Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 3, Number 29, July 16, 2000:
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
Copyright (c) 2000, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
SUBSCRIBER UPDATES
We have two new subscribers this week: Leslie Zeller, and
longtime NBS member Patrick Turner. Welcome aboard!
This brings our subscriber count to 301.
Pat Turner writes: "I have been reviewing the last couple years
of The Asylum while recuperating from a minor operation and I
find it a thoroughly enjoyable magazine.
Joel Orosz is always a good read and I have been having a
wonderful time with Randolph Zander's Reminiscences. I
guess I could be called an "old-timer" in numismatic terms as
I was active in the sixties and seventies and was fortunate to
count among my friends people such as John Pittman and
George Hatie and in Canada Doug Ferguson, Fred Bowman
and Sheldon Carroll."
SECRETARY DAVE HIRT MARRIES
NBS Secretary-Treasurer Dave Hirt brought back a very
special souvenir from his recent trip to Hungary. He and his
new bride Emilia were married in Budapest on May 27th.
Congratulations!
Dave has his work cut out for him as NBS dues payments
and membership applications piled up while he was away.
Please be patient and we'll soon have things straightened out.
Dave asked me to remind members that dues envelopes were
included with every copy of the 2000 No. 1 issue; if you
haven't sent in your dues, please do so to ensure your
continued membership.
ASYLUM AT PRINTER
The Spring 2000 issue of The Asylum (volume 17, no. 2)
should be sent to the printer tomorrow. The issue features an
interesting article by Lord Stewartby on Edward Burns, author
of the classic 1887 reference, "The Coinage of Scotland".
Joel Orosz' Printer's Devil column examines "Samuel Breck
and his Historical Sketch of Continental Paper Money".
(By the way, the July 24, 2000 issue of COIN WORLD
has a nice review of the previous issue of The Asylum on p78).
NUMISMATIC INDEX BACK ONLINE
The Numismatic Indexes Project of the Harry Bass Research
Foundation (HBRF) is back online at:
http://HarryBassFoundation.org/search_numlit.asp
Jim Spilman reports: "The NEW NIP is a very high speed search
and reporting database containing over 75,000 index entries. We
believe that the NEW NIP represents the most complete &
in-depth database available for American numismatic publications."
The indexed publications include:
American Journal of Numismatics, 1st Series 1866-1924
ANS Proceedings 1878-1914
Museum Notes 1945-1988
American Journal of Numismatics, 2nd Series 1989-Current
Coinage of the Americas Conference 1984-Current
Numismatic Notes and Monographs 1921-1968
Numismatic Studies 1938-1993
The Colonial Newsletter
The Numismatist (ANA), 1888-Current
Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine, 1935-1975
Numismatic Review, 1943-1947
Coin Collector's Journal, 1875-1888
Coin Collector's Journal - New Series, 1934-1954
The Celator 1987-Current
The Asylum 1980-1997
KARL MOULTON PRICE LIST AVAILABLE
Numismatic bookseller Karl Moulton has published his
July 2000 fixed price list of American Numismatic
Literature. For more information, contact him at
numiscats@aol.com
On p34 of the list is the following statement, worthy
of repeating here: "Information is cheaper than coins,
but has a much greater value! Why not consider
joining the Numismatic Bibliomania Society?"
Why not, indeed! If you subscribe to The E-Sylum,
but haven't yet joined NBS, please consider doing so.
Membership details (as always) are available on our
website and at the end of this message.
THE NUMISMATIC CD
Karl writes in the introduction to his list: "...another significant
evolutionary event has come to pass. The numismatic
catalogue compact disc has now become a reality. Heritage
released the first American CD for the May 2000 Central
States sale. Several years ago I wrote that there will be a
time coming in the near future when no more auction
catalogues will be printed. Now I predict it will take less
than 10 years before this form of catalogue CD becomes the
accepted norm in the entire marketplace. Anyone care to
make some friendly wagers payable at the 2010 ANA
convention?"
Establishing a 'first' requires a solid definition as well as
a good bit of investigation. The Heritage CD probably is
a first among the major U.S. numismatic auction houses;
have any other firms around the world issued one? Should
the definition exclude web-based catalogs? For example,
Dennis Kroh's Empire Numismatics dropped print catalogs
in favor of online sales a year or two ago.
What about a CD which duplicates web site listings?
One firm, Cybercoins, offers a CD of their web site to people
who want faster access to pictures and other content than they
can get via modems; Will numismatic CD's become obsolete
as fast internet connections become more prevalent?
Your editor's guess is that the numismatic CD is an interim step,
but one which will continue to have a place as a fixed long-term
record of electronic information, which changes and disappears
quickly on the web. Case in point: Empire Coins ceased
operations January 1, 2000; Dennis now focusses on another
business, Empire Arms. Empire Coins catalogs are still
available on the web, but for how long?
CAROTHERS DUST JACKETS
Dave Cleaves writes: I saw your note in the last edition of The
E-Sylum. I have two copies of the 1930 edition, one with the
original dust jacket (missing a 1" X 2" piece from the rear
cover) and one copy without the dust jacket.
SEWER STORIES
Carl Honore writes: "The sewer story on last week's Featured
Web Site reminded me of Sherlock Holmes and "The Red
Headed League", where the villain tunnels under the street to
emerge from a sewer into the storage room of the bank."
