NBS E-Sylum: Volume 04, Number 32, August 5, 2001

Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 32, August 5, 2001: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2001, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. SUBSCRIBER UPDATES We have one new subscriber this week: Dr. Gerald Waider of Germany, whose numismatic interests are Roman, Ancient, and Mediaeval coins. Welcome aboard! Two people have been dropped because of email address problems. This brings our subscriber count to 408. NBS ANA ACTIVITIES One last reminder of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society events at this coming week's convention of the American Numismatic Association in Atlanta, Georgia: Start the show right with a visit to the exhibit area; Four exhibits will be shown in Class 22 - Numismatic Literature. 1. ANA Membership - The Printed Record 2. Contemporary Illustrations of the Second Philadelphia Mint 3. American Banknote Company 1869 4. U.S. Commemorative Coin Advertisements of 1937 The traditional NBS Numismatic Literature Symposium will take place on Thursday, August 9, 2001 at 1pm. The symposium will feature a panel discussion with officers of the NBS and ANA Librarian Nancy Green, who will give an update on the library expansion and other programs. The annual NBS general membership meeting will be held on Friday, August 10, 2001 at 11:30am. The agenda includes: Best Asylum Article Award presentation Jack Collins Award presentation Featured Speaker: Q. David Bowers on "The Fascinating Challenge of Numismatic Research" Fundraising auction We've already received a few nice items for the auction. If you'd like to contribute something, please bring it to the meeting room a few minutes before the scheduled start. Don't forget to support the numismatic literature dealers who set up at the show. Hauling boxes of books hundreds or thousands of miles is no picnic in the park. Next week's post-ANA issue of The E-Sylum may be delayed a day or so because of travel and everyone's time spent at the ANA convention. Unfortunately, your editor won't be traveling to the convention. I'm very sorry I won't be able to see everyone this year. Have fun without me, and please help promote NBS and The E-Sylum. Collect email addresses from every serious numismatic reader or researcher you meet, and give them a gift subscription (with their permission, of course). Just send me their address and I'll add them to the mailing list. FANTASTIC 1804 DOLLAR FIRST EDITION CENSUS In the wake of Ken Bressett's recent Asylum article on the initial printing of "The Fantastic 1804 Dollar" book, a number of folks have asked about taking a survey of owners of these scarce versions. Peter Gaspar has agreed to act as a clearinghouse for the information. He writes: "I'll receive and compile the information for a census of "The Fantastic 1804 Dollar" first version. What I'd like sent to me is: 1. Name of owner - to be kept confidential if desired, but needed to make sure that copies aren't counted twice. 2. How did the owner come by his/her copy? 3. How was that copy identified as being of the first issue - somewhat pedantic, but useful in ensuring that only copies of the first issue are counted. 4. Description of any special features of that copy such as authors' inscriptions. If there is a reasonable amount of information forthcoming, I'll summarize the results in a note in both versions of the 'sylum. Identities of owners will not be revealed without permission. Write to me at gaspar@wuchem.wustl.edu" HOW MUCH IS THAT IN REAL MONEY? "The noted economic historian John J. McCusker has compiled a new edition of his noted vade mecum for use by researchers, teachers, and students in converting prices from any time in the American past as far back as 1665 to their comparable value in today's dollars... McCusker's work also includes comparable reference tables for Great Britain going back to 1600.." -from an advertising flyer by Oak Knoll Press of New Castle, DE (see http://www.oakknoll.com) The book is scheduled for late August 2001 availability. HARTZOG LITERATURE OFFERINGS Last week Russ Rulau reviewed the upcoming edition of the Brunk book on counterstamped coins. Rich Hartzog writes: "I am the publisher for the new Brunk book on countermarks. It will be out later this year, probably in two months or so. Interested persons can contact me directly. I also have the new Bryan Money book in stock, Aqua's new Pennsylvania Merchant Tokens, and Manville's "Tokens of the Industrial Revolution - Foreign Silver Coins Counterstamped for use in Great Britain, c.1787-1828'. Please mention the E-Sylum when ordering. My book page is http://www.exonumia.com/books.htm" GAG DUST JACKET Seen offered for sale on the internet: "Learn Counterfeiting at Home" by Charlie Makanezebuck. "This is a DJ only. No book. DJ is nicked and chipped. A joke