The E-Sylum v17#45 November 2, 2014

Sun Nov 2 16:55:26 PST 2014

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The E-Sylum

  An electronic publication of
  The Numismatic Bibliomania Society

Volume 17, Number 45, November 2, 2014
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WAYNE'S WORDS: THE E-SYLUM NOVEMBER 2, 2014
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CLUB PUBLICATIONS, PRINT AND ONLINE
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FORTHCOMING BOOK: ARTICLE PROFILES BRITISH INDIA AUTHOR GEV KIAS
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BOOK REVIEW: KENNEDY WORLD IN MEDALLIC ART
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BOOK REVIEW: COINS AND COLLECTORS GOLDEN EDITION
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HARVEY STACK ON BOOKS AND THEIR VALUE 
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DAVID FANNING ON THE NUMISMATIC LITERATURE MARKET
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SS CENTRAL AMERICA SALVAGE: THEN AND NOW
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VASILOPITA TOKENS
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QUERY: WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF BRONZE?
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NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: NOVEMBER 2, 2014
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ELECTROTYPES OF CHARLES ENDERS JR.
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SAMUEL H BLACK'S STORECARD TOKENS
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DICK JOHNSON ON MARKETING MEDAL HOARDS
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ON THE 1976 BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS 
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QUIZ ANSWER: RUGOSITY 
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MORE ON PLAYING CARD MONEY
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THE CHIEF THREE FINGERS MEDAL
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PANAMA CANAL 100 YEAR ANNIVERSARY MEDALS
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HERITAGE TO OFFER DON PARTRICK COLONIAL COLLECTION
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ANA EXCELLENCE IN MEDALLIC SCULPTURE NOMINATIONS SOUGHT
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NUMISMATIC REMEMBRANCES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE
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STILL MORE ON STICKERED SILVER DOLLARS
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SAVING KEY DATES FROM THE 1980 SILVER MELT
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ARTICLE PROFILES ROYAL MINT ENGRAVER LEE JONES
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WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: NOVEMBER 2, 2014
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HOWARD BERLIN VISITS VILNIUS, LITHUANIA
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HOWARD DANIEL:  A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR MUSEUM DONORS
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KÜNKER AUCTION SALES 253-257 RESULTS
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MASTER COUNTERFEITER FRANK BOURASSA
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DESIGNER PURRINGTON REIMAGINES U.S. PAPER MONEY
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VIDEO: THAT FILM ABOUT MONEY
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EAST INDIA COMPANY FIVE GUINEAS IN DNW SALE
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MORE ON JAMES III
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IRISH GUN MONEY
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NORTHUMBERLAND TUDOR COIN HOARD GOES ON DISPLAY
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HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN COINS
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CAN AN AUCTIONEER BE SUED OVER A MISATTRIBUTION?
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THE PAINTED COINS OF ARTIST ANDRE LEVY
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2015 COIN OF THE YEAR NOMINEES
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FEATURED WEB SITE: MEDAL GALLERY
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Click here to read this issue on the web

Click here to access the complete archive

To comment or submit articles, reply to 
whomren at gmail.com

WAYNE'S WORDS: THE E-SYLUM NOVEMBER 2, 2014

New subscribers this week include:
Barrett Oxenaar and
Michael Senoyuit III Esq.
We now have 1,783 subscribers.

This week we open with a Coin World editorial on club publications like ours, one forthcoming new book, and two reviews.  Other topics include the state of the numismatic literature market, the definition of bronze, the electrotypes of Charles Enders, Jr., the Don Partrick collection, the Great Silver Melt of 1980, and How to Make Your Own Coins.

To learn more about Edgar Allen Poe, the Old Professor, Andre Levy's painted coins, Irish Gun Money, Basil's Bread tokens, Samuel Black's electroplated storecard tokens,  numismatics in Vilnius, Lithuania, and the Chief Three Fingers medal, read on.   Have a great week, everyone!

Wayne Homren
Editor, The E-Sylum

CLUB PUBLICATIONS, PRINT AND ONLINE

Coin World editor Steve Roach passed along this editorial, to be published in the issue dated November 17, 2014.   Thanks!
-Editor

Surveys of membership organizations (both numismatic and otherwise) typically confirm one fact: that members view a publication as the primary tangible benefit of membership. 

Each week in Coin World’s offices, we get publications from organizations across the country, big and small. Some are excellent publications with a regional emphasis, such as The California Numismatist or the Central States Numismatic Society’s quarterly The Centinel. 

Others are specialty publications with in-depth research of the sort that is necessary for the growth of numismatics, but goes beyond what a mainstream publication like Coin World can publish. 

As publications — both commercial and nonprofit — move toward digital platforms, they must be careful not to alienate their print subscribers. 

Our own surveys confirm that a surprisingly high percentage of Coin World’s audience does not use computers for their collecting and that they view printed publications as providing a break from the normal day. Further, in removing the print publication, a club risks losing members. Member engagement and happiness need to be weighed against any cost savings when a move to discontinue a club’s publication is under consideration. 

There are ways to reach new audiences without alienating existing members, such as the Numismatic Bibliomania Society’s excellent (and free) weekly email E-Sylum, which complements its print journal The Asylum. 

It is sometimes forgotten that behind all of these publications are patient, dedicated editors and writers who often work solely in a volunteer capacity. The quality of research in many specialty publications has never been higher, and they provide a wonderful complement to more broad-ranging publications like Coin World.

FORTHCOMING BOOK: ARTICLE PROFILES BRITISH INDIA AUTHOR GEV KIAS

Buried within this article from the  Ahmedabad Mirror  profiling Numismatic Guarantee Service (NGS) of India grader Gev Kias is word of a forthcoming new book on the coins of British India.
-Editor

When a 23-year-old Gev Kias bought his first booty of 15 "antique" silver coins off a street vendor at Flora Fountain in Mumbai, he congratulated himself for striking a cool deal. It was only later when he sat fingering them on his way back to Pune that he noticed that the silver colour was rubbing off on his fingers. "I wanted to go and hammer that guy. Then I realised that it was my fault. I'd gone and bought the coins without any knowledge about them whatsoever," says the now 46-year-old automobile engineer- turned-numismatist, who works as the in-house advisor and grader of Numismatic Guarantee Service (NGS) of India — the country's first professional grading and certification service for coins and paper money of South Asia.

The fraudulent experience however served to ignite what has turned out to be a lifelong passion. He made inquiries and eventually met another coin collector, who helped give direction to his radarless drive. "He chided me for buying coins off a street vendor and gave me books to study," says Kias, who began by collecting 56 British India coins dated between 1835 and 1947. And just when he thought he'd made the "coin collector" grade, his mentor laughed and told him that, next, there were coins to be collected mint wise (according to the mint of their origin — Calcutta, Bombay or Madras) and then die wise (variations of which make a coin rare).

Today Kias is considered to possess one of the best collections of British India coins and has more than 1,500 varieties dated between 1835 and 1947, from the reign of King William IV to George VI — in all denominations and metals (the most rare ones come in silver). What's more, he's now working on a book that would give comprehensive information about British India coins.

