From esylum at binhost.com Sun Oct 2 23:01:10 2005 From: esylum at binhost.com (esylum@binhost.com) Date: Sun Oct 2 23:04:08 2005 Subject: The E-Sylum v8#42, October 2, 2005 Message-ID: <43409EF6.7090100@telerama.com> Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 8, Number 42, October 2, 2005: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2005, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. WAYNE'S WORDS Among our recent subscribers are the Mediterranean Archaeological Society, Tom Fulton, Bill McCormick, Mark Tomasko and John Smithwick. Welcome aboard! We now have 800 subscribers! How long until we reach the 1,000 mark? This week's issue is a lengthy one, bringing news of multiple literature auctions and fixed price lists, reviews of important coin auction catalogs, announcements of new books, a numismatic correspondence course and a book review. News from the world of government includes the release of the new U.S. $10 bill and the exit of a Mint Director and a Mint Director nominee. [But not the same Mint. This reminds me of an old Woody Allen gag about a mythical creature that had the head of a lion, and the body of a lion, but not the same lion....] Among my favorite E-Sylum items are those featuring numismatic recollections, and this issue has a number of these from various sources. I hope some of our readers will chime in with some additional interesting stories for our next issue. Of interest to our newer subscribers is a reprint of parts of my recent Asylum article on the early days of this newsletter, which seems particularly appropriate as we cross the 800 subscriber mark. A question for this issue: Who is David Dingwall and how much does his chewing gum cost? Read on to find out his numismatic connection (this will be easy for some of our readers). Enjoy the issue! Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society MOULTON SEPTEMBER 2005 FIXED PRICE LIST Karl Moulton's latest fixed price list has been published. Covering American numismatic auction catalogs from 1855 to date, the list is the most comprehensive of its kind. Karl's annotations are great references in themselves. For more information, see Karl's web site: http://www.coincats.com KOLBE SALE #97 PRICES REALIZED George Kolbe forwarded the following release about the results of his latest sale: "George Frederick Kolbe/Fine Numismatic Books reports that the September 29, 2005 Auction Sale 97 of Important Numismatic Books attracted spirited bidding throughout the United States and from many other countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates. The sale featured a number of works from the numismatic library of Vladimir and Elvira Clain-Stefanelli, longtime curators of the numismatic department at the Smithsonian Institution. A few notable sale results follow. All prices cited include the 15% buyer premium. One of the highlights in the sale was a substantial run of Zeitschrift f?r Numismatik, 28 of the first 31 volumes, 1874-1914, which sold for $10,925 on a $7,500 estimate; Gielow?s rare 1930 work on the ancient Greek coins of Dankle-Messana attracted many bids and sold for $604 on a $350 estimate; a collection of offprints on ancient Greek coins from the Clain-Stefanelli library brought $747 on a $300 estimate; Mint Director?s A. L. Snowden?s copy of Edwin Johnson?s rare little 1882 work on Bolen medals was avidly sought after, selling for $1,495 on a $400 estimate; and Amon Carter?s deluxe leatherbound edition of B. Max Mehl?s famous 1941 William Forrester Dunham auction of rare American coins, featuring documentation from Mehl on Carter?s 1822 half eagle, ultimately brought $3,680 though estimated at $1,250. A few copies of the sale catalogue are still available and may be obtained, along with a prices realized list, by sending $15.00 to Kolbe." UPCOMING KOLBE SALES George Kolbe forwarded the following release for his upcoming sales: "On November 17, 2005, George Frederick Kolbe/Fine Numismatic Books will conduct their 98th sale of rare and out of print numismatic literature. Catalogues may be ordered by sending $15.00 to Kolbe at P. O. Drawer 3100, Crestline, CA 92325 or the catalogue is accessible free of charge at the firm?s web site (www.numislit.com). The sale features 777 lots covering virtually all aspects of numismatics. Some of the sale highlights include: a special leather-bound edition of Harold P. Newlin?s rare 1883 work on United States half dimes, perhaps the author?s own copy; desirable rare early Bowers and Ruddy memorabilia, including the original contract establishing their first auction firm; Edward T. Newell?s superb original set of Ernest Babelon?s monumental Trait? des Monnaies Grecques et Romaines; Gunter Kienast?s personal annotated copies of his two standard works on the medals of Karl Goetz; an extensive series of notebooks compiled from the 1950s to the 1980s recording half dime prices at auction and fixed price; a remarkable manuscript record of data on United States pattern coins written in a copy of the Adams-Woodin work on the topic, compiled by Walter Breen?s early mentor, William Guild; Gerson da Cunha?s rare 1884 work on Indo-Portuguese Numismatics, annotated and extra-illustrated; an extensive collection of Lyman Low auction sale catalogues; plated Chapman brother catalogues; Raphael?s Thian?s 1876 Confederate Note Album; a fine selection of 19th century German coin dealer Adolph Weyl?s catalogues featuring American coins; a fine example of Alf?ldi?s extremely rare work on Roman coins ?A Festival of Isis?; standard works on ancient coins including Price on Alexander the Great, Jenkins on Gela, Burnett on Roman Provincial Coinage, many Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum volumes, and more. The firm's first 2006 auction sale is slated for March and consignments are currently being accepted. Please call or write first. In June 2006, the firm will conduct their one hundredth auction sale and plans are being formulated to make it a memorable event. The firm may be contacted at P. O. Drawer 3100, Crestline, CA 92325; by telephone at 909-338-6527; or by email at GFK@numislit.com. Those interested are also invited to visit Kolbe?s web site (www.numislit.com)." ANS DINNER GALA AND BOOK AUCTION UPDATE Rick Witschonke writes: "The annual ANS dinner gala, held in conjunction with the NYINC, will be on Thursday evening, January 12th, with cocktails starting at 6pm. Unfortunately, the Sky Club is closing in December (the building was sold), so we will have our event at the Waldorf Astoria. Invitations will be sent to ANS members at the end of October, but others are welcome. Just contact the ANS (Pelletier@nusmismatics.org) if you would like to attend. In addition, we will be holding an auction of numismatic books to benefit the Frank Campbell Librarian Chair endowment fund, from 5-6pm., with cocktails and book viewing beginning at 4:30, and attendance at the auction will be free and open to all. George Kolbe will prepare a catalogue, and Herb Kreindler will call the auction. At this point we have some wonderful books for the auction, but are looking for more donations to round out the sale. If you have anything you would be willing to donate to this worthy cause (retail value $400 plus, or a group of related items that could be sold as a lot), please let us know (Witschonke@numismatics.org). The deadline for submission is Oct. 20. " STACK'S FORD MASSACHUSETTS SILVER CATALOG [A major new catalog hit the streets this week: Stack?s John J. Ford Jr. Part XII Catalogue--The Silver Coinage of Massachusetts. I asked an expert in the field for a brief review. Roger S. Siboni writes: "In a word, magnificent! This could be the finest catalogue ever produced by the Stack?s Family and certainly the finest written by Michael J. Hodder. Indeed, it may be one of the finest catalogues on Colonial Coinage ever published. This is a must read for anyone with even a remote interest in the silver coinage of Massachusetts. It?s building blocks include Crosby, Sydney P. Noe?s ANS monographs, the New Netherlands 48th and 60th Catalogues, the Ford Archives, Lou Jordon?s fine work on John Hull and the Boston Mint and it stands on the shoulders of the previously definitive Hain catalogue produced by Stack?s and Hodder in January of 2002. In the forepart, Hain provided us with a broad overview of the history and environment of the Massachusetts Colony during the late 17th century. Hain also spent time reviewing how the different coinage was manufactured. Ford XII takes the discussion to another level by seriously delving into the tougher questions like why the coinage was produced, why the almost exclusive 1652 date, the sequence in which the coins were produced, and in what quantities and over what periods of time. I found the meshing of Jordan?s analysis of production quantities and production duration with Hodder?s die linkage charts particularly interesting. It really gave you a sense that these coins were only periodically manufactured in bulk when a particular customer or group of customers required them. I ended my read thinking about Hull and Sanderson conducting a drastically different ?old school? operation when compared to those high volume operations carried out in the various colonies during the late 18th century. It is also worth noting that Hodder makes a clear plea to the Numismatic Community to tackle the job of coming up with a new classification system for Massachusetts Silver that builds upon Crosby, Noe, Picker and Hodder himself. As Michael points out, the project is long overdue and the resource material is readily available. The actual catalogue is a delight for the eyes and mind. Every coin in the extensive Wurtzbach-Clarke-Boyd-Ford holdings is pictured, carefully described, analyzed, and generally conservatively graded. A particularly nice touch is the use of a silver background behind each photographic image that elegantly enhances each coin for evaluation. Each variety is catalogued in a two-part fashion. The first part covers the diagnostics of the particular variety and the second part talks about the particular coin (or coins in the case of duplicates). Rarities, known examples and the like are updated from Hain and by reading both catalogues and examining the photographs in each, one gets a very clear idea of what?s out there and in what grade. A final nice touch worth mentioning is the liberal use of collateral photographs related to the era, Massachusetts Paper Currency, Hull and Sanderson, and certain key individual players of the day. I particularly liked the images of various pieces of Hull and Sanderson Silver from an earlier Sotheby?s Auction. If you are getting the idea that I enjoyed the catalogue ---I did!" [Thanks, Roger, for writing your review for The E-Sylum. I, too was struck by the stunning photography in the catalog. Just marvelous! -Editor] Ray Williams adds: "I read today in Coin World that the catalog is available at a cost of $35. That's well worth it for those not on Stack's mailing list. " STACK'S LEMUS U.S. DIMES CATALOG As if the Ford Massachusetts catalog weren't enough to satisfy the U.S. numismatic public, Stack's issued THREE catalogs this week, and here's a review of one of the others: Editor Bill Bugert notes in the October 2005 (v1n7) issue of E-Gobrecht.an electronic publication of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC): ?For those of you who haven?t seen the Stack?s 70th Anniversary Sale catalogue of the The Lemus Collection of United States Dimes, 1796-1916, it is a real keeper. Each dime has enlarged full obverse and reverse photos and attribution to Gerry Fortin?s seated dime book on the Internet. This catalogue belongs in a dime specialist?s library.? [Fortin's web site is at http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/. The "web book" is password-protected; subscriptions are available for $55/year or $130 or three years. A free preview is available. The following description is from the site's home page: "After collecting and researching the Seated Dime series for nearly twenty years, I'm happy to present the 3rd reference book to the numismatic community. Through prior hardbound books, both Kam Ahwash and Brian Greer advanced the knowledge and collector base for Liberty Seated Dimes. I've decided to take a different approach with the 3rd book given the advancements in computer and Internet technology. Within this web-book, you will find a wealth of new information about Seated Dime die varieties and die states in a format that organizes the previous die varieties defined by Ahwash and Greer." -Editor] CANADIAN CORRESPONDENCE COURSE, PART II Paul Johnson writes: "I would like to announce a new correspondence course that the Canadian Numismatic Association has recently developed. I was the Coordinating Editor of this project. The course is available to all collectors and we believe is very worthwhile. It was a team effort as we had eighteen qualified individuals write the individual chapters. The course was developed as a learning opportunity for collectors and not a profit making venture. If individuals do not want to complete the questions, the book itself is a tremendous reference source numbering 486 pages and more than a thousand photographs." The following is from the CNA's web page announcing the course: "The Canadian Numismatic Association has launched a new correspondence course known as the Canadian Numismatic Correspondence Course - Part II. Since the release of the original correspondence course in 1995, there has been an overwhelming demand to create a new course for collectors. The original course was also launched in Calgary in grand style. This new course consists of seventeen chapters, 486 pages and hundreds of photos and features all new material from what was in Part I. The authors were chosen for their numismatic expertise of the subject covered. The chapters offers greater detail and more in-depth coverage than the first course. These chapters include the following: 1 Canadian History and Numismatics 2 Buying and Selling Numismatic Material 3 Grading Canadian Coinage 4 The Benefits of Organized Numismatics 5 A History of Decimal Coinage in Canada 6 The Token - Canada's Original Currency 7 Canadian Paper Money for Advanced Collectors 8 Canadian Tire "Money" as a Numismatic Collectable 9 Canadian Commemorative and Historical Medals & Art Medals 10 Exonumia and Related Items 11 Canadian Municipal Trade Tokens 12 The History and Collecting of Canadian Wooden Money 13 Ancient and Medieval Coins of the Western World 14 Computer Literacy and Its Use in Numismatics 15 An Overview of Canadian Numismatic Literature 16 The Benefits of Research In Numismatics 17 Developing Your Writing Skills and Using Illustrations In Numismatic Publications For more information, see the CNA web page at: http://www.canadian-numismatic.org/courseII.php The following is taken from the press release: "The course is $50 for current C.N.A. members, $85.00 for non-current C.N.A. members (which will include all benefits of membership in the C.N.A. for a calendar year, including the 10 Journals published during the year. Persons joining before December 31, 2005 will be considered members for the calendar year 2006.) The rate for junior collectors (16 years of age and under) is $40.00 for current CNA members, $56.50 for juniors that are NOT currently members of the CNA (Includes all benefits of membership for a calendar year, including a special Young Numismatist Kit only sent to new YN applicants). Pricing includes all applicable taxes, shipping of the course, return of the question & answer sheets and mailing of the Certificate of Completion. For further information on C.N.A. Correspondence Course - Part II, or benefits of membership, go to the C.N.A. Website at www.canadian-numismatic.org. We can be reached via e-mail at cnainfo@look.ca or telephone (416) 223-5980." [This is a monumental undertaking and I encourage our subscribers to consider purchasing the course materials. I removed the author's names to save space, but I'll acknowledge them here - they include a Who's Who of Canadian numismatics, and quite a few are E-Sylum subscribers as well: Wayne Jacobs, Michael Walsh, Brian Cornwell, Chris Boyer, Paul S. Berry, Scott E. Douglas, Robert J. Graham, Roger A. Fox, Ronald A. Greene and Del Newbigging, Marvin Kay, MD, Serge Pelletier, Norm Belsten, Bruce R. Brace, Bret Evans, Daniel W. Gosling, Chris Faulkner and Peter N. Moogk, Ph. D." -Editor] INTERNATIONAL ENGRAVER'S LINE "The International Engraver?s Line" by Gene Hessler is now available, in a limited edition of 750, each with a free engraving. The press release follows: "With most of the 700 illustrations in color, The International Engraver?s Line is another feast for the eyes from the author. This library-bound, 392-page compilation documents the lives and work of men and women throughout the world who have engraved and designed images on paper money from the 18th century to the 21st-century issuance of the Euro. Since many of these artists also engraved postage stamps, that work is listed as well. Security and postage stamp artists who worked in the United States are documented in an earlier work, The Engraver?s Line. As computer programs replace engravers, Mr. Hessler?s work thoroughly documents and era of hand engraving that is coming to an end. Albrecht D?rer established line engraving as a genre in the 16th century. Later, this art form was adopted and perfected for bank notes, securities and postage stamps. The pages of this fascinating and colorful book are devoted to the lives and the work of the men and women throughout the world, except those in the United States, who have engraved and designed images on paper money that have been used to purchase trinkets and treasures. (Security artists who worked in America have been documented in The Engraver?s Line.) In addition you will find engravers of postage stamps. Many of these miniature works of art, bank notes, listed by Pick numbers and postage stamps, listed by Scott numbers have become treasures in the hands of collectors. Mr. Hessler has spent more than 15 years on this monumental achievement. He has been in touch with engravers from all over the world in an attempt to attribute their bank note work. Some elderly engravers have since passed on after they related personal information to the author about themselves, their colleagues and predecessors. The historic information in The International Engraver?s Line cannot be found anywhere else. This is the definitive book on the subject. Many of the artists who are documented here, especially engravers of bank notes, have received no other recognition ? anywhere. Their employers often forbade them to discuss their work in the ?outside world.? British engraver Joseph Lawrence Keen said that accepting a position with a bank note company was like entering a monastery and surrendering one?s identity ?as the iron door clanged behind you.? Mr. Hessler has penetrated that door and now reveals what he uncovered. In addition to issued bank notes you will see colorful essais, or unissued bank notes, for Brazil, Czechoslovakia, France, Ghana, Mauritania, the Netherlands and other countries. In addition to the collector edition of The International Engraver?s Line, but included in the 750 (350 copies are reserved for European distribution), there is a premium edition of 100 copies, each is accompanied by 11 engraved works, ten of them signed by the engravers. One engraver accidentally signed the wrong notes that are included in all but number 100 of the premium edition. The first purchaser to identify this mistake and notify the author will receive $50. With permission, the observant recipient?s name will be published in the numismatic press. Collector Edition $69, Premium Edition $135, add $5 postage and insurance for each book; outside the U.S. contact the author. Payment in US funds: bank checks, money orders and personal checks drawn on U.S.-located banks. Order from Gene Hessler PO Box 31144, Cincinnati, OH 45231. For inquiries contact the author: engraversline@aol.com. Copies of The Engraver?s Line, which focuses on engravers and designers who worked in the U.S. are still available at $85. Special: The International Engraver?s Line and The Engraver?s Line $140 (incl. postage in the U.S.) For international postage rates for this special contact the author: engraversline@aol.com. There will be three matching ultra-deluxe leather-bound sets of The International Engraver?s Line (TIEL) and The Engraver?s Line (TEL). TIEL will have inserts of six bank notes and one portrait, all signed by the engravers. TEL will have the same four inserts (three portraits and one bank note, all signed) as the special edition that was issued in 1993 and an additional insert. The price for this matching set will be $1200. Interested parties inquire at: engraversline@aol.com. Gene Hessler, past editor of PAPER MONEY is the author of four additional books (The Engravers Line; the Comprehensive Catalog of U.S. Paper Money; U.S. Essay, Proof and Specimen Notes; and An Illustrated History of U.S. Loans, 1775-1898. Each has received literary awards.) Mr. Hessler has written over 350 articles including columns for Coin World and the Numismatist. He served as curator for The Chase Manhattan Bank Money Museum and the St. Louis Mercantile Money Museum. As part of ?Money Talks?, a series originating at the ANA and broadcast on National Public Radio, one of his scripts was selected to represent the nomination for a Peabody Broadcasting Award in 1993. In addition to lecturing at the Smithsonian Institution, the ANS, the ANA and elsewhere, Mr. Hessler has acted as a consultant to museums including those of U.S. Federal Reserve Banks and the Banknote and Postage Stamp Museum in Japan. Mr. Hessler, a retired musician has traveled the world and has performed with many of the most famous names in jazz and classical music. He is listed in various editions of Who?s Who in the Midwest, America and the World, and has appeared on national television including two appearances on the NBC TODAY show." MOULTON'S UPCOMING BOOK ON VOIGT AND OTHERS In his introduction to his September price list, Karl Moulton notes, "I have been working on a book titled "Henry Voigt and Others -- Creating America's Early Coinage". The beginnings of this nation's coinage have long been of interest; however, the available information has been somewhat incomplete and inaccurate. My work will be an attempt to provide insights and details never before mentioned about the people and events relating to the subject matter of the title. The book should be available sometime next year if I can finish researching enough to be satisfied with the end results." Karl writes: "I'm still working on the text portion from all sorts of research notes. As you might guess, the title includes many different activities about the people, the coins, and the problems encountered at the first U. S. Mint. Does anyone happen to know if there is a sketch or portrait of Henry Voigt anywhere? I have no other specific research requests at present; however, if anyone wants to post something not commonly known about Henry Voigt, they are encouraged to present it." BEP ANNOUNCES NEW $10 BILL DESIGN The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing unveiled the newly designed $10 Note on September 28, 2005. From the BEP web site: "The U.S. government unveiled a new, more secure design for the $10 note that will enter circulation in early 2006. Highlighted by images of the Statue of Liberty's torch and the words "We the People" from the U.S. Constitution, the new $10 note incorporates easy-to-use security features for people to check their money and subtle background colors in shades of orange, yellow and red. New money designs are being issued as part of an ongoing effort to stay ahead of counterfeiting, and to protect the economy and the hard-earned money of U.S. currency users. The new series began with the introduction of the $20 note on October 9, 2003, and continued with the $50 note issued on September 28, 2004." See image of the new bill on the BEP web site: http://www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney/ http://www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney/main.cfm/currency/new10 http://www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney/files/10_materials/Glossy-face-web-10.pdf http://www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney/files/10_materials/Glossy-back-web-10.pdf The Courier-Journal of Louisville, KY published an article on September 30th about an executive from the Louisville office of the Federal Reserve Bank who did some "man-in-the-street" interviews soliciting public comments about the new bills. "U.S. currency is a symbol of the nation's economic stability, so "it's important that people be comfortable with it," said Maria G. Hampton, senior executive for the Louisville office of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. So she left her office on the 19th floor of the National City Tower yesterday to meet a few folks on Louisville sidewalks and show them the money. Some said it didn't matter much what their money looks like as long as it spends, but others had some very personal reactions to the new bill's design and symbolism. The first thing Jeanine Telfer noticed was the opening phrase from the U.S. Constitution, "We the people." It's in large print -- and in the document's 18th-century script -- behind the Treasury Department seal on the front of the bill. "It's really out there in pink," said Telfer, in town from New York City to interview for a job with a law firm. "It represents cohesiveness among the people. There's been a lot of things dividing the people lately." Touches of red, yellow and orange and the bill's design made a strong impression on research assistant David Jeffers of Corydon, Ind. Compared to the current version, "it's much more open," Jeffers said. "The colors are more energizing, too." Hampton said she was surprised by the details people noticed and that they knew the redesign is aimed at foiling counterfeiters. "I was impressed with the number of people who saw 'We the people,' " she said. "I was pleased that everyone was positive." To read the complete article, see: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050930/BUSINESS/509300320 CANADIAN MINT DIRECTOR RESIGNS Dick Johnson forwarded this story, which was published September 29th in the Chronicle Journal of Ottowa, Canada: "The head of the Royal Canadian Mint has resigned amid allegations of ethical misdeeds, making him the fifth Crown corporation boss to leave in controversy since Paul Martin became prime minister. David Dingwall resigned Wednesday as president of the mint after being pummelled by allegations of lavish spending and working as an unregistered lobbyist." "Dingwall has been under fire over reports that he and top aides racked up expenses of more than $740,000 last year." To read the full story, see: http://www.chroniclejournal.com/thunderbay/publish/article_463.php On September 30th, the editor of the Toronto Star wrote: "The Royal Canadian Mint is supposed to make coins, not spend them with wild abandon. So the resignation of its president, former Liberal MP David Dingwall ? after he and top aides spent $747,000 on travel and meals in 2004 ? is the right move. Dingwall, appointed to the post in 2003 by former prime minister Jean Chr?tien, has argued that the mint under his leadership has returned to profitability. He has defended the expenses as the price of doing business in far-flung locations. He has asked for a special committee to review the expenses and notes the mint's board of directors approved them. Despite his claims he did nothing wrong, Dingwall clearly doesn't understand that taxpayers are justified in being outraged that a man earning $277,000 a year is billing his employer, in this case a crown corporation, even for his $1.29 chewing gum." To read Dingwall's letter of resignation, see: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2005/28/c4999.html NEESE MINT DIRECTOR NOMINATION WITHDRAWN Our crack team of numismatic investigators missed this one, but the folks at Numismatic News covered it on the front page of their October 4th issue. Coin World also covered it this week in their October 10-dated issue. Terry Neese of Oklahoma's nomination to the post of Director of the U.S. Mint has been withdrawn. A notice was posted on the White House web site September 20th. According to the Numismatic News article, Neese asked not to be considered for the post and "informed the White House of her decision on Sept. 19," one day before her scheduled congressional hearing. The E-Sylum published word of her nomination on August 5, 2005 (v8n34), and I questioned her background, asking "Shouldn't a Mint Director have experience managing far-flung manufacturing operations with a large workforce? It will be interesting to see how the Senate explores Neese's qualifications." Well, the Senate never got the chance. Perhaps Neese became a victim of the post-Katrina fallout over the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Director's qualifications for his position. Was she asked to withdraw? We may never know - Neese simply cited family reasons for her pullout. But it will be interesting to compare her qualifications with those of the next nominee. Will it be another political appointee with little relevant experience? Or a candidate more likely to withstand the likely congressional scrutiny? To read the White House press release, see: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050919-4.html Here are some questions for our hard-core Mint trivia fans - is this the first time a Mint Director nominee has been withdrawn? Has a nominee ever been rejected? I don't know the answers, but perhaps one of our readers does. MINT BIDDING OUT MORE PLANCHET MANUFACTURING For those of you who can't get enough of Mint minutia, now available on the Internet is detailed information for companies wishing to bid on the business of providing blank planchets to the U.S. Mint. This article is from the September 28, 2005 issue of "The Fabricator", a publication for manufacturers: "The U.S. Mint is looking for stamping companies to bid on providing ready-to-coin blanks or planchets. The Mint is engaged in a Public-Private Competition under a deviation granted by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to compare the cost of purchasing the blanks or planchets. The competition requires the mint to get pricing and participation from two domestic commercial suppliers for providing 3 to 4 billion blanks annually to the Mint. The government is making existing equipment in Denver and Philadelphia available for the work. The competition is expected to end January 2006." http://www.thefabricator.com/news/Breaking_News_04.cfm?NewsID=962 The following text is from the bid specifications: ".. the United States Mint is seeking two (2) geographically separate independent domestic commercial suppliers (CS) to produce and deliver planchets (ready-to-strike coin blanks) in 5?, 10?, 25?, 50? and $1.00 denominations to its production facilities in Philadelphia, PA and Denver, CO. In a typical year, the United States Mint produces 6-7 billion clad coins (5? through $1.00). Historically (1998 ? 2004), annual production requirements have fluctuated from 5 to 14 billion clad coins. Each CS shall also have the capacity to produce and deliver uncirculated (UNC) quality planchets to Philadelphia and Denver, and proof quality cut blanks to the United States Mint production facility in San Francisco, CA. Each CS shall also have the capacity to convert the United States Mint?s current supply of Golden Dollar coinage strip into planchets. The United States Mint currently holds an inventory of Golden Dollar coinage strip. To meet Dollar planchet requirements, each CS shall be responsible for converting Mint supplied strip into Golden Dollar planchets until that inventory is exhausted. Once the Mint?s inventory of Dollar strip is exhausted, the CS will be required to provide all materials necessary to produce and deliver Dollar planchets. The United States Mint will make available all equipment associated with the current blanking, annealing, and upsetting operations in Philadelphia, PA and Denver, CO. Bid specifics and contact information can be found here:. http://www.fbo.gov/spg/TREAS/USM/CirPr/USM%2DHQ%2D05%2D066/listing.html. [This "Public-Private Competition" is a way to make sure the Mint itself is operating efficiently. If an outside company can do the job more cheaply, then this whole operation could be outsourced to private industry. It will be interesting to learn the outcome of this bidding process. It's also interesting to see the "Golden Dollar" term used in the proposal, which is itself an interesting parallel to the purchase of copper blanks from England in the early days of the U.S. Mint. I wonder what that Request for Proposal looked like? It probably took the form of a simple letter. One last question: Why aren't cent planchets included? I asked Dick Johnson, and his reply follows. -Editor] Dick Johnson writes: "The suppliers for cent blanks are already in place. This requires a highly specialized metalworking operation. Zinc strip must be rolled to precise gauge, copper plated in exacting thickness, then blanked and upset. So far only two plants in the United States have been such a supplier of cent blanks and to be able to meet the Mint's required standards on a sustained basis. Interestingly, the skeleton scrap generated from the U.S. cent blanking operation of this composition can easily be melted and reformulated into -- brass! -- So such a plant would also have to have an outlet for the high quantity of brass as well as supply the cent blanks. The U.S. Mint's decision to use this composition for cents was brilliant -- repeat, brilliant! -- for this maximum utilization of the scrap technology to its greatest advantage. I am unaware of the scrap technology required for the copper-nickel clad coinage. But the bidders for suppling copper-nickel clad or even silver-clad coinage blanks would also have to take this scrap process into consideration before they can bid for any of the Mint's coin blank requirements." SCORE ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS Regarding the 1854-S Quarter Eagle which recently sold for $253,000, David Lange writes: "So many times in commercial numismatics stories are invented to mask the origins and/or recent history of a rare coin. We're always hearing about alleged junk box finds and little old ladies from Pasadena revealing incredible rarities. Most of these stories are concocted to disguise the consignor's identity or to mask how little was paid for a coin as compared to what the seller now wants. Therefore, it's a pleasure to report that everything published about the 1854-S quarter eagle auctioned by ANR in September is absolutely true. I've been involved with this episode from day one, and I know all the parties involved. I only wish that I could say more, but the consignor wishes to withhold her exact identity and location, which is quite understandable. This story could have ended in a number of sorry ways, as sometimes happens when a member of the general public is in the possession of a numismatic rarity. Fortunately, everyone she encountered had a genuine love of the hobby and a desire to see that she was treated fairly. I believe that she walked away feeling very good about the parties involved and about her own judgment in selecting them. Score one for the good guys." MEDALLIC ILLUSTRATIONS QUERY Jerry Platt writes: "I wonder if you might query the readership of the E-Sylum on my behalf as to whether anyone knows the date of "The Duke of Devonshire's sale" referred to in Medallic Illustrations (see, e.g., M.I.i. 392/15). I have had no luck in tracking it down. Any other details of the sale would also be appreciated." [Jerry is referring to "Medallic Illustrations of the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the Death of George II" by Edward Hawkins & Herbert Grueber. -Editor] LESTER MERKIN ENAMELED COIN COLLECTION "The Atlanta Sale" planned for October 6, 2005 is a joint offering of Stack's and American Numismatic Rarities in conjunction with the the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Atlanta Expo. Included is a most unusual offering of 351 lots of enamel-inlaid coins from the estates of Lester Merkin and Joseph B. Stack. I don't believe there has ever been a reference work devoted to this subject, but this catalog will probably become the primary reference by default. A web page we pointed out in the January 16, 2005 E-Sylum (v8n3) is a useful one-page article on the topic: "The majority of enamelled coins are based on the existing design of the original coin. The first task in the production process was to take out all the background of the coin, leaving the letters and pattern in. In some cases the letters and design were even removed. The enamel was then applied in layers, fired and then ground down to enable the colours to come through in varying shades. This process was often done in more than one stage to enable the intricate colours and painted effect to be perfected. " "Two of the finest coin enamellers were William Henry Probert and the Steel family. The earliest enamelled coins were thought to have been produced by William Henry Probert in his Birmingham workshop. His initial designs were very plain with no more than three colours used. However, the coins were expertly engraved." http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/magazine/issue10/iss10p6.html "PHANTOM" SCOTT CATALOGS LOCATED In his "Shades of the Blue and Grey" column in the October 2005 issue of Bank Note Reporters, Fred L. Reed III writes: "Great news. Once again Bank Note Reporter readers have come through in the pinch. Eric Newman, who certainly needs no introduction to regular readers of this publication, has supplied color photocopies from the first three editions of Scott's Colonial, Continental, Confederate Currency catalog. These items are really special, and Eric has owned his for many years." "But instead of running them this time - nobody needs to be subjected to four straight months of J.W. Scott material, no matter how important he was a century or more ago - we'll analyze the catalogs and update his saga in the future." HISTORIC PAPER MONEY ISSUE COVERS 1812 NOTES Fred Reed is also the Editor of Paper Money, the official publication of the Society of Paper Money Collectors, Inc. The September/October issue features an important article by Don Kagin. Reed describes it as "THE definitive (thus far) look at the nation's first post-revolutionary circulating currency. Because of their rarity, the U.S. Treasury Notes of 1812-1815 have languished in obscurity for nearly two centuries. Although both Hessler and Krause-Lemke have cataloged the notes, their exclusion from Freidberg (early eds.) relegated these important notes to the fringes of our recollection and the backwaters of our hobby." COIN COLLECTING REMINISCENCES The September 2005 issue of Penny-Wise, the official publication of Early American Coppers, Inc. reprints an article that originally appeared in The New York Times Magazine supplement on Sunday, October 20, 1901. It was later reprinted in the November 1901 issue of The Numismatist. Edward Groh, a founder of the American Numismatic Society, and Ebenezer Gilbert were interviewed for the article. Gilbert mentioned "the Steigerwalt variety of the '94 cent" which Chuck Heck discusses in a commentary at the end of the article. Here are a couple excerpts from the Times article: "When I started to collect coins," he said, "it was perfectly possible for one to make a fine collection of the different kinds of American money simply by keeping a sharp lookout on the currency of the day. ... Take the 1804 cent for instance. One was sold in this city not many months ago for $200. I remember finding a half-dozen of those very coins when I was a boy, simply by examining change that passed through my hands." During the civil war Mr. Groh made his famous collection of copperheads, which he has since presented to the New York Numismatic Society. There were about 3,500 pieces in all, representing every State, town, and business house in which such coins were issues. "It wasn't necessary to approach a dealer for one of them," said Mr. Groh, "I simply gathered specimens of those about me as they were issued, and I corresponded and traded with collectors in all our Eastern towns and cities. Then after the war I traveled through the West, collecting and trading as I went." I WAS A TEEN-AGE NUMISMATIST ... and so was John Kraljevich of American Numismatic Rarities. Dave Bowers' recent Coin World column about numismatic figures who became prominent in the hobby as teenagers reminded me of an article in the January, 1993 issue of COINage magazine. "Heading for the Top," an article by Kari Stone (p94) noted that "at 15, John Kraljevich, Jr. has already established himself as a numismatic author and dealer." "Kraljevich's most noteworthy numismatic research thus far is his original research on the hoard of large cents 19th-century numismatist John Swan Randall bought from an upstate New York storekeeper. Kraljevich assembled examples of all of the varieties from the hoard - which was dispersed beginning in the late 1800s - and pored over early documentation, including auction catalogs and letters from Randall to auctioneer Ed Cogan in the 1860s and 1870s." [When I was 15, I'm not sure I knew what a Large Cent was, let alone who Randall and Cogan were! -Editor] E-SYLUM ARCHIVE SITES I've added some additional text to the standard footer at the end of each E-Sylum noting where the archives of past issues may be found. All past E-Sylum issues are archived on the NBS web site at this address: http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_esylum_archive.html The issues from September 2002 to date are also archived at this address: http://my.binhost.com/pipermail/esylum/ THE SOUTHERN CROSS OF HONOR In the September 4, 2005 E-Sylum (v8n38) we noted the publication of "The Southern Cross of Honor: Historical Notes and Trial List of Varieties" by Peter Bertram. I've obtained a copy and read most of it recently, and here are my observations. First, the book confirmed my expectations that it would be the kind of book I love to see, summarizing in one compact package most (if not all) of the most important historical and numismatic information available about its topic. It is the kind of book I suspect the late John J. Ford, Jr. would have devoured. As the first-ever comprehensive work on the subject, there will undoubtedly be new information discovered which will expand on our knowledge of the subject. But given the depth of author Bertram's research and cataloging effort, I think it could be some time before this edition becomes obsolete. The book's Introduction summarizes the medal thusly: "The Southern Cross of Honor stands unique in the lore of American military medals and awards because it was presented to its recipients after the fact - after the Cause for which it was given was lost. The Crosses recognized the valor of the Confederate soldier and sailor and represented the thanks of a grateful nation that fate denied. They were conceived, produced, and awarded by that nation's Daughters in the absence of its fallen government. It is a tribute to the success of the United Daughters of the Confederacy's vision that after 103 years and some 79,000 Crosses bestowed, so precious few are available to collectors and researchers." The first chapter is "The Southern Cross of Honor Story" with subheadings "Birth of a Concept" and "Designing the Cross". The chapter includes text from letters describing first-hand the personalities, thoughts and ideas of those involved in the project, as well as a U.S. Patent Office design and specification for the medal. Subsequent chapters describe three major types and fourteen varieties of the cross, with detailed descriptions and illustrations of the various diagnostics, which include hand-engraving, manufacturer logos, wreath and border variations, clasp and bar variations, etc. Another chapter is a handy guide to known reproductions of the medal. Of interest to the ephemera collectors among us is a chapter on the various versions of "Certificates of Eligibility", the application forms veterans or their families completed in order to receive their Cross. An "Auction Report" chapter provides data on online auctions of Crosses the author tracked for a one-year period (July 2002 through June 2003). "A Few Selected Crosses" is a compilation of images of several Crosses together with their associated boxes and paperwork, where available. Appendices list the names of many Cross awardees. Also near and dear to a bibliophile's heart is a two-page bibliography listing over thirty sources used in researching the book. Finally, the back cover of the book features a compact photographic quick reference to the author's trial list of Cross varieties. In summary, I'd recommend the book to anyone with an interest in military medals, Civil War history, or medals and numismatics in general. The following is from the author's press release: "60 pgs: 5 ? x 8 ?: soft covers: 175+ B&W images $20.00 + $1.50 Postage (Dealer Inquiries Invited) Peter Bertram PO Box 451421 Atlanta, GA 31145-1421" The Southern Cross book is the author's "Little Greybook #2" Number 1 was titled "Fake Confederate ID Discs," which may also be of interest to E-Sylum readers. It is still available for just $5.00 + $1 shipping. Peter's email address is peterbatl@aol.com He writes: "I'll be happy to sign or personalize the booklets for E-Sylum readers upon request." WURZBACH SET OFFERED Steve Pellegrini writes: "For those who may be interested in acquiring a two volume set of 'Wurzbach', MGM, the German coin dealership, has a few copies on-hand at 245 Euros a set. They tell me these are not the reprints which were done in Hamburg in the late 1970's. They are fully illustrated as the originals and bound in half cloth. However, they say the pages are copied. A bit confusing but this is such a tough set to find that I thought if anyone is interested they could email them for a better description. This set is usually well over $1000 for a nice original and about $350 for the Hamburg re-print. "The two volumes have 8 plates and they are half-cloth volumes. Surface mail shipping would be 24 EUR (airmail: 48 EUR). Prepayment is required. Payment can be made by a credit card." [The MGM firm is M?nzgalerie M?nchen Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co., Joker KG Stiglmaierplatz 2, 80333 M?nchen http://www.muenzgalerie.de/ Their email address is: kontakt@mgm-muenzboerse.de The complete title of the work is "Katalog meiner Sammlung von Medaillen, Plaketten und Jetons. Zugleich ein Handbuch f?r Sammler. Mit einem Literatur-Verzeichnis, vielen Daten und numismatischen Zitaten, einem Verzeichnis der Medailleure und anderen Beigaben." MEMORIES OF THE NEW YORK METROPOLITAN SHOW Alan V. Weinberg writes: "Regarding the NY Metropolitan coin show, as I recall it was always held in March each year back in the late 50's and early 60's. In a small ballroom at the then-Park Sheraton Hotel around the corner from Stack's on 57th St. It was the 2nd biggest show each year after the ANA and Stack's always had an auction in connection with it back then. Robert Batchelder (still around, prominent in paper historicana now), Max Kaplan, Herb Tobias, Ed Shapiro, a very youthful Dave Bowers, Harry Forman, Wormser and Ford of New Netherlands , Cathy Bullowa, F.K. Saab, "Foxy" Steinberg , Isadore Snyderman, Jerry Cohen, Lester Merkin, Dan Messer, Bob Jenove, Tom Wass, Ben Levin, Ed "Hawk" Shapiro and others rimmed the periphery of the room, perhaps 1/5th the size of a normal bourse room now. All coins were "raw", priced at a tiny fraction of prices today (I distinctly recall gem toned Barber proof halves priced at $50) and rarities abounded. You could have your pick of 3 - 4 genuinely Extremely Fine 1793 Chain cents at this show. Choice Extremely Fine New Jersey colonials, often unattributed, at $35 were quite plentiful and unattributed choice Connecticut coppers were so numerous they were considered a "poor man's colonial". I recall at one show around 1959 NY club President Martin F. Kortjohn approached me, a kid, on the bourse floor and pulled me aside, warning me I'd be kicked off the bourse floor if he saw me again selling coins to the bourse dealers as I did not have a bourse table. Unheard of today. I recall viewing the superb exhibits on the hotel's balcony above the bourse floor. R.L. Miles, who cleaned most of his coins, exhibited his almost complete US coin collection and later auctioned it at Stack's. But there was an utterly superb exhibit of early American coin rarities in the finest condition. I was mesmerized by it and got as close to the display case glass as possible to view these incredible treasures. An elderly, well dressed man approached me and put his hand on my shoulder. "Like what you see?" We got into a lengthy conversation. Turned out he was Harold Bareford and it was his exhibit. I still shake my head in wonder at meeting him and seeing his exhibit of several cases. He was definitely one of the most particular and demanding collectors of the 20th century. Those were good times - before slabs, unaffordable prices, and multiple massive auctions preceding a major coin show." [Ah, for the Good Old Days. Who else has some recollections of these old shows to share with us? How about other memorable shows of the past? -Editor] 1913 LIBERTY NICKEL AT WHITMAN'S ATLANTA SHOW David Crenshaw, Director of Numismatic Research at Whitman Publishing writes: "I wanted to follow-up on Dave Bowers' comments in a recent E-Sylum about the exciting exhibits that will be on display at the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Atlanta Expo. We are pleased to announce that the Expo will feature the finest known 1913 Liberty Head nickel." The following excerpt is from the press release David attached: "The finest of only five known 1913 Liberty Head nickels will be on display at the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Atlanta Expo. The Eliasberg-Legend specimen, certified PCGS Proof-66, will be on exhibit Thursday through Saturday, October 6-8. Laura Sperber of Legend Numismatics and her two partners, George Huang and Bruce Morelan, purchased the coin for $4,150,000. This is the highest price ever paid for one of the five famed nickels, and the second-highest price for any rare coin. (Only the Farouk-Fenton specimen of the 1933 $20 gold piece has sold higher, at $7,590,000.) This nickel has been displayed only three other times since 2004?once in Florida and twice on the West coast...." "The Expo opens at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, October 6 at the Cobb Galleria Centre. Admission is free. For the latest information about the Expo, visit www.WhitmanExpo.com." LECTURE AND PUBLICATION ON EMPEROR NORTON The press release for the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Atlanta Expo also notes that there will be a presentation about Emperor Norton I, the eccentric San Francisco native who issued bonds to raise funds for his "nation." The talk is on Saturday, October 8: "Did you know that the United States once had an emperor? Attend ?Hail to Thee, Emperor: The Story of Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico? by Lenny Vaccaro at 1:00 p.m. to learn more about this self-proclaimed monarch. A little birdie told us that through a forthcoming Whitman publication the whole numismatic world will soon appreciate Norton I, but by attending the presentation in Atlanta, you will be well prepared in advance." WORLD'S GREATEST COLLECTION Kenneth Bressett writes: "Thanks for another great issue of The E-Sylum. Mondays just wouldn't be the same without it. You asked about presentation copies of the World's Greatest Collection. I have the Silver section that was presented to Clarence Camp, II (a name I am not familiar with). I have also seen one or two others. I only have the full set with original paper covers." [By the way, Ken will be presenting "Money of the Bible" on Saturday, October 8 at 11:00 a.m. at the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Atlanta Expo. -Editor] Harry Cabluck writes: "Regarding George Polizio's query about his search for a named copy of the World's Greatest Collection sold by Numismatic Gallery: The WGC catalog hereabouts was a presentation to Damon G. Douglas. It is bound in blue leather in cloth, not inscribed, not gilt. On page 13 of auction catalog no. 30, lot 24 (the 1806 B-8 quarter) it was graded VF estimate price is $10. Sale price was $7. The auction was held Saturday, March 3, 1945. The book includes a reprint of Hazeltine's Type Table of U.S. Silver Dollars. There are no scribbled notes that would indicate who the buyers were. Hope this is some help." Karl Moulton writes: "A follow-up to last week on the WGC leatherbound editions - I have Homer K Downing's copies, which were inscribed by both AK's. This is the finest set I've ever come across in the past ten years. As Homer was an early copper enthusiast, he really didn't need to look through these silver and gold sales. They ended up residing in John Ford's library, along with FCC Boyd's leatherbound WGC copies and I doubt if Ford ever looked through them either." Dave Perkins writes: "Wayne, in the last E-Sylum you asked if anyone had a named copy of the World?s Greatest Collection of U.S. Silver Coins sale catalog, or a set of presentation copies. I acquired Boyd?s copy of the World?s Greatest Collection sale in the June 1, 2004 Stack?s / Kolbe auction sale of the Ford library. This catalog is priced, not named. F. C. C. BOYD is inscribed in gilt on the front cover in the lower right corner. On the first page is written, ?With the compliments of the Numismatic Gallery? and is signed by both Kosoff and Kreisberg. My reason for writing is to first thank you for publishing the information on Adolf Friedman. I am familiar with Friedman as he acquired over half of the early U.S. Silver Dollars 1794-1803 in the WGC sale, as well as numerous other silver dollar lots in this sale. Over the years I have not had much luck tracking down information about Friedman. I knew only that he was a friend of Abe Kosoff. I also have the Kosoff bid book for the silver dollar portion of this sale. I had always suspected (prior to acquiring the bid book) that many of the 1945 WGC early dollars were acquired in this sale by Adolf Friedman (Friedman is listed as the consignor of most of the early silver dollars (ex. WGC sale) in the August 21 ? 