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V11 2008 INDEX
E-SYLUM ARCHIVE
BOOK REVIEW: IN YANKEE DOODLE.S POCKET BY WILL NIPPER
Author Will Nipper reported that several E-Sylum readers
took him up on his discount offer to purchase copies of his new book,
which was profiled in last week's issue. One of the buyers was Tom Kays,
who submitted this review. -Editor
In Yankee Doodle.s Pocket . The Myth, Magic
and Politics of Money in Early America by Will Nipper and available
from Bowmanstone Press is a lavish new work of love encompassing the
American colonial coin series that celebrates the history of colonial
coins, tokens, and currency both within the traditional series and to the
outermost fringes of the incidentals that Yankee Doodles sweated for,
saved and spent. Fully illustrated on most every one of the 568 pages with coins from the author.s vast collection, Will painstakingly extends his pictures with line drawings of uncollectable rarities to complete the series. Drawing from current sources of numismatic inquiry
Will includes exotics such as the Ferryland DK lead token, extensive types of contemporary counterfeit English copper, and ties coin and currency devices to colonial iconography to bring alive their context. This is not a price guide and I applaud Will for publishing such a labor of love.
From forms of barter, to jetons, coin weights, and through the complex Latin American series down to macaroni pieces in Yankee doodles pocket, it is all here. Will spans money of North America during the first three hundred years before the first Federal coin, and includes those too, down to 1840 when mass production began to limit the quirks of die cutters and cookie cutter coins began to require magnifying glasses to discern their variety.
Great attention to the distinctive varieties of States coppers and distinguishing characteristics of a wide range of other series are provided in attribution guides in the appendices that make this work a must for the serious numismatist.
A long list of references and endnotes complete the work as a scholarly tome, yet it is eminently readable and enjoyable in sound bites for each extended coin type where the juicy historical relevance and human interest lay. If you are a member of the Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4) this is quite up your alley. Imagine all of your C4 newsletters organized and bound, edited into a snappy narrative and profusely illustrated. Will Nipper has spent four decades collecting and studying the coins of early America and it shows. Buy it - you.ll like it.
For more information on the publisher's web site, see: In Yankee Doodle.s Pocket (http://www.bowmanstonepress.com/index_files/detailspage.htm)
Wayne Homren, Editor
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.
To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com
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