The E-Sylum v15#39 September 16, 2012

esylum at binhost.com esylum at binhost.com
Sun Sep 16 18:52:17 PDT 2012


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The E-Sylum
  
  An electronic publication of
  The Numismatic Bibliomania Society


Volume , Number 39, September 16, 2012
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WAYNE'S WORDS: THE E-SYLUM SEPTEMBER 16, 2012
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THE ASYLUM APRIL-JUNE 2012 ISSUE
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LAKE BOOKS 112TH SALE RESULTS AVAILABLE
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KOLBE & FANNING SALE 126 COLOR PLATES AVAILABLE
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NEW BOOK: HOLEY DOLLARS AND DUMPS OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
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NEW BOOK: STRIKE IT RICH WITH SILVER IN COIN ROLLS
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BOOK REVIEW: CONFEDERATE CURRENCY BY PIERRE FRICKE
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MORE ON IN-TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS VERSUS PLATES
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BOOK REVIEW: BRITISH COMMEMORATIVE MEDALS, 2ND EDITION
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FIRST U.S. COIN AUCTION CATALOG: THE 1851 LEWIS ROPER SALE
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A VISIT TO THE THIRD PHILADELPHIA MINT BUILDING
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NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: SEPTEMBER 16, 2012
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ON THE PHILADELPHIA MINT'S JANVIER LATHES
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BALTIMORE GOLD COIN HOARD ARTICLE FROM 1935
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MORE ON THE SWITT FAMILY 1933 DOUBLE EAGLES DECISION
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ANA 2012 FALL NATIONAL MONEY SHOW EXHIBITS
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MONEY TALKS AT THE 2012 DALLAS ANA
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WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: SEPTEMBER 16, 2012
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NOTES ON THE ALBANY CHURCH PENNY
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QUERY: WHAT IS A PORTUGALOZER?
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QUERY: GARRETT TAIPING REBELS SILVER CASH INFORMATION SOUGHT
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MUHAMMAD ALI  RECEIVES LIBERTY MEDAL
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ARNOLD PALMER RECEIVES CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL
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THE FELIX WASSERMANN COLLECTION OF GOLD COINS
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COIN SMUGGLING ATTEMPTS THWARTED IN EGYPT AND ABU DHABI
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SIOUX CITY CORN PALACE FESTIVAL MEDALS
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MORE ON THAT ENGRAVED 1840-O HALF DOLLAR
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THE CURIOSITY'S 1909 CENT PICKS UP LAYER OF MARTIAN DUST
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WHAT COINS SHOULD ACCOMPANY FROZEN PEOPLE TO THE FUTURE?
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LIBRARIAN TATTOOS
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FEATURED WEB PAGE: PAINTINGS ON PENNIES
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Click here to read this issue on the web
	
To comment or submit articles, reply to 
whomren at gmail.com




WAYNE'S WORDS: THE E-SYLUM SEPTEMBER 16, 2012






New subscribers this week include 
Buell Ish, 
Greg Burrus and
Cole Danehower.
Welcome aboard!
We have 1,595 email subscribers, plus 190 followers on Facebook.


This week we open with information on the next issue of our print journal, The Asylum, and notes from numismatic literature dealers Fred Lake and Kolbe & Fanning.  Next up are announcements of two new books and a review of Pierre Fricke's new book on Confederate Currency.


Other topics include Canadian numismatist Louis-Joseph Casault, the 1851 Lewis Roper sale, Janvier reducing lathes, the 1935 Baltimore coin hoard, my numismatic diary, medals for Muhammad Ali and Arnie Palmer, and the Felix Wasserman collection of gold coins.


To learn more about that engraved 1840-O Half Dollar, the PEI Holey Dollar, the “Dollar with Flying Eagle", Russian machinist Andrei Konstantinovich Nartov, the man who slept in the Library of Parliament, librarian tattoos, paranormal coins and currency,   the only cent on Mars and what coins should accompany frozen dead people to the future, read on.
Have a great week, everyone!


