettes could be traded for 12 soups, and 12 soups were often a very real respite from starvation.? In concentration camps, scrip was used only intermittently, and examples of those notes are rarer than those from the ghetto. Following a speech on the exhibit to Federal Reserve employees, Feller heard a surprising story from one woman. ?She told me she got chills when she saw the Auschwitz money,? he recalls in a subdued tone. ?Her childhood neighbor was a survivor, and she said as a child, she (and the neighbor?s child) had played with that money. The neighbor had about 40 notes, which today would be a substantial amount of the known notes still existing from Auschwitz. Amazing.? MILITARY PAYMENT TOKENS FOR IRAQ Paul Sherry writes: "A friend of mine, Bruce Mansfield, met a young man who was on leave in Australia from his security company in Iraq. He gave Bruce some tokens that personnel in Iraq, who have access to the US Canteen Service are given to use instead of coins. "Here are pictures of the tokens he was given. They are by no means the complete set. It would be good to find out how many different types there are. They are made of thin, heavy cardboard type material approx 0.5mm thick and approximately 40mm diameter." http://www.users.on.net/~musthave/Web%20Phot%20Gallery/ ON OVERLAPPING IMAGES IN NUMISMATIC PUBLICATIONS Regarding last week's review of Krause Publication's 'Coins and Currency of the Middle East', Bill Malkmus writes: "You have touched on one of my pet peeves (of overlapping images), which I have somehow managed to refrain from expounding upon until the present moment. The question here is in regard to the matter of form overcoming practicality and usefulness, in the name of "style" (or "cuteness"). "My special interest is in ancients, which are notable for production irregularities, as compared with modern coinage. Every published image (whether in print or on the web) is a valuable resource for the study of coinage (or paper money). In particular, the trailing-off of the design at the edges of ancient coins is of extreme importance in the study of production methods, as well as for judging authenticity. "I don?t know how many coin images have been published (in The Numismatist, in particular, but also elsewhere) which have been compromised by this practice of overlapping images (which I believe is esteemed enough to be known in the trade as "eclipsing"). If anyone can convince publishers that this practice is destructive of valuable information, that person will receive my eternal blessing." REVIEW: COINS & CURRRENCY OF THE MIDDLE EAST http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n02a04.html IN REASON WE TRUST Before the holidays I set aside a five dollar bill I'd received in change with a few red stamps on it. I didn't look closely at it until today. The stamp says TRUSTREASON.COM. I took the bait and visited the web site. Atop the home page is an image of the back of a dollar bill with the word "God" in the motto "In God We Trust" blacked out and replaced with the word REASON. My five dollar bill has a similar marking, although the word REASON on mine is an inkstamp rather than being handwritten in ink. Has anyone else come across one of these? From the web site: "So, what is this website about? Why so much effort just because of the word God on paper currency? After all, the money spends the same, right? "That's not the issue. Yes, if it was only an innocuous phrase on money, I wouldn't object to it. However, that phrase represents a trend in the US of bigotry towards those citizens who don't have any belief in gods. It is even offensive to many that do. In short, there is about 14.1% of the population who "In God We Trust" does NOT represent. That little phrase is far from innocuous. It is divisive, and it is meant to be divisive. "... Please join me in restoring the United States to a country that accepts all of its citizens as equals. Modify your bills in protest, replacing "God", which is divisive, to "Reason", which is sorely needed in this country. If you've found such a bill, comment here in the blog or by e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you." [The web site doesn't say who the "me" is, although one page of the site quotes Paul Rasor, Director of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom at Virginia Wesleyan College. -Editor] CASTING CALL: WIFE SWAP SHOW STILL SEEKING NUMISMATIC FAMILY [Last year we learned that the TV show "Wife Swap" was seeking a family of coin collectors for an upcoming episode. I was curious to learn if the episode ever came about. Casting Director Heather Teta responded, letting me know that the idea is still on the table if the right family comes along. Why not give it a try? Below is a copy of the official casting call. For more information, contact Heather at Heather.Teta@rdfusa.com. -Editor] ABC's hit family show, Wife Swap, seeks coin collecting families! The premise of Wife Swap is simple: for two weeks, two wives from two different families exchange husbands, children and lives (but not bedrooms) to discover what it?s like to live a different woman?s life. The show airs Wednesday nights on ABC at 8pm ? the family hour! It offers families the opportunity not only to teach, but to learn about different family values. We are casting for our exciting 4th season of the show and look forward to finding fun and outgoing families with interesting hobbies and outlooks on life. We would love to feature a family that is involved in the Hobby of Kings ? coin collecting! We're hoping to find a family of Numismatists where everyone ? Mom, dad and kids ? are all passionate about the hobby and participate together. We often feature sports families on our show, but rarely have an opportunity to focus on more academic ways to spend family time together. This could be a step in the right direction so we hope you are willing to spread the word! Families featured on the show receive a financial honorarium as a thank-you for their ten day filming commitment. If you nominate a family who appears on the show we offer a finder's fee. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or referrals." CASTING CALL: NUMISMATIC FAMILY SOUGHT FOR ABC'S WIFE SWAP http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n03a16.html QUERY: CERAMIC EAGLES AND THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES Philip Mernick writes: "I would like to call on the assistance of E-Sylum readers with a cross over between my ceramics and coins collecting interests. The two attached images are mouldings that appear beneath the handles of two jugs made in Derbyshire, presumably for export to the USA and it has been suggested that I write them up for the journal Ceramics in America. "I would, however, like to confirm the iconography (they both date from the middle of the 19th century by the way). The first one is clearly based on the Great Seal of the United States but seems closest to the design used on US silver and gold coins designed by Robert Scott and used only during the first decade of the 19th century (the wreath and arrows are the wrong way round on my example!). Is it known where Scott got his design from because it does not seem to exactly match the great seal dies of 1782 and 1841? Derbyshire Jug Eagle Moulding #1 http://www.flickr.com/photos/93563538@N00/2205314436/ Derbyshire Jug Eagle Moulding #2 http://www.flickr.com/photos/93563538@N00/2205314402/ Official Dies of the Great Seal of the United States http://www.greatseal.com/committees/dies.html In addition, if you have any thoughts on the other (almost sleeping) eagle I would be very interested to hear." [I'll forward any questions or comments to Philip. -Editor] ANOTHER DRAKE'S VOYAGE MAP MEDAL [An alert reader pointed me to another example of the Drake voyage map medal. -Editor] by Halliday, T.?: USA, c.1820, White Metal, 74 mm Obv: Western hemisphere showing North and South America with continents and other land masses and bodies of water labeled as they were known in the early 19th century. These include New Albion (anachronistic) in the Western United States, New Saledonia (now New Caledonia), Jugo (much of the southern portion of South America), and the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) Rev: Eastern Hemisphere with continents and other land masses and bodies of water labeled as they were known in the early 19th century. These include, among others, New Holland (Australia), Van Dieman?s Land (Tasmania), and Barbary in North Africa (now Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) Ref: Rulau E9; Eimer 141/1139 The projection system used on this medal was originally created by the Dutch cartographer Gerard Mercator, the man best known for the Mercator Projection. Gerard Mercator was born in Rupelmonde, Flanders, in 1512, and in his 80 years of life, he fundamentally changed the way people looked at maps and at the world. In 1569, Mercator unveiled his famous projection, a new way of making a map that was designed to show accurate distances between various points. To read the complete web page, see: http://www.historicalartmedals.com/MEDAL%20WEB%20ENTRIES/USA/WORLD%20MAP%20M EDAL-BW657%20HIGH.htm ANOTHER MAP MEDAL: DRAKE'S VOYAGE http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n02a15.html CELEBRITY NUMISMATIST: NICOLE KIDMAN In the past we've discussed a number of celebrities who share our numismatic hobby. An item in the U.K. magazine The People describes Nicole Kidman as a coin collector: "Actress Nicole is a numismatist, and is said to have a rare collection of ancient Judean coins." To read the complete article, see: http://www.people.co.uk/news/tm_headline=star-hoards&method=full&objectid=20 292455&siteid=93463-name_page.html BLOG: NOTES FOR BIBLIOPHILES David F. Fanning writes: "A friend of mine from graduate school, Rick Ring, of the Providence Public Library, has started a new blog that may be of interest to some E-Sylum readers. Called "Notes for Bibliophiles," it is a place for his casual musings on books and book collecting, and draws heavily on his experiences as a special collections librarian. While not numismatic, it is certainly of interest to book collectors. It can be found at http://pplspeccoll.blogspot.com/ " GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS TIMELINE VIEW An old colleague of mine works on the Google interface, and here?s one of the formats they?re experimenting with. It's a timeline view of search results. For example, here's a search on Impressionists, ordered chronologically: http://www.google.com/views?