24, 1949 ANA Auction Sale on page 8). There is a small group of 8 early dollar (and 6 half dollar) lots in the ?49 ANA Sale that appear to have not to have sold in the 1945 WGC sale. This very well may be the reason Adolf Friedman had been given a special copy of the sale catalog with his name inscribed on the covers. I have been trying to locate a copy of the 1949 ANA Auction Sale with buyer?s names for years, with no luck. I hope the E-Sylum posting is successful in locating one. If you ever come across this information I?d appreciate receiving a copy of the buyer?s names for the early dollars. Milferd H. Bolender will be one of the buyers, Harold L. Bareford will be another, and John J. Pittman will likely be the buyer of one of the early dollars (per the Akers sale catalog of the Pittman collection). Many of the early dollar lots in the WGC have proven to have been misattributed as to the correct Haseltine numbers. The buyer?s names coupled with later appearances of these specimens in another sale or collection will be valuable in helping learn what the correct die varieties were in this 1945 sale. One more thing: a friend of mine writes, ""Mine's H. E. MacIntosh, and I have only the silver portion of that sale in hardbound." BOOK COVER IMAGES AND SEARCH BY ISBN NUMBER Dick Johnson writes: "Standing in line at Post Office I overhead one woman telling another that on eBay you could get the illustration of a book's cover or title page by typing in its ISBN number. Have you heard of this service?" [I only tried two examples, but it worked on print.google.com both times and only once on ebay.com. Use "0813527015" to locate Michael Molnar's book, "The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi" (See the September 12&19, 1999 E-Sylum issues, Volume 2, Number 37&38, for the numismatic connection). The other example I used was "0226893952", the ISBM of Lawrence Weshler's book, "Boggs : A Comedy of Values." Print.google.com has an image of the cover of every book they digitize, and a thumbnail version of the image shows up alongside search results. If you click on the image you can get to a full-size version. On eBay, if someone has a copy of the book for sale, you get a "Stock Photo" of the cover with your search results. I wouldn't call it a "service" as much as I would a "feature" of the two web sites. -Editor] THE E-SYLUM - THE EARLY DAYS Roger deWardt Lane writes: "I recently picked up the Asylum - Summer 2004 issue which I had never read (The book had fallen between two boxes at the foot of my bed). I found the first article (Jean Foy-Vaillant) most interesting. I also read 'Some Reminiscences by Q. David Bowers' He always writes so well. But then I started to read your story of how The E-Sylum got started. I've been reading and submitting items to you for a couple of years, yet I never knew your background. You must find time to copy the first three or four pages and post it. I'm sure that half of the readers are like me and did not know the story of early days." [In this issue and the next, I'll reprint several paragraphs from the article. -Editor] Starting my career at Bell Labs in 1980 I was on the Internet from day one, although it wasn't called that at the time. E-mail was a natural part of my workday, as were newsgroups, an early bulletin-board feature. By the mid-1990s "The Internet" began getting noticed outside of universities and business. Early interfaces were crude, and I recall vividly my excitement when I was first able to locate a programming tool I needed over the Internet. What once would have taken me weeks, if ever, to find, I was able to quickly locate on a server somewhere in Switzerland. And this was before there were graphics-based browsers and search engines. Those who know me know I'm not the excitable type, but I raced to get Steve DiAntonio, a colleague I was working closely with at the time. I showed him what I was doing and explained how it worked. I said, "this is going to change the world." In time this new publishing medium would change a lot of things, and would add a new dimension to collecting numismatic literature. Getting started took time. I recall one NBS Board meeting where Mike Hodder and I exchanged email addresses. It was like we were part of some exclusive society exchanging a secret handshake. Year after year I asked for a show of hands at the annual NBS General Meeting to see how many people had email addresses, and each time only a few hands went up. The US numismatic literature world just wasn't ready for a mailing list yet. But at the fateful meeting in Portland in August 1998, dozens of hands went up. The Internet had arrived on Main Street. Shortly after the initial September 4 mailing, announcements were also sent to the COINS and BIBLIONUMIS mailing lists, as well as the Early American Coppers "Region 8" mailing list. The initial E-Sylum mailing list was comprised of the addresses of NBS officers and board members, other current and former members, and other interested parties, for a total of 49 names. By noon subscription requests began arriving from around the world. Peter Gaspar of St. Louis, Missouri, was the first. Jere Bacharach of the University of Washington in Seattle, was second, with Dr. Hubert Emmerig of Austria a close third. Some current members wrote to confirm or update their mailing address, and ten new folks subscribed. By 5 pm the list had already grown to 59 names. Over the course of the Labor Day weekend another twenty people subscribed, mostly from the US, but from as far afield as Italy, Poland and the Russian Federation. Neil Rothschild offered to publicize the mailing list on the Compuserve coin forum, and Bill Malkmus offered to do the same on the NUMIS-L mailing list for collectors of ancient and medieval coinage. By September 15 the list had grown to 90 members. Coin World published an article about the email list in the July 5, 1999 issue. The newsletter didn't even have a name until the February 8, 1999 issue, when we announced: "These email missives are in their sixth month now, but they've never had a formal name. To remedy that situation, we've decided on The E-sylum, an obvious play on our print journal The Asylum. " Later I settled on The E-Sylum, with a capital ?S.? The NBS Board had lengthy email deliberations about the name before deciding on The E-Sylum. We voted on a list of about a dozen suggestions. I believe The E-Sylum was my idea, but it was my second choice ? I lobbied for The Babbler, that being what members of an Asylum are wont to do. But saner heads prevailed, and The E-Sylum was born. [To be continued ... -Editor] ON MONEY SAYINGS Howard Spindel writes: "How about: It ain't worth a plugged nickel!" [So what exactly IS a plugged nickel, anyway? I found an answer on the Word Detective web site: ""Not worth a plugged nickel" as an Americanism meaning "worthless" first appeared in print about 1912, although we can assume "plugged nickel", along with the similar "plugged quarter" and "plugged peso," were in common usage long before they made it into print. To "plug" a coin means to remove its center, usually because the coin is made of a precious metal such as gold or silver, and to replace the missing part with a cheaper metal "plug." This sort of larcenous messing with currency has been popular since coins first appeared millennia ago, and Americans were plugging French, English and other nations' coins back in the days before we had our own to plug. A plugged nickel, while it may be accepted at face value by an inattentive shopkeeper, is, of course, fundamentally worthless." http://www.word-detective.com/061300.html -Editor] CANADIAN TIRE MONEY This is always room for all of us to learn something new, and one thing I hadn't heard of until I read the syllabus for the Canadian Numismatic Correspondence Course - Part II was "Canadian Tire Money". Playing Card Money, that I'd heard of, but Tire Money? Emergency scrip cut from old tires, perhaps? Actually, no. A quick web search located several sites which explain and illustrate Canadian Tire Money: >From the Wikipedia: "Canadian Tire 'money' (CTM) was first introduced in 1958, as a response to the promotional giveaways that many gas companies offered at the time. It was only available at Canadian Tire gas bars, but was so successful that in 1961, it was extended to the retail stores as well, and has become the most successful loyalty program in Canadian retail history. Many Canadian households have a wad of Canadian Tire money stashed somewhere in a drawer. These are coupons issued by Canadian Tire, which resemble real currency (although the coupons are considerably smaller than Bank of Canada notes), and can be used as scrip in Canadian Tire stores. In fact, Canadian Tire money has been successfully passed off as Canadian currency to American and Mexican tourists on a few occasions, and some privately-owned businesses (in Canada) accept it as payment, since the owners of many such businesses shop there." "An unusual incident occurred in Moncton, New Brunswick in late 2004, when several customers at a Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ATM were dispensed a total of 11 bills of Canadian Tire money instead of real bills. They were compensated by the bank." To read the full reports, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Tire_Money http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/12/01/CanadianTire-ATM.041201.html|CBC The Canadian Tire company site has a history of the bills: "Canadian Tire 'Money'? was inspired by Muriel Billes, the wife of Canadian Tire's co-founder and first president, A.J. Billes, and was introduced as a "cash bonus coupon" in 1958 in the first Canadian Tire Gas Bar in Toronto." This site is an image catalog of Canadian Tire Currency, 1958-2003 Issues: http://numismondo.com/pm/can/index_0900.htm Of interest to bibliophiles is a guidebook to the Canadian Tire series offered on the web site of the Canadian Tire Coupon Collectors' Club: "FOR SALE: The Bilodeau "Guide" of CANADIAN TIRE money -The 6th edition Volume I with it's up to the minute revisions is now available at $23.99 shipping included. To order the Guide please send your payment, "PAYABLE" to: Lucien Levesque, 13285, rue de la Bourgogne, Mirabel, Qu?bec, J7J 1P9 The day has finally come. The long awaited Volume 2 of the Bilodeau Guide is finally ready for shipping! The work is done and what an enormous task it was. The Bilodeau Team is ready for a lengthy vacation! Two is almost twice the thickness of Volume One with a corresponding increase in our printing costs. Volume Two is priced at $34.00, postage included. It can be ordered from Lucien Levesque, 13285, de la Bourgogne, Mirabel, Qu?bec, J7J 1P9. Please make your check payable to Lucien Levesque." http://www.nunetcan.net/ctccc/ctccc.html SKINFLINT NUMISMATIST LEAVES $1.3 MILLION TO LIBRARY. Dick Johnson writes: "Does collecting coins lead to thrift? Or does thrift lead to coin collecting? A Milwaukee veteran of World War II was one in the same. A member of the Milwaukee Numismatic Society, who, from the size of his estate, had saved his money for a lifetime. He left a will which named several organizations as beneficiaries, the largest of which was the West Allis Library, in the amount of $1.3 million. He was a notorious skinflint to his neighbors, however. Yet to be answered: Who will get to sell his coin collection, said to contain gold coins and silver bars? Story and pictures of Irv H. Terchak: http://tinyurl.com/dj79u SALE ON LITERATURE? I'm not sure if it's a typo or not, but an item in the October 4, 2005 Numismatic News (p46) about Lake Books' 81st sale (closing October 18) features the following headline: "Sale on Literature". If it's all on sale, how deep is the discount? FEATURED WEB SITE This week's featured web site is suggested by Roger deWardt Lane and features German paper money. http://www.germannotes.com/banknotes.shtml Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. For more information please see our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/. There is a membership application available on the web site at this address: http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_member_app.html To join, print the application and return it with your check to the address printed on the application. Membership is only $15 to addresses in North America, $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 The issues from September 2002 to date are also archived at this address: http://my.binhost.com/pipermail/esylum/ From esylum at binhost.com Sun Oct 9 22:11:18 2005 From: esylum at binhost.com (esylum@binhost.com) Date: Sun Oct 9 22:16:45 2005 Subject: The E-Sylum v8#43, October 9, 2005 Message-ID: <4349CDC6.8070203@telerama.com> Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 8, Number 43, October 9, 2005: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2005, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. WAYNE'S WORDS Among our recent subscribers are Jim Stofle and Gene Sherman. Welcome aboard! We now have 803 subscribers. Is there a programmer in the house? To improve the usefulness of the E-Sylum archives, we'd like to expand the archives by adding individual web pages for each item. This would enable an online table of contents and the creation of links among related items. What we could use is a simple tool to generate the web pages from a single E-Sylum issue. If you or someone you know might be able to help, let me know and I'll forward the details. Last's week E-Sylum was a monster-sized issue. Not quite so much material this week, but we do have some interesting submissions. A new numismatic periodical debuts, a mystery woman is sought, a grandson of Hans Schulman surfaces, and we learn of a nice web page on the Royal Mint in Sydney, Australia. Some more news on the New Orleans Mint building - it is expected to be closed through 2007. This issue also includes the final installment on the early days of The E-Sylum and a review of a booklet on fake Confederate soldier ID tags. Finally, we learn what a woman from Borneo was hiding in her brassiere, and no, it wasn't a '64-D (Peace Dollar). Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society NBS TABLE AT 2006 ANA CONVENTIONS Howard A. Daniel III writes: "I stopped attending the ANA events because of the club tables being placed in out-of-the-way locations. It was becoming difficult to give coins from Numismatics International; bank notes from the International Bank Note Society; and references from the Numismatic Bibliomania Society, to the young and new collectors, and to discuss with all attendees the benefits of joining our organizations. I was recently contacted by the ANA and the previously bad locations of club tables was discussed. I was assured that all club tables will now be in the traffic flow and not put off to the side or other locations where attendees cannot see them. As a result, I have signed up for the ANA National Money Show in Atlanta, GA at the Cobb Galleria Convention Centre at 2 Galleria Parkway, Atlanta 30339. The dates are April 7, 8 & 9, 2006 and I will likely have a club table on the Midway. The table will be identified with three signs; International Bank Note Society, Numismatic Bibliomania Society and Numismatics International. And for the ANA World's Fair of Money in Denver, CO at the Colorado Convention Center at 700 14th Street, Denver, CO 80202. The dates are August 16, 17, 18 & 19, 2006 and the club table will likely be on the Midway. The table will be identified as above." Numismatic Bibliomania Society members and non-members are invited to visit the tables and use it as their base for the conventions. Anyone who would like to volunteer to sit at the table, please contact me. And if anyone wants to donate coins, notes, tokens, references, etc., to pass out, please contact me as soon as possible at HADANIEL3@MSN.COM. All donations will be recognized with a donation thank you letter that can be used to document a tax deduction." [Many thanks to Howard for including NBS at his club table; he's done this for a number of years now. When the convention rolls around, those who attend should all make a special effort to stop by, thank Howard, and offer some help. Take a load off your feet and man the table for a while, hand out materials for NBS and the other clubs, and collect some email addresses for The E-Sylum. Thanks! -Editor] GAZETTE OF MUNICIPAL NUMISMATICS DEBUTS Serge Pelletier of Canada is the editor of a new publication titled "The Gazette of Municipal Numismatics." Volume 1, No. 1 is available now. According to the editor, Municipal Numismatics "encompasses all material attributable to a municipality, such as municipal trade tokens, scrip, medallions, notgeld, wooden money, and so on. We are casting a wide net and are hoping to be surprised by what comes up!" The magazine's focus will be on recent material from Canada and the United States. He writes: "we're focusing on recent material because we feel it is important to capture numismatic data for the future generations, a bit like Leroux, Breton and, more recently, Remick did - not that we are comparing ourselves to them!" The following is from the press release: "This quarterly magazine is available in both printed and electronic forms. The printed form (ISSN 1715-4154) is letter-size and contains between 44 and 52 pages of material printed on bond paper with a colour cover. Subscription is $30.00/year for Canadian addresses, $35.00 for American addresses and $45.00 for international addresses. Single copies are available respectively at $10.00, $12.50 and $15.00. ... it is also available in electronic format (ISSN 1715-4162). Subscribers will receive a screen-resolution locked Portable Document Format (pdf) file at the time of publication and, at the end of the year, a CD-ROM containing the four issues in printable print-resolution pdf format. E-Subscription is $15.00/year for Canadian addresses, $17.50 for American addresses and $22.50 for international addresses. Single copies is available at $3.75, and is a screen-resolution file." To more information or to order, contact the publisher, Eligi Consultants, Inc., at: Box 11447, Station H, Nepean, ON K2H 7V1, Canada; telephone: +1-613-823-3844; email: info@eligi.ca FAKE CONFEDERATE ID DISCS REVIEWED Last week I reviewed Peter Bertram's booklet on the Southern Cross of Honor, and mentioned his earlier publication, "Fake Confederate ID Discs." I've obtained a copy and would also recommend it to anyone with an interest in military medals, Civil War history, or medals and numismatics in general. It does a fine job of documenting a slew of fakes that have been making the rounds and fooling a number of collectors into parting with cash for a fantasy piece. The author writes: "I somehow can't help but feel that these fakes are the cruelest hoax of all to invade our hobby. Imagine spending a good deal of hard earned money to acquire a priceless coin that is engraved with the name of a Confederate soldier who actually carried it as an ID Disc during the War Between the States. What a treasure to be cherished - until you discover the someone is producing them in quantity and you're being ripped off!" There was no widespread production of ID tags ("dog tags" in later years) in the South during the War Between the States. Almost more than death, the average soldier feared being killed and buried in some remote place where his family would never know what happened to him, much less find him. Soldiers thus fashioned their own ID devices out of almost any material - wood, metal, paper and yes, even coins. If you are lucky enough to acquire one, original Confederate ID items are extremely rare and quite expensive." The booklet focuses on fakes of engraved coin-based ID tags. The fakes are of silver U.S. Half Dollar or Dollar coins engraved with the name of a soldier and other identifying information. Several of the fakes are pictured full size. The book also pictures an authentic ID disc engraved by Robert Lovett. The author writes: "This ID Disc did not receive much use until after the War Between the States, but it then saw scattered employment through the Spanish American War and on up to WWI. I show it here as a warning to collectors. I have seen two cast examples of this disc (two difference sellers) with a Confederate soldier name and unit ID engraved on each one." The item is listed in the 2nd edition of "Medallic Portraits of Washington" by Russell Rulau and George Fuld. See Chapter 34, "Miscellany" under "Civil War Dog Tags", Baker nos. 621 and 621A. To order a copy of the booklet, see last week's E-Sylum or contact the author via email at: peterbatl@aol.com. The price is $5 + $1 shipping, signed upon request. This web page describes and pictures a Union soldier's ID disc: http://pards.homestead.com/Lebo.html The most famous Confederate ID coin is probably the double eagle good-luck piece of Lt. George E. Dixon, commander of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, which we discussed a great deal in earlier E-Sylum issues. http://www.thehunley.com/News/gold%20coin%20display-Tour.htm MILLION-DOLLAR CASINO CHIP AND TOKEN AUCTION This morning an article datelined Reno, NV publicized an upcoming auction of collectible casino chips and tokens touted as a "million dollar collection." with a matching minimum bid. "It's not unusual to see chips and tokens from Nevada casinos pop up on eBay and other online auction sites. It is unusual when a collection of chips and tokens go on sale with a minimum bid of $1 million. That will be the case on Tuesday when "The Platinum Collection" is made available to bidders. The collection is made up of 6,600 chips and tokens that date from the 1950s -- the centerpiece of which has a direct connection to Reno. That piece is a platinum $1 token made by the Franklin Mint in 1965 for Reno gaming magnate Bill Harrah. The Platinum Collection of gaming chips and tokens is named for the Harrah piece." "It's not a reproducible collection," says Howard Herz, owner of Gaming Archaeology and author of the soon-to-be published Illustrated Standard Guide to Nevada Gaming Tokens. "If you went out today and attempted to build a similar one, you couldn't do it. You'd have to own pieces from this collection in order to try." "Chips in the Platinum Collection date from the beginning era of legalized gambling in Nevada in 1931, to rare issues used at the large Las Vegas strip casinos, as well as those in Lake Tahoe and Reno. Many are from clubs that were shuttered years ago. The eBay auction is scheduled to begin Tuesday and run for 10 days. The final hammer will come down at 3 p.m. on Oct. 21." To read the complete article, see http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051009/NEWS10/510090377/1002/NEWS For more information about the Platinum Collection, go to: http://www.chipsandtokens.com NEW U.S. NICKEL OBVERSE UNVEILED An Associated Press story on October 4 discussed the newest design unveiled by the U.S. Mint: "After nearly 100 years of depicting presidents in somber profiles on the nation's coins, the Mint is trying something different: The new nickel features Thomas Jefferson, facing forward, with the hint of a smile. "It isn't a silly smile or a smirk, but a sense of optimism that I was trying to convey with the expression," says Jamie Franki, an associate professor of art at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. His drawing was chosen out of 147 entries. In unveiling the design Tuesday, Mint officials said they believed the new image of Jefferson was an appropriate way to commemorate his support for expanding the country through the Louisiana Purchase and sending Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the territory in 1804-05." "The new five-cent coin, which will go into circulation early next year, is the last scheduled change in the nickel's appearance. It will feature Jefferson's Monticello home on the reverse side of the coin but in an updated image from the Monticello that first began appearing on the nickel in 1938." "Since Abraham Lincoln became the first president to be depicted on a circulating coin, in 1909, presidents have always been shown in profile, in part because profile designs remain recognizable even after extensive wear on the coin. The Mint, however, believes it has produced an image of Jefferson for the new nickel that can stand up to heavy use." "The coins will be called the Jefferson 1800 because Franki's image of Jefferson is based on a Rembrandt Peale portrait of Jefferson done in 1800, the year Jefferson was first elected president." To read the Mint's press release, see: http://www.usmint.gov/pressroom/index.cfm?action=press_release&ID=617 To see an image of the new design, go to: http://www.usmint.gov/pressroom/index.cfm?action=Photo#2006Nickel [Time will tell how well the new nickel wears in circulation. The task of engraving the portrait will fall to Donna Weaver at the U.S. Mint. It doesn't look like much of a smile to me, but old Tom does appear to have a five o'clock shadow. It should be a challenge to create a working die. This is an interesting twist on coin portraiture, at least for the United States. What other circulating coins feature a forward-looking portrait? How well have the designs worn? -Editor] MYSTERY BANKNOTE CHEMIST SOUGHT According to an article published in The Scotsman October 8, "A hunt was launched yesterday for a mystery scientist featured on a Scottish banknote. The woman, believed to be a chemical scientist, posed for the picture more than ten years ago. She features on the back of Bank of Scotland ?20 notes with the caption "education and research". But she has always remained anonymous and now the Royal Society of Chemistry hopes to find her in time for the annual Science and the Parliament event in Edinburgh next month." "The Bank of Scotland said it was unable to reveal the woman's identity." "A bank spokeswoman said: "The image on the reverse of the ?20 note, illustrating education and research, shows an individual using a high pressure liquid chronometer. The engraving by (banknote producer) De La Rue, as far as we are aware, is based on a photograph of a real person." To read the complete story, see: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=2056672005 A set of modern Scottish notes, including the research note, is shown here: http://www.scotbanks.org.uk/current_bos.htm NEW ORLEANS MINT BUILDING UPDATE Two online reports provide some more information on the state of the old U.S. Mint building in New Orleans following the damage from Hurricane Katrina: "The nine properties of the Louisiana State Museum suffered some modest to moderate damage. The U.S. Mint took the heaviest hit with broken windows on upper floors. The few artifacts that encountered water were immediately taken to Hill Memorial Library in Baton Rouge, which took care of the problem." "Casey Helm of the Louisiana State Museum, headquartered at the LSU Museum of Art in Baton Rouge, confirmed that museum properties had little damage. "We're in very, very good shape," she said. "The Mint lost about 60 percent of the copper roof, but less than 1 percent of the artifacts were in contact with water. Those that were touched were taken to Hill Memorial Library immediately. They (Hill Memorial staff) are wonderful." To read the full story, see: http://2theadvocate.com/stories/100905/ent_museums001.shtml "The Old U.S. Mint is predicted to be closed through 2007. " http://www.aam-us.org/aamlatest/news/HurricaneFirstReports.cfm AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY EVACUATION PLAN? Dick Johnson writes: "New York City officials released last Tuesday, October 4, 2005, an evacuation plan for the city. It prophesied an event similar to a Rita or Katrina Hurricane hitting the nation's largest city with 120 mph winds and a 30-foot water surge. "A major hurricane barrels into New York City about once every 90 years," it states. Such an event would surely put Wall Street under water first of all. "The South Street Seaport," the report noted, "would become more sea, less port." The South Street Seaport is only six blocks from the American Numismatic Society's new Headquarters Building at Fulton and William Streets. My first thought was: "Thank Goodness the ANS library is on the fifth and sixth floor -- well above the 30-foot water level." Then it dawned on me there are windows on three sides of the building on the fifth and sixth floor. The numismatic catastrophe of the millennium would be for the wind to blow out those windows and rain in on the world's most irreplaceable numismatic library. Imagine 100,000 books -- the world's most valuable single archive of numismatic knowledge -- turning into a soggy mess! Would some future ANS officials rue the day their forebearers once agreed to put this treasure into such a vulnerable location? To read the Associated Press article on the city evacuation plan, click on: http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/04/D8D1K3F00.html [Here are a few additional excerpts from the AP article. -Editor] "If it happened before, it will happen again," said hurricane expert Nicholas Coch, a Queens College professor of coastal geology.' "In fact, an 1821 hurricane lifted the tide 13 feet in an hour, with the East and Hudson rivers converging over lower Manhattan as far north as Canal Street. Deaths and property damage were limited because the city was far smaller back then." "Most New Yorkers," Coch said, "think hurricanes only occur in places with palm trees." [I spoke with ANS officials about Dick's question, and although they are unable to discuss the details in a public forum, they assured me that the collections were protected in many ways. -Editor] MORE ON THE DEVONSHIRE SALE CATALOG Last week Jerry Platt inquired about the date of "The Duke of Devonshire's sale" referred to in Medallic Illustrations. Ron Haller-Williams writes: "By some strange coincidence an answer arrived through the post on 5th Oct, as I had just bought "A Guide to English Pattern Coins" by the Rev. G F Crowther. This was published in 1886 or 1887, just a year or two after Medallic Illustrations, and contains MANY sales prices indicated as follows: "Devonshire (1844) ?8 10s" (Prices vary, of course!)." Anders Fr?sell writes: "Harrington E. Manville & Terence J. Robertson?s book "BRITISH NUMISMATIC AUCTION CATALOGUES 1710 - 1984", at page 85 says: 1844:4 "CH 16-23, 25 Mar - Anon. (?Very Important Collection? - William George Spencer CAVENDISH, 6th DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, many collected by William CAVEDISH, 2nd Duke of CAVENDISH, d.1729)"....... 1844:5 Second part including "British & Foreign Medals" and many other objects. Part 1&2 in total little more than 2000 numbers. Those catalogues are represented in "[BMC; RBS; CHR; FMW; DER; ANS]" Manville & Robertson's book is very good, 420 pages in A4. Appendix at pages 375-379 lists "Non-auction purchases and offerings". [Steve Pellegrini sent Jerry some information on the Duke of Devonshire, and on Saturday Jerry wrote: "I also heard from Douglas Saville at Spink, who sold the exact catalogue (Christie's, London, 1844) which was referred to in MI--he just sold it as part of a collection last month!" -Editor] HOLDERS OF $MILLION BILLS ARRESTED In India, owners of novelty U.S. "million dollar" notes are finding themselves pursued by police for merely possessing them. The following is from an article published today in a Kashmir newspaper about "two cases in which a million-dollar note was recovered. ?But does this note exist?? asks a senior officer in JK Bank?s International Banking Division: ?Not actually." "But that does not affect the police that continue to chase these fakes knowing fully well that no bank can accept it. This is the proverbial ignorance that does not make police to stop making victims. It was in May 2002 when Delhi Police arrested Altaf Ahmad Wani, a shawl-vendor when he was on his way home to Zainakote Srinagar. He was found carrying a million-dollar note. When journalist Iftikhar Gilani, the author of ?My Days In Prison?, one of the Penguin India recent hits, met Wani in Tihar, he told him: ?I purchased it from a vendor thinking I will keep it in a glass frame and keep it in my house as symbol of good luck.? But the fake proved a bad omen; he is still in the jail. Says IGP Kashmir Javed Mukhdoomi: ?After I got the note with the certificate to my office, I rang up American embassy in Delhi. They said this is fake, there is nothing like that in USA.? But police would not let the ?accused? go. They are actually hunting for a bank manager as well. They are being charge sheeted under section 420." "But who will tell the police forces that no real million-dollar bill exists. It is not an official USA note manufactured by the bureau of engraving and printing (BEP) and it is not redeemable by the department of the treasury. The largest denomination ever printed was $100,000 carrying the portrait of President Woodrow Wilson in 1934." To read the full story, see: http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?ItemID=10541&cat=5 YAHOO-LED ALLIANCE TO DIGITIZE BOOKS Arthur Shippee and others noted an October 3, 2005 New York Times article describing a challenge to Google by an alliance of organizations led by Yahoo: "An unusual alliance of corporations, nonprofit groups and universities plans to announce today an ambitious plan to digitize hundreds of thousands of books over the next several years and put them on the Internet, with the full text accessible to anyone." "The new project, called the Open Content Alliance, has the wide-ranging goal of digitizing historical works of fiction along with specialized technical papers. In addition to Yahoo, its members include the Internet Archive, the University of California, and the University of Toronto, as well as the National Archive in England and others." "In a departure from Google's approach, the Open Content Alliance will also make the books accessible to any search engine, including Google's. (Under Google's program, a digitized book would show up only through Google search.) And by focusing at first on works that are in the public domain - such as thousands of volumes of early American fiction - the group is sidestepping the tricky question of copyright violation." "The new group is calling for others to join. And Mr. Kahle of the Internet Archive said he hoped to recruit Google. "The thing I want to have happen out of all this is have Google join in," he said. "I know we're dealing with archcompetitors, but if there's room for these guys to bend, by the time my kid goes to college, we could have a library system that is just astonishing." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/03/business/03yahoo.html Homepage for the Open Content Alliance: http://www.opencontentalliance.org/ [These projects are of great interest to numismatic researchers, and not just because of the possible digitization of out-of-copyright numismatic literature. By making the contents of a wide range of works searchable, numismatic researchers stand to uncover a lot of interesting material that may lay otherwise unnoticed by the hobby in books not ordinarily found in numismatic libraries. -Editor] THE STACK'S JOHN J. FORD CATALOGUES Tom DeLorey writes: "The Stack's John J. Ford Catalogue Part XII is, indeed, incredible! Congratulations, once again, to the Stack's and their excellent cataloguers. Was I the only one bemused by the fact that this catalogue, featuring Massachusetts silver, should happen to be numbered XII in the series? That is, after all, how the denomination is expressed on the Shillings. No doubt this is nothing more than a remarkable coincidence? If not, can we perhaps expect the long-awaited and (some say) ill-starred Western Assay Bar collection to appear as Catalogue # XIII???" [I did notice the XII numbering and wondered if it was intentional. Definitely amusing either way. I'm probably not the only one wondering just how many sales there will be before the Ford collection is completely dispersed. I asked someone at Stack's when I called about the hardbound set I've been assembling, and was told (and I'm paraphrasing here) "we're not sure - they keep finding more stuff." Certainly the Assay Bars and the famed Nova Constellatio silver pattern set have yet to cross the block. What else is in the wings? -Editor] David Gladfelter writes: "The entire series (12 thus far) of Ford collection catalogs produced by Stack's, not only the latest catalog of Ford's Massachusetts silver, deserves to be cited as setting a new standard in numismatic cataloguing. The thoroughness of the research (including pedigree, just now beginning to receive anything like serious appreciation in cataloguing), the quality of the photographs, the liberal use of historical background information, the design and layout, the written descriptions including contributions by guest catalogers and essay writers such as George Fuld, Bruce Hagen, Scott Rubin and Michael Hodder, in addition to Stack's in-house staff, all make for a world class presentation of what some would call the finest U. S. numismatic collection of all time (despite the comment I heard that Ford didn't have any national bank notes). Stacks's had to be coaxed into producing special hardbound library editions of these catalogs, and The E-Sylum took the lead in convincing Stack's that there would be a market for such hardbounds. Stack's responded with sturdily-bound special editions (signature-sewn, not side-sewn or perfect-bound) in sufficient quantities that anyone who wants them can order them. And guess what? They're even pretty to look at, with lettered and blind-stamped matching front covers and marbled-style endpapers. So whether your Ford bids are successful or not, you have great information on the coins, tokens, medals and paper of interest to you. These standards are being maintained in Stack's regular auction catalogs. I think John Ford would have been pleased that advances in numismatic cataloguing didn't stop with his work on New Netherlands's 60th sale (in John Adams's opinion, the best catalog to date when he published United States Numismatic Literature, Volume II)." MORE HANS SCHULMAN INFO SOUGHT David Fanning writes: "The following is a message from the grandson of Hans Schulman, who is looking for information on his grandfather. I sent him excerpts from the recent conversations on the E-Sylum about him, but I thought you could post this message as well. He has given me permission to forward it to the group. Thanks." Mark Schulman writes: "I am Hans Schulman's grandson and I am trying to piece together his life for a possible biography. It sounds like he was very well known in the coin word. I never knew him, I have lived in the U.S. my whole life so I hardly saw him. Do you have any other avenues to get more information on him? Thank you." [Mark should certainly embark on the task of assembling a set of Hans Schulman's catalogs, books and articles as a starting point. Are there any published biographies that anyone is aware of? The Numismatic Indexes Project (NIP) lists a number of articles, but I didn't notice an obituary. Was one ever published, perhaps in Coin World? -Editor] NEW NUMISMATIC WEB SITE BUZZ? According to editor Ray Hanisco in the October 2005 issue of the Belladona Coin News (v1n11): "Rumor within the industry tells us that within the next three to four month there will be a new website coming on to the scene that will help create a change in how the coin industry will be doing business. I hear that this website will be subscriber based, and will allow for a much freer flow of information and coins between the novice, average and hard core collectors. Its scope will be international so it will assist collectors from all over the world to become a close knit community. Remember you heard it here first, and I will keep you informed as I hear more about it." [Have any of our readers heard these rumors, or otherwise know what they might be based on? -Editor] MANDEL, JAVON WORKS DONATED TO ANS LIBRARY Roger deWardt Lane writes: "I'm disposing of my numismatic library, slowly. Some time ago I set aside two books to donate to Frank Campbell and the American Numismatic Society library (they were moving at the time, so I put them aside). [These will soon be on their way to the ANS - Editor] One came from the personal library of London Haynes. He was a member of the ANS . He endorsed my membership in both the ANS and RNS. I met him a several times (took him to lunch at the hotel the first time to get the endorsements, met him at a flea market next) and found him to be an expert on Asian coinage. He passed on a number of years ago. Unfortunately he did not dispose of his numismatic library, so parts ended at a flea market and some at a used book dealer in Ft.Lauderdale, where I got this volume. It is of interest for several reasons - It is signed to Mr.Haynes by the author - Edgar J. Mandel. Has his two personal 'Chinese type' red ink stamps and dated Oct. 5, 1972. The unique part is that it is a library bound copy of 'printers proofs' reproduced by the pre-Xerox wet-copy method of Mandel's book "Cast Coinage of Korea". Bound in the same volume is another pre-Xerox type copy of the 1963 reprint of The Coinage of Corea by C.T. Gardner, from the Journal of China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Vol. XXVII (1892-93). I think Mandel used an earlier copy to cross-reference numbers between the two book, some of the plates have additional numbers penned on them. The second book - Money and The Mechanism of Exchange by W.Stanley Javons 1876., set me on a research project which has kept me busy for four hours so far. The ANS has a copy noted as year 1900, mine is 1876. [Be sure to keep the ANS, ANA, and other numismatic organization libraries in mind as you weed out of dispose of your numismatic libraries. Even the best libraries in the world have holes in their collections, and some of the missing items are surprisingly common. I would encourage the librarians among our readers to alert us to the items on your want lists. Perhaps one of our readers can help. -Editor] THE ROYAL MINT IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA Roger deWardt Lane adds: "In doing research on W. Stanley Javons, several biographies noted that he was for a time an assayer at the Mint in Sydney, Australia. This mint at the time was a Branch Mint of the Royal Mint, London. So a search on the Sydney mint came up with the following web site - http://www.hht.net.au/museums/the_mint/history/royal_mint_sydney The page has several links to other pages regarding the mint and photographs. [The page features some neat period photos of the mint and its operation. Another page on the site has a modern photo of the building and notes, interestingly: "The Mint was constructed between 1811?1816 as the southern wing of the Sydney Hospital. Known as the Rum Hospital it was built by private contractors in exchange for an exclusive license to import rum." http://www.hht.net.au/museums/the_mint/the_mint -Editor] REMELTING CENT SCRAP Last week, Dick Johnson mentioned that the skeleton scrap generated from the U.S. cent blanking operation could easily be melted and reformulated into brass. Tom DeLorey writes: "The webbing, or skeleton scrap as you call it, left over from the punching out of cent blanks can simply be remelted into new strip and need not be recycled into brass (though it could be). The strip itself is not copper plated, or otherwise the edges of the cents would show the zinc core. The blanks themselves are copper plated after being punched out of the strip. Even if the strip were plated, it could still be melted down into new strip. The specifications for the copper-plated zinc cent introduced in 1982 specifically calls for a trace amount of copper in the zinc core, to allow for spoiled blanks, planchets and cents to be melted down into new strip without the need to refine out the copper which had already been applied to them. They did it logically." THE "GOLDEN DOLLAR" Last week I noted the use of the term "Golden Dollar" in the U.S. Mint's request for proposals to supply blank planchets. Kavan Ratnatunga writes: "The minimum legal standard of karatage in the U.S. is 10K. Anything less than 10K can not be called gold. Is the Mint in Violation? Isn't it no different than scam eBay sellers who use Gold and Silver color to describe brass and Cupro-nickel coins? http://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/amber/go340/gold.htm [The term "Golden" rather than "Gold" refers to the color, not the content. But plenty of people have been fooled into thinking the coin contains at least trace amounts of gold. Both the Mint and the eBay sellers you describe are within the bounds of the law, even if some buyers are fooled. -Editor] ANOTHER WORLD'S GREATEST PRESENTATION SET Brad Karoleff writes: "I have the set of World's Greatest Catalogs issued to the Cincinnati Numismatic Society autographed by K and K. Please add these to the list of known copies." THE E-SYLUM - THE EARLY DAYS At the request of Roger deWardt Lane, last week we began reprinting parts of my recent Asylum article on the birth of The E-Sylum. We finish this week, starting with the first two of what I called "The Seven Commandments Of The E-Sylum: One: Thou Shalt Have A Regular Publishing Schedule. Computer bulletin boards and automated mailing lists serve a definite purpose, but have many drawbacks. While it's nice to have a forum that pretty much runs itself, human nature usually sees to it that the end result is anarchy. At times, days or weeks may go by without any posts to an Internet forum, and then you get such fascinating exchanges as "Hello ? is anybody there?," followed by replies of the ilk, "I'm here ? it's been pretty quiet for a while." "Yeah, it has." Scintillating. At the other extreme, you can have times when the forum erupts into ceaseless chatter, some of which is often enlightening, but the majority of which is simply noise, making one long for the days of prolonged silence. To avoid these problems, any newsletter must have a strict publishing schedule. In the case of The E-Sylum, I chose a weekly format. Why? A month seemed too long to go between issues, and daily was just too much work. A week I could handle, or so I thought at the time. This schedule represented a significant speedup in the communication with NBS members as opposed to the quarterly Asylum publication schedule. Two: Thou Shalt Have A Human Editor. The other problem with automated forums is the lack of a human editor to exercise judgment and impart style and organization. Automated forums are lightening fast publishing tools, but all too often serve only to spew mindless prattle across the globe at the speed of light. [To read the remaining Commandments, see the full article in The Asylum, Summer 2004 25th Anniversary issue. -Editor] As mentioned above, what came to be known as The E-Sylum was originally intended to serve fairly narrow needs of the NBS organization. But the power of the medium became apparent early on as the publication morphed into a broader role, addressing not just numismatic literature, but numismatic research in general. It was also convenient to include mentions of numismatic articles appearing in the general press. By the early issues of the 2000 volume most of the elements seen in today's E-Sylums are present: new publication announcements, research requests, comments and stories from readers, new or amusing stories relating to numismatics, the occasional editorial comment or "quick quiz", and the featured web site. The E-Sylum has also managed to break a few important stories, which later in the week appeared in the mainstream numismatic press. Although The E-Sylum is a publication in what was at the time an entirely new medium for its audience, it is really nothing new under the sun. One of my favorite sources for contemporary accounts of 18th century numismatics is The Gentleman's Magazine of London. Begun in 1731, it is considered the first modern magazine and was the most influential periodical of the eighteenth century. Reviews of contemporary books and news accounts were regular features, as were letters from readers which sometimes amounted to lengthy articles on a wide range of subjects by the most learned men of the day. In America, another favorite numismatic source is The Historical Magazine, begun in 1857, a scholarly journal devoted to historical research and criticism, which exhibits some of the same properties. The E-Sylum is similar to these publications in several ways, but at its most basic it serves as a means of both formal and informal communication among far-flung devotees of the subject, with an immediate flavor of the times. It's like listening in on the conversations of hundreds of today's numismatic personalities at a giant weekly gab session. Perhaps in years to come researchers will look back on The E-Sylum as a ready source of contemporary accounts of the state of numismatic research in the early 21st century. But all that matters right now, is that the forum is a useful and entertaining way to keep in touch with our fellow numismatic bibliophiles and researchers. ASK ME NOW (IF YOU JUST CAN'T WAIT TIL LATER) On October 5, 2005 article by Walter Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal notes: "If you're one of those people who thinks he's always right, but can't prove it on the spot, we might have just the technology for you. This week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I tested a new service called AskMeNow that attempts to be like a digital version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire's phone-a-friend. This service works by answering questions of all sorts in just a few minutes for free, or in some cases for 49 cents per question." "Its concept is very straightforward: You send questions to the service by calling from your cellphone or emailing directly from a portable smartphone, and answers are sent back to your phone or hand-held via Short Messaging Services (SMS) or email within about a minute." "To answer your questions, the company employs real people who sit at computers in the Philippines, furiously researching the Internet (using data from content partnerships) trying to respond to your queries within three minutes. This doesn't always mean the response is correct. It simply means that the retrieved information was online somewhere. But our results proved rather accurate." "To start using AskMeNow, users must go to its Web site, www.askmenow.com, to enter sign-up information including your name, ZIP Code, country and cellphone number;" We asked some tough questions like, "Where are the Rolling Stones playing tonight in Washington, D.C.?" and "Why do men have nipples?" But we got accurate responses to both. Katie even tried a snarky question: Why are girls smarter than boys? But the response just said that her question was unanswerable due to editorial policy." To read the full article, see http://ptech.wsj.com/solution.html [So, any of you smarty-pants readers care to submit some numismatic research questions and report back on the accuracy of the results? Will the Phillipino research staff come through? There is an awful lot of numismatic information available on the web now. Ask the right question, and the answer may be found in the E-Sylum archives. What is a Panamint Ball, for instance? -Editor] STOP SCRIBBLING ON OUR MONEY! "The Cypriot central bank, alarmed at the number of defaced banknotes in circulation, appealed to doodlers on Wednesday to resist the temptation to scrawl on the country's currency. Unable to see the humour in drawing smiley faces on bills or using them to jot down notes, the central bank pointed out in a statement that it was a illegal to deface a banknote." To read the full article, see: http://tinyurl.com/9lpcb BORNEO WOMAN STASHES THE CASH According to the October 7 Borneo Bulletin ("Your Gateway to Borneo"), "In Sandakan, a local woman who hid counterfeit currencies amounting to RM5,600 in her bra was jailed 36 months by the Magistrate Court on Wednesday. Ishikarna Hanil, 27, of Kg Batu Semporna admitted to having 30 pieces of RM100 notes, 41 pieces of RM50 notes and 55 pieces of RM10 notes with intention to use them as genuine downtown on August 16. Magistrate Ramzi Osman heard that Ishikarna was detained at 1.15am by a police team following a tip-off. A black plastic bag containing the fake currencies was later found in her bra." http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/fri/oct7b2.htm FEATURED WEB SITE This week's featured web site is suggested by John and Nancy Wilson, Ocala, FL. They write: "The Wikipedia is a great site for E-Sylum readers to get information. As an example the link below is to a page listing the Treasurers of the U. S through the current appointee. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasurer_of_the_United_States [We have referenced the Wikipedia before, but not this particular page. It is a very useful site, as long as one remembers that it is maintained by volunteers and should not be relied upon as the final word on any research topic. -Editor] Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. For more information please see our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/. There is a membership application available on the web site at this address: http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_member_app.html To join, print the application and return it with your check to the address printed on the application. Membership is only $15 to addresses in North America, $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 >From September 2002 to date the issues are also archived at this address: http://my.binhost.com/pipermail/esylum/ From esylum at binhost.com Sun Oct 16 22:48:30 2005 From: esylum at binhost.com (esylum@binhost.com) Date: Sun Oct 16 22:55:10 2005 Subject: The E-Sylum v8#44, October 16, 2005 Message-ID: <435310FE.9060209@telerama.com> Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 8, Number 44, October 16, 2005: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2005, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. WAYNE'S WORDS Among our recent subscribers are Mark M. Schulman, Emil Eusanio, Rod Charlton, Brian Salinas, Roland W. Finner and Jack Benedict. Welcome aboard! We now have 810 subscribers. Counterfeiting is one theme in this week's issue, with news of recent operations big and small. Master counterfeiter Mark Hofmann was the subject of a lengthy article on the 20th anniversary of the Utah murders he committed to cover his tracks. The mystery of the woman chemist on Scottish banknotes was quickly solved, and our Featured Web Site is a nice one on U.S. Depression Scrip. True story: "Behind the wall, there is a library of old books." So we ask, "How do you get in?" "You can?t. It?s completely sealed. Four walls. No door. It?s been sealed for a long time." Got your attention, bibliophiles? Read on... Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society LAKE BOOKS SALE #81 CLOSING OCTOBER 18TH Fred Lake writes: "Our sale of numismatic literature #81, featuring the Clarence Rareshide Library - Part I, closes on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 at 5:00 PM (EDT). The sale may be viewed at http://www.lakebooks.com/current.html and bids may be placed via telephone, fax, or email prior to the closing time. Part Two of the Rareshide Library will have a closing date of Tuesday, November 29, 2005 and ill be posted to the Lake Books web site in early November." DAVISSON LITERATURE SALE CLOSING OCTOBER 25TH Allan Davisson writes: "Our numismatic book sale closes on October 25th. Bids are coming in but there are many bargains remaining in the sale. I had an extra hundred printed to be sent out to any who would like a copy and most of those are still available and I am happy to send them out at no charge." [See the September 25, 2005 E-Sylum ( v8#41) for more information on the sale. Allan can be contacted at Davissons Ltd., Cold Spring, MN 56320 (the entire mail address) or email, coins@davissons.net. I have a copy of the catalog, and it's a very nicely done affair, with a good deal of interesting annotation. In the preface to the sale, Davisson writes: "Spending time reading through and checking one-of-a-kind books that will sell for $15-$20 works out to a time / energy / printing investment that is not particularly rewarding financially. It has been a particularly pleasant project for the summer. ... I have let my own observations and opinions creep into the commentary -- hopefully you will find it all enjoyable..." Davisson also devotes a quarter-page to a discussion on the "Preserve / Repair / Rebind" quandary bibliophiles face with many books, and a half page to a discussion of the various editions of the Seaby coin catalogs. There is also a quarter page discussion of the Spink Numismatic Circular where Davisson notes: "In the early 90s I felt that $150+ per copy for catalogs issued between 1940 and 1947 from a Kolbe sale was too much. I was very wrong about that. Since then I have spend hundreds trying to complete the 1939 to 1946 series. .... I paid $250 to John Burns for a single volume that had a number of war time issues bound together. ... the wartime issues have proven to be a major challenge that I still have not completed after 17 years of effort.... Now you know why the numismatic book society calls it "bibliomania". Bidders should note that there is NO BUYER'S FEE with this sale, a pleasant change from the chore of subtracting 10-15% from each true bid before marking the bid sheet. -Editor] KOLBE SALE 98 SPECIAL OFFER George Kolbe writes: "Our printer unexpectedly delivered over 100 extra copies of our upcoming November 17, 2005 auction sale catalogue 98 of IMPORTANT NUMISMATIC WORKS. While supplies last we will be happy to send E-Sylum subscribers not on our mailing list a complimentary copy of the catalogue (postage reimbursement will be appreciated: $3.00 for U. S. and Canada; $7.50 elsewhere)." FORD II HARDBOUND EDITION UPDATE George Kolbe writes: "After lo these many months, our binder informs us that the cloth and leather-bound editions of the 2005 Ford sale catalogue will soon be in our hands. Our apologies to subscribers for the long wait (both editions are sold out)." NEW HAMPSHIRE FLOODING SPARES LITTLETON AND ANR Hearing news reports of flooding in New Hampshire this week, I contacted New Hampshirites Q. David Bowers (of American Numismatic Rarities) and David Sundman (of Littleton Coin Company and NBS Secretary-Treasurer) to see how they and their businesses fared. The mere thought of flooding brings chills to a bibliophile's heart.... Dave Bowers wrote: "All is well here. The flooding was mainly in the SW part of the state. I think things are better there now. It has been a year for Mother Nature." David Sundman wrote: "Thanks for thinking of us! We are all fine, tucked up north about 150 miles from all the bad flooding, which is centered around the Keene area in southwest New Hampshire. They had about 12 inches of rain in a very short time." [The farther away things are, the closer together they seem. New Hampshire may be a small state, but that's still a lot of territory. I'm glad to know our numismatic friends were unaffected, but empathize with those affected by the flooding in Keene. As our readers may recall, shortly after the ANA convention here in Pittsburgh last year (September 17th, to be exact), we were drenched by the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan, swelling nearby creeks and streams and flooding neighborhoods all around us. Asylum Editor Tom Fort (who lives just a few miles away) and I had just hosted tours of our numismatic libraries during the convention, and luckily our families, homes and libraries were safely perched on hilltops. But communities in the valleys between were devastated, with water covering streets and flooding homes and businesses. The towns looked like war zones for weeks, patrolled by the National Guard and U.S. Army troops as debris was cleared and basic services restored. Please keep the victims of recent hurricanes and flooding in mind - if you haven't already done so, please consider a donation to the Salvation Army, Red Cross or other relief organization supporting the recovery efforts. -Editor] ANS NUMISMATIC LITERATURE SEEKS EDITORS The following is from the American Numismatic Society's E-News for October 2005: "Numismatic Literature number 146, which lists over one-thousand titles, is in final proofs and will be sent to the printer this month. In the meantime, we are actively looking for Contributing Editors who can supply bibliography for China, Finland, Greece, India, Jordan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey. Interested parties should contact the International Editor, Oliver Hoover at numlit@numismatics.org." CANADIAN NUMISMATICS CORRESPONDENCE COURSE Regarding the Canadian Numismatic Correspondence Course, Part 2, Steve Woodland writes: "I recently completed the new course and would like to publicly thank Paul Johnson and his team, three of whom are members of my own club, the City of Ottawa Coin Club. I found the course material so interesting that not only did I complete all the required chapters of the course, I went back and did all the remaining chapters too! Fascinating reading! And for those E-Sylum readers who are interested in learning more about Canadian Tire Money, there is an entire chapter dedicated to Canadian Tire Money as a Numismatic Collectible, where you can even learn the name of the Scotsman who has graced the front of CTC store coupons since 1961." CRANE BEP PAPER CONTRACT CHALLENGER Thanks to Chick Ambrass for reminding me about this article from this morning's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It's about a Pennsylvania paper company hoping to challenge Crane & Co. as a supplier of paper to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving & Printing: "A small Blair County town, known for the sonorous spring that runs through it, might soon become the new birthplace of American money. But it's just as likely that Roaring Spring, tucked in a limestone valley south of Altoona, will find that history remains on someone else's side. Roaring Spring, the locals say, is home to a subterranean lake, which gives rise to the spring for which the town is named. Throughout the town's history, the spring has powered mills to grind grain and to make paper, and there are two paper mills now, run by Roaring Spring Paper Products and Appleton Papers Inc. It's Appleton, headquartered in Wisconsin, that wants to take a crack at making money -- or at least the paper it's printed on. "It is something that we would like to explore," said Bill Van Den Brandt, Appleton spokesman." "Fulfilling one of the oldest government contracts, Crane & Co. has been shipping its special mix of nonwood-based paper, about a quarter linen and three-quarters cotton, to Uncle Sam since 1879. Appleton hopes to get in on the action, but to do so, it will have to rewrite a unique American business story and reverse more than 230 years of U.S. history." "While the Crane & Co. federal currency contract dates to only 1879, the company actually has been making money, so to speak, since 1775, when Stephen Crane, father of company founder Zenas Crane, sold paper to an engraver named Paul Revere. On it, according to company lore, Revere printed some of the earliest paper money in the American colonies." "Appleton's behind-the-scenes play for the currency job, or for at least a portion of it, marks a rare challenge to the Crane Co.'s multigenerational stranglehold on the contract." "Crane's contract with the feds runs through July 2006. Last month, the federal government released an RFP -- request for proposal -- for the next paper manufacturing contract, which would run through 2012. The RFP allows the winners a two-year window to install production equipment. The Roaring Spring Appleton plant would need to invest $70 million in new equipment to handle the contract." To read the complete story, see: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05289/588912.stm DIFFERING OPINIONS ON ANA CLUB TABLE LOCATIONS Steve D'Ippolito writes: "I had no trouble finding the club tables in San Francisco. They were right off to the side before you even got to registration--the first thing you saw coming off the escalator, which faced them. But they were rarely occupied. The tables need to be visible, true, but they also need to be occupied! The ANS successfully recruited me in San Francisco in part because they always had someone at their table." Larry Gaye writes: "It's good to see that Howard Daniel III will be back at the ANA. I for one have missed seeing him the past few shows. I agree that the club tables have been relegated to the corn field (forgive the Twilight Zone reference) and could not be easily located. In San Francisco they might have as well been located in Oakland as in Mosconi West. I do hope the ANA will place them in a better location." ON FORWARD-FACING PORTRAITS Last week we discussed the U.S. Mint's new design for the obverse of the Jefferson nickel, with a portrait of Thomas Jefferson facing forward. Larry Gaye writes: "An observation regarding the new design of the 2006 Jefferson nickel: regarding wear, I am a collector of Byzantine and related coinages. For a great part of the history of the coinage the Emperor's and other personages were imaged face on. This results in a very quick deterioration of the nose. Sooner or later this will happen on the new "Jeff." I suspect this will be a grading point as to slight wear being a dead give away of an AU coin and so forth." Martin Purdy writes: "The most outstanding (pun intended) example I can think of would be the forward-facing portrait of Henry VIII used on base silver coinage toward the end of his reign. Because the coin had a high copper content, the silver wore away rather quickly from the highest part of the design (the royal nose), giving rise to the title "Old Coppernose". I hope Tom doesn't suffer the same fate ..." For more information, see this well-illustrated 26-page article on the Spink web site on the British Kings and Queens and their Coinage: http://www.spink.com/services/collectables/kingsqueens.doc MORE ON THE DOMITIANUS DISCOVERY Arthur Shippee forwarded a link from the Explorator newsletter to a new article on the recently discovered Domitianus coin: "Forget stone, a discovery of a Roman coin in Britain proves history is set in bronze and silver. During the chaos and confusion of the third century A.D., amid widespread disease, famine, and barbarian invasions, a brazen upstart seizes control of a breakaway state within the Roman Empire. He proclaims himself emperor only to disappear days later, his life and story lost, save for only the briefest of remarks in two fragmentary and unreliable sources. Then, an amateur treasure hunter scanning the green fields of Oxfordshire with a metal detector chances upon a small clay pot filled with more than 5,000 ancient Roman coins. A British Museum archaeologist brushing away centuries of corrosion and carefully picking apart bronze and silver pieces, discovers one exceedingly strange coin. Among the thousands of unremarkable ones, this coin carries an unfamiliar bearded face, a perplexing name, Domitianus, and most strikingly, the three letters IMP, short for imperator, or emperor. Suddenly, the hunt was on for another coin, this one found not buried in the ground, but buried in the archives of a small provincial museum in southern France. The French coin, dug up in 1900, was deemed worthless at the time, a modern counterfeit depicting what was surely a made up emperor. Amazingly, the portrait on the supposed fake matches the strange coin in the British Museum, as does the image on the reverse side. Small characteristic markings provide the final confirmation; both coins had been struck from the same die or stamp. The French coin is not a fake, and the bearded man, not an imposter, but a lost emperor." "As the story reached the press, the coin became source of national pride. The British paper The Times printed a picture of the coin with the caption "Is this Britain's Lost Emperor?" Archaeologists and historians were quick to temper some of the sensationalism, noting that it was highly unlikely that Domitianus, who had probably been confined to a region in southwest Germany near the Danube, had ever even seen Britain, and that the coin had made its way to Oxfordshire via trade routes or troop movements. Even so, the discovery of the coin created a buzz throughout academic circles in Britain. Christopher Howgego, the curator of ancient coins at the Ashmolean, told reporters that, "the coin is one of the most interesting Roman objects ever found in Britain." To read the complete article, see: http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/coin/ FATAMID GOLD COINS DISCOVERED Arthur Shippee also forwarded a link to an article by the Kuwait News Agency on a discovery of Fatimid-era coins from Egypt: "A Polish archaeological team has discovered 13 gold coins 'made more than 1,000 years ago while excavating around a Coptic monastery outside Cairo, Egyptian antiquities officials announced yesterday. The coins were found at the Monastery of Archangel Gabriel in Fayoum, about 100km southwest of Cairo, and date back to the era of the Fatimids, who ruled Cairo between 908 and 1187 A.D, according to a statement released by the Supreme Council of Antiquities. To read the full article, see: http://tinyurl.com/b6j6k BUYING FAKE CASH ONLINE The Chilliwack Progress of Chilliwack, British Columbia reported on October 11 that "Counterfeit money can be ordered on the Internet for 40 cents on the dollar. And ordinary young B.C. teenagers are among the biggest buyers, says Cpl. Mary Kostashuk, with the RCMP "E" Division commercial crime section. They get onto Internet teen "chat" rooms, express an interest and, presto, a counterfeit crook responds and then calls direct to consummate a deal." "The counterfeiters are usually drug users and dealers who recruit children to get rid of counterfeit cash manufactured using today's sophisticated photocopying machines and quality copy paper. Some drug dealers make the fake money themselves, or buy in bulk from at 10 cents on the dollar from big eastern Canadian crime rings ... " To read the complete story, see: http://www.theprogress.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=39&cat=42&id=507579 THE IRA, NORTH KOREA, AND "SUPERNOTES" A Reuters article on October 12th reported that "The United States is seeking the extradition from Britain of a senior member of an Irish Republican Army splinter group on charges of conspiring with North Korea to circulate counterfeit U.S. currency, officials said on Wednesday. The indictment of Sean Garland, described in U.S. legal documents as the leader of Irish Workers' Party and the banned Official Irish Republican Army, comes as Washington prepares for more nuclear disarmament talks with Pyongyang in November. State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said Garland, 71, has been charged with involvement in counterfeiting hundred-dollar bills. "We will be requesting his extradition from the United Kingdom," he told reporters." "The U.S. Department of Justice said Garland and six others were arrested on October 7 in Northern Ireland on charges pending in the United States. The arrests followed a 16-year investigation since the counterfeit bills started appearing in 1989." "The notes "were manufactured in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and under auspices of the government and transported worldwide by North Korean individuals acting as ostensible government officials," the Justice Department said in a statement." The "Supernotes" first appeared in Ireland in the early 1990s and redesigned after the United States modified its currency to improve security, the Justice Department said. Garland and co-conspirators, none of whom are North Koreans, are accused of trying to buy, transport and sell fake $100 bills in quantities of up to $1 million." To read the complete story, see: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051013/wl_nm/crime_korea_north_usa_dc MYSTERY BANKNOTE WOMAN REVEALED "A mother-of-three has been revealed as the mystery woman on a banknote that scientists had been trying to identify. Members of the Royal Society of Chemistry had been trying to discover the identity of the female lab worker pictured on the back of the Bank of Scotland ?20 note. Their search began after a visitor to a convention asked them who the woman was and if she was a scientist. Now it has been revealed that she is 52-year-old Janet Mullen, a scientist from Peebles. Mrs Mullen is pictured analysing samples in a laboratory at the Scottish College of Textiles in Galashiels - where she worked 17 years ago." "The picture featuring Mrs Mullen was chosen for the ?20 note to illustrate education and research. The notes were released in May 1995 but Mrs Mullen - who now works as a scientist for Scottish Water - said she had only realised her picture was on them when a former colleague phoned her up." "And she added: "It's quite exciting to be on the note but although it is my picture on it, it's not as if I was chosen for any reason, I didn't do anything to deserve it. But in a way it is an honour and I feel as if I am representing all the scientists who work in laboratories and all the work they do." "She said: "After I found out about the notes I went into the local branch and spoke to the manager about it. Afterwards the bank presented me with two of the ?20 notes in a framed presentation case, which is nice to have." To read the full article, see http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2068432005 THE SCOTSMAN DIGITAL ARCHIVE Numismatic researchers might want to check out the digital archive of The Scotsman, which includes every issue from 1817 through 1950. Searches are free, but all you get to see is a headline. Access to the full article is for paid subscribers only. A 24-hour pass is ?7.95, and periods of 48 hours, 1 week, 1 month or 1 year are available for up to ?159.95. A search with just the term "coin" found a great number of articles, many of which looked interesting. http://archive.scotsman.com/ THE MILLION DOLLAR BILL Mark Tomasko writes: "I was amazed at the Greater Kashmir story on arrests of people who simply possessed the "Million Dollar Bill." That bill was one of the stranger American Bank Note Company creations, in the early 80s if I recall. I'm still a little surprised ABN did it and that the U.S. government didn't stop them. The designer (long retired) who did the back of the bill is a friend of mine, and I will pass the story along to him. Reminds me of the Singapore citizen who ran into trouble carrying into Singapore uncut sheets of U.S. bills. Thanks for all your work." ON FAKE CONFEDERATE ID DISCS Alan V. Weinberg writes: "The Confederate ID discs with engravings on them (seated Dollar and seated Half Dollar) are not even on real coins. Even the "coins" are casts as are the facsimile engravings on the obverse and reverse. I've examined close to a dozen of each type. They first appeared perhaps 10 years ago. One was featured and pictured early on in one of Joe Levine's Presidential Coin & Antique Co. auction catalogues - I caught it and Joe withdrew it. At approximately the same time none other than John J. Ford called me to inquire about one he'd just received on approval from a prominent coin dealer. John asked me ( ! ) if it was genuine. I told him no, they'd been turning up and told him to use a glass then and there on the phone to examine the "coin" itself. He did and came back incredulously with "the coin is a cast!". [My brief review of Peter Bertram's booklet last week didn't go into the particulars, but yes, these fakes are all cast. At first glance they may look like U.S. coins with added engraving, but they are casts. Not only is the weight wrong, but there are small differences in size and shape as well. The book lists the proper dimensions and weight of genuine U.S. coins, along with the dimensions and weight of many of the known fakes. There is also a table listing the known examples of ID discs for each soldier. Unless you're Mr. T, just how many dog tags does one soldier need, anyway? -Editor] FORGER MARK HOFMANN, TWENTY YEARS LATER A great article in the Deseret Morning News, Saturday, October 15, 2005 profiles Mark Hofmann, the notorious forger and murderer who faked coins, currency, and a great deal of documents related to the Mormon church (the church of Latter-Day Saints, or LDS). "Twenty years ago today, one of the most bizarre chapters in Utah history began when a nondescript man wearing a high school letterman's jacket and carrying a package went into the Judge Building and took the elevator to the sixth floor. The two murders Mark Hofmann committed that bright October day were cold-blooded, clumsy attempts to divert attention from his life's work ? hundreds of forgeries and lies that tampered with LDS and American history. For years, it turned out, Hofmann had been producing phony signatures and documents and photos and coins, successfully convincing handwriting experts and forgery detection machines that all of it was authentic. The reach of his forgeries ? from Emily Dickinson to Mark Twain, George Washington to Joseph Smith ? and the cunning with which he tricked a nation's