dust jacket." SPINK BOOK NEWSLETTER From the Spink and Son Ltd. email newsletter comes this announcement: "Following on the success of the newsletters for coins and medals, we are trying now to also offer a monthly newsletter for the BOOK DEPARTMENT. Douglas Saville has put a few thoughts to paper and you can read the inaugural issue of the BOOK NEWSLETTER here: http://www.spink-online.com/spink/newsitems/bksaug01.htm" SEMANS NUMISMATIC LITERATURE OFFERINGS Dealer Scott Semans has a new web site and on it he offers for sale a number of titles on Asian, African, Ethnographic ("primitive") monies. Go to http://www.coincoin.com/ and click on "numismatic references". HOW NOT TO STORE BOOKS IN MIAMI David Lange writes: "This timely story sent a chill down my back, as I contemplate my upcoming move to Sarasota. The movers are coming at the end of August to take everything down to Florida, including my library and collection of coin albums, boards, etc. I won't be arriving there until the end of December, when NGC moves. Fortunately, we've already purchased a home, so nothing will have to go into the dreaded storage locker. Nevertheless, I've instructed my soon-to-be wife that all books and albums are to be kept within the air conditioned part of the house, no matter how obtrusive they may be. As one can imagine, this has met with a bit of grumbling, as it was her goal to have a very open and uncluttered home. I'll have to be creative in the placement of my books, and it's already evident that the album collection will be confined to my den/office. I've tried convincing her that a few book cases are the perfect complement to a tastefully decorated guest room, but I believe that argument has already been lost." BIBLIOGRAPHY UPDATE The numismatic bibliography on the NBS web site, edited by Larry Mitchell, has been revised. See http://www.coinbooks.org/ The updated PAPER MONEY sections are: 96. Western Europe (Excepting England, Ireland, Scotland & The British Isles) 97. Africa & the Middle East 98. The Americas (Excepting USA) 99. Military, propaganda, Invasion, Guerrilla & Emergency Currencies INDEXING SOFTWARE Pere Smith writes: "I agree with Dick Johnson and Dave Bowers' comments about the need for a comprehensive index of numismatic periodicals. Numismatic research would be much easier and more complete with access to such an index. Is there a computer software package that could produce an index? I frequently use index programs that come with word processing software. These will create an index for a book from the text. That is not what is needed here. I am thinking of a package that would put title / author / topic in a database along with the publication data and then produce the full index from that data. Although Dick Johnson says this index must be done by one person, it would also be possible for several people using the same software to index different periodicals and then merge them into a single database and index. Can any E-Sylum reader recommend software to produce an index? " [Although Smith and Bowers are discussing a necessarily manual process, machine-generated indexing software continues to show incremental improvements. One new tool for automatically categorizing documents with machine intelligence is offered by a new company called Vivisimo. The company demonstrates its technology by categorizing results returned by various internet search engines. To try it, go to: http://www.vivisimo.com/ For example, enter "Colonial Currency" in the search box, and the results are categorized into folders labeled Coins, Colonial America, History, Paper Money, United States, Currency Auctions, etc. These categories are not generated by humans, but by computer programs which read and attempt to understand the text. -Editor] UPDEGRAFF COIN THEFT INFO SOUGHT Andy Lustig writes: Has anyone ever heard of a 19th century coin theft from Daniel Updegraff?" COIN WORLD NOTES Recent Coin World issues have many items of interest: * George Fuld published his list of McKenney-Hall Indian chief portraits wearing peace medals (see The E-Sylum v4#11, March 11, 2001) and a list showing the number of each issued (August 13th issue, p72). * Stuart Segan's latest "Coins Online" column leads off with a nice discussion of our favorite numismatic email list, The E-Sylum. (August 13th issue, p75) * Dick Johnson's opus on numismatic artists is in its final stages. "A comprehensive numismatic reference chronicling the medallic, token, and coinage craftsmanship from 1652 to date of more than 3,100 American artists, diesinkers, engravers, medalists and sculptors is being researched and compiled by numismatic researcher Dick Johnson, the first editor of Coin World." "..the publication date has been moved back to the spring of 2002 at the earliest to accommodate more research." (August 6th issue, p137) * Dave Bowers' latest, "A California