The E-Sylum v7#47, November 21, 2004
whomren at coinlibrary.com
whomren at coinlibrary.com
Sun Nov 21 11:35:56 PST 2004
Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 7, Number 47, November 21, 2004:
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
Copyright (c) 2004, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
AFGHAN COINS AND OTHER TREASURE FOUND
On November 18 the Washington Post published an article
describing a trove of museum artifacts, including coins,
which were inventoried recently after 25 years of hiding.
“They were priceless artifacts, and the Kabul Museum curators
wrapped them carefully, some of them in pink toilet paper,
others in newspaper, and put them in metal boxes. Then
government people, eight to 10 of them, signed pieces of
paper that were glued to the locks. No box would be opened
unless all the signers were there.
That was a quarter-century ago, during the Soviet occupation.
But the pact held through the warlordism of the late 1980s
and 1990s, through the xenophobic rule of the Taliban and
the American invasion.
Many feared the treasures were lost forever, but yesterday
archaeologist Fredrik T. Hiebert announced that a just-
completed inventory showed that all but a handful had been
recovered from hidden caches in Kabul's presidential palace
complex and other "safe places."
"The museum director said, 'Won't you look at these other
boxes?' " There were six of them, Hiebert said; then there
were 20, then 80, then perhaps 120.
In them they found more than 2,500 more objects, including
2,000 gold and silver coins depicting Afghan royalty back to
500 B.C., a collection long regarded as looted and missing.
Next came plaster medallions, ivory water goddesses and
intricately carved ivory plaques from the 2,000-year-old
Kushan culture.
In all, the boxes contained 5,000 years of Afghanistan's
history.. .”
"Beginning in 1979, the museum was shelled, lost its roof,
its windows, its door," Hiebert said. "All the inventory
cards were destroyed by fire, and the museum was looted."
"The art market was waiting for stuff to start appearing,
but it never did," said Ohio State University historian
John Huntington, who photographed much of the Kabul Museum
collection in 1970. "Where was it? Nobody knew."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58634-2004Nov17.html
TIMES ARTICLE ON REPUBLIC COIN RECOVERY
On Tuesday, November 16, The New York Times published an
article about the efforts to recover artifacts, including
coins, from the wreck of the S.S. Republic:
A seven-ton submersible robot held pride of place. Its
flexible arm was equipped with tiny suction cups made of
soft flexible plastic for carefully picking up rare coins
that can fetch up to half a million dollars each. The
robot is one example of the sophistication and technological
precision of this salvage effort, which leaders say
surpasses any previous shipwreck salvage.”
“The recovery has not always been smooth. When the robot
gingerly picked up its first gold coin, it fumbled, dropping
it back onto the seabed instead of into the impromptu holding
tank, an old chamber pot.
One year and more than 52,000 coins later, the team has set
new records in deep recovery. From the disintegrating hulk of
the sidewheel steamer that sank in 1865 about 100 miles off
Georgia while battling a hurricane, the robot has plucked gold
and silver coins valued at more than $75 million. And it is
pursuing billions more in lost treasure.
"We've gotten really good at picking up coins," said Greg
Stemm, director of operations for Odyssey Marine Exploration
Inc. of Tampa, Fla.”
“Rare coins have a high priority since their sale promises to
repay the recovery's high cost. But at first, the team had no
idea how to gather them up carefully and expeditiously when
even the slightest scratch could greatly reduce their value.
Much testing ensued.
The tiny suction cups proved safe and efficient. More
troublesome was finding the right holding devices for
transporting coins to the surface, despite Mr. Stemm's
extensive hunt for solutions. Plastic colanders and ice cube
trays proved unworkable.
Finally, the team hit on large kitchen pots lined with carpet,
fitted with wide funnels and filled with a dense vegetable oil
that kept the coins snug and secure. By January, the team was
tucking away an average of 1,700 coins a day, one every 50
seconds.”
