The E-Sylum v7#52, December 26, 2004
esylum at binhost.com
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Mon Dec 27 14:23:29 PST 2004
Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 7, Number 52, December 26, 2004:
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
Copyright (c) 2004, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
E-SYLUM SUBSCRIBER SAFE IN SRI LANKA
By publishing a day late we are able to report that E-Sylum
subscriber and contributor Kavan Ratnatunga and his family
are safe following yesterday's devastating tsunami which hit
Sri Lanka and other coastal nations. In response to an email,
he writes: "Thanks for you concern. The Tsunami did do a lot
of damage in Lanka as you would have read in the news, but
mostly in the south and east of the island, with death tolls
expected to be over 5000. All is well with my family. I
live about 1/4 mile away from the sea and didn't know about
it till we saw the News on TV."
Kavan plans to go out in few days to the badly struck parts
of the island to see what needs to be done to help. Asked
how we can best contribute to relief efforts, he writes:
"If you want to contribute, let me suggest LAcNet a US
non-profit organization which is coordination it's effort
via http://www.theacademic.org/
I have been involved with it since it was founded in 1991
and will be its secretary in 2005"
LAcNet is the Lanka Academic Network. Donations are
accepted by credit card on the web site, or via a check
payable to "Lanka Academic Network" (and marked "Tidal Wave
Victims") sent to: Daya Weerakkody, LAcNet Treasurer, 9603
Avenel Road, Silver Spring, MD 20903-2311, USA. All donations
are tax-deductible in the USA. LAcNet US Tax Id: 411-69-1170.
NO NBS CLUB TABLE AT KANSAS CITY ANA
Howard A. Daniel III writes that he was informed by the
American Numismatic Association that the bourse is sold out
at the Kansas City ANA and no tables were reserved for
clubs. So he will not be manning an IBNS/NBS/NI club table
and passing out world paper money for IBNS, world coins for
NI, and numismatic catalogs for NBS. Howard usually passes
out about 300 pieces of paper money, 3000 world coins and
about 5-6 catalogs at each ANA, plus recruiting new members
and/or renewing memberships. With no club table, Howard is
strongly considering not attending the show. Are there
other IBNS, NBS and NI members out there who will moderate
the meetings?
XEROX RESEARCH COULD END SPINE-CRUSHING PHOTOCOPYING
A software solution from Xerox labs, announced last month
at a conference in Xi'an, China, may hold a part of the
solution to Google's daunting book-scanning problems, and
should delight librarians and researchers as well. From
a recent article:
"If you've ever copied pages from a book, you're familiar
with the problem -- dark, distorted words where the page
is bound into the book," said Xerox spokesperson Bill
McKee. "To correct it, most of us use the 'brute force'
method for getting readable copies -- pushing the book to
flatten it against the glass scanning surface, called the
platen."
Library science 101 at the elementary grade level
emphasizes one point above all else -- don't bend the book
and damage the spine. Xerox researchers Beilei Xu and
Robert Loce have proposed a simple solution that should
make librarians everywhere stand up and cheer -- a
mathematical formula incorporated in the software of
common scanners that eliminates the book-breaking problem.
"The programming of a mathematical algorithm to correct
for the book's warped appearance on a copy machine will
work," said City College of New York computer science
professor George Wolberg. "The challenge is to find the
spatial transformation that accurately models the distortion,
and this is precisely where the Xerox method excels."
"When a book page is not in uniform, intimate contact with
the scanning surface, there are actually two distinct
problems," Loce explained. "The variation in illumination
causes some portions of the copy to be darker than others,
and the variation in distance from the scanning surface
causes letters or objects farther from the surface to look
warped."
"At one time, Xerox sold a copier with an angled edge and
articulated cover so people could copy pages without
cracking books all the way open," McKee told NewsFactor.
"Another solution is dedicated book scanners with height
sensors, so the book lies face up, and scanning takes
place from above it."
Instead of changing the hardware, Xu and Loce decided to
look at an easier solution.
They changed the software, inexpensively.
"Since the Xerox solution requires no special apparatus and
all corrections are based solely on the digital image itself,
this has huge implications on cost. It can be applied
directly on very low-cost scanners," Wolberg explained.
Using the same light that copy scanners shine and analyze,
"we use the sensed light to also determine the distance of
the book from the platen for each pixel on the page," Xu
told NewsFactor. "Normally the light only provides
information on the reflectance of the original document."
