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.

WAYNE'S WORDS: THE E-SYLUM SEPTEMBER 27, 2020

New subscribers this week include: Tracy Ibberson, courtesy Bill Myers; Mike Coltrane, courtesy of Maureen Levine; Jay Kimmel, and Elaine Wooton. Welcome aboard! We now have 6,563 subscribers.

Thank you for reading The E-Sylum. If you enjoy it, please send me the email addresses of friends you think may enjoy it as well and I'll send them a subscription. Contact me at whomren@gmail.com anytime regarding your subscription, or questions, comments or suggestions about our content.

This week we open with a new issue of The Asylum, two numismatic library offerings, four new books, one review, and updates from the Newman Numismatic Portal.

Other topics this week include Canadian coins, Greek banknotes, Disney Dollars, the proposed 2021 silver dollars, Lindberg medals, show cancellations, dealers Herbert von Seggern, Ed Leventhal and Grover Criswell, multiple auction previews, damnatio memoriae, and a Dickin medal for a Cambodian rat.

To learn more about Revue Numismatique, the Catalogue of Catalogues, family medals, multiple blanking, collector Martin F. Kortjohn, overtime at the Philadelphia Mint, Indian Peace medals, Guernsey overprints, reversible money, and squatting Numismatica, read on. Have a great week, everyone!

Wayne Homren
Editor, The E-Sylum

ASYLUM AUTUMN 2020 ISSUE PUBLISHED

The Asylum, Autumn 2020
"Evolution of a Numismatic Library, Part 2"

The Asylum's Autumn 2020 edition Special Issue, "Evolution of a Numismatic Library, Part 2" will be in NBS members' mailboxes soon. Thanks again to all members who shared stories and photos of your wonderful numismatic libraries.

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KÜNKER OFFERS POINSIGNON NUMISMATIC LIBRARY

Rare as Well as Useful – Alain Poinsignon's Numismatic Library

Künker's auction 342 on 2 and 3 November 2020 will be a literature-only auction. The research library of French coin dealer Alain Poinsignon will be on offer. It contains important numismatic reference works that were published between the 19th and 21st centuries and cover a broad spectrum of subjects from antiquity to present times.

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HAROLD DON ALLEN OCTOBER 2020 LIBRARY SALE

Laura Ashton writes:

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NEW BOOK: CHARLETON CANADIAN COINS 74TH EDITION

2021 CHARLTON CANADIAN COINS VOLUME 1: NUMISMATIC ISSUES – 74TH EDITION
$29.95

First published in 1952 the Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Coins has reported on all aspects of the Canadian numismatic scene, from the coinage of the French Regime to the business strikes of today. For more than 65 years Charlton has been the bible for collectors.

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NEW BOOK: COIN YEARBOOK 2021

Coin Yearbook 2021
£9.95

LAUNCHED SEPTEMBER 28! The COIN YEARBOOK is now firmly established as the book used by both collectors and coin dealers alike and is the independent price guide and collector's handbook for the coin collecting hobby. Fully revised and updated, the COIN YEARBOOK 2021 will once again feature accurate up to date prices for English, Scottish, Irish and Island coins (the IOM fully updated for 2021) with the coins illustrated in full colour.

The easy to use price guide covers: Ancient coins used in Britain (Celtic and Roman – ideal for metal detectorists) Hammered coinage 959-1663, Milled coinage and Modern decimal coinage. AND THIS YEAR THERE'S A BRAND NEW SECTION ON BRITANNIAS TOO! ...and all for just £9.95 that's the SAME PRICE as last year! (p+p free if ordered before September 11, overseas delivery charges will apply, discount equivalent to UK postage)

For more information, or to order, see:
Coin Yearbook 2021 (https://www.tokenpublishing.com/shop/product/8050)

NEW BOOK: CONNECTIONS, COMMUNITIES, AND COINAGE

Connections, Communities, and Coinage: The System of Coin Production in Southern Asia Minor, AD 218–276
(Numismatic Studies 39)
By George Watson