To read the full article, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/16/science/16ship.html
NEW SEARCH TOOL: GOOGLE SCHOLAR
On November 18 The Industry Standard published an article
about a new search service that may prove useful to numismatic
researchers:
“Google Inc. on Thursday formally launched a new search
service aimed at scientists and academic researchers. Google
Scholar is a free beta service that allows users to search for
scholarly literature like peer-reviewed papers, theses, books,
preprints, abstracts and technical reports, the Mountain View,
California, company said.
The new service accesses information from resources such as
academic publishers, universities, professional societies and
preprint repositories, it said.
Because the service automatically analyzes and extracts citations
and presents them as separate results, users can find references
to older works that may only exist offline in books or other
publications.”
“Google Scholar is located at http://scholar.google.com.”
To read the full article, see:
http://www.thestandard.com/internetnews/000628.php
Based on a few trial searches the indexed papers seem to be a
relatively random and incomplete set of materials, with many
abstracts rather than full texts. Many of the full papers are
only available to paid subscribers of the individual
publishing services. Still, the tool could be very useful,
particularly the feature which separately itemizes citations
within scholarly papers. As the article mentioned, this is
a great way to learn about useful and perhaps obscure reference
material that may be available offline. After locating some
interesting citations, a researcher would then have a want list
for searching say, the library catalogue of the American
Numismatic Society, or offerings of online used booksellers.
Some papers located with a simple search on the term
“numismatic” include:
Shachar I, The Historical and Numismatic Significance of
Alexander Jannaeus's Later Coinage as Found in Archaeological
Excavations, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, April 2004
H. Gitler, A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF NUMISMATIC
EVIDENCE FROM EXCAVATIONS IN JERUSALEM
Orv Hetil, Numismatic souvenirs of the 100-year history of
Hungarian radiology, 1997 [Article in Hungarian]
Jarcho S., Medical numismatic notes, X: the Manchester
Infirmary and Lunatic Hospital. 1973
U.S. ARMY MEDICAL MUSEUM MEDAL COLLECTION
One of the full-text articles found by the Google Scholar
search was a July 1917 article in the Bulletin of the Medical
Library Association by Albert Allemann, M. D., titled THE
COLLECTION OF MEDICAL MEDALS IN THE ARMY
MEDICAL MUSEUM AT WASHINGTON, WITH NOTES
ON NUMISMATIC METHODS. Here’s an excerpt:
“A collection of medical medals has considerable medico-
historical and general artistic value and is an ornament
to any medical library. The Army Medical Museum at
Washington possesses one of the finest and most complete
collection of medical medals in this country. I have lately
been put in charge of it and as it has never been described
anywhere, I want to make a few remarks concerning it.
Soon after Col. Billings began to collect books for the
Surgeon General's Library, a number of medical medals were
presented to it by various physicians. As the number of
medals increased Col. Billings thought it best to make as
complete a collection as possible aid during the 25 years
he worked in the Library he constantly bought medals from
numismatic dealers in this country and in Europe. As
Billings was also in charge of the Medical Museum, both the
Library and the Museum being in the same building, he
considered the Museum Hall the proper place for exhibiting
the medals and they are still there. After Billings left
the Library in 1895, his successors continued to buy medals
occasionally.
The collection now numbers well over 3000 pieces which
Were practically all acquired by Billings. There are some
ancient Greek and Roman medals, especially of Aesculapius
but they are not numerous. By far the larger number belong
to the last three centuries. The great majority of medical
medals are, of course, struck in honor of distinguished
physicians and men of science and of these the collection
at Washington has a very fine selection. An interesting
series are the jetons of the old French Academy of Medicine
extending from 1638 to 1793, when the Academy was
abolished by the Revolutionary government of France.”
[Would any of our readers be aware of the status of this
collection? Is it still intact? Has a catalogue ever been
published? -Editor]
NEW BOOK ON MEXICAN ERROR COINS
Adrián González Salinas of Monterrey, Nuevo León, México
writes: "Yesterday (Nov/10), I received The Asylum Summer
2004 commemorative issue and I would like to take advantage
of this e-mail to congratulate all of NBS officers for this
superb publication.