The new copier software mathematically compensates for
variation in distance from the platen along a bound book
page.
It eliminates the darker portion of the copy where the
page is bound into the book and "de-warps" the normally
distorted words running along the center of the page."
To read the full article, see:
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=29147
JORG LUEKE ON GOOGLE AND COPYRIGHTS
Jorg Lueke, creator of The Electronic Numismatist
profiled in previous issues writes: "I have three
comments on this issue. Regarding Michael's Marotta's
review I am happy to report that the new version was
created and went out at the end of last week. Anyone
who had ordered the first version has received an
updated copy. As stated in the note the main update
was to correct some blank pages as well as some header
inconsistencies. If anyone else notices any problems
I'd love to hear and correct them at
numismatist at ancientcoinvalues.com.
On the Google effort of digitization I am very intrigued.
It obviously is an idea after my own heart and had I
the capital something I certainly would consider. I do
think the timetable is rather aggressive, not so much for
scanning, but for fixing all the little bugs. Character
recognition software has issues even with the typefaces
used in the old volumes of the Numismatist, it is also
very sensitive to the contrast of type to paper. The
latter characteristic can weaken rather quickly. So I
think we'll see scanned books sonner. But properly
indexed and error free ones a few years later. Still,
as knowledge becomes digital it will become ever more
accessible, and as the delivery of digital works becomes
easier to read (paper books that display digital works)
the amount of knowledge at each of our fingertips will
increase exponentially.
The only other drawback is today's copyright law.
Designed to protect the intellectual property of
corporations in perpetuity the law protects all works
without distinction from 1964 onward. Maybe that's O.K.
for Donald Duck but if an author wrote three numismatic
pamphlets in the early 1970s and then passed away it
can be almost impossible to track down the heirs and
acquire the rights. Requiring a renewal after 28 years
would protect all those who sought to extend their
copyright will allowing the flow of information into
the public domain to happen much more readily."
HENRY HART OBITUARY; NEAR EAST COINAGE EXPERT
On December 21, The Times published an obituary of Near
Eastern coinage expert Henry Hart:
"The Rev Henry Hart, divinity scholar and Dean of Queens'
College, Cambridge, was born on April 15, 1912. He died
on October 30, 2004, aged 92."
"Hart also formed a notable collection of Greek and
Roman coins to illustrate his Semitic studies and the
history of the ancient Near East. It contained some major
rarities and was remarkable for the complete series of
the coinage of the Seleucid kings of Syria, and in forming
it he bought the finest specimens available. He presented
his collections to the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1963 and
1969. He was an honorary fellow of the Royal Numismatic
Society."
"The office of dean at Queens' in that period involved
running the chapel and being head of discipline. In
those days of curfews and locked gates, Hart once caught
an undergraduate climbing into college late at night.
Poised on the top of the railings, and seeing the dean
below, the student exclaimed, "O, God!" "No - just his
earthly representative," replied Hart, a quip that has
not only gone down in Cambridge folklore but also
serves as a typical example of Hart's ready wit."
To read the full article, see:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-1410663,00.html
A WORD ON MIKE CRAVEN FROM FRED LAKE
Regarding last week's word of the arrest of a suspect
In the death of numismatic filmmaker Mike Craven, Fred
Lake writes: "I am very happy that we have some
dedicated law enforcement people in our country. Mike
Craven was a customer and friend some five years ago.
We spent much fine time on the telephone discussing
numismatic literature and its place in describing the
events that shaped numismatics in the early years of
this country.
His was a senseless death and I hope that the perpetrator
will get some richly deserved "justice."
TURKS LOB SIX ZEROS OFF CURRENCY
On January 1st, residents of Turkey will have six fewer
zeros to deal with on their nation's currency, as the
country issues New Turkish Lira at the rate of one to a
million of the current units. From a Reuters news article:
"One Turkish coffee, medium-sweet? That'll be two million
lira, please.
Visitors to Turkey are often perplexed by the plethora of
zeros that confronts them at every financial turn. Even
Turks themselves get a little tired of being nominal
millionaires.
A new pair of shoes? One hundred million. A new washing
machine? One billion five hundred and thirty million."
