Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 39, September 23, 2001: 
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. 
Copyright (c) 2001, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. 
  

SUBSCRIBER UPDATES    

  We have three new subscribers this week:  Bob Fritsch, invited   
  by Wayne Homren, Roger Desouches of the U.K., and John Lai   
  of Hong Kong.   Welcome aboard!  Our subscriber count is now   
  419.   

FALL 2001 ASYLUM AT THE PRINTER    

  Asylum Editor E. Tomlinson Fort reports that the Fall   
  2001 issue of our print journal has been sent to the   
  printer.  The contents include:    

  "An American Numismatic Pamphlet Featuring the     
    Execution of a Counterfeiter," by Eric P. Newman.    
  "Bibliomaniacs Share in ANA Exhibit Hall," by John Kraljevich.    
  "Sitting on the Shelf," by Karl Moulton.    
  "An Old Book Brings Old and New Collectors Together,"     
    by William E. Daehn.    
  "The Origin of Coin World Annual Book Edition and    
    Remembrances of Frank J. Katen," by D. Wayne Johnson.    
  "The Printer's Devil: Dr. James Mease: A Forgotten Pioneer      
    of Numismatic Literature," by Joel J. Orosz.    
  "Numismatics in the Age of Grolier."    

  Only paid-up members of the Numismatic Bibliomania   
  Society will receive the issue.   If you would like to join,   
  or your dues are in arrears, please contact our Secretary-   
  Treasurer David Sklow.  His contact information is at the   
  end of this newsletter.   

BACK TO BUSINESS    

  Alan Luedeking writes: "I appreciated all the pieces concerning   
  the numismatic impact of Tuesday September 11th's terrible   
  events in your last E-Sylum. Although thought of numismatics   
  may seem frivolous at a time of such great national tragedy, it   
  is clear that succumbing to lugubrious thoughts and canceling   
  all the more enjoyable aspects of our daily lives will do little   
  to further the cause of peace and justice, and much to play into   
  the terrorist's aims of disrupting our way of life.    

  I do not mean to justify a pursuit of fun above and at the   
  expense of all else, however, for any who might be feeling   
  ashamed of entertaining thoughts of a hobby at a time like this,   
  I say--- don't!   Let's  do all we can to help our cause of a just   
  democracy based on good, without sacrificing a balanced focus   
  on life, and to hell with those who would have us regress through   
  evil to the level of a cave-dwelling dog-eat-dog existence.   

NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL?    

  Bill Rosenblum writes: "Another numismatic casualty... nothing   
  of course compared to the real tragedy..is that the New York   
  International Show in December and the numerous auctions   
  associated with it were to take place in December at the   
  World Trade Center and the Marriot Hotel attached to WTC.   
  The organizers are scrambling to find a new location.    

  On a more personal note, my brother Andy, works for  
  National Development and Research, located on the 16th   
  Floor of  Building #2.  They were ordered via a loud speaker   
  announcement a few minutes after the 1st plane hit to evacuate,   
  which he, and all his colleagues, did.  He was about two blocks  
  away from the building when the 2nd plane hit and all kinds of   
  debris started falling.  At that time he became one of the   
  countless people, who we saw on TV running away from the   
  WTC.  Some people might remember Andy who worked with   
  WP Andrews Co and set up at numerous NYC coin shows in   
  the 70's & 80's.  Thank God, he is alive and well."    

  Alan Luedeking adds: "I never much liked the New York   
  International Numismatic Convention in the World Trade Center,   
  but now that it's gone and I will never see it there again, I wish   
  I could. Does anybody know yet if NYINC will still be held this   
  December, and if so when and where?"   

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 AND ITS AFTERMATH    

  Howard A. Daniel III writes: "My wife is VP, International   
  Development for the NASDAQ Stock Market and she   
  works about three weeks of every month in Tokyo, Japan.   
  She is the project manager for creating the NASDAQ-Japan   
  Stock Market site that will be operational in about April,   
  2002.  She was in Tokyo, Japan, with three of her staff   
  and they were out of harm's way on September 11.   But   
  the Japanese government had warned them a few days   
  prior about possible bomb threats against Americans in Japan.    