For those who didn't drill down to read the story on the
Bank of England web site, I'll excerpt it here:
"About 1836 the Directors of the Bank are said to have
received an anonymous letter stating that the writer had access
to the Bank's bullion. Somewhat melodramatically he offered
to meet them in the bullion vault at any hour they chose.
Although disbelieving at first, the Directors were finally
persuaded to assemble one night in the vault. At the appointed
hour a noise was heard from beneath the floor and the
mysterious correspondent suddenly appeared from below
merely by displacing a few floor boards.
Apparently he was a sewerman who, during repair work to the
sewers, had discovered an old drain which ran immediately
under the bullion vault. He might have carried away enormous
sums but in fact nothing had been removed and for his honesty
the Bank is said to have rewarded him with a gift of £800."
NOTES FROM IRELAND
Darryl Atchison writes: "The Breen debate goes on it seems.
I have personally convinced at least a dozen collectors on this
side of the Atlantic to purchase copies for their own libraries
because it does represent an important and as yet unsurpassed
benchmark in American numismatics, especially for the colonial
coins listed. It may not be a flawless text but, who cares?
Anyone doing research would certainly use more than one
source anyhow, wouldn't they?
Thanks to the members who responded to my plea on reading
old books and catalogues. I have taken their suggestions to
heart and hope to enjoy my 1870's text soon.
Finally, if anyone has a duplicate copy of the 1962 ANA/CNA
convention catalogue from Detroit, I would really like to get my
hands on one."
GULF COAST NUMISMATIC SOCIETY FORMING
Subscriber Nolan Mims of Mobile, AL, writes: "I am spearheading
the effort to establish the Gulf Coast Numismatic Association. The
organizational meeting will be on August 7th, 7:00PM at Carpe
Diem Coffee & Tea Company, 4072 Old Shell Road, Mobile, AL.
We will offer a place for collectors to meet monthly and talk coins,
have educational programs, and perhaps do a little trading. There
will be a newsletter and an annual show. We will welcome all
interested numismatists and bibliophiles. For further information,
contact Nolan Mims at: clrkcoin@bellsouth.net.
GOLD BARS REVIEW
Michael E. Marotta offers the following brief observation on
"Western American Gold and Unparted Bars: a Review of the
Evidence" by Michael Hodder, which appears in the American
Numismatic Society's AJN Second Series 11 (1999):
"Consistently observational and never theoretical in his method,
Hodder demonstrates that there is no general way to distinguish
genuine bars from fakes. For myself, as a fan of the "Columbo"
series of mysteries, I was most impressed with Hodder's
explanations of what one would have to do if one were motivated
to create simulation assay bars."
A reading of the article shows "what one would have to do"
discussions on p136-137 (for the Western bars) and p145-146
(for the Mexican bars). The paper's conclusion is that "The
Mexican bars remain in a sort of numismatic limbo, awaiting the
attention of serious study." but that "the question of the Western
bars should now be settled in their favor."
As a bibliophile, your editor naturally found the footnotes and
bibliography as interesting as the text, referring as they do to
rare manuscripts, such as Breen's "Evidence to be Read at the
Trial of the Knave of Hearts" and the report of the USAOG
Study Group. Still to be published is Daniel Owens' upcoming
book, "California Coiners and Assayers, 1849-1863",
described as "in press".
NUMISMATIC MEANINGS
Howard A. Daniel III writes: "I like your weekly missive very
much. I do not collect or research United States numismatics
but I still enjoy reading your stuff. There was an article in a
recent issue of Coin World about the definition of the word "coin".
It was an excellent article and something I think is very lacking
in numismatics, which is the proper use and definitions of words.
What is a coin? What is a token? What is a medal? Can you
make a section of your weekly missive into an area where your
subscribers can discuss numismatic definitions? I will definitely
comment and submit my two cents worth to it!"
Sounds like a fine idea. It would be interesting to see which
published definitions of the terms our subscribers prefer, as well
as what definitions they'd offer of their own. Since we're all
bibliophiles here, let's start with the question of published
definitions - which is the most authoritative reference for the
definition of numismatic terms?
For example, handy to my desk is a copy of the 6th edition
of the COIN WORLD Almanac. The Numismatic Terms
chapter lists these definitions:
COIN - usually a piece of metal, marked with a device, issued
by a governing authority and intended to be used as money.
TOKEN - usually a piece of durable material appropriately
marked and unofficially issued for monetary, advertising,
services, or other purposes.
MEDAL - usually a piece of metal, marked with a design or
description, made to honor a person, place, or event; not
intended to pass as money.
While we're on the subject, can anyone tell us who authored
the COIN WORLD Almanac Numismatic Terms chapter?
And on which references it was based?
FEATURED WEB SITE
This week's featured web page from the Journal of Internet
Banking and Commerce describes the history of tally sticks,
the medieval precursor to the credit card.
"A woman in Atlanta, curious about a bunch of "twigs" that
had been passed down through several generations of her
family, contacted a Sotheby's representative about them.
They turned out to be a large collection of rare wooden tally
sticks, used in the 13th century to compute royal receipts, and
were sold at auction for $32,912. The story of the wooden tally
stick provides a rich source of analogy and anecdote about the
evolution of money technologies."
http://www.arraydev.com/commerce/JIBC/9811-11.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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