About Us The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit association devoted to the study and enjoyment of numismatic literature. For more information please see our web site at coinbooks.org Subscriptions Those wishing to become new E-Sylum subscribers can go to the following web page Subscribe You may Unsubscribe Here Membership There is a membership application available on the web site Membership Application To join, print the application and return it with your check to the address printed on the application. Print/Digital membership is $40 to addresses in the U.S., and $60 elsewhere. A digital-only membership is available for $25. For those without web access, write to: Jeff Dickerson, Treasurer Numismatic Bibliomania Society P. O. Box 578, Weatherford, TX 76086 Asylum For Asylum mailing address changes and other membership questions, contact Jeff at this email address: treasurer@coinbooks.org Submissions To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com BUY THE BOOK BEFORE THE COIN Sale Calendar Workman's Books November 1, 2026 Watch here for updates!

 

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 AUGUST 30, 2026

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 report from the NBS General Meeting, three new books, an ANA video from the Newman Numismatic Portal, a note from a reader, and more.

Other topics this week include so-called dollars, banknote security features, the Museum of American Finance, Charles Enders, Jr., Cheech Litman, auction previews, the coins of Medusa and the Sutton Hoo, coin devaluations, and rec.collecting.coins.

To learn more about Connecticut copper coinage, Indian Government Mint souvenir tokens, a Society of the Cincinnati badge, electrotypes, the Bar Copper, the Haseltine Restrike Confederate Cent, the Loring-Levin Collection, SS Central America paper money, Potosí, and the 1690s diving bell boom, read on. Have a great week, everyone!

Wayne Homren
Editor, The E-Sylum

 

2026 NBS GENERAL MEETING REPORT

Charity Auction Raises Funds for NBS

The annual NBS book sale, held Friday, August 28, at the ANA convention in Pittsburgh, once again delivered healthy support to the NBS treasury. Top honors went to a beautifully bound copy of the 1900 DeKnight work on U.S. paper money, lot 16, which sold for $450. Other notable volumes included the Stack's limited edition of The Connecticut Copper Coinage, 1785-1788, lot 36, which drew a high bid of $425 on a $200 estimate. A plated Woodward sale, lot 44, the 1886 Twining catalog, attracted a bid of $425. The Philadelphia Numismatic Society c. 1860 volume on American store cards, lot 13, an exceptionally rare publication, sold for $375.

The unaudited final total for the sale, which was called by David Fanning, was $5,030. David further prepared the sale catalog. Messrs. Tom Harrison and Jeff Dickerson provided yeoman support in transporting lots from the bourse to the meeting room, setting up the sale and delivering lots to winning bidders. Dan Hamelberg's traditional role as "Vanna" was filled in his absence by Mr. Harrison. Many thanks to those who donated literature and equal thanks to those participated in the sale. As usual, the bid book will preserved in the NBS archives, which are maintained by Joel Orosz.

NBS Presents the George F. Kolbe Award and the Annual Literary Awards

The NBS presented its annual literary awards at the ANA convention in Pittsburgh on Friday, August 28. The Joel Orosz award, for the best article in 2025, was won by Roger W. Burdette for "Early Attempts to Preserve U.S. Mint History," which appeared in the Summer 2025 Asylum. This article explored the Mint's earliest attempts to organize its vast store of documentation, which later was transferred to the National Archives. The Jack Collins award, for best first-time author, went to Bill Hyder, for "Elder's 1908 ANA Dinner Invitation," which was published in the Autumn 2025 Asylum. Hyder described his discovery of this ephemera in the ANA collection and the subsequent acquisition of his own example.

The George Frederick Kolbe Award for Lifetime Achievement in Numismatic Literature is presented infrequently and only with careful deliberation of the NBS Board. This year we are presenting the honor to Joel Orosz. Joel is a four-time winner of the Numismatic Literary Guild Book of the Year award, a longtime contributor to both the Asylum and E-Sylum, and for many years held forth as The Numismatic Bookie in the pages of Coin World. Joel specializes in the study of antebellum numismatics and has a gift for placing numismatic literature within the broader scope of American history. Moreover, he does so with incisive wit and golden tongue, as in his Numismatic Shammies series, which artfully (and hilariously) exposed the lack of critical thought occasionally encountered in the advertising of numismatic materials.

Previous awardees are George Kolbe and John Adams (2010), Al Hoch (2011), Dan Hamelberg (2013), Wayne Homren (2015), Charles Ricard (2019), and Charles Davis (2022), who famously donned the topcoat of Thomas W. Streeter upon the occasion of his award presentation. Congratulations, Joel!

NEW BOOK: INSPIRATIONS: SO-CALLED DOLLARS

Just Released in 2026! The latest publication on So-Called Dollars by Jeff Shevlin and Bill Hyder, Inspirations: So-Called Dollars and the Stories They Tell – A Coffee Table Art Book, is now available.

This spectacular, oversized 11" × 11" coffee table art book showcases 63 extraordinary So-Called Dollars, each presented with a full-page image of the medal's obverse along with the fascinating story it has to tell. The book reveals detailed information and insights never before published, bringing these remarkable pieces of history to life in a way that is both visually stunning and informative.

A true celebration of So-Called Dollars, Inspirations is designed to be enjoyed not only by collectors and numismatists, but by anyone who appreciates history, art, and the stories captured in these remarkable medals.

David Schenkman in his preface for the book states "Bill an Jeff have selected an interesting cross-section of medals, and in addition to stunning illustrations, they have woven a story around each of them. Comments on the values of the subject medals have also been included, along with a price guide, so in essence this is not only a coffee table book, but also an extensively annotated, selective catalog."

Hardbound, 11 x 11, 152 pages, full color editions are $59.95. A signed and numbered collectors edition which has a Continental Dollar restrike encased in the cover, limited to 100 copies, is available for $149.95. Shipping is $5.00 per book.

For more information, or to order, see:
https://www.so-calleddollar.com/books/

NEW BOOK: INDIAN GOVERNMENT MINT SOUVENIR TOKENS

The Standard Catalogue of Indian Government Mint Souvenir Tokens (2010–2026) by Shri Ravi Shankar Sharma marks a major addition to Indian numismatics. Presented as the first-ever dedicated catalogue on Indian Government Mint souvenir tokens, the 168-page volume documents a fascinating and relatively less-explored segment of modern Indian numismatics.

Covering souvenir token issues from 2010 to 2026, the book provides comprehensive documentation supported by high-quality photographs and detailed information on the various issues produced by the Indian Government Mint. It includes tokens representing diverse themes, including Dhanteras, State-specific issues and other commemorative subjects, making the publication a useful reference for collectors seeking to identify and study these pieces systematically.

The book has been produced as a premium collector's edition, measuring 190 × 255 mm with a thickness of 25 mm. It is printed on Natural Evolution paper and features velvet-finish lamination along with hardcase binding, giving the volume the appearance and durability expected of a long-term numismatic reference work.

The author, Shri Ravi Shankar Sharma, is a distinguished numismatist with more than two decades of experience in the field. He has previously authored pioneering works, including Coinage of the Republic of India (1999) and Standard Guide to Coin Sets of India (2010). His expertise extends across British Indian coinage, Republic India coinage and the coinages of the North-Eastern states. He is also the Founder of KNG Auctions and serves as Honorary Secretary of the Numismatic Society of Calcutta. In addition to his publications, he is known for delivering lectures and demonstrations on minting technology at museums and other institutions.

The publication fills an important gap in Indian numismatic literature. Souvenir tokens issued by the Indian Government Mint have attracted the interest of collectors over the years, but comprehensive documentation of these issues has remained limited. By bringing together the known issues within a single catalogue, the book provides collectors and dealers with a useful reference for identification and study, while researchers and enthusiasts can benefit from the historical context and photographic documentation of the mint issues.

With its systematic coverage, detailed photographs and focus on an emerging area of modern Indian numismatics, The Standard Catalogue of Indian Government Mint Souvenir Tokens (2010-2026): A Numismatic Study is likely to become an important reference for those interested in Indian Government Mint souvenir tokens. More than merely a catalogue, it represents an effort to document and preserve a specialised area of India's numismatic heritage for future collectors and researchers.

The book is priced at an MRP of ?2,000, with limited copies available. For details and bookings, Shri Ravi Shankar Sharma can be contacted at +91 90510 70786. For collectors of modern Indian mint issues, this new publication offers an opportunity to add a specialised and potentially important reference work to their numismatic library.

To read the complete article, see:
Standard Catalogue of Indian Government Mint Souvenir Tokens by Shri Ravi Shankar Sharma (https://numismaticscollections.blogspot.com/2026/08/standard-catalogue-of-mint-souvenir-tokens.html)

NEW BOOK: SECURITY FEATURES ON WORLD BANKNOTES 2026

During an International Bank Note Society dinner held in Oklahoma City in 2025, I had several members ask if my Security Features of Bank Notes book of 2021 was still available. It was out of stock. I thought there were enough new trademarked and patented security devices to attempt an updated book. I was right! With five years of real science put to work, I found over 1/3rd new features. And this was with 1/4th more security device firms.

The oldest security feature is probably the watermark invented in 1282 by Fabriano, the same paper firm Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo used. Fabriano is still in existence producing new security features. The newest patented device is the TwinColors patch of 2025 by Giesecke & Devrient. All the known features for the last 743 years are included in the new Security Features on World Banknotes, 2026.

There are 9 chapters covering generic security features and over 200 trade name security features, 90% with image examples. Chapters include:

• Printing Methods
• Watermarks and Windows
• Inks
• Security Strips
• Security Mask, Foil, & Patch
• Level 3 Machine readable devices
• Substrates
• Varnishes & Coatings
• Index

If you know the trademark name, you can use the index to find the information and images. The book is available on eBay. You can also check my website for ordering instructions at: Currency Den

For more information, or to order, see:
Book "Security Features on World Banknotes" - 2026 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/198583102886)
https://currency-den.com/books-%26-catalogs

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW BOOK: SECURITY FEATURES OF BANKNOTES (https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n18a06.html)

 

VIDEO: ANA CELEBRATES 125TH ANNIVERSARY

Q, David Bowers speaks on ANA history at the 2016 ANA World's Fair of Money held in Anaheim, CA.

To watch the complete video, see:
ANA Celebrates Its 125th Anniversary (https://youtu.be/jQH1N0VoTRw)
ANA Celebrates Its 125th Anniversary (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/554712)

NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: AUGUST 30, 2026

The 1798/7 7x6 Stars Gold Eagle
Saul Teichman writes:

To read the George Earle catalog entry, see:
https://archive.org/details/georgeearle1912chap/page/n169/mode/2up

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
HERITAGE: 2026 ANA SIGNATURE SALE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v29/esylum_v29n34a14.html)

MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FINANCE EXHIBITS

"America in Circulation" features hundreds of examples of American paper money, most of which are on loan from the collection of Mark R. Shenkman. Highlights include currency bearing the signatures of signers of the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence; a complete set of notes from the Educational Series of 1896, renowned for being the most beautiful paper money in American

1. Pine Tree Shilling, Small Planchet, 1652
The Massachusetts Bay Colony authorized silversmith John Hull to produce pine tree shillings, beginning in 1652. They contained silver and were the earliest coins produced in North America.

2. South Carolina Eight Spanish Milled Dollars, 1776
During the Revolutionary War, the British used both military and economic warfare. This included counterfeiting American money to make it less valuable and trustworthy. As a deterrent, this note highlighted the penalty: "Death to Counterfeit."

3. $1 Educational Series Note, 1896
This $1 silver certificate from the 1896 Educational Series is considered one of the most beautiful pieces of American currency.

4. $20 Federal Reserve Notes with Disarmed Exploding Dye Pack
Bank tellers keep packs of money armed with dye packs to use if they are robbed. Once triggered, the dye packs explode with ink, permanently marking the currency and rendering it useless.

Alexander Hamilton was not just a Founding Father—he was the architect of the American financial system. As the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton conceived and built the institutions that would underpin two centuries of American economic growth: a national bank, a funded national debt, a mint, a customs service and a vision for a manufacturing economy that would eventually make the United States the most powerful nation on Earth. This gallery brings Hamilton's story and legacy to life through rare artifacts, original documents and an experience you will find nowhere else in the world.

3. Society of the Cincinnati Badge Belonging to Alexander Hamilton
The Society of the Cincinnati was founded after the Revolutionary War for officers of the Continental Army and their French counterparts. The Society advocated for veteran's benefits, perpetuated the values fought for in the Revolution and commemorated the close bonds formed among its officers. George Washington was its first leader, succeeded after his death by Alexander Hamilton.

