The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 53, December 16, 2003, Article 23

DEATH BY MISADVENTURE

  Q. David Bowers' "The Joys of Collecting" column in the
  December 8 issue of Coin World touched on the subject of
  cleaning coins and the use of a cyanide solution as one good
  method, with a deadly drawback.   Bowers quoted from the
  August 1921 issue of The Numismatist:

  "J. Sanford Saltus, an international figure in the numismatic
  world, died suddenly at the Hotel Metropole, in London, on
  June 24.  Apparently in the best of health up to the time his
  body was found in his room, the manner of his death was for
  a time a mystery until an official investigation revealed that it
  was due to accidental poisoning....  A verdict of 'death by
  misadventure' was rendered by the coroner's jury.  The
  evidence at the inquest disclosed that on the day before his
  death he had purchased a small quantity of potassium cyanide
  for the purpose of cleaning some recent purchases of silver
  coins and retired to his room.  Shortly afterward he ordered
  a bottle of ginger ale.  A glass containing the poison and a
  glass containing the ginger ale were found side by side on
  the dressing table, and it is believed that while interested in
  cleaning the coins he took a drink of the poison in mistake
  for the ginger ale."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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