Wayne Homren
Editor, The E-Sylum




	
THE ASYLUM APRIL-JUNE 2012 ISSUE



Asylum editor David Yoon writes:



Another issue of The Asylum is at the printers. Here are the contents:


Myron Xenos - "You Don't Say": Numismatic Quarterly Quiz 

Roger S. Siboni, John L. Howes, and Buell Ish - The Collectors and Their Collections: A Chapter from The State Coinage of New Jersey



The contents list may look short, but this is actually a longer issue than usual. "The Collectors and Their Collections" is a preview of a chapter from an upcoming book that the American Numismatic Society is publishing; this chapter is a detailed history of the collecting of New Jersey coppers.



Roger Siboni adds:


The introductory page talks about the book in general and why we chose to preview this chapter with the Asylum readership. 


And by the way, in a bold first, the book will now be jointly published by The ANS and the Colonial Coin Collectors Club. Ray Williams just would not let a book about New Jersey Coppers get published without C-4 having a part. He is relentless!




Below is the excerpt from the book's Introduction.  It's not quite ready for publication, but we'll have more information in a future issue.
-Editor



Note from the authors: What follows is an preview of a chapter from our book, The State Coinage of New Jersey. This book has been over a decade in the making and will be published by the American Numismatic Society around the end of this year or early next year—depending on the final editing, production, shipping, and the many other factors one does not consider when one has finished writing a book!


The book will be the first comprehensive treatment of New Jersey coppers since 1881, when Dr. Edward Maris published his landmark book, The Coins of New Jersey. Over the years, several numismatists have taken aim at this goal, but none of their projects were completed. Nevertheless, the authors are grateful for the scholarship they left behind, which helped make this effort possible.


Our book will cover the economic conditions of the Confederation period that created a need for this coinage, the politics involved in securing a state contract, the coiners and their operations, and collecting methodologies. It will also include quarter-page images of each variety, with an analysis of the diagnostics, pertinent history, rarity, and a condition census with provenances. It will also present to the New Jersey collecting community the various major die states for each variety.


But most relevant to our fellow Asylum readers is the chapter “Collectors and Their Collections.” This was a chapter we all enjoyed working with and contributing to. It chronicles the American collecting of New Jersey coppers from as early as McCoy through modern collecting and eBay, as well as everything in between. In many ways the journey of New Jersey coppers seemed to mirror the journey for many Colonial-era coins as well. Thus we thought a preview of this chapter may be of interest to the Asylum readership.


We do ask something in return. The subject of provenance chains is opaque at best. We did our best at tracing them correctly. However, we are certain that if anybody knows the nooks and crannies of provenance chains enough to spot details that we missed or got wrong, it will be the Asylum readership. So we request that any observations about such items be brought to our attention via e-mail to rogersiboni at gmail.com.



Remember, only paid members of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society receive our print journal, The Asylum.  Membership information is at the top right of this and every issue of The E-Sylum, our free email newsletter.
-Editor




	
LAKE BOOKS 112TH SALE RESULTS AVAILABLE


Fred Lake forwarded this item noting that the PRL for his recent sale is available.
-Editor



Our 112th mail-bid sale of numismatic literature closed September 11, 2012, and you can find the prices realized for the sale on our web site at  

www.lakebooks.com/current.html
 .


Bidding was quite active with outstanding figures being posted for material that is rarely seen on the auction block.
 

We sincerely appreciate the participation of our many customers and hope that you will find more material of interest in our sale #113 which will have a closing in early December of this year.
 

Lake Books
6822 22nd Ave. N.
St. Petersburg, FL 33710
727-343-8055  Fax 727-381-6822
http://www.lakebooks.com



	
KOLBE & FANNING SALE 126 COLOR PLATES AVAILABLE


David Fanning announced that color plates of many items in the upcoming Kolbe & Fanning sale are now available on the firm's web site.
-Editor



KOLBE & FANNING SALE 126
Color Plates Available for Numismatic Literature Sale Closing October 4


Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers have made available a PDF containing color illustrations of many of the items from their upcoming 126th sale of important numismatic literature from around the world. The sale features material from several different consignors, including a significant number of lots from the library of the late F. Gordon Frost. The color plates (as well as the PDF version of the catalogue itself) can be downloaded from the firm’s website at 

www.numislit.com
.
The color plates are not included in the printed catalogue (which should be in the hands of bidders soon). They are only available from the website.