4. Thomas Jefferson Check on the Bank of the United States, 1793
Thomas Jefferson despised the Bank of the United States and was vocal about his feelings. It is, therefore, ironic that he used it to conduct his personal banking.

The largest of the Museum's exhibits, "A Financial Revolution" brings to life the origins of the US capital markets, on the nation's 250th anniversary. It features hundreds of documents and objects from the Museum's world-class 18th century collection, many of which have never been on public display. This gallery also explores the worlds of public, private and personal finance and emphasizes the importance of the universal financial themes of budgeting, credit, risk and investment.

2. Colony of Massachusetts Bay "King Philip" Bond, 1775
This is an example of the new nation's first bond issue. The loan certificates were engraved by Paul Revere and feature a vignette of the Wampanoag leader Metacomet, who was known to the English as "King Philip." The bonds were authorized by a Massachusetts Council Act, which provided the first financing for fighting the Revolutionary War.

3. First Bank Check in the Public Domain, 1782
The Bank of North America, chartered in Philadelphia by Congress in 1781, was the nation's first commercial bank. This book was created on the Bank's 100th anniversary in 1881, and several original documents were pressed into it. This check from one merchant to another is dated July 2, 1782. That makes it the earliest known bank check in the public domain.

4. George Washington Bond, 1792
Once Hamilton's financial plan of assumption passed Congress, bondholders turned in their state and Continental debts and received new US Treasury bonds. President George Washington owned Virginia bonds, which he swapped for this US bond. There is a direct link between this document and today's national debt.

To read the complete issue, see:
https://fhmagazine.org/financial-history-157-spring-summer-2026/0332274001786101458

For more information on the Museum American Finance, see:
https://www.moaf.org/

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
THE MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FINANCE IS MOVING (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n08a23.html)
BOSTON MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FINANCE OPENS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n15a11.html)
MORE ON BOSTON MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FINANCE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n16a20.html)
VISITING THE BOSTON MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FINANCE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v29/esylum_v29n28a13.html)

 

VOCABULARY TERM: STRIKING

Striking. Forming relief objects by an impression with a pair of dies and the force of a press. Presses utilize two dies, one obverse, one reverse, to impart the design on both sides at once. The first press, used at the beginning of the 16th century, were screw presses. They were able to strike small thin coins and were powered by man, or more likely two men. Each pressed against a long bar that transferred the motion – by a transversal screw – a downward thrust of a housing containing one of the dies (usually the reverse, where the obverse die is fixed in the pile position below). Pressing creates the raised relief on both sides of the struck piece at one time.

The screw press was used for nearly 400 years. Its improvement came slowly at first, but as the presses were built stronger and with attachments to feed blanks and eject struck pieces, the striking improved. As power changed from man to horse to steam power, larger diameter pieces could be struck with greater depth of impression.

With the invention of the togle-joint press in 1816 greater control over the impression became possible. Each development of this press had an effect on its capability to strike a piece of greater diameter, thicker planchet, better surface control, sharper detail and edge treatments with a sharper rim/edge juncture.

Pre-preparation of the blank aided striking greatly – by upsetting – leading to automated coining, and, ultimately, high speed coining. This was further enhanced when electric motors were applied to coining presses.

Striking is one of five major methods of reproducing numismatic items, the others are casting, repoussé, niello, forged. While each of these has its own place, striking alone is the only method of manufacture suitable for coining – striking in a coin press – for high speed manufacture of highly detailed small disklike objects often of valuable metal.

History of striking. Coins made before the use of a press are known as hammered, formed with a sledge blow to a punch with a blank placed between it and the die in the pile position below, each imparting a design image. The coiners were moneyers who produced the hammered coins manually. These workers were so well entrenched that when the screw press was introduced (in 1551 in France, and 1561 in England) that the moneyers were able to thwart the continued use of the screw press for nearly a century.

Hammered coins, therefore, were not phased out until 1641 in France and 1662 in Great Britain. Thus the screw press, which was developed for coining in 1506 in Italy, was not fully in use elsewhere until more than 150 years later! Striking dates from this irresolute period of coining history.

Matthew Boulton did more to improve striking than any other individual in coining history. He not only applied the power from his steam engines, but also developed better blank preparation, upsetting, but also used the finest steel for dies he could obtain (from Benjamin Huntsman, who had developed crucible steel in 1756).

Diedrick Uhlhorn invented the togrel-joint coining press in Germany in 1816. This was improved upon by Eugene Thonnelier in France in 1836. Each of these presses struck coins with better striking control, higher quality and better relief surfaces than before. Their power derived from steam or water, transferred to the presses by belts.

The hydraulic press was invented about this same time, but it was too slow for coining, The togel-joint press gave a sharp blow for the impression in contrast to the squeeze of the hydraulic press.

For the last half of the 19th century the screw press and the togel-joint press were is use simultaneously. It was only when commercial electricity and electric motors became available and these were applied to run presses that it was learned that it was easier to electrify togel-joint presses than screw presses, that the later was phased out of coin production.

Thus the development of striking paralleled the development of presses and how they were powered. Striking improved by sharper images, in larger diameter coins, with dies that lasted for longer press runs.

To read the complete entry on the Newman Numismatic Portal, see:
Striking (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/dictionarydetail/516837)

CHARLES ENDERS, JR.

Charles Enders, Jr. was a young coin dealer for a brief period of time in the 1880's. His legacy in numismatics extends to the present day.

He was born in New York City, the son of Charles Enders and Katherine Schulz. At the time of the 1870 Census, he is listed as six years old. The 1900 Census showed his birth in June, 1864, the closest thing found to his date of birth.

Enders worked at a department store, A.T. Stewart's dry Goods Emporium in New York City. He read extensively about numismatics and set up business at home as a coin dealer.

John Lupia had correspondence between Enders and the Chapman brothers in 1882 when Enders was about eighteen. Enders also acquired coins from Charles Steigerwalt.

Enders resided at 51 Sheriff Street with his parents and siblings around 1880 to 1886. At the time this was a tenement occupied mostly by immigrants. After he married, he moved to 324 East 69th Street for 1887-89 and then to 421 West 45 th Street in 1890.

In June 1885, Enders ran a full-page ad in The Agassiz Journal for Curiosity Collectors. He offered inexpensive items that might appeal to a curiosity collector as well as a beginning coin collector.

Near the bottom of the ad he offered a book, Collectors' Handbooks of Greek and Roman Coins, Stamps, Shells, Insects, Birds, Beetles and Fossils. All written by first-class specialists, and each volume is fully illustrated, and of which will be sent on receipt of 10 cts., together with my catalogues and price-lists.

Charles Enders issued a Price List and Catalogue of Rare Electrotype Coins and Medals. For Sale by Charles Enders, Jr. in about 1886 This was a single sheet folded into four pages. It listed about 140 items with a few bulk lots. Most were priced at $.20 to $.35 each.

Several past items in The E-Sylum refer to him as "Electrotypist Charles Enders, Jr." I have found no contemporary confirmation that he was the manufacturer but I doubt if he made them in his parents' tenement. If he could sell one for twenty cents, the material and labor costs must have been low.

The most expensive item on the list was a Declaration of Independence medal, size 56, for $1.00. This matches the description of electrotypes known to be produced by Samuel H. Black around 1860. Whoever produced the electrotypes also needed access to high grade rare coins to copy. I think this is a topic worthy of additional study.

Enders had an ad in Brooklyn Magazine in July 1886. That same month he ran a full-page ad in the American Journal of Numismatics. Near the bottom he offered a new book by Barclay V. Head, English Coins and Tokens, at the price of 60 cents, postpaid.

The ad includes a brief note: "Send Stamp for New Catalog." In the book compiled by Remy Bourne, Fixed Price Lists & Premium Paid For Lists of United States Coin dealers 1822-1900, there is no listing for Enders.

By 1886 he was investing in real estate. He owned property in the Tenderloin District between 31st and 33rd Streets. This was acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad for construction of Penn Station.

Charles married Amelia Fiedler in 1887. They had three children, Leila. Charles and Howard.

He had to give up coin dealing because of poor eyesight. Enders saw good prospects in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, and moved there about 1895. He bought up vacant land, built houses and did a good business in real estate. He became the wealthiest man in the village.

There are gaps in the Enders story that I can't fill. I doubt if he made enough money selling twenty-cent electrotypes to invest in Manhattan real estate. It is likely that he had another job but that does not show up in his history.

Enders bought a weekly newspaper, the Ridgefield Park Bulletin in 1906. He served on the school board and was involved in community activities.

There is family lore that he had a seat on the stock exchange and lost big in 1929. That is undocumented.

Enders suffered a heart attack in the office of his newspaper on March 23, 1943.

Enders died of coronary thrombosis at Hackensack Hospital on February 22, 1945. He was cremated so there was no burial and no headstone with a birthdate. Obituaries in some newspapers stated that he died at home at age 82. At the time of his death, he was the oldest member of Livingston Lodge No. 657 F. and A. M. in New York City He was a past master of the lodge.

Obituaries often have nice things to say. His son, Howard Crosby Enders wrote, "One of his frequently quoted mottos was "Men are only as great as they are kind," This great man sincerely exemplified the true meaning of that quotation."

I would like to hear from E-Sylum readers who know more about electrotypes than I do. Can any be traced back to their maker?

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
THE 1787 BRASHER DOUBLOON ELECTROTYPE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n43a13.html)
ELECTROTYPIST CHARLES ENDERS, JR (https://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n47a09.html)
QUERY: 1786 NEO-EBORACENESIS ELECTROTYPES (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n40a12.html)

 

STACK'S BOWERS: CHARLES "CHEECH" LITMAN COLLECTION

Undated (ca. 1785) Bar Copper. W-8520. Rarity-4. MS-63 BN (PCGS). OGH. Choice autumn-brown with frosty luster and exceptional eye appeal for the assigned grade. Both sides glow with original mint bloom, direct lighting calling forth soft pinkish-lilac undertones and faint traces of semi-reflectivity. Centering is typically off for the issue, both sides devoid of denticulation along the right borders, but the bars on the reverse are complete and crisp, the USA monogram on the obverse likewise razor sharp. Broad denticulation frames the left borders. The texture is glossy and temptingly close to Choice Mint State quality. In sum, this is a stellar specimen of this iconic and popular issue.

One of the most eagerly sought numismatic items from the colonial and early federal era of United States history, the Bar copper is also one of the most enigmatic. We are not sure by whom or under what circumstances these pieces were produced. We are reasonably sure, however, that this type was struck circa 1785, as evidenced by an entry in the November 12, 1785, issue of the New Jersey Gazettee that states:

A new and curious kind of coppers have lately made their appearance in New York. The novelty and bright gloss of which keeps them in circulation. These coppers are in fact similar to Continental buttons without eyes; on the one side are thirteen stripes and on the other U.S.A., as was usual on the solders' buttons. The Bar copper is perhaps the early American coin best equipped to illustrate two great narratives of the Revolutionary-era: the military struggle for independence and the economic struggle against crummy coppers. Both the obverse and reverse designs of the Bar coppers were borrowed directly from buttons worn by Continental Army soldiers. The obverse design was commonplace throughout the war on the coats and vests of soldiers from New England to the Carolinas, making this design instantly familiar to most who encountered it. The lifespan of those buttons was longer than the circulation life of a Bar copper, however. The Bar coppers did meet with initial success in the young United States, where a dearth of circulating specie meant that they were eagerly accepted in commerce. At the time of their introduction, however, these coins were among the most underweight of the post-Revolutionary coppers, sometimes weighing as little as half of a Fugio cent. When the Copper Panic of 1789 hit New York, the Hudson Valley, Philadelphia, New Haven, and Boston, these were among the first coppers to be tossed from circulation, which is why AU Bar coppers are more common than VGs. Those AU coins vary widely in quality though and, of course, choice Mint State pieces such as this are noteworthy rarities. This is certainly one of the nicest to come on the market in recent years.

To read the complete item description, see:
Exceptional Mint State Bar Copper Rarity (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-1UQ7DO/undated-ca-1785-bar-copper-w-8520-rarity-4-ms-63-bn-pcgs-ogh)

"1776" (1783) Continental Dollar. Newman 1-C, W-8445. Rarity-3. CURENCY. Pewter. MS-62 (PCGS). CMQ. This is a handsome and scarce Mint State example of the fabled Continental dollar, a type whose history has recently been rewritten by numismatic researchers, but whose popularity is as strong today as it has ever been. Richly original pewter-gray surfaces with blended deep olive patina. Both sides reveal flashes of soft mint luster that are best appreciated at direct viewing angles. Well centered in strike with nearly complete border denticulation and all major design elements sharp. Struck from an earlier state of this obverse die, there is an internal cud break at the tops of the letters GI in FUGIO, but of the cracks and breaks that eventually extend from it in both directions no traces are seen. An ancient surface deposit at the letters NE in CONTINENTAL blends almost seamlessly into the toning, while both sides are free of significant handling marks with a lovely appearance in hand.