  Besides Tokyo, she has offices in Washington, DC; London,   
  England; and at  One Liberty Plaza in New York City.  One   
  Liberty Plaza is the location of her three primary US-based   
  staff people and it was badly damaged on September 11.   
  At one time, it was thought that the building might fall down   
  or even have to be torn down.  But the engineers have reported   
  it to be stable and repairable, but it is now being used as a   
  morgue and triage for the emergency medical services   
  supporting the digging out of the building debris of and around   
  the World Trade Center.  Her three staff people flew back to   
  New York City on September 14 but they have not yet been   
  able to enter their offices to inspect the damage.    

  I was scheduled to fly to Tokyo on Friday, September 14, on   
  All Nippon Airlines (ANA) to visit my wife for ten days.   
  All ANA flights were stopped on September 11 until they   
  flew the one plane they had on the ground at Dulles International   
  Airport back to Japan on September 13.  ANA told me that   
  when they were allowed to fly their regular daily flights, all of the    

  people who had not flown out on earlier flights were going to be   
  offered seats ahead of me and I might have to wait up to four or   
  more days for a seat.  My wife could not reschedule me into her   
  very tight schedule, so we canceled this month's trip.    

  During my trip, I was going to attend a coin show in Tokyo on   
  September 16 and 17.  Herb Cook, an American dealer who   
  lives in Tokyo, was going to take me around the bourse to   
  introduce me to the Japanese dealers and translate for me as I   
  ask them for Southeast Asian numismatic pieces and related   
  references in any language.  But my search for pieces for my   
  collection and references for my library is small potatoes   
  compared to the tragedies created by four hijacked planes on   
  September 11, so I easily pushed the show out of my thoughts.    

  My first thoughts were about my wife and her people.  After   
  satisfying myself that she and they were safe, I went to my   
  closet and storage room.   I am a retired US Army Master   
  Sergeant, but I am in a category of retirees who can be recalled   
  to active duty until I am 65 years old or until I cannot pass a   
  physical.  I will be 60 years old next month and am physically   
  fit for my age, so I am recallable.  The Army has already proved   
  my status by recalling me for Operations Desert Shield and   
  Storm.  Because I had volunteered, I was in the first group of   
  300 men, much to the dismay of my wife.  So if the situation   
  "hits the fan", it is likely I will eventually receive a second   
  telephone call for me to report for active duty.    

  So my second thoughts were about my uniforms and gear.  I   
  assembled everything in one of my guest bedrooms in case I   
  needed to quickly leave and drive to Fort Meade, Maryland,   
  where I was last processed onto and off of active duty.  The   
  business of the US Army requires young men and women,   
  but there is work some of us old farts can do to release younger   
  soldiers for more difficult duty.  I hate to think about replacing   
  any American to be sent into harm's way, but I am still hoping   
  I will be recalled, so I can somehow directly contribute to   
  finding and eliminating those who caused and/or supported   
  the September 11 and earlier tragedies.  My wife has warned   
  me not to volunteer again, but it is becoming very irresistible,   
  and anyway, I finished a book on the computer I took with me   
  during my last stint of active duty.  I did my Army 12-hour   
  shifts, and afterwards, so I could sleep, I slowed down by   
  completing the writing of a numismatic reference about   
  Southeast Asia.  The people we are after can slow us down   
  for a few days but Americans have a spirit and drive in them   
  that no one can permanently put down.  I know we can find  
  them, destroy them, and continue our lives at the same time.   
  Do not let the terrorists change your life!   Support the effort to   
  take care of our people in need because of the tragedies, and   
  to rid the world of these bastards, but  please continue working   
  and doing your thing, to include numismatics."   

FITZWILLIAM CLARIFICATION    

  In response to a note in last week's issue, Ted Buttrey writes:   
  "The numismatic collection of Cambridge University is   
  housed in the Fitzwilliam Museum, one of the great museums   
  of Britain.  Fitzwilliam College, also part of the University, has   
  no connection with the Museum, or with numismatics."   

COLONIAL NUMISMATIC ARTICLES ONLINE    

  Oliver D. Hoover, Editor, Numismatic Literature at the   
  American Numismatic Society, posted this note on the   
  Colonial Numismatics mailing list on September 18th:   
  "This is just to announce that a number of Coin World   
  articles on colonial numismatics have just been added to   
  the online version of Numismatic Literature.  NumLit   
  can be viewed at http://amnumsoc.org/numlit/."    