"The earlier books, written by stalwarts like F Pridmore and D Chakravarty, don't cover many coins as they had not seen them. My book will give all the updated information, essential for future collectors," shares Kias, adding that the book would hit the market by September next year. Kias also teaches as visiting faculty at Mumbai University, where he instructs post graduate students about British India coins.

To read the complete article, see:

A COLONIAL COFFER

(www.ahmedabadmirror.com/others/specials/A-colonial-coffer/articleshow/45000168.cms)

Archives International Auctions, Part XXI
4th Annual Wall Street Coin, Currency & Collectible Show Auction

U.S. & Worldwide Banknotes, Coins, Medals, Scripophily,
Federal Fiscal Documents & Security Printing Ephemera 

October 25th & November 4th, 2014

Highlights include:

Lot 759 Palestine Currency Board, 1929 High Grade Issue

Lot 1053 British American Bank Note Company Engravers & Printers

Lot 400 Richmond and Petersburg Rail Road Company, 1870 Specimen Bond

ARCHIVES INTERNATIONAL AUCTIONS, LLC
1580 Lemoine Avenue, Suite #7 
Fort Lee, NJ 07024 
Phone: 201-944-4800 
Email: 

info at archivesinternational.com

WWW.ARCHIVESINTERNATIONAL.COM

BOOK REVIEW: KENNEDY WORLD IN MEDALLIC ART

Dick Johnson submitted this review of the new Whitman book on Kennedy medallic art.  Thanks!
-Editor

This book dramatically exhibits the fun you can have with medals and forming a medal collection. Adding to a collection with related collectable objects – called associated items – increases that collector pleasure all that much greater. That is what author William R. Rice has done for the reader as he shares that pleasure to the extreme in his new book, The Kennedy World in Medallic Art. 

Some might say Bill Rice has done for John F. Kennedy what Fred Reed has done for Abraham Lincoln in his two books on Lincoln collectables, all of which were published by Whitman. These are books to read and to savor. I hope this is a trend that continues in the future with other medal topics. Rice’s Kennedy book could thereby serve as a model for future medal authors.

This book is not a catalog, although it has a 49-page listing of 2,837 Kennedy medals. The scope is that large. It continues the catalog numbering system established by Edward Rochette, who compiled and wrote the first book on medallic Kennediana in 1966.  

Because of its length the catalog listings are bare bones -- name, size, composition and a very brief comment. The one-medal one-line list contains all varieties known to the author. However, the author relates there may be another two to three hundred more Kennedy medals still to be uncovered.

Collectors will undoubtedly demand a second edition with further data, such as who made the item, artist and producer and the notable events in its creation, all the medal lore of collector interest The author states he has a lot of this data already, it just wouldn’t fit in the first volume. 

Three features dominate this book, notably: the absolutely stunning photographs, the artistic layout, and the wide diversity of the associated items Bill Rice has gathered to supplement his medals. This includes news photographs and articles, drawings, letters, posters, jewelry items, advertisements, medal leaflets, statuettes, paperweights, cameos and cloth patches. All this in addition to badges, decorations, stamps, covers, post cards and paper money you might expect to find included.    

The high quality photographs are the work of the author, a 40-year professional photographer. He has gathered images from both institutions and private collectors – duly noted as Contributors – and his own collection, first started with a gift of a Kennedy medal from his father in 1963.  

Even with the such quality photographs, medals of varying medallic quality are shown. High quality pieces – created by top artists, as Paul Manship’s Inaugural medal, Ralph Menconi’s Presidential Medal, Gilroy Roberts' Presidential Series Mint Medal – are contrasted with medals hastily designed and crudely produced. 

Perhaps Kennedy would have liked the democratic cross section of his medallic art, allowing all to express their adulation of a U.S. president. Many of these later medals exhibit portraits of the 35th president in flat relief with an unrealistic likeness. 

However, all such medals should be included in a standard work – if they exist they should be included. To the author’s credit he has captured as many of the Kennedy medals which exist or caught up in his net. If, as the author expects, there still may be hundreds more, it does call for a second edition.

When I met Bill Rice at the ANA Boston convention I mentioned to him I had a small version of the Agop Agapop architectural portrait of the president, shown as the frontispiece in Ed Rochette's 1966 book. The original was placed in situ on the wall of the Hyannis Massachusetts Kennedy Memorial, which the author has pictured on page 91.The six-foot relief of that wall portrait had been cast and the plaster original model returned to Medallic Art Company. I stumbled over that giant plaster for the four years I had to visit the storeroom. 

I had to find my 10-inch Kennedy cast of that giant portrait listed in his catalog. Sure enough, there it was: K 63A-16. Medallic Art Company called it the Barnstable John F. Kennedy Memorial Medal. Rochette had listed it as the Lindsay Morris Prize JFK Medal – an award the artist won of this portrait – a name the current author retained. 

The section on challenge coins is impressive. Because these collectables did not exist when Rochette created his numbering system, Bill Rice had to create a new class of numbers,” KCC.” The Kennedy connection is with the USS John F. Kennedy Aircraft Carrier, which spawned many challenge medals. The 12-page section of these illustrates 92 items, many in enamel color with most produced by Northwest Territorial Mint, a sister firm of Medallic Art Company.

At the end of a telephone interview the author extolled the art department at Whitman Publishing for their excellent artistic layout of the book. He stressed that praise several times. This writer echoes that sentiment.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

NEW BOOK: THE KENNEDY WORLD IN MEDALLIC ART

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n37a07.html)

BOOK REVIEW: COINS AND COLLECTORS GOLDEN EDITION

Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker published a nice review in CoinWeek October 28 of the new edition of Dave Bowers' classic book, Coins and Collectors.  Here's an excerpt, but be sure to read the complete review online.
-Editor

When all is said and done and Bowers puts away his typewriter, he will have set the bar so high that few in the present generation of numismatic writers will dare take up the guidon and strive to supplant him.

So it is within this context that we pick up the latest entry in Bowers’ long-running and popular franchise Coins & Collectors.

Entitled Coins & Collectors: Golden Anniversary Edition, this newest reworking bears all of the trappings of Whitman’s contemporary design sensibility. A handsome hardcover, Coins & Collectors is a lavishly illustrated, full-color edition that brings Bowers’ prose to life.

It is a celebration of Numismatics in breadth and occasionally in depth. Bowers breezily spans more than 200 years of history, discussing numismatic objects and their backstories while simultaneously proffering his oftentimes first-hand memories of collectors and characters from times past.

And therein lies a great part of the charm of our hobby. In the aggregate, coins are objects through which great stories are told.

Coins & Collectors covers many areas that go beyond the scope of major auction headliners or the most popular collectibles. Among its pages are discourses on Feuchtwanger tokens, ANA medals, minstrel show counterstamps, and 19th century medals celebrating monumental achievements in American engineering.