The mail-bid sale closes on Thursday, October 4, 2012. Phone bids will be accepted until 6 p.m. on that day; voicemail, fax and email bids will be accepted until midnight (all times are U.S. Eastern Time). 


 
Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers
141 W. Johnstown Road
Gahanna, OH 43230
 (614) 414-0855
100 Greatest American Medals and Tokens.  I found the quotation W. Elliot Woodward's sale of April 28, 1863, Lot 2079.  So interest in these pieces is pretty well established!  


Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins is available in many libraries. It devotes a brief chapter to church and communion tokens, and states that their use dates back to the 1635 Liturgy of the Scottish Presbyterian Church.  He lists 14 different American issues, and does not include any minted after 1800.  Probably the scarcity of small coinage was the main reason for the Albany penny issue.  In 1792, according to an online history of the City of Troy, NY, another Presbyterian church issued paper scrip:

www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyrensse/troy.htm
.


 It is my guess that members of First Presbyterian stopped using their church pennies as soon as Federal cents became available in 1793 or soon afterward.  


I found a reference in an 1898 issue of the Ladies' Home Journal exhorting readers to abandon the practice of tithing only a penny.  She said, "such an offering is an insult to God and His church, and the sooner people see the matter in this hard, true light, the better."


To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

QUERY: ALBANY CHURCH PENNY INFORMATION SOUGHT

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n38a12.html)



	
QUERY: WHAT IS A PORTUGALOZER?


Tom Wetter writes:


Question: What is a Portugalozer?  Google is stumped.  Thomas Elder has one catalogued in his November 1934 sale.   His exact listing is "PORTUGALOZER OF JOHN III




Well, I'm stumped, too.  Any ideas, readers?
-Editor




	
QUERY: GARRETT TAIPING REBELS SILVER CASH INFORMATION SOUGHT


Bruce W. Smith  needs some information on a couple coins from the Garrett foreign and ancient coin sales.  Can anyone help?
-Editor



I need a couple images from one or two sales in the 1980's held by Numismatic Fine Arts (NFA) and Bank Leu AG. After the Garrett Collection of US coins was sold in 1978-1980, the foreign and ancient coins in the collection, formerly housed at Johns Hopkins University, were sold in three sales by NFA and Bank Leu. The first was in May 1984; the second was 16-18 October 1984; and the last on 29 March 1985. 


The Garrett Collection is said to have had three examples of a silver cash coin (with the square hole in the center) issued by the Taiping rebels in China about 1860. I am updating my listing of known examples of these coins (about 25 known), and need images of those from the Garrett Collection. 


One piece was sold in the first sale. I own the catalog of the first sale, so I don't need that. What I need are scans and data on the other two pieces. I assume they were sold in one or both of the other two sales. I need this information rather quickly, so if anyone has these two catalogs, could you scan the two coins and note the size and weight of each piece, and send the information to me?  Thanks.  I can be reached at

chinasmithbr at yahoo.com
.



	
MUHAMMAD ALI  RECEIVES LIBERTY MEDAL




Gar Travis forwarded some articles on a medal given to Muhammad Ali.  Thanks!
-Editor




Retired boxing champ Muhammad Ali was known as ‘‘The Greatest’’ inside the ring. But some say the moniker has been even more fitting in the years since he hung up his gloves.


Ali came to Philadelphia on Thursday to receive the Liberty Medal for his longtime role as a heavyweight for humanitarian causes, civil rights and religious freedom. Among those celebrating his latest honor at the National Constitution Center were former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo and Joe Louis Barrow II, the son of boxer Joe Louis.


‘‘Knowing you since I was a little boy has given me a ringside seat to history,’’ an emotional Barrow said. ‘‘But it’s your character outside the ring that speaks to the hope of the least and lost among us.’’