I would also like to inform The E-Sylum's readers about a
new Mexican numismatic book titled: "Errar es de H/Num...
ismáticos - Errores y Variedades en la Moneda Mexicana"
(To Err is for H/Num...ismatists - Errors and Varieties in
the Mexican Coinage)
Author: Carlos Abel Amaya Guerra, PhD
Paper: Glossy
Dimensions: 21.6 (W) x 27.9 x 1.5 cms
Pages: ix,233
Cover: Soft
Year: 2004 (printed October 2004)
Photos: 344
Drawings: 29
Language: Spanish
Words total: 55,454
Edition: 500 copies
Index:
1) Presentation
2) Introduction to varieties and errors
3) The coinage striking process
4) The blanket's errors and varieties
5) The die's errors and varieties
6) The coinage's errors and varieties
7) Coins aren't errors and varieties
8) The coins errors and varieties worth
9) The numismatist lab about coins with errors and varieties
10) Ideas for enjoying the errors and varieties collection
11) Epilogue
12) Parts of the coin
13) Abbreviations
14) Vocabulary English-Spanish, Spanish-English
15) Glossary,
16) Mexican coins varieties listing
17) Bibliography
This book was printed by Biological Sciences Faculty
(Nuevo León's University) and Monterrey's Numismatic Society
(Sociedad Numismática de Monterrey, A.C.). The book
contains 2,819 Mexican coins varieties listed. For any
additional information, please send me an e-mail at
agonzalez at vitro.com"
QUIZ QUESTION: WHAT TIME IS IT?
Last week we asked if anyone could tell us the time shown on
the back of the U.S. $100 bill, as part of a discussion of
the upcoming film “National Treasure”.
Tom DeLorey writes; “I have no idea what time is shown on
Independence Hall on the $100 bill, but once during the World
Series of Numismatics I correctly answered "3 o'clock" as
the time shown on the reverse of the Bicentennial half.
Interlocutor Donn Pearlman later told me that he had thrown
the question in as a gag, intending to say "Just kidding" and
read the real question, and was shocked when I buzzed in and
answered the question correctly.
I just happened to have a blowup picture of the reverse in my
mind, from an error coin I had illustrated in Collectors
Clearinghouse years before, and when he asked the question
the picture just popped into my head as clear as day.”
Joe Boling writes: "The clock on Independence Hall (as
depicted on the $100 notes) has not changed in the past
seventy years, but it shows a non-existent time. The hour
hand points almost squarely at the II (actually often a tiny
bit before the II), but the minute hand is midway between the
IV and the V (in other words, at 22.5 minutes). If the hour
hand were keeping pace, it would be one third of the way
between the II and the III. On many notes the hands are the
same length, and thus you could say that the time is 4:10
if you take the hands to represent opposite functions. But
on many notes a tiny part of the lower hand extends beyond
the inner circle of the clock face, making it the longer
hand, and thus the minute hand. In any event, the original
engraver did not show a real time, and subsequent engravers
have retained the error. Now, somebody tell me that the
hands on the actual building are similarly out of sync."
REVIEWS PANS "NATIONAL TREASURE"
The film “National Treasure” opened this week and was
roundly trashed by at least one reviewer. In the November 19
New York Times, Stephen Holden writes: “Maybe, just maybe,
an 8-year-old could pick up an interest in American history from
watching "National Treasure," that is, if the child could stay
awake for this sluggish two-hour trudge through landmarks in
Washington, Philadelphia and New York. It's far more likely,
however, that a child who could stay awake through this fanciful
reality game show (a Grade C "Amazing Race") would come
away believing the bogus mythology that detonates it with a
squishy thud."
“Looking like a mangy hound dog with patches of hair missing,
Mr. Cage skulks through a role that demands a wry Harrison
Ford-like sense of irony. The actor, who can't even muster a
half-smile or a raised eyebrow, wears the numbed expression of
a lazy star who can't be bothered to find the character inside
his role. If "National Treasure" mattered at all, you might
call it a national disgrace, but this piece of flotsam is so
inconsequential that it amounts to little more than a piece
of Hollywood accounting.”
