The E-Sylum v8#1, January 2, 2005

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Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 8, Number 1, January 2, 2005: 
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. 
Copyright (c) 2004, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society.


SRI LANKAN UPDATE

   Last week, E-Sylum subscriber Kavan Ratnatunga of Sri Lanka
   suggested that those of us wishing to help in the disaster 
   recovery efforts send donations to LAcNet, a US non-profit 
   organization which is coordinating its efforts via
   http://www.theacademic.org/.  When we published our issue 
   on Monday the web site noted about $3,300 had been collected;
   as of Wednesday afternoon the total was over $20,000, and 
   as of December 31st the total was over $39,000.  Many thanks
   to those of you who were able to contribute.  LAcNet relief
   organizers have posted progress updates at
   http://www.theacademic.org/tsunami/  The group initiated 
   several projects and has broken down how the money is being
   spent.  

   Kavan is well and writes: "Thanks very much for all your help,
   publicity and contributions.  I was away for two days in a 
   badly struck region in the east of lanka and just returned a
   few hours ago."


HEADLINE CORRECTION

   Unable to let a sleeping typo lie, Gar Travis and Tom 
   DeLorey commented on the use of the word "lob" instead
   of "lop" in last week's headline about Turkish currency 
   revaluation (Turks Lob Six Zeros Off Currency).  Tom 
   writes: "LOB? Where are they throwing them?"


ANS COLLECTS NUMISMATIC PUBLICATIONS FOR IRAQ MUSEUM 

   Chris Fuccione forwarded the following information
   about a project sponsored by the American Numismatic
   Society:

   "It has been well over a year since the Iraq Museum 
   was looted in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam 
   Hussein's regime. Thankfully, the museum's collection
   of some 100,000 coins miraculously escaped when 
   looters—who somehow had keys to cabinets where the 
   collection was stored—dropped them in the dark and 
   confusion. Unfortunately, the museum's offices and 
   other parts of the collection were not so lucky.   
   While the initial reports of looting were exaggerated,
   the museum really did suffer some serious losses.   

   Academics with an interest in the Middle East have 
   since pleaded for international assistance to restore
   the Iraq Museum, and a cadre of young Iraqi scholars 
   has been recruited to make help make this dream become
   a reality.   These Iraqi scholars can particularly use
   help in rebuilding the institution's collection of 
   reference materials.   For that reason, the ANS asks 
   its members and other interested parties to donate 
   numismatic books to be sent to Iraq for use at the 
   Museum.   Even before the war, the Museum's reference
   materials on coins were seriously lacking.   Copies 
   of major references for coins found in the area will
   thus be of immense help to the museum staff—which 
   now includes at least one young woman training as a
   numismatist. 

   Book donations can be sent to:

   The American Numismatic Society
   C/O   Joanne Isaac
   96 Fulton Street
   New York, NY 10038

   [The web site contains a list of references of 
   particular interest to the Iraq Museum. 
   http://www.amnumsoc.org/iraqmuseumrestor.htm
   -Editor]


BRASHER DOUBLOONS OFFERED AT HERITAGE

   Heritage cataloger Mark Borckardt writes: "I never 
   thought I would even see these coins, let alone have 
   a chance to catalog them. It is interesting that 
   these items came from two separate consignors. The 
   Lima style doubloon was consigned first, and the 
   two New York style pieces came in later. The printed
   catalog will have a slightly different presentation 
   than that on the web. A history of the Brasher 
   coinage is presented first, followed by the actual 
   coins. In addition, there are four other related 
   items: a Nova Eborac copper and a New Jersey Running 
   Fox copper, both punchlinked to the doubloons, along
   with two foreign gold coins each bearing Brasher's 
   EB counterstamp. I believe the chance to bid on a 
   set of the three different Brasher doubloons may 
   truly be a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is
   a phrase that is often tossed around, but in this 
   case I believe it is true. And, by the way, there's 
   also a 94-S dime in the FUN sale, along with about 
   9,000 other cool lots.

   For extra credit, who originally used a version of
   my first sentence, above, where did he use it, and
   for what item?"