The 70-year-old Ali, hobbled by a 30-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, did not speak. But he stood with assistance to receive the medal from his daughter Laila Ali.


He looked down at his medal for several moments and then waved to the crowd. The award comes with a $100,000 cash prize.


Ali was born Cassius Clay but changed his name after converting to Islam in the 1960s. He refused to serve in the Vietnam War because of his religious beliefs and was stripped of his heavyweight crown in 1967. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling later cleared him of a draft evasion conviction, and he regained the boxing title in 1974 and again 1978.


To read the complete article, see:

For Muhammad Ali, a Liberty Medal in Philly

(www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/2012/09/14/for-muhammad-ali-liberty-medal-philly/SEDQ14kE6jDvjyabn82BBN/story.html)


Here's some information on the medal.
-Editor










The Liberty Medal is awarded annually by the National Constitution Center to men and women of courage and conviction who have strived to secure the blessings of liberty to people the world over. The Medal’s roster of recipients includes many of the men, women, and organizations that have shaped and guided the world through the past two decades, including Nelson Mandela, Sandra Day O’Connor, Kofi Annan, Shimon Peres, and Colin Powell.



To read the complete article, see:

constitutioncenter.org/libertymedal/




	
ARNOLD PALMER RECEIVES CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL


Another sports figure got a medal this week - golf great Arnie Palmer.
-Editor



Arnold Palmer has received many trophies and awards for his prowess on the golf course, but he said Wednesday the two national medals he has received mean the most.


Mr. Palmer, who turned 83 on Monday, received his Congressional Gold Medal at the Capitol on Wednesday in recognition of not only his contributions to the game of golf but also his humanitarianism.


Congress voted to award the medal in 2009, but it has taken three years for the U.S. Mint to design and produce the gold coin depicting Mr. Palmer's image. As the honoree, he had some say over the design but didn't see the finished product until Wednesday.


During a ceremony in the Capitol rotunda, House and Senate leaders presented the medal, which is considered one of the nation's highest expressions of appreciation, matched only by the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which Mr. Arnold was awarded eight years ago.


The medal honors contributions to American history and culture as well as major achievements in the recipient's field. It's been awarded to war heroes, explorers, actors, authors, entertainers and others, including Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh; Roberto Clemente, the Pirates outfielder; and Gen. George C. Marshall, chief of staff during World War II and a Uniontown native, and Gen. Matthew C. Ridgway, the Korean War commander who retired to Fox Chapel. Mr. Palmer is the second golfer to receive the honor; the first was Byron Nelson.


To read the complete article, see:

Gold Medal another ace for Arnie Palmer

(www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/westmoreland/gold-medal-another-ace-for-arnie-palmer-653087/)



	
THE FELIX WASSERMANN COLLECTION OF GOLD COINS



Art Friedberg writes:


On behalf of our colleagues at Hess-Divo AG in Zürich and Fritz-Rudolf Künker GmbH in Osnabrück we are forwarding the attached interesting story on an important collection of gold coins that has been out of public view since the 1930's. It will be sold on October 26.




The collection has an interesting history and was assembled through purchases from major dealers of the pre-WWII era.  An interesting time capsule not often seen in the market today.  Here's a short excerpt.
-Editor



 
A collection of several hundred coins, including many rare pieces unseen since the 1930's will be sold at a public auction in Zürich on October 26. The sale, conducted by the firms of Hess-Divo AG of Zürich in cooperation with Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. of Osnabrück, Germany, is composed of coins secretly removed from Nazi Germany in 1938 by a Jewish family fleeing the imminent Holocaust. The coins have remained in bank vaults and off the market since their acquisition more than 75 years ago, and it is only with the release of the auction catalog that the public is being made aware of their existence for the first time.


	It was in the early 1930s that Dr. Felix Wassermann, a physician living in Munich, began to recognize the threats of political turmoil and persecution caused by the rise to power of the Nazis in Germany. So motivated, he undertook to protect his family by amassing a portable asset and started collecting gold coins. Ultimately, Felix’s prescience proved accurate. In 1938, in advance of World War II and the Holocaust, he along with his wife Susan, son Charles and daughter Eva emigrated to the United States. 