To read the entire review, see:
http://movies2.nytimes.com/2004/11/19/movies/19trea.html
MORE DEPARTMENT STORE COIN LORE
Len Augsberger writes: “About ten years ago, Marshall
Field's in Chicago distributed a 15% off coupon to
anyone who came into their store and opened a Field's
charge card. Knowing that gold bullion type coins
were sold in the coin department, I stopped by one day
and attempted to buy several American Eagles, at a 15%
discount, of course. The proprietor, needless to say,
wasn't pleased.
After a trip upstairs to the Field's customer service
office to sort things out, the deal was indeed done at
the 15% discount. It's not something I would do today,
but as a starting collector I thought the whole episode
was great fun.
One more story, printed in Rare Coin Review #142 (on
the numismatic works of Fred Reinfeld), but worth
repeating in this context---
"Fred Reinfeld's most frequent collaborator was Burton
Hobson, who is perhaps best remembered for Historic
Gold Coins of the World, a lavishly photographed book
from 1971 featuring hundreds of gold coins in color from
the ANS collection. Hobson, today the chief operating
officer of Sterling Publishing, related the story of
his introduction to the company: "I started in the
Marshall Field's coin department when still in school
at the University of Chicago, then continued as manager
for five years. I met David Boehm, president of Sterling,
who wanted to sell me a book called Coinometry. I
replied that it wasn't the kind of book my customers
wanted, to which he said, 'Why don't you write that
book?' ".”
Last week Larry Gaye wrote about the coin department at the
old Hudson's department store in Detroit. Tom DeLorey writes:
“I too used to visit the coin department at Hudson's when I
was a student at Wayne State University in Detroit. In
pleasant weather I would walk down Woodward Avenue after
classes and visit used book stores along the way, drop in
at Hudson's and Earl Shill's store behind them, and then
catch the Plymouth Rd. express bus home.
One day I found a pristine first edition Redbook at one of
the used book stores for 75 cents. I think it was the original
price it had sold for in 1946, and the used book dealer simply
resold it at that. When I got to Hudson's I showed the guy
behind the counter my find, and he generously offered to double
my money. I declined.”
David Palmer writes: "With regard to Department Store Coin
counters, I used to be dropped off at the Gimbel's Coin Dept.
at the Roosevelt Field Mall, in Garden City, NY, by my mother
when she went shopping, which seemed quite often. The man
that ran the counter was named Art Diamond. When all other
coin shops basically told me to get lost, as I was too young
to spend enough money for them, he took the time to teach me
about coins, and a little about life along the way. He would
talk to me as long as a "real" customer didn't show up (this
was our little joke.) I saw many coins that I would never
have seen otherwise, and was able to buy things quite
reasonably, to me anyway. He taught me how to buy Morgan
dollars, and I picked out some real beauties, for $3 each.
They were DMPL 80 & 81-S's mostly, but when I decided to
sell them, I made quite alot of money, thank to him. Without
his tutelage, I would have dropped out of the hobby, which
constantly reminds me to be kind to the children that come
up and ask questions at shows. I also try to have a few
coins around to give them. I was very sad when I found out,
upon returning from the Air Force, that he had passed away.
I shall always remember him, and thank him for his time and
effort on my behalf. Thanks for letting me pay tribute to a
gentleman."
Dave Lange writes: "A few weeks before we got into this
current discussion, I had posted a message on a San Francisco
oral history forum inquiring whether anyone else from that
area had fond memories of the coin shops I remembered from
my youth. In my own posting I happened to mention that I had
stopped going to one shop in a poor neighborhood after I got
mugged coming out of it in broad daylight. The first person
to respond with his own posting seemed to miss the theme of
my reminiscences and proceeded to detail how he makes a point
of carrying a gun with him wherever he goes, no one is going
to rob him, yada yada yada . . . This may or may not have
discouraged further submissions, but there were just a couple
more postings after that. I'm mentioning this experience
only as an observation of how civilized our message forum
is in comparison to many others. It's always refreshing to
open the E-Sylum on Monday mornings and be reminded that
there are interesting and intelligent people out there.