ON SPINE-CRUSHING PHOTOCOPIERS

   In response to the item in last week's issue about two
   Xerox researchers who developed software to correct the
   distortion near the spine of a photocopied book, David
   Gladfelter writes: "The New Jersey State Library used to
   have a photocopier for public use designed to allow pages
   in a book to be copied without opening the book flat. 
   The glass copying surface was located right at the edge 
   of the copier so that the copies could be made while the
   book was resting partly against the side of it. 
   Unfortunately for the library volumes, this design didn't
   catch on.

   [Hillman Library at the University of Pittsburgh had one
   of these machines, too, and I was sorry they never became
   the norm in all libraries.  Last week's article did 
   mention this model, although only in passing.  The new
   software can't come soon enough for my tastes - that
   spinal distortion is frustrating to deal with. -Editor]
 

DENVER MINT CLASS-ACTION SUIT APPEAL FAILS

   Two Denver newspapers reported this week on 
   developments in the class-action lawsuit filed
   by 32 female employees against the Denver Mint.  
   The Rocky Mountain News reported that "The federal 
   complaint against the Denver Mint alleging 
   pervasive sexual harassment and discrimination 
   against its female employees will go forward as a
   class-action suit, the Equal Employment Opportunity 
   Commission ruled.

   The commission's Office of Federal Operations rejected 
   the mint's appeal of class-action status for the case, 
   saying that there was no basis to overturn administrative 
   law Judge Dickie Montemayor's ruling that the complaint 
   filed by 32 female employees of the mint should be a
   class-action case."

   "The complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity 
   Commission said female employees had been subjected to 
   repeated sexual insults and jokes, comments about their 
   looks and inferences about the men's sexual desires.

   The women also said they were denied promotions, training
   and raises."

   To read the fully story, see: 
 http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3429054,00.html

   Another article appeared in The Denver Post:
   http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2621618,00.html


HIGH DENOMINATION NOTES
   
   Regarding last week's question, Arthur Shippee 
   writes: "I have or had somewhere a 60 million 
   mark note, I believe it was.  But you'll want 
   to check China post WWII, too."

   Dave Hirt writes: 
   "you asked about the the highest inflation note. 
   I am sure it was the Hungarian Pengõ. The õ is 
   pronounced as "er". It is interesting because I am 
   writing you from Budapest. In the summer of 1946 the
   highest note was 1 billion trillion pengõ.  This is
   one followed by 21 or 22 zeros. Later that year the
   Forint currency was introduced.  One Forint was 
   given for each one, followed by 29 zeros.  I have 
   no idea how to say that number. There is a famous 
   picture of a street sweeper sweeping up paper money 
   that had been thrown into the street."

   Ronald S. Thompson writes: "I am not sure of the answer
   but I have two "funfzig Milliarden Mk" notes from 
   between the world wars (October 1923).  Funfzig 
   Milliarden for those not familiar with the term is a 5
   followed by ten zeros or 50,000,000,000, which is 
   printed on the note.  I am also curious about what 
   larger ones were issued.  The ones I have were 
   circulated and only cost a couple of dollars each or
   less so they are fun things to collect."

   Steve D'Ippolito writes: "To the best of my knowledge
   the recordholder is still the 1 Milliard B Pengo note
   from Hungary, (P137 from the Seventh Edition).  The
   B stands for "Billion."  Hungary follows the same 
   system as England when denoting large numbers, where 
   1,000,000,000 is a "milliard" or thousand million, 
   not a billion, and 1,000,000,000,000, a million 
   million, is a "billion," not a trillion.  (I suppose
   that 1,000,000,000,000,000--a "thousand billion" or 
   a quadrillion to us in the States--might be called 
   a "billiard" but I am only speculating!)

   The milliard B-pengo note is therefore 1,000,000,000 
   x 1,000,000,000,000 pengos.  Or to save my poor 0 
   key from further abuse, 1 x 10^21 in scientific 
   notation.  To us in the states that's 1 sextillion 
   pengos.