$100
?member price: $70

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NEW BOOK: HELLAS BANKNOTES 1822-2020

Hellas Banknotes 2020 (In Three Volumes)
by A.Karamitsos

Hellas Banknotes 2020 (Publication July 2020 - In Three Volumes) Three bilingual (Greek & English), full colour volumes (over 800 pages in total)

Volume I: It consists of the issues of the Provisional Administration of Greece during the Greek revolution, the Greek state's bonds and the issue of the Phoenix, the 87 years operation of the National Bank of Greece and all its issues, as well as the Phalanx credit notes that existed at the same period. Furthermore, in the first volume there are, the Ionian Bank, the privileged Bank of Epirothessaly and the Bank of Crete issues.

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BOOK REVIEW: DISNEY NUMISMAGIC

Disney NumisMagic – The Art and Magic of Collecting Disney Currency – Catalogue and Valuation Guide for Disney FANTASY Currency is a 252-page hard bound reference with color illustrations, an up-to-date price guide, and Disney information.

Teddy Ryan III wrote that he has been compiling data for over 30 years, and it has taken him longer than he thought to get it finally published. We can understand the 30 plus years he took to compile this information on the Disney Currency that is contained within the pages of this reference. It contains Disney history along with all notes and other numismatic related information. Starting in 1987, the notes have an engraved border designed by the American Bank Note Company (ABNCo). Several other Bank Note Companies were involved in the early issues, but the ABNCo won the contract.

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FIVE AND SIX POINT STARS ON BARBER COINAGE

A Debate Over Star Points

Barber silver coins (1892-1916) have six-pointed stars on the obverse, and five-pointed stars on the reverse. Why? Five-pointed stars grace the U.S. flag, and the Great Seal of the United States follows suit. A recent bit of U.S. Mint correspondence, scanned and transcribed by Newman Portal, sheds light on the situation in 1892, with the advent of Barber coinage.

Heretofore, the six-pointed star was featured on the obverse of the Liberty Seated coinage since 1838 (the 1837 Liberty Seated dime was the no stars variety), while Draped Bust coinage featured six-pointed stars on both obverse and reverse.

Mint Director Leech wrote to Philadelphia Mint Superintendent in October 1891 "I agree with the engraver that the six pointed star looks richer, and you are authorized to use it on the obverse" while "the five pointed stars will be used on the reverse," with no additional explanation. All the known pattern pieces exhibit this scheme. So, the obverse use of six-pointed stars seems to have been simply the preference of the engraver, which withstood bureaucratic inquiry, while the reverse stars remain a mystery.

Link to 1891 Leech correspondence:
https://archive.org/details/newdesignexperimentalhalvesstarpoints
18911024/page/n3/mode/2up

Link to U.S. Mint general correspondence entry on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/archivedetail/515202

VIDEO: GREATER TULSA SHOW BRAVES CORONAVIRUS

Chris Harrell & Gary Parsons, Oklahoma Numismatic Association
David Lisot, Interviewer, Coin Television.com.

The Oklahoma Numismatic Association held the Greater Tulsa Coin Show during the Covid Virus Pandemic. Masks were worn and social distancing prevailed. Hear what was involved to get this convention going from officials in the club.

An excerpt of the video is available for viewing on the Coin Television YouTube Channel at:
https://youtu.be/shOsS62Klcc

SUPPORT THE 2021 SILVER DOLLARS!

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NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: SEPTEMBER 27, 2020

Rubin's "Catalogue of Catalogues"

"Yes, wonderful things!"

Early last week, David Fanning emailed a layout proof of Kolbe & Fanning Sale 157, with the following admonition: "Just focus on big stuff at this point as we're going to the printer today." Finding nothing to critique, I nonetheless kept looking through the catalogue in the following days, bringing to mind Howard Carter's famous response to Lord Carnarvon's query about his impression of the first glimpse of the contents of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

In our own little world, Philip Scott Rubin's "Catalogue of Catalogues" is chock full of wonderful things, particularly among his earlier American numismatic auction sales. The library was formed over half a century. This first installment of Scott's extensive collection, numbering in excess of 10,000 catalogues, is limited to 500 lots, and includes many highlights. You will enjoy perusing it, regardless of your numismatic affinities.