You’ll also find intriguing nuggets of information and the had-to-be-there backstories behind the pursuit of the 1933 double eagle, the designs of the New Hampshire State and America the Beautiful quarters, and the drama surrounding the SS Central America treasure salvage efforts.

But perhaps more important are Bowers’ reflections on some of the great 19th and 20th century collectors, many of whom he knew and conducted business with. The roster is lengthy, but we’d be remiss not to mention the likes of Norweb, Eliasberg, and the great Thomas Elder–all subjects that Bowers has covered in-depth elsewhere. In the present volume, they serve not only as a spur to further discussion, but also as a reminder for present-day numismatists: it will soon be your responsibility to care for and maintain these stories of coins and collectors.

For now it’s clear: the Old Professor isn’t done yet. The keys still clatter with verve and vigor, and we’re all richer for it.

To read the complete article, see:

First Read: Coins & Collectors: Golden Anniversary Edition

(www.coinweek.com/featured-news/first-read-coins-collectors-golden-anniversary-edition/)

Separately, Dennis Tucker forwarded some interior images of the book.  Thanks!
-Editor

HARVEY STACK ON BOOKS AND THEIR VALUE 

In his October 27, 2014 Stack's Bowers blog article, Harvey Stack begins a new series on the value of numismatic literature.
-Editor

One question I hear quite often from beginning as well as advanced collectors is: "Why buy the book before the coin?".  The question often comes from Internet collectors, who seem to think of that as the only source of information. Well, the Internet is good, but at the same time it can’t offer everything.

I was brought up in a numismatic retail shop, run by my father and uncle, which was opened in a recession period.  The goal during the 1930s at the first Stack's in New York City was developing a solid base of collectors that the store could serve. So they assembled a vast selection of inventory, with coins from ancient to modern, from the United States as well as the rest of the world, in gold, silver, copper and any other metal. They also assembled a library of reference books, auction catalogs, price lists and photographs. As dealers retired, Stack’s bought entire libraries. Likewise Stack’s would purchase collectors’ libraries, including those assembled by specialists.

Printed information about coins and their history was not always found in the average coin shop, but Stack's tried to have as many books as they could among the items they offered for sale. During the 1930s and 1940s many of the now-famous collectors were building their cabinets. Each had a specialty or two or three, and when these specialized collections were sold, the auction catalogs became current reference books.

Among printed references we had The Numismatist, and publications from the American Numismatic Society.  Unfortunately this type of publications often carried very technical information about a series that interested the writer, and rarely had guidance for new collectors on how to build their own collections. One of the early standard references published during this period was the Standard Catalog of United States Coins. It was basically a tabulation of the dates and mints issued by the United States, and showed suggested retail prices.  Most other publications had numismatic ads from dealers around the country, but no suggestions how to collect or what to look for.

Some specialized references were more informative and descriptive, but many were either the inventories of collections being formed or were so highly specialized that they made it difficult to learn the basics.  Auction catalogs of the period and of the decades before were the basic guideposts for the collector.  The dealers or auctioneers who wrote the catalogs (some were extensively illustrated by drawings or early photographs) learned about the coins as they created the catalogs. They were also the experts on grading and other aspects of collecting. In this way the dealer/auctioneer became the teacher, passing this information on to other collectors.

It was (and still is) often said, that one should not try to build an outstanding collection without guidance from books, dealers or fellow collectors.  Coin clubs in and around large metropolitan areas became sources for information and these clubs grew rapidly as the information disseminated between members guided collectors in many areas including rarity, grading and more.

To read the complete article, see:

Books and their Value to Collectors, Part 1

(www.stacksbowers.com/NewsMedia/Blogs/TabId/780/ArtMID/2678/ArticleID/64819/Books-and-their-Value-to-Collectors-Part-1.aspx)

THE BOOK BAZARRE
SELECTIONS FROM THE JOHN HUFFMAN LIBRARY:  
Browse and Shop Approximately 3,000 Numismatic Books from the Respected Library of John Huffman—All Books Recently Discounted 20%.    Click here or go to www.SecondStorybooks.com
click on “All Subjects” and select “John Huffman Collection”

DAVID FANNING ON THE NUMISMATIC LITERATURE MARKET

On Friday, October 31, 2014 Charles Morgan of CoinWeek published a report on the previous day's events at the Whitman Baltimore Winter coin show.  In it, he interviews David Fanning of Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers about the current state of the numismatic literature market.  Here's an excerpt.
-Editor

“The market for numismatic literature is strong, and picking up,” says David Fanning. He and his partner George Kolbe operate Kolbe and Fanning, the premier dealership for rare and antiquarian numismatic books in the United States.

When I caught up with them, they were sitting in a room on the third floor, holding a lot viewing for their Saturday sale. On display were hundreds of books, including many great rarities.

A collector of numismatic literature myself, I found many offerings to be of particular interest.

But, I wondered: What makes the numismatic literature market in the United States tick?

“It’s a three-part market for us,” Fanning explained. “Ancients, which [are] always strong, Medieval and Modern Foreign, and U.S. The U.S. literature market is getting hot right now.

“Most of the lots here are U.S.,” he continued, picking up an attractive volume bound in full morocco entitled The Early Coins of America by Sylvester S. Crosby.

“This first edition Crosby catalog has a complicated publication history. It has the original 1873 title page and intro plus the 1875 title page. In addition, it has a rare Edward Maris Woodburytype Plate, Plate XI, which is found in perhaps one out of every 10 copies we see. Also, the piece has a handwritten key to the plate, written by Maris, and a handwritten review of the auction, also by Maris.

“We can’t say for sure, but based on this and other evidence, we believe that this might have been Maris’ personal copy. This catalog was bound, probably in the early 1980s by Alan Grace for Armand Champa. It sold in 1994 to a collector, who recently sold it to us.”

“You don’t really see the use of plates much anymore,” I said, and the two partners tried to think back to the last time that they had seen an auction house produce them with any regularity. Kolbe thought one might have to go back to old Superior catalogs to find ones of a more recent vintage.

Despite their disappearance, collectors still find the inclusion of plates in older catalogs beneficial.

“It’s about determining provenance,” said Fanning.

“For an ancient coin collector, someone with a high-end coin–maybe a $25,000 or a $250,000 ancient coin–numismatic plates are essential. [They’re] essential because, for many of these great rarities, you have to be able to show provenance, for protection. Otherwise, some government might say that you dug it up out of the ground last week and try to seize it from you. If you can show that the exact coin was sold before and here’s a plate of it from a 1904 catalog, then you are good to go.”

