The E-Sylum v6#40, October 5, 2003

[whomren at coinlibrary.com]

Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 6, Number 40, October 5, 2003:
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society.


MORE JOHN J. FORD MATERIAL

   George Kolbe writs: "Work on the John J. Ford, Jr. Library
   continues. Among the more interesting items catalogued since
   the last report are:

   H. P. Smith’s Plated “Large Paper” 1890 Parmelee Sale,
   Priced With Buyers’ Names

   The Chapman Brothers’ Bid Book of the 1888 Scott Stamp
   & Coin Co. Linderman Pattern Sale

   From the library of Hiram Deats, the finest set of the first six
   volumes of The Numismatist, 1888-1893, that we have ever
   encountered, including the Zabriskie set.

   Dr. Maris’s Sales Room Copy of the 1886 sale of his
   collection, also a priced and named example with the
   extremely rare 4 plates

   More unique Chapman bid books, including A. C. Nygren

   W. W. C. Wilson’s 1911 Adams Sale of Woodin Patterns
   With Plates

   The Bid Book of the 1892 New York Coin & Stamp Co.
   sale of the Woodside Collection of patterns

   A superb set of Van Loon’s 1732-1737 work in French
   on Dutch medals, which includes European medals relating
   to colonial America

   A Superb Set of Milford Haven’s Magnificent “Medallic
   History of All Navies”

   Two very fine 1915 United States Coin Co. Granberg
   sales with plates, one being S. H. Chapman’s Plated,
   Priced and Named example

   David Proskey’s Priced and Named 1883 Crosby Sale
   of colonials

   A Large Paper copy of Strobridge’s September 1863
   Seavey sale, the first we recall ever having encountered

   The 1866 auction catalogue of the E. I. Barra collection,
   “Probably the first coin sale on the Pacific Coast”

   Robert Coulton Davis’s Interleaved, Extra-Illustrated, and
   Annotated 1873 Seavey/Parmelee Catalogue

   A very fine plated 1924 Simpson sale

   Lyman Low’s 1904 H. G. Brown Bid Book, On Large
   Paper With Plates

   Eighteen plated Elder sales, generally in superb condition,
   including many great rarities

   A unique illustrated work on Bryan Money by
   Howland Wood

   A number of important plated Woodward catalogues,
   including Vicksburg sales

   A superb set of Scott’s Coin Collector’s Journal in the
   publisher’s cloth

   Very fine 1869 and 1870 editions of Maris on 1794 cents

   Homer Downing’s deluxe leatherbound Oscar Pearl
   catalogue

   An exceptionally fine plated 1919 S. H. Chapman Sleicher
   sale

   Likely the finest copy extant of the 1904 Chapman
   brothers’ Ralph Barker sale with plates."


INTERNATIONAL NUMISMATIC CONGRESS REPORT

   [The following submission missed last week's issue
   due to an email glitch.  -Editor]

   Douglas Saville writes: "Phil Skingley and I have just returned
   from what was a successful, very busy and enjoyable week in
   Madrid. Some 625 delegates (“Congressists”!) from all parts
   of the world attended the Congress, held at Madrid’s Palacio
   de Congresos. Some 378 Papers were given during the week.
   We handed out no less than 300 copies of our 96 page colour
   Catalogue of Numismatic Books. It was a “busy” Congress!
   We were pleased to meet many old and new friends, and we
   look forward to meeting many of those who attended the
   Congress in our offices in London."


OF INTEREST TO BIBLIOPHILES AT  PORTLAND ANA SHOW

   The next American Numismatic Association (ANA) National
   Money Show will be held in Portland, Oregon from the 26th
   to the 28th of March, 2004, at the Oregon Convention Center.
   The show is hosted by the Williamette Coin Club and the show
   chairman is Larry Gaye. If you want more information about
   the show, please contact the ANA convention staff at
   convention at money.org and/or Larry Gaye at
   Light.Man at Verizon.com.

   NBS Member, Howard A. Daniel III will be the Moderator
   for the Numismatics International (NI) General Meeting and
   Educational Forum on Saturday, March 27th.  The room has
   not yet been assigned but the time will be 12 Noon and more
   information can be obtained in the show program when you
   register if the room number is not published by show time.
   Howard also mans a club table for NI, IBNS and NBS.

   The education forum speaker will be Scott Semans.  The title
   of his talk is "Successful Formats for Numismatic Books."
   Scott is a specialist in Asia, Africa and worldwide primitive
   pieces, and also stocks many, many references in his inventory.
   You can see his stock at www.coincoin.com, and all NBS
   members attending the show are invited to listen to Scott's
   talk.

   Please bring one piece or set, or even a reference, to talk
   about in the "show and tell" portion of the meeting.  You
   can contact Howard at Howard at SEAsianTreasury.com
   for more information.


