MORE ON JEAN COHEN'S LINCOLN CENT BOOK

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V24 2021 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 24, Number 46, November 14, 2021, Article 10

Regarding Jean Cohen's Lincoln Cent variety book, Mark Lighterman submitted these notes on the book's acquisition by The Combined Organizations of Numismatic Error Collectors of America (CONECA). Thank you. -Editor

I first had the pleasure of meeting Jean Cohen in early 2013. Jean contacted me as president of CONECA to work out the details of donating her book ‘The Classification and Value of Errors on the Lincoln Cent' to CONECA.

"Forty-three years ago I published "The Classification and Value of Errors on the Lincoln Cent", 600 pages, 6000 illustrations. Life took me down another path shortly thereafter. Now I am 82 years old with macular degeneration. The time has come for me to get all this material into the hands of those that will appreciate it."

Both sides wanted to meet so we could work out the details of the donation. Jean, Gary Lewis, her husband Don, my mother and myself meet at her home in Bonita Springs and as we began to talk about errors and our love for the hobby and CONECA she realized the donation would in fact be in good hands and by the end of the meeting she had donated all copyrights to the book, her compete collection of Lincoln cents that were the reference coins to those listed in the book and an additional $500.

As the steward of the collection for CONECA, very few have had any access to the coins because of the cataloging method she used in storing the collection and even after all these years working out whom and how to proceed with any changes the collection is still intact as it originally donated. Below is a photo that I took of Jean, Don and Gary Lewis at the end of that meeting. (Gary Lewis left, Don Cohen center, Jean Cohen right)

CONECA also has been discussing details of how to re-publish the book for our members. Out of all the materials she donated was the original paste-up and one unbound copy of the book. She did not even retain a bound copy for herself.

We did keep in touch occasionally throughout the years until her passing. On a side note and what I still feel sealed the deal that day was during our meeting (Jean, Gary and myself), Myrna and Don went out onto the porch of their home that overlooks the Gulf to talk and connect. It was a surprise for them to interrupt our meeting to find out that my mother worked alongside Don's brother at the University of Miami Medical school some fifty years earlier. Our hobby is a very small community.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
JEAN COHEN'S LINCOLN CENT BOOK (https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n45a12.html)