The Continental dollar is an enigmatic type for which no specific documentation detailing its origin has ever been found. Numismatic scholars have been able to piece together a story that, up until recently, had become the generally accepted version of events. According to this story, resolutions passed by the Continental Congress on February 17, 1776, and May 9 of the same year provided for the issuance of paper money in various denominations, including a $1 note. Resolutions passed later in the year on July 22 and November 2, however, omitted the $1 note. Based on these facts and supported by the existence of these coins, it was theorized that the Continental Congress intended these pieces to serve in lieu of the $1 note beginning in the latter half of 1776. The vast majority of surviving examples are struck in pewter, as here, although a few silver and brass impressions are also known. It was easy to conclude that pewter was the intended composition of such a coin, as the coins would have been fiat money without intrinsic backing, as the notes were. In addition, the fledgling government did not have a significant treasury reserve. Elisha Gallaudet was identified by Eric Newman as the likely maker based on convenient circumstantial evidence. He was a New York City engraver of the period who was known to have been involved in production of New York paper money issues of the 1770s and thus clearly a prime candidate.

The earliest known published record of the Continental dollar came, oddly enough, in the German book Historical and Genealogical Almanac, or Yearbook of the Most Remarkable New World Events for 1784 by Matthias Christian Sprengel. Despite the date in the title, the book was published in 1783, the captions for its illustrations rendered in German for the benefit of its target audience. Two illustrations were used to represent the new American nation: one depicting the famous Libertas Americana medal and the other the equally iconic Continental dollar. The caption provided for the obverse of the Continental dollar was AMERICANISCHE LANDES MUNTZE, which roughly translates into "American Country Money." The publisher actually wrote to Benjamin Franklin requesting illustrations to use in the book, although with no record of Franklin's reply the exact origin of Sprengel's illustrations remains unknown.

A few years later, in 1786, Bishop Richard Watson's Chemical Essays (Volume IV) also mentioned the Continental dollar. Watson was a professor of chemistry and divinity at Cambridge sanctioned by the British Crown. After discussing the "gun money" issues of King James III, Watson writes:

The Congress in America had recourse to the same expedient; they coined several pieces of about an inch and a half in diameter, and of 240 grains in weight; on one side of which was inscribed in a circular ring near the edge - Continental Currency, 1776 - and within the ring a rising sun, with - fugio - at the side of it, shining upon a dial, under which was - Mind your business. - On the reverse were thirteen small circles joined together like the rings of a chain, on each of which was inscribed the name of some one of the thirteen states; on another circular ring, within these, was inscribed - American Congress - and in the central space - We are One. Although the authors of these early publications obviously believed that the Continental dollars were coins of American manufacture, no documentary evidence was provided to substantiate this claim. In fact, it is the lack of documentary evidence authorizing the issue of these pieces in the records of the Continental Congress that has long troubled numismatic researchers.

As convincing as the traditional story of these pieces seems, and as tempting as it is to assign primary source status to the Sprengel and Bishop Watson accounts because they date to the 1780s, modern research and a two-part article by Erik Goldstein and David McCarthy entitled "The Myth of the Continental Dollar" published in the January and July 2018 editions of The Numismatist challenge the long accepted theories surrounding these coins. They discovered that a long string of early Americans - people who were actually in a position to provide concrete facts about these pieces - went on the record to mention that they had never seen or heard of such a thing as a Continental dollar coin. Paul Revere and Josiah Meigs both went on the record within a decade of the end of the American Revolution to correct Bishop Watson's report that the pewter "dollar" was an American coin. In the December 12, 1788 issue of The New Haven Gazette, which he owned and published, Meigs, who at the time was New Haven's city clerk, boldly rebuked Bishop Watson's conclusion:

The following extract from the learned Bishop Watson's Chemical Essays Vol. 4. Page 136. shews how easily strange errors are introduced into the writing of even careful men when they write on any subject relative to distant countries--It is probable that some workman amused himself with copying one of the small bills emitted by Congress, into a die or mould, and then impressed or cast a piece of Pewter such as the Bishop has described.--If the author of that work should publish a future addition, it is hoped that clause will be omitted.

To read the complete item description, see:
Iconic Continental Dollar (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-1UQ7EC/1776-1783-continental-dollar-newman-1-c-w-8445-rarity-3-curency-pewter-ms-62-pcgs-cmq)

1793 Liberty Cap Half Cent. Head Left. C-2. Rarity-3. AU-50 (PCGS). OGH. Fuhrman Die State 3. Strong quality for the assigned grade, this highly appealing example exhibits glints of tan-gold to dominant olive-brown patina. Sharply defined in most areas, where allowed by die state, the strike is also fairly well centered on a nice, broad planchet. Only minor flan flaws are present, all on the obverse, and all minor, with the most readily evident at Liberty's neck and in the field before the profile. The in-hand appearance is remarkably smooth in the absence of troublesome marks. The reverse is rotated approximately 45 degrees clockwise from normal coin alignment, an attribute we have noted in several other 1793 half cents of the C-2 die pairing.

The 1793 half cent is significant as the first United States half cent, the only issue of the Liberty Cap, Head Left design type and one of just two denominations struck during the Mint's first full year of coinage operations (the other is the large cent). Henry Voigt engraved the dies, and by mid-May the Mint had already prepared more than 30,000 planchets for the half cents, including having their edges lettered. All of the planchets were made from sheet copper. Actual coinage did not commence until July 19, however, with production on that date probably accounting for most or all of the 7,000 examples delivered to the treasurer the following day. The remaining 24,934 half cents were struck from July 23 to 25 and delivered on July 26, for a total mintage of 31,934 pieces for the 1793 Liberty Cap issue. The oft-published mintage of 35,334 pieces for this issue includes an additional 3,400 coins delivered with the Liberty Cap cents on September 18, 1793, that William R. Eckberg (The Half Cent, 1793-1857: The Story of America's Greatest Little Coin, 2019) believes were actually cents based on the records of Mint Treasurer Tristram Dalton. When half cent coinage resumed in 1794, the denomination featured a modified Liberty Cap design by Robert Scot with the portrait facing to the right.

Given its current popularity, it may be surprising that the 1793 half cent seems to have been generally overlooked by contemporary collectors. No notable high grade pieces appeared from English or other European sources in the 20th century, suggesting that few, if any, Mint State examples were set aside by numismatists and others who visited the early United States. It was not until the 1850s that numismatics as a hobby began to gain widespread popularity in the United States, and the earliest known interest in the 1793 half cent as a valuable collectible dates to that decade. In 1855 collector Winslow Howard purchased a lot of two examples in the Pierre Flandin sale, one of the first major numismatic auctions held in the United States. Mr. Howard paid $7 for his two 1793 half cents, a sizable sum, especially since half cents could still be found in commerce during the 1850s, at least in major Eastern cities like Philadelphia and New York. It is almost certainly the retrieval of coins from circulation during the decade preceding the Civil War that accounts for the majority of 1793 half cents known today, a theory that squares nicely with an extant population comprised almost exclusively of worn coins.

The exact number of Mint State 1793 half cents extant is a matter of debate, although it certainly represents an infinitesimal proportion of all survivors. Given their undeniable rarity, the best that most collectors can hope to acquire for this issue is an AU, and the sharp-eyed bidder will recognize the fleeting nature of this offering.

Numismatic researchers have identified four different die pairings for the 1793 half cent. Cohen-2, represented by the present specimen, shares its obverse with C-1 and its reverse with C-3. Bill Eckberg asserts that this variety was struck on July 23, 1793, and delivered with the C-3 and C-4 coins on July 26. The author's estimate on the number of survivors for the C-2 pairing is 250 to 325 coins. Although all four die marriages of this issue are of roughly equal availability in an absolute sense, the C-2 is very rare above Extremely Fine with Ronald Manley observing that examples are "usually available only in low grades."

To read the complete item description, see:
Premium AU 1793 Half Cent (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-1UQ7GP/1793-liberty-cap-half-cent-head-left-c-2-rarity-3-au-50-pcgs-ogh)

1796 Draped Bust Quarter. B-2. Rarity-3. MS-62 (NGC). Gold CAC. CMQ-X. OH. Offered is a stunning condition rarity and supremely attractive coin for this one year design type that is eagerly sought even in the lowest circulated grades. This 1796 quarter is elegantly toned with surfaces that are dressed in richly original patina, the colors most vivid and varied when observed with the aid of direct lighting. The strike is expertly centered with most design elements sharply defined; softness to the eagle's head, breast and left leg is typical of most examples. It is uncommonly smooth and attractive for the assigned grade with a frosty to faintly semi-reflective finish. Gold CAC approval is fully justified here, as this coin is strongly suggestive of at least Select Mint State quality.

The 1796 quarter has long been an object of desire for all who form type sets of American coinage. Struck only in this single year, the Draped Bust obverse in combination with the Small Eagle reverse is very rare relative to the demand for it, as no type set can be complete without an example. Survivors are scarce as the mintage was just 6,146 pieces. The Mint required two obverse dies and one reverse to achieve this mintage, with Browning-2, as offered here, the more frequently encountered by a small margin. This is the High 6 variety of the issue, so named because the digit 6 in the date is closer to the bust than on the B-1 Low 6 variety.

While a number of Mint State 1796 quarters are extant from both die marriages, the vast majority of survivors are circulated to one degree or another. Demand for high grade coins is particularly intense and, indeed, the offered coin is an ideal example - the very best that most collectors could realistically hope for in a 1796 quarter. Worthy of the strongest bids, and destined for inclusion in an exceptional numismatic cabinet.

To read the complete item description, see:
Landmark Mint State 1796 Quarter (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-1UQ83T/1796-draped-bust-quarter-b-2-rarity-3-ms-62-ngc-gold-cac-cmq-x-oh)

1818 Capped Bust Quarter. B-3. Rarity-3. MS-65 (NGC). Tompkins Die Stage 2/2, Rea et al. Die State P. This is an uncommonly well preserved and visually appealing survivor of a challenging and underrated early quarter design type. Both sides are dressed in warm olive-gray patina that lightens to silver-apricot iridescence toward the centers; the peripheries light up with halos of cobalt blue as the coin dip into direct lighting. Softly frosted in finish, if a bit muted in overall appearance, with sharply rendered features and an expectably smooth appearance for the assigned grade.

Although authorized by the Act of April 2, 1792, the first quarter dollars were not produced until 1796. During the earliest years of U.S. Mint operations silver coins were produced at the specific request of bullion depositors, and the quarter dollar was not a popular denomination as evidenced by the mintage figures of the 1790s and early 1800s. The highest mintage date before 1831 is the 1818, with only 361,174 pieces struck. In 1796, the inaugural year of the quarter dollar, just 6,146 pieces filled the Mint's orders for this denomination.

Quarter dollar production was also sporadic throughout the earliest decades of Mint operations, with many years passing in which no examples were produced. The largest gaps in production were from 1797 through 1803 and from 1808 through 1814. Much of the 1815 mintage of 89,235 pieces filled a request for quarter dollars from the Planters Bank of New Orleans. Widely known to numismatists for their counterstamped Spanish cut fractional coins, the Planters Bank deposited nearly $15,000 in silver bullion for coinage in 1815 and requested only quarter dollars in return. The new quarter dollars depicted assistant engraver John Reich's Capped Bust portrait of Liberty that was first used on the half dollar and half eagle in 1807. A single die pair struck the entire 1815-dated issue, after which quarter dollar coinage was halted once again until 1818.

As one of the most frequently encountered issues in this series, the 1818 Capped Bust quarter is eagerly sought by both type collectors and specialists. The issue is obtainable by early quarter standards, at least in lower circulated grades, although AU examples are scarce. The 1818 is rare in Mint State, however, especially at and above the Choice level, as here. The present lot represents a significant bidding opportunity for advanced collectors and will attract much excitement when it crosses the auction block.

To read the complete item description, see:
Gem Mint State 1818 Quarter (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-1UQ84J/1818-capped-bust-quarter-b-3-rarity-3-ms-65-ngc)

1876 Three-Dollar Gold Piece. JD-2. Rarity-6. Proof-64 (PCGS). CAC. CMQ. OGH. An impressive coin with premium technical quality to match its undeniable absolute rarity. The surfaces are nicely preserved with a predominantly smooth appearance that holds up well even under close scrutiny with a loupe. This is also a beautiful coin, as one should expect for the assigned grade, the surfaces bathed in vivid orange-gold color with appreciable field to device contrast. Sharp strike detail that touches even the most intricate design elements rounds out a truly impressive list of attributes for this phenomenal coin.