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=impressionists+view%3Atim eline&btnG=Google+Search I played with it a bit and discovered that it works for general search strings as well, and this could help numismatic researchers sort through the muck of too many search results. Just add "view:timeline" to your search query. I tried a "specie panic view:timeline" search - here are the results: http://www.google.com/views?q=specie+panic+view%3Atimeline&hl=en The results came back in neat chronological order beginning in the 1830's. One item the search uncovered was an account of the panic of 1837 from the perspective of the Mormons in Kirtland, OH. However, the date the system picked up on wasn't 1837 but February 19, 1880. So there are lots of kinks to be worked out before this tool is ready for prime time, it can still be a useful way to filter and organize results in ways not otherwise available. http://www.centerplace.org/history/misc/soc/soc27.htm I'd be interested to hear what others things of this experimental service. There is also a Map View to order search results geographically with an accompanying map display. FIRST REDESIGNED FIVE DOLLAR BILL TO BE SPENT AT LINCOLN'S D.C. COTTAGE A emailed press release from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing noted that "The first redesigned $5 bill, which will continue to feature the portrait of President Abraham Lincoln, will enter circulation on March 13 and will be spent at the gift shop of President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home in Washington, D.C." http://www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney http://www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney/main.cfm/media/releases_12132007 POLICE ANNOUNCE REWARD IN STOLEN NEW ZEALAND MEDAL CASE Jim Duncan writes: "The New Zealand Police have offered a reward of NZ$300,000 for information leading to the return of the stolen Victoria Crosses and other medals from the Waiouru Army Museum in December '07. "This is the largest reward ever offered in New Zealand, and is made up of offers from prominent British collector Lord Ashcroft and an anonymous New Zealand businessman. It is reportedly three times larger than any previous reward offered! "It is hoped this will reinvigorate the investigation. Border controls have been installed, and have already picked up a single medal being legally taken out, so it looks as if the controls work. We all hope so." [Below are excerpts from a New Zealand newspaper article on the reward offer. -Editor] One of the benefactors funding a reward offer for rare medals stolen from the Waiouru Army Museum believes they are still in New Zealand. About 100 medals, including nine Victoria Crosses and two George Crosses, were taken from the museum on 2 December. Captain Charles Upham's Victoria Cross and Bar were among those stolen. Police have announced a $300,000 reward for information that leads to a prosecution or recovery of the medals. The money has been fronted by British Victoria Cross collector Lord Michael Ashcroft and an anonymous New Zealand businessman. It is the biggest reward offered in New Zealand's history. He says the concern is that the medals will simply disappear, and he hopes the reward will flush out someone with knowledge about the theft. He says there is no reason to believe the medals have already gone overseas. "We see the reward as being a tool that compliments the investigation at this time." The previous highest reward offered was $100,000 for an investigation into a series of rapes in South Auckland. He says the theft of the medal sets is a theft from all New Zealanders, and the public's help is needed for their recovery. To read the complete article, see: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200801181518/stolen_medals_still_in_new _zealand,_says_benefactor POTENTIAL DAHLONEGA GOLD MUSEUM COIN THEFT THWARTED According to news reports, "The Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office has thwarted a possible conspiracy to steal coins from the Dahlonega Gold Museum. On Christmas Eve, an anonymous caller alerted the museum of the potential conspiracy. "Officials contacted one of the alleged co-conspirators, who had recently visited the museum and researched the value of the coins. 'We put them on notice that we knew about the conspiracy and none of the coins would be stolen,' Lumpkin County Sheriff Mark McClure said. And, 'We would be definitely looking to charge individuals if that did occur.' The man, who is from out of state, denied having any involvement in the plot. McClure said residential burglaries of coins and coin collections are fairly common in the community, but to steal coins of such value as the ones in the museum is a 'rarity.' "'We take these treasures of our county very seriously because they are very valuable,' McClure said. 'But they're also of great historical significance to the citizens of Lumpkin County.' To read the complete article, see: http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=205829 MOFFAT & CO. MINT OPENS (YES, MOFFAT & CO) [E-Sylum reader Timothy Grat is a partner in a new minting operation with a very old name: Moffatt & Co. The following description of the firm's name is taken from the new firm's web site. -Editor] Our company name is derived from two sources. First off the President's surname is Moffatt. Secondly the company draws inspiration from the original Moffat and Co., the private gold coin mint and assay company established in California c. 1850. We feel that the original Moffat and Company is a type of minting mentor. Their coins and ingots were of such fine quality, and their reputation for honest dealings was so high that it allowed their coins and ingots to trade at par (face value) with the US mint coin issues. So renowned was the good reputation of Moffat and Company that when it came time for the US government to establish a branch mint in San Francisco, California, the US government called upon the surviving Moffat and Company partners to take on this task. [The following are excerpts from a Numismaster article on the new mint. -Editor] Moffatt & Co., a newly formed custom minting company, announced Jan. 4 that it has begun operations at its plant near Eureka Springs, Ark. Moffatt & Co. was formed in October 2007 with the intent to provide high-quality custom tokens and medallions at low prices. The company has acquired and installed several high-speed coining presses with an initial capacity of more than one million pieces per week. It has also acquired an automatic multi-stroke coining press with a capacity of up to 1.75 inch diameter in proof-like finishes. A limited product line including silver rounds, club medals and other small runs are available immediately. Full production will begin in early February. Initial token offerings are for .900-, .984- and 1.125-inch sizes in golden brass alloy. Other sizes and alloys will be added. The company is now accepting pre-orders for tokens. Delivery will begin mid-February. Operating partners Sean Moffatt and Timothy Grat have much experience in the minting trade. Moffatt was operations manager of a large private mint for 19 years until the company was sold. He has been involved in numismatics for more than 35 years. Grat was chief coiner for Gallery Mint for 10 years. He has been involved in numismatics for about 10 years. To read the complete article, see: http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=3689 To view the Moffatt & Co. web site, see: www.moffattandco.com NEW ARTICLE DISCUSSES NORTH KOREAN "SUPERNOTE" COUNTERFEITS [Stephen Pradier noticed a lengthy Kansas City Star article on the counterfeit $100 "Supernotes". Here are some excerpts. -Editor] The currency changer, brazenly plying his illegal trade in the Bank of China lobby, pulled out a thick wad of cash from around the world and carefully removed a bill. The 2003 series U.S. $100 bill was a fake, but not just any fake. It was a ?supernote,? a counterfeit so perfect it?s an international whodunit. It had come from a North Korean businessman, the changer said, getting angry looks from his confederates. He stank of alcohol, but his story was plausible. The impoverished hermit nation sat just across the Yalu River from Dandong. Whatever the origin of the bills, ?it?s by far the most sophisticated counterfeiting operation in the world,? said James Kolbe, a former congressman from Arizona who oversaw funding for the Secret Service. ?We are not certain as to how this is being done or how it?s happening.? ?At least 19 different versions have been printed, each corresponding to a tiny change in U.S. engraving plates ? an odd thing for any counterfeiter to do. Also, they show practically invisible but intriguing additions. ?Stranger yet, the number of supernotes found indicates that whoever is printing them isn?t doing so in large quantities. Only $50 million worth of them have been seized since 1989, an average of $2.8 million per year and not even enough to pay for the sophisticated equipment and supplies needed to make them. Industry experts such as Thomas Ferguson, former director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said the supernotes are so good that they appear to have been made by someone with access to some government?s printing equipment. Some experts think North Korea does not have the sophistication to make the bills; others suspect Iran and others speak of criminal gangs in Russia or China. Klaus Bender, the author of Moneymakers: The Secret World of Banknote Printing, said the phony $100 bill is ?not a fake anymore. It?s an illegal parallel print of a genuine note.? He claims that the supernotes are of such high quality and are updated so frequently that they could be produced only by a U.S. government agency such as the CIA. As unsubstantiated as the allegation is, there is a precedent. An expert on the CIA, journalist Tim Weiner, has written how the agency tried to undermine the Soviet Union?s economy by counterfeiting its currency. Banks around the world are still seizing supernotes. The first one was spotted by a sharp-eyed banker in the Philippines in 1989. Whoever is making them seemed to deliberately add minuscule extra strokes, as if trying to flag the phony bills, the Swiss noted. For example, at the very tip of the steeple of Philadelphia?s Independence Hall, the counterfeit bills have a line along the left vertical edge that is not on the real bills. The supernotes incorporate at least 19 running changes that the United States has made to its engraving plates since 1989, from the names of Treasury secretaries and treasurers to blowing up the image of Ben Franklin on the $100 ? something that most counterfeiters can?t or don?t bother to do. To read the complete article, see: http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/441167.html NEWPAPER ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS PRINCETON GREEK COIN ACQUISITION [On January 15, 2008 the Times of Trenton (NJ) published a nice article on Princeton University's acquisition of the Sarmas collection of Greek coins. Thanks to John N. Lupia III and Tom Fort for pointing it out. -Editor] Princeton made the purchase of the more than 800 medieval Greek coins to help researchers deepen their knowledge about a period of Middle Age history that has been little understood by scholars be cause of a dearth of primary historical accounts from that time, Stahl said. Until now, there has been no specialized collection of the coins of the Greek lands of the later Middle Ages -- the 13th and 14th centuries -- available for study in a public institution anywhere, he said. The seller, London businessman Theo Sarmas, had assembled the collection gradually as a hobby over the past 20 years or so -- acquiring them mainly from English dealers and through auctions, Stahl said. Most of the coins are silver or a silver-copper alloy called billon. The collection is rich in currency that imitates important trade coins of Italian cities, especially those of Venice and Naples. Princeton's numismatic collection bought the coins with matching funds from the university's program in Hellenic studies, which contributed with money from the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund, established at Princeton to promote the understanding of Greek culture. Princeton's numismatic collection was started in 1849 when friends of the university bought and donated plaster casts of Greek and Roman coins. Today, it has vast holdings of ancient Chinese, Greek and Roman coins and includes others from