"But from January 1 all that will change when Turkey's
central bank lops six zeros off the currency, creating
the New Turkish Lira at the rate of one to a million of
the current units."
"Turkey boasts the world's highest denomination current
banknote, for 20 million lira -- worth about 8 pounds.
The smallest coin in routine use is 50,000 lira, or
nearly 2 pence."
"Even quite routine sums need a wider than average
calculator screen. Bank cash machines have an extra
key for three zeros, saving customers the trouble of
multiple prodding."
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=644620
[Is Turkey's note truly the current record holder for
highest denomination? Is anyone aware of a higher-
denominated note in circulation today? What is the
all-time record holder? I'm guessing one from the
post-WWI German or Hungarian inflation eras, but I
know one of our astute readers will have an answer for
us. -Editor]
GUIDE TO ATTRIBUTIONS USING SYLLOGE NUMMORUM GRAECORUM
Reid Goldsborough writes: "I don't know if you've seen
this yet, about the (often confusing) SNG books for
attributing ancient Greek coins."
From the web page: "After Sear, the most commonly used
attribution reference in the U.S. for ancient Greek
coins is SNG Cop. This stands for Sylloge Nummorum
Graecorum: The Royal Collection of Coins and Medals,
Danish National Museum (in Copenhagen). SNG Cop. was
originally published as a 43-volume set from 1942 until
1977 and has since been republished as an eight-volume
set. It's valued for its comprehensiveness -- among
other things, compared with Sear, it includes many more
Greek-era coin types and varieties of the same coin
type as well as Greek Imperial/Roman Provincial coin
types. What's more, compared with some other SNGs, it's
in English, so it's nearly universally accessible.
Many other SNGs exist as well and are used to attribute
coins, since far more coin types and varieties exist
than are documented even in SNG Cop."
http://rg.ancients.info/guide/attribution.html
TRASK'S LOW PROFILE
Last week we mentioned the U.S. paper money collection
assembled by Malcolm Trask. An anonymous subscriber
writes: " With reference to your article about the subway
motorman who amassed a significant paper money collection,
I can contribute the following: In a discussion with
Allen Mincho about two months ago, he told me that Trask
kept a very low profile. He was not widely known.
Whatever research he did was probably for his own benefit.
Allen had met Trask at a NYC show in the late 60's. By
that time, Trask was no longer pursuing paper money."
BRASHER DOUBLOONS OFFERED AT HERITAGE
Saul Teichman writes: "You may want to note the in the
next E-Sylum Heritage's FUN sale offering of the 3 types
of Brasher Doubloons. Pretty neat !!"
http://www.heritagecoins.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=360&Lot_No=30015
http://www.heritagecoins.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=360&Lot_No=30016
http://www.heritagecoins.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=360&Lot_No=30017
FIXING THOSE PESKY GARBAGE CHARACTERS
Many apologies for the recent email glitches, particularly
the garbage character problem with issue v7#49. Some of
you requested a clean copy which I'm unable to provide at
this time. One reader has provided instructions for
cleanup.
Alan Luedeking writes: "For those of you who are anal
about archiving a hardcopy of every E-Sylum issue as
valuable numismatic literature, and are bothered by the
"garbage character" glitches in v7#49, here's a suggested
fix:
1) Open the message containing the corrupted
E-Sylum v7#49.
2) Make sure you select the option in your email
message to allow the message to be edited.
3) Open Microsoft Word.
4) Go to <http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_esylum_v07n49.html>
5) Select ONLY the entire text of the newsletter,
right click, then Copy.
6) Paste the text into a blank Word document.
It will paste as a single cell Table.
7) Now select the entire text again, being careful
to omit the cell character at the end.
8) Select Left Justify in your Paragraph formatting
options and Copy again.
9) Select the entire text of your corrupted email
message and Paste over it.
Voilá, you know have a perfect E-Sylum vol 7 #49 sans
garbage characters, and formatted exactly the way Wayne
sends them all out. No doubt other much shorter and
simpler avenues exist, such as using the Replace command
to delete unwanted characters, but this worked for me,
and my E-Sylum collection remains complete and (almost)
unadulterated.
THE E-SYLUM ISN'T THE ONLY LATE E-NEWSLETTER
... but the reasons are downright pedestrian compared
to why Mark Switzer, editor of the Early American
Coppers, Inc. Region 8 was late publishing last week.
in the #434 - December 19, 2004 issue, he writes about
his neighbor's calamity:
"I apologize for getting this newsletter out a day
late. My usual weekend routine was seriously interrupted.
