NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: JUNE 2, 2019

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The E-Sylum: Volume 22, Number 22, June 2, 2019, Article 12

NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: JUNE 2, 2019

The ANA Past President Medal
Pete Smith writes:

There was an item published in The Numismatist in 1948 about the Past President medal authorized at the convention in the previous year. There was no article about an Ex-President medal.

I suspect that the ANA medal mentioned in The E-Sylum last week was issued by one of many other organizations with the ANA initials. At one time David Sklow collected medals issued by other ANA organizations. Last I heard, he was no longer collecting them.

Documentary evidence is important, but can't always be found. Perhaps something will turn up to link Jeremy Schneider's badge to the American Numismatic Association or even one of its early past presidents. -Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: MAY 26, 2019 : ANA Ex-President Medal? (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n21a18.html)

On Finding Coins in Unexpected Places
Max Hensley writes:

I've followed this topic with interest. My grandfather found a middle ages Islamic dynastic silver coin in his garden in Stanberry MO in the 1930s. I have no confirmation of the story but the coin itself is laying around here somewhere. What a tale could be told....

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
UTAH SPANISH COIN FIND: NEVERMIND (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n21a25.html)

Round Civil War Cardboard Tokens Sought

David E. Schenkman is compiling listings for a catalog of round cardboard tokens issued during the Civil War. To make this as complete as possible, readers owning any of these tokens are urged to send exact descriptions or scans to him. The catalog will be published in a future issue of The Civil War Token Journal.

Correspondence should be sent to David E. Schenkman, PO Box 2866, La Plata, MD 20646, or emailed to dschenkman@verizon.net -Editor

Real-Time Auction Bidding On Space-Based Public WiFi

Roger Siboni works hard, and collects hard. When a coin he really really wants comes up at auction, he finds a way to be there in the room, bidding in real time to secure his prize. But with so many sales on the East Coast and his weekday work in Silicon Valley, he often finds himself catching a redeye flight from San Francisco to bid on rare colonials in Stack's Bowers sales.

This week Roger was working with Vicken Yegparian of Stack's Bowers to bid on a very rare Washington Funeral medal. But he was just stepping onto a Jet Blue flight about half an hour before the lot came up. As a tech exec working with companies in the satellite communication space, Roger proposed a technology experiment - would the bandwidth, latency and sustainability of Jet Blue's new public WiFi be up to the task? -Editor

Roger writes:

So I put my phone on WiFi and continued texting Vicken as a real-time time check. Lot 3268 was approaching and the current level was $19,000. I bid it up to $22,000 and won the lot. It was awesome to bid real time on a public airplane WiFi from low earth orbiting satellites (probably those recently launched by SpaceX). I wonder if that was a first? Not private narrowband airplane Wifi, but PUBLIC WiFi -as if I was bidding on a laptop in the room in Baltimore. Synchronous texting was pretty amazing. Email is far more stable because it doesn't require the same level of synchronicity. I am going to have to experiment more with online bidding.

Very cool! Has anyone else tried this yet? -Editor

To read the complete lot description, see:
"1799" (ca. 1800) Washington Funeral Urn Medal. White Metal. GW on Base. Musante GW-72a, Baker-167, Fuld Dies 6-F. Rarity-7. AU-53 (PCGS). (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-IAZWJ/1799-ca-1800-washington-funeral-urn-medal-white-metal-gw-on-base-musante-gw-72a-baker-167-fuld-dies-6-f-rarity-7-au-53-pcgs)

Vocabulary Term: Numisnautist
Ron Guth writes:

This is a new, numismatic term I have not heard before (from an announcement of Auctions 322 and 324 by Kunker of Germany): "As a former sailor, Mr. Westphal is an avid "numisnautist", that is, a collector that focuses on maritime-themed coins."

I hadn't heard that term before and it doesn't seem to appear anywhere in our E-Sylum archives. But our resident numisnautist would be Yossi Dotan, author of three volumes about Watercraft on World Coins. -Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: NEW BOOK: WATERCRAFT ON WORLD COINS, VOL. III (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n45a03.html)

A 2019 Wright Quarter?
Wayne Pearson writes:

I think this would make a nice quarter design in 2019. What do you think?

Sure, why not? We've revived plenty of former coin designs for commemoratives and bullion pieces. I'd rather see new and original designs, and while this one isn't "new", I wouldn't object to seeing a great proposed design like this one revived in some form.

Here's some more information on the piece from uspatterns.com. -Editor

J12/P14
This is the famous Wright quarter trial with 87 stars on the reverse. In the past, this pattern had been described as a cent or half eagle pattern. Don Taxay's U.S. Mint and Coinage mentions a Mint memorandum dated September 11, 1793 which revealed that Joseph Wright had requested payment for "Two Essays of a Quarter Dollar, cut by direction of David Rittenhouse, Esqr and presented to him (broke in hardening)..." Because of this note, it is not clear who truly created the dies used to strike this.

Pollock believes this pattern was made late in 1792 as the motto "Liberty Parent of Science and Industry' has been shortened to the more traditional "Liberty" as on the 1793 coinage.

To read the complete article, see:
https://uspatterns.stores.yahoo.net/j12p14.html

Wayne Homren, Editor

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum

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