It should be mentioned that this comprehensive library of American numismatic sale catalogues was plumbed to its depths in terms of groundbreaking numismatic research, and that the wealth of such invaluable information now regularly encountered in the current generation of American coin auction sale catalogues is, in significant part, the result of Scott's wide-ranging analyses. Freely shared, with little regard to attribution, it is the measure of the man.

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MORE ON ENGRAVED CHARLES LINDBERG MEDALS

I have two different varieties of the Lone Eagle medal which were used for awards in Bronxville, New York, just outside of New York City. At first, a regular issue medal was simply hand engraved with the recipient's name and year of issue, along with the name of the school and the reason for the award. Then apparently, after a few years of all that hand engraving, the school had the Medallic Art Company create a new reverse die with all of the repetitive verbiage struck, so that only the name and date needed to be engraved.

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2021 NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL CANCELLED

The New York International Numismatic Convention Board of Directors, meeting on September 23, sadly reached a decision to cancel the 49th annual edition of the world and ancient specialty convention, which had been scheduled to be held at the Grand Hyatt New York from January 8 through 17, 2021.

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THE ART WORLD LURCHES TO THE FUTURE

When auctioneer Oliver Barker stepped into the Sotheby's London salesroom on June 29 to helm its first-ever global livestreamed auction, the whole art world was watching. The evening would show not only whether Sotheby's could pull off a major sale in the social distancing era but also whether the predictions were true that the art market was heading into a painful, prolonged period of correction.

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VOCABULARY TERM: MULTIPLE BLANKING

Multiple Blanking. The process of producing several blanks with a single stroke of the blanking press. A multiblanking head is required with a matching plate containing the same number and pattern of openings as the number and pattern of blanking punches. Such multiple blanking is highly suitable for coin blanks of thin gauge metal and small size blanks, as under one inch diameter.

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HERBERT VON SEGGERN (1856-1957)

Numismatist Herbert Von Seggern lived to be 101!

Herbert von Seggern (1856-1957), was born on February 3, 1856 in Germany.

In 1911, he began trading as Keystone Coin and Stamp Company, 708 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Seggern printed FPL's which today are very scarce in the literature dealer market for current collectors. He is so scarce that he is not even listed in Remy Bourne's Fixed Price Lists, Vol. II.

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HARVEY STACK'S NUMISMATIC FAMILY, PART 79

In the fall and early winter of 1979 we continued to present public auctions that offered a wide variety of numismatic items. Just after Labor Day, we offered a large, specialized collection of high quality and rare U.S. colonial coins formed by Donald S. Fleishcher. Don Fleishcher was well known in the numismatic clubs in the Metropolitan area as he had worked for decades with collectors who were centralized around New York. The friendships he had developed while collecting resulted in many specialists and well known numismatists participating in his sale, and it was a talked about event for months after. The sale contained hundreds of lots of colonial coins and currency, along with some classic early American issues to support the offering. It was a great opportunity for collectors in this field.

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JIM BISOGNANI REMEMBERS ED LEVENTHAL

I fondly remembered one of my early and lifelong mentors, Ed Leventhal — "Mr. J.J. Teaparty" — who recently passed away. My dealings with Ed and the Boston coin shop J.J. Teaparty began 37 years ago, almost to the day, as it was just before Labor Day in 1983 that I first met Ed and saw in person that iconic simmering teapot hanging out front of the shop's Bromfield Street location.

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ARTICLE PROFILES GROVER CRISWELL

At 25, he was the youngest elected mayor in American history. He ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1962, as a Democrat, and lost to Bill Cramer. Criswell enjoyed saying that President John F. Kennedy offered him directorship of the U.S. Mint, and he turned it down to make a bid for Congress.