To read the complete article, see:

Whitman Baltimore Winter Expo 2014 Coin Show Report: Part 1

(www.coinweek.com/coins/commemoratives/whitman-baltimore-winter-expo-2014-coin-show-report-part-1/)

SS CENTRAL AMERICA SALVAGE: THEN AND NOW

Columbus Monthly magazine published a great article on the history of the SS Central America salvage operations.   It's lengthy and well worth a read.  Here are a couple of excerpts.
-Editor

Finding the Wreck: 1989
The following summer they returned to the sites of some of the most promising matches with Nemo, a remote-controlled device Thompson had engineered to operate in 10,000 feet of water. Evans coined the name after the protagonist in Jules Verne’s classic science-fiction novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” Nemo had cameras and stereo video that could transmit 3-D images to the surface. It could rotate 360 degrees, and it had two robotic arms that would respond to the commands of a technician operating it from above. While exploring the site almost everyone the previous summer believed was the Central America, they confirmed they had found an 1850s steamship with a lot of coal. But they didn’t find any gold.

This didn’t sit well with Evans. The site was in a high-probability zone. It was one of the more promising sites they had found. If it was the Central America, there should be gold. Something wasn’t right. So, Evans spent the off season—the winter months of 1987 into 1988—reviewing all the images the sonar scanner produced the first summer at sea, paying particular attention to the images that weren’t included in the Hit Parade. What he found was an image of what appeared to be piles of coal, forming a shape that roughly matched the size of the Central America—better than the other image did, anyway. Though it had been written off as a geological mass, Evans had a nagging feeling this might just be the Central America. If he was right, they had wasted an entire summer and millions of dollars exploring the wrong site. When the group geared up for the next season, Evans told Thompson and Williamson about what he’d found. It was in a low-probability area but en route to the orig
 inal site, so they decided they might as well pass over it.

The crew, fresh from the off season and prepared for another summer at sea, arrived at the site of the mass that piqued Evans’ curiosity in their newly renovated research vessel, the Arctic Discover. When they dropped Nemo, nobody expected what happened next. Almost immediately, from the corner of the screen, an image of a large iron sidewheel began to creep into view. The room erupted. Shouts of “Whoa!” and “Oh my God!” echoed throughout the control room. Awestruck, Nemo’s operator John Moore began to proclaim, “You know…” and, in unison, the entire crew finished, “what that is!” Moments later, Nemo was inches from crashing into a mast extending straight up into the water. On their first dive of the season, they had hit the target dead center.

Bob Evans Returns: 2014

Bob Evans stands on the Odyssey Explorer with his hands in the front pockets of his blue jeans, his graying hair tucked beneath a canvas cap and pulled into a thin pony tail. The eyes behind his glasses are bright and wide. He rocks forward in his sneakers, talking excitedly of the impending trip to sea. Evans is a geologist and a historian—and he is positively giddy.

Unlike the rest of the Explorer crew, 60-year-old Evans is not embarking on this journey for the first time. This is a homecoming. He’s been to the Central America, explored the caverns of its decay, seen artifacts frozen in time, marveled at colonies of sea creatures growing on castles of gold and held the precious metal when it was hauled to the surface. He’s heading back to the site to finish what he and a team of other scientists, oceanographers and treasure hunters started 25 years ago but never completed. He’s going back to finish the story.

“I am thrilled to be going back to this shipwreck,” he says. “Absolutely thrilled. This has been a project that I have worked on and dreamed about and studied in great detail for 30 years. This is a dream come true.”

When Evans left Charleston in April, the trees were just beginning to bloom. Their leaves were already changing color and falling off by the time he returned in September. He had worked the night shift on the Odyssey Explorer—9 p.m. to 9 a.m.—and saw more of the moon than the sun. Still, his fair skin was red and raw as he recounted his summer at sea during an interview in September. Ironically, he wasn’t sunburned while he was on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Rather, it happened the first day he was back on his farm in Muskingum County, mowing the fields, cutting down a maple tree, tending to the horses and sheep and chickens. Evans is spry for 60—heck, he’s spry for 50—and he didn’t stay idle for long, despite his arduous summer.

Though work at sea is demanding, returning to the site of the Central America was a delight for Evans. It was the opportunity to finish what he started—an opportunity he never thought he’d have again.

“I had given up hope that this would happen,” he says, his voice thick with emotion. “It has been very fulfilling.”

Finally, after more than 20 years, he was able to see what had become of his experiments. He holds up a small block of wood—jagged on its sides and nearly hollowed out with cylindrical holes. This is what remains of the pine 4-by-4 they planted in the sediment in 1990. It was 3 feet tall then; now, it’s no taller than 6 inches. The round tunnels were carved by shipworms, which are actually a species of clam, like the ones that consumed the entire ship. Judging by the state of the experimental piece of wood, it didn’t take them very long.

The shipwreck is not only scientifically significant. It’s culturally significant. It is a time capsule, a period snapshot. Over the summer, the Odyssey Explorer crew found thousands of artifacts buried in the sand. A clay pipe, a miniature chess piece. A ladies comb, a spoon. They even found parts of a music box. Evans, a pianist, plans to use the impressions in the drum to decipher the tune it once played.

Most telling were the photographs. Portraits of young women, of husbands and wives, of mothers and their children. Lifeless but preserved. They are the loved ones of passengers aboard the ship’s final voyage. They are the survivors. They are the victims.

“To see people’s faces staring up at you from the bottom of the sea, it’s startling,” he says. “Talk about humanizing what it is that you’re working on.”

To read the complete article, see:

Man Overboard: Tommy Thompson, a Ship of Gold and the Columbus Investors Still Looking for Treasure

(www.columbusmonthly.com/content/roundups/2014/11/man-overboard-a-tale-of-tommy-thompson-a-ship-of-gold-and-the-columbus-investors-still-looking-for-treasure.html?page=?page=all)

VASILOPITA TOKENS

Regarding our discussion of coin and medal shapes, David Powell writes:

OK, what shape is this?  
It is a Vasilopita {Basil's Bread} token, associated with Greek New Year tradition; not that all of them are this shape, this is just a modern design.  I understand that each family makes a special loaf or cake for New Year, and that exactly one lucky token is baked into it for someone to find.  

-Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

MORE ON SHAPES OF COINS, TOKENS AND MEDALS

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n44a11.html)

QUERY: WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF BRONZE?

Dave Baldwin writes:

  I would like opinions/comments on what 'bronze' means to numismatists. 
I recently had the opportunity to have several medals subjected to xray flourescence and the results are rather interesting. A few did show as 100% copper but most were not. 

Bronze pieces are usually described as chocolate brown with copper pieces being more red. But two Buchanan Residence medals came up with the redder piece being 99.46% copper, .32% platinum, .17% zinc and the brown piece 99.68% copper, .22% platinum. And bronze is usually described as an alloy of copper and tin yet none of the ones tested showed any trace of tin. Small amounts of zinc were found and almost always some platinum. 

Online searches for definitions of bronze are pretty inconclusive and it seems the term copper alloy is preferred. So as numismatists what do we mean by bronze and how is that determined? I have also seen the term 'bronzed copper', is that bronze or a copper piece with bronze plating? Any help would be much appreciated.

