The E-Sylum v6#26, June 29, 2003
whomren at coinlibrary.com
whomren at coinlibrary.com
Sun Jun 29 20:19:44 PDT 2003
Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 6, Number 26, June 29, 2003:
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
SUBSCRIBER UPDATE
Among recent new subscribers are Paul Horner of Clemmons,
NC, Rob Retz and Bill Nash. Welcome aboard! We now have
572 subscribers.
MOULTON FIXED PRICE LIST
Karl Moulton of Congress, AZ has issued an abbreviated
fixed price list of American numismatic literature, featuring
individual issues of The Numismatist before 1941 and the
Joseph Mickley journal and biography reprint mentioned in
The E-Sylum vol 6 no. 21. More current inventory is
available online at http://www.coincats.com
Also on the web site are copies of several of Karl's
numismatic research articles:
Record prices paid at Auction
Ten Favorite Bust Auction Catalogues
Behind the Scenes
The J. H. South Collection
Notes on Joseph J. Mickley
Sitting on the Shelf
Trick Question - Answer to Dave Bowers
The 1827 Quarter Reveals it's Secrets
Unlisted pedigree source for 1838-0 Half Dollars
COLLINS NEW ORLEANS MINT HISTORY
Dave Ginsburg writes: "Is anyone familiar with the book,
"A History of the United States Mint, New Orleans, Louisiana"
by Charles J. Collins, Jr. (Baton Rouge: LSU Printing Office,
1970.)? I first saw a reference to it in the bibliography of a
Louisiana State Museum publication, but haven't so far found a
bookseller or numismatist who has a copy or has even heard
of it. I asked my local library to try getting it through inter-
library loan, but the only copy they could find is in the reference
collection of the New Orleans Public Library (which they won't
lend out.) I think there may also be a copy in the LSU library.
I'd appreciate news of a copy for sale, or information about
the author, or if a fellow E-sylum subscriber who lives in New
Orleans would go to the library and tell me something about
the book! Thanks! If you have any news, please contact me
at ginsburg.d at worldnet.att.net ."
[I assume LSU means Louisiana State University. This is why
I love bibliographies and footnotes - you never know what
interesting new source might turn up. I thought I had seen every
U.S. Mint history published, but I don't believe I've come across
this before. If anyone learns more about it, please keep E-Sylum
readers in the loop. -Editor]
NUMISMATIC THEATRE GOES 3-D
The July 7, 2003 issue of Coin World reports that David
Sundman of Littleton Coin Co. will give "the first 3-D
production in the history of the ANA Numismatic Theatre
programs." His program, which features 19-century
stereopticon slides of the operations of the U.S. Mint and
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, is scheduled for 1 pm
Friday, August 1st at the American Numismatic Association
convention in Baltimore, MD. "Audience members will
receive a pair of 3-D glasses and a bag of popcorn."
[I've accumulated a few of these old stereo slides, and
assume mine are mostly common ones. But I never got
around to acquiring an antique viewer for them. I've
often wondered how the slides would look with the full
three-dimensional effect, and I guess this will be my chance
to find out. I'll be the one groping in the dark to fondle
a full sheet of Educational notes. -Editor]
THE GOVERNMENT SOMETHING OFFICE
Larry Mitchell sends this item about the U.S. Government
Printing Office: "The GPO, a 3,000-employee agency,
gathers federal documents, organizes and publishes them,
catalogs them and then distributes them to the 1,200
depository libraries throughout the United States.
“This year, for the first time, more than 50 percent of those
documents will only be in digital,” James said. “We will
not print them. That’s up from zero 10 years ago.”
James, who became the 24th U.S. public printer six months
ago, expects that within five years 95 percent of government
documents will be available only in digital form."
"The transformation into digital technology isn't the only
change in store for the Government Printing Office, which is
considering changing its name.
“I think our middle name might get in the way,”
http://www.hillnews.com/news/062503/printer.aspx
[I've haunted our local GPO store in the past looking for
copies of recent mint reports, but they are rarely in stock.
Online versions of recent reports have been available,
although I haven't checked lately. Have any of our readers
been assembling a run of recent printed mint reports?