At Criswell's Money Museum, you could ogle whale tooth money ("Used to buy wives in the Fiji Islands!"), World War I-era German wooden dollars, rai stone currency from the Island of Yap and, of course, examples of that Confederate "funny money" from Criswell's own, extensive collection. An actor in full Confederate military dress greeted you at the entrance.

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PHILADELPHIA MINT WORKING OVERTIME

At the Philadelphia Mint — the nation's largest producer of coin currency — 14 presses, each producing 750 coins a minute, are running seven days a week to compensate for the pandemic-caused coin supply problems that turned quarters, nickels, and dimes into rare commodities.

"I've never seen anything like this in the past," said a veteran Mint worker who maintains the coin presses and asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

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ALFA NUMISMATICS AUCTION 1 CLOSES OCTOBER 4, 2020

Alfa Numismatics Auction 1 closes 4th of October 2020.

New to the numismatic market, more than 154 lots of ancient Greek, Roman and European medieval coins will be auctioned off in the inaugural online-only auction for the newly established numismatic auction house, Alfa Numismatics, on Sunday the 4th of October 2020.

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LARRY NESS INDIAN PEACE MEDAL COLLECTION

We are pleased to present the Larry Ness Collection of Indian Peace medals, one of the best and most complete Indian Peace Medal collections of all time. Ness had remarkable success acquiring the rare silver originals awarded to Native Americans, collecting a remarkable 36 examples, ranging from a First Size Thomas Jefferson through the extremely rare 1890 Benjamin Harrison, the latter with provenance to the original recipient. Bronze medals begin with John Adams and include important rarities of the later Oval series. Also showcased is a representative collection of French, Canadian, and British medals in silver and bronze, as well as a pair of very rare medals related to the Fur Trade.

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ARCHIVES INTERNATIONAL AUCTION 61

U.S., CHINESE & WORLDWIDE BANKNOTES, SCRIPOPHILY, COINS AND HISTORIC EPHEMERA TO BE OFFERED BY ARCHIVES INTERNATIONAL AUCTIONS AT PUBLIC AUCTION ON SUNDAY & MONDAY, OCTOBER 4 & 5, 2020

The auction will be held by Archives International Auctions at their offices in River Edge, N.J.

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MARK T. RAY COLLECTION OF ENGLISH BANKNOTES

1. Bank of England £10 note dated 15th April 1912.

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H. DON ALLEN EPHEMERA COLLECTION SELECTIONS

Lot 79: General Electric Coin Advertisement Card

A truly interesting advertising by General Electric, the first seen by us. A coin display card in an envelope with "Here's Why Better G-E Lamps Give More For All Lighting Dollars" on the front. Inside the envelop a coin display card housing US uncirculated coins from 1956 1 x 1 cent; 6 x 10 cents, 2 x 25 cents &a 1922 US silver dollar. "Know where your lighting dollars go – and you'll know where you can save!" "To save money on these costs you either PAY LESS . . . or Get More". Don't miss this great piece of numismatic and advertisement history.

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NUMISMATIC NUGGETS: SEPTEMBER 27, 2020

1855 Experimental Alloy Cent

1855 Experimental Alloy Cent
Judd-170a, PR64+

1855 1C Flying Eagle Cent, Judd-170a, R.7, PR64+ PCGS. Ex: Simpson. Thirteen stars surround an eagle that is flying slightly upward, similar to the Christian Gobrecht/Titian Peale flying eagle design for the Gobrecht dollars (and soon the Flying Eagle cents). The reverse design is similar to the issued large cent. The diameter is intermediate between the large cents struck for commerce in 1855 and the small cents that were first produced in 1856. Struck with a plain edge. In a former auction appearance, this piece had a composition stated on the insert of 86% copper, 14% nickel. Orange borders frame olive-gray centers. Well preserved and typically struck with a minor retained obverse lamination at 1 o'clock. Struck from boldly clashed dies.