The Mint produced no circulation strike three-dollar gold coins in 1876, a repeat of 1875, but it did step up Proof production in the later year in anticipation of increased demand associated with the United States Centennial celebration. Officially the Mint struck 45 Proof threes in 1876, 20 coins delivered on February 19 and an additional 25 specimens on June 13. Interestingly, however, two die marriages are known, with different die rotations also known for both varieties. John W. Dannreuther (2018) rightly concludes that this data points to at least four different striking periods, so it is likely that a few additional Proofs of this issue were prepared, either on other dates in 1876 and/or as restrikes sometime after that year.

With a higher mintage, it is little wonder than the 1876 three-dollar gold piece is more plentiful in numismatic circles than the 1875, which is also a Proof-only issue, but one with a reported mintage of just 20 coins. As with all classic U.S. Mint Proof gold coins, of course, the 1876 three is a major rarity in an absolute sense. Dannreuther accounts for only 32 to 40 survivors, which total is evenly divided between the JD-1 and JD-2 die pairings. The awesome near-Gem Proof offered here is an exquisite specimen destined for inclusion in an advanced gold cabinet.

To read the complete item description, see:
Famous Proof-Only 1876 Three-Dollar Gold Rarity (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-1UQAVA/1876-three-dollar-gold-piece-jd-2-rarity-6-proof-64-pcgs-cac-cmq-ogh)

1815 Capped Head Left Half Eagle. BD-1. Rarity-7. MS-62 (NGC). BD Die State b/e. An American numismatic treasure, this Uncirculated 1815 half eagle is a star of the early gold offerings in this sale. The 1815 was long a more famous half eagle rarity than the 1822, and today it is still revered by generalists and gold coin specialists alike. This is one of the six Mint State examples known, endowed with plenty of visual appeal. Wisps of pinkish-rose iridescence are scattered across the bright olive-orange surfaces. The luster is pleasing, if a bit muted, both sides frosty in texture with modest semi-reflective qualities in the fields. The strike is virtually full, and nowhere less than bold, with just a touch of softness confined to the highest points of Liberty's hair curls, the eagle's talons, and within the eagle's right wing, where a few faint adjustment marks (as made) can be discerned under magnification. In addition to muted luster, the surfaces are a tad glossy in texture with faint hairlines, but free of sizeable marks. Light scratches at the obverse border between stars 6 and 7 and outside stars 11 and 12 are the most useful provenance marker.

The obverse die shows no damage that condemned this issue to rarity; instead, a dearth of gold deposited for coinage resulted in this year concluding with a mintage of just 635 half eagles. A fine die crack (as made) crosses star 12 from its northeast point to its bottom point, from which it connects to star 13. A more trivial die crack extends to Liberty's fore curl from the rim beyond star 5. The reverse is on its third marriage in this combination, following 1813 BD-2 and the 1814/3. The die cracks at MERICA and D of the denomination are in about the same state as they were on the 1814/3, and the die cracks atop several letters of STATES have likewise not advanced. The die clash is now barely visible, showing just a small impression below the letters IB in PLURIBUS. These attributes correspond to BD Die State b/e, as above.

The War of 1812 was disastrous for the American economy. Following an ill-conceived embargo (that punished Americans more than their enemies), incursions over the American border from Canada in 1813, and an invasion of the American capital in 1814, specie was hoarded and the economy ground to a halt. The Mint was all but shuttered for most of 1815, with the war preventing the importation of cent planchets from England and the economic issues manifesting in very few deposits of specie.

"The high price of gold and silver bullion for some time past in the current paper money of the country has prevented, and, as long as this shall continue to be the case, must necessarily prevent, deposits of these metals being made for coinage to any considerable amount," wrote Mint Director Robert Patterson in his Mint Report for the year. A deposit of silver from New Orleans led to a sizable number of quarter dollars being struck in 1815, but the key date 1815 half dollars were actually struck after the calendar turned to 1816. Only tiny deposits of gold came into the Mint, two of which arrived in 1815 and one of which remained leftover from late 1814. It took but one day to produce the entire year's production of half eagles. "The entire mintage of 635 coins was struck, probably in less than an hour, on November 3, 1815," wrote Bill Eckberg in a 2015 article on the year's coinage, published in Coin World. Researcher R.W. Julian calculated the number of 1815 half eagles given to each depositor: "Thomas Parker received 67 of the coins, Charles F. Kalkman another 210 pieces and the Bank of Pennsylvania was sent the rest, 358 pieces." These 635 coins represented all the gold coins struck by the United States Mint in 1815, one of the smallest annual mintages of any denomination during the Mint's long history.

While knowledge of American coins has evolved significantly over the last 150 years, the 1815 half eagle is one of only a few issues that has ever been seriously considered the rarest American coin. In April 1883, when S. Hudson and Henry Chapman offered an example to T. Harrison Garrett, they called it "the rarest coin of the U.S. regular series" and noted that "but four specimens of this date are known to exist, which cannot, we think, be said of any other date of U.S. coins." They correctly added that the 1815 half eagle is "of greater rarity than the dollar of 1804" and surmised that "in a few years, when the collecting of gold develops, it will no doubt command a very large figure." Their prescience is borne out by auction data compiled by P. Scott Rubin. The next authentic 1815 half eagle to sell at auction after 1883 was the example in the H.P. Smith sale of 1906, which sold for $1,050. The next year, the Stickney coin brought $2,000, and prices continued to increase thereafter.

During this era, Harold P. Newlin and Lorin Parmelee also weighed in on the relative rarity and desirability of the 1815 half eagle. Newlin, best known today for his pioneering work on half dimes, was a careful student of early U.S. silver and gold coins. He was also T. Harrison Garrett's closest advisor for some time. Newlin told Garrett in December 1884, "It is only very recently that the 1822 [half eagle] was known to be rare" and "Parmelee thinks [the 1822 $5] is the scarcest after 1815, but it will never bring as much as that date as the 1815 has always been considered the rarest coin in the U.S. series." Newlin continued, commenting that it "has been advertised for and looked after for 25 years without another specimen being brought to light." By the time the next example had changed hands via auction in the 1906 Harlan Page Smith sale more than 20 years later "probably about 6" specimens were reported to exist. Smith's coin was likely the one offered in the 1890 Parmelee sale, consigned by Smith as a stand in for the inauthentic Parmelee coin, but retained by him after the auction.

Over the next several decades, a few new pieces were discovered. The Stickney coin came to light in 1907, though it was collected decades earlier; it appears to have been the seventh specimen identified. Even as new 1815 half eagles came to light, they disappeared from the market just as quickly. The Mint Cabinet acquired one in 1884, never to be sold again. The piece T. Harrison Garrett purchased the same year was not sold again for nearly a century. Stickney's sold five times between 1907 and 1955 before it was snapped up by Josiah K. Lilly and eventually added to the National Numismatic Collection. The coin that was contained in the Harry W. Bass Foundation Core Collection turned up in 1912, changed hands via only private transactions until it was sold in the 1954 King Farouk sale in Cairo, then was purchased by Bass in the 1987 Norweb sale. The H.P. Smith coin traveled a similar route: acquired by John H. Clapp, sold privately to Louis Eliasberg, and never offered at a single auction between 1906 and the 1982 Eliasberg sale. It last sold in the 1999 Bass II sale. Similarly, the Flanagan coin sold in 1944 went into the James A. Stack Collection for a half century and did not sell again until 1995.

The Pogue specimen, once part of the Virgil Brand Collection, is the example purchased by Brand from the Guttag Brothers in 1925. Brand paid $3,500 for the coin, a record sum for the issue that was more than examples brought in 1922 (the Ten Eyck coin at $2,200), 1944 (the Flanagan coin at $2,800) and 1946 (the Atwater coin at $3,100). The coin in the 1944 J.F. Bell sale (ex Ten Eyck) brought slightly more, $3,600, more than 20 years after Brand's purchase from the Guttags. A short list of famous rarities from the Virgil Brand Collection, written by Armin Brand in 1940, describes the 1815 half eagle acquired from the Guttag Brothers as "Unc.," the sole grade descriptor Armin Brand made in the document. It is now the finest certified 1815 half eagle in PCGS MS-65, and realized $822,500 in our February 2016 Pogue III Sale.

Extensive research on this issue by Saul Teichman and the team of David Stone and Mark Van Winkle has found only 10 known specimens. The provenance of each specimen has been rendered in detail by Stone and Van Winkle in The 1815 Half Eagle: New Discoveries, and is also published on the Newman Numismatic Portal. Their work has revealed that the specimen long thought to be in the Connecticut State Library is actually an altered 1813 half eagle and confirms that the example Joseph J. Mickley said was in the Swedish Mint cabinet really does exist. Purchased in 1851 "with 19 other gold coins from other countries," the example in the Kungliga Myntkabinettet in Stockholm is illustrated and described in The 1815 Half Eagle, "graded AU-55 or better" though probably lightly cleaned. Aside from this example and the two examples in the Smithsonian Institution previously mentioned, just seven examples survive in private hands: the Pogue coin; the Garrett specimen; the Bass Core Collection coin; the present example, last sold in the June 2000 Goldberg's sale; the Clapp-Eliasberg coin last sold in the Bass II sale; the Atwater-Carter coin; and the Flanagan-James A. Stack coin.

Decades have sometimes passed between opportunities to bid on any example of this classic American rarity and, indeed, the present specimen is expected to find its way into another tightly held cabinet through this current auction appearance.

Provenance: From the Charles "Cheech" Litman Collection. Earlier from Superior's Baltimore '93 Auction, July 1993, lot 885; Ira & Larry Goldberg's Dr. Richard Ariagno Collection sale, May 1999, lot 718; Ira & Larry Goldberg's sale of Dr. Jon Kardatzke Collection, Part II, June 2000, lot 1306.

To read the complete item description, see:
Legendary 1815 Half Eagle (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-1UQBDP/1815-capped-head-left-half-eagle-bd-1-rarity-7-ms-62-ngc)

1876 Liberty Head Double Eagle. JD-1. Rarity-6. Proof-64 (PCGS). CAC. OGH. Appearing finer even than the near-Gem grade assigned by PCGS, this fully struck, richly original piece reveals few blemishes of even a trivial nature. Bold cameo contrast goes unmentioned on the Generation 3.1 PCGS insert, and the eye appeal is strong enough to support at least a support a Gem Proof assessment. Vivid deep orange-gold in color, this piece is sure to sell for a strong bid.

The mintage of 45 pieces in Proof has been cut at least in half - by time and attrition - and John W. Dannreuther (2018) opines that only 18 to 22 of these exist today. A few Proof 1876 $20s are impaired, and also a few are impounded in museum collections, further limiting the supply of premium quality survivors such as that offered here.

This issue is historic for many reasons. First off, 1876 was America's centennial year and many celebrations were held to commemorate this incredible event. The nation was still healing from the devastating Civil War that had ended a little over a decade prior. The westward expansion came to a sudden half that year when George A. Custer ran into his final battle at the Little Big Horn, ending his brilliant military and political career. Holding this attractive and rare Proof double eagle captures those moments in time. Somehow this glorious piece has come forward through all the trials and tribulations since its issue as well, yet remarkably well preserved. Double eagle Proofs are among the most sought-after of all U.S. Mint gold coins, as they are so rare and impressive in size. Most of those struck were melted or later spent. This outstanding coin is destined for an advanced collection and is certain to be a major highlight of any conversation in which it is discussed.

This lot includes NGC insert #326385-004 with a grade of Proof-64 Cameo from an earlier certification of this coin.

To read the complete item description, see:
Rare Centennial Year Proof 1876 Double Eagle (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-1UQDIP/1876-liberty-head-double-eagle-jd-1-rarity-6-proof-64-pcgs-cac-ogh)

1851 Augustus Humbert $50. Lettered Edge. K-2. Rarity-5. 880 THOUS., No 50 on Reverse. AU-53 (NGC). CAC. CMQ. OH. An iconic California Gold Rush issue, among the earliest $50 slugs produced before the labor-intensive process of lettering the edges was abandoned in favor of reeding. Abundant softly frosted luster persists on surfaces that sport lovely, warm, medium golden-yellow color. Most devices are sharply rendered and fully struck on both sides, showing only typical softness within the eagle's rock on the obverse, and only light high point wear from a short stint in active circulation. This variety did not receive a hand-punched 50 at the central reverse, unlike its K-1 (also .880) and K-4 (.887) counterparts. Only the usual scattering of contact marks are seen across the surfaces, and the portion of the edges visible in the encapsulation are remarkably smooth and free of the major bruises and other defects that are so common on Humbert slugs. Minor planchet flaws at the upper and lower reverse borders are as made and in no way detract. The aesthetic appeal of this coin is immense, with the kind of color surface preservation seldom encountered in the modern era. With its look, luster and detail, this coin would be challenging to improve upon within the AU grade.