KRALJEVICH SPEAKS AT ANNAPOLIS

   NBS Board member John Kraljevich will be speaking the
   evening of  Thursday, October 16 at the Old Treasury
   Building in Annapolis, MD.  His talk is sponsored by the
   Historic Annapolis Foundation. From their web site:

   "Local numismatist John Kraljevich discusses the life and
   times of 18th-century silversmiths and coin-makers John
   Chalmers and Thomas Sparrow.  Find out what coins they
   produced in Annapolis, why they were special and how
   they would have been safeguarded and dispensed.  A
   light reception follows. Old Treasury Building, 1 State Circle
   7:00—9:00 p.m. $10 for members and volunteers. $15 for
   non-members. Reservations required."

   The foundation's web site is
   http://www.annapolis.org/cgi-bin/newevents.pl

   Several years ago at an American Numismatic Association
   convention (I've long since forgotten where and when),
   I had a pleasant dinner with young numismatists Vicken
   Yegparian, John Kraljevich and his mother Gail.  I remember
   showing the group a coin - a VF Nova Constellatio copper
   I'd bought at the show from Tom Rinaldo.  Little did I know
   then that I was dining with a future ANA Education
   Director (Gail Baker), and cataloguers for Stack's (Vicken)
   Bowers & Merena and American Numismatic Rarities
   (John).


COMPUTERS AND NUMISMATIC WRITING

   Dick Johnson writes: "An article on the  Arts & Leisure web
   site asks the question: Has technology changed writing?

   I don’t see any technology changing numismatic writing
   other than the computer. I comb the aisles at Staples and Office
   Max looking for new technology for my writing tasks.  I still
   see 8 ½ by 11-inch paper for putting words on such paper
   (now recycled) and filing folders for organizing this paper.
   Sure there are faxes and printers and fancy cell phones, but
   no new technology that really helps me write.

   Can I ask the question: Has the computer changed
   numismatic writing?

   Oh Yes!   So much of numismatic literature is compiled
   rather than composed.  We authors are more gatherers of
   facts and recording these facts, perhaps in a useful order,
   than we engage in narrative creation.

   Look at any numismatic catalog.  Facts strung together in a
   somewhat logical and standardized order, often in tabular
   format.  American authors are best at this, we invented the
   coin catalog with columns of date, item, quantity struck,
   and prices by condition. This was a 20th century American
   invention, and numismatic catalogs in other countries have
   followed this format.

   We owe the pioneers of this creation, Wayte Raymond and
   Richard Yeo(man), for example, medals of honor for
   creating this numismatic genré. They were not great authors,
   they were great compilers. Plus they had the foresight to
   organize all that data into a useful form.

   Imagine the chore these authors had to endure by putting
   their text on paper with a typewriter! Oh, what numismatic
   books they could have produced if they had had computers!

   That was the situation before computers.  There were some
   numismatic books written in an intermediate transition phase,
   and “Walter Breen’s Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and
   Colonial Coins” is an excellent example of this stage.  The
   publisher put Walter Breen in an empty office in midtown
   Manhattan with one girl computer operator. Walter brought
   in his research, thousands of slips of paper, notes of every
   conceivable kind. (Sound familiar authors?)

   Whether Walter dictated or wrote drafts, I am unaware.
   But it ended up on the computer, while he was handy to
   review and revise, perhaps checking his notes (and his
   fabulous memory). It all ended up on  that modern age
   instrument of creation, the computer.

   Today numismatic authors must use a computer.  It is
   impossible to enter data in the quantity and vast detail,
   and be able to move it around and organize it in the manner
   a computer can do.  Has the computer changed numismatic
   writing? Yes sir. It sure has."


CRISWELL'S PUBLISHING

   Dave Ginsburg writes: "I recently finished reading "A
   Banking History of Louisiana" by Stephen A. Caldwell
   (Louisiana State University Press, 1935), which is a very
   informative, 138-page survey of banking activity in
   Louisiana from the early 18th century to the early 1930s.
   What I learned, besides the fact that banking and politics
   were thoroughly intertwined ('twas ever thus!), were the
   answers to two basic questions:

   1) What made New Orleans rich?
   A: steamboat traffic on the Mississippi!

   2) Why didn't New Orleans stay rich?
   A: The region failed to develop railroads to its major
   trading partners in the "Northwest" (i.e., the Great Lakes
   area); as a result, easterners put railroads through to the
   Mississippi river, which began the process of stealing traffic
   from New Orleans, a process that was completed by the
   shut-down of river traffic by the Civil War.  (Mark Twain
   comments on this in "Life on the Mississippi".)

   Prof. Caldwell also points out that the aftereffects of the
   Panic of 1837, which lingered in Louisiana until the early
   1840s, would have prevented the Louisiana banks from
   financing any railroads, even had New Orleans' commercial
   leaders been far-sighted enough to seek such financing.

