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WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: NOVEMBER 9, 2025On Thursday I went to my day job in the morning but after a meeting ended at Noon I made a beeline up to Baltimore for the Whitman Baltimore Expo. I was just parking my car when I got a text from longtime advertiser Bob Steinberg. I met up with him in the lobby and we had a nice conversation. 
At registration I was given a card for a drawing at the Whitman table and made my way over there to speak with Billie Blattel, who I work with on Whitman's E-Sylum advertising. After scratching off a prize card I was given my pick of books from a table and I chose a blank Red Book Journal, which I hadn't seen before. The afternoon felt like a blur - I was in constant motion walking up and down the aisles. Often I stopped at the table of one of our friends and advertisers, but they were with clients or away from their table. I missed speaking to Chris Karsteadt of Stack's Bowers, Tom Caldwell of Northeast Numismatics, David Kahn, Doug Winter, Steve Hayden, Jeff Garrett, Daniel Frank Sedwick, Pierre Fricke and others. I did manage to stop and chat at the table of Jon Sullivan. At John Kraljevich's table I spoke with him and Erik Goldstein, and at Charlie Davis' table I spoke with him, Neil Musante, Len Augsburger, Marcus Davis, and Jimmy Hayes. I didn't think to pull out my camera until I got to Classical Numismatic Group (CNG) where I spoke for a while with David Michaels. I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to go old-school and look at and handle raw, unslabbed coins. 
David Michaels and a Triton XXIX Highlight 
CNG Publications
After finding Len Augsburger at Charlie Davis' table and arranging to meet at 4 to discuss some Newman Numismatic Portal and E-Sylum business, I went upstairs for lot viewing. Conveniently, Garrett and Devi at the registration desk looked into an issue I've been having with logging in to their site to bid (somebody got a really bargain on a great piece of numismatic ephemera recently becuase I was unable to enter a bid). We're still working it out, but with their help I'll get it fixed before I have to bid again. Here's what I looked at. 
The Famous Boyd-Cardinal 1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar
To read the complete lot description, see:
American Colonization Society. 1846 1 dollar. This society, which was founded in 1816 at the Davis Hotel in D.C., was not about abolition and anti-slavery or about integrating freed Blacks into America. Instead, the idea was that Monrovia was to be a place to "expel" the freed Black population to avoid social integration, risk of slave rebellion assistance, and competition with white labor. Prominent Quakers, who were among many of the founders, benevolently believed that this repatriation would be better for these newly freed Blacks, socially and economically. Among the society's founders was Henry Clay (pictured on the $3 note from this series) of Kentucky, who held an extreme view regarding the integration of freed Blacks into American culture and the risks it would pose to the white populace and economy. The society sold memberships and even received $100,000 of funds from Congress. This note actually served as currency in Liberia and its blank back was used to celebrate Liberia's independence. An important historical rarity that deserves further research. I'd only read of these and had never seen one in person.
To read the complete lot description, see:
C. Wyllys Betts Fantasy "Pattern" Fugio Cent Created circa 1859, from dies allegedly "found" by Horatio Rust at the J.E. Bassett hardware store, but in reality made at the time by (or more likely for) C. Wyllys Betts (as primary suspect), this type is a "pattern" that presaged nothing and a "restrike" that had no predecessor. It is, rather, an out-and-out fabrication, part of the same family that includes Newman 101-EE, 103-EE, and the so-called "New Haven Restrikes", all of which were made for sale to contemporary collectors. Among those who bought these pieces at the time were some of the leading collectors of the era, including William Appleton, J. Carson Brevoort, Charles Ira Bushnell, Edward Maris, Joseph Mickley, and Loren G. Parmelee - ample evidence for both the success of this initiative and the reason for making these fabrications in the first place. Only two examples of Newman 101-BB in silver exist, as previously related, and the discovery specimen is that which appeared in the Chapman brothers' August 1893 C.T. Whitman Collection sale of August 1893, "once the property of the great collector Charles I. Bushnell."
To read the complete lot description, see:
That was fun and educational. I picked these out of the catalogs because I wanted to discuss them in The E-Sylum. Mission accomplished. Next I went back down to the bourse to meet Len at the Liberty Seated Collector Society table. We talked about some time-saving tools my E-Sylum assistant Garrett Ziss has been building, and how we can use and improve them to boost our productivity, content and quality. Then we moved on to Newman Portal topics and I handed over three items for scanning in St. Louis. With a little time to kill before dinner I walked around the bourse again and visited the table of once and hopefully future advertiser #1 Money Man. He had a nice stock of world paper money and Bob Schwartz of Archives International was there looking. Afterwards Bob and I talked about some possible future E-Sylum articles. Who'd I miss? Along the way I'd also spoken with Julian Leidman, Tony Terranova, Kerry Wetterstrom, Mike Markowitz, Darryl Low, Jesse Kraft, Ute Wartenburg-Kagan, Brian Kendrella and several others.. As the show closed at 6pm I went to the lobby to meet up with Len again. In a few minutes we were joined by Tom Caldwell and Frank Sawin of Northeast Numismatics. The four of us grabbed an Uber to The Black Olive, a Greek restaurant in Fell's Point that's a favorite of Tom's. We had a great meal and evening, talking of numismatics and pretty much everything under the sun. Led by Tom we walked the mile or so back to the convention area. I'd managed over 14,000 steps that day, and my feet were hurting. But I made to my car and got home to Virginia in about an hour and a quarter. It was a great day.
John Kraljevich and Erik Goldstein of Colonial Williamsburg In this episode the guys dive into the current state of the rare coin market and then drop a big reveal regarding held by the recent discovery of the James Stack 1804 dollar. Other topics include:
To read the complete article, see:
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: Subscribe All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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