As long as I'm giving thanks, I'd like to acknowledge how
much I've enjoyed the articles posted by Dick Johnson and
Michael Schmidt regarding the history of coining technology.
I've saved these and mounted them sequentially in my
scrapbook. I'm certain I'll refer to this information time
after time."
ANOTHER BLIND COIN DEALER
Bill Rosenblum writes: "I wanted to put my two cents in
About a blind coin dealer who I met in Texas in the 70s.
This was when I used to do 35 or so shows a year and I ran
into him on more than one occasion. He, with the help of a
wife who could see, would code his coins in braille
(actually the holders, not the coins) with cost etc., as
well as who sold him the coins and at what grade. I know
I bought a number of Mexican coins from him. I believe he
was getting on in years at that time so I would doubt if
he is still doing shows."
COPYRIGHTS AND THE USE OF IMAGES
Yossi Dotan writes: “I wonder whether any readers of The
E-Sylum have experience with copyright matters and can
give me some guidance.
I am writing a book, Watercraft on World Coins, 1800-Present,
and I am now considering putting on a website chapters that
are ready for publication, with illustrations of the coins.
My question is: When is it allowed to include on the website
(and later in the book) images of coins that have been
downloaded from the internet or xeroxed from books,
catalogs and periodicals without obtaining permission from
the owner of the website, the publisher of the periodical, or
the author of the book, and when may images of coins be
used only with specific permission? Many thanks.”
LONGEST RUNNING NUMISMATIC PERIODICAL?
In response to last week's question about the longer running
numismatic periodical, Henry Bergos writes: "The longest I
know of is the Royal Numismatic Society's Chronicle. I
think it was stated in 1837 and still puts out an annual."
VOCABULARY WORD SEARCH: A NUMMIS-DISEASE?
Inspired by last week’s vocabulary word, Chrematophobia
(the fear of money), Tom DeLorey writes: “In the coin shop
today, I was talking with a distinguished gentleman visitor,
and when I gave him my card he asked what a numismatist
was. I explained the Greek root nummis, and he said that
there was a very rare dermatological condition the name of
which began with either numis or numia (wish I could
remember the full name) because the lesions in question are
round like coins. Is there a doctor in the house?”
[I had those lesions once, after my wife whacked me upside
the head with a bag of coins I was looking through.
–Editor]
JACOB PERKINS NEWSPAPER REFERENCE
Bob VanRyzin writes: “The following may be of interest to
E-Sylum readers. I found this reference to Jacob Perkins in
a eBay lot for an old newspaper. The following is from lot
description for seller Mitchell Archives. (Just the quote
"We hear..." appears in the paper, the other comments
about Perkins are from the seller.)
COLUMBIAN CENTINEL, Boston, July 11, 1792. One
of the finest and most respected of the old Boston
newspapers, published by the newspaper legend, Benjamin
Russell, a staunch Federalist and George Washington supporter.
Page two, MASSACHUSETTS, "We hear that the ingenious
Mr. Perkins, of Newburyport, has been sent for to Philadelphia
to execute the coinage of the United States."
Jacob Perkins was a man of many talents, he designed and
produced the dies for Massachusetts first coinage, the 1787
penny. He was the first to use steel plates in place of copper
for printing, making counterfeiting more difficult. He designed
the first practical refrigerator and he was the printer of the
first POSTAGE STAMP, THE ENGLISH "PENNY BLACK.
I also ran into an interesting web site, which you may be aware
of, on Perkins' family history.
http://www.hevac-heritage.org/victorian_engineers/perkins/perkins.htm
"
THE FUTURE OF CATALOG PRODUCTION?
Mike Marotta writes: "My wife and I were in Pittsburgh for
a software developers conference hosted by Avatar Data
Publishing Solutions. Among the other partners were Ian
White and Mark Haden of 65-Bit Software, creators of
EasyCatalog, a plug-in for Adobe InDesign.
