The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 47, November 24, 2002, Article 13

THE MUSEUM DISCUSSION CONTINUES

  Bob Leonard writes: " I would make a couple of points:

  1.  Contra Larry Lee, it is unfortunately NOT true that "most
  objects in museums, including coins, are in fact very well
  organized, even if they may not be numismatically attributed."
  When researching small California gold for the second edition
  of Breen-Gillio, California Pioneer Fractional Gold (now
  being laid out by the publisher), I attempted to find out what
  small California gold pieces--by BG number and weight --
  were in the Byron Reed collection, "curated" by the Durham
  Western Heritage Museum in Omaha.  Despite repeated
  e-mails and calls, the curator positively refused even to
  reveal the SHAPE of the coins they had (with a single,
  useless, exception), preventing this important early source
  from being properly published.  Their excuse was that they
  knew nothing about them  (I of course offered to attribute
  them over the phone) and did not have a competent curator.
  Local collectors advised me to complain to the Omaha city
  council, but I gave up instead.   A second museum, the
  Sanford Museum and Planetarium of Cherokee, Iowa, had
  at one time some jewelry made of small California gold
  pieces that had been acquired in the mid-1870s.  When I
  asked for a description, it could not be located.

  The aggravating thing is, that if the Byron Reed collection
  had been sold at auction in its entirety, I would not have
  to guess the BG numbers of its small California gold.  I
  probably wouldn't know the weights, but then I don't have
  them now.  And the California gold jewelry in Cherokee,
  Iowa, has probably been stolen and robbed of its important
  early pedigree.

  2.  Which brings me to Dave Bowers' remarks about a
  state university collection that was looted except for a single
  coin.  When I attended (another?) state university, the
  University of Illinois, they had a fine collection of ancient coins
  on exhibit in Lincoln Hall, which later became the Museum of
  World Cultures.  Being interested in coins, I was given
  permission to examine some pieces not on display.  In an
  envelope supposedly containing a Roman gold coin, I found
  a Lincoln cent!

  In my opinion, coin collections should not be donated to
  anything but real numismatic museums, with professional
  numismatist curators, secure vaults, closed-circuit TV,
  sign-in sheets for visitors, etc., etc., such as the ANS,
  ANA, or British Museum.  Even the ANS has had thefts,
  but losses at institutions run by amateurs are just about
  guaranteed--and the material is less accessible to scholars
  than if it had been sold."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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