Charles F. Wasserman, the son of Felix, finished his high school education in New York City.  Charles became a well-known pediatrician in New Orleans and remained very attached to his German roots. He did not consider himself a traditional "collector", but prized the family coins for what they represented: a tangible symbol of his family's history and heritage. Dr. Charles F. Wasserman passed away in March, 2012.







The dealers whose coins came to form the Wasserman Collection are a proverbial who's who of early twentieth century German numismatics. Some time in 1931, it is believed, Felix consulted with Gerhard Hirsch of the numismatic firm in Munich which still bears his name today. He then began making a large number of purchases. Among his sources were Otto Helbing, Julius Jenke, and Eugen Merzbacher (all of Munich); Leo Hamburger, Adolph Hess, Sally Rosenberg, and Adolph Cahn (Frankfurt); and Jacques Schulman (Netherlands).


It is not always easy to reconstruct the history of a collection based only on the coins it contains. It is clear that the motive was far less numismatic than it was wealth-protective. It is not  known exactly how the Wassermanns were able to remove the coins from Germany at a time when laws were being instituted which forbade emigrating Jews from taking their belongings and savings with them.


To view the auction catalog visit www.sixbid.com after September 17. Bidders can also participate in the auction live and in real time on the Internet as long as they register in advance at www.hessdivo.com. To order a printed version of the auction catalog please contact Hess Divo AG at +41 (0)44 225 40 90 or via email: mailbox at hessdivo.com or Künker service team at +49 (0) 541 962020 or via email: service at kuenker.de.




THE BOOK BAZARRE
RENAISSANCE OF AMERICAN COINAGE:  
Wizard Coin Supply is the official distributor 
for Roger Burdette's three volume series that won 
NLG Book of the Year awards for 2006, 2007 and 2008. 
Contact us for dealer or distributor pricing at
www.WizardCoinSupply.com .




	
COIN SMUGGLING ATTEMPTS THWARTED IN EGYPT AND ABU DHABI


Arthur Shippee forwarded these two articles about thwarted coin smuggling attempts in Egypt and Abu Dhabi.  Thanks!
-Editor




Today, the Antiquities Unite at Borg Al-Arab airport in Alexandria succeeded to abort two smuggling attempts of a large collection of authentic coins.


The authentic coins were packed in two parcels mixed with a collection of commemorative coins within the luggage of two Egyptians who are travelling to Gheda and Dammam in Saudi Arabia.


Mohamed Ibrahim minister of State for Antiquities said that the arrest of both criminals carried out in collaboration with the customs and Police of Borg Al-Arab airport.


He explains that the first parcel was filled with 1080 coins and the second has 106 coins. An archaeological committee lead by Hassan Rasmi head of the Antiquities Unites has inspected both confiscated boxes and finds out that only 134 of the 2266 coins are authentic and the others are only commemorative coins.


Rasmi pointed out that the coins are dated to the Graeco-Roman, Umayyad, Ottoman and Mohamed Ali eras. They are now at the ministry restoration labs for restoration and then put on display at the Islamic museum.


To read the complete article, see:

MSA aborted two foiled smuggling attempts of authentic coins

(english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/43/52146/Heritage/Islamic/MSA-aborted-two-foiled-smuggling-attempts-of-authe.aspx)



Cops in Abu Dhabi have arrested three men caught with historical gold coins worth Dhs2.5 million.


The coins were once used as currency in ancient Islamic regimes in Arabia. The Arab suspects, aged between 28 and 29, were caught in the capital by CID officials. The coins were 23 and 24 carat gold.


Police said the men had been trying to find a buyer. It is not clear how the suspects acquired the coins but police said the men had been under surveillance since the force received information about their activities.


The men, including two truck drivers, are believed to have brought the coins in from a neighbouring country.


Menhali added that the UAE is committed to fighting illegal trading in antiquities and cultural property.


