WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: JUNE 22, 2025

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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 25, 2025, Article 18

Tuesday June 17, 2025 was the meeting night of my Northern Virginia numismatic social group Nummis Nova. Jon Radel and John Kraljevich (who was unable to attend due to work commitments) chose the Sorn Thai restaurant in Mclean. Traffic was good for a change and I arrived early, but not early enough to beat other members to the bar; they included Dave Schenkman, Eric Schena, Daryl Haynor, Tom Kays and Jon. I ordered a glass of wine and had a nice conversation with Dave and Eric before we all headed over to our table.

Soon my guest Jonathan Brecher of the Boston area joined us and sat across the table from me. Then Julian Leidman and Steve Bishop filled in the nearby seats. Others present included Mike Packard and Mike Markowitz.

I'd brought along a thin binder of items from my J.S.G. Boggs collection. The first is a piece he created in celebration of his victory over counterfeiting charges in London's Old Bailey court. Shown next are a program from the 2003 unveiling of his Babson College mural, and an uncut sheet of three and a half FUN notes.

I told everyone I'd fulfilled a lifelong dream of owning a Warhol print with this "dollar sign" piece I'd picked up at the Andy Warhol museum gift shop while in Pittsburgh recently for the PAN Show.

I'd brought Dave Schenkman a package of material he'd recently lent to the Newman Numismatic Portal for scanning. He gave me one of the items for my numismatic ephemera collection - a 1985 letter from collector Clive E. Blasing to Q. David Bowers requesting provenance information on a POLHEMUS counterstamped 1857-S $20 gold piece.

Tom's Take
Here are Tom Kays' notes on the dinner. Thanks! Having completed my cataract surgery, I'm no longer wearing glasses.

Nummis Nova congregated in June at Sorn Thai Restaurant & Bar in McLean, Virginia with Southern Thai home cooking just like Grandmother Supisa Teawboot used to make. Not just for Pad Thai anymore, Sorn features a wide variety of authentic Thai cuisine that balances salty, sweet, sour, bitter and hot flavors. After one bite a Nummis Nova diner who likes to eat on the spicy side said, "bring on more heat" and by the third bite acknowledged "there it is." Pay attention to how many chilis and of what color adorn the menu entree descriptions.

Wayne Homren returned triumphant from the spring PAN show festooned with numismatic awards and accolades of impressive stature, including the coveted 2025 American Numismatic Association Presidential Award, and Thomas Uram's personal, ANA Presidential Challenge Coin.

Wayne asked we bring "So-Called Dollars" as he was bringing a guest, Jonathan Brecher, who knows them well. Jonathan specializes in tokens, medals, errors, and other weird stuff so he fits right in with Nummis Nova's ethos. So-Called Dollars are official United States medals related to a national exposition or commemoration. Harold E. Hibler and Charles V. Kappen wrote the original 1963 reference book with a scheme to classify them, setting up (HK) Numbers for each variety, provided they were between 33 mm and 45 mm in diameter, not struck with a suspension hole, non-presidential in nature, and not linked to a school, commercial trade organization, or other forms of emergency money. A case of So-Called Dollars did show up at dinner.

Can you pick out the official So-Called Dollars from the image? Some of the events remembered include the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Exhibition, the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha, the Jamestown Tricentennial of 1907, the Pan-Pacific Exposition of 1915, the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition, Worlds Fairs of 1892 in Chicago and 1904 in St Louis, and the Centennial of the Pony Express.

Many more numismatic fascinators circulated among the Thai dumplings, so many, that not all were captured by cellphone camera at the time. Here are some that did not get away unillustrated.

R. W. Julian published Medals of the United States Mint – The First Century 1792 – 1892. Seen at dinner were some scarce, U.S. Mint medals described in text, but not pictured in Julian, yet pictured now.

Enigmatic medals: Julian CM-38 (Massachusetts / 1876 "Sail on Union" Patriotic) and Julian UN-26 (Northern Liberty Fire Company No 1.)