   I own a Yugoslav 500,000,000,000 (500 billion or 
   milliard) dinar note from 1993.  That was on the heels
   of several droppings of multiple zeros (they dropped 
   6 zeros earlier that year, 1 in 1992, 4 in 1990, and 
   2 in 1965) --if you roll those back in (which might 
   be cheating), that note ends up being 13 more zeroes
   on top of the 11 zeroes already on the note--you end
   up with 5x10^24 1964 dinars, which is 5 quadrillion 
   (5 million million million million) by the British 
   system and 5 septillion by ours.   But that's not 
   all--immediately after this, they lopped NINE more 
   zeros off their currency and shortly thereafter issued
   a 10 million dinar note--so that's seven zeros on the
   note, plus a total of 22 zeros dropped since 1965, 
   for 1 x 10^29 pre-1965 dinars.  I think that's 100 
   octillion by the US system or 100,000 quadrillion by
   the English system.  I don't know what happened after
   that--my edition of Pick is woefully out of date.  
   I don't doubt inflation has continued there, though 
   they seem to have been trying to tie their money to 
   the deutschemark.

   Now I have to chase down one of those 10 million 
   (or 100 octillion) dinar notes!"

   David Gladfelter writes: "On the new Turkish lira: 
   The old Bir Milyon Turk Lirasi note is a feel-good 
   note to have in your collection. Own one and be an 
   international millionaire. Mine cost ~$23 in the 1990s.


BOONSBORO COPPER MORE RARE THAN FIRST THOUGHT

   Regarding the item about the copper coin discovered while
   renovating a 200-year-old tavern in MAryland, John
   Kraljevich writes: "You don't miss much, even numismatic 
   news out of humble Hagerstown!
 
   For those who click on the link you provided, you'll 
   actually see that the coin found was a reasonably decent 
   1775 Machin's Mills halfpenny -- worth a lot more than 
   the $5-10 I suggested when contacted by the reporter. 
   There was no photo available at the time, but as it 
   turned out the coin was an American-made counterfeit, 
   which on a 1775 is something of a long shot."


MERRY NEWTONMAS

   Michael Marotta writes: "Thanks to John and Nancy Wilson's 
   article (E-Sylum, V7 N50, Dec. 12,'04), forwarding a 
   message from the Prusmack family, I checked "Dark Matter" 
   by Philip Kerr from my local library. 

   Sir Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day, 1642. (Dec. 25, 
   1642 Old Style is now Jan. 4, 1643 New Style.) In years 
   past, though not this one, I have mailed out "Newtonmas" 
   cards. Next time around, they will have to include coin 
   images.  

   E-Sylum readers interested in the career of perhaps the 
   greatest mind in western civilization might remember 
   E-Sylum, Volume 6, Number 8, February 23, 2003 which 
   cited The Newton Project,an online compilation of Isaac 
   Newton's manuscripts. (Homepage 
   http://www.newtonproject.ic.ac.uk)

   I have a brief article about Newton online at Coin Newbies
   http://www.coin-newbies.com/articles/newton.html) 
   and I wrote a longer work about his tenure as Warden and 
   Master of the Royal Mint for The Numismatist, Vol. 114, 
   no. 11, November 2001, which unfortunately is not online.

   It is true that the standard authoritative biographies 
   of Sir Isaac Newton say little about the last 30 years
   of his life. David Berlinski ("Newton's gift: how Sir 
   Isaac Newton unlocked the system of the world") says 
   flat out that Newton's time in London is uninteresting. 
   The best book that I have found about the devilish 
   details that fascinate E-Sylum readers is "Newton at 
   the Mint" by John Craig (Cambridge, 1946)."


ROLLER PRESS FOR PAPER MONEY?
 
   Howard A. Daniel III writes: "The Numismatist article, 
   "The Coin Roller Experiment" by John Roberts in the 
   December 2004 issue grabbed my interest because of paper 
   money and not coins.  There were several pieces of paper 
   money printed on mulberry bark paper in Viet Nam during 
   the very late 14th century.  All of my research shows 
   the Vietnamese copied the Chinese method of wood and/or 
   metal block printing but the Vietnamese have a roller 
   printing press set up in a museum to show how their 14th
   century paper money was printed.  I'm VERY sure it is a
   concoction, but would like to hear from anyone who knows
   of roller printing presses for thick mulberry bark-like 
   paper, and I can be reached at HADaniel3 at msn.com."
 