document collectors continue to intrigue authors and investigators. So far, seven books have been written about him. This weekend, yet another symposium is being held to analyze his crimes, as forensic document examiners from 33 states gather in Salt Lake City to talk about the arcane details of ink and paper. Meanwhile, Hofmann's forgeries and counterfeiting are still leaving their mark. His doctored documents continue to surface and are sometimes sold as originals even when there is proof that they're "Hofmanns." Two years ago, a penny Hofmann claims he altered sold for $48,300 at a Beverly Hills auction." "If I can produce something so correctly, so perfect that the experts declare it genuine, then for all practical purposes it is genuine," Hofmann once told his former prison guard, Charles Larson, author of "Numismatic Forgery." In Hofmann's mind, if it was a perfect forgery, no one was being deceived. "He has little or no conscience," his former friend, Shannon Flynn, said. "He doesn't think about things in moral terms, like punishment by God. . . . He believes in a sense we just live in a biological system," where a murder is the equivalent of a lion killing a water buffalo, simply for survival, Flynn says. "He killed those people to survive, to get out of it. Things were closing in on him. His forgeries were very close to being found out." "Was he the best forger ? or at least the best forger who was caught ? in the past 1,200 years?" "While most forgers specialize in, say, Abraham Lincoln, Hofmann could do 86 signatures. He made his own ink, created his coins and currency, fashioned his own postmarks." To read the complete story, see: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635153542,00.html ANA SEEKS NUMISMATIC SPEAKERS The following is from a recent American Numismatic Association release: "ANA?s National Speakers Bureau is accepting new applicants who are interested in helping people discover and explore the world of money. With the ever-increasing interest in numismatics, the American Numismatic Association is looking for additional people with prepared numismatic presentations who would like to be invited to share their expertise with others in their local community. The National Speaker?s Bureau (outreach@money.org) is available to assist schools, museums, civic organizations, Scout leaders, coin clubs and show organizers locate speakers for educational programs. Interested presenters can obtain an application from ANA?s Outreach Department or from the ANA website at www.money.org. (Select ?Education? from the drop-down menu at ?Explore the World of Money.?)" FRACTIONAL CURRENCY WEB SITE LOST In the Summer 2005 issue of the Fractional Currency Collectors Board newsletter, editor Jerry Fochtman writes: "Some may recall the web site, fractionalnotes.com, which had a large number of articles, pictures of notes, and information on the history of fractional notes as well as helpful guides for new collectors. Unfortunately this web site and its owner left the hobby and disappeared, and I've not succeeded in finding anyone who had a copy of the site or even some of the articles that were placed on the site. However, another FCCB member is looking into setting-up another site for our hobby." [This is where the Wayback Machine comes in handy. In the February 23, 2003 issue of The E-Sylum (v6n8), subscriber Kavan Ratnatunga introduced us to this great resource: "A 120 Terabyte archive of the Internet was put online in Oct 2001 in the WayBack Machine." Bill Malkmus gave us an update on July 31st of this year (v8n33): "The Wednesday, July 27, 2005 Wall Street Journal had a fascinating front-page article on a website that should be of interest to other folks like me who have a library of obsolete (non-functional) bookmarks: http://www.waybackmachine.org/ The Wayback Machine has archived web pages over the last nine years; while Google has currently 8 billion pages archived, the Wayback Machine has a total of 40 billion! I tried this out on my old lists of bookmarks; whenever I got a response that the web page could not be found, I put the URL into the Wayback Machine. Sure enough, the pages were not only archived and retrievable, but a listing was given of the dates on which they were archived (perhaps 30 or more), and in addition, notation was made of whenever the web pages had been changed!" The Wayback Machine archived FractionalNotes.com sixty-six times between December 4, 2000 and November 3, 2004. Not all of these archived dates have copies of the full web site. A random check noted that February 4, 2003 and July 30, 2003 have at least some of the site's pages and images. I've passed this information on to Jerry to assist the club in re-establishing the web site. -Editor] UPCOMING JOHN J. FORD SALES In response to my question last week, Alan V. Weinberg writes: "There are more than fifteen categories of John J. Ford, Jr. numismatic collectibles not yet catalogued or auctioned by Stack's including, but not limited to : Canadian tokens (one of the finest collections), "pseudo-Low" Hard Times (one of the finest collections) , Miller merchant storecard tokens of the 1850-60's, Lincolnia, Franklinia, Lafayette medals and tokens, political ferrotypes, struck political tokens and medals, Sutler tokens, tokens of the old West including territorials and Post & Indian Traders, Betts medals (two catalogues, foreign and "American" ), Canadian & American Indian Peace medals (two catalogues), medals of the Old West, Pioneer gold & ingots, etc. So, my estimate is at least another two years through 2007, just as Stack's originally announced. This is based on my knowledge of what I know Ford collected and owned & conversations with various close associates of JJF. Based on what is still unsold, there are going to be some really interesting & ground-breaking JJF auction catalogues forthcoming." WORLD'S GREATEST COLLECTION CATALOGS Dan Hamelberg reports: "Here's another set of the World's Greatest Collection: Abe Kosoff"s full leather set in covers. Also, I have the prototype of the hardbound for silver coins." VOCABULARY WORD: SCISSEL Recent writers mentioned "webbing", or "skeleton scrap" left over from the punching out of coin blanks. Alan Roy writes: "The word you're looking for to describe coinage scrap is "scissel." http://www.indictionary.com/define/Scissel.html I first heard it at a CNA convention a few years ago. The registration packs included a piece of scissel from the Royal Canadian Mint." [We discussed this word a couple years ago in the volume 6 (2003) issues no. 32, 33 and 34. Dick Johnson provided us with a definition, and he used "skeleton scrap" very deliberately in his recent post. In The E-Sylum v6n33 Dick wrote: "The definition for SCISSEL in last week's E-Sylum was not entirely accurate. Not only is it the long strips of metal from which blanks (not coins, blanks) are cut, but also the trimmings from other metal-working operations. Workers today are more apt to use the term SKELETON SCRAP for the blanked strips rather than the archaic word "scissel." -Editor] NUMISMATICS: HOBBY OR INDUSTRY? Last week I quoted an author who referred to "the coin industry". One reader writes: "Why is the collecting and selling of coins being called an industry? Nothing is manufactured - by the hobby or dealers. The only manufacturing is being done by the world mints and bureaus of printing. If there is any "industry" web site, such would be for them. I have been most disturbed by the use of the word "Industry" as a blanket moniker for the hobby and those of the dealer community. Nothing is manufactured - those in the "business" are marketeers of technically second hand goods and hobbyists are just that - taking a portion of their lives to escape from the realities of the world around them, to pause if you will, to explore an interest of enjoyment." [Although not an "industry", there is certainly a booming business surrounding the numismatic hobby, so I would venture to say it's safer to use the term "coin business" in this context. Coin dealers are brokers and resellers, providing a service to the hobby through their buying, selling and brokering activity. -Editor] VOCABULARY WORD: FILIPINO Ken Berger writes: "In the last E-Sylum, you used the word Phillipino. This is incorrect! First, it should have one L not two. Second, it should use an F not a Ph. Thus, the word should be Filipino. Filipino is a general word & is used as both an adjective and a noun. When speaking specifically about a female individual, you should use Filipina. You may see the word Pilipino. This is the name of the official language of the Philippines which is about 95% + (in my opinion & many others) based on Tagalog (the main language spoken around Manila). Pilipino/a would also be an adjective or a noun in the official language. Philipino, as you used it, is a spelling which was used by Americans late in the 19th C. & very early 20th C. It definitely is not used today by either Filipinos or Americans. I speak from experience. I collect Phippine coins & am an advanced collector of Philippine Guerrilla Currency. I've lived and taught in the Philippines. My M.A. thesis in Asian Studies examined oil spill impacts in SE Asia, including the Philippines. Finally, my wife is a Filipina (a Cebuana to be exact). Nevertheless, you are forgiven." [Sorry! I wondered about that when I first wrote that sentence, but didn't have time to check it before publication. Thanks for keeping us on the straight and narrow. -Editor] THE WIKIPEDIA AND NUMISMATICS Our Featured Web Site last week was a section of the Wikipedia, an "open source" web-based encyclopedia project. I noted that "It is a very useful site, as long as one remembers that it is maintained by volunteers and should not be relied upon as the final word on any research topic." Arthur Shippee writes: "Yes, it's maintained by volunteers --such as yourselves. Actually, you folks might want to think about making the Wikipedia a great numismatic site, by editing the existing articles & adding new ones. That's the theory behind the Wiki open-source idea. It's a very interesting notion, and depends on the general good will of the mass of users. And, since lots of folks use & will use Wikipedia, they might stumble into the numismatics areas by following links from elsewhere, and become interested in numismatics. Perhaps a good recruiting tool to the field." [Well, one thing we could do here at The E-Sylum is to at least review the numismatic content of the Wikipedia. Here's one page chosen at random: Irish Coinage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinage_of_the_Republic_of_Ireland Let's hear some of your comments! We love words here at The E-Sylum, and although it's not numismatic, readers might also want to check out this amusing Wikipedia entry on Made-up Words in The Simpsons television series. It's perfectly cromulent... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made-up_words_in_The_Simpsons -Editor] SWEDEN STAMP-COIN FOR CROSSOVER COLLECTORS Dick Johnson writes: "In a previous E-Sylum I wrote of mints and minting on stamps (when the American Topical Association published a list of these); this was in E-Sylum?s July 20, 2003 (vol 6, no 29) issue. There are a large number of coins and medals on stamps of the world. But here is something new ? at least new to me -- a stamp on a coin! The 50-kronor Swedish coin went on sale Friday this week (October 14, 2005). It honors the 150th anniversary of Sweden?s first postage stamp issued in 1855. The composition, called "Nordic Gold" is copper-aluminum (copper 89, aluminum 5, zinc 5, tin 1) and was minted by the Swedish Mint in Eskilstuna. Obverse of the 1 1/2-inch (35mm) coin bears the 4-skilling stamp, the mintmark E and a mintmaster mark H, initial of the national bank?s governor (isn't that charming? -- that's a perk not every bank president can boast!). Reverse bears a winged letter flying over the Swedish landscape and a French horn, symbol of the Swedish Post Office. It?s a limited issue of 100,000 coins and the price is 60 Swedish korona. Crossover collectors can see a picture of the new stamp-coin at the Swedish National Bank?s website (the language is in English, -- but yah! the picture's in Svenska -- haa! that's a Swedish joke!): To read the full story, see: http:/www.riksbank.com/templates/Page.aspx?id=10894 COOL STUFF TO BE ABLE TO DO A sidebar article in the October 17, 2005 issue of Fortune magazine includes an interesting account by business tycoon Tom Pritzker about his role in discovering a bibliophile's fantasy in Nepal, a long lost library: "The guy who rents the horse happens to be the lama for the temple. With the horse comes the lama, and for the next week, we?re walking with him and his horse. Finally one night he says, "I now understand that you?re serious people. Actually, in that temple you were in? Behind the wall, there is a library of old books." So we ask, "How do you get in?" "You can?t. It?s completely sealed. Four walls. No door. It?s been sealed for a long time." We say, "What?s inside?" "I?m not sure. I just know old books. If you want to come look, you can." "So months later we send a team in. I?m sitting at a board meeting at Royal Caribbean [the family owns a large stake in the cruise line]... and all of a sudden someone comes in with a pink note that I have a call from Nepal. So I say, "We?ve got to take a time-out." I get on the phone, and they?re yelling, "We?ve discovered a library with 700 volumes from the 14th century!" This is cool stuff to be able to do. " http://www.fortune.com/fortune/personalfortune/articles/0,15114,1113531,00.html FEATURED WEB SITE This week's featured web site on Depression Scrip is maintained by one of our new subscribers, Rod Charlton. "The main purpose of this website is to document depression scrip. The last documentation put together on depression scrip was a great book written in 1984 by Ralph A. Mitchell and Neil Shafer. In my opinion, it's the "bible" on depression scrip. But, it lacks a few things. There aren't as many pics as I would like to see. Plus, the pictures aren't as detailed as they could be. I understand the problems with publishing something like that. It would be 12" thick if there was as much detail as I would like. Still, it's the best book ever written." The site has a nice depression scrip picture archive, and includes sections on the U.S., Canada and Europe, and related items such as Coupon Books, Cardboard Tokens, Sales Tax Tokens and Wooden Nickels. Also included is a nice bibliography and "Depression Scrip: an Annotated Bibliography" by Loren Gatch of the Department of Political Science at the University of Central Oklahoma. Rod adds: "Come see a forgotten piece of history.... " http://www.depressionscrip.com/ Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. For more information please see our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/. There is a membership application available on the web site at this address: http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_member_app.html To join, print the application and return it with your check to the address printed on the application. Membership is only $15 to addresses in North America, $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 Oct 23 22:02:46 2005 From: esylum at binhost.com (esylum@binhost.com) Date: Sun Oct 23 22:32:00 2005 Subject: The E-Sylum v8#45, October 23, 2005 Message-ID: <435C40C6.4050604@telerama.com> Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 8, Number 45, October 23, 2005: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2005, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. WAYNE'S WORDS Among our recent subscribers are Jim DeWitt and Dorel Balaita. Welcome aboard! We now have 810 subscribers. Your Editor had an unusual experience while driving home from a coin club meeting this past Tuesday. While tooling down the highway the road became suddenly filled with bouncing hunks of gravel and dirt - a landslide. I kept my eye on the road and plowed ahead, luckily escaping any damage beyond some scratches to my car. Traffic stopped behind me and I called 911 to report the incident. As a bibliophile, I always figured that if I were to meet my end being squashed by surprise, that it would be bookshelves crashing down, not a hillside. I guess it's not too late to get around to anchoring those shelves behind me... Pennsylvania isn't exactly earthquake territory, but little ones have happened. Speaking of 9-1-1, the sellers of the "9/11 Freedom Tower" coin we've discussed in the past have been fined for making misleading statements in their marketing materials for the piece. Dick Johnson adds some comments on the topic, and I tend to agree with him that lawmakers are going a little too far in their zeal to protect the public. Closer to the hearts of bibliophiles is an update on the future of the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum (SNG) series. We love to help numismatic researchers, and subscribers have posted three interesting research questions this week, along with new stories relating to medals and counterfeiting, which seems to always be in the news these days. "Mite" is our numismatic vocabulary word this week, but with an alternate definition many may not have heard before. Finally, learn why a lot of British consumers won't be hiding the traditional sixpence in their Christmas pudding this year. Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society SNG PROJECT UPDATE Rick Witschonke writes: "The October 2005 newsletter from the International Numismatic Commission includes an interesting item on the future of the SNG that I thought might be of interest." In the newsletter, Harald Nilsson, Chairman SNG Sub-Committee of the INC writes: "It has become more and more evident that the series of Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum (SNG), now rapidly coming close to 200 published volumes since its beginning in 1931, faces a new world. We have come far from the end of the 19th century and its publishing standards that were the background for Sir Edward Stanley Robinson when he started the SNG series for the British Academy. His aim was to publish every coin with photo and a small amount of information in a very standardised way in order to make smaller and less well known collections known to the collectors and and the scholarly world. He also thought that the publication should be quick and make the Greek coins easily available for research. He was inspired by the series Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (CVA), started just a few years before, from which he also took the very big format of the books." "Looking to the situation today we find that we have two diverging perspectives. On the one hand, the use of computers and the digitising of collections have increased the speed with which we can work and also communicate our information to fellow researchers. On the other hand, however, in spite of the possibilities that the data world offers, the cost of publication has increased immensely to such a degree that even big and rather fortunate collections have decided to stop publishing their series." [After a number of meetings ...] "further strength was given to considerations of how to publish volumes only on the web, how to avoid the same coin appearing in several connections if it has for example been moved from one collection to another and also how to know when corrections are made to the descriptions of the published coins ('editions'). "There also seems to be a possibility of applying for EU financial support for the Series and a common homepage for all SNG projects where one can find information on published volumes and where to buy them as well as the contents of the digitised SNG volumes." [To subscribe to the International Numismatic Commission e-News, send a mail to zaech.cin-inc@gmx.net with the message "subcribe" -Editor] FREEDOM TOWER "COIN" SELLER FINED On Wednesday, October 19, ConsumerAffairs.com reported that "A New York court has ordered the promoters of the "9/11 Freedom Tower" coin scam to pay nearly $370,000 in penalties... New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas McNamara ordered National Collectors Mint (NCM) to pay civil penalties totaling $369,510 in connection with its marketing and sale of its "Freedom Tower Silver Dollar." The company has already refunded more than $2 million to consumers who fell for the scam." "In September 2004, NCM began an extensive advertising campaign for the "Freedom Tower" coin on television, in magazines and on its website. The ads depicted the coin as a "legally authorized government issue silver dollar" and as a "U.S. territorial minting" from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In fact, the coin is not a government-issued silver dollar at all, but was manufactured and issued by a private company. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands uses U.S. currency and is not authorized to mint legal tender." The ads also claimed that the coin was made of pure silver from silver bars recovered at Ground Zero during recovery operations. Spitzer?s lawsuit showed, however, that the medallion is not made of pure or solid silver, but is an inexpensive metal alloy plated with approximately one ten-thousandth of an inch of silver valued at approximately 1.4 cents. The question of whether the silver used in the medallion is actually from Ground Zero was not involved in the lawsuit." To read the full article, see: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/coin_scams.html To read a related Association Press article in Newsday, see: http://tinyurl.com/cx5gw Dick Johnson writes: "A chill descended over medal manufacturers and medal publishers this week as the New York State Supreme Court fined a Westchester, NY, firm $369,510 for its "Freedom Tower Dollars" it issued following 9/11. The firm claimed the collectors? items were a $39 item which it offered to the public at $19.95. Two salient points were brought out in the trial by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. In addition to false advertising, it also proclaimed the pieces offered were "worth less than a penny and a half in metal." The latter point should not have been considered. Is there five cents worth of paper in a $75 textbook? Customers of the National Collector's Mint Inc., based in Port Chester, New York, ordered the medals based on their design and event commemorated. Once the state nannies stepped in and publicized the value of the METAL in the medals, their interests in the pieces were shaken. One out five of those who purchased the collectors? item sought refunds. This writer emailed the firm asking for the quantity sold and the number redeemed. By week?s end the firm had not answered. From other published sources I have learned sales were approximately $11 million on 550,000 pieces sold; $2.2 million on 110,000 pieces redeemed (or orders canceled). The company claimed the coin was a "U.S. Territorial Minting" from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, but the islands use U.S. currency and are not authorized to mint legal tender. ... "Most importantly, each coin has been created using .999 pure silver recovered from ground zero!" "The fact that the silver used was recovered at Ground Zero after 9/11 was not challenged by the attorney general, nor was it questioned in any finding by the court." Earlier in E-Sylum (vol 8 no 31) July 17, 2005, when this law suit was announced, I stated my opinion in an item titled "Save Me From the "Do-Gooders." The nanny state of New York is now emboldened to determine what can be stated when a new medal is issued ? and you better not make too much profit!" U.S. MINT COIN ASSAY QUESTION Rich Kelly & Nancy Oliver writes: "We have a question to ask your readers to see if anyone can help us out and solve this mystery for us. Before the turn of the century, San Francisco mint ledgers often noted that certain coins were sent to Philadelphia and/or Washington for assay or for special assay. Does anyone know if these assay coins were included in the mint director's reports for that years coin mintages, or were they not included since they were not released for circulation? We would really appreciate any information anyone can provide. Thanks." GOLD COIN CIRCULATION INFO SOUGHT Dave Ginsberg writes: "I'm researching how gold coins were used in commerce in the 19th century (especially pre-1879) and am hoping that the readers of the E-Sylum can suggest some sources for me. What would be ideal, of course, would be a "Fractional Money" equivalent that focused on gold coins instead of silver coins, but lacking that, I'm looking for diaries, travelogues or other first person sources that mention spending gold coins or commercial or business histories that discuss how commerce was conducted in the 19th century. I'm looking to answer questions such as: "How were government employees paid?" "How did a housekeeper settle his/her monthly or quarterly bill at the general store or butcher?" etc. All suggestions are welcome. Thanks." THOUGHTS ON KOLBE SALE #98 Just a few items I'd like to note in the latest sale catalog from George Kolbe: Lot 15: An original "Martin Nathaniel Daycius" flyer announcing the April 1, 1992 sale of numismatic books and catalogs at 1204 Magnolia St. in Ft. Worth, TX. This is R.E. Vail's copy of the famous April Fool's Day joke that targeted U.S. numismatic bibliophiles. Coincidentally, I located my own copy of this mailing the other day. Handwriting and DNA analysis is underway to determine the source of the prank.... Lot 115: The E-Sylum gets credit in this lot for background information on Author Lynn Glaser, from Bob Leonard's August 21, 2005 submission regarding Glaser's "Cartographic Crime" The 2004 date in the catalog is a typo. Lot 353: "The World's Worst Plated Parmelee Sale." William H. Woodin's copy of this landmark sale became waterlogged at one time, leaving it in a sad state. NATIONAL BANK LAW INFORMATION SOUGHT Bob Neale writes: "I have tried searching the Internet, thus far without success, for the specific source of the prohibition on national bank note titles for using the terms "United States National Bank" or "Federal National Bank", except for grandfathered banks. Does anyone know the law or regulation of congress or any other US government arm that drew this prohibition? I assume it arose around the time of the Aldrich-Vreeland or Federal Reserve Acts, or quite possibly later, but