Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 3, Number 9, February 27, 2000:
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
Copyright (c) 2000, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
SUBSCRIBER UPDATES
We have three new subscribers this week: Chuck Rizzo,
Barent Springsted of Bangkok, and Prof. R. Balasubramaniam
of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India.
Welcome aboard! This brings our subscriber count to 284.
THE ASYLUM IS BACK
After a week's delay due to mechanical problems with
the printing equipment, the 1999 No. 4 issue of The
Asylum should be arriving in members' mailboxes soon.
The No. 1 issue of the year 2000 is already in preparation.
The officers of NBS wish to thank our members for
their patience during this transitional period.
SUBSCRIBER PROFILE
New subscriber Barent Springsted notes: "I heard about
NBS from Howard A. Daniel III in the US. I am located in
Bangkok, Thailand, permanently. Howard and I communicate
often about Southeast Asia coins and bank notes. My
numismatic interests are focused on Thailand, Laos,
Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and French Indochina."
BINDING PROPOSITION
Ben Keele writes: "I have a question I was hoping you would
present to the E-Sylum readership for me: how does binding
affect the value of numismatic literature, especially numismatic
periodicals and newsletters? I have a fair number of coin
magazines and journals, which I am considering getting bound
into hardbound books. Is this worth the expense or a waste of
money? And finally, how should I store my books and
magazines to ensure that they are preserved in their present
condition?"
WHOLE NUMBERS
George Kolbe writes: "Another very interesting issue. Have
you ever thought of abandoning the "volume" numbering
sequence or at least also incorporating an "whole" issue
number? I, and many of your loyal readers, I would bet, do
not know how many issues equal a volume, nor the time
period a volume covers."
Actually, I have entertained the thought of adding whole
numbers to the numbering scheme, and will probably do so
soon. And I would also bet that few can tell us how many
issues have been published so far.
ED FROSSARD WRITING SAMPLE SOUGHT
Tom O'Mara writes: "I was wondering if anyone has any
samples of Ed Frossard's handwriting... I have some notes
which I believe are from one of his auctions and on the reverse
is some handwriting which I wanted to determine if it might be
his... " Tom can be reached at TFXILOM@aol.com
ROYAL MINT REPORT SOUGHT
After searching for some needed research material in the
ANS catalog, Ed Krivoniak wrote: "The site itself works very
well and very quickly. However, the ANS does not seem to
have a copy of the Royal Mint Report for 1945. Would you
please make an announcement in The E-Sylum stating that I
am looking for a copy? I don't need the original, a Xerox will
do. I will reimburse anyone who has this report for their time
and materials."
Ed is researching the 1945 New Zealand darkened pennies.
When he contacted the Royal Mint "they only answered the
specific question I asked. They left out all mintage statistics
for the year 1945 in relation to which coins were produced
for which country during which month. Not knowing this
information isn't critical but it is something that I have become
curious about."
MARCELLA SHELDON, 1911-1999
In all of our excitement surrounding the the availability
of new online indexes to numismatic reference material,
we should not forget the debt we owe those who
laid the groundwork with both monetary donations and
painstaking manual efforts.
An obituary published in the March 6, 2000 issue of
COIN World honors Marcella Sheldon, widow of
M. Vernon Sheldon and active collector in her own
right. Her "personal card index for the first 40 years
of The Numismatist later became the core of the
published 50-year index for that American Numismatic
Association journal.... Through a series of donations,
she put up nearly $25,000 to update the library and its
index."
CRITIC'S CORNER: BREEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA
ANA Museum Curator R.W. Hoge writes: "Walter Breen's
Encyclopedia is another good choice. We use it quite
frequently here in the ANA Museum. The analyses of
individual coin listings are of course very helpful, and
Breen is outstanding in providing historical context. His
footnoting and indexing are not very straightforward,
however, and even after all these years I find the
inclusion of the coin photos AFTER their descriptions
a bit disconcerting. The book is much more fragile, in
terms of its binding, than it would at first appear, and I
urge users to handle it carefully. (At least it's not as bad
as Mitchiner's ORIENTAL COINS AND THEIR
VALUES series, for example, to cite another example
of an important and popular work with this kind of
problem.)"
In response to D.Wayne Johnson's question about
Breen's secret code, George Kolbe says: "By the way, I
have the answer: 297B = bumptious!" Actually, I was
thinking 297B = "mendacious" ...
CRITIC'S CORNER: FORRER'S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
Next week, let's review Leonard Forrer's eight-volume
Biographical Dictionary of Medallists. Remember, our
intention is not to discuss content, but to take the
bibliophile's perspective.
What are the book's best and worst features? What could
have been done to improve it? What features could have
improved its usability, readability, or reference value?
Be as open minded and creative as you can. What would
you like to have seen done differently? Send your
thoughts to me at whomren@coinlibrary.com
FEATURED WEB SITE
This week's featured web site is the History of Japanese
Currencies hosted by the Bank of Japan. The illustrations
and text are excellent. If you're a collector of U.S.
currency, particularly National Bank Notes, be sure to
visit section 19, "National Banknotes": "Banknotes were
issued by the 153 national banks. The forms and designs
of all the national banks' notes were the same except for
the banks' names." The similarity to U.S. nationals is
striking.
http://www.imes.boj.or.jp/cm/english_htmls/history.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 21704
(To be removed from this mailing list
write to me at whomren@coinlibrary.com)
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