Database-driven typesetting saves time and produces an
improved catalog. Major corporations already use these
tools to bring pictures, descriptions, prices and other
elements to print and websites.
Avatar delivered the "Online Trends" solution for Coin
World back in 2000. The AccuWeather map and table that
automatically appears in 800 newspapers nationwide is
another creation of theirs. My role is to develop
documentation and training for new products."
BATTY COLLECTION DISPOSITION INFORMATION SOUGHT
Darryl Atchison writes: “I am looking for any information that
anyone may have pertaining to the sale of D.T. Batty's collection.
I believe the collection was sold around 1910. Of course,
Batty was the author of the following opus:
Batty’s catalogue of the copper coinage of Great Britain, Ireland,
British Isles and colonies, local and private tokens, jettons, etc.,
compiled from various authors, and the most celebrated collections,
together with the author’s own collection of about thirty-five
thousand varieties. – Manchester and London, England : J.
Forsyth, 1868 - 1898 (in four volumes).
I just want to get some information concerning the sale of his
collection. Ideally I need to speak with someone who can get
direct access to a copy of the catalogue. Anyone who can
help me can contact me at atchisondf at hotmail.com. Thank
you.”
HOLED CENT THEORIES
Tom Kays writes: "In response to "Holed Cent a Slave Coin?"
- E-Sylum v7#46, first I want to discourage anyone from
doing "research" on old coppers by cleaning them with Brasso,
as described in the original November 13th story "Hole in
History" seen in the Free Lance - Star of Fredericksburg, VA.
Two pierced large cents were donated by well-wishers to the
planned U.S. National Slavery Museum in the belief they are
undocumented slave coins. One was dated in the first decade
of the 19th century and picked up in Clarke County, and the
other was dated 1846 coming from a family collection. Upon
close inspection of the picture in the newspaper the earlier cent
was neatly pierced by a small punch near the rim at 6:00 o'
clock seen from the reverse. The piercing went through the last
digit of the date. The presence of a single piercing for suspension
seems to be the only evidence linking the coins to possible slave
ownership, which is tenuous at best. Anyone could have pierced
a large cent. I will provide several reasons, and hope E-Sylum
readership will add their two cents worth.
I'm told a small, undocumented cache of Large Cents turned up
a few years ago in Virginia. Bottle diggers working underwater
in the James River near City Point found eight old, holed coppers
amid Civil War artifacts believed lost during the Siege of
Petersburg, circa 1864. City Point was a bustling wartime
terminus for troops and supplies destined for the lengthy
campaign as well as General Grant's Headquarters and base
of supplies. The little hoard is now dispersed but I saw one
of the coins, an 1852 Coronet Style, Large Cent in very fine
condition. It had a pleasing smooth brown, non-dug appearance,
which is possible if it laid deep in river mud these past 135 years
or so.
All the coins seemed machine punched, rather than hand pierced,
with atypically large and ragged holes if intended for personal
adornment. The punch was placed off-center, directly through
Liberty's head as though deliberately (politically?) aimed, with
the sprue pressed flat on the reverse. Four theories come to
mind to account for these coins, none of which is entirely
satisfying.
1) Yankee Sinkers - One of the fellows downstream of the
find called them "Yankee Sinkers," reasoning that they would
have been shiny 'red cents' back in 1864 and that they might
have been used as fishing lures, doing double duty as sinkers,
since they were found in the water. Yet, lead Minnie balls
would have been as common as gravel at City Point if one
needed a sinker for fishing. The 'Yankee' part came from
his belief that only the northern troops would have had hard
money enough to gamble it with the catfish. This theory does
not quite satisfy if you have ever gone float fishing using bait
or fly-fishing using lures, but perhaps a trawling line makes
sense. Imagining bored soldiers on troop transport ships,
that it would only take one fellow with the bright idea of fish
for supper to get every available line over the side using
whatever was at hand for lures, hooks and bait.
2) Circassian Tress Adornments - "Are there any nice
women here?' "It depends on what you mean by nice
women; there are some very sharp ones." "Oh, I don't like
sharp ones," Florimond remarked, in a tone which made his
aunt long to throw her sofa-cushion at his head. "Are there
any pretty ones?" She looked at him a moment hesitating.