cannot even say that for sure. And I cannot find the text of the A-V act on the Internet. I would therefore greatly appreciate any specific citations that E-Sylum readers can provide." TRAFALGAR MEDAL TO BE SOLD An article in the Cambridge Evening News reports that "A piece of history commemorating the Battle of Trafalgar is to be auctioned. The rare medal will be sold just three days before the 200th anniversary of Lord Nelson's finest moment. Expected to fetch more than ?10,000, it was forgotten for years until it was discovered in a village just outside Cambridge. Experts from Bonhams, where the medal will be sold on Tuesday, are keeping the location of the find secret, but said it had been discovered in a box of ordinary coins." "The medal was awarded to Commander Edward Garrett, a distant relative of the current seller. It is thought no more than 5,000 of the medals were awarded and Garrett's is particularly rare because it also features one of only five bars awarded for service on the Onyx." To read the full article (and view an image of the medal) see: http://tinyurl.com/bz8cg TRAFALGAR COMMEMORATIVE COIN ISSUED On Wednesday, October 19, the BBC News reported that "The Royal Mint is marking the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar with two commemorative ?5 crowns. A portrait by James Butler of Nelson in the uniform of a Vice Admiral with the dates 1805 and 2005 features on the reverse of the first coin. A companion piece designed by Clive Duncan details a battle scene. The signal sent by Nelson ahead of Trafalgar - "England expects that every man will do his duty" - is inscribed on the edge of the collector's items." "The portrait of The Queen on the crowns by Ian Rank-Broadley is the same design that has appeared on UK coinage since 1998. " To view the full article (and view an image of one of the coins) see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4357940.stm CANADIAN VICTORIA CROSS FINDS A HOME Another Victoria Cross has found a home in a museum, this time in Canada: "The Canadian War Museum has unveiled a new attraction -- the First World War Victoria Cross of Captain Francis Scrimger. A Montreal native who studied medicine at McGill University before the war, Scrimger served with the Royal Montreal Regiment (14th Battalion) during the Second Battle of Ypres. Scrimger was the first medical officer to receive the British Commonwealth's highest military decoration for bravery and gallantry, after he conducted the evacuation of a medical station in what is believed to have been the first use of poisonous gas in battle. In April 1915, When German forces unleashed the deadly chlorine gas on Allied forces in Belgium, Scrimger instructed the men in his battalion to breathe through moistened handkerchiefs. Because the gas was water-soluble, his advice was credited with saving many lives." On Monday, Scrimger's descendants donated his rare medal -- alongside two other medals he received -- to the War Museum in Ottawa." "Only 94 Canadians have ever been honoured with the Victoria Cross." To read the full article, see: http://tinyurl.com/7qcxk MOVING STORY OF THE CHARLOTTE MINT This news item was published on October 22: "Looking back in history on this day in 1936, Charlotte's Mint Museum opened. It was North Carolina's first art museum, and it already had a fascinating history. It was built 100 years earlier as the first branch of the United States Mint. That is where coins were made from the output of the Carolina gold rush. In 1837, President Andrew Jackson appointed John Wheeler Hill as the mint's first superintendent. Hill's salary was $2,000 per year. The mint shut down during the Civil War but was used as a Confederate headquarters and hospital. After the war it was used as an assay office, until it closed for good in 1913. The building was scheduled for demolition, but a citizens group raised the money to move it. They had it dismantled brick by brick on West Trade Street and relocated the building to its current location on Randolph Road." http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=105202 [I didn't realize the Charlotte Mint building had been moved. Has that happened with any other U.S Mint buildings? Have any other Mints around the world been moved? -Editor] A THEORY ON ROMAN GOLD IN BRITAIN Arthur Shippee forwarded the following story which was noted in The Explorator newsletter: "More Roman gold is found in Britain than anywhere else - and now a Welsh academic has come up with an intriguing theory explaining why. Thousands of gold and silver artifacts from the Roman period, especially when the conquerors finally left these islands in the 4th and 5th centuries. Dr Peter Guest, of Cardiff University's School of History and Archaeology, is the leading expert on the biggest ever Roman gold treasure discovered in Britain. In 1992, 15,000 gold and silver coins were found at Hoxne in Suffolk in 1992. In a lecture, Dr Guest is to propose that the large amounts of Roman gold and silver buried beneath our feet could be because something happened in the late Empire similar to the abolition of the gold standard in the 1930s." "Dr Guest explained that the gold mostly comes from a 50-year period towards the end of Roman occupation. He said, "Before then, Britain is not very special, but in that 50-year phase, which coincides with the end of Roman control, lots of stuff is found." "We had been part of the Empire for 350 years by that time, which is a very long time. "It happened very suddenly and it might have been quite violent and one of the reasons for the huge amount of gold and silver is related to this separation." To read the complete article, see http://tinyurl.com/8mgpq LOST LIBRARY AS A SYMBOL Yossi Dotan writes: "The story in last week's E-Sylum on the library of old books in Nepal that was completely sealed reminded me of the Jewish Museum at the Judenplatz (Jews Square) in Vienna, Austria. On the square in front of the museum is the very impressive Memorial to Austrian Holocaust Victims. As told in an article "The Virtual Jewish History Tour ? Vienna" by Rebecca Weiner on the website Jewish Virtual Library (A Division of The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise), "Unveiled in 2000, the reinforced concrete cube resembles a library of 7,000 volumes turned inside out. The doors are locked and the books face inwards. The base of the memorial has the names of the places where 65,000 Austrian Jews were murdered by the Nazis. Created by British artist Rachel Witeread, the memorial's barred room and books that cannot be read represent the loss of those who were murdered." To read the full text, see: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Vienna.html NUMISMATIC CRUMBS AND GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH Every now and them a book listed for sale catches my eye because of an unusual connection to numismatics. This week I came across an offering of "The Old Countess of Desmond: An Inquiry (concluded), When was she Married? with Numismatic Crumbs" The book is by Richard Sainthill and was published in 1863. It has 105 pages and two small folding charts. I asked the seller, Tuttle Antiquarian Books (tuttbook@sover.net), about the book and its numismatic content, and they replied: "It's a genealogical reference book. The reference to Numismatic Crumbs starts on page 83-94 and talks about various medals or coinages such as Royal Academy Turner Medal, Medal for Sir David Wilkie, Marriage Medals of Their Royal Highnesses The Prince and Princess of Wales, Coin of the Empress Elizabeth of Russia, etc." VOCABULARY WORD: MITE Leafing through "Benjamin Franklin's Library," a 1937 book by Austin Grey on the Library Company of Philadelphia, I came across this passage: "... I cannot withhold from contributing my Mite." The "Mite" was a bill of exchange for sixty pounds, worth in those days $1,000 - the first monetary gift to the Library. The donor of the "Mite" was Dr. Walter Sydserfe, an aged physician ..." I know the definition of Mite as a small coin (as in "Widow's Mite"), but had never heard it used in the context of paper money before. Are any of you familiar with this use of the term? COUNTERFEIT CASH SEIZED IN NEW ZEALAND Dr K.A. Rodgers of Auckland, New Zealand sent us this story, which was published on October 20: "An alleged smuggler was caught with almost $US1.3 million in counterfeit notes at Auckland International Airport yesterday. Comptroller of Customs Martyn Dunne said the 46-year-old New Zealand resident was intercepted at the airport after arriving from Sydney. Customs officers had identified him as "a person of interest" on arrival and a search of his baggage revealed bundles of counterfeit $US100 notes... "This is one of the biggest seizures of forged bank notes conducted by Customs officers at our borders for some time," Mr Dunne said." To read the complete story, see: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3450189a10,00.html EURO BANKNOTE AND COIN COUNTERFEITS According to a report from Rome October 20, "During the first half of 2005 the finance ministry reports a 20.21 pc increase in reported euro banknote ad coin fakes YOY. The 50 euro banknotes are a prime choice for forgers, but quite surprisingly there has been a surge in false 50 cent coins." "The majority of false banknotes were taken off the market in north and central Italy. The 50 euro banknote accounts for 75.55 pc of the forged market total worth (2,224,250 euro). Counter to 2003-04 statistics forgers have shifted their interest from 1 and 2 euro coins towards 50 cent coins." To read the full article, see: http://tinyurl.com/92ezm XEROX COUNTERFEIT DETERRENCE SYSTEM Adri?n Gonz?lez Salinas of Monterrey, Nuevo Le?n, M?xico writes: "I just read the following note and I thought it may be interesting to The E-Sylum readers. [The article is from the Sydney Morning Herald, October 18. -Editor]: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation says it has deciphered a code of colored dots used in Xerox's DocuColor under an agreement with the US federal government. Xerox agreed to program its printer to put encoded dots on all documents so federal investigators could track the source of counterfeit currency. The dots appear in an 8 x 15 grid visible only under a magnifying glass or blue light, and give the date and time of a print-out and the serial number of the printer that made it." "The dots are visible only with a magnifying glass or under blue light, which causes them to appear black. By analysing test pages printed out by supporters worldwide and by staffers at various FedEx Kinko's locations, researchers found that some of the dots corresponded to the printers' serial numbers. Other dots refer to the date and time of the printing." To read the complete article, see: http://tinyurl.com/cl25p MORE STAMPS ON COINS Yossi Dotan writes: "Last week's E-Sylum had Dick Johnson's story of a stamp of the coin. Other examples of stamps on coins are the following: British Virgin Islands 125th Anniversary of Death of Rowland Hill KM-284 5 dollars 2004 .990 red titanium KM-285 75 dollars 2004 .990 red titanium center in .999 gold ring The reverse depicts the 1 cent stamp of 1856 of British Guiana (now Guyana). It was printed in British Guiana in black ink on magenta (purplish red) paper by order of the postmaster of the colony, when the stock of regular stamps of the colony was sold out before arrival of a fresh shipment from the London printers. (The red color of the titanium coins alludes to the color of the stamp). The stamp was initialed by a post office employee as a security measure. The only stamp known of this issue was discovered in 1873 by Vernon Vaughan, a 12-year-old schoolboy living in Georgetown, British Guiana. It is the world?s rarest stamp, and was sold in 1980 for $935,000. The coin honors Rowland Hill (1795-1879), an English schoolmaster who in 1837 published a pamphlet "Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability," in which he proposed the use of pre-printed envelopes and adhesive postage stamps to indicate prepayment of postage. Hill?s plan also called for a uniform low postage rate to anywhere in the British Isles, instead of a much higher variable rate depending on distance and the number of sheets of paper that was paid by the receiver. Hill?s invention, for which he was knighted, made communication by mail by the masses both affordable and practical, and resulted in the issue of the first stamp in the world in England in 1840. Isle of Man 150th Anniversary of "Penny Black" Stamp KM-267 1 crown 1990 "pearl black" copper-nickel, issued also in .925 silver, .917 gold and .950 platinum The reverse depicts the black one penny stamp issued by Great Britain in 1840. (The special black finish of the coin alludes to the color of the stamp). Adhesive stamps became possible when Sir Rowland Hill devised the system of uniform penny postage to make it easy for the public to mail letters when post offices were not open. The system came into operation Jan. 10, 1840. The first adhesive stamp, the so-called Penny Black, became valid for English postage May 6, 1840. The British Treasury held a nationwide competition in 1839 to obtain suitable stamp designs, but Hill's own suggestion of using Queen Victoria's profile (based on the classic Wyon medallic portrait) was finally adopted. It proved so popular it was used on every British stamp until 1902! The "Pearl Black" technique was a pioneering metal concept by the Pobjoy Mint. It created a black coloration in either copper-nickel or silver by introducing new alloying technology developed over several years by mint engineers in Sutton, England." [And here's another one - this weekend's Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists show featured an elongated cent with the stamp picturing Benjamin Franklin. -Editor] COIN INDUSTRY, COIN FIELD, COIN WORLD Dick Johnson writes: "On the use of the term "coin industry", perhaps "coin field" would be a better term -- or even, would you believe? ? "coin world." Incidentally, you numismatic bibliophiles, does anyone still have a copy of the Coin World parody "Coin Whirl"? I saw it only fleetingly at a coin show once. Authorship was denied by everyone, but I suspect it was a creation of Robert Bashlow (who died in 1976, so it would have been more than 30 years ago)." [I'm never seen the "Coin Whirl" item. Does anyone out there recall it? -Editor] A PUDDING AND A SIXPENCE An October 18 article in The Telegraph mentions a coin-related promotional scheme gone awry: "A supermarket's hopes of selling Christmas puddings with "lucky sixpences" inside has fallen foul of health and safety laws. Sainsbury, which has spent months scouring Britain for the coins, says it is not allowed to insert them into the puddings because they "constitute a choking hazard". "We can't supply the coin already mixed into the pudding," a spokesman said. "Instead we have provided a collector's card with the coin attached that you can place under a plate or table mat for one lucky friend or family member to find." Because many shop-bought Christmas puddings are now heated in a microwave oven, leaving metal coins in the mix could be dangerous, the store added. Sixpences, which were withdrawn from circulation in 1971 but remained legal tender until 1980, and other good luck charms have been added to Christmas puddings for more than 500 years." To read the full article, see: http://tinyurl.com/dlm36 "It was common practice to include small silver coins in the pudding mixture, which could be kept by the person whose serving included them. The usual choice was a silver 3d piece, or a sixpence. However this practice fell away once real silver coins were not available, as it was believed that alloy coins would taint the pudding." http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Christmas_pudding SUSPECT EATS THE EVIDENCE Speaking of eating money, an October 18 article in The Moscow News reports that "A suspected drug-dealer who was caught trying to bribe a policeman tried to destroy the evidence by eating the money..." The man from the Far East city of Ussurisk has been charged with growing drug-containing plants and offered 100,000 rubles (about $3,000) to an investigator for the charges to be dropped." "He managed to eat one banknote before being arrested and charged with attempting to bribe a public official. The head of the internal security department, Colonel Ivan Chaika, said that this was not the first time someone had tried to bribe one of his men, but it was the first time he could remember someone ever trying to eat the evidence." To read the full story, see: http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/10/18/moneyeater.shtml FEATURED WEB SITE Our Featured Web Site is suggested by Roger deWardt Lane, who writes: "I'm having quite a time researching a piece of German Emergency money and have looked at quite a few web sites. I found a small one with a few notes. I use Google translation to show it in English." http://tinyurl.com/bjzkt Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. For more information please see our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/. There is a membership application available on the web site at this address: http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_member_app.html To join, print the application and return it with your check to the address printed on the application. Membership is only $15 to addresses in North America, $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 Oct 30 22:44:23 2005 From: esylum at binhost.com (esylum@binhost.com) Date: Sun Oct 30 22:44:51 2005 Subject: The E-Sylum v8#46, October 30, 2005 Message-ID: <43659317.4060301@telerama.com> Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 8, Number 46, October 30, 2005: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2005, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. WAYNE'S WORDS No new subscribers this week - our count holds at 810. This week we have another varied group of stories, and not a one on counterfeits for a change. First, two of our subscribers recount their experiences with Wilma, one of the latest in a series of strong storms battering the U.S. this season. We have a report on the Stack's Ford sale of Massachusetts silver, some answers to previous research questions, and a few new questions for our readers. Enjoy! Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society POST-WILMA BIBLIOPHILE STORM REPORTS Fred Lake of Lake Books in St. Petersburg, FL writes: "Wilma missed us, but the tropical force winds knocked out our power. We were out of power for about eleven hours, but the generator did the trick. I am using an Internet-based telephone service and am especially in need of the computer when I have just finished a sale." Dave Lange of NGC writes: "The office was closed on Monday, due to high winds that lingered even after Wilma passed. The office is in Sarasota, FL, and I live in Bradenton, which is just north across the county line. No damage was suffered at home nor at the office, and all books came through it dry. Since nearly my entire numismatic library is here at the office, where I actually use it, I spent Friday afternoon doing something I really should have done as soon as we moved to Florida. As it became clear that the storm was indeed headed our way, I began compiling a list of all my books, monographs, etc. for the purpose of insurance and replacement, if needed. I was able to get through only three shelves worth before quitting time, and I left the office worried whether I could complete the list from memory, should the contents be blown away. At home I had to take precautions with respect to my non-numismatic library. I've made no attempt to compile of list of these books, but I did take a series of photographs for each bookcase. These, along with photos of furniture, clothing and other household items of insurable value, were burned to a CD that I was determined to take with us, should we be forced to leave. I wasn't concerned about flooding, but rather water and wind damage, should the roof and/or windows be lost. Our first Florida house proved to be in a flood zone, something we didn't think about when selecting it. We moved this past spring, and one of the priorities in finding a new house was to be away from rivers and high enough to be outside the flood plain. I also had my precious collection of coin boards and albums to think about. This has a dedicated room of its own, shut off from sunlight, but still with a window that could be blown out in a storm. In last year's hurricanes I had to relocate all items from the lower shelves to tabletops, due to the danger of flooding. This time I simply taped up the windows and moved as much as I could to the far side of the room. This would have achieved nothing in the event of the roof being compromised, but at least the window was not such a concern. Two lessons were learned from this episode: First, every bibliophile (or working numismatist, as in my case) should have an up-to-date list of their libraries; second, there are a lot of publications that can be forgotten amid the more often used titles. Not surprisingly, as I came across some of the more obscure items I found myself distracted in browsing through them instead of sticking to the task at hand. Clearly, I will have to complete the list when there is no hurricane pending." WILLIAM BLADES: THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS Coincidentally, Larry Mitchell writes: "A digital version of William Blades' 1888 work--the sections on damage from fire, water, gas, heat and dust remain just as relevant today. From the "Universal Library" at Carnegie Mellon University, here are a couple excerpts: [On books lost at sea] "Next to Fire we must rank Water in its two forms, liquid and vapour, as the greatest destroyer of books. Thousands of volumes have been actually drowned at Sea, and no more heard of them than of the Sailors to whose charge they were committed. D'Israeli narrates that, about the year 1700, Heer Hudde, an opulent burgomaster of Middleburgh, travelled for 30 years disguised as a mandarin, throughout the length and breadth of the Celestial Empire. Everywhere he collected books, and his extensive literary treasures were at length safely shipped for transmission to Europe, but, to the irreparable loss of his native country, they never reached their destination, the vessel having foundered in a storm. In 1785 died the famous Maffei Pinelli, whose library was celebrated throughout the world. It had been collected by the Pinelli family for many generations and comprised an extraordinary number of Greek, Latin, and Italian works, many of them first editions, beautifully illuminated, together with numerous MSS. dating from the 11th to the 16th century. The whole library was sold by the Executors to Mr. Edwards, bookseller, of Pall Mall, who placed the volumes in three vessels for transport from Venice to London. Pursued by Corsairs, one of the vessels was captured, but the pirate, disgusted at not finding any treasure, threw all the books into the sea. The other two vessels escaped and delivered their freight safely, and in 1789-90 the books which had been so near destruction were sold at the great room in Conduit Street, for more than L9,000" http://serv.ul.cs.cmu.edu/ulib/data/cmu_classics/3f3/83e/411/cd1/52e/b/ FORD MASSACHUSETTS SILVER SALE REPORT Alan V. Weinberg writes: "I'm really surprised no one reviewed the Stack's JJ Ford Sale of Massachusetts colonial silver coinage in NYC this past October 18. So here's my contribution: Massachusetts colonial silver coinage has been a favorite specialty of mine back to my high school days - I'm 61 now. I received a choice shilling for graduating from high school and another choice shilling in 1976 for my wedding...still have 'em (yes, the wife too). So it was with enormous anticipation when I first learned the Ford Mass silver would be auctioned as I knew the collection, ex T. James Clarke & FCC Boyd, would be noteworthy. And when I received the Stack's ground-breaking auction catalogue I was ecstatic. The quality of the catalogue - not just the contents - was beyond expectations. A classic reference. I'd always regarded the series as rather esoteric in that very few people collected Mass silver by variety compared to collectors of colonial state coppers. So I didn't anticipate the crowd that I saw upon entering the hotel auction room across the street from Stack's. Standing room only. Uh oh, another record-breaking auction. Can I buy anything? I was even more concerned when the New England shillings broke the previous 2001 Andy Hain records, ranging from $220,000 to $300,000 "hammer" (that's plus another 15% buyers fee). And the tiny, visually unimpressive Willow Tree threepence hammered for $550,000. Oh Boy! I'm gonna go home empty-handed! Coin after superb coin, and some not so superb, sold for top prices. And this on top of the fact that many varieties were offered in duplicate, triplicate and more. To mainly serious collectors and dealer colonial specialists , not to "slabbers" and speculators. And no one bidder dominated the bidding as has occurred in some previous Ford sales, to the chagrin of other bidders. I went targeting two particular coins and went home with one, my first choice, an extraordinarily choice and massive Pine Tree shilling . An altogether pleasant day in NYC viewing, bidding and then socializing during and after the sale. Pure numismatics. Not a slab or a Grey Sheet in sight. And it was warm and sunny in NYC , not like the previous rain-deluged week." CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL WINNER ROSA PARKS DIES The following is from an October 25, 2005 article on the National Public Radio web site: "Rosa Parks, the woman known as the "mother of the civil rights movement," has died. Parks turned the course of American history by refusing in 1955 to give up her seat on a bus for a white man. In 1999, when former President Bill Clinton presented Parks with the Congressional Gold Medal, he said her short bus ride went a long way for civil rights." "Parks worked as a seamstress at a local department store, and on her way home from work one day, she engaged in a simple gesture of defiance that galvanized the civil rights movement. It was nearly 50 years ago, Dec. 1, 1955, when Parks challenged the South's Jim Crow laws -- and Montgomery's segregated bus seating policy -- by refusing to get up and give her seat to a white passenger. " To read the complete story, see: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4973548 BLUE BOOK ISSUE PRICES Carl Binder writes: "I am a two year subscriber to The E-Sylum. I read that you help with research work. I am a collector and I am seeking to learn the issue prices of the the following Bluebooks (Handbook of United States Coins): 2nd edition 1943; 3rd edition 1944; 4th edition 1945; 5th edition 1946; 6th edition 1948; 7th edition 1949; 8th edition 1950; 9th edition 1952 10th edition 1953. I know the 1st edition 1942 sold for $.50. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for any information on this." WHAT "MITE" IT SIGNIFY? Last week I quoted a passage from a book on the Library Company of Philadelphia. "... I cannot withhold from contributing my Mite." The "Mite" was a bill of exchange for sixty pounds, worth in those days $1,000 - the first monetary gift to the Library. The donor of the "Mite" was Dr. Walter Sydserfe, an aged physician ..." Arthur Shippee writes: "I hesitate to state this unequivocally without looking at the context, but at first glance this strikes me as rhetorical move, metaphoric and perhaps euphemistic. To be claiming to contribute a "mite" does several things: it sounds modest; it sounds pious and well meaning; &c. I don't think that this is a substitute meaning here, but an extension of the familiar "widow's mite," i.e., a small coin, all that she had. Whether such a transferring is in the best of taste, or is wholly applicable to a significant gift to a library company I will leave others to judge for themselves." [Now that I reread the passage, I think Arthur is right - the author puts quotes around the word "mite". I misunderstood the context, thinking that "mite" was actually a term used for a sixty pound note. No wonder I'd never heard that use of the term before. -Editor] SPECIAL ASSAY QUESTION ANSWERED Regarding last week's question from Rich Kelly & Nancy Oliver regarding coins reserved for assay, Roger Burdette writes: "Both special assay and assay commission coins were included in the total of coins struck and accepted by the coiners of the various mints. Special assay coins were production samples from each delivery of silver and gold coin. (There was a formula for calculating the number of coins to submit, also.) After 1873, these were sent to the Director's office in Washington where they were assayed and the results checked against the local mint's assay for the same batch of metal. Nearly all special assay coins were destroyed during the assaying process. Assay Commission coins were samples from each delivery of coin that were selected for use by the annual Assay Commission which met each February to independently examine the weight and purity of struck coins. Because the Commission was composed of prominent citizens, members of congress, a federal judge and the Mint Director, the Assay Commission coins were often selected for quality by the various mints - they wanted the officials to see their best work. Only about 1/3 of Assay Commission coins were destroyed during the Commission's work, and it was common for members to purchase some of the pieces as souvenirs of the occasion. Mint collection curator T. L. Comparette also used the Assay Commission coins as a source of specimens for the mint collection and for sale (at face value) to museums and public coin collections such as the Mitchelson collection at the Connecticut State Library. Remaining coins were placed into circulation. The above is based on documentation in US Mint, Library of Congress and Connecticut State archives. I hope this will be helpful." COIN COUNTERS DETERMINED MINTAGE REPORTING Dick Johnson offers another perspective on mintage figures. He writes: "Coins were set aside immediately after striking at each U.S. mint for assay, and particularly so, for the Trial of the Pyx conducted by the annual Assay Commission at the Philadelphia Mint each year. These coins were chosen prior to the next step of counting and bagging. Which brings to mind the technology of counting coins. Prior to the 20th century, coins at every mint were counted by "counting boards." These are illustrated in A.M. Smith (page 22 in my 1885 edition) and in Denis Cooper (page 208, illus 227). Even such a rudimentary contraption as a counting board was effective for the job they performed but evolved over time. The earliest ones had the required number of circular depressions in a flat board ? slightly larger than the diameter of the coins being counted but of equal depth as the coin was thick. The coins would easily fall into these openings, but a second one would not. They required a different board for each denomination. Coins were dumped on these and spread around by hand until they filled every depression. Excess coins were returned to the hopper from which they came. Later models had channels built into the board the width of the coin. Even later ones had brass rails the thickness of the coin to create these channels. The board was supported on the underside in the center by an horizontal axle, much like a teeter totter. Coins would be spread over the channels on the top side, then tilted toward one worker to allow excess coins to fall back into the hopper. After visual inspection that all channels were full they would tip the board in the opposite direction for the coins to fall out of the channels. The counted coins were then funneled into cloth bags. One report states 400 coins could be counted in 12 seconds by two men, one dumping and spreading the coins, one pouring counted coins into a bag and tying it off. [Try doing this repetitive job for nine hours a day! Makes sitting at a computer writing this a dream by comparison!] At the end of the 19th century it became more difficult for this manual operation to keep up with coining presses chunking out many thousands of coins an hour. A more mechanical method was needed. The first mechanical coin counting machines were developed in England by Maudslay, Sons, and Field and installed in the British Royal Mint in 1891. The Brits had their own term for these machines, "automatic telling machines." The U.S. Mint installed similar machines for the new Third Mint at 16th & Spring Garden Streets in Philadelphia when it opened in 1904. Of great interest, my film associate Michael Craven, when researching U.S. mint images, discovered a very rare film in the Eastman archives. It was filmed by a Thomas Edison Company crew inside the U.S. Mint at Philadelphia. I believe the year was 1913, and one segment shows $20 gold coins being counted on a counting board in just such a manner as I described above. Whether these mint workmen pulled out an old counting board just to show off for the filming, we may never know. The mint did have counting machines by then. So to answer Rich Kelly and Nancy Oliver?s specific question in last week?s E-Sylum: assay coins were probably not counted in mintage reports, such mintage reports were probably derived from the records of the coin counting. The San Francisco Mint probably got their coin counters shortly after these were installed at Philadelphia. Counters installed on each coining presses was a later sophistication. This would give a true number of pieces struck, but would include rejects pulled out by inspectors (can you say "mint errors" collectors?). With increased volume of coins produced, inspection ceased during the Second World War. I doubt press counter numbers were ever used in official mintage reports. The number bagged for shipping was a far more meaningful number. Would someone else care to give a history of the Trial of the Pyx, the American Assay Commission and the reason for assaying of American coins? This person should be a Democrat who can justify Jimmy Carter in 1977 killing this 200-year old institution of numismatic interest. Comments from a Republican numismatist, I fear, would be incendiary." [Now, now, let's not drag politics into this. But it was certainly unfortunate that this ancient tradition was broken in the U.S. -Editor] ON THE CIRCULATION OF GOLD Bob Leonard writes: "In response to Dave Ginsberg, Dave Bowers has written on this subject in the Bass Sylloge (cannot quote, since I don't have a copy). He needs to make a distinction too between the money used east of the Rocky Mountains and west of the Rocky Mountains, for the period 1862-79; gold continued to be used in the West then, but was replaced by paper in the East. There are many accounts of the use of gold coins, and Dave should broaden his search to include fiction. For example, in Home Life; or, A Peep across the Threshold by Mrs. Caroline A. Soule (Boston: A. Tomkins and B.B. Mussey & Co., 1855), in the story, "'I Haven't the Change'" (pp. 101-113, with illustration facing p. 101), the plot concerns a woman who is unable to pay her Irish cleaning lady because she has no change: "'I am sorry, Bridget, but really I forgot to ask Mr. Mann for any change at dinner; and I haven't a cent myself, nothing less than an eagle.'" (The rest of the story describes the poverty of Bridget and her children, who have no food and must have the money that day or go hungry, and Mrs. Mann's awakening and repentance.) This is interesting for two reasons: it shows that, in 1855, the general public actually referred to a $10 gold coin as an eagle, which was doubted by Alan Herbert in his "Coin Clinic" column in Numismatic News, March 28, 1989, and it is also another example of the preference of "cent" for "penny" in Boston at that time. Many, many other examples could be found, and Dave just needs to focus on the period and region he is interested in." [Dave has written on the subject in the newsletter of the Southern Gold Society. According to the group's web site, "The Southern Gold Society was formed to increase the enjoyment and study of Southern gold coins and related history, through an informal, relaxed mix of education and fellowship. The society is reminiscent of those of a bygone era, in which connoisseurship and a gentlemanly appreciation of Southern gold coins is the order of the day." http://www.southerngoldsociety.org/ -Editor] ISLAND OF SAL, CAPE VERDE TOKEN INFO SOUGHT Perhaps E-Sylum readers can help with this query posted by Mr Paul Baker of the U.K. this week on the COINS mailing list: "The Island of Sal is an island of Cape Verde. Recently very few specimens of some so far unknown tokens of the Island of Sal showed up. They were issued by the former French owners of the salt production enterprise on the Island of Sal. There are 3 different denominations, one of them in 2 metals and the tokens were accepted for payment on the whole Island of Sal. Does anyone know any more about the pieces? Has anyone ever seen them offered?" MORE ON THE 9/11 "COIN" FINES Regarding the fines levied against the makers of the 9/11 "coin", Richard Schaefer writes: "Dick Johnson's comments are disappointing. Mr. Spitzer is a careful prosecutor and his charges were unchallenged. Yet Mr. Johnson omits both charges and merely mentions that collectors buy and Americans use base metal coins all the time. Why doesn't Mr. Johnson say that these sellers not only sold base metal coins but claimed the coins were pure silver? This is fraud. There is no chill for honest business people, only for frauds. Shouldn't we be glad that the medal business in NY State has been purified? The great majority of numismatic dealers and manufacturers are honest, and this case will protect them and their customers." Neil Simmons writes: "I'm very surprised by your (and Dick's) comments about the 9-11 medal marketing. Are you also opposed to ANA/PNG/IAPN codes of conduct? Are those organizations merely bothersome "do-gooders" in the hobby? And was the Hobby Protection Act a bad mistake? It seems to me that the issue is blatantly false claims by the company: they weren't pure silver, and they weren't legal tender. Medal manufacturers have nothing to fear as long as they don't lie about their product. On the other hand, collectors concerned about the health of the hobby should fear the effect of marketers like these... potential new collectors are put off when they discover they've been lied to... whether that news comes from the State of New York, or when they try to sell their medal to a reputable dealer some day and can't even get the (supposed) bullion value." Kavan Ratnatunga writes: "Allowing for the cost of making the medals and the advertising costs of the Scam the $370K fine is probably about 5% of the Pure SCAM profit. Rather than been excessive, IMHO it is just a slap on the wrist." [They had to refund about $2 million in addition to the fine. But that's still relatively small, I suppose, but no mere slap on the wrist. Where I agreed with Dick was on the unfortunate effects the prosecution could have on other coin and medal purveyors who aren't so loose with the facts in their advertising. Any national advertiser will have tremendous fixed costs that have to be made up with huge markups on the merchandise. If the large ads were touting accurately described coins or medals priced ten times the going price on the coin market, would that be considered a scam, too? I used to think so, but no longer. As long as the items are not described in a misleading manner, then such ads should be perfectly legal. As a young collector I recall answering ads from Littleton Coin Company. I enjoyed my packages of coins and didn't know or care that the same coins could often be found at local coin shows for a fraction of the cost. I didn't go to those shows, and was blissfully happy in my ignorance. Later, once I learned where to buy the coins I wanted more cheaply, I generally shopped elsewhere. But Littleton had very high marketing costs for printing, advertising and mailing in order to reach me, and I feel that whatever I paid was worth it at the time. It is also an unfortunate that this prosecution affected just one issue by one marketer from one state. I agree that the advertising for this particular piece was misleading and that a fine and restitution were certainly called for. But there are hundreds of these misleading marketing ploys out there; what I'd like to see is a nationwide enforcement of the existing laws for truth in advertising such items. -Editor] SATIRICAL STATE QUARTERS For some time now, entrepreneurs have been producing satirical knockoffs of the U.S. Fifty State Quarter series. I've not heard of any claims of misrepresentation on the part of the producers, and they seem to be pretty widely distributed via eBay and other outlets. An October 27 article in the Kalamazoo Gazette describes some of the coins: "The coins feature revised verbiage and, well, let's say risque images. The most popular is the "2003 Arkansas'' quarter that says "Head Quarters'' on one side and has an engraved image on the other side that is supposed to represent former President Bill Clinton in a low moment. "We've sold thousands,'' said Michael Cline, owner of The Coin Shop in Indianapolis, which sells the quarters for $4.95 apiece. Cline said the coins come from a distributor in California. They look similar to real quarters because they are made from real quarters. The spoof coins are simply pressed with the new images and words, making them slightly larger. Their weight is nearly the same, making detection difficult for banks. Cline said defacing U.S. currency has not been a crime since 1973. None of the local bank tellers with whom the Gazette spoke had ever seen the spoof coins, but it was clear they would treat them like counterfeit currency and call the authorities." [Is it true that these are overstruck on real quarters? I don't have any handy to examine but didn't notice any evidence of overstriking when shown the pieces before. -Editor] To read the full article (registration required) see: http://tinyurl.com/dvtua TRAVELOGUE: THE MINT BAR, DUBLIN, IRELAND Michael Savinelli writes: "I am on a business trip and staying at the Westin Hotel in Dublin, Ireland. I always like to explore the hotels that I stay at when I first arrive. This hotel has a restaurant called The Exchange, and the bar is called The Mint Bar. Being curious, I asked about the numismatic connection to person of authority-- the guy working in the gift shop. He said that the hotel building is a former bank. The Mint Bar (which is in the basement of the hotel), is the old vault of the bank. Additionally, the larger rooms of the hotel are named for old Irish currencies, such as the punt. My meeting is being held in The Banker's Hall at the hotel, which is a large, very ornate room which served as the main banking room for the public. I am sure there are other hotels in the world with numismatic connections. Do any E-Sylum readers know of any?" [The hotel's web site has a nice picture of the building and has this to say about its history: "Behind the historic-listed facade of the former Allied Irish Bank built in 1863, The Westin Dublin is the new landmark in Ireland's capital, occupying a city block opposite Trinity College." http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/search/hotel_detail.html?propertyID=1314 Another web site has this to say: "The building housing The Westin Dublin has been carefully restored and incorporates the stunning architecture of two of the city's landmark buildings, dating back from 1863. A major feature of the hotel is the magnificent Banking Hall, timelessly restored to its original 19th century splendour, which serves as the main conference and banqueting room accommodating up to 160 for a seated banquet. Opulent marble pillars, tall mahogany doorways and magnificent detailing on the walls and ceiling together with state of the art technology, positions the venue as the most luxurious and unique ballroom in the city." http://www.hoteljobresource.com/menu/article3554.html RUSSIAN/UKRAINIAN CURRENCY COLLECTION ONLINE Bill Rosenblum writes: "My son, who is a "digital librarian" now at the University of Kansas, forwarded this to me. I thought E-Sylum readers might be interested." Rita Van Duinen writes: "On behalf of Nadia Zilper, Curator for Slavic and East European Collections and the Andre Savine Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill, I am happy to announce the availability of a new online resource, 'Paper Currency & Banknotes in the Andre Savine Collection'. The Paper Currency & Banknotes database features detailed descriptions and images of over 600 numismatic pieces found in the Andre Savine Collection. Pieces in the numismatics sub-collection consist primarily of paper currency and other forms of scrip such as banknotes, loan obligations, and coupons. Items featured in this database represent various periods of Russian history, including rare paper currency issued by the Russian White Army while in control of southern Russia during 1918-1920. For Russian and Ukrainian currency in the database, all descriptive text from both the obverse and reverse sides has been transliterated from the vernacular according to the Library of Congress transliteration scheme for Cyrillic alphabets. In addition to descriptive information, this database provides both a mid-size and high-resolution image of the obverse and reverse sides of each piece. Access to the database is available at the following URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/savine/numismatics/index.html For information on the Andre Savine Collection, please visit http://www.lib.unc.edu/savine/index.html/ " [The web site is a database interface, so the collection isn't easily scrolled through, but querying the database brings access to individual records with thumbnail images of the notes. Clicking on the images brings up high-quality full-size color images of notes in the collection. -Editor] THE COIN COLLECTING COMMUNITY Clifford Mishler writes: "Having noted Dick Johnson?s posing of the question of what we might best categorize our interest pursuit in the Oct. 23 issue of E-Sylum, I am moved to offer the following observations. For right around a decade, now, I have endeavored to opt for ?coin collecting community,? or ?our hobby community.? This appellation did not originate with me, I must point out. Rather, it was broadcast into my mind back in 1994, when I read the New England Numismatic Association?s ?Executive Secretary?s Address? presented by Robert F. Fritsch in ?NENA News. As Bob observed at that time; ?Numismatics is a Community, composed of Collectors, Dealers and Organizations.? Since that time I have I have appended thereto, when I?m delivering programs and writing about the topic, additional elements such as collectors, dealers, publications, scholars, catalogers and writers. The point is, in my opinion, all hobbies are small communities. They are like the community of my youth ? Vandalia, Mich. ? or that of my maturity ? Iola, Wis. ? in that, so to speak, everyone knows everyone else and is dependent on their success for the involvement of everyone else. The coin hobby is like a small community, except that instead of being geographically concentrated, it is geographically spread. The pursuit of one of the elements is best pursued when that pursuit is not oblivious of the others. I personally believe it better captures what we are than ?industry,? ?field,? ?world,? ?business,? or any other terminology that has come within the scan of my eyes and ears. As an aside, in answer to Dick?s other inquiry, to the best of my recollection I never encountered the ?Coin Whirl? parody that he referenced." CARSON CITY MINT STRIKES RAILROAD "COIN" Dick Johnson forwarded a link to an article about a recent striking ceremony at the old Carson City Mint: "The minting of this year's first 350 commemorative V&T coins celebrating Nevada's locomotives drew a crowd of about 50 people to the Carson City Mint at the Nevada State Museum Friday. Sales from the coin -- 1 ounce of pure silver, featuring Locomotive No. 11 -- the Reno, will go toward the V&T reconstruction project." "Ken Hopple, chief coiner of Coin Press No. 1 at the Carson City Mint, said it takes 120 pounds of pressure to strike each coin. In its heyday, the press turned out 100 coins a minute, but now it kicks out about six a minute, he said. "We're not in a race now. Every one is done by hand," Hopple said. The Carson City Mint at one time had three presses. The last Carson City dollar was minted in 1893, he said. Penny Fairfield, a volunteer at the museum, said she was glad to be working Friday. "This is an exciting day because the coin press is working. It's 136 years old. This was once a money-making factory," she said." To read the complete story, see http://tinyurl.com/dfjt5 COINS AND CHRISTMAS PUDDING ARTICLE Len Augsburger writes: "For more on coins and Christmas puddings, see Alan Percival Major, Coins and Christmas Pudding, The Numismatist, December 1983, pp. 2496-2497." FRED MERRITT INFORMATION SOUGHT I have a few catalogs issued by Fred Merritt of Rochester , NY in 1916 and 1920. I checked with subscriber Nick Graver of the Rochester Numismatic Society. He in turn checked with RNA member Gerry Muhl who noted that Merritt was the sixth president of the RNA in 1917. Does anyone else have any information on Merritt to share? DANISH MINT PHOTO OFFER Howard A Daniel III writes: "I have a photograph dated to the 1920s of a Danish mint worker with what appears to be a box of blank copper coin planchets and pouring the contents into a large pot. I am not sure if they are being prepared for minting or melting, but the back has " 11 The finished copper coins. DG." and it is attributed to O.L. Kjeldsen at 15 Vestre Boulevard, Copenhagen, Denmark, and it is copyrighted to a firm in London. Maybe they are being cleaned before striking. The picture cost me US$10.50 and I will send it to a researcher and/or collector who is interested in it. If someone does want it, they will have to contact me at HADaniel3@msn.com after Christmas because by the time this is published I will be on a plane to Southeast Asia for a couple of months." NEW CENT VARIETIES: 1909 VDP AND 1909 VSP The October 23 issue if the Ottumwa Courier of Ottumwa, IA marks a new low in mainstream reporting on numismatics. The reporter could have checked his facts and spelling just about anywhere, but managed to misspell Victor David Brenner's initials twice in the same paragraph, never once getting it right: "If you want a banner year for coin collectors, you look at 1909. Denny Ross knows about it. He said the VDP penny got its name from the artist who designed it. The initial minting had VSP, the artist's initials, in large print on the coin." Johnny-on-the-spot David Sklow, former numismatic literature dealer, cataloguer and NBS officer (and now the Numismatic Researcher and Historian for the American Numismatic Association) saw the story and entered a correction on the newspaper's web site. To read the full story, and David comments, see: http://tinyurl.com/dys6h UNUSUAL USES OF COINS Jeff Starck of Coin world writes: "Seeing this press release about placing several "lucky" coins in the keel area of a ship for good luck and "safe travels" makes me curious about other coin lore. I know pennies (sorry, cents) were placed over the eyelids of the deceased (a Chicago museum has what cents it claims were placed on President Abraham Lincoln). What other fun uses can E-Sylum readers think of?" [Here is an excerpt from the Press Release Jeff refers to -Editor] "In keeping with ancient shipbuilding tradition, there will be a coin ceremony in which representatives from Aker and its leasing partner, Overseas Shipholding Group ... will place several lucky coins in the massive keel section as symbols of good luck and safe travels. The coins, under the enormous weight of the steel, will be affixed to the hull for the life of the vessel." http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=55549 FEATURED WEB SITE This week's featured web site is "A Short History of Token Use in South Carolina." http://www.angelfire.com/sc2/historyoftokens/ Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. For more information please see our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/. There is a membership application available on the web site at this address: http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_member_app.html To join, print the application and return it with your check to the address printed on the application. Membership is only $15 to addresses in North America, $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/