That's a great, fundamental question in numismatics.  I'll look forward to compiling reader thoughts for next week's issue.  I asked Dave for some more information and image, which he gladly provided.
-Editor

 Medal 1: 99.73%copper, .2% zinc
Medal 2: 97.18% copper, 2.78% zinc

Medal 3: 99.68% copper, .22% platinum
Medal 4: 99.46% copper, .32% platinum, .17% zinc

Medal 5: 99.54% copper,  .32% nickel
Medal 6: 100% copper

Medal 7: 99.11% copper, .4% iridium, .31% nickel

Dave adds:

     It is interesting being able to get accurate descriptions for the tokens and medals. One piece that was described as "nickel" turned out to be 100% silver although it did not look like it at all. And it is free! I have a contact at a precious metal recycler and every few months I take a handful up to put through the machine Takes about 15 seconds and he says the machine is very accurate. Next time I am going to take one up he has done already to see if the reading is the same.

NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: NOVEMBER 2, 2014

 Correction: Tsadik Kaplan  
Ira Rezak writes:

In David Alexander's review of Tsadik Kaplan's book, for some reason or other, Tsadik is referred to as "Cohen".

Other readers caught this, too.
Sorry!  We'll correct our archive version of the article.  Thanks.
-Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

NEW BOOK: JEWISH ANTIQUES

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n44a04.html)

 Hunt's Ancient Coin Collection 
Regarding billionaire silver baron Nelson Bunker Hunt,
Denis Loring writes:

Hunt's financial woes required him to sell his incredible collection of ancient coins.  For some reason, I was on Sotheby's preferred list, and was invited to a by-invitation only showing of the collection.  I still remember the Greek silver.  Each one was like a miniature sculpture.  Magnificent.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

ARTICLE PROFILES SILVER BARON NELSON BUNKER HUNT

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n44a19.html)

 Plated Auction Catalogs Online 
Ron Guth writes:

I was rooting around on the Interweb and came across a plated Mougey (Elder) and a plated Lyman (Chapman) on the Library of Congress website.  I'm hoping they have other catalogs for those of us who like to do the research but can't afford these precious items.  The plate renderings are not the best in the world, but some plate-matching can be accomplished.

 Lyman catalog plate

 Mougey catalog plates

To read the catalogs, see:

Catalogue of the forty-third public sale magnificent rare coin collection of the late Peter Mougey (1910)

(https://archive.org/details/catalogueofforty00moug)

Catalog of the splendid collection of silver & copper coins of the United States formed by John P. Lyman (1913)

(https://archive.org/details/catalogofsplendi00lyma)

 Mark Twain on Conjecture 
Bill Eckberg  writes:

The discussion about the stars on the Wright quarter pattern reminds me - as, alas, does too much that passes for numismatic research - of Mark Twain’s quote from Life on the Mississippi: “One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture from such a trifling investment of fact.”

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:

QUERY: JOSEPH WRIGHT 1792 PATTERN PHOTOS SOUGHT

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n42a06.html)

NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: OCTOBER 19, 2014 : Counting the Stars

(www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_esylum_v17n43.html)

MORE ON THE JOSEPH WRIGHT 1792 PATTERN

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n44a15.html)

 Kankakee Kontinued
Web site visitor Luke Bates writes:

I grew up in "K3" and stumbled across your site.  Thought you might like to know a few more songs that mention Kankakee.

1. Andrew Osenga "Kankakee"
2. Martha White "Kankakee"
3. Chris McKnight "Nothing On Me"
4. Tom Waits "Circus"
5. Myshkin's Ruby Warblers "King of Kankakee"
6. Sufjan Stevens "They Are Night Zombies!!! They Are Neighbors"
7.  Artist Unknown "Jumpin Judy" - an old prison song

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

QUIZ ANSWER: CITY OF NEW ORLEANS

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v16n53a08.html)

 Penny Wise & Book Foolish 

Jim Neiswinter writes:

Went to a book fair today at Hofstra U. with Chuck Heck. He pointed out a book with an interesting title:  Penny Wise & Book Foolish  written by Vincent Starret in 1929 . It's about finding 1st additions. It cost 50X the original $3 price.

I'm not familiar with this book, but it may be of interest to bibliophiles.  I found an image online and added it here.  Can anyone tell us more about the book?
-Editor

 THE BOOK BAZARRE
 PLEASURE AND PROFIT: 100 Lessons for Building and Selling a Collection of Rare Coins. 
Robert Shippee’s new book is available this month, November 2014. Order your copy now for just $9.95
at

Whitman.com or call 1-800-546-2995.
Q. David Bowers calls it “One of the most useful books in American numismatics,” and says “It will change your buying strategies.” 320 pages, full color.

ELECTROTYPES OF CHARLES ENDERS JR.

Dave Hirt writes:

While reading last week's post on electrotypes, I remembered that I have a pamphlet I estimate from the 1870s offering them for sale by one Charles Enders Jr, who signs himself "Numismatist." He makes the rather brazen claim, "The workmanship is so skillfully executed that they cannot be fully appreciated until seen, and are calculated to deceive others than experts."

 He lists for sale early Massachusetts & Maryland silver, Early federal and state patterns. American tokens, Higley, Chambers, New England & Carolina Elephant etc. US Half Cents & Large cents, and early medals. 

 I have had this for many years. I don't remember where I got it. The last one I saw sold was 20 years ago, for around $100.

This is what makes numismatic ephemera so interesting and useful.  Often the only record of a maker's existence is a little advertising flyer or pamphlet like this one.  
Enders also advertised in the American Journal of Numismatics - I found online an ad in an 1888 issue.  Below is one I found in The Agassiz Journal for Curiosity Collectors, Volume 1, June 1885.
-Editor

By the way, thanks to Dick Johnson for responding to Doug Hildreth's original question about the Samuel H. Black Electrotype Plate.   
-Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: OCTOBER 26, 2014 : Query: Samuel H. Black Electrotype Plate

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n44a09.html)

SAMUEL H BLACK'S STORECARD TOKENS

Dick Johnson (referencing David Schenkman) noted that electrotype maker Samuel H. Black also issued at least six types of storecard tokens.  Dave forwarded the following images.  Thanks!
-Editor

 Samuel Black 1859 Storecard

 Samuel Black 1860 Storecard

Aaron Packard forwarded some additional images of Samuel Black tokens.  Thanks!
-Editor

Aaron writes:

The first specimen is listed as Miller NY-63 and dated 1859.  It was photographed using overhead incandescent lighting.

The second specimen is listed as Miller NY-65 and dated 1860.  It was photographed using axial lighting.  Given that there exists both Samuel H. Black tokens, and Friend & Black tokens both dated 1860, it would seem that sometime in 1860 Black went into partnership with Friend.

Both specimens were electrotypes, with their core planchets being made of lead.  The softness of the lead is apparent in the deformities of both specimens, but most especially in the NY-65 piece.

Of the multiple specimens that I have in the cabinet, these are the best examples because they still possess the majority of their copper plating and are the least deformed.

On Saturday Aaron added:

I picked up a Miller NY-64 today at the Baltimore show.  Despite being VF-20, I believe it provides a good view of the underlying planchet; the majority of the copper plating is either missing, or never adhered properly.  Indeed, that’s why I bought the example today.
Perhaps your readers will find this third specimen, without most of its copper plating, also interesting.