"Rachel Torrance is pretty, in a strange, unusual way, --
black hair and blue eyes, a serpentine figure, old coins in her
tresses; that sort of thing." "I have seen a good deal of
that sort of thing," said Florimond, a little confusedly..
She had a striking, oriental head, a beautiful smile, a manner
of dressing which carried out her exotic type, and a great
deal of experience and wit. She evidently knew the world,
as one knows it when one has to live by its help. If she had
an aim in life, she would draw her bow well above the
tender breast of Florimond Daintry. With all this, she
certainly was an honest, obliging girl, and had a sense of
humor which was a fortunate obstacle to her falling into a
pose. Her coins and amulets and seamless garments were,
for her, a part of the general joke of one's looking like a
Circassian or a Smyrniote, -- an accident for which Nature
was responsible.
-- Excerpt from 'A New England Winter' by Henry James,
The Century, a popular quarterly, Volume 28, Issue 4,
August 1884, Page 586, via Cornell University, The
Making of America.
Coins worn on ones head in antebellum times were most
likely small, thin old silver or gold if it could be obtained,
half dimes, picayunes, and hammered groats, or better yet,
half escudos ducats and zecchinos. The coins would have
been pierced near the rim for suspension and sewed or
wired to the fringe of a veil in an array, hung like lavalieres
amid the lace. Large cents with larger central holes could
have threaded onto braided tresses directly, although they
would not hang quite right being more horizontal than vertical
in application. The question of how a set of such objects
landed in the water at City Point in 1864 does not hang
quite right as well.
3) Spiritual Waypoints - The slave connection may come
about in one of two ways. An early practice supposedly
performed by first generation African slaves from western
coastal tribes (circa 1750) involves collecting a centrally
pierced copper coin along with other meaningful ceremonially
objects and burying them in the interior corner of a house
foundation for some special purpose. The two examples
I recall were a badly corroded, George II copper and a
William Woods Halfpenny, rather than any late date U.S.
large cents.
Anthropologists theorized that the round shape of the coin
was somehow in tune with the Earth Mother, or somehow
recalls the cycle of life, but I don't think they really know.
A much more likely African American custom in dealing with
the dead, as I understand it, uses familiar objects used
during life, just before death, to help anchor the spirit of
the dearly departed in this world. A favorite hairbrush, a
cup, or perhaps a coin if the dearly departed held them
dear, would be placed on the grave. As the living world
spins on mad for change, spirits could quickly loose touch
with their descendents unless these familiar objects, that
the spirit had once possessed in life, and would recognize
again to repossess in death, are strategically placed, as
focal points for communion between the living and the
dead. On some 'All Saints Day' family members above
and below ground could reunite about these spiritual
waypoints and remember. However, the coins need not
be pierced for this purpose. Neither case works well
here to explain a spirited origin of the coins of City Point,
or the two donated 'slave coins,' lacking better provenance.
4) Non-sparking Washers - One 19th century spot where
brass and copper tools and fittings congregated was in the
powder magazine. Iron tools dropped on a slate floor
could raise a spark setting off the whole shebang. Percussive
Civil War ordinance must have been a bear to safely
transport and arm in the field. Brass fuses charged with gun
cotton, or infused with fulminate of nitroglycerin, probably
required special tools and fittings to rack, stack and store
on supply wagons and ships. City Point during the siege
of Petersburg must have seen it all. Perhaps the fact that
eight holed large cents were found together in the water
points to some special naval ordinance use. Congreve
Rockets, navy torpedos, marine grenadoes, or iron-clad,
steam engine fittings all might have presented an emergency
need for the Union Navy, Marines, Voltigeurs, or Ordinance
staff to requisition a set of matched copper washers, made
Johnny-on-the-spot out of whatever ships stores they had
on-hand. Large cents make sense, for late war use when
naval supplies would be running nil. For whatever reason
they went overboard together near a busy anchorage, no
doubt unintentionally. This at least explains the forethought
needed to find a machine punch.