This is a simply incredible specimen of this important historical coinage, described by Kagin and McCarthy as "the earliest U.S. Government issues in California." The lettered edge $50 slugs were first struck on January 31, 1851, shortly after Augustus Humbert arrived in San Francisco with the necessary tools in hand. The majestic eagle on the obverse was accomplished by America's most highly regarded medalist, Charles Cushing Wright of New York. The reverse die, with its fine engine turned details, resembles watch cases of the era, unquestionably the work of Humbert, a former watchcase maker himself.

For modern collectors, there is not a single issue that symbolizes the California Gold Rush better than a Humbert $50 slug. They are massive and iconic, recognizable even outside the realm of numismatics, an encapsulation of the dramatic wealth and excess of the Gold Rush era. Though any Humbert slug is desirable, the lettered edge types of 1851 came first and remain the hardest to locate in nice grade. The Kagin-McCarthy book estimates that about 100 specimens of this variety, with the 880 THOUS obverse and no denomination on the reverse, exist today. Most are damaged, many are in institutional holdings, and very few are prettier than this.

We have only offered two finer 880 THOUS Lettered Edge $50 slugs since 2021: an NGC AU-58 example in our November 2021 Baltimore Auction, and the James A. Stack, Sr. specimen in PCGS/CAC/CMQ AU-58+ that brought $360,000 in our February 2026 sale of that celebrated collection. We haven't had a Mint State example since our 2006 sale of the Archangel Collection.

To read the complete item description, see:
Majestic 1851 Lettered Edge Humbert $50 Slug (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-1UQER4/1851-augustus-humbert-50-lettered-edge-k-2-rarity-5-880-thous-no-50-on-reverse-au-53-ngc-cac-cmq-oh)

"1861" (1874) Confederate Cent. Haseltine Restrike. Breen-8008. Copper. EF-40 (PCGS). An eminently collectable Haseltine restrike Confederate cent in copper whose offering in this sale represents a fleeting opportunity for advanced collectors of Civil War era coinage. Warmly toned in walnut brown with wisps of light rose intermingled through the centers, the protected areas around many design elements show deeper russet highlights that are associated with some light, ancient surface build up. There is evidence of an old, light cleaning here, thin scrape low in the left obverse field, but the in-hand appearance is pleasing for an example of this type that was obvious the recipient of less-than-ideal handling on the part of one or more earlier collectors.

Capt. John W. Haseltine's 1874 restrikes are beset by almost as much confusion and contradiction as the original 1861 Confederate cents. Haseltine and J. Colvin Randall, who controlled the supply of original Confederate cents and dies, enlisted Philadelphia die sinker Peter L. Krider to restrike Confederate cents from Robert Lovett, Jr.'s original dies. According to the sales pitch in their "Circular to Collectors" of April 2, 1874, seven restrikes in gold, 12 in silver, and 55 in copper were made before the dies broke. Haseltine misremembered in 1908 that only three gold and five silver restrikes were produced, but the number of extant specimens preclude these smaller numbers. In the November 1911 issue of The Numismatist, trusted numismatic scholar Edgar Adams also reported a mintage figure of seven pieces for the gold restrikes. Since Haseltine was not known for his loyalty to the truth, as we know from his various renditions of the story of the originals, it is no wonder that he also embellished the story behind the restrikes.

A note should be made here about the restrike Confederate cents made by Robert Bashlow in the early 1960s, which should not be confused with the Haseltine restrikes of 1874. These were struck in generally large quantities in a variety of metals using copy dies made from the original, but by then harshly defaced dies, immediately setting them apart in visual appearance from the first restrikes made by Haseltine.

To read the complete item description, see:
Haseltine Restrike Confederate Cent in Copper (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-1UQEW0/1861-1874-confederate-cent-haseltine-restrike-breen-8008-copper-ef-40-pcgs)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
Q. DAVID BOWERS AND THE 1894-S DIME, (https://www.coinbooks.org/v29/esylum_v29n34a20.html)

ARCHIVES INTERNATIONAL SALE 116 SELECTIONS

Ranspach, Germany, ND (ca.1918-20). Lot of 5 Issued German Notgeld from Ranspach, Includes: 50 Pfennig on gray paper; 1 mark on white paper; 2 Mark on yellow paper; 3 Mark on mint green paper; and 5 Mark on beige paper. All notes are uniface and range from Good to Un circulated condition. (5). Sold "AS IS" no returns accepted.

To read the complete item description, see:
Germany Ranspach Municipal ND ca 1918 to 1920 Notgeld Assortment (https://auction.archivesinternational.com/Germany-Ranspach-Municipal-ND-ca-1918-to-1920-Notgeld-Assortment_i60929078)

Germany, 1919-20. Lot of 9 Issued German Notgeld Notes from Worms, Sörup, Oldenburg in Holstein, and Schneeberg, Includes: 1919, Municipality of Worms 50 Pfennig (2); 1919, District of Sörup in Angeln, 1 Mark and 2 Mark; 1919, Municipal Treasury of Schneeberg, 10 Pfennig; 1919, Erzgebirge Bank, Schneeberg-Neustädtel, 10 Pfennig; 1920, Municipality of Oldenburg in Holstein, 50 Pfennig and 75 Pfennig. Attractive pictorial Notgeld group featuring colorful municipal issues including historical and regional-themed designs, architectural views, and local scenes. Notes range from Fine to Uncirculated condition. (8). Sold "AS IS" no returns accepted.

To read the complete item description, see:
Germany Worms S rup Oldenburg 1919 and 1920 Notgeld Assortment (https://auction.archivesinternational.com/Germany-Worms-S-rup-Oldenburg-1919-and-1920-Notgeld-Assortment_i60929079)

Hawaii, 1879 (1995 Reprints). Lot of 5 Reprints from the original plates printed in 1995, in Original envelope, Includes $10, $20, $50, $100, and $500 denominations, All are full color obverse proofs with ABNC attestation on back, Cards are in mint condition, Lot includes letter prepared by ABNC with information on the original printing of the notes. (5). Sold "AS IS" no returns accepted.

To read the complete item description, see:
Kingdom of Hawaii 1879 Currency Series Silver Certificates of Deposit ABNC Reprint Proof Souvenir (https://auction.archivesinternational.com/Kingdom-of-Hawaii-1879-Currency-Series-Silver-Certificates-of-Deposit-ABNC-Reprint-Proof-Souvenir_i60929084)

Various States, 1964-ND (1980s). Lot of 3 $20 Specimen travelers cheques, Includes: BankAmerica Travelers Cheque, Yellow with globe vignette and printed signature of President; MasterCard Travelers Cheque, Black print with globe and MasterCard logo vignette at center and classical figure at left; Thos. Cook & Son (Bankers) Ltd., Brown on pink underprint with portrait of Cook at right, S/N XH 597001 and XH 1000000. All are marked Specimen with Pin punches and POCs, Conditions appear VF to Uncirculated. (3). Sold "AS IS" no returns accepted.

To read the complete item description, see:
BankAmerica MasterCard Thos Cook Son 1964 to ND 1980s Specimen Traveler s Check Trio (https://auction.archivesinternational.com/BankAmerica-MasterCard-Thos-Cook-Son-1964-to-ND-1980s-Specimen-Traveler-s-Check-Trio_i60929114)

Port Deposit, Maryland, 1832 & 1837. Lot of 2 Obsolete Banknotes, Includes: $5 and $10, both are black print with black border and multiple vignettes, S/Ns 965 and 1260, Notes are in Good to Fine condition with toning. (2). Sold "AS IS" no returns to accepted. (From the Robert Kluge Collection).

To read the complete item description, see:
MD Susquehanna Bridge Bank Co and City of Baltimore 1832 and 1833 Obsolete Banknote Pair (https://auction.archivesinternational.com/MD-Susquehanna-Bridge-Bank-Co-and-City-of-Baltimore-1832-and-1833-Obsolete-Banknote-Pair_i60929125)

New York, 1808-14. Lot of 2 New York Obsolete Banknotes, Includes: Derby Fishing Co., 1808, 1 Dollar Banknote, Black print with allegorical woman at center, S/N 357; Manufacturer's Exchange Co., 1814, 10 Dollars Banknote, Black print with allegorical woman at top center S/N 1866. Notes range from Fine to VF condition. (2). Sold "AS IS" no returns accepted. (From the Robert Kluge Collection).

To read the complete item description, see:
New York Obsolete Banknote Pair 1808 and 1814 (https://auction.archivesinternational.com/New-York-Obsolete-Banknote-Pair-1808-and-1814_i60929127)

New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, 1807-62. Lot of 4 items, Includes a pair of late-19th to early-20th-century cardboard merchant trade tokens, each denominated One Cent and intended for local redemption rather than legal tender use. The first is an orange cardboard token printed in black, reading "ONE CENT / H. CLEVELAND / Shushan, N.Y." within a double-line circular border; blank reverse, representing a scarce small-town Washington County, New York merchant issue. The second is a green cardboard token printed in black, reading "DAVE'S / 1 CENT / 385 Grand St." within a decorative border; blank reverse, the address strongly suggesting a New York City Grand Street merchant, though no city name appears on the piece. Both items are typical examples of fragile merchant scrip used for minor change or store credit, most often produced in limited quantities and seldom preserved. A review of standard merchant scrip and token references does not reveal confirmed catalog listings for either issuer, and both pieces should be regarded as unlisted merchant scrip. Condition reflects circulation and storage, with folds, creases, edge wear, surface soiling, and handling marks consistent with use. An appealing and increasingly scarce pair of New York cardboard merchant tokens, suitable for collectors of exonumia, local scrip, and early American retail ephemera. Also Included s an 1807, $450 IOU to be paid out after 60 days, Cut Cancelled at bottom; and, and 1859, Receipt for $13.9. Condition ranges from VG to VF. (4). Sold "AS IS" no returns accepted.

To read the complete item description, see:
NY PA RI U S Obsolete Civil War Era Cardboard Tokens or Chits and Early PA RI Fiscal Document (https://auction.archivesinternational.com/NY-PA-RI-U-S-Obsolete-Civil-War-Era-Cardboard-Tokens-or-Chits-and-Early-PA-RI-Fiscal-Document_i60929128)

New York, Venezuela & Colombia, 1851. 1 Share Capital Stock I/C Certificate, Black print with red underprint, Multiple vignettes at bottom of allegorical figures and horse drawn coach at top center, S/N 46, Hatched out signatures at bottom and 'Cancelled' written on face, Fine to VF+ condition. RWH. (From the Robert Kluge Collection).

To read the complete item description, see:
New York Venezuela Colombia Orinoco Steam Navigation Co of New York 1851 I C Stock Certificat (https://auction.archivesinternational.com/New-York-Venezuela-Colombia-Orinoco-Steam-Navigation-Co-of-New-York-1851-I-C-Stock-Certificat_i60929287)

 

HERITAGE: LORING-LEVIN COLLECTIONS AT FUN

Early American Coppers (EAC) Charter Member Denis W. Loring and his wife, Donna Levin, have consigned their collection to Heritage's Jan. 12–16 FUN U.S. Coins Signature® Auction. Additional selections from the collection will be offered in Heritage Showcase Auctions early next year. The collection will be presented without reserve.

"We are delighted that Denis and Donna chose Heritage to present their collection," says Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auctions. "Many of us at Heritage have considered them friends for decades. Their consignment features exceptional large cents, Donna's specialized collection of Buffalo nickel errors and outstanding numismatic treasures ranging from Colonial issues to Territorial gold."

"When I joined EAC in 1973, Denis Loring was already one of the organization's most respected members," adds Mark Borckardt, Senior Numismatist at Heritage Auctions. "Over the years he became a friend, and ultimately a mentor. Denis and Donna remain among my close friends in numismatics."

A retired insurance actuary, Loring joined EAC as a charter member in 1967 and holds member number 11. Over the next five decades, he became one of the organization's most influential leaders, serving as secretary from 1972–77 and 1981–2005, vice president from 2005–09, president from 2009–11 and again, as secretary from 2011–17, a remarkable 46 years as a national officer.