the Byzantine, Western medieval and U.S. Colonial eras. Part of the collection is on display in the university's Firestone Library as its "Numismatics in the Renaissance" exhibition, which is on view for free to the public through July 20 in the library's main exhibition hall. The Sarmas coins are not part of that showcase because they are being catalogued for the university. But Princeton's numismatic collection is available for research to the public and scholars at the university. To view the online data base, visit www.princeton.edu/rbsc/department/numismatics/ . To make an appointment for viewing specific items from the collection, including the Sarmas coins, contact Stahl at astahl@princeton.edu. To read the complete article, see: http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1200460265238750.xml&col l=5 ZIMBABWE ISSUES NEW TEN MILLION DOLLAR BANKNOTE [Dick Johnson forwarded the latest news on inflation currency in Zimbabwe. -Editor] What happens when you have 50,000% inflation? The 200,000 note in Zimbabwe, pictured below, is worth only 3 cents, and you need new 10,000,000 notes. President Robert Mugabe's government, stricken by chronic hyperinflation, announced today it will introduce a 10 million Zimbabwe dollar note (along with 1 million and 5 million notes). Economists said it was the highest denomination of any currency in the world. Zimbabwe is in its 10th year of economic crisis, marked by the world's highest rate of inflation, the fastest shrinking gross domestic product in a country not in a state of war, the most rapidly collapsing currency and unemployment of over 80%. A year ago, the highest denomination was 10,000 Zimbabwe dollars, then worth about $7, now worth about 1/3 of 1 cent (US). The new 10 million Zimbabwe dollar note is worth $3 (US). During the year there were three separate new issues of notes as inflation continued to soar, including the 200,000 note pictured above, which is worth worth only 6 cents (US). http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/01/zimbabwes-introduces-new-10-million.html CHALLENGE COINS ISSUED TO HONOR HELICOPTER CRASH VICTIMS [A friend of three victims of a helicopter crash is honoring them and remembering them with challenge "coins." -Editor] A friend of one of the three Air Evac Lifeteam crew members killed Dec. 30 in a helicopter crash in Colbert County has found a unique way to honor the victims and assure they are always remembered by their peers. Michael Sheedy will have challenge coins printed in honor of Michael Baker, Tiffany Miles and Allan Bragwell. Sheedy got to know Baker when Baker was a U.S. Coast Guard pilot, through Sheedy?s work in the Law Enforcement Aviation Coalition. The coalition is a Winthrop Harbor, Ill.-based organization that helps provide air support for law enforcement and rescue agencies at no cost. ?I thought this would be a perfect tribute, one that I can carry with me every day,? Sheedy said. A challenge coin helps signify membership in an organization to help promote unity and morale. It has long been used by members of military units, but the tradition has expanded those in civilian emergency fields, as well as other organizations. An image of the coin can be found at http://www.valorfromabove.com/ael/16 ?Right now, I just have my e-mail up there,? Sheedy said. ?I?m trying to gauge what the interest will be so I?ll know how many to order. The more that are ordered, the less expensive the coin. All the money will go to the families, and I?ll cover any additional cost if needed.? To read the complete article, see: http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20080115/NEWS/463579936/1011 MAN'S QUEST FOR U.S. MINT CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICTY [A Los Gatos, CA man called in a local television station consumer reporter to help him get a correct "Certificate of Authenticity" for the commemorative coin set he'd purchased from the U.S. Mint. -Editor] Here's a case where solid gold and silver coins might have lost value because of a piece of paper, as a local coin collector found out that can be quite an ordeal. Homer Leonard of Los Gatos began buying commemorative coins years ago He was pretty happy with his investments, until the day this commemorative coin set arrived. It had the "wrong" certificate of authenticity. "Without the certificate of authenticity it doesn't mean anything because the person you're selling to can't verify exactly what it is," said Leonard. What Homer actually bought was the American Eagle 20th anniversary gold and silver coin set worth about $850 dollars. What the certificate said he bought was an American Eagle gold coin set. All gold -- worth about $2,600 dollars. "When you have the certificate with the proper set it means a lot," said Leonard. So Homer called the U.S. Mint and asked for the correct document. "They're out of stock and when we get them we'll get back to you," said Leonard. A whole year went by, and no document. Homer worried his coins might lose value without that piece of paper. So we contacted the U.S. Mint and folks there said this was a rare mistake. They did send Homer another certificate and again, it was wrong. On the third try, Homer did get the correct paperwork. The U.S. Mint says it's tracing how those mistakes happened, and it said the certificates are only good if they come with the right coin set, so no one should be able to misuse them. To read the complete article, see: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/7_on_your_side&id=5898942 THINGS FOUND IN BOOKS Ginger Rapsus writes: "Talk about finding things in books... I frequent a used bookstore near my house. I bought a book on retirement, finances, something like that...I found within the pages a small brown envelope. Inside was a dollar bill with the serial number all eights! What a bookmark! That was my best find." SO THAT'S WHERE THAT'S BEEN HIDING http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n02a08.html WHAT TO DO WITH SOON-TO-BE OBSOLETE COINS? MAKE A MONEY TREE! Dick Johnson writes: "Malaysia one-sen coins are soon to be abolished (reported here in E-Sylum (November 18, 2007, vol 10, no 47, art 26). One writer is alerting craft-minded citizens in that country to make a coin receptacle box sprouting a tree and use 25 coins to hang from raised relief leaves. Writer Teresa Wong gives instructions to take a facial tissue box, cut apart and paint it with salt paint to give it texture resembling leaves on the tree at the back of the box. She does this to save a handful of the obsolete coins to show grandchildren of the future to prove they actually used such a low-value coin. Shown at this website -- materials list, diagrams, instructions, color photo: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/1/14/lifeliving/1994993 0&sec=lifeliving ONE-SEN COIN SHORTAGE IN MALAYSIA http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n47a26.html FEATURED WEB PAGE: BOULTON & WATT FAMILY DEATH MEDALS This week's featured web page is recommended by Paul Sherry. It features Boulton & Watt Family Death Medals from the collection of Bill McKivor. Paul writes: "Here?s a great Matthew Boulton Medal page that's so great I almost feel reluctant to share simply because I want to keep it to myself! [The page has marvelous photography by Eric Holcomb - be sure to click on them to view enlargements. Wow! -Editor] http://www.thecoppercorner.com/history/bw_photos1.htm 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 for First Class mail, and $25 elsewhere. For those without web access, write to: David M. Sundman, Secretary/Treasurer Numismatic Bibliomania Society, P. O. Box 82 Littleton, NH 03561 For Asylum mailing address changes and other membership questions, contact David at this email address: dsundman@LittletonCoin.com To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, just Reply to this message, or write to the Editor at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com Those wishing to become new E-Sylum subscribers (or wishing to Unsubscribe) can go to the following web page: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All past E-Sylum issues are archived on the NBS web site at this address: http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_esylum_archive.html Issues from September 2002 to date are also archived at this address: http://my.binhost.com/pipermail/esylum From esylum at binhost.com Sun Jan 27 22:20:46 2008 From: esylum at binhost.com (esylum@binhost.com) Date: Sun Jan 27 22:27:35 2008 Subject: The E-Sylum v11#04, January 27, 2008 Message-ID: <001601c8615c$c696b470$52604b4b@corp.cmdinfo.com> Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 11, Number 04, January 27, 2008: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2008, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. WAYNE'S WORDS: THE E-SYLUM JANUARY 27, 2008 Among our recent subscribers are Colin E. Pitchfork, courtesy of John and Nancy Wilson, Tom Harrison and Brad Weaver. Welcome aboard! We now have 1,116 subscribers. Following brief notices about NBS dues and show tables, this week we open with a discussion on the most valuable numismatic books, triggered by the recent sale of a book on U.S. MPC for over $100,000. Next we have a brief notice on a new book by Eric Newman, and an appreciation of numismatic editors by Ray Williams. Questions this week involve the Brown and Dunn grading guide, and a coin dealer named "Brownie". Follow-ups from last week include items on the Castorland medal, Diane Wolf, and the rarity of the Adams Academy medal. >From the science desk we have articles on counterfeit coin detection by sound, and a study about germs on paper money. In the news we have reports on numismatic museum exhibits in Romainia, and profiles of U.S. Mint artist Susan Gamble and Rep. Jose Serrano. Also, happy twentieth anniversary to the polymer banknote! To learn where the coin tossed by referees in the Super Bowl comes from, read on. Have a great week, everyone. Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society A NOTE ON NBS DUES PAYMENTS [A recurring problem relating to NBS dues has appeared once again. It stems from the separation of annual collating ballot duties from the ongoing duties of the NBS Secretary- Treasurer. As a trusted longtime member David Lange has taken on the task of collecting and collating ballots each year for the election of officers and voting for best Asylum article. Last year these were mailed to members together with dues reminders, and many members replied to the wrong address. -Editor] Dave Lange writes: "About six weeks ago I received yet another dues payment for NBS that should have gone to David Sundman as treasurer. I passed this on to a Littleton employee at the FUN show, and luckily it did find its way to David. "I can't repeat enough how important it is that the dues notices and ballots not be sent to members at the same time, when they are supposed to be returned to different persons. People just don't read the instructions. I believe the dues notices should be sent out at the beginning of the calendar year, separate from the election and article ballots." [If you sent in a dues check that hasn't been processed by your bank, you may have sent it to the wrong address. Please contact our Secretary-Treasurer David Sundman. His contact information is at the end of every E-Sylum and on our web site at www.coinbooks.org. -Editor] HOWARD DANIEL TO MAN NBS TABLE AT PHOENIX ANA In an effort to prove that he's not dead yet, Howard A. Daniel III plans to man a club table at the upcoming American Numismatic Association National Money Show in Phoenix, AZ March 7-9. He will represent the Numismatic Bibliomania Society, Numismatics International. Howard requests that NBS members bring any surplus numismatic publications with them so he can give them to new and young collectors along with an NBS application form. NUMISMATIC BOOK FETCHES RECORD PRICE OF $115,000 Fred Schwan writes: "Perhaps there were other books somewhere in the Heritage paper money sale at FUN, but there was only one important book. It probably went unnoticed by most numibibliophiles. The title of the book was 'Composite, Progressive, and Specimens Military Payment Certificates Series 692'. [My thanks to David Klinger for helping me locate the lot on the Heritage web site. -Editor] To view the lot description on the Heritage web site, see: http://currency.