   [By the way, I'm sure that anyone interested in the
   development of railroads at this time has already read
   Stephen Ambrose's "Nothing Like it in the World", which
   describes the building of the first transcontinental railroad,
   which was first agitated for in the early 1850s.  Mr. Ambrose
   describes the in-fighting between northern politicians, who
   refused to support construction in slave-state territory, and
   southern politicians, who refused to support construction
   anywhere else!]

   What made Prof. Caldwell's book particularly interesting
   to me, is that the copy I have was reprinted in 1977 by
   Grover Criswell.  I am familiar with Mr. Criswell's own
   books, of course, but I never knew that he reprinted
   out-of-print books of interest to numismatists.  Does
   anyone know if he reprinted other books?"

   [I know Criswell founded the weekly hobby newspaper
   Bank Note Reporter in the 1970s.  Today it is published
   by Krause Publications.   Can anyone fill us in on the
   books (other than his own) that Criswell published over
   the years (he died in March 1999). -Editor]


DOTY ON R. C. BELL

   Richard Doty writes: "I agree with Harold Welch.
   Robbie Bell never claimed to be conducting original
   research.  Rather, he was a great popularizer of the British
   commercial tokens, and he kept interest in the series alive
   at a time when very few others were writing in the field."


NEW MAGIC BOOK DRYING POWDER

   "Super Slurper, a starch-based polymer with a powerful thirst,
   has been employed in diapers and filters, but researchers want
   to turn the page and develop a different application: drying
   waterlogged books.

   It may look like a nondescript powder, but a mere teaspoon
   of the stuff can absorb a gallon of water, sucking up over
   2,000 times its weight in water instantaneously."

   "... it is being re-designed to aid librarians and archivists in
   their battle against flood damage -- the bane of their
   information-storing endeavors."

   "Super Slurper hopes to remedy this problem by reducing
   the drying process from days to minutes. "With Super
   Slurper it takes roughly 10 minutes to dry each book. It's
   a quantum leap in the amount of time..."

   To read the full story, see
   http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60614,00.html


HAITI CATALOG FOLLOW-UP

   Jørgen Sømod writes: "The catalog of coins and medals
   from Haïti is the auction catalog no. 80 from Adolph Weyl,
   Berlin 1887."


GUTTAG ISSUE FOUND

   Offering photocopies in response to Greg Silvis' request,
   Bill Burd reports: "I have Guttag Brothers Coin Bulletin
   for August 1928 Vol 6 No. 6.  I have the entire year of 10
   issues."


HARTZOG NUMISMATIC LINKS

   Rich Hartzog writes: "I am constantly looking for updates
   to my web site's page of links to numismatic sites.  I'm
   asking for people to help review it and update it.  I'm sure
   a number of groups have web pages, and I'm happy to
   include links.   The pages are
   http://www.exonumia.com/links.htm
   http://www.exonumia.com/links2.htm

   Also, Carlos Jara is actually Carlos Jara Moreno of Chile,
   the SON of the late Dr. Carlos Jara, of FL.  As I'm sure
   many knew the late Jara, please take note to avoid any
   confusion."

   [Rich's list of links is quite extensive.  It focuses on
   token & medal sites, but includes links to many numismatic
   organizations.   I've sent him an update to the NBS
   contact information.  -Editor]


PRINTS OF U.S. MINT BUILDINGS

   Arthur Shippee writes: "E-Sylum readers may be interested
   in this commercial web site, which offers antiquarian maps
   & prints, with some on banks, &c.  I didn't look carefully,
   but perhaps some are of interest.
   http://www.philographikon.com/

   [The site has a page of "Antique Prints of Banks and Stock
   Exchanges in America" which includes some views of early
   banks and U.S. Mint branches.  -Editor]


FEATURED WEB PAGE

   This week's featured web page is  the “Cabinet des Médailles”
   of France.

   "The Department of Coins, Medals and Antiquities of the
   Bibliothèque nationale de France is traditionally called the
   “Cabinet des Médailles” or the “Cabinet de France”.  In
   effect, it originated in the collection of the kings of France.

   From the Middle Ages on, monarchs such as Philippe-
   Auguste, Jean le Bon and Charles V preserved all kinds of
   precious and rare objects in their coffers: manuscripts, gold
   and silver objects, engraved stones and undoubtedly antique
   coins, which were classified as “medals” until the 19th century.
   Amassed for pleasure as well as to constitute valuable reserves,
   these collections traversed all the vicissitudes of history,
   even being pawned and pillaged. It was only after certain items
   in the royal collections were irretrievably damaged during the
   Wars of Religion and after Charles IX created a “special
   guardian of the king’s medals and antiquities” that the idea of
   a royal patrimony emerged."

      http://www.bnf.fr/site_bnf_eng/collectionsgb/indexgb.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 W. David Perkins, NBS Secretary-Treasurer,
  P.O. Box 212, Mequon, WI  53092-0212.

  For Asylum mailing address changes and other
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