The Numismatic Bibliomania Society

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Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 3, Number 12, March 19, 2000: 
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. 
Copyright (c) 2000, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. 
  

SUBSCRIBER UPDATES 

   We have three new subscribers this week:  Dr. Larry Brilliant, 
   Gene Hessler (a gift subscription courtesy of Bob Cochran), 
   and Mike Jones of Honolulu, Hawaii.   Welcome aboard! 
   Gregory Leitschuh has been dropped due to a bad email 
   address.    This brings our net subscriber count to 287. 
  

ASYLUM MAILS AT LAST! 

   After a set of unrelated delays, the 1999 No. 4 issue of 
   The Asylum was mailed on Wednesday, and has at 
   last begun arriving in members' mailboxes.   We've already 
   gotten several good comments on it.  Congratulations are 
   due our new editor, Tom Fort, for stepping into the 
   breach and doing a fine job. 
  

SUBSCRIBER COMMENTS 

   New subscriber Mike Jones writes: "I went through all the back 
   issues of The E-Sylum on the net and found them to be quite 
   interesting.   I have been into coin books since 1972,  the year 
   that I joined the ANA, and it is a pity that many books can still 
   be bought at mid-1970 prices even today. 

   Unlike years ago, today one can find many things on the internet, 
   and some bargains can be found on most anything...including 
   books.  I find books on communion tokens very hard to come 
   by so I buy just about all I see" 
  

NBS VICE-PRESIDENT RESIGNS 

   NBS Vice President David Sklow writes: "It is with the deepest 
   regret that I must resign my position on the NBS board.  Please 
   accept this notice of my resignation effective immediately. I do 
   this for personal, family and medical reasons. Thank you." 

   Dave's input and assistance in NBS matters will be missed. 
   The Board wishes to thank Dave for his service, and wishes 
   the best for him and his wife Sherry.   No decision has been 
   made yet on whether to fill his position for the remainder of 
   his term. 
  

CHANGES AT THE MONEY TREE 

   David is also relinquishing his role as cataloguer at The 
   Money Tree.  In a letter sent to customers this week, 
   Tree cofounder Myron Xenos announced that with Dave's 
   departure, the numismatic literature mail bid and auction 
   sales aspects of The Money Tree will cease.  However, 
   The Money Tree lives on and its numismatic book publishing 
   activity will continue.   Myron will look forward to seeing 
   his fellow numismatic bibliophiles at the ANA convention 
   this summer, and invites everyone to stay in touch via his 
   email address:  Xenos1@prodigy.net 
  

CONVERTING SLIDES TO DIGITAL FORMAT 

   Bob Cochran writes: "I purchased an HP 5200CSE scanner 
   a few months ago, and also purchased a slide adapter for it. 
   I haven't used the slide adapter yet, but the part number is 
   C7677-67735.  It was about $25." 

   Mike Metras writes:  "Alan Luedeking asks whether anyone 
   has an easy way to scan slides.  I think I can infer from the 
   content of his question that he has a scanner, hopefully a 
   flatbed scanner.  If so, a friend recently came across an 
   internet site that tells how to build a simple paper reflector- 
   adapter that allows you to scan slides with a regular flatbed 
   scanner.  Look at 
   http://www.abstractconcreteworks.com/essays/scanning/Backlighter.html 

   Not only does it look like it will do the job, but he also directs 
   you to a really fine site (http://www.scantips.com/) with a lot of 
   very good tips on scanning.   I have not tried the reflector 
   because I have the scanner I mention in the next paragraph, but 
   it sure looks like it should work with a little effort. 

   That being said, I use a Hewlett Packard Photo Smart scanner. 
   It is designed specifically for scanning slides, negatives, and small 

   (up to 3x5) photos.  It is in the $300-$400 range depending on 
   where you get it. But I do a lot of slide and negative digitizing and 

   this is a really wonderful tool for doing it quickly and efficiently.  It 
   allows me to scan even small portions of the original slide or 
   negative.  If the quality is in the slide, this scanner picks it up. For 
   photos, it is so much better to scan the negative than the print 
   because you can get all the sharpness of the original." 