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=456&Lot_No=13277 "The book included 72 pages of the subject material. No similar book has been previously been reported in private hands. The book realized a record price for any MPC item -- $115,000 including juice. I wrote up the full story for the current issue of the Bank Note Reporter. Where does $115,000 stack up in records for numismatic books?" [Although this item is indeed a book, the value of the book derives primarily from the fact that it houses a collection of numismatic items ? it?s part book, but part album. I would put the Raphael P. Thian album of Confederate Currency in this category as well. It sold in the 1994 Armand Champa library sale for $25,300. Like the MPC "book", the lion's share of the value was in the notes mounted within. These "books" are collections in the form of books. I wasn't sure of any U.S. numismatic book (or album) exceeding the Thian record, but George Kolbe set me straight. -Editor] George Kolbe writes: "In the John J. Ford library sale, lot 518, the single volume Colonel Green inventory, brought $37,000 hammer; Vols. 1-6 of The Numismatist, bound in one volume, sold for $35,000; the 1851 Hart pamphlet brought $30,000 hammer (this fully conforms with your main criterion). I found these by making a quick scan of the prices realized list. There may be others, in Ford, and earlier. Another Hart, for example, sold in the Bass library, though I believe it brought less. Recently, an early numismatic book from the library of Jean Grolier sold at auction in Europe for around $75,000-$80,000. One or two other numismatic books in Grolier bindings have sold at auction for over $25,000, I believe. Several years ago, Douglas Saville and I bought together at auction a 1517 first edition of Fulvio's "Illustrium Imagines" (for well over your threshold figure) and I placed it privately at over $50,000. It was one of only a few printed on vellum. I do not know if other numismatic books in this league have reached six figures but I would not be particularly surprised." "The above items derive their value intrinsically, though a Grolier binding makes a bit of a difference (the book noted above, in a nice 'anonymous' contemporary binding, would bring several thousand dollars at most, and vellum vs. rag stock enhances Fulvio's value by a factor of ten)." [A list of the "Top Ten Most Valuable Works of Numismatic Literature" would make for interesting reading. Has anyone been keeping track of recent sale records in this regard? -Editor] ERIC NEWMAN'S NEW BOOK ON FUGIO COPPERS Eric Newman has written a new book on the Fugio coppers. An advertisement by Charles Davis in the January issue of Penny Wise offers Eric's work 'The United States Fugio Coppers of 1787'. Charlie reports that the book is currently at the binders and will be available shortly. We'll publish the full press release once it's issued, and would welcome a review from any of our readers once their copy is in hand. I'll be ordering one myself. NEW ZEALAND NUMISMATIC JOURNAL INDEX PUBLISHED Martin Purdy writes: "E-Sylum subscribers may be interested to know that the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand has just published a 24-page Index of NZNJ issues 71-85 (1993-2006); copies are available for USD 5.00 post-paid. Cash in the mail (buyer's risk) c/o the RNSNZ, PO Box 2023, Wellington 6140, New Zealand, or USD 5.50 via Paypal to rita@translatelimited.com." ALL HAIL THE NUMISMATIC EDITORS [Ray Williams of the Colonial Coin Collectors Club posted the following note this week on the Yahoo colonial coins group, following a discussion of new books on U.S. Colonial numismatics. I'd like to second his motion - this group of editors has done an absolutely marvelous job of publishing top-notch research on this area. -Editor] The quality of our reference material is due both to the authors AND the editors. Although we approach authors, congratulate them, get them to autograph our books... we need to appreciate the contribution of the editors. These are not guys that just sit down and check for spelling and punctuation mistakes - they review content and all aspects of publications. So I would like to thank some editors publicly: Mike Hodder, Angel Pietri and Dan Freidus, for being past editors of the C4 Newsletter which brought a small group of colonial enthusiasts into the organization we have today. The C4N has gradually grown to what it is today, under your direction! Syd Martin and Roger Siboni, current editor and associate editor of the C4 Newsletter. I don't have the words to describe the product that we've all been receiving in our mail boxes - you all receive it and I'll just let it speak for itself. Thank them when you see them! Al Hoch, Jim Spilman and Phil Mossman, for being past editors of the Colonial Newsletter (CNL). CNL has been the platform for colonial numismatic information since the 1960s. A complete set of CNL, either in paper or on CD, is a prerequisite for any colonial numismatic library, placed right next to your Crosby. Gary Trudgen is the current editor of CNL, which is being published three times a year by the American Numismatic Society. I have had the pleasure to work with Gary (and many on this page) and I can say that he puts 100% inhis work. Gary's enthusiasm and dedication are evident in every issue! Lastly, we have Lou Jordan, Phil Mossman, Jim Rosen and Gary Trudgen - the editors who worked on C4 publications, including Syd's Wood's Hibernia book. They are currently editing another work in progress. These guys make it happen! I could go through several pages about what they do, but the quality of the books C4 publishes would not be what it is without these guys. Now there are other people in the hobby that deserve recognition, such as Dave Bowers, Ken Bressett and many others, but I just wanted to address the people involved with C4 and CNL today. I'm always scared that I missed someone, so if I have, please forgive me. The next time you're at a C4 Convention and get a book autographed, look around, find the editors and ask them to autograph it too. My personal thank you to all the editors, past and present, that work so hard! You guys make it happen!!! You guys ROCK!!! CANADIAN HISTORICAL MEDAL SERIES PUBLICATION STATUS SOUGHT A reader writes: "In the August 13, 2006 E-Sylum, Bob Gilbert wrote that he wondered about the delay in releasing Volumes 2 and 3 of the Canadian Historical Medals by Charlton Press. I reviewed all issues of E-Sylum since that date, but did not find the answer. I am still waiting on my own order." [I'm not sure if we ever got an answer to this query. Is anyone familiar with this publication or have a contact at Charlton Press? -Editor] CANADIAN HISTORICAL MEDAL SERIES PUBLICATION STATUS SOUGHT http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v09n33a07.html CHARLES HOSCH PUBLISHES NUMISMATIC WEB SITE E-Sylum reader Charles R. Hosch of Marietta, GA writes: "I've created an Internet site which provides descriptions of coin designs plus complete specifications for various series of world coins and bank notes, plus many other items of numismatic interest. "The address is www.hoschcoins.com and contains many topics including: ANA Convention Badges & Medals; World Coin Designers, Modelers and Engravers; Commemorative World Bank Notes; World Gold Proof Sets (1901-); Scandinavian Commemorative Coins; Austria and Germany Commemorative Coins (1945-); Israel Gold Commemorative Coins; Switzerland Commemorative Coins (Including Shooting Festival Commemoratives, 1842-); "Great Britain Gold Coins (1901-); Great Britain Maundy Coins (1822-); Great Britain One Pound Coins (1983-); Sovereign Military Order of Malta Modern Coins (1961-); Coats of Arms on Coins of the World (1701-); National Coats of Arms on World Bank Notes (c.1800-); Numismatic Theme Commemorative Coins [Tabular Listing]; Olympic Games Commemorative Coins and other Perennial Games [Tablular Listing]; "Reigning Monarch Portraits on World Paper Money (1961-); World Commemorative Banknotes; Canada $100 Gold Coins; Canada Commemorative Dollars; New Zealand Silver One Dollar Coins; Austria Maria Theresa Thaler; Netherlands 50 Gulden Commemorative Coins (1982-1998); Netherlands Proof Gold and Silver Ducats (1985-); Royal Visit Commemorative Coins [Tabular Listing]; Ibero-American Coin Series; Coins Commemorating the States and Provinces of North America; World Commemorative Coins (Selected Countries); and many other topics. NOTE: There are no coins for sale on this site." To visit the Hosch web site, see: http://www.hoschcoins.com QUERY: COIN CATALOG DESCRIPTION COPYRIGHT LAWSUIT Ed Snible writes: "Did the coin description copyright lawsuit between Heritage and Superior ever get resolved? As reported last year (e-Sylum v. 10 #7) Superior cataloger James Jones was accused of describing coins using flowery language he had previously composed when cataloging for Heritage. What kind of flowery language did the judge use when composing his verdict upon this squabble? NUMISMATIC CATALOG COPYRIGHT CONTROVERSY http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n07a02.html [Good question - I haven't heard any more about this. Can any E-Sylum readers fill us in? -Editor] QUERIES: BROWN AND DUNN GRADING GUIDE, DEALER "BROWNIE" NBS Life member #4 Joseph D. McCarthy writes: "One of the books that I pick up copies of whenever they are offered is the U.S. Coin Grading Guide by Brown and Dunn. I have noticed in the early editions, which seem to have many printings, that the books came in different widths, different heights, and different numbers of pages. Is there any reference work that has been compiled on the book? Does anyone know about the different versions?" On a separate topic Joe adds: "Years ago I stopped in New Jersey along the Delaware River and talked for a while with an ex-coin dealer named "Brownie" - does anyone know him and what became of him? He told me he had hired a fellow to be his shop manager while he was away at shows. Once after returning from an extended show trip he learned that the fellow had taken everything he had and fled. "Brownie" told me about the time a collector he knew stopped in on the way back from a convention in Philadelphia and proudly showed off the 1856 Flying eagle cent he had acquired. The collector asked if "Brownie" had ever seen one. Brownie turned to another gentleman who was in the store at the time and with a wink asked what he thought of it. Reaching into his coat pocket the other gentleman said, "Gee, it looks just like these three I have". He then told me that the gentleman was a representative for a very well known collector from Baltimore (if I remember right)." QUERY: SAN FRANCISCO ASSAY