Thanks!  Neat item.
-Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: OCTOBER 26, 2014 : Query: Samuel H. Black Electrotype Plate

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n44a09.html)

DICK JOHNSON ON MARKETING MEDAL HOARDS

Dick Johnson submitted these thoughts on the marketing of hoards, inspired by the Samuel H. Black inquiry in the last issue.  Thanks.
-Editor

No problem selling coins whenever a hoard of similar items are discovered. With known prices and large demand the price can remain fairly stable. Most any dealer can market coin hoards. Not so with medals. Supply and demand is the operative term, it certainly applies here.

The recent  discussion in The E-Sylum of the National Medallion Plaque (the large version) made by electrolysis by Samuel H. Black in 1859 comes to mind. New York token and medal dealers Rossa and Tannenbaum discovered a hoard of these which had remained intact for over a century. At a New York City flea market they acquired the entire hoard, some twenty pieces or so. Had they publicized the fact they had that many for sale the price would have dropped dramatically.

The two dealers wisely eased these into the collectors' market. Never showing more than one at a time at shows or revealing the number they had on hand. It probably took them a decade or so to sell them all but they were able to maintain a stable price. Previous owners of the piece did not observe a drop in "current market value" to use an appraisers' term.

Medals are sold one at a time generally to topic collectors. A gradual increase in value can be expected over time but this is upset when a large supply is available with a somewhat limited demand. Collectors are very savvy and sense this. They often detect when a large supply still exists.

There is a name for this, a vocabulary word of the week:  OVERHANG. When overhang exists and collectors are aware of this the price does not rise, and often drops.

I can site many examples of this. The Ohio Sesquicentennial Medal of 1953 is one for instance. I am often asked if the Medallic Art Company would buy back any medal they made and the answer is NO. The company does not deal in past issues.

If an organization has a quantity of unsold medals they should NOT shop around. Offer it to one dealer who is the best prospect. Offer the entire quantity. Do NOT split it up, selling it to more than one dealer. Do NOT publicize in any way the quantity sold, who acquired it, or even the quantity existed at all. Allow that dealer to sell one piece at a time, not to disturbed the market value, even if it takes him a decade to do so.

Even hoards of regular-issue coins can require delicate marketing.  The John Beck collection included about half the entire mintage of 1856 Flying Eagle Cents, and these were dispersed to the market over many years.   Can anyone share a story of another hoard that was handled as Dick describes?
-Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: OCTOBER 26, 2014 : Query: Samuel H. Black Electrotype Plate

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n44a09.html)

ON THE 1976 BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS 

Speaking of Dick Johnson, he submitted the following thoughts on the 1976 Bicentennial.  Thanks!
-Editor

In answer to Kay Freeman's comment on the lack of a celebration of the 1976 Bicentennial we have one person to blame. It was President Richard Nixon - to his shame, he squashed the plan for any world's fair that year.

Major cities all made proposals to hold a 1976 Bicentennial World's Fair in their city. Philadelphia because it was where all the action was 200 years earlier, Chicago because of the success of their 1892-3 and 1933 World's Fairs, New York City because they had a ready-made location where the 1939 and 1964 Fairs were held, and even Miami Florida they said because of the better weather.

Nixon delayed making a decision until it was too late for any successful planning. When finally pressed he indicated every city should have their own (thus no city got the approval). Shame on you, Nixon.

The 1892-3 Chicago World's Fair was a fascination for collectors, and numismatically so, because it was open season for collector's items. Anyone could have a medal made and issued for the fair. Over a thousand have been recorded. Nathan Eglit made the initial attempt to list them all in is 1963 catalog, Columbiana.

As a Chicago lawyer he had the resources to gather these in which the Chicago area was a rich source of these appearing on the market. He gathered these for years. After he died his son consigned a large group of these for me to auction (double sale Johnson & Jensen sale #15-16, March 25, 1961).   I thought that was his collection. Later I learned these were his duplicates! Joe Levine auctioned his collection (Presidential Coin & Antique Co. sale #52, May 27, 1992).

Like Kay I enjoyed July 4, 1976 in New York City. I brought my family to the city where we established an overlook point on the bridge half a block down the street from the old ANS building. The Tall Ships display on the Hudson River was a full day's attraction. Until the rains came. The car was only a half block away but we were drowned in that short distance. However, the day was worth every minute and every discomfort!

Here's a follow-up from Ron Abler.
-Editor

In our conversation at the last Nummis NOVA dinner, Tom and I shared a hope that America would celebrate our 250th anniversary with the kind of exuberance and unanimity that we exhibited in 1876.  Where I was (and still am) coming from is expressed in a this sidebar from my book:

Quite the Contrast!

The efficient involvement of the Federal government in exhibition business in the 1870s contrasts sharply with the fiasco of our Bicentennial celebration 100 years later.  As Lynne Cheney wrote in her essay “1876:  The Eagle Screams”:  “Witness our own inability —unwillingness, perhaps—to put together a similar Bicentennial celebration.  Philadelphia worked on Bicentennial plans for sixteen years, twice as long as it took to free the colonies from England, making and unmaking plans for an exhibition, discarding one site after another, trying to please social activists who wanted jobs for the poor instead of a party, businessmen who wanted the revenue from an exposition, homeowners who didn’t want the disturbance.”

I have no desire to ignite a controversy over something that I view as non-partisan patriotism (though I would relish the debate).  I realize that even using these two words in a single sentence betrays me as a hopeless and undesirable neocolonial romantic.  I personally doubt that America will muster enough patriotism and non-partisanship to match for its 250th anniversary what it accomplished for its 100th.  Ms Freeman’s comment is a case in point, the first confirmatory nay-saying shot out of the barrel.

Besides, I do not remember saying that we should emulate the Sesquicentennial, nor that any local celebration, such as that in New York or anywhere else, was unworthy.  

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

U.S. SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL CELEBRATION THOUGHTS

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n44a13.html)

QUIZ ANSWER: RUGOSITY 

In last week's issue Dick Johnson asked, "What 20th century U.S. circulating coin did Walter Breen describe as displaying rugosity?"
Pete Smith writes:

>From Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U. S. and Colonial Coins, page 257: "Gone is much of the rugosity of Black Diamond's hide, gone too are many details of the Indian's hair, wrinkles, and feathers."

Dave Lange writes:

I recalled that word immediately from when I was writing the first edition of my Buffalo Nickel book, though I resisted the temptation to include it in my own descriptions. Walter Breen was decrying Charles Barber's habit of smoothing out the fields of all new coin types that came his way from outside sculptors. The deeply textured surfaces were in vogue among artists of the time, as they diffused the light and permitted easier viewing of the design. The prevalence of sandblasting or otherwise imparting matte surfaces to coins and medals was an extension of this same trend. Unfortunately, Mr. Barber's conventional thinking found such practices objectionable, and he replaced the textured fields with smooth, shiny ones at every opportunity. The Type 2 1913 nickels and all succeeding pieces were so treated, as were the dimes, quarters and halves produced midway through 1917 and thereafter.

