Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 3, Number 1 January 2, 2000:
a Y2K-compliant publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
SUBSCRIBER UPDATES
We have four new subscribers this week: Bob Dunfield, Simon
Prendergast, Stuart Levine, and Jerry Stubblefield. Welcome
aboard! This brings our subscriber count to 269. Many thanks
to Jon Warshawsky, who gave our newsletter a plug in this week's
EAC Region 8 Newsletter, an email publication of the Early
American Coppers society.
ASYLUM SUBMISSION DEADLINES
As noted earlier, issue no. 4 of the current volume of our print
journal, The Asylum, will be delayed a month due to the
transition to our new editor, E. Tomlinson Fort. We plan to
publish on January 31, 2000. The deadline for article and
advertising submissions is January 15th, 2000.
Please let us know soon if you would be interested in showing
your support for our organization by purchasing advertising
space in this issue (members only), or submitting an article for
this or subsequent issues (open to all). Tom can be reached at:
Etfort@aol.com
IT HAPPENS TO THE BEST
It drives collectors nuts when periodical publishers delay or
misnumber issues, and perhaps there's a quiz question in
there somewhere. But mishaps aren't limited to numismatic
publications. An Associated Press article published today
reports, "Normally punctilious about correcting its own errors,
The New York Times used the new millennium to fess up to
a mistake that had appeared on its front page every day for
more than a century.
Saturday's Times is actually issue No. 51,254 - not 51,754.
You hadn't noticed? - Neither had anyone else, according to
the paper, until 24-year-old news assistant Aaron Donovan
recently "became curious about the numbering" ... and
"wondered about the potential for self-perpetuating error."
Using a spreadsheet program, Donovan ran the numbers
back to issue No. 1 on Sept. 18, 1851, and discovered they
added up to 500 fewer than had been thought. Then, doing
further research, he homed in on Feb. 6, 1898, as the date
of infamy.
On that day, he found, a now-anonymous predecessor ...
added 1 to 14,499 and came up with 15,000 rather than
14,500."
FUNCTION ASSOCIATES SALE
Numismatic literature dealer Fred Lake reports that "Function
Associates is holding its 50th sale of numismatic literature with
a closing date of January 25, 2000.
The sale features 740 lots of books and catalogs on the wide
spectrum of numismatics. United States, Foreign, Ancient
coinage plus sections relating to Tokens and Medals, Paper
Money and Exonumia are included.
The catalog can be emailed in one of three different formats.
They are MSWord, WordPerfect or PDF (requires Adobe's
Acrobat Reader to view). Please let us know your preference
and we will be happy to send a copy to you."
NUMISMATIC BOOK TRANSFER
An article by Paul Gilkes in the January 10, 2000 COIN World
states that "a collection of approximately 5,000 ancient and U.S.
coins, plus several hundred numismatic books and catalogs, are
being relocated temporarily, if not permanently, from its home at
the University of Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln to the
Durham Western Heritage Museum in Omaha.
The Omaha facility currently houses the famed Byron Reed
numismatic collection, which went on permanent display in
mid-June."
BREVITY IN CATALOGING AWARD
A recent ebay auction lot carried a $400.00 minimum bid and
this terse description: "a complete set of 1948 numismatic
magazines f condition". Such a bargain!
STOWAWAY SACAGAWEA DOLLAR
Speaking of ebay, that first-to-be-certified Sacagawea dollar
coin reported recently in the numismatic press has made it to
The Wall Street Journal. The article in the December 31, 1999
issue quoted U.S. Mint Director Philip Diehl, James Taylor of
the Independent Coin Grading service (ICG), and others
regarding the coin which was accidentally released by the Mint
three months early. The coin's owner had placed it for sale on
ebay, where it drew bids up to $1,100 before being withdrawn
after questions from the U.S. Secret Service. The coin had
apparently gotten out of the Mint in a shipment of new quarters to
Colorado. The author of the article (Peter McKay) highlighted the
irony of the mishap:
"The Sacagawea dollar coins - with smooth edges in addition to
the gold color - will replace the Susan B. Anthony coins that
have proved unpopular over the last 20 years with collectors
and spenders, in large part because they were easily confused
with quarters.