  [Go to the subject index and scroll down to United States   
  Colonial.  There are sixteen articles by Dan Friedus dated   
  from March 2000 to August 2001, plus one article by   
  Mark Rabinowitz.  -Editor]   

LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS ON THE CARNEGIE HERO MEDALS.    

  Dick Johnson writes: "Few numismatists know the background   
  on the Carnegie Hero Medal.  After the Carnegie Medal   
  Committee was established in 1904 they chose Charles Osborne,   
  a virtual unknown artist -- then and still! -- to design the medal.   
  He did this and patented the design in his name 11 December   
  1905.    

  To manufacture the medal the Committee chose J.E. Caldwell   
  Jewelry firm of Philadelphia (perhaps with an office then in   
  Pittsburgh where the committee was located). While Caldwell   
  had made badges prior to 1905 (no medals), their work was   
  not in the same class with the medallic productions of Tiffany   
  or Gorham of New York City. (Medallic Art Company was   
  not in existence in 1905.)    

  Osborne's design was modeled by Charles F. Hamann,   
  another little-known artist, and since Caldwell did not have   
  diemaking equipment, they commissioned Whiting Manufacturing   
  Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, to make the Carnegie   
  Medal dies. Caldwell struck the medals, in 1905 and ever   
  since to my knowledge.    

  Interestingly enough, Andrew Carnegie established similar   
  funds in other countries, with locally-produced Hero Medals.   
  [See the Country list on the Committee's website.]  The   
  Italian version of the Carnegie Hero Medal is a stunning work   
  of medallic art with the best portrait of Carnegie I have ever   
  seen. (Oh, if only the American version was as handsome!)    

  The American medal design was pedestrian, uninspired.   
  Decades later Medallic Art Company offered to replace   
  their Carnegie medal with a far more artistic medallic work   
  of art. I remember the vice president of sales futile comment   
  after returning from a meeting with the Committee, "the   
  proposal fell on deaf ears of a bunch of lawyers sitting in an   
  office in Pittsburgh!"    

  The American Numismatic Society acquired an American   
  Carnegie Hero Fund Medal specimen for their collections  
  in 1908. The U.S. Mint Collection had received a specimen   
  perhaps as early and was recorded and cataloged by Thomas   
  Louis Comparette in the 1912 edition of his "Catalogue of   
  Coins, Tokens, and Medals in the Numismatic Collection of   
  the Mint of the United States at Philadelphia." (The Mint   
  Collection was ultimately transferred to the Smithsonian   
  Institution for the National Numismatic Collection in 1923.)    

  For numismatic bibliophiles, David Gladfelter's article, "A  
  Tribute to Heroes: The Carnegie Medal" in the TAMS Journal   
  (June 1975, pages 93-94), is quite interesting (and is the 
  only numismatic reference in the Bibliography on the   
  Committee's website)."   

ON THE USABILITY OF CD-ROM BOOKS    

  In response to the earlier suggestion that the Krause volumes   
  would be "strong candidates for the CD-ROM format," Joe   
  Boling writes:  "... please, only if the images can be loaded a   
  page at a time, and instantly.   The auction catalogs on CD   
  that I have used are very cumbersome and frustrating,   
  because it takes so long to page through the information.   
  One can scan a paper page in a fraction of a second for   
  whatever one is seeking (illustration, heading, key word);   
  it takes forever to scan the equivalent amount of information   
  on a CD-ROM."    

  [The September 21-22, 2001 catalog of the Heritage /   
  Currency Auctions of America sale includes a CD-ROM   
  of the full catalog in the form of web pages.  The text can   
  be browsed quickly, with images appearing only on   
  demand.  -Editor]   

FEATURED WEB SITE    

  This week's featured web site is the British Art Medal  
  Society.  "The British Art Medal Society is non profit   
  making, run by its members through an elected   
  committee and linked to a charity, the British Art Medal   
  Trust.    

  Besides commissioning contemporary medals it issues a   
  journal The Medal, published twice yearly and containing   
  illustrated articles on historical and contemporary medals,   
  organises regular meetings and conferences, and gives   
  advice to individuals or companies who wish to commission   
  medals."       

  http://www.bams.org.uk/    

  Wayne Homren 
  Numismatic Bibliomania Society