ROCKEFELLER'S SHINY DIMES

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V20 2017 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 20, Number 8, February 19, 2017, Article 17

Another reclusive collector of the period was Henry Clay Folger, although the objects of his desire were not coins but books relating to Shakespeare and his era. Bear with me here, because there is a small numismatic connection. I know this because I just finished reading an interesting book by Andrea Mays titled The Millionaire and the Bard: Henry Folger's Obsessive Hunt for Shakespeare's First Folio..

Folger was an executive with John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. Here's a quote from pages 199-200. -Editor

Rockefeller played golf often as he began to step away from day-to-day operations of the company. He invited Folger to play Mondays at 10AM, mostly at the Apawamis Club in Rye, New York, a short trip from the titan's compound in Pocantico Hills, near Tarrytown. Rockefeller had the habit of rewarding accomplishments by friends and strangers with shiny dimes - when Henry sank a difficult putt, for example. Rockefeller presented the coins to tire mogul Harvey Firestone and to President Herbert Hoover. Henry and Emily saved a fistful of the dimes, and she had them fashioned into a silver bracelet watchband.

So... do we know the whereabouts of any of Rockefeller's shiny dimes today? I haven't checked to see if the Folger Shakespeare Library has an archive of personal effects of the Folgers.

But Henry's my hero. Although they say you can't take it with you, Folger comes as close as a collector can get. An alcove in the magnificent library he built in Washington D.C. to house his Shakespeare collection holds the cremated remains of Henry and his wife. The library is home to an astounding 82 copies of Shakespeare's 1623 First Folio; only 235 copies of the original printing of 750 survive today. -Editor

For more information on the book, see:
The Millionaire and the Bard (www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Millionaire-and-the-Bard/Andrea-Mays/9781439118252)

THE BOOK BAZARRE

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