To read the complete article, see:

Abu Dhabi police arrest men with ancient gold coins

(www.7daysindubai.com/Abu-Dhabi-police-arrest-men-ancient-gold-coins/story-16829498-detail/story.html)



	
SIOUX CITY CORN PALACE FESTIVAL MEDALS


Here's a U.S. Mint-made item I was unaware of - an 1887 Sioux City Corn Palace medal.   It was in a "125 Years Ago" column in the Sioux City Journal.
-Editor



 
COLLECTABLE COIN: A beautiful Corn Palace souvenir in the shape of a medal has been designed by the United States mint at Philadelphia. The metal will be about the size of a silver quarter and heavily plated with gold. On one side are the names of “Iowa Dakota, Minnesota, and Nebraska.” In the center are the words: “Souvenir of the harvest festival.” On the reverse side is a die of the Corn Palace, with the words “Corn Palace,” over the die, and underneath the words “Sioux City,



I checked my copy of the old Hibler-Kappen book So-Called Dollars, but was unable to find any Corn Palace items.  I did find the below image of an 1889 medal on the socalleddollar.com web site.
-Editor








To read the complete article, see:

125 years ago: Coin pressed for Sioux City Corn Palace festival

(siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/columnists/peterson/years-ago-coin-pressed-for-sioux-city-corn-palace-festival/article_9ad37511-648e-5ce4-8008-f1bb04d831f3.html)



	
MORE ON THAT ENGRAVED 1840-O HALF DOLLAR



Bill Bugert writes:


I received this note on the engraved 1840-O half dollar previously mentioned in the E-Gobrecht and E-Sylum.  Paul's explanation is the best I've heard and the most logical I've heard by far by far.








Paul Schultz writes:


I propose a reason for the engraved weight on the 1840 dollar coin. When a scale must be calibrated or proven to be accurate, a standardized weight of known certain value must be used to compare with the weight that the scale indicates for it. Nowadays, you can purchase standards at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, known for many years as the National Bureau of Standards. A century or more ago, someone probably wanted to calibrate their scale, and so weighed your coin on a scale that was trusted and known to be accurate, and then used that known weight to test their own scale which was perhaps uncertain. A coin is ideal, since it is corrosion resistant (won't change in weight) and rather wear resistant too. 
 



Thanks, Paul!  Makes sense to me (50 sense, actually).
-Editor



To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

QUERY: AN ENGRAVED 1840-O HALF DOLLAR

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n33a11.html)



	
THE CURIOSITY'S 1909 CENT PICKS UP LAYER OF MARTIAN DUST



Len Augsburger writes:


Am I the only person who didn't know there was a 1909 Lincoln cent on Mars??




Well, we did cover this in an earlier E-Sylum issue (February 12, 2012), in an article forwarded by Dick Johnson.  The Curiosity had been launched toward the Red Planet the previous November.  But now that it has arrived at its destination and is sending pictures back, 
news coverage has resurfaced.  Len, Dick Hanscom, Philip Mernick and others have forwarded articles about it.  So here's an excerpt from the article Len found which includes a great photo of the cent today, covered in a layer of Martian dust.  Thanks!
-Editor



Engineers testing the Curiosity Mars rover are wrapping up a series of robot arm calibration and motion tests before resuming a slow trek toward a nearby rock formation this weekend, on the lookout for a suitable stone to reach out and touch in an initial round of "contact science," officials said today.


NASA unveiled striking new photographs Wednesday, including a panorama shot by the MAHLI camera at near ground level showing the undercarriage of the rover with its eventual target -- Mount Sharp -- rising in the background. Other photos showed covers opening and closing on the rover's upper deck exposing inlets where soil samples eventually will be deposited into a sophisticated analytical instrument.





The Curiosity Cents, Before and After



The MAHLI camera also captured an extreme closeup view of a 1909 penny that serves as a calibration target. Tiny dust grains blown up onto the spacecraft by its landing rockets are clearly visible. The resolution of the closeup image is 25 microns per pixel. If the camera can be positioned close enough to a potential target, that resolution could improve to 14 microns per pixel.