To read the complete lot description, see:
1855 1C Flying Eagle Cent, Judd-170a, R.7, PR64+ PCGS.... (https://coins.ha.com/itm/patterns/1855-1c-flying-eagle-cent-judd-170a-r7-pr64-pcgs/a/1310-10180.s)

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MONEY PEOPLE HATED: DAMNATIO MEMORIAE

ANCIENT COINS OFTEN took a beating in circulation, remaining in use for decades or even centuries. But some surviving coins seem to have been deliberately defaced or mutilated as an expression of popular hatred and contempt for the subject depicted or name inscribed. A 17th-century scholar coined the Latin phrase damnatio memoriae ("damnation of memory") for this practice, though there is no evidence for the use of the phrase in antiquity.

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COIN REPRESENTED THE FIVE WOUNDS OF CHRIST

A centuries-old coin has been declared treasure after being found by a metal detectorist in a field in Norfolk.

The silver coin would have been adorned with gems which have fallen out over the centuries, and is believed to be 740 years old.

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THE SINAW HOARD FOUND IN OMAN

A statement issued by the Oman News Agency (ONA) said, "The Sinaw archaeological treasure is the largest coin treasure found in the Sultanate until today. It was found inside a pottery vessel in Shawwal 1399/September 1979 in the Sinaw district in the state of Al Mudhaibi in the North Al Sharqiyah Governorate. The glazed vessel is distinguished in turquoise blue and has handles on both sides. Inside the vessel, 962 pieces of silver dirhams, dating back to the early Sasanian and Islamic eras were found."

To read the complete article, see:
Sinaw treasure is largest currency treasure unearthed in Oman (https://timesofoman.com/article/sinaw-treasure-is-largest-currency-treasure-unearthed-in-oman)

RENAISSANCE PLAQUETTE ATTRIBUTED TO LOMBARDO

An important early 16th century Renaissance plaquette, depicting Victory inscribing a Shield, has recently been re-attributed to the renowned Italian Renaissance sculptor Antonio Lombardo (c.1458–1516), and is one of the highlights of Morton & Eden's forthcoming sale of Coins, Medals and Banknotes on 4 November 2020.

Tom Eden, of Morton & Eden, said: "This, hitherto, virtually unknown plaquette is believed to be the only known casting of this subject. Its recent attribution to the Renaissance artist Antonio Lombardo, the court sculptor of Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara makes it an exceptionally exciting new art historical discovery."

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THE 1864 ATLANTIC INTERNATIONAL CLUB MEDAL

Among the more unusual and curious objects in the ANS's collection is a silver medal (ANS 1967.225.23) 56.8 mm in diameter that was donated to the Society, along with ca. 3,000 other medals, in 1967 by the Wadsworth Athenaeum, which had received the medals as a bequest from J. Coolidge Hills in the 1920s.

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DICKIN MEDAL FOR CAMBODIAN LANDMINE RAT

A rat is being honored with one of the highest awards in the animal world after he has potentially saved numerous lives for clearing landmines from fields in Cambodia.

Magawa, an African Giant Pouched Rat, was awarded a gold medal from the PDSA, a British veterinary charity, for his work over the past seven years leading to the detection of 39 landmines and 28 unexploded items and clearing more than 20 soccer fields in the process.

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LOOSE CHANGE: SEPTEMBER 27, 2020

Why Cambodia Became a French Protectorate

Much injustice was done when the European powers divided the world among themselves. Superior weapons weren't the only reason why they could do that. Local conflicts made it easier for exterior powers to interfere, as it was the case regarding the fall of King Norodom I of Cambodia.

A coin featuring the date of 1860 bears witness to the first contacts between France and the Cambodian ruler.

To read the complete article, see:
Why Cambodia Became a French Protectorate. (https://www.kuenker.de/en/information/presseinformationen/aktuelle-mitteilungen/324)

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FEATURED WEB SITE: ENGLISH HAMMERED COINS

https://www.englishhammered.com/