The neighbors, 3 doors down the street were having 5
large trees removed from around the house on Saturday.
The tree company had contracted with a local crane
service to assist. While removing a large upper section
from the third tree, the 85 ton 160' tall crane tipped
over and crushed the house. No one was hurt, not even
the pets. Both the crane ($800,000) and the house
($200,000) are total losses."
QUOTE: DAVID MCCOLLOUGH
The following quote was brought to our attention by NewsScan
Daily(www.NewsScan.com):
No harm's done to history by making it something someone
would want to read." (David McCollough)
[Of course, it cold be argued that readable but inaccurate
written history does more harm than good. In numismatics,
there are innumerable conjectures on the part of writers
that have come to be accepted as fact by later generations
until (and sometime long after) it has been demonstrated that
no primary evidence exists to verify them. -Editor]
WHEAT IMAGES ON COINS AND BANKNOTES
Last week we wrote that the United States Botanic Gardens
(USBG) in Washington D.C. is seeking images of North American
and European currency and coins showing images of wheat.
Chris Fuccione and I both suggested the obvious starting
point of the wheat-back Lincol Cent 1909-1959. Rich Hartzog
writes: "I can supply items and/or images of a number of
world tokens/medals with wheat. Please pass on my email,
thanks!"
We'll forward Rich's offer to the folks at USBG.
WHITE METAL
In response to a query, Dick Johnson wrote up the following
discussion of white metal, always a confusing subject in
numismatic attribution:
"What you have is "white metal." This is a loose term that
does not have an exact formulation, but whose major component
is tin. It most often has lead mixed with the tin. It was
widely used in England, where a tinsmith industry flourished
because of the active production of the tin mines in Western
England. It was used to make utensils and plates for the
lower class who could not afford silver (or later, silverplate)
utensils. (But the lead leached into the food and the result
was some lead poisoning.)
But it was ideal for medals. It is softer than bronze,
silver and other medal compositions, but harder than pure
tin. Pure tin also has the shortcoming of being affected
by temperature (it changes at temperature below freezing)
but this is less so for white metal. Because of its
softness white metal is ideal for striking. I have never
seen a cast white metal object (perhaps this is
impossible).
White metal does resemble aluminum. But aluminum did not
become commercially available until electricity became
available (thank you, Thomas Edison who established the
first electric generation plant in Philadelphia). Since
aluminum requires a large amount of electricity to purify
it, it becme available only after the development of
electric generation (about 1890). In America white metal
fell into disuse after aluminum became widely available.
White metal is often called pewter, which it closely
resembles. In cataloging medals of light weight silver
color they are often called many things -- tin, lead,
pewter and others -- but it is best to call it white metal.
Tin can be impressed with your fingernail, as can pure
lead. White metal is not dented this easily. "Pot metal"
can frequently be indented with your fingernail because
of the great use of these soft metals. It is not suitable
for medals. Like white metal, pewter also has no specific
formulation (but is a mixture of whatever was tossed into
the melting pot, hence the name)
If your bronze and white metal medals were award medals,
the white metal ranked the very lowest, even below bronze
(with silver and gold above, of course)."
BANK HEIST COULD TRIGGER IRISH BANKNOTE WITHDRAWL
A December 24, 2004 story in the London Times notes
that Britain's largest bank robbery could lead to
the withdrawal of an entire issue of Northern
Ireland currency.
"The home of leading Belfast Republican Eddie Copeland
was being searched today by police in the hunt to recover
£22 million stolen in Britain's biggest bank raid."
"The robbers held the families of two bank workers
hostage for 24 hours, forcing the two staff to help them
carry out the heist at the headquarters of the Northern
Bank in Belfast on Monday night. £22 million was taken,
£12 million of it in distinctive Northern Ireland
banknotes.
Today the Northern Bank revealed that it is considering
a plan to withdraw from circulation every single
banknote that it has issued. The move would make much
of the stolen money impossible to spend, although it
would also cause enormous problems for legitimate
savers."
"On Sunday night, some of the robbers posed as police
officers breaking news of the death of a relative to
gain entrance to the two bankers' houses.