Dave Ellison also correctly identified the Type 1 Buffalo nickel as the object of Breen's statement.  Thanks, everyone!
-Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

VOCABULARY TERM: MEDALLIC OBJECTS

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n44a12.html)

MORE ON PLAYING CARD MONEY

An E-Sylum reader submitted these notes on playing card money.  Thanks!
-Editor

I was happy to find the article about the Canadian collector who acquired what appear to be two IOUs or redeemable chits for bottles (?) of rum, created using playing cards, attributed to a Canadian merchant.  
I happen to have a large exhibit I've been showing at SoCal venues this year, which I plan to spring on the ANA when it convenes in Anaheim in 2016, entitled "Variations on a Theme of Playing Card Money."  

First, to attract the attention of US collectors, I provide background information on the extremely rare and valuable government-issued Canadian playing card money.  I show a recent set of colorful commemorative coins, but only a photo of an actual example.  (I don't own any but in my defense I cite auction prices in 4 and 5 figures.)  However, following that intro are two halfway-decent (no tape) pieces of very rare playing card money issued by a French municipality (billets de confiance) during the Revolution.  

Those are followed by my large collection of playing card promissory notes filled with counter-writing not only signed and dated, but bearing intact wax seals from an expatriate French nobleman who was supplying the Monarchist resistance back home in Normandy with mercenary soldiers from Brussels.  

That section is followed by paper and porcelain notgeld and a coin which feature card games with local ties, to wit: Altenburg, Germany - Skat; and Switzerland - Jass; together with multiple decks of those cards.  Finally, I show a deck of modern gold-foil playing cards that "reflect" 500 euro notes.  I was embarrassed to include that cheesy tail end of the exhibit, but of course it attracted the most audience attention by far!  I hope the judges at the ANA are more impressed by the historic repurposed hand-painted antiques, which got me going on this.  

In my scan of six playing cards, the top two should definitely qualify as "playing card money," since they are local government issues from 1791.  The municipality was Saint-Maixent, in Deux-Sèvres département.  The very first card is a king of clubs.  The French specialized book about such things, Les billets de confiance de la Révolution française 1790 - 1793, Maurice Kolsky, 2004, estimates that there are three or fewer examples of each denomination of these pieces known (R5), but I doubt that is correct.  

The other four are fronts and backs of some of my promissory card/notes, issued from Brussels and signed and dated in 1792 by the marquis of Bailleul, Angerville-Bailleul, Haut-Normandie, to be conveyed by mercenaries into Normandy, where they were exchanged for military uniforms.  I translated the text on both 
sides of one of the cards for my exhibit.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:

ARTICLE PROFILES CANADIAN COLLECTOR GEORGE MANZ

(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n44a20.html)

THE CHIEF THREE FINGERS MEDAL

Stack's Bowers has a new ad in this week's issue, soliciting consignments for their upcoming Americana sale.  I was unfamiliar with the medal pictured in the ad, and wondered what the heck the words "THREE FINGERS" meant.  Well, Greg Cohen & John Pack explain it in their October 30, 2014 blog post.  Here's an excerpt.
-Editor

Undated (Circa 1890-1893) Benjamin Harrison Indian Peace Medal. The Only Size. Silver. 76.7 mm, 3.75 to 4.05 mm thick. 3,463.7 grains. Obverse Signed C.E. BARBER F. Julian IP-48.

The Benjamin Harrison medals marked a departure from the oval style medals that had been adopted for the Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur and Grover Cleveland administrations. This was reportedly a reaction to requests from a delegation of four Oto and Missouri Indians who visited Washington in 1890. They specifically asked for round medals bearing the portrait of the sitting president. 

According to the account published by Francis Paul Prucha in his Indian Peace Medals in American History, the Oto and Missouri visitors were so adamant about the specific shape and size of the medals that they offered to pay the costs of the medals themselves. This was likely their answer to resistance from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who would have realized the bureaucratic difficulty of altering the adopted style of the official medals and probably attempted to dissuade them. Nonetheless, the request was made through proper channels to the Mint, and Mint officials complied. 

The Director of the Mint requested of the Office of Indian Affairs that they propose a new design for the reverse of the medals. A sketch was supplied which was intended to illustrate “progress” in the Native American’s adaptations to a way of life including “a civilized house and occupation,” though it was considered only a rough attempt to provide an idea of what would be desirable. A design by Charles Barber was proposed, found agreeable to all concerned, and adopted on May 12, 1890. On October 25, 1890, the first of the round medals, five in number, were forwarded to the Oto and Missouri Indians who had made the original request. In November, 1890, 18 more medals were sent to be distributed to members of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe who had agreed to sell vast lands in Indian Territory to the United States.

As noted in Prucha, “some of these medals had the names of the recipients engraved on the reverse.” Five of the seven known medals are engraved to the recipients or to names of other members of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe. The present medal is among them, engraved with prominence, THREE / FINGERS, in letters arcing across the upper portions of the two large circles in the reverse design. Three Fingers, a Cheyenne Chief well documented in the historical photographic record, is not listed among the known original recipients. However, careful study of the medal itself reveals an earlier engraving, largely effaced. In the field below FINGERS can be seen the faint letters of BUFFALO, and just after, very faint remnants of MEAT. It seems, therefore, that this medal was originally Buffalo Meat’s medal, one of the documented recipients.

It is unclear as to why the name was altered, but the medal obviously became the property of Three Fingers at some point. There are superb photographic portraits of him wearing this medal. The men were contemporaries, and are photographed together in images taken in Washington, in 1895. In one of them, they appear alongside Wolf Robe, another recipient of the Harrison medal. Three Fingers is reported to have died in 1917 at the age of 58, and is buried at the City Cemetery at Kingfisher, Oklahoma. Buffalo Meat is a much better documented character. He was born in 1847 or 1849, depending upon the source, and also died near Kingfisher, of tuberculosis, in 1917.

The 1895 photograph of Buffalo Meat, Three Fingers and Wolf Robe is interesting in the subtle clues it yields. Buffalo Meat is dressed in European attire, a black suit, bow tie and broad brimmed black hat. Three Fingers and Wolf Robe are in native Cheyenne attire and only Wolf Robe wears his Harrison medal.