To read the complete article, see:

Robot arm in good shape, Mars rover set to resume trek

(news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57511644-76/robot-arm-in-good-shape-mars-rover-set-to-resume-trek/)


To read a NASA page sent by Philip Mernick, see:

Lincoln Penny on Mars in Camera's Calibration Target

(www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia16131.html)


To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

IS A 1909 VDB LINCOLN CENT GOING TO MARS?

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n07a25.html)



	
WHAT COINS SHOULD ACCOMPANY FROZEN PEOPLE TO THE FUTURE?


In the Sure-You-Can-Take-It-With-You department comes this article that
Patrick Heller published in the September 11, 2012 Numismatic News asking the I-Never-Heard-THAT-Before question, "what coins would you take with you if you if being frozen after death in hopes of a centuries-hence resuscitation?"  Here are some excerpts.
-Editor



If you could go into a frozen sleep and wake up like Rip Van Winkle, only hundreds of years in the future, what assets would you want with you?


A popular theme in science fiction movies is having the main characters frozen then scientifically brought back to life in the future. Stars such as Mel Gibson (“Forever Young”), Tom Cruise (“Vanilla Sky”), Sigourney Weaver (the “Alien” films) and Sylvester Stallone (“Demolition Man”) and many others use this technology for key parts of the movies.


The technology for placing the recently deceased into what could be called “an ambulance to the medical technology of the future” is called cryonics.


Besides being a coin dealer, I developed an interest in the possibility of cryonics in the 1970s after reading Robert A. Heinlein’s book, “The Door Into Summer.” I have served as an unpaid officer and director for Cryonics Institute, one of the non-profit organizations now providing cryonics services since it was established in 1976. I am one of at least three coin dealers who have signed contracts to have their bodies immersed in liquid nitrogen upon death (but I won’t tell you who the others are, as this information may or may not be private to them, whereas I even wrote on the subject for The Wall Street Journal back in the 1980s).


One of the questions that those interested in cryonics ask is what would be a suitable investment today that would hold its value or appreciate over the possible centuries that it might take for medicine to develop the capability to revitalize and rejuvenate people.


Last week, a Cryonics Institute member asked me if I would consider any numismatic items that were not related to bullion value to be suitable for an ultra-long holding period, say in the range of 100 to 500 years. I don’t have a surefire answer to this inquiry and I am hoping that some readers could offer their thoughts on the subject.


To read the complete article, see:

Coins to Be Frozen With?

(www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=25741)



	
LIBRARIAN TATTOOS


We had an item a while back on numismatic tattoos, so how about some literature tattoos?  Check these out.
-Editor









Elizabeth Skene (above) has what might be the most awesomely complete librarian sleeve around, featuring a skull sitting on top of a book, with a graduation cap next to a card catalog with a banner reading “Peace and Knowledge.” There is also an open book with pages coming out and turning into birds. Let there be no doubt here: Elizabeth loves libraries.


Tattooed Librarians and Archivists reader Michelle (right) is a high school librarian who wanted to get something to represent her career. She chose a superhero librarian and based the design on the old-school DC character Mary Marvel and had it inked by Chris Cockrill of Avalon II Tattoo. I think the world could use a few more super librarians, don’t you?




Prefer your ink a little more hardcore than most of these librarian tattoos? Then, you’ll probably approve of Jason Puckett’s tattoo by Ron Hendon of Midnight Iguana Tattooing that features a bespectacled skull with “crossbooks” and a “librarian” banner.

To read the complete article, see:

11 Amazing Librarian Tattoos

(www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/141087)




FEATURED WEB PAGE: PAINTINGS ON PENNIES

In another form of art, this week's Featured Web Page is the work of Jacqueline Lou Skaggs, who has created some interesting paintings on U.S. one-cent coins.  Check 'em out!



This small body of twelve works consist of images painted on found, discarded pennies and reflect a decision to move away from making "pictorial" images. A grand finale of sorts paying homage to the binding ideologies that define our family, religious, social and political worlds. Paid tribute no less on the face of discarded coins these iconic images transcend the coins value while defacing it.









jacquelinelouskaggs.com/section/192725_Tondi_observations.html






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