"I've known Denis since 1969, when I was 16 and he was 21. Even then, it was obvious he was one of the brightest people I'd ever met," says Jim Halperin, Co-Chair of Heritage Auctions. "In the 1970s, he toyed with the idea of making numismatics his career, and I took it as a great compliment when he told me I was the only person in coins he would consider working for. He ultimately chose to remain an actuary, but his passion for coins never diminished. More than 50 years later, I'm especially pleased that Heritage will present the collection of someone who has been both a wonderful friend and such an important part of numismatics for so long."

Loring's passion for early copper began long before EAC's founding. In 1974, he became just the fifth collector to complete a full set of Sheldon-numbered large cents dated 1793 through 1814. While that collection was dispersed long ago, many important large cents are among the current collection. He is also recognized for his extensive research into proof large cents and their pedigrees.

Levin, a retired attorney, joined EAC in 1998 and served as the organization's secretary from 2017–23. Her enthusiasm for numismatics flourished after marrying Loring, leading to the formation of her acclaimed collection of Buffalo nickel errors.

Highlights from the Loring-Levin Collection include:

• A 1793 Sheldon-13 Liberty Cap Cent – AU53 NGC
• An 1819/8 N-1 Cent – PR64 Brown NGC (Ex: Pittman)
• A (1652) NE Shilling – AU50 PCGS
• A (1652) NE Sixpence – VF Details PCGS
• A 1919 Buffalo Nickel on a Cent Planchet – MS64 Brown PCGS
• A 1920 Buffalo Nickel on a Dime Planchet – AU55 PCGS
• An undated Buffalo Nickel Brockage – VF35 PCGS
• An 1855 Wass Molitor $50 Gold – VF20 PCGS
• A 1792 Judd-2 Pattern Cent – Fine 15 NGC
• A 1792 Judd-5 Birch Cent – Fair 2 (formerly NGC)
• A 1792 Judd-10 Copper Disme –XF40 NGC
• An 1848 CAL Quarter Eagle – Good 6 PCGS
• 1854-S Quarter Eagle – Fine 12 PCGS
• 1794 Silver Dollar – VF25 (formerly PCGS)

KUENKER AUCTION SALE 445-446

Once again, collectors can look forward to an interesting and diverse auction week. From 22 to 25 September 2026, Künker will auction a colorful selection of coins and medals from medieval to modern times in auctions 445 to 446, featuring many special collections. Catalogs 445 and 446 comprise a total of nearly 2,600 lots with a total estimate of around 5 million euros.

Of particular note are:

• "Argentum Poloniae" – The collection of Polish talers,

• another part of the impressive collection of Kommerzialrat Dr. Herbert Wenzel with Habsburg coins and medals,

• the Erich Götz Collection with a focus on his homeland of the Upper Palatinate,

• the collection of a Rhineland collector and art enthusiast featuring gold coins from around the world,

• and, last but not least, the collection of a physicist with coins of the German Empire in fabulous condition and partly with spectacular patinas.

Argentum Poloniae

Under the title "Argentum Poloniae", 113 talers reflecting the fate of Poland are being offered: depicting the kings who once ruled the First Polish Republic, these coins – some in outstanding condition – range from Stephen Báthory to the Duchy of Warsaw. As the Sejm reserved the right to elect the Polish king, the coins feature the portraits of rulers from various dynasties. The period during which the House of Wettin held the Polish throne is particularly well represented.

The collector assembled this collection with meticulous care and scholarly rigor, and it impresses with its remarkable completeness. Learn more about the eventful history of this country in the heart of Europe through these Polish talers!

Habsburg Rarities from the Dr. Herbert Wenzel Collection

By now, Kommerzialrat Dr. Herbert Wenzel is a well-known figure among collectors. In the world of numismatics, his name is synonymous with Habsburg rarities in the finest condition. Coins from his collection are featured once again in catalogs 445 and 446.

This time, it is not only the great rarities that command special attention, but also Habsburg small coins. Selected with great care and expert knowledge, they are offered in thoughtfully curated multiple lots, with estimates predominantly in the two- and three-digit ranges.

Collectors of Habsburg coinage cannot afford to miss out on a thorough reading of this catalog!

The undisputed highlight of this section is a 20-ducat piece by Ferdinand II from the Klagenfurt mint. Dr. Herbert Wenzel acquired it in 1949 from the heirs of the High Court Judge Dollinger (lot No. 2292). This coin has not been on the market since. It is remarkable because multiple gold coins from Klagenfurt are extremely rare. After all, the mint of Carinthia was actually located in St. Veit. However, the right to mint coins was disputed – the Carinthian estates claimed to have the right to mint coins themselves as they were keen to preserve their independence. Therefore, Archduke Ferdinand established a princely mint in Klagenfurt in 1522. This mint ceased operations as early as 1622.

The Erich Götz Collection

Coins offer a fascinating insight into past eras and distant cultures, providing a wonderful opportunity to take a break from the daily grind.

This was the view of Erich Götz, a collector who traded minerals from over 60 countries in his busy daily life. Born in the Upper Palatinate, Erich Götz knew the whole world. Nevertheless, he was most passionate about the history and numismatics of his homeland. Coins minted in Regensburg, Amberg, Neumarkt, Cham or Nabburg are at the center of his collection – although he was certainly enthusiastic about other fields as well. His 1992 book, "Die Münzprägung der Oberpfalz - Geschichte und Katalog" (Coinage of the Upper Palatinate: History and Catalog), bears witness to his love of the region's numismatics. The book also demonstrates the depth of knowledge and patience with which Erich Götz assembled his Upper Palatinate coin collection.

Gold Coins of a Rhineland Collector and Art Enthusiast

The Rhineland collector and art enthusiast whose exquisite collection of gold coins is being offered at auction 446 did not seek to amass a complete collection. The only factors that mattered to him were the quality and the aesthetic appeal of a piece, regardless of its era of origin. This approach resulted in a remarkably diverse collection characterized by excellent condition and refined taste. The collection combines classic numismatic treasures with rare, exotic 20th-century gold coins, offering something for a wide range of collecting interests.

To order a catalog contact Künker, Nobbenburger Straße 4a, 49076 Osnabrück; phone: +49 541 / 962020; fax: +49 541 / 9620222; or via e-mail: service@kuenker.de. You can access the auction catalogs online at www.kuenker.de. If you want to submit your bid from your computer at home, please remember to register for this service in good time.

GADOURY NOIR OCTOBER 2026

Gadoury will hold its annual live auctions on October 16 and 17, 2026. The company will begin with the Gadoury bleu auction, featuring nine collections, which will be auctioned on October 16. Please have a look at the separate auction preview for details. Gadoury noir takes place on October 17, 2026, and offers nearly 1,000 lots spanning from antiquity to the modern era, including many rarities. We present some of these here. You will also find many interesting coins and medals for an average budget in the auction. So whatever you are collecting, make sure to take a look at the auction catalog.

Thirty lots of ancient coins - including five Greek, nineteen Roman, and five Byzantine pieces - are offered. All are carefully selected, and each one is of interest. Some originate from significant auctions and are in particularly attractive condition. We present two examples: First, an aureus of Titus from 75 AD. Its reverse depicts a Victoria on a Cista Mystica, an object used in the Dionysian cult and which, through its depiction on cistophores, became a symbol of the province of Asia. The aureus of Titus thus refers to a coin type of Augustus, which the first Roman emperor issued to commemorate the reconquest of the province after the end of the civil wars.

The second example is an aureus of Maximianus Herculius, probably from the year 287. The coin, with its impressive depiction of Hercules enthroned frontally, is missing from the RIC and comes from auction Hess Leu 41, which took place in 1969.

Following a selection of 29 lots featuring coins from Monaco, we come to world coins and medals. One of the highlights is a coin type from Nuremberg that is very popular on the international collectors' market. One side of the coin depicts an allegory of peace, while the other shows a magnificent cityscape of the powerful imperial city of Nuremberg. The piece is dated 1698 and was long associated with the Peace of Rijswijk, concluded on September 20, 1697, between France, the Netherlands, England, Spain, Switzerland, and Emperor Leopold. For decades, no one questioned why Nuremberg would have minted a coin to commemorate this peace. It seems far more logical to connect the coin with the 50th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. Nuremberg played a crucial role in negotiating the specific implementing provisions, and the grand festivities held during the negotiations were deeply ingrained in the collective memory.

On August 10, 1853, the granddaughter of the Emperor of Austria was married to the heir of the Belgian King Leopold I, to the future Leopold II. A proxy stood beside her at the altar; she would not meet her husband until shortly thereafter, upon her arrival in Brussels. There, she was welcomed with a magnificent historical procession organized by the city's guilds and artists' associations.

To mark this occasion, Leopold I commissioned the renowned medallist Leopold Wiener to create the dies for a commemorative gold coin with a weight of 100 francs; 482 specimens were minted. The example offered by Gadoury has been graded PROOF 65+ CAMEO by NGC, making it the finest specimen NGC has ever graded.

Gadoury is offering a small series of 28 lots featuring Chinese coins, some of them extraordinary rare. Among them are to be found two Wuchang-minted dollars of the "without cap" type showing Li Yuan Hung. With collectors, this is an extremely popular coin type. It presents the portrait of the Chinese general and politician Li Yuan Hung who served three times as President of the Republic of China. Chinese numismatics is currently debating whether this coin was minted not in 1912, as previously assumed, but after December 20, 1916. This would commemorate Li Yuan Hung's assumption of the presidency in 1916.

A true icon of modern Chinese numismatics is a 10-yuan coin minted in 1919 on the orders of Finance Minister Cao Rulin. At the time, he was considering abandoning the silver standard, which he considered detrimental to the Chinese economy, in favor of the gold standard used by major economies before World War I. He planned a new series of gold coins in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 dollars or yuan, but only two types were ever produced: the 20-yuan and the 10-yuan coins, one of which Gadoury can offer. Very few coins from this issue exist because Rulin's project failed to gain traction. His approval of the transfer of a German colony to Japan at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference had rendered him politically unpopular at home. This led to violent incidents that ultimately cost him his position - at least at this moment. Consequently, no one pursued the switch to the gold standard any further.

The few gold coins that were minted for this purpose never entered circulation because collectors bought them up immediately. One of them is the one offered at Gadoury noir. By the way, the coin is dated, albeit according to the Chinese system. It bears the inscription "Year 8 of the Republic".

Exactly 19 lots from Spain are in Gadoury noir for sale, including a unique item historically linked to the Treaty of Lisbon on February 13, 1668. The Portuguese coat of arms is missing from the Spanish coat of arms. It had been part of the Spanish coat of arms since 1580, as the two kingdoms were united in personal union. Even though Portugal declared its independence as early as 1640, the Spanish monarchs continued to claim the title of King of Portugal until the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon. They only relinquished this claim in 1668. However, bureaucratic inertia and the continued use of old dies meant that the Portuguese coat of arms did not disappear from Spanish coin reverses so quickly. Only after the Portuguese court officially complained about this misuse in 1683 and 1685 did the Spanish gradually abandon the Portuguese coat of arms, as this 8-escudo piece demonstrates.

Gadoury is the specialist for French coins. After all, the well-known and widely distributed catalogs of French coinage originate from this company. It is therefore only natural that among the 172 lots of French coins offered by Gadoury noir, some very special rarities can be found. We will show you two examples: first, a gold essay for the (silver) 5-franc piece with the portrait of Louis XVIII from 1815, minted at Paris. It comes from the collection of King Farouk and, due to its quality and historical context, is one of the most sought-after numismatic testimonies of restituted France after the Congress of Vienna.

The other example dates from 1868, the final years of Napoleon III's reign. The laurel wreath as imperial headdress is not merely an aesthetic choice; it harks back to antiquity, connecting Napoleon III, during an already difficult period of his rule, to the stability of power of the Roman emperors. This portrait is considered particularly majestic and lends the emperor a different historical perspective than his earlier portraits showing the bare heads.

This coin, minted in the 50th year of Queen Victoria's reign and of which only 797 were made, depicts the monarch in a way she started to dress after the death of her husband, Albert. Its perfect condition - PCGS graded the coin PROOF 64 DEEP CAMEO - allows us to see all the details and compare them to reality. Victoria wears a white widow's veil over her black gown, secured by the small diamond crown she had commissioned for this purpose. She was to wear it until her death and pass it on to the wives of her descendants, until Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon - better known as "Queen Mum" - had it placed in the Tower of London after her husband's death, where it can be viewed as part of the Crown Jewels.