What say you E-Sylum readership? Caught any catfish?"
QUIZ ANSWER: ROSCOE STAPLES
Last week we asked, “Who was Roscoe Staples, and what
does he have in common with numismatists David Proskey,
H.G. Sampson, Lorin Parmelee, Charles Steigerwalt,
Dr. Thomas Hall, Virgil Brand, B. G. Johnson and
James Kelly?
Only John M. Kleeberg, whose writing was quoted in an
earlier E-Sylum issue on the topic, came forth with an
answer. He writes:
“I am assuming that I am disqualified from this quiz about
the owners of the finest example of the strawberry leaf
cent. But I would add to the above list the Estate of Virgil
Michael Brand, Deceased, for the period from 1926 until
around 1934 (when Horace and Armin split the Brand
Estate), and Armin W. Brand for the period from around
1934 to February 1941, because otherwise the title to the
coin would be up in the air for fifteen years. I always try
to list decedents' estates in coin pedigrees, although other
writers of pedigrees (notably Del Bland) don't. I was
exposed to the Surrogate Court of New York County at
a young and tender age, and so the probating of wills and
the grants of letters of administration (to say nothing of
administrations with will annexed, cum testamento
annexato) bulk large in my consciousness.
In New York County we have wills back to 1660 - the
early ones are in Dutch (which continued to be used
extensively into the eighteenth century).
Incidentally, I've heard it said that Horace got the better
half of the Brand Estate. I've never thought this was so.
As I understand the split, Horace took the gold and
Armin most of the other coins. Occasionally, if there
were duplicates, the brothers would each take one (or
two). Thus Virgil M. Brand had four (!) New Yorke in
America tokens, and I believe that Horace took two
and Armin took two. If you look at the coins that trace
back to Armin, such as the strawberry leaf cent, or
those New Yorke in America tokens - Armin did not
do badly at all.”
OHIO MAN TAKES CENT-HOARDING TITLE
Another massive coin-hoarder has surfaced. On Ohio man is
cashing in over 10,000 pounds of cents, a mass so large he
believes it attracted lightning bolts to his house. USA Today
published his story on November 16:
“To describe Gene Sukie as "penny-wise and pound-foolish"
would be seriously underestimating the man. He has, after all,
collected nearly 10,000 pounds of pennies in his lifetime — the
greatest feat of spare change collecting yet recorded.
The retired glass-factory supervisor, 78, will cash in what
remains of his record-setting collection of 1,407,550 pennies,
worth $14,075.50, accumulated over 34 years.
“Sukie inspected every penny. He separated them by year
and mint location. He wrapped pennies of the same year and
mint into 28,851 rolls.
He stored the fifty-cent rolls in 559 boxes in his basement.
He documented the contents and date of each roll in a
loose-leaf binder that is now 3-inches thick. "He is a bit
meticulous," Violet said.
Her husband protests good-naturedly that he was not
obsessed: "Sometimes I'd go two or three weeks without
touching a penny." He pauses: "Then, I'd roll for two or
three hours. It was very relaxing."
Until lightning struck, twice.
Electrical storms knocked out his living room television,
directly above his penny collection. "I thought the copper in
pennies may be attracting lightning," Sukie says.”
“Coinstar, a Bellevue, Wash., company with coin-counting
machines in 11,000 grocery stores, set up two machines to
count Sukie's pennies and will finish today. The old Coinstar
record was 792,141 pennies turned in by Sylvester Neal of
Anchorage, in 2001.
So what's next for Sukie? He says he may finally have time to
index his pencil collection.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-11-15-penny-collector_x.htm
[So let me get this straight -- you spend years inventorying
the exact contents of each roll, then just dump them all into
a CoinStar machine to tally up the face value? You don’t
even try to separate the wheatback cents for sale to a
dealer? -Editor]
FEATURED WEB SITE
This week's featured web site is EuroCoinage.info,
“a Euro Coins Collector Guide”:
http://www.eurocoinage.info/
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
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