OFFICE DEPOSIT INFORMATION SOUGHT Dave Ginsburg writes: "In reviewing the Mint Annual Reports from the 1820s to 1861, I've noticed that while they contain deposit and mintage information for the five US mints and the New York Assay Office, there isn't any information regarding the activities of the Assay Office in San Francisco, which operated from 1851 to 1853. However, Don Kagin, in his Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States, states that the Assay Office made monthly reports to the Secretary of the Treasury and his book contains an illustration of a page of a report from the National Archives. "Does anyone know if any deposit or mintage information from the Assay Office in San Francisco has been published?" DAVID SUNDMAN ON NUMISMATIC EXHIBITING NBS Secretary-Treasurer David M. Sundman sent the following note to Alan Weinberg in response to his submission in last week's E-Sylum: I really enjoyed your comments in regarding the FUN show and your non-competitive exhibit in the January 20, 2008 E-Sylum. I wasn?t able to make the FUN show, so I missed it. I agree with Wayne?s comments that collections should be shared, and non-competitive exhibiting is a good option. I am sure your efforts and the nice mention in the E-Sylum will inspire other collectors to follow your lead. ALAN WEINBERG AND THE JANUARY 2008 FUN SHOW http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n03a10.html CAPTAIN HERNDON IN NUMISMATICS [On an unrelated matter I put dealer Wayne Herndon from my northern Virginia numismatic group in touch with Alan Weinberg this week. Alan was curious (as was I) to learn if Wayne was related to Captain Herndon of the S.S. Central America. Alan has an example of the Herndon medal in his collection. Below is Wayne's reply. -Editor] "All of the U.S. Herndons are believed to be related and are descendants of emigrants from the early 1600s. The only exceptions are believed to be some former Herndon slaves who took the Herndon name upon emancipation (as was apparently quite common at the time). One researcher identified Thomas Herndon, 23, as having sailed on October 13, 1635 for St. Christopher's aboard the Amitie. Other researchers believe John and Rhodes Herndon were the original emigrants having come in the early 17th century, one to Virginia and the other initially to North Carolina before also moving to Virginia. As one can imagine, documentation from the 1600s is quite scarce and difficult to establish reliable lineages. The first Herndon for which there is an authentic record is William Herndon who patented lands in St. Stephen's parish, New Kent County, Virginia in February 1674. In 1677 he married Catherine Diggs, the youngest daughter of Edward Diggs, (Governor of Virginia in 1655). Captain Herndon was a sixth generation descendant of William Herndon. I am an eleventh generation descendant of William Herndon. While we are both descendants of William, we are from separate branches. Beyond William, the only descendant common to us both is William's son Edward. Captain William Lewis Herndon had only one child, Ellen Lewis Herndon. Ellen married Chester A. Arthur but died before he became president. Following the sinking of the Central America and Captain Herndon's heroic death, there was quite an outpouring in the D.C. area and a number of things happened to memorialize him, including a the naming of Herndon, VA. The Arthur connection nearly provided the Herndon family with another connection to numismatics. Had Ellen lived to become first lady during Arthur's tenure as president, she would have been eligible for depiction on a first spouse $10 gold coin. However, the legislation provided that for presidents who were unmarried or widowed, a contemporaneous depiction of Liberty would appear on the coin. Arthur alone was subject to a second exception in the legislation. Instead of Liberty, the act provides for suffragist Alice Paul to grace the coin. This is somewhat curious as Alice Paul was not even born until the last few months of Arthur's presidency. Here's a funny story. I visited the S. S. Central America exhibit at the Atlanta ANA several years ago. The exhibit was part of a promotion to market the recovered gold and it was heavily staffed with salespeople to speak to anyone and everyone who visited the impressive exhibit. As part of the promotion surrounding the exhibit, they also had a descendant of the first mate on hand to meet and greet. I was predominately interested in the exhibit from a numismatic standpoint being only a distant relative of Captain Herndon at best. So I wasn't thinking of Captain Herndon when I walked up to see the exhibit. As I approached, one of the attendants greeted me with his name. Out of habit, I responded with my name. It seemed as if I had no more than spoken my name than I was shoved up against the descendant of the first mate and someone was yelling for a photographer. The promotion-minded folks running the exhibit were all over the opportunity to photograph the two 'relatives' together. LESTER MERKIN CASTORLAND HOARD The title of the John W. Adams article in the next Asylum "The Story Behind the Castorland Jeton" reminded Alan V. Weinberg of the story of an old hoard. He writes: "Approximately 35 years ago Lester Merkin told me, at the time confidentially, that the original French Family of the Castorland medal issue still had many hundreds of the original in silver and was leaking onto the market several pieces each year. Lester was handling them. So there may be a hoard of hundreds of Castorland original silver strikings out there in Europe." LATEST ASYLUM ISSUE IS ON THE WAY http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n03a03.html DIANE WOLF REMEMBERED David L. Ganz writes: "Here's a little known personal story about Diane Wolf. In the 1980's, at Long Beach, I was at the Hyatt with my wife and then young son, Scott, who must have been about five or six, and is now 26. As kids are wont to do, he was running around the lobby as I registered, slipped on the tile, fell, and started crying. Diane was also registering; she knelt with one knee on the floor, leaned over Scott, and said things would be all right, calming him. I knew her only as Commissioner and a coinage redesign advocate, finding out only later about her advanced degree in education. That day, she was Scott?s (and my) hero." Dick Johnson writes: "I remember Diane Wolf. She often came to New York City coin shows and she stopped by our booth a time or two. She also came to my little office in Danbury in the late 1980s. I don't know what influence she thought I could have for her cause of redesigning American coins, but perhaps she was trying to gain supporters one person at a time. "The opinion of her I created in my mind at that time is confirmed by the biography recently published on her death. I surmised she was a rich girl with lots of free time in search of a cause. Self appointed, she chose changing the design on circulating coins. A harmless cause, perhaps it was one she must have thought was obtainable. "My belief at the time was that all five coins bore portraits of famous Americans. People are interested in people, ergo, I thought that the existing portrait coin designs were satisfactory. I was certainly a candidate for Diane Wolf to convert. But she never changed my mind to her cause. "At our office meeting she appeared overdressed, as always, in designer clothes. Perfect makeup and coiffure, with ample jewelry. Her band-box appearance tended to reinforce her wealthy status. How out-of-place she was in our workroom office of rolled up sleeves for medal cataloging. I was polite, however, listened to her pitch and received her literature. As a lobbyist, I thought, she was more show and less substance. "She was quite knowledgeable, though, about coin design limitations, but not so about coin designers. I think we chatted about Victor Brenner and what she would like to see on the cent. "After years of such activity, with Congress, the Treasury Department and apparently anyone who would listen, I believe she realized continued effort was futile. She seemed to drop from the numismatic scene." U.S. COINAGE REDESIGN ADVOCATE DIANE WOLF 1954-2008 http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n03a06.html ON THE RARITY OF THE ADAMS ACADEMY MINT MEDAL Alan V. Weinberg writes: "The Adams Academy medal bought by jonathanb is .900 fine gold as are all gold medals struck at the U.S. Mint. This fact was not mentioned in the Coin World coverage of the eBay find and so most readers may have assumed the medal was 14kt or less as are the vast majority of gold school medals. "As to the medal's rarity: In 50 yrs of collecting medals, I've never seen another Adams Academy medal, and it is not represented in the John Sallay collection of American school and academic awards. John Sallay (of Weston, Mass) has been the #1 collector and researcher/author on American school medals ever since he was a Harvard student many decades ago. I've known him since then. John was not aware of the eBay sale and was beside himself for missing it. I can say that had John been aware of the medal's eBay sale, it would not have gone to anyone else, plain and simple." ADAMS ACADEMY U.S. MINT MEDAL DISCOVERY http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n03a13.html MORE ON THE DRAKE MAP MEDAL AND THE MERCATOR PROJECTION Alan V. Weinberg writes: "On the Sir Francis Drake's Voyage world map medal: I had the pleasure of examining a near mint prooflike white metal specimen in its original approx 2" x 2" red plush case of issue at Dave Wnuck/John Agre's table at FUN. Its singular defect was slight rim oxidation. Priced at a mere $1500 it puts to shame 'rare' Morgan dollars and double eagles that sell for 100 times as much. "I'd seen and handled these medals before, but this was only the 2nd or 3rd I've seen in its original case. This medal has always been one of my favorites and fits well into either an American or Foreign numismatic collection. I distinctly recall that approximately 40-45 years ago in either an early Numismatic News or Coin World there was an announcement of an original silver hand-engraved Sir Francis Drake's map medal (pictured in the article) selling in London at auction for $50,000 US. I cannot recall if a buyer was mentioned. Dave Bowers and contributors to his and co-author Katie Jaeger's "100 Greatest American Medals and Tokens" book recognize the rarity/desirability of the original silver hand-engraved Drake's map medal by listing it as #99 with no value - such "low" ranking only because the medal is so rare and obscure few know of its existence and so could not nominate it in Bowers' survey. "Whether the silver medal is unique or not, I don't know - the Bowers/Jaeger book implies it is not. At $50 grand some 40-45 yrs ago, one would think it is. I'd guess their book's photograph came from the British Museum, as did a few others." [The specimen offered by Wnuck/Agre is what initiated this thread of discussion. Bowers/Jaeger book states that there are nine examples known in silver. -Editor] Alan Weinberg adds: "I am aware of only that single $50 grand specimen of the silver medal selling 40-45 yrs ago. For me, this is one of the most desirable historical medals. Should one appear at auction today in decent condition, I'd speculate a price well north of $250K would be realized. I find it very hard to believe there is anything approaching 9 extant, indeed even 3 or 4." Bill Malkmus writes: "A comment in the last E-Sylum (taken from a web page) jolted me like chalk on