These may be the last of the line. -Editor]
ALFRED ROWELL, RESIDENT MEMBER
Gar Travis writes: "At a coin show this weekend I purchased
an 1884 American Numismatic & Archeological Society
member's medal, which is engraved to Alfred Rowell -
Resident Member - Nov. 18th, 1884. Does anyone know
what the term "Resident Member" meant, or if Mr. Rowell is
"known" for any early numismatic research? The full description
of the medal is as follows:
American Numismatic and Archeological Society Member's
Medal, 1884. Bronze, 42mm. By George Hampden Lovett.
Choice Uncirculated. Obv. Naturalistic oak sprig, 3 leaves
under scroll PARVA NE PEREANT ("Let not the small things
perish"), Society name around. Rev. Oak circle, engraved
ALFRED ROWELL / RESIDENT Member/ Nov. 18th/ 1884.
Warm brown chocolate color without toning."
ALIEN LAWS
John Kleeberg writes: "I've been following the thread about
the internship of the German aliens during the Second World
War. Karen Ebel said that aliens have no constitutional rights.
That is untrue. Aliens, as a "discrete and insular minority,"
have had their constitutional rights enforced robustly by the
courts. Some of the postings in this thread have further
muddied the matter, implying that the position of the German
and Italian aliens was identical to that of the Japanese-Americans.
It was not. The German and Italians who were interned were
citizens of those countries. Yes, some of their American spouses
and children joined them, but that was voluntary. The Otto
Franke episode on the website you posted makes it clear:
eventually the FBI realized that Otto Franke was not an alien
and could not be interned. The Japanese-Americans were US
citizens who were interned because of their race; see Korematsu.
It is because of this racially-based internment that Congress
passed a law compensating the internees."
NEWSPAPER GAFFE ADDS TO JOHNSON'S COLLECTION.
Dick Johnson writes: "I just added a new item of newspaper
numismatic boners to my collection. And this is a gem. It's
from a Wisconsin paper, the North Fond du Lac Reporter. It
appeared this Friday, June 27th.
They commissioned a medal for the dual centennial of the village
and their Winter Fest. Great reasons for issuing a medal! "We
made this coin because we wanted to do something special, and
a lot of people around here collect coins," stated Jennifer
Frounfelter, a member of the Winterfest Centennial Committee.
But the Reporter's reporter, Kelly Tucker, described it thusly:
"Made special by the Great Canadian Mint Company, the
bi-medal [sic -- that's the term in print!] coin has the village
seal and dates of incorporation on one side and the village
logo and centennial dates on the other."
Further: "'These coins are souvenir tokens to celebrate the
village's centennial,' said Jim Moon, a former coin collector."
Not once called what it really is -- a medal! It was described
as a coin, a souvenir token and "bi-medal" whatever the writer
meant by that. It is certainly not "bi-metal" (it looks like one
metal composition from the illustration).
It's a squeaker to call it a coin (since it is made by a single
strike in a coining press), and a stretch to call it a token (it
bears no value). But it makes my collection of newspaper
gaffes and boners to call it "bi-medal." Read the full article
at:
http://www.wisinfo.com/thereporter/news/archive/local_10640832.shtml
TAYLOR AND JAMES INFORMATION SOUGHT
Alan Roy writes: "I was hoping an E-Sylum reader would be
able to help me. I'm looking for some biographical information
on H.C. Taylor and Somer James, the authors of 'A Guide
Book of Canadian Coins, Currency and Tokens.' Any
information would be helpful. My address is
aroy at theoffice.net"
DENVER MINT UPDATE
The Rocky Mountain News continued its coverage of worker
complaints at the U.S. Mint in Denver. The topic has also been
picked up by the U.S. numismatic press.
"Director Henrietta Holsman Fore said Friday that a permanent
Equal Employment Opportunity manager would be hired in
Denver, an ombudsman's office would be created at the national
level, and all U.S. Mint employees will receive additional training
on preventing harassment.
Fore outlined the changes in a memo posted throughout the
Denver Mint and given to all 450 employees. Currently, the
EEO office is filled on a rotating basis.
Fore visited all three shifts at the mint Thursday, mint
spokesman Guillermo Hernandez said."