But U.S. Mint officials and the private experts who have seen
the Colorado coin say that won't be a danger with the
Sacagawea dollar, even if one did slip through the government's
own fingers amid quarters."
DON'T MAKE US BLUSH...
W. David Perkins writes: "Congratulations on a great first year!
I appreciate all of the work you put into this publication.
Thanks!
Jeff Oxman writes: "Having read the latest E-Sylum, I just
wanted to write and commend you for the consistently
excellent work you do! Having assembled and published a
Journal myself, I know the deadline pressures and the work
that's involved. So thanks from those of us who remain on the
sidelines, but always sit back in our armchairs and enjoy your
E-Sylum efforts!" [sent in response to v2n51]
DESERT STORM SALE POSTPONEMENT
Alan Luedeking adds: "It was interesting to note that the
Canceled Sale quiz responses consisted exclusively of U.S.
sales, in keeping (unfortunately) with the general focus of The
E-Sylum and The Asylum. Nevertheless, at the risk of boring
our 250-strong membership, here's my 2-cents' worth:
Postponed due to the commencement of Desert Storm, Swiss
Bank Corporation's Sale #27 of the tremendous Emilio Ortiz
collection, originally scheduled for Jan 24, 1991, in Basel,
canceled and later held on Sept. 17, 1991 in Zurich. This sale
featured (among many other stupendous rarities) the "Rincon 8"
which graces in gilt the cover of the Guttag catalog, (and which
was also the highlight of Sellschopp's collection - Swiss Bank
#20, where auction fever over this coin ended a lifelong
friendship and set a price record.) An example of the original
(unadulterated) catalog, and the later much rarer edition (with
its new date sticker covering the old date) recently sold in
Kolbe's sale 79 (lots 622 & 623). Of interest is Kolbe's
footnote to lot 623, mentioning the "...Lars Emil Bruun collection
of Swedish coins [whose] first component, featuring medieval
coins, was sold in May 1914, but the eruption of World War I
prevented the second part of the sale, scheduled for October 26
& 27, 1914, from taking place." Seems George already had
your contest in mind long before it started!"
NUMISMATIC SCAM OF THE CENTURY
To further add to our inventory of "Sales That Never Were",
George Kolbe writes: "Thus far, unless I missed it, no one has
mentioned the May 31, 1956 R. H. Burnie Mail Bid Sale.
"Canceled" may not be the proper term, though the sale never
took place since the coins offered did not exist. To my
knowledge, the "catalogue" has been offered for public sale only
once, in my June 1, 1996 auction, where the substantial catalogue
description is headlined "The Numismatic Scam of the Century."
FEATURED WEB SITE
Think you have trouble spelling "Sacagawea"? This week's featured
web page is from the official Lewis and Clark Expedition web site.
It gives some historical background on the subject of the new U.S.
dollar coin, and the woman's name, which is found spelled at least
fourteen different ways in the explorers' original manuscript journals.
"Although their flair for inspired spelling created some interesting
variations, in every instance, including three additional spellings on
Clarkâs maps, all three of the journalists who attempted to write it
were consistent in the use of a "g" in the third syllable."
http://www.lewisandclark.org/pages/sactext.htm
Wayne Homren
Numismatic Bibliomania Society
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a
non-profit organization promoting numismatic
literature. For more information please see
our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/
There is a membership application available on
the web site. To join, print the application and
return it with your check to the address printed
on the application. For those without web access,
contact Dave Hirt, NBS Secretary-Treasurer,
5911 Quinn Orchard Road, Frederick, MD 21701
(To be removed from this mailing list
write to me at whomren@coinlibrary.com)
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