To read the complete article, see:

Newly Discovered Magnificent and Rare Benjamin Harrison Indian Peace Medal in Silver, Presented in 1890 to Buffalo Meat will Make its Auction Debut in the Stack’s Bowers 2015 New York Americana Sale

(www.stacksbowers.com/NewsMedia/Blogs/TabId/780/ArtMID/2678/ArticleID/64828/Newly-Discovered-Magnificent-and-Rare-Benjamin-Harrison-Indian-Peace-Medal-in-Silver-Presented-in-1890-to-Buffalo-Meat-will-Make-its-Auction-Debut-in-the-Stack%E2%80%99s-Bowers-2015-New-York-Americana-Sale-.aspx)

See the complete article for more information, and the complete list of recipients.  It's a colorful list of names, including Starving Elk, Bull Chip, Cut Nose, Black Coyote, and Buffalo Meat.
-Editor

PANAMA CANAL 100 YEAR ANNIVERSARY MEDALS

Jeff Shevlin forwarded this press release about the availability of a new medal of the completion of the Erie Canal.  Thanks.
-Editor

The Panama Canal was completed in 1914, at that time it was considered a technological marvel. The canal was an important strategic and economic asset to the U.S., and revolutionized world shipping patterns.  The canal saves 7,800 miles on a trip from New York to San Francisco by sea.  The first ship to complete an ocean to ocean passage through the Canal carried 50,000 historical medals to commemorate that event, but only a few hundred of those medals exist today.

This year on the 100 year anniversary of the completion of the Panama Canal a medal has been created to commemorate this significant event in our nation’s history. The medals will be struck by Daniel Carr of the Moonlight Mint.  

The obverse design is similar to the 1914 Panama Canal Completion medal which features a female standing on the prow of a ship with outstretched arms, below her right hand is a globe of the eastern hemisphere, below her left hand is a globe of the western hemisphere with a scroll between the two symbolizing that the two hemispheres have been united.  It is cataloged as HK 398 by Hibler and Kappen in their reference book on So-Called Dollars published in 1963.  The legends and scrolls have been modified to state "1914 - COMPLETION PANAMA CANAL - 2014" and "100 YEAR ANNIVERSARY".  

The reverse design is an adaptation of HK 432 from the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, which features a ship sailing through the Canal locks with minor modifications.  

The medals are 39mm and will be struck in silver, copper, gold-plated and gold.  The silver pieces will be edge marked "ONE TROY OZ .999 SILVER".  The Gold will be 1.6 OZ and edge marked "50 GRAMS 999+ GOLD".

This is an exclusive opportunity to order these medals at the pre-order discounted prices. The silver will cost $65 each, copper $10 each and the gold-plated $35.  Gold will be approximately $2,350 depending on spot at the time of the order and will have 1.6 OZ of 999+ Gold. 

These medals will be carried through the Panama Canal in 2014 as occurred 100 years ago in 1914. 

To order medals contact Jeff Shevlin (So-Called Guy) via email SoCalledGuy at hotmail.com or via mail 1894 E. William Street, Suite 4-240, Carson City, NV 89403, or phone # 916-955-2569.

HERITAGE TO OFFER DON PARTRICK COLONIAL COLLECTION

Heritage announced another blockbuster sale - the Don Partrick collection of colonial and early American coins will be marketed beginning next year.  Here's a lengthy excerpt from a Coin World article by Bill Gibbs about the sales.  With the Newman, Pogue and Patrick collections all hitting the market, these are opportune times for collectors to obtain rarities that have been off the market for decades.
-Editor

What is being billed as "the finest collection of colonial American coins ever assembled" is heading to auction, the first sale scheduled for January 2015 in Orlando, Fla.

“This series of auctions is unprecedented in numismatics,” said Jim Halperin, co-founder of Heritage Auctions. “This is an incredible grouping of coins, the likes of which we won’t see again.”

“The name of Donald Groves Partrick is well known to colonial collectors and his cabinet is second to none in the field,” said Mark Borckardt, senior cataloger for Heritage Auctions. “His collection also includes an unprecedented assemblage of 1792 U.S. Mint Patterns and coinage of the Confederacy.”

Part I of the collection includes 12 U.S. Mint patterns of 1792, a total that far exceeds the nine examples in the Garrett Collection auctions, the eight examples in the Norweb Collection sales, and the seven examples held in the Smithsonian Institution.

One of the most fascinating sections of the first sale is the nearly 30-strong grouping of New York coppers, including five Confederatio coppers and 11 Immune or Immunis Columbia coppers. Future auctions will offer, according to Heritage: "additional New York pieces, including two Brasher doubloons, one of the New York variety (the finest known, ex Garrett) and one of the Lima variety; Don Partrick’s incredible Connecticut and New Jersey coppers; and amazing Washingtonia."

The unique 1776 Janus copper in the upcoming Part I sale highlights the Massachusetts copper section, along with an associated Paul Revere token. Massachusetts coppers of 1787 and 1788 include 37 of the 50 known die varieties, while almost 100 Vermont coppers will be offered in Part I, including examples and duplicates of every known die variety.

Coinage of the Confederate states includes one of the four known original Confederate half dollars, pedigreed to Jefferson Davis. A “Jefferson Davis dime” is also pedigreed to the Confederate president.

To read the complete article, see:

Heritage to auction Donald G. Partrick Collection of Colonial coins

(www.coinworld.com/news/heritage-to-auction-donald-g--partrick-collection-of-colonial-coins.html)

ANA EXCELLENCE IN MEDALLIC SCULPTURE NOMINATIONS SOUGHT

Mel Wacks forwarded this call for nominations for the 2015 American Numismatic Association Numismatic Art Award For Excellence In Medallic Sculpture.
-Editor

ANNOUNCING THE 2015 AMERICAN NUMISMATIC ASSOCIATION
NUMISMATIC ART AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN MEDALLIC SCULPTURE

Purpose:
The award honors an artist whose cumulative lifetime achievements in the field of medallic sculpture have been of the highest order.

Criteria:
Nominations should include the name of the nominee, address, contact information, a list of numismatic accomplishments, a brief biography and photographs of at least five medals – or Internet addresses where they can be viewed.  Nominators should include their addresses and contact information; artists may nominate themselves. Nominations must be received by noon on January 15, 2015. Nominations should be submitted to Ann Rahn, Project Liaison Coordinator, The American Numismatic Association, 818 N. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80903, arahn at money.org or Mel Wacks, Head of NAAEMS Committee, 5189 Jeffdale Ave., Woodland Hills, CA 91364, numismel at aol.com.

Judges:
The NAAEMS award selection committee is headed by Mel Wacks, and includes David Alexander, one of the founders of Medal Collectors of America; Jeannie Stevens-Solliman, sculptor and Member of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee; Doug Mudd, Curator at the ANA Money Museum in Colorado Springs; Mashiko, FIDEM  USA Delegate; Donald Scarinci, member of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee and the ANS Saltus Award Committee; and Alan Stahl, Ph.D., Professor and curator of numismatics at Princeton University.

Past recipients of this important award include
Gilroy Roberts (1967),
Frank Gasparro (1968), 
C. Paul Jennewein (1970),
Miko Kaufman (1978), 
Alex Shagin (1990), 
John M. Mercanti (2001), and Ron Landis (2003).
-Editor

NUMISMATIC REMEMBRANCES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE

Greg Ruby  published a nice article on medals of Edgar Allan Poe in the October 27, 2014 issue of  The Fourth Garrideb - Numismatics of Sherlock Holmes.  Here's an excerpt.
-Editor

I am aware of only three medals honoring the author.

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