a blackboard. In the segment on the Drake voyage map medal, the quotation was made: "In 1569, Mercator unveiled his famous projection, a new way of making a map that was designed to show accurate distances between various points." "I have no doubt that you will get numerous comments on this, but just in case everyone else thinks the same, and waits for others to comment, let me state: The Mercator projection shows accurate bearings between points, but famously distorts distances increasingly (and indefinitely) towards the poles. (The quote above was taken accurately from the website named, but is unexpectedly in error.) "Ironically, the Wikipedia site, which has been frequently (and fairly) badmouthed, seems to have a very careful and lucid description of the projection, at least on a quick glance." ANOTHER DRAKE'S VOYAGE MAP MEDAL http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n03a20.html ATLANTIC MAGAZINE ONLINE ARCHIVE OPENED [In a note published January 22, 2008, The Atlantic magazine announced its move to free distribution of its back issue archive. I'm not sure how likely it would be to find numismatic content there, but in a publication dating back to 1857, you never know - there just might be a gem waiting to be discovered, perhaps a story on famous sculptors of the day mentioning their work at the U.S. Mint. -Editor] Beginning today, TheAtlantic.com is dropping its subscriber registration requirement and making the site free to all visitors. Now, in addition to such offerings as blogs, author dispatches, slideshows, interviews, and videos, readers can also browse issues going back to 1995, along with hundreds of articles dating as far back as 1857, the year The Atlantic was founded. To read the complete article, see: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801u/editors-note ROMAINIAN MUSEUM NUMISMATIC COLLECTION [An article on the History Museum in Sibiu, Romania was published on the web Wednesday. It includes a discussion of the museum's numismatic collections. Below are excerpts from the article. -Editor] Part of the Brukenthal Museum, the History Museum in Sibiu is hosted - how appropriate - inside the Old City Hall, a magnificent building, which has proven to be the best choice for the prestigious institution. The History Museum has several large and rich collections, divided into several chronological and thematical departments, such as weapons and armours, medals, Romanian coins and bills, archaeology and others. It is simply amazing to discover step by step the history of the region, by means of tens of thousands of exhibits, many of them presented in the permanent collection. In the coins collection, for example, we find over 60.000 coins and medals, from all around the world. Samuel von Brukenthal himself managed to amass about 17.000 coins and medals in his life time, from ancient ones to then-contemporary. Over the decades the collection has been enriched with other rare examples, both discoverise from archaeological sites and donations from other collector. Dacians, Roman Greek Austrian, German, you name it, and it's here. Of great importance is the selection of Transylvanian coins, especially those out of gold and silver, as well as the Eastern European collection. Also of interest is the collection of Romanian money bills, put together in the interwar period and further completed after 1990, the oldest exhibits being some mortgage bills from 1877. It is a history of the Romanian coins starting with the beginning of the 20th century, and every type of coin and bill are presented here, in great quality, that would make the envy of every collector. The visit at the museum end with yet another interesting department, the textile collection, with many pieces from the collection put together by the Baron Samuel von Brukenthal, as well as several donations made by local guilds and associations or collectors. To read the complete article, see: http://recomandari.artline.ro/2_606_The_History_Museum_in_Sibiu_24815.html QUERY: CHESS LEGEND BOBBY FISHER'S GOLD COINS Last week chess legend Bobby Fisher died, and that reminded me that we had an unanswered E-Sylum question about the gold coins Fisher received in payment for an important match against Boris Spassky in 1992. Was Fisher paid in gold bullion? Were they ordinary gold coins or commemoratives related to the match? To read the original article on Fisher's gold coins, see: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3265 CHESS LEGEND BOBBY FISHER'S GOLD COINS SOLD http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v09n34a24.html MORE ON MILITARY PAYMENT TOKENS (POGS) FOR IRAQ Regarding last week's item from Paul Sherry about military payment tokens used in Iraq, Joe Boling writes: "These are pogs, the token coinage issued by AAFES (Army and Air Force Exchange Service). They are not cardboard, but plastic. See www.aafespogs.com for complete information about them. There have been ten emissions so far. See also http://www.aafespogs.com/publications/By%20Bill%20Myers.htm for a series of articles by Colonel (Doctor) Bill Myers about them. Myers won the best of show exhibit award at FUN two years ago with an exhibit of pogs, and gave a numismatic theater program on them at this year's convention." Tom Michael of Krause Publications writes: "I read in the E-Sylum a report of new military chits, tokens, or what we called in the Middle east Book, pogs. We made a very comprehensive list of all military pog style tokens up to the date of publication for 'Coins & Currency of the Middle East' and since then George Cuhaj has been keeping up with new issues in the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money - Modern Issues book. "Eventually I think George intends to move them to the Specialized Issues volume, but for now you can find full listings of Military pogs in our SCWPM- Modern Issues." MILITARY PAYMENT TOKENS FOR IRAQ http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n03a15.html ARTICLE ON SUSAN GAMBLE'S MODELS FOR THE NEW BALD EAGLE COINS Another female bald eagle might have her talons on his heart, but rest assured, the love story between George and Martha is not quite over. The products of their union, their eaglets, are pictured on a gold coin released this week by the U.S. Mint as part of a three-coin set honoring the national bird. When the coins went on sale last Tuesday, there was no mention of George and Martha or of the construction workers on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project who named them. But follow the artist's initials on the coins, S.G., to Arlington County resident Susan Gamble, and her muse is clear. "It just seemed they had to be immortalized, or at least I had to try," said Gamble, who used photographs of the eaglets to design the coins. A master designer for the Mint and a self-described "bit of a tree hugger," Gamble received the assignment for the coins early last year and said her thoughts immediately drifted to George and Martha. The pair had lived on Rosalie Island, on the Maryland side of the bridge, since the 1990s but made national headlines two years ago when a younger female, making a move for George, attacked Martha, seriously injuring her. Martha recovered at a rescue center in Delaware and made her way back to George but was euthanized months later after flying into a tree or power line. Gamble said that what struck her most about the birds' story was the irony of their situation: that humans were responsible for their dwindling numbers but were also trying to help them. She remembered hearing that when Martha was injured, bridge workers would leave fish for George. Gamble's designs are on two of the three coins in the set, and the eaglets appear on the $5 gold coin, which costs more like $300. On the coin, a young bald eagle stretches its wings as a sibling looks on from the same branch. Gamble said the scene was modeled from two of Spears's photographs. To read the complete article, see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/21/AR2008012102 158.html NUMISMATIC NEWS ARTICLE PROFILES REP. JOSE SERRANO [In a recent article Numismatic News Editor Dave Harper profiles Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., the most senior member of Congress of Puerto Rican descent. Serrano was instrumental in passing the bill expanding the 50 states quarter program to include the District of Columbia and the five insular territories: American Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Serrano also had a hand in the congressional gold medal awarded to singer Frank Sinatra. The article is available on the Numismaster web site - some excerpts are below. -Editor] State quarters are now expanded from 50 states to include the District of Columbia and the five insular territories: American Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The nine-year-old program (2008 makes what would have been its 10th and final year) has a new lease on life. Year 11 was signed into law by President George W. Bush on Dec. 26, 2007, while aboard Air Force One en route to Crawford, Texas. The measure was part of the omnibus spending legislation that tied Congress up in knots since Thanksgiving. The territorial quarter measure, though important to some special interest groups, was incidental. Section 622 of the 1,235-page bill is the operative one for collectors. It contains a mere 756 words in the context of a bill that contains some 279,154 words in all. But the words are those that residents of Washington, D.C., have sought to hear for 10 long years. Surprisingly, the leader to the promised land was not Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., a longtime advocate - but a New York congressman, Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y. How the coin provision remained in, together with the restoration of "In God We Trust" to the obverse of the Presidential dollars - removed from the rim of the coin - may have as much to do with the resignation of Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., on Dec. 18 as anything else. Some sources suggest that Lott has been the anonymous hold behind the expansion of the state quarter program - to make sure that the Marianas labor and immigration policies did not change. There are almost a thousand Google references to Lott and the Marianas, a 14-island chain in the Pacific. This marked the sixth time the coin proposal had been before Congress for a vote, but the first time that it passed both houses. It has passed the House in each Congress, staring with the 106th in 2000. It never made headway in the Senate. "When the District and the four insular areas were inadvertently left out of the 50-State Commemoration Coin Program Act, we did not see any reason to hold everyone else up. We thought that the act should proceed so that the 10-year period for incorporating states could go forward because we had the assurance of the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle) that D.C. and the insular areas would indeed be included. I knew he would keep his word. There was never any doubt about that." To read the complete article, see: http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=3709 DIAGNOSTIC COIN 'RING TEST' STUDIED IN JAPAN Dick Johnson writes: "A scientist in Japan, Mototsugu Suzuki, a researcher at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department?s Criminal Investigation Laboratory, has developed a way of examining coins based on the sound they make. In effect, he is studying the veracity of the age-old 'ring test' employed by regular