   Kerry Wetterstrom, Publisher of The Celator, writes: 
   "In response to Alan Luedeking's request for information on 
   scanning slides,  I use a Nikon Coolscan III slide scanner. It 
   works beautifully, is easy to set-up and use, and comes with 
   its own software that is also simple to use (or a plug-in that 
   works with Photoshop). Relatively inexpensive at 
   approximately $750, the cost is justified if you own a lot of slides 
   that you want to scan.  I use it for The Celator and have found it 
   invaluable.  Many flatbed scanners have the ability to scan 
   transparencies but do not work as well with mounted 35mm 
   slides." 
  

BINDING AS A SAVIOR 

   Craig N. Smith writes: "I read with interest the various comments 
   regarding the binding of periodicals.  Although I agree with 
   George Kolbe that binding rarely pays in an absolute sense, I 
   wonder if we are being short sighted in viewing this on only a 
   return on investment proposition. 

   Perhaps, a longer or different view should be taken.  I wonder 
   how many complete copies of the Numismatist would exist, if 
   none had ever been bound?  I think one could argue that many 
   of the existing copies would have been carelessly thrown away 
   by relatives who did not recognize the value of this little known 
   periodical.  By binding these issues in volumes, the series takes 
   on the value of something that appears to be of greater value 
   than just an individual issue might have to the non-numismatist. 
   I think it could be argued that the very act of binding imbues 
   these periodicals with a greater value than they might ordinarily 
   appear to have." 
  

JOHNSON COMPILES AN 'AMERICAN FORRER' 

   Dick Johnson (who writes under the name D. Wayne Johnson) 
   is nearing completion of a work on all the artists, engravers, 
   diesinkers, sculptors and medalists in America.   Johnson was the 
   founding editor of Coin World and later the director of research 
   at Medallic Art Co (where he created the firm's archives and 
   cataloged more than 5,000 of the firm's medallic productions). 

   The work contains data on more than 2,800 American artists in 
   a databank that is the equivalent of 1,200 pages. Each artist's 
   entry contains brief biographical data, a listing of every 
   documented coin and medal the artist created, numismatic 
   citations, appearances in auction sales, museum collections 
   which contain the item, and references to the artist and the 
   items in numismatic and biographical literature. 

   The author has found a publisher of high quality art reference 
   books, Sound View Press, of Madison, Connecticut, which has 
   set tentative plans for publishing this work later this year. 

   "I examined Forrer's Dictionary of Medalists and tried to 
   overcome Forrer's shortcomings," Johnson  writes. "I list the 
   items in tabular form and group similar items together, all 
   coins together, all medals in series together, etc.  In all there 
   are 25 categories. 

   "What was surprising, however, was the need to separate out 
   restrikes and reissues, since the art of one item would be used 
   later in another form. An example is Adolph A. Weinman's 
   Liberty Walking design on the 1916 half dollar appearing later 
   on bullion coins. This always occurred after the death of the 
   artist, requiring extensive research on artist's vital data, his date 

   of death being most important. 

   "I also learned one very important fact -- eighty percent of 19th 
   century American diestruck pieces are unsigned and their 
   creators are unknown.  Thus I welcome anyone's contribution 
   of information on the work of any American diesinker engraver 
   that documents unsigned items.  I am making every effort to 
   make this book as comprehensive, complete and accurate as 
   possible." 
  

FEATURED WEB SITE 

   This week's featured web site features the Coffee Mill tokens 
   of Ceylon (1841-1890).  "The majority of the copper tokens 
   were issued by Coffee Mills in Ceylon during the years when 
   there was a dearth of small change prior to 1870. A minority 
   were struck later until the early 1880's." 

      http://lakdiva.com/coins/coffee/index.html 

  Wayne Homren 
  Numismatic Bibliomania Society 
  

  The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a 
  non-profit organization promoting numismatic 
  literature.   For more information please see 
  our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/ 
  There is a membership application available on 
  the web site.  To join, print the application and 
  return it with your check to the address printed 
  on the application.   For those without web access, 
  contact Dave Hirt, NBS Secretary-Treasurer, 
  5911 Quinn Orchard Road, Frederick, MD 21704 

  (To be removed from this mailing list 
   write to me at whomren@coinlibrary.com)   

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