Aside from all the U.S. Mint medals, also seen were tokens, celluloids, paper notes, bi-metallics, coins, and large medallions, some of which needed pry bars applied to their bases, in order to be present this night. Following is a sampling of the fine and interesting objects shared around the table.

Two and a Half Cent Token from Lexington, Virginia of C. W. Irvine (a liquor dealer listed in business in 1882) and a celluloid Twelve and a Half Cents token for Johnson & Hoban of Livingston Montana.

Three tokens with different obverses having a common reverse, seen at right that extolls the virtue of the miracle metal (Malleable, tasteless, sonorous, ductile, untarnishable - ALUMINUM – This medal is pure) by Childs of Chicago including obverses: Dr B. F. Stephenson, Founder of the Grand Army of the Republic, Illinois First Infantry National Guard Armory in Chicago, and U. S. Grant Monument.

Bishop's Beauties
Steve Bishop passed about these high-grade Morgan dollars.

Having a certain reputation to uphold, I brought four large medals to dinner. The first arrived the day of the dinner, so is still deserving of some further research. Dan Davidson, Spirit of Rockville [Maryland]. The medal represents the well-known, locally at least, statue located in the city's Courthouse Square, by the same artist. The medal appears to be rather less known. The seller told me that this had been pried off of a Lifetime Achievement award which used to be mounted under glass. I suspect there's a bit more to that story.

The second medal is from Finland and is cataloged in Laitakari, but this is the first example I've seen despite hanging round Finnish auctions for years. W.G. Palmqvist, Wardauden - Wiinijärvenrata 1932-1940. Mr. Palmqvist was an architect, one of the other traces remaining of his work is the workers' housing preserved at a historical site, Outokumpu Mining Museum. This workman-like [a polite way of saying "not all that artistically inspired"] medal shows a railroad map of southern Finland with locations, including Outokumpu, of interest to the copper mining company that employed the artist. Incidentally, the "?" on the reverse does not, in this case, have anything to do with "female" but rather "copper." I've seen this usage on other Nordic medals.

The next two medals come from the amazing collection of the late David Nicholas Silich, being disbursed over multiple auctions in London. Both are award winners in the prestigious British Art Medal Society (BAMS) Student Medal Project. Kyosun Jung, Ivory Exploitation, 2013 has a tusk-less elephant on the obverse and on the reverse a design evoking a curled trunk overlaid with the text "THOUSANDS OF ELEPHANTS DIE EACH YEAR SO THAT THEIR TUSKS CAN BE CARVED INTO RELIGIOUS OBJECTS. CAN THIS SLAUGHTER BE STOPPED?"

Niels Müller, Homo Superior, 2002, has been described by various parties as "provocative." Another way of putting it would be: The artist apparently never felt any particular need to explain the medal.

A rare token struck by Baltimore die sinker, J. F. W. Dorman. The merchant, Charles W. Irvine, advertised that his hotel had a sample room on the first floor. He is listed in an 1882 directory as a dealer in liquors. The 18mm token is struck in brass, with Dorman's "stock" reverse die featuring a seated Liberty design.

During the early 1900s Charles J. Johnson and Billy Hoban operated The Club Saloon . The 37mm "one bit" token was struck with incuse lettering in cream colored celluloid

Chicago die sinker, S. D. Childs, cut a "stock" 37mm die touting the qualities of aluminum, and it was used on the reverse of numerous medals during the late 1880s and the 1890s, including these four. The 1889 Washington Centennial medal was likely the earliest use of the die.

"These medals lead to an interesting trivia question or two: How many non-round US Mint medals are listed in Julian? Or, how many different shapes are represented by US Mint medals listed in Julian? I don't actually know the answer myself without going through and counting. It's harder than just looking at pictures, since many of the non-round medals are unpictured."

Many thanks to our attendees for passing along additional photos and information. Great material! It's always a delight to come to these meetings and be treated to amazing numismatic surprises. A great night of hobby fellowship, as always. 'Til next time.