citizens and numismatists alike to test genuineness of coins. He published his method of testing in 'Forensic Science International' -- reported in the January British publication 'Nature.' In Suzuki?s method, coins slide down a slope and then fall onto a brass block. The sound they make on impact is relayed via a microphone to a computer. His study of this acoustic test of coins was brought on by a large number of counterfeit 500-yen coins (worth just under US$5 each) in circulation. So many were found in cash dispensers in 2005 that the coin was temporarily removed from use. Suzuki stated: although the human ear cannot usually tell the difference between real and fake, a computer can. Genuine 500-yen coins showed four distinctive peaks of natural resonance frequencies in the 5-20 kilohertz range. This was not the case for fakes; some fakes produced only three peaks, while others showed four but at different frequencies to genuine coins. For my own comments on ring test for coins I would offer: Any small metal object will ring due to its internal structure. Thus its alloy, thickness and any gas pockets will affect its tone. Both cast and struck coins will ring, but with notes of different pitch. A ring test can detect different metal compositions, but not minute differences of alloy. The use of computer analysis of ring tone resonance for one coin may be useful but it would not be the same for coins of other size, composition or thickness. An extensive database of these tone profiles would be required for such full scale testing. To read the report in Nature magazine by Daniel Cressey, click on: http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080122/full/news.2008.518.html [Thanks also to George Fuld for forwarding a copy of this article. -Editor] VIRTUAL WORLDS SUFFER REAL COLLAPSE [In the past we've discussed the virtual currencies of online worlds such as Second Life. For students of financial history the lastest news from the online world may seem like d?j? vu - the abuses and collapse of the Second Life financial system clearly echo the abuses and collapse over a century ago in the real U.S. financial system. Too many unregulated banks operating without scrutiny provide a ripe environment for abuse, and users of the virtual banks have been liberated of up to $750,000 in real money. -Editor] In the real world, banks are reeling from the subprime-mortgage mess. In the online game Second Life, a shutdown of the make- believe banking system is causing real-life havoc for thousands of people. Yesterday, the San Francisco company that runs the popular fantasy game pulled the plug on about a dozen pretend financial institutions that were funded with actual money from some of the 12 million registered users of Second Life. Linden Lab said the move was triggered by complaints that some of the virtual banks had reneged on promises to pay high returns on customer deposits. Second Life is an elaborate online world where players create new identities for themselves -- images called avatars. These avatars can own land, run businesses and build homes. And there's a link to the real economy: To buy things, players use credit cards or eBay Inc.'s alternative payment service PayPal to convert actual U.S. currency into "Linden dollars," which can be deposited using pretend ATMs into Second Life's virtual banks. The banks of Second Life were operated by other players, who enticed deposits by offering interest rates. While some banks paid interest as promised, others used depositors' money for unsuccessful Second Life land and gambling deals. Under its new banking rules, Second Life says only chartered banks will be allowed -- though it isn't clear any real chartered banks will operate in the virtual play world. The shutdown has caused a real-life bank run by Second Life depositors. Though some players managed to get their Linden dollars out, others are finding that they can no longer make withdrawals from the make-believe ATMs. As a result, they can't exchange their Linden-dollar deposits back into real dollars. Linden officials won't say how much money has been lost, but a run on another virtual bank in August may have cost Second Life depositors an estimated $750,000 in actual money. "There is not a whole lot that is fake about this," says Robert Bloomfield, a professor at Cornell University's Johnson School of Management. Mr. Bloomfield's own Second Life avatar, named Beyers Sellers, hosts a pretend television show in the online game about virtual economics. Linden announced plans for yesterday's shutdown two weeks ago, and since then Second Life players have been streaming into the fantasy banks to withdraw their deposits, which are convertible into U.S. dollars at a floating rate. Yesterday, one U.S. dollar was worth an average of 269 Linden dollars, its typical exchange rate. The collapse led to an outcry from depositors at Second Life banks. Linden responded on Jan. 8 by announcing the broader shutdown, claiming it would "protect our residents and the integrity of our economy." Linden essentially acknowledges that the financial services being offered in its virtual society have evolved to the point that they need to be regulated in the real world. >From now on, "proof of an applicable government registration statement or financial institution charter" will be required of anyone collecting deposits in Second Life, according to Linden. The company insists it "isn't, and can't start acting as, a banking regulator." "If this is real money, there is an argument that you need to follow real law," says Benjamin Duranske, a lawyer who runs the Second Life Bar Association and is writing a book on virtual law. To read the complete article, see: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120104351064608025-search.html POLITICAL SLOGANS STAMPED ON U.S. MILITARY PAYMENT CERTIFICATES [The January 24nd, 2008 issue (No. 1587) of the MPC Gram, an email newsletter for collectors of Military Payment Certificates, published a short article by Jim Downey on advertising slogans stamped on MPC notes. As recently as last week we discussed these types of slogans on U.S. paper money, but this was the first I'd learned of such stamps on MPCs. Jim's article is reprinted here. -Editor] Using United States currency for advertising purposes is a violation of federal anti-counterfeiting laws. Title 18, Section 475 of the United States Code makes it illegal to ". . . impress[es] upon or attach[es] to any [such] instrument, obligation, or security, or any coin of the United States, any business or professional card, notice, or advertisement, or any notice or advertisement whatever . . ." This provision is pretty routinely violated. I have quite a few pieces of US currency which advertise websites and other businesses. Political messages also frequently make their way onto US currency particularly in an election year. In the run-up to the election of 1948, the use of MPC for political advertising was so pervasive in Japan that the Army issued an order recalling MPC carrying political slogans. An article in the March 28, 1948 New York Times indicates that SCAP Headquarters issued an order calling in MPC containing political slogans supporting and criticizing the candidacy of General MacArthur for president. The article states that most of the slogans were supportive of MacArthur and identified that defacing MPC in this manner was a violation of federal law IN REASON WE TRUST http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n03a17.html BANKNOTE FLU VIRUS STUDY [It's not a pleasant thought, but according to a Reuters article the banknotes we use and collect can host flu viruses. -Editor] Bank cashiers and others working with large quantities of paper currency are vulnerable to catching various types of flu from the germs living on notes, a Swiss researcher said on Wednesday. Yves Thomas, head of the National Influenza Research Centre at Geneva University Hospital, said that flu viruses could survive on banknotes from 24 hours up to 17 days. "Our studies have convinced us that it is possible to catch flu from banknotes, but the chances are very, very slim and there is no cause for concern among the general population," he told Reuters in a telephone interview. "All the same, bank employees and others who have to handle large quantities of notes daily could be at risk," Thomas said. "This could be reduced if they wear gloves, or even a mask for those who have to examine currency closely." Scientists have long known that various types of germs and bacteria can survive on paper currency, but until now medical experts have thought that flu only spread through small droplets in airborne transmission. But Thomas said his team found that some types of flu virus could also survive and spread on everyday objects, like doorhandles as well as banknotes. To read the complete article, see: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSL1629940420080116 POLYMER BANKNOTE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATED [According to a news reports, today is the twentieth birthday of the polymer banknote. Happy Birthday! -Editor] The polymer banknote turns 20 on Sunday, with manufacturer Securency International celebrating the release of the $10 note, which was released to commemorate Australia?s bicentenary in 1988. Following the success of the $10 note, the Reserve Bank released a full series?from $5 to $100 notes?between 1992 and 1996. "Polymer banknotes were developed after high quality counterfeits of the 1966 Australian decimal paper series were detected in circulation. The Reserve Bank worked with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to develop new banknote material with higher security and improved durability. To read the complete article, see: http://www.dynamicbusiness.com/news/latest/10-buys-20-years-of-plastic.html NEW FIND: GOLD COINS OF CARAUSIUS, "EMPEROR OF BRITAIN" [George Fuld forwarded this item from The Times of London about recently discovered gold coins of Carausius. -Editor] Two ?extremely important? gold coins that shed light on a little-known rebel Roman emperor from the 3rd century AD have been unearthed by a farmer in the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire area. They relate to the Roman commander Carausius, who declared himself Emperor of Britain around 286 or 287 after the Emperor in Rome ordered his execution. He was overthrown in a coup d??tat by his finance minister, Allectus, in 293. The coins were handed in to the Portable Antiquities Scheme and moved to the British Museum. The scheme is facing a freeze in funding, despite recording more than 314,000 discoveries that have revealed many new archaeological sites. The farmer?s identity is not being revealed because archaeologists are to explore the site. To read the complete article, see: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3241299.ece ROYAL MARINES MUSEUM REUNITES MEDAL GROUP [An article published this week notes that a museum was able to reunite a group of important medals with their accompanying paperwork thanks to an eBay auction. -Editor] Eagle-eyed curators at the Royal Marines Museum in Southsea, Hampshire, have reunited parts of a medal group belonging to a Royal Marine killed in World War One, thanks to the wonders of eBay. The medal group?s original recipient, Private Robert Cosstick, of the Royal Marines Light Infantry, was 32 when he died on February 3, 1915. His ship HMS Clan McNaughton and all 277 people on board were lost in storms off the coast of Northern Ireland, although the exact cause of