THE ASYLUM APRIL-JUNE 2012 ISSUE

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V15 2012 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 15, Number 39, September 16, 2012, Article 2

Another issue of The Asylum is at the printers. Here are the contents:

Myron Xenos - "You Don't Say": Numismatic Quarterly Quiz Roger S. Siboni, John L. Howes, and Buell Ish - The Collectors and Their Collections: A Chapter from The State Coinage of New Jersey

The contents list may look short, but this is actually a longer issue than usual. "The Collectors and Their Collections" is a preview of a chapter from an upcoming book that the American Numismatic Society is publishing; this chapter is a detailed history of the collecting of New Jersey coppers.

The introductory page talks about the book in general and why we chose to preview this chapter with the Asylum readership.

And by the way, in a bold first, the book will now be jointly published by The ANS and the Colonial Coin Collectors Club. Ray Williams just would not let a book about New Jersey Coppers get published without C-4 having a part. He is relentless!

Below is the excerpt from the book's Introduction. It's not quite ready for publication, but we'll have more information in a future issue. -Editor

Note from the authors: What follows is an preview of a chapter from our book, The State Coinage of New Jersey. This book has been over a decade in the making and will be published by the American Numismatic Society around the end of this year or early next year—depending on the final editing, production, shipping, and the many other factors one does not consider when one has finished writing a book!

The book will be the first comprehensive treatment of New Jersey coppers since 1881, when Dr. Edward Maris published his landmark book, The Coins of New Jersey. Over the years, several numismatists have taken aim at this goal, but none of their projects were completed. Nevertheless, the authors are grateful for the scholarship they left behind, which helped make this effort possible.

Our book will cover the economic conditions of the Confederation period that created a need for this coinage, the politics involved in securing a state contract, the coiners and their operations, and collecting methodologies. It will also include quarter-page images of each variety, with an analysis of the diagnostics, pertinent history, rarity, and a condition census with provenances. It will also present to the New Jersey collecting community the various major die states for each variety.

But most relevant to our fellow Asylum readers is the chapter “Collectors and Their Collections.” This was a chapter we all enjoyed working with and contributing to. It chronicles the American collecting of New Jersey coppers from as early as McCoy through modern collecting and eBay, as well as everything in between. In many ways the journey of New Jersey coppers seemed to mirror the journey for many Colonial-era coins as well. Thus we thought a preview of this chapter may be of interest to the Asylum readership.

We do ask something in return. The subject of provenance chains is opaque at best. We did our best at tracing them correctly. However, we are certain that if anybody knows the nooks and crannies of provenance chains enough to spot details that we missed or got wrong, it will be the Asylum readership. So we request that any observations about such items be brought to our attention via e-mail to rogersiboni@gmail.com.

Remember, only paid members of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society receive our print journal, The Asylum. Membership information is at the top right of this and every issue of The E-Sylum, our free email newsletter. -Editor