Gold Rush History featuring the treasure from the S.S. Central America" is being offered in extensive two-page ads. Sponsored by Dwight Manley and his California Gold Marketing Group, the 1000+ page book was "produced at an expense involving over $200,000 in research and preparation." The ad includes reviews from Ken Bressett, Bob Campbell, David Hall, Dave Harper, Clifford Mishler, Bill Murray, Eric Newman, Harry Salyards. (August 6th issue, p52-53) CLEVER DEDICATION From "The Elongated Collector", a 1965 book by Dottie Dow on the subject of elongated coins: "This book is dedicated to the few that have many, and the many that have few." As one of the many collectors who own but a few selected elongated coins, the acknowledgment is appreciated. WASHROOM WARRIOR MEDAL Not everything is available on the internet, at least not yet. A search for online resources of information on the famous "Washroom Warrior" medal of Huey "Kingfish" Long turned up just one reference. Your editor would appreciate learning if others have more luck finding information. The web site of the Port Washington Public Library in New York has this entry in its collection catalog: "Huey Long in Sands Point, including a transcript of a story told by Daniel Whedon of an incident involving Louisiana Governor Huey Long, who received a black eye in the men's room of the Sands Point Bath Club on August 26, 1933. He apparently received some assistance during the altercation, and rewarded the other man involved with a medallion, inscribed: "By Public Acclaim for a Deed Well done in Private." With a xerox of the medallion, which was found years later in New Canaan, Connecticut, and xeroxes of the New York Times index, which contain summaries of articles which appeared at the time." From http://www.pwpl.org/collections/special/local-history/lh-26.html Not everything you read on the internet is true, either. Apparently the cataloger didn't take the time to read any of the articles. The medal was actually the result of a suggestion made in jest that a public fund be created to give a medal to "the unknown hero" who punched the much-hated politician. A nice account of the story appeared in one of David Alexander's Research Desk columns in Coin World (I have a copy of the article in my files, but unfortunately it's undated): "What actually happened is not known, but during a New York visit, Long was invited to a charity ball held at Long Island's Sands Point Bath and Country Club... Later in the evening, Long reappeared holding a napkin over his bleeding left eye. ... Huey spun out tales of attack by a single thug ... to assault by two to 10 or more assailants who landed as many as 20 blows." "Careful reconstruction of events suggests that the hard- drinking senator sought the men's room during the fateful party. Unwilling to wait as an earlier occupant monopolized the small facility, Long tried to share it with him. His somewhat shaky condition resulted in a drenching for the unsuspecting man, who then turned and indignantly clobbered the inebriated Kingfish." "..a newspaper story about the medal brought a flood of contributions, more than enough to pay Medallic Art Co. to prepare the dies." The anonymous Washroom Warrior never stepped forward to claim his award, and the original gold medal was donated to the American Numismatic Society in New York. "The company still displayed the original plasticine model nearly 50 years later in a public restroom of its Danbury, Conn, headquarters." FEATURED WEB PAGES This week's featured web pages relate to gold medals whose recipients did come forward to claim them - Congressional Gold Medals.. The first is a June15, 1999 account of the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal to Rosa Parks. "Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 5, 1955, triggered a black boycott of the city's bus system that lasted more than a year and eventually led to laws that ended legalized segregation." The second page is a government list of recipients of the gold medal, beginning with George Washington in 1776. The page will have to be updated to include the recent award to the WWII Navajo Code Talkers. The third page is a more up-to-date and much more complete listing from the Dallas Public Library, featuring photos of some of the medals. http://www.cnn.com/US/9906/15/rosa.parks.medal/ http://clerkweb.house.gov/histrecs/househis/lists/medal.htm http://dallaslibrary.org/CGI/goldframe.htm Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society

Content presented in The E-Sylum is not necessarily researched or independently fact-checked, and views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the 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. Visit the Membership page. Those wishing to become new E-Sylum subscribers (or wishing to Unsubscribe) can go to the following web page link.