Also on Thursday, Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., was to meet
with Director Fore today to press for more details on the
allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination at the Mint.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_2056611,00.html
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_2068147,00.html
COLLECTING COIN BAGS
From the April 15, 2003 Numismatic News - a letter to the
Editor from Joe Lojek of Richmond, Michigan: "About a month
ago ... I noticed the bag the rolls were in. It read, $1,000
QUARTERS U.S MINT 1967. I immediately wondered if
anyone collects these, if there is a market for them, and if this
bag has any value."
[As a fanatic for numismatic ephemera, I have to admit that
coin bags are one of my many sub-collections. I thought I
was the only one crazy enough to be interested in them until
I learned that Myron Xenos collected them as well. Any
other closet coin bag collectors out there? -Editor]
CATALOG SOUGHT FOR GOETZ RESEARCH
Greg Burns writes: "I've been researching the Lusitania Medal
by Karl Goetz along with its varieties for about nine months
now. I've purchased quite a number of different books (a
couple dozen or more) on the Lusitania, German WWI medals,
Kienast's book, and related biblioboobia, seeking insights into
manufacturing methods, social forces at work, significant
personalities, political issues, etc. In conversation with Steve
Pellegrini (another E-Sylum subscriber) he passed along that
Karl Goetz' estate was virtually completely disposed of after
the death of his son and heir, Guido Goetz in 1994, and that
the entire lot of Karl Goetz material was MacNoodled out
from under all the bidders by a high dollar force who ponied
up their combined bids plus another 10% (so the story goes).
I was hoping to get a copy of the May 1994 Dieter Gorney
Auction Catalog catalog so I could see what types of items
were passed along from his cabinet and estate (papers, models,
other tools and materials of manufacture, etc.) I've met a local
gentleman who apparently has a set of the dies used by Karl
Goetz for one of his medals, and I was also interested to see
if these had been included in the listing. I suppose I'm just
trying to put together a picture and I'm seeking a piece here,
a piece there, and so forth. I've put up the skeleton of a
website in preparation for writing a monograph or book on
the Lusitania Medals and Its Varieties
(see http://www.LusitaniaMedal.com). I'm not really sure
what format the final output will take, perhaps an extended
article (a series maybe), or perhaps a smallish booklet
(format of 5.5" X 8.5"; maybe 60-100 pages)."
CELEBRITY COLLECTOR UPDATE
Reuters reported Friday that former "Beverly Hillbillies"
star Buddy Ebsen (whose coin collection was auctioned
several years ago) was in a southern California hospital
with an undisclosed illness, although hospital officials said
Ebsen, 95, was in "good" condition.
Director and actress Penny Marshall served on Gov. Gray
Davis' State Commemorative Quarter Selection Committee
along with Jerry Buss, owner of the Los Angeles Lakers,
also a collector. Five finalists have been chosen from among
thousands of ideas submitted.
CONTAMINATED EUROS
On Wednesday, June 25 Reuters reported results of a
study which concluded that "Almost all euro banknotes
circulating in Germany contain traces of cocaine ... as notes
rolled up by users to snort the illegal drug contaminate the cash
system. "Nine out of 10 banknotes show clearly measurable
amounts of cocaine."
"Results from a separate study the institute carried out on
euro notes in Barcelona were particularly startling..."
"We were almost knocked flat by what we discovered there.
The concentrations of cocaine on Spanish euro notes were
almost a hundred times that of what we recorded in Germany."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=2986041
BREEN HALF CENT MANUSCRIPT
David F. Fanning writes: "Gregg A. Silvis asked about copies
of the Breen half cent manuscript/typescript. Breen first
compiled a manuscript on the subject, a revision of the Gilbert
book, in the 1950s. He published an article on the subject in
The Numismatist: "United States Half Cents: Addenda and
Corrections to Gilbert," The Numismatist, Vol. 65, No. 5 (May
1952), pp. 461-462.
Breen had difficulty finding a publisher for an entire book on
the subject in the 1950s. He admired Dave Bowers and Jim
Ruddy and their Empire Coin Co., and made the suggestion that
if Dave and Jim would do some editing and arranging, he would
provide a new listing of the series--sort of an update to Gilbert,
but a basic one (without photographs or history).