MAX VON BAHRFELDT INFORMATION SOUGHT
 
   David Gladfelter writes: "Can anyone comment on the report
   in the May 1936 Numismatist of Max von Bahrfeldt's death,
   that he had been "sentenced to death in absentia by a Belgian
   court-martial for alleged atrocities in the Charleroi region" 
   while commanding troops in Belgium during World War I?  He 
   was the publisher of Numismatisches Literatur-Blatt, the 
   first numismatic bibliographic journal and the forerunner 
   of ANS's Numismatic Literature, and the author of numerous 
   numismatic books. The report goes on to state that Bahrfeldt 
   was acquitted of similar charges by a court in Leipzig but 
   does not give any details. Needless to say, the image of 
   Bahrfeldt as a war criminal does not jibe with his image as
   a numismatic scholar."


SEMMLER AND HIEMBRECHT INFORMATION SOUGHT
 
   David Gladfelter also writes: "Can anyone provide information 
   about Hugo Semmler of Magdeburg, Max Heimbrecht of Berlin and 
   Walter Erhard of Waiblingen-Stuttgart, later Altensteig-
   Württemberg? They were successor publishers of popular embossed
   coin postcards during the 1904-1937 period that were sold and 
   collected primarily in Europe but circulated worldwide. I know 
   nothing about them except their names, and would like to obtain 
   information for a forthcoming article about them."
 

DELUXE RED BOOK

   In a column in the December 7, 2004 Numismatic News (p6),
   Dave Harper notes the arrival of a deluxe edition of the
   familiar "Red Book."  An edition of 3,000 leatherbound,
   gilt-edged copies have been produced for sale at $69.95.
   I hadn't noticed any ads offering it for sale - has anyone
   else gotten a copy?


OK, BUY THE COIN BEFORE THE BOOK

   Turning a favorite phrase around, Fred G. van den Haak 
   of of Palo Alto, in an interview by Stan Turrini published
   in the January 4, 2005 Numismatic News, says: "Take a chance 
   and buy something you might want to learn about.  ... I have
   often bought the coin first, then the book." 

   "Holding a coin in your hand should provide inspiration.
   It shouldn't come to you from reading a book."


E-SYLUM NEW YEAR'S QUIZ

   As we start the new year I thought I'd dig back into
   The E-Sylum archives for a short quiz based on topics
   covered in our first couple of years.   Question #2
   will require experimentation; can anyone answer the
   others without peeking at the E-Sylum archive on
   the NBS web site?

    1. The initial mailing list was comprised of the addresses
      of NBS officers and Board members, other current and 
      former members, and other interested parties, for a 
      total of 49 names.   Who was the first person to 
      actually subscribe, becoming #50 on the list?

   2. Our first Featured Web Site was on Chinese Coins 
      (v1n4). Is it still an active web site?

   3. Who was John Leonard Riddell?  (v2n4, v2n5)

   4. What did Baron Lodovico Soltieri collect? (v2n10)?

   5. Which NBS officer purchased a rare rare 1863
      pamphlet published in San Francisco by E. J. Barra,
      titled "Something About Coins" (listed in Attinelli, 
      p.103)? (v2n19)

   6. Which frequent E-Sylum contributor wrote  "I collect 
      first and foremost Nicaragua, which is where I grew
      up, son of American expatriates in the machinery 
      business there.  I also collect papal medals of 
      Civitavecchia (the port of Rome) and Byzantine bronze 
      (anybody have a spare 3 nummi? (oh, sure!) I also take
      pride in my numismatic library of Latin America..." ?
      (v2n24)


FEATURED WEB SITE

   This week's featured web site is  Georgia Obsolete 
   Currency by Carl A. Anderson & David Marsh:

   http://www.davidmarsh.com/


  Wayne Homren
  Numismatic Bibliomania Society


  The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a
  non-profit organization promoting numismatic
  literature.   For more information please see
  our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/
  There is a membership application available on
  the web site.  To join, print the application and
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  For those without web access, write to W. David
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