An extremely rare Hungarian medal weighing seven ducats depicts St. George slaying the dragon on the obverse. The reverse shows a ship, symbolizing the Christian community, sailing across the stormy sea. The design of this piece is based on the Hungarian St. George's Thalers, which were often worn as an amulet. This medal was an alternative to these thalers which became difficult to be found. Consequently, comparable pieces are often in much worse condition than this example.

Only 4,219 examples of this 100 Lire coin featuring the portrait of Umberto I were minted in 1883. Gadoury is auctioning the best NGC has graded to date.

Of the greatest rarity is the 5-ducat coin from 1759 bearing the portrait of Maria Theresa, minted at the mint of Karlsburg - today Alba Iulia, Romania, at the time the metropolis of Transylvania - using the dies of the Thaler. NGC graded this rarity MS62.

Gadoury is offering an extremely rare pattern coin from the Silberstein collection - a piece that is a testimony for the transition from traditional minting to industrialized mass production. Matthew Boulton, an ingenious engineer and the founder of the Soho Mint, earned his living not only by minting coins but also by selling modern turn-key minting facilities. He was commissioned to build one such facility in Russia and sent a team of British craftsmen to St. Petersburg for the project. To train the Russian specialists in operating the era's most advanced machinery - which they would use to mint coins once the facility was completed - the Birmingham headquarters sent a package containing not only dies but also sample strikes, illustrating the intended appearance of the finished product. These samples served as models, enabling the craftsmen to correctly set up the machinery. While it is unknown whether the pattern coin offered by Gadoury was produced in Birmingham or St. Petersburg, it stands as an exceptionally rare testament to the modernization of Russian coinage.

Let's conclude our preview of Gadoury noir with the second variant of the Russian family ruble. Need we say more? We all know that family rubles are among the icons of Russian numismatics. On this piece from the Silberstein collection, graded MS63 by PCGS, the full name of the artist is written on the Tsar's neck section; the double chin of Zar Nicholas' wife, which he had so disliked so much on the first dies that he rejected the issue, has been removed here.

You can order the catalogue from Gadoury Auctions Sarl, 57, rue Grimaldi, 98000 Monaco; Tel: +377 93 25 12 96; email: contact@gadoury.com.

You can find this catalogue online at www.gadouryauctions.com and www.numisbids.com. Of course, live bidding is also possible via www.biddr.ch

WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: 2026 ANA, PART 1

One the morning of Tuesday, August 25 I set out for Pittsburgh and the 2026 American Numismatic Association World's Fair of Money. I always look forward to the first old friend I encounter. Usually that happens before I even enter the bourse. This time it wasn't a person. Outside my hotel I couldn't help but notice...

... the Wienermobile! Last time I saw this classic American kitsch-kar, it was parked in front of a Baltimore hotel at another ANA decades ago, perhaps 1993.

I guess that made me hungry - I stopped for lunch at Condado, a taco shop right up the street. I ate in the upstairs dining room. Pittsburgh's leafier than you might expect.

I saw my first human coin show friend upon leaving the restaurant - ANA Executive Director Kim Kiick was heading the other way on a scooter. I warned her that the sidewalk ahead was missing a couple bricks. I'm a couple bricks shy of a load myself.

Once inside the convention center I stopped at registration to get my lanyard and name card. It's a very different experience now than in years past. I used to look forward to chatting with a number of ANA staffers, but computer technology has greatly reduced their numbers. Board member Ken Sammut printed and assembled my badge. The ANA no longer gives out ribbons indicating your awards, years of membership etc. These are printed in small print below your name. It feels chinzy, but that's progress, I guess. I'd prefer a longer card with these printed in larger, readable font as a better replacement for the ribbons.

I'm traveling today, so my Diary this week is short. I'll have more to report in subsequent issues. Meanwhile, here are more photos from my first day at the show.

More next week!

COINS OF MEDUSA: THE MALIGNED MAIDEN

Medusa is one of the most recognizable figures in Greek mythology. Even people with little interest in classical history know her name.

That familiarity comes primarily from popular culture. Films like Clash of the Titans (1981 and 2010), The Gorgon (1964), and Medusa: Beauty Is the Beast (2020) kept her story alive for modern audiences.

Many also recognize Medusa as a symbol of power and allure. Her image famously appears in modern fashion branding, while her ancient counterpart stared out from coins across the Mediterranean world.

Yet few realize how deeply Medusa permeated ancient coinage, or how complex her story truly was.

Medusa Before the Monster

Before she became a monster, Medusa was a mortal woman. According to a later myth, she served as a virgin priestess in the temple of Athena. She was especially admired for her hair, which ancient writers described as radiant and beautiful.

That beauty caught the attention of Poseidon (Neptune). He pursued her violently and assaulted her within Athena's sacred temple. Medusa pleaded for protection, but none came.

Athena's response defined Medusa's fate.

Rather than punish Poseidon, the goddess transformed Medusa. Her hair became venomous snakes. Her gaze turned men to stone. Athena also granted her a strange immortality, despite Medusa's mortal birth.

Medusa On Greek Coins

Medusa appeared on Greek coinage with astonishing frequency. Cities across Asia Minor, mainland Greece, Sicily, Thrace, and the Black Sea world struck coins bearing her image.

Her popularity was no accident.

She symbolized protection, power, and divine authority. On coins, she served both religious and political purposes.

Two Primary Coin Types

Greek coins show Medusa in two dominant forms:

Medusa as a Woman: In these depictions, she appears human. Sometimes she looks severe. More often, she appears calm or even beautiful. Wings occasionally appear on her forehead, a lingering archaic feature.

The Gorgoneion: This was Medusa as an apotropaic symbol. The Gorgoneion stared outward, meant to ward off evil. These faces are frontal, intense, and often grotesque.

A consistent feature helps identify them: the protruding tongue. Nearly every confirmed Gorgoneion shows it.

During the Classical period, the humanized Medusa became more common. The monstrous version did not disappear, but it lost dominance.

To read the complete article, see:
Coins Of Medusa: The Maligned Maiden (https://coinweek.com/coins-of-medusa-the-maligned-maiden/)

THE SUTTON HOO ANGLO-SAXON COIN PURSE

The interment of a ship at Sutton Hoo represents the most impressive medieval grave to be discovered in Europe.

Inside the burial mound was the imprint of a decayed ship and a central chamber filled with treasures. But who was buried there and what did it reveal about this period in history?

Sue Brunning, Curator of Early Medieval European Collections, says the burial was the final resting place of someone who had died in the early seventh century, during the Anglo-Saxon period – a time before 'England' existed.

She highlights the effort and manpower that would have been necessary to position and bury the ship – it would have involved dragging the ship uphill from the River Deben, digging a large trench, cutting trees to craft the chamber, dressing it with finery and raising the mound.

Ship burials were rare in Anglo-Saxon England – probably reserved for the most important people in society – so it's likely that there was a huge funeral ceremony.

The iconic Sutton Hoo helmet was wrapped in cloth and laid near the left side of the dead person's head. It's a piece of truly breathtaking artistry, functional and beautiful, with a vaulted cap and deep cheek-pieces.

The helmet is covered in complicated imagery, including fighting and dancing warriors, and fierce creatures. The face mask together forms a dragon whose wings make the eyebrows and tail the moustache. Garnets line the eyebrows, but only one is backed with gold foil reflectors – perhaps a reference to the one-eyed god, Woden.

A nested set of ten silver bowls was placed to the right of the body. Their shape and decoration show that they came from the Byzantine Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean, during the sixth century.

Below these were two silver spoons, also probably Byzantine, their handles inscribed in Greek. One inscription is messier than the other, and may have been added later by someone who wasn't familiar with Greek.

There was also a large decorated purse containing 37 gold coins, three blank coins and two small ingots, which caused a reaction among archaeologists. Each coin came from a different mint in Francia, across the English Channel, and they provide key evidence for the date of the burial, in the early seventh century.

This purse lid would have been attached to a leather pouch which originally hung from a waist-belt. The Frankish gold coins were found inside. Only the gold frame and catch survive, the leather pouch had decayed.

To read the complete article, see:
The Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/death-and-memory/anglo-saxon-ship-burial-sutton-hoo)

POTOSI, THE ANDEAN MOUNTAIN OF SILVER

As early as the 1530s, Mexico exported silver too, and considerable amounts of it. Yet Mexico's many mining camps – Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Taxco, Pachuca, Real del Monte and the namesake San Luis Potosí – peaked only after 1690. In the 18th century, the Mexican peso or 'pillar dollar' took the world by storm. Even in the Andes of South America there were other silver cities (or towns) besides Potosí, including Oruro and Castrovirreyna in Peru. But no silver deposit in the world matched the Cerro Rico, and no other mining-refining conglomeration grew so large. Potosí was unique: a mining metropolis.

Thus Don Elias, like others, made the pilgrimage to the silver mountain. It was a divine prodigy, a hierophany. In 1580, Ottoman artists depicted Potosí as a slice of earthly paradise, the Cerro Rico lush and green, the city surrounded by crenellated walls. Potosí, as Don Quixote proclaimed, was the stuff of dreams. Another alms seeker, in 1600, declared the Cerro Rico the Eighth Wonder of the World. An indigenous visitor in 1615 gushed: 'Thanks to its mines, Castile is Castile, Rome is Rome, the pope is the pope, and the king is monarch of the world.' A 1602 Chinese world map identified the Cerro Rico as Bei Du Xi Shan, or 'Pei-tu-hsi mountain'.

For all its glory, Potosí was also the stuff of nightmares, a diorama of brutality, pollution and crime. What Don Elias might not have known in 1678 was that Potosí's reputation – and with it the Spanish Empire's – had a generation earlier suffered mightily. In 1647, amid royal bankruptcy, King Philip IV dispatched a former inquisitor to unravel a massive debasement scheme that had metastasised inside Potosí's royal mint. The plot corrupted nearly every official within 1,000 miles. Even Peru's viceroy was suspected of complicity. Potosí's debased coins, mostly pieces of eight, hit world markets after 1638, and before long merchants from Boston to Beijing were rejecting Potosí coins. The fountain of fortune had become a poisoned well.

It took more than a decade to hunt down and punish the great Potosí mint fraud's culprits and to restore the coinage to proper weight and purity. A new design debuted to signal the new coins, but winning back global trust in Potosí silver took decades. Into the 1670s, even as Don Elias took donations in exchange for sermons in Syriac, Sumatran pepper-growers balked at coins stamped with a 'P'.

Like the Bernard Madoff scandal of the 2000s, the Potosí mint fraud of the 1640s tells an interesting if not universal story. Nobody wanted to admit that they had been deceived. For Spain's King Philip IV, the mint fraud – an inside job – was a world-class embarrassment and a sign of the decline of his empire's fortunes. The global flood of bad coins hurt everyone, rich and poor. Genoese, Gujarati and Chinese bankers suffered 'haircuts', merchants worldwide forfeited precious ties of crosscultural trust, and soldiers throughout Eurasia saw their pay halved or worse.

Almost a century before Don Elias visited Potosí, Viceroy Francisco de Toledo revolutionised world silver production. Toledo was a hard-driving bureaucrat of the Spanish empire – and he more than any single man transformed Potosí from a hardscrabble mining camp into a bona fide city. It was a colossal undertaking, but one suited to the ambitions of King Philip II, the first European monarch to rule an empire upon which the sun never set. Toledo reached Potosí in 1572, anxious to flip it into the empire's motor of commerce and war.

By 1575, the viceroy had organised a sweeping labour draft, launched a 'high-tech' mill-building campaign, and overseen construction of a web of dams and canals to supply the Imperial Villa with year-round hydraulic power, all in the high Andes at the nadir of the Little Ice Age. Toledo also oversaw construction of the Potosí mint, staffed full-time with enslaved Africans. Its first coins were hoarded, higher in silver content than they were supposed to be, and overweight.

To read the complete article, see:
The first global city (https://aeon.co/essays/potosi-the-mountain-of-silver-that-was-the-first-global-city)

DEVALUATIONS AND THE FRENCH 'MINT BILLS'

France was the setting of one of the largest early experiments with paper money in Europe. This experiment usually refers to the paper money introduced in France by the Scottish economist and banker John Law in the mid-to-late 1710s. This was not the true introduction of paper money in France though. The country used paper money just before John Law, when France was engaged in the War of the Spanish Succession from 1701-1714. These were the billets de monnaie, or 'mint bills'.

Michel Chamillart

French public finances resorted to greater improvisation under the management of Michel Chamillart, who was finance minister starting from 1699. His tenure overlapped substantially with the War of the Spanish Succession, which started in 1701 by which point Chamillart had already also been made minister for war. Wars always tested the limits of governments and this one cost the French state about 100 million livres annually. A fiscal deficit of up to 80 million livres appeared, and this before considering debt service costs that were mounting as well.