This would get something out there in circulation to stir up
interest in the series. At that time the only text was that of
Ebenezer Gilbert, 1916, and copies were almost impossible to
find. Dave and Jim wanted Walter to use his own name, but
Walter--who was working with Harmer-Rooke, or New
Netherlands, or had obligations to the Numismatic Scrapbook,
or whatever--did not want his name on a stand-alone
monograph (although, as early as 1958, he had contributed
magazine articles to Empire Topics). Bowers and Ruddy
agreed to publish the monograph, honoring his request not to
use his name. The book was published as "United States
Half Cents, 1793-1857," by Q. David Bowers and James
F. Ruddy (Johnson City, New York: Creative Printing, 1962).
Dave Bowers recalls that probably a couple thousand or so
copies were printed and sold. It filled a definite niche in an
era long before Roger S. Cohen, Jr., published his excellent
book on half cents and long before Breen's magisterial opus
on the subject.
There are copies of manuscript/typescript drafts of an even
larger work by Breen on half cents dating from this time period
and some additional copies were circulated in the early 1980s
by Jack Collins in preparation for the 1983 publication of
"Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of United States Half Cents,
1793-1857" (South Gate, California: American Institute of
Numismatic Research, 1983).
The American Numismatic Society library has a copy of the
manuscript and typescript materials for this publication and
there are probably others in private hands as well. Breen
drafts were frequently photocopied and occasionally turn up
in auctions. An example would be lot 675 in George Kolbe's
Sale 88 (June 14, 2002), an annotated photocopy of a 1960s
typescript (several hundred pages) of the half cent book.
That the lot brought $50 attests to the fact that the draft is
not unique."
OTHER BREEN MANUSCRIPTS
Regarding Walter Breen's other unpublished manuscripts,
Rich Hartzog writes: "Many years ago I acquired a copy of
one of Breen's rarest issues, a booklet on pornographic
limericks. I made up a couple of photocopies, took them
to an ANA, and got Breen to autograph them. He said he
didn't think even he had a copy! Supposedly Breen made
up all the limericks, although it has been so long ago, I
don't recall all the details. If you ever met Breen in person,
you'll recall his shorts, flip-flops and lack of one important
garment."
FAKE BRONZE BOUGHT WITH FAKE MONEY
Truth is often stranger than fiction. On the heels of last week's
tale of the 18-dollar bill by Bill Spengler comes this item from
Hanoi, as reported by Reuters:
"A Vietnamese man who used cow fat and paint to pass off a
lump of iron as valuable black bronze found buyers -- but was
paid ... in counterfeit bills. A justice official said 12
people involved in both frauds were arrested and were
undergoing trial in southern An Giang province."
"A group of three business people from Ho Chi Minh City who
were negotiating to buy the black bronze, which [if real, would
be] valued on the market at around $1 million, bought a printer
to produce 900 million Vietnamese dong ($58,214) to pay for
the deal."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?&storyID=3000794
FEATURED WEB PAGE
This week's featured web page is Dr. Howard M. Berlin's
article, The Mystery of the 1927 Holyland Token.
"The obverse of the Holyland Token, in part, resembles closely
the reverse design of the standard 1-mil coin issued by the
Palestine Currency Board starting in 1927. However the token's
size (28.5 mm) with plain edge is slightly larger than the
standard 2-mil coin (28 mm). Although coins are traditionally
struck with the obverse and reverse dies aligned at a rotation
of 180 degrees, known as the "coin rotation," both the Holyland
Token and the regular issued coins of the Palestine Mandate
were struck in the "medal rotation," so that the obverse and
reverse dies were aligned in a rotation of zero degrees."
http://user.dtcc.edu/~berlin/palestin/token.htm
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. To join, print the application and
return it with your check to the address printed
on the application. For those without web access,
write to David Sklow, NBS Secretary-Treasurer,
P.O. Box 76192, Ocala, FL 34481.
For Asylum mailing address changes and other
membership questions, contact Dave at this email
address: sdsklow at aol.com
To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum,
just Reply to this message, or write to the Editor
at this address: whomren at coinlibrary.com
(To be removed from the E-Sylum mailing list
send an email message with the word "Unsubscribe"
in the body of the message to:
esylum-request at binhost.com)
More information about the Esylum
mailing list