the sinking was never discovered. Private Cosstick?s medal documents had already been donated to the museum by his granddaughter in 1995 and finding further parts of Private Cossticks' medal group had almost been ruled out before the lucky find on Ebay. ?The museum has always realised it needs to embrace all the benefits of the Internet and reuniting this medal group against all odds really does highlight this fact,? said curator Ian Maine. The complete set of Private Cosstick?s medals will now be proudly placed on show in the museum?s medal room, which already houses an impressive collection of over 8,000 medals, including all ten Victoria Crosses earned by Royal Marines. To read the complete article, see: http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART53371.html ROBERT HECHT UPDATE: ITALY HAILS RETURN OF DISPUTED GREEK VASE [In December we discussed coin and antiquity dealer Robert Hecht. Ted Buttrey wrote: "Robert E. Hecht was -- and still is, in his 90's -- one of the most important con-men in the smuggling of classical antiquities, including coins. It was he who conned the Metropolitan Museum into paying $1,000,000 for the famous Euphronius vase, "found in Lebanon". It was in fact from an Italian grave, and the Museum has now agreed to return it to Italy. According to news reports the vase has now been returned. -Editor] The krater will now go on display in the "Nostoi: Recovered Masterpieces" exhibition inaugurated last month in Rome, where nearly 70 ancient artifacts -- most of them returned by the J. Paul Getty Museum after a similar deal -- are already on show. "It's a wonderful day for us also. It's a victory for culture and art," Mark Smith, cultural attache at the U.S. embassy in Rome, told Reuters at the presentation. "I think that as a result of these agreements that have brought these wonderful works back to Italy, American and Italian museums are going to be able to cooperate more and more closely in the future. So it really is a victory for everyone." The Met had bought the krater from Robert Hecht, an antiquities dealer who is now on trial in Rome on charges of conspiring to traffic in looted artifacts. The ex-curator of the Getty museum is also a defendant in the trial. Both deny any wrongdoing. To read the complete article, see: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080118/sc_nm/italy_art_krater_dc QUIZ ANSWER: ROBERT HECHT AND THE MEDICI CONSPIRACY http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n49a15.html ELIZABETH JONES ARCHIVE LOT WITHDRAWN In the January 6th issue I mentioned a lot in the recent Heritage auction (Sale 454, Lot 3430), an "Archive of Elizabeth Jones Appointment Documents and Production Artwork". I was actually curious about the ownership of some of the items, but was hoping one of our readers would comment so I wouldn't have to be the lone killjoy. I was particularly unsure that the Mint would have let title pass to a production plaster for a U.S. coin. Apparently there have been questions. According to an article by Cindy Brake in the January 28th issue of Coin World, the lot has been pulled from the sale "pending determination of ownership of several of the items in the lot." GLEANINGS FROM RECENT NUMISMATIC PUBLICATIONS http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n03a11.html MYSTERY: ROMAN COIN FOUND ON FRENCH SHIPWRECK IN TEXAS [The Rockport Pilot of Rockport, TX reported on the finding of a mysterious coin at an archeological site. -Editor] Dr. Jim Bruseth, director of the archeology division at the Texas Historical Commission, and deputy state historic preservation officer, was the keynote speaker Friday at the Texas Maritime Museum speaking about ?Mysteries of LaBelle.? Bruseth's knowledge about La Belle and her artifacts is vast. He served as project director of the excavation and recovery of La Salle's ship, in Matagorda Bay, in 1996-97. More than one million artifacts were recovered. He said there were 2,000 gold coins on the ship when sunk, but there were none on La Belle when excavated. There was, however, a Roman silver coin dated AD 69. ?How a Roman coin ended up on a French ship on the coast of Texas is a mystery I'll never solve,? said Bruseth. To read the complete article, see: http://www.rockportpilot.com/articles/2008/01/23/news/news00.txt ARTICLE DISCUSSES COINS AND BANKNOTES OF THE PHILLIPINES [An article published this week in the Manila Standard discusses Philippine banknotes and currency laws. -Editor] Numismatists (people who collect currency and bank notes) are agog over an announcement that in commemoration of the centennial of the University of the Philippines, our P100 banknotes will soon carry an image of the Oblation. The Oblation, which is a sculpture of a man with face up and arms stretched-wide symbolizing selfless offering of one?s self in the service of the country, will be overprinted on the P100 banknote. Exactly where in the banknote the Oblation will appear is still a well-kept secret, but it is something to look forward to as it?s been quite sometime since our country commemorated a national event through our banknotes. Also recently, my friends and I got into a little tiff with certain establishments over banknotes. Because we work with a bank, we are familiar with certain policy guidelines related to banknotes. It is disappointing to note that even major establishments, such as those in SM malls, don?t teach their cashiers basic information on handling Philippine banknotes. Our first tiff happened with a cashier of a restaurant who gave us old and worn-out banknotes as change when she had new notes in her register. This practice of keeping in circulation old, worn-out, smelly notes is something that truly does not make sense because the central bank is obligated to do it. In fact, it encourages people to return old banknotes so that these can be replaced with new, cleaner, crisper notes. The standard protocol in major establishments should be to collect and keep old notes, rather than circulate these, so that these can be deposited at their bank at the end of the day. Their bank, in turn, is expected to deposit these old notes at the Bangko Sentral. The central bank then keeps these for disposal. The standard procedure should be this: Use old and worn-out notes to pay for purchases and receive new notes as change. Cashiers should keep old notes and not circulate these anymore. Those who don?t are simply lazy or ignorant. To read the complete article, see: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=bongAustero_jan23_2008 AN INDIAN TEEN'S QUEST TO FORM A CHILDREN'S COIN MUSEUM [The Telegraph of Calcutta, India published a story about a local boy's quest for a museum to house his collection of 40,000 coin collection. -Editor] Thirteen-year-old Debi Prasad Mangaraj was happy to learn that he was closer to his dream of setting up a children?s coin museum, but less than what he expected to be. The enthusiast coin collector with his heart set on a Guinness record would have preferred his own state making the same offer to him, especially since he made several attempts to convince the Naveen government to help him out. But, it was Narendra Modi from the far-flung Gujarat who offered him a plot of land (to be identified by him) to set up the unique museum. The young numismatist has a collection of 40,000-and-odd coins, as well as notes of some 130 countries and hopes to enter the Guinness record books. His collection includes coins from Australia, the UK, France, Japan and the US, along with coins issued by the East India Company in a period between 1800 AD and 1810 AD. He also owns pennies belonging to the late 18th and early 19th centuries and a Peso from the mid-19th century. His collection also includes pressed coins of both stone, gold and earth with gods and animals, stated to be over 800 years old. To read the complete article, see: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080122/jsp/nation/story_8805842.jsp SUPER BOWL COIN MAKER HIGHLAND MINT PROFILED [A central Florida television station profiled the Highland Mint, a local firm responsible for making the ceremonial "coin" tossed to decide the opening kickoff of the Super Bowl, American football's championship game. -Editor] The Super Bowl was set Sunday night, with the wild-card New York Giants meeting the 18-0 New England Patriots in the big game in Arizona Feb. 3, but the Super Bowl cannot even start without a company in Central Florida. Highland Mint, based in Indian Harbour Beach, makes the coin that referees toss to start the game. It is the 18th year the Space Coast business has made the super coin. The process was more than a month long, and included making four possible Super Bowl coins -- one for every scenario that could come out of the AFC and NFC championship games. With the Patriots and Giants in, the official coin was ready to be sent to the NFL. The three alternate Super Bowl coins would be destroyed to prevent them from ending up on the collector's market. After the big game, the coin toss coin will be sent to the NFL Hall of Fame, where it will be on display with the 17 others made here in Central Florida. Replica coins are already being sold by Highland Mint. To read the complete article, see: http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2008/1/21/super_bowl_coin_made_at_brevard _county_mint.html To visit the Highland Mint web site, see: http://www.highlandmint.com/ TWO-YEAR-OLD BARREL FOUND FILLED WITH FAKE GUYANESE CURRENCY [A news report from Guyana notes the recent discovery of an old barrel filled with counterfeit Guyanese banknotes. -Editor] Customs officers yesterday unearthed $14M in counterfeit Guyana currency hidden among some items in a barrel which had been sitting at the John Fernandes Wharf for almost two years now. The stunning discovery was made late yesterday morning after a decision was taken to open up the barrel which was shipped from London through the Harrison Shipping Company in May, 2006 to an Essequibo Coast resident. According to a Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) statement, the counterfeit money and other articles which were sent two years ago were discovered during routine duties at the city wharf. Sources said that the money was in numerous piles hidden among items in the barrel which included pens, towels and tools. As the customs officers removed the items from the barrel, they discovered the money piles. To read the complete article, see: http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_general_news?id=56537628 BARREL OF CONFDERATE NOTES FOUND IN PETERSBURG, VA While unrelated, the previous story about a barrel of counterfeit Guyanese notes reminds me of something I read this week in an article by the late Brent Hughes in the January/February 2008 issue of Paper Money, the official journal of the Society of Paper Money Collectors. In "Collecting Confederate Currency Began Early" Hughes writes: "I know of one barrel half full of Confederate notes which survived until 1960 when one lucky collector happened to discover it in an old grocery store building in Petersburg, VA. Because the barrel was relatively light, the store owners over the years had assumed the barrel was empty and it sat there for almost a century." FEATURED WEB SITE: COINS OF PANAMA This week's featured web site is David S. Plowman's Coins of Panama, suggested by NBS president John W. Adams. http://www.coins-of-panama.com/ 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 for First Class mail, and $25 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