Starting from 1702, Chamillart made greater use of the caisse des emprunts, a semi-public body that received control over certain tax revenues and used that money to make payments on short-term bonds it issued on behalf of the state. However, the issuance of bonds by the caisse des emprunts did not cover the full cost of the war. Other avenues for raising money were resorted to; for instance, the government created new offices by the thousands which they sold to officeholders to raise new money. More interestingly though, Michel Chamillart would introduce a paper money to France. He would also make use of currency devaluations to secure more seigniorage revenues for the state.

Precedent for Devaluations

France had utilized devaluation as a mean of raising money before the introduction of paper money by Chamillart. The value of the livre tournois was reduced in 1689 in response to capital flight from France by emigrating Huguenot bankers. In this devaluation, old coins were demonetized and stamped with a new value.

Even in the absence of paper money, devaluations were a source of revenue for the state. Upon a revaluation, people turned in coins of a certain value; they would in turn receive back from the mint the same nominal value in newly-stamped coins, each of a greater denomination, which meant they received back a smaller number of coins than they gave up, delivering the state a profit. Another devaluation along these lines took place in 1693.

Paper Money Introduced in 1701

After Chamillart took over French finances, there was yet another devaluation by restamping in 1701. During the old devaluations, people delivering their demonetized coins to the mint were given a receipt representing their right to new coins once they were stamped. This time, in advance of the stamping process, which took time, the state introduced billets de monnaie (mint bills). The bills were essentially an 'advance' received by the state on the expected profit from devaluation, a form of credit for the government. In theory, billets de monnaie should each be outstanding for a few days since re-stamping does not take long but, in practice, they remained outstanding for longer.

To read the complete article, see:
Devaluations and the French 'Mint Bills' (https://tontinecoffeehouse.com/2026/07/20/devaluations-and-the-french-mint-bills/)

 

THE 1690S DIVING ENGINE BOOM

In June 1687 a ship called the James and Mary came up the Thames carrying roughly 32 tons of silver and jewels. Her captain was William Phips, a New England shipwright turned treasure hunter, and the cargo had spent forty-six years on a reef north of Hispaniola inside the wreck of the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, the almiranta of the Spanish plate fleet of 1641.

The technology story
Every boom needs a story about the future, and the 1690s had the diving engine.

Christine MacLeod set out the numbers in "The 1690s Patents Boom: Invention or Stock-Jobbing?" in the Economic History Review in 1986. Five patents for diving engines were issued between 1672 and 1689. Between the autumn of 1691 and late 1693, seventeen petitions were filed and eleven enrolled. Diving engines alone accounted for almost a fifth of every patent issued in England in 1691 to 1693.

Not all of it was fraud. Edmond Halley, already known for the comet, built a diving bell of his own and worked it over the Guynie Frigott, a Royal African Company ship lost off Pagham in the spring of 1691. He kept three men at ten fathoms for an hour and three quarters. His real contribution was the resupply method, weighted casks of air lowered from the surface and vented into the bell, and it is genuine engineering rather than prospectus language. The venture still did not pay. That is the pattern of the decade in miniature: the technology sometimes worked, and the business almost never did.

The unwinding
The bubble did not die of embarrassment about diving bells. It died of a monetary crisis.

England's silver coinage had been clipped to the point of collapse. Full-weight silver in circulation fell from about £2.5 million in December 1693 to roughly £1 million by June 1695. William Lowndes, Secretary to the Treasury, proposed a 25 per cent devaluation. John Locke argued for a straight recoinage at the old standard, and Locke won the argument.

Parliament demonetised clipped coin in January 1696, and the Royal Mint could not produce replacements fast enough. The money supply fell from around £26 million in December 1695 to under £17 million six months later. The Land Bank, promoted as a rival to the two-year-old Bank of England, failed to raise its subscription. The Bank of England suspended redemptions from May to October 1696.

The equity market went with it. Between 1692 and 1697, East India Company stock fell from £200 to £37. The Royal African Company went from £52 to £13. Hudson's Bay went from £260 to £80. These were the blue chips.

To read the complete article, see:
How a sunken Spanish galleon set off London's first stock market boom, and how the boom ended (https://scripotime.substack.com/p/diving-engine-bubble-1690s-london)

BEHIND-THE-SCENES NYC LIBRARY OPERATIONS

At a warehouse tucked away in an industrial corner of Queens, books of all shapes, sizes and colors fly across a series of conveyor belts, tumbling into shipping containers destined for 150 library branches across New York City.

It's a symphony of bar codes and Dewey decimals, taking place under the watchful eye of an unlikely conductor: Salvatore Magaddino, 65, a onetime Police Department captain and now the maestro of the logistics department of this unique production, known as BookOps.

BookOps is a collaboration between the New York Public Library and the Brooklyn Public Library systems, an operation that sorts and sends books from branch to branch. The process includes organizing and cataloging the systems' books so that when a customer requests a book that isn't on the shelves at their location, Mr. Magaddino's team can have it there, usually by the next day.

Mr. Magaddino began his library career in 2006 and took over the logistics not long after, when the system was "in total disarray," he said. The sorting operations were housed at an old annex in Times Square with a crumbling loading dock, where about 20,000 books sat in a daily backlog. The library had to keep buying new books because the originals could not be found.

He helped find a new location in an abandoned warehouse in Long Island City, Queens, that had ample parking for the 10 trucks that ferry books around the city. It would become the headquarters of updated systems, complete with upgraded sorting machines.

In 2013, after the financial crisis of 2008 threatened some of those modernization plans, the New York Public Library and the Brooklyn Public Library decided to combine their logistics systems, with Mr. Magaddino helping to oversee the transition. According to the Urban Libraries Council, BookOps is designed to save the two library systems over $3 million each year.

BookOps now services four boroughs and is probably the largest such operation in the world, Mr. Magaddino said. Tens of thousands of books are sorted each day.

To read the complete article, see:
Waiting for a Library Book? This Man Makes Sure You Get It. (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/nyregion/nypl-queens-bookops-salvatore-magaddino.html)

LOOSE CHANGE: AUGUST 30, 2026

Georgia Man Finds $30 at Walmart

According to police, another shopper dropped $30 on the ground while inside the store. The person pictured then allegedly picked up the money but did not hand it over to Walmart employees.

The department has now appealed to anyone who recognizes the person or has information that could help identify them.

Comments on the police department's post were largely unhelpful, with the most liked simply reading "Finders keepers."

To read the complete article, see:
Police searching for man who found $30 on the ground and didn't hand it in (https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/police-searching-for-man-who-found-30-on-the-ground-and-didnt-hand-it-in-3400820/)

Florida Man Finds $Millions on Beach

A Florida man has gone viral after getting his hands on millions of dollars that washed up on a beach in Fort Lauderdale, and he immediately called the police.

Several videos of the incident have appeared online since May 24, with the man yet to be named. He has only been identified by the red shorts he had been wearing when he was seen grabbing the bundle of cash and taking it ashore.

As per multiple reports, he apparently called the police after finding the money, as he wasn't too sure what it was in the first place. "He probably thought it was drugs the way it was packaged," one social media user said.

To read the complete article, see:
Florida man finds millions of dollars washed up on beach – and actually hands it in (https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/florida-man-finds-millions-of-dollars-washed-up-on-beach-and-actually-hands-it-in-3368151/)

Florida Woman Has $Thousands 'Stuffed Inside Her'

The Miami woman accused of posing as a bank representative to scam a Martin County senior is now facing an additional charge after deputies say she tried to smuggle thousands of dollars in cash into jail hidden in an unexpected hiding spot — her lady parts.

According to the Martin County Sheriff's Office, Monquie Love Turnbull never mentioned she was carrying $3,180 in cash concealed in her body when she was arrested, and the money wasn't discovered until she was being processed into the jail. The sheriff's office has since confirmed the cash is the same money taken from one of her alleged scam victims.

Sheriff John Budensiek said Turnbull revealed she had the money inside her body when she complained of pain during a jail phone call to an unknown man.

"Our detectives went back over to the jail. They interviewed her yet again. She admitted to having money inside of her. She said at that point it was only $400. And then later, as they interviewed her a little more, she said it was $3,180," said Budensiek.

To read the complete article, see:
Woman accused of hiding $3,200 in her body during Martin County arrest faces new charges (https://cbs12.com/news/local/florida-crime-news-woman-accused-of-hiding-smuggling-3200-dollars-in-her-body-vagina-during-martin-county-arrest-faces-new-charges-elderly-victim-bank-scam-biohazard-money-felony-scheme-to-defraud)

Michigan Scammer Gets $700K in Chocolate Gold Coins

[A] widow was directed to buy $700,000 in gold — but an alert store owner intervened before crooks could make off with her money, records show.

Instead, a young man reportedly sent to West Michigan from Illinois to fetch the gold ended up with a bag of chocolate coins and a pair of 20-year felonies.

"They didn't know they were getting chocolate gold coins," said Ben Soldaat, owner of Grand Rapids Coins, who alerted authorities to the suspected scam in early May.

"It just didn't add up to me and I've run into a few (scams) before in the past," said Soldaat, who opened his Algoma Township business in 2020.

The Ottawa County woman, believing her Social Security account was being used to fund terrorism, said she went online looking for gold stores and came across Soldaat's business on 10 Mile Road NE near US-131. She made the 40-mile drive and spent several minutes talking with Soldaat.

Soldaat contacted the Kent County Sheriff's Office "just to play it safe."

"The undercover agent dressed up like an older woman, came in and got a package of chocolate gold coins from us to deliver to the courier," Soldaat said with a laugh. "I'm glad they did it like that. It was certainly quick thinking on their end."

To read the complete article, see:
Accused scammer gets chocolate coins, not $700,000 in gold (https://www.woodtv.com/news/target-8/accused-scammer-gets-chocolate-coins-not-700000-in-gold/)

FEATURED WEBSITE: REC.COLLECTING.COINS

This week's Featured Website is the archived Usenet group rec.collecting.coins, a classic newsgroup dedicated to the hobby of numismatics, including discussing, buying, selling, and sharing knowledge about coins, tokens, and medals. Active since the early days of the internet, it serves as a text-based discussion forum within the recreational (rec) hierarchy.

https://usenetarchives.com/threads.php?id=rec.collecting.coins

ABOUT THIS ISSUE: AUGUST 30, 2026

Wayne Homren
Wayne Homren is the founding editor of The E-Sylum and a consultant for the Newman Numismatic Portal. His collecting interests at various times included U.S. Encased Postage Stamps, merchant counterstamps, Pittsburgh Obsolete paper money, Civil War tokens and scrip, Carnegie Hero Medals, charge coins and numismatic literature. He also collects and has given presentations on the work of Money Artist J.S.G. Boggs. In the non-numismatic world he's worked in artificial intelligence, data science, and as a Program Manager for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Garrett Ziss
Garrett Ziss is a numismatic collector and researcher, with a focus on American paper money and early U.S. silver and copper coins. He is also a part-time U.S. coin cataloger for Heritage Auctions. Garrett assists Editor Wayne Homren by editing and formatting a selection of articles and images each week. When he's not engaged in numismatics, Garrett is pursuing a Master's Degree in Quantitative Economics at the University of Pittsburgh.

Pete Smith
Numismatic researcher and author Pete Smith of Minnesota has written about early American coppers, Vermont coinage, numismatic literature, tokens and medals, the history of the U.S. Mint and much more. Author of American Numismatic Biographies, he contributes original articles to The E-Sylum often highlighting interesting figures in American numismatic history.

Greg Bennick
Greg Bennick (www.gregbennick.com) is a keynote speaker and long time coin collector with a focus on major mint error coins and US counterstamps. He is on the board of both CONECA and TAMS and enjoys having in-depth conversations with prominent numismatists from all areas of the hobby. Have ideas for other interviewees? Contact him anytime via instagram @minterrors. He can also be reached by email at minterrors@gmail.com.

John Nebel
Numismatist, photographer, and ANS Board member and Fellow John Nebel of Boulder, CO helped the ANA and other clubs like NBS get online in the early days of the internet, hosting websites gratis through his Computer Systems Design Co. To this day he hosts some 50 ANA member club sites along with our coinbooks.org site, making the club and our E-Sylum archive available to collectors and researchers worldwide.

Bruce Perdue
Encased coinage collector (encasedcoins.info) Bruce Perdue of Aurora, Illinois has been the volunteer NBS webmaster from its early days and works each week to add the latest E-Sylum issue to our archive and send out the email announcement.