The families of Chris Warde, 23, and his supervisor,
Kevin McMullan, 30, were held hostage as the pair
were ordered to report for work at midday on Monday,
where their jobs took them into the cash centre in
the basement of the bank in Donegall Square West.
One of the bank workers was ordered to test the
security by walking out of the building with a holdall
containing £1 million. He was not spotted by security
staff, and passed the bag to one of the gangsters,
disguised in a hat and scarf, who was standing round
the corner in Upper Queen Street.
Over the next two hours, huge quantities of banknotes
were loaded into crates and boxes. On two occasions,
at around 7pm and around 8pm, the van, larger than a
Transit and with a distinctive tail-lift, called at
the bank's side entrance to collect them."
To read the full story:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1415365,00.html
1775 COIN FIND MAKES NEWS
On Sunday December 26, 2004, a story about the discovery
of a common 18th century coin in Boonsboro, MD made the
local papers, with a guest appearance by NBS board member
John Kraljevich:
"Masonry contractor Clyde Barnhart didn't have to finish
his renovation to the historic Boone Hotel building in
Boonsboro before getting paid for his work. He dug up a
reward worth more to him than money soon after he started
the project this fall.
The self-described "history nut" and relic hunter
discovered a 1775 British coin beneath the rotting
floorboards of the more than 200-year-old building. The
front side of the worn, copper half-penny includes a bust
of King George III with the words "Georgius III Rex."
The back side of the coin reads "Brittania."
Despite its age, the coin isn't worth much - to anyone
except Barnhart and Boone Hotel owner Mark Webb. The
229-year-old coin today is worth between $5 and $10, said
John J. Kraljevich Jr. of Annapolis, director of numismatic
research for New Hampshire-based American Numismatic
Rarities. That half penny would be equivalent to about a
half dollar in today's economy, he said."
"I don't care about the value; it's the historical
significance to me," said Barnhart, 55, of Hagerstown.
After finding the coin with his metal detector, he
cleaned it up with lemon juice and gave it to Webb to
frame and mount above the old brick fireplace near
where he uncovered his treasure."
"The hotel was one of the first five buildings
constructed in Boonsboro after William and George
Boone founded the town in 1792..."
To read the full story, see:
http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=99885
A CHRISTMAS POEM
Two years ago Dick Johnson sent us a Christmas poem
"Give Santa A Medal" (E-Sylum, vol 5, no 51 December 22,
2002). This year he sends us a follow up to that poem.
SANTA GOT HIS MEDAL
'Two days after Christmas,
And all through coin land,
Collectors and coin buyers
Check their collections at hand.
Bullion coin buyers
Return from bank vaults,
Empty-handed from divesting,
False coins without faults.
Proof coin set collectors
Both eyes with a glint
Just received two packages
From our American Mint.
Lincoln diebreak collectors
Adjust microscopes,
A cent with mint flaws
Increases their hopes!
Those foreign coin collectors
Prize items at hand
World pleasure experienced
From every coin's far-off land.
Asylum book members
Still high you can see,
Received a rare tome
He now reads with great glee!
But this holiday Santa,
A medal collector he,
Got a new specimen
For the family to see.
He holds up his prize
For his family's eyes.
And claims with great mettle
"Santa DID get his medal!"
H A P P Y N E W Y E A R ! "
FEATURED WEB SITE
This week's featured web site is devoted to Austrian
Calendar Medals. "The Calendar Medals (Kalendermedaille)
produced by the Austrian Mint probably had their origin
in 1933. They have been minted annually ever since and
are a fascinating series of medals with superb designs
which were executed by master engravers and minters.
They usually depict one of the seven planets known to
ancient astrologers (in astrology the Sun and Moon are
treated as planets) or by their manifestation as deities
generally Roman) or at least by a closely related theme.
The reverses usually have a calendar of all the Sundays
of the year as well as the dates of major holidays
surrounding the calendar design. For many of the
Calendar Medals, customized versions were created for
the Mint's customers."
http://www.austriancoins.com/MedalsCalendarI.html
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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. Membership is only $15 to
addresses in North America, $20 elsewhere.
For those without web access, write to W. David
Perkins, NBS Secretary-Treasurer,
P.O. Box 3888, Littleton, CO 80161-3888.
For Asylum mailing address changes and other
membership questions, contact David at this email
address: wdperki at attglobal.net
To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum,
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