Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 27, July 1, 2001: 
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. 
Copyright (c) 2001, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. 
  

SUBSCRIBER UPDATES 

   We have no  new subscribers this week.  Paul Landsberg 
   returned after being lost for a while due to an email address 
   change.   Welcome back!   Our subscriber count is now 407. 
  

HARRY W. BASS, JR. FOUNDATION WEBSITE 

   Ed Deane announces: "The Harry Bass Research Foundation 
   and the Harry Bass Foundation have merged, as of the end 
   of April 2001, and these are now the Harry W. Bass, Jr. 
   Foundation. 

   As a result, this HBRF Website (www.hbrf.org) has moved 
   to a new URL,  www.harrybassfoundation.org,  so please 
   update your internet LINKS list accordingly. 

   The new site, www.harrybassfoundation.org is totally new, 
   redesigned and greatly expanded, which will make your online 
   numismatics experience with us even more valuable. 

   Also on the new website are the two very important search 
   and research items of our past site, the Bass Auction Catalog 
   listings with photos for the four sales and the Numismatic 
   Indexes Project (NIP) which indexes the major American 
   numismatic periodicals of more than the last 120 years." 
  

MAYERS' LITERATURE OF AMERICAN NUMISMATICS 

   Regarding the latest issue of our print journal, The Asylum, 
   Alan Luedeking writes:  "I greatly enjoyed Joel Orosz' article 
   on Frederick Mayers' paper on American numismatic 
   bibliography; like all the works that flow from Joel's pen, it 
   was excellent. 

   In it he mentions that George Kolbe first made the connection 
   to Mayer's paper having been read before the American 
   Numismatic Society  in 1858 in his Numismatic Bookseller 
   No. 42 of 1995.  Actually, George made this connection earlier, 
   in the extensive notes to lot 450 in his Sale 50 on December 8, 
   1991. The price realized clearly indicates that this item was 
   underappreciated at the time." 
  

RE-EXAMINING GUTENBERG'S ROLE 

   NBS Board Member Larry Mitchell notes: "I received today 
   the Spring 2001 Asylum.  Another very nicely done issue... 
   thank you! 

   Douglas Saville notes in his article on the Roman Imperial 
   Coinage (RIC) series that  "(p)rinting from moveable type was 
   perfected at Mainz in the 1450's by Johann Gutenberg...." 
   In fact, recent scholarship casts serious doubt on this assertion. 
   With all due credit to Saville, however, this traditional scenario 
   was not seriously questioned until early this year, by scholars 
   working at Princeton University.   A nice summary of their 
   findings can be found at 

      http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/01/0212/ 
  

ALAN GRACE CONTACT INFORMATION 

   In response to the Kentucky address Joe Boling provided 
   for bookbinder Alan Grace, Dave Lange writes:  "Alan Grace 
   has moved a couple of times since he lived in Kentucky. His 
   current address is: 

      5618 Timuquana Road, Suite 4 
      Jacksonville, FL  32210-8073 
      904-317-0051 
      gbindings@aol.com 
  

INDIAN NUMISMATIC BOOKS AVAILABLE 

   Pawan Gupta of the Books & Periodicals Agency in New 
   Delhi, India reports:  "A comprehensive detailed list of books 
   is available at http://www.bpagency.com/pages/Numismatics.htm" 
   Some new titles include: 

   1. The Dravidian Kingdoms and List of Pandiyan Coins, 
       Music in Ancient India 
   2. Local Coins of Ancient India : A News Series Coins of Malhar 
  

PROJECT  TO DIGITIZE EARLY ENGLISH TEXTS 

   [This item is of a non-numismatic nature, but it 
    related to some of our earlier discussions of 
    microfilm and digitization of source material. 
    -Editor] 

   As reported by Educause: "A group of 150 academic 
   libraries is being recruited to join in a partnership with 
   ProQuest Information and Learning (formerly Bell and 
   Howell) to produce a digitized database of 25,000 
   English works produced from 1475 to 1700. So far, 
   50 institutions, including Oxford University and the 
   University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, have committed 
   to paying the $10,000 per year for five years necessary 
   to complete the project. For at least the first five years, 
   only those libraries that contribute will be allowed free 
   access to the expanding database, putting academics 
   in the unusual position of limiting the distribution of 
   knowledge. Observers noted that this model of private/ 
   academic partnership could spread, especially if the 
   current effort is completed as planned.  (Chronicle of 
   Higher Education Online, 29 June 2001)" 

   For information on EDUCAUSE publications see 
   http://www.educause.edu/pub/pubs.html 
  

BRET HARTE AND LAFAYETTE SITES IN NEW YORK 

   Regarding Bret Harte, Jim Neiswinter writes: "I work in 
   New York City.  Sometimes I walk from Penn Station to my 
   office downtown. It's about 2.5 miles.  There is a 19th century 
   brownstone at 487 Hudson St. that has a plaque on the front 
   that says it was "A Boyhood Home of Bret Harte"  It also 
   gives the title to one of his books, which I can't remember. 
   There are no dates on the plaque as to the time he lived there - 
   but it had to be before 1854. 

   Directly across the street from the brownstone is P.S. (Public 
   School) 3. There is a plaque on the front of that building that 
   was placed there in 1911. This plaque commemorates the visit 
   to NYC of the Marquis de Lafayette on Sept. 10, 1824. He 
   was shown P.S. 3 as an example of the finest education that 
   NYC could provide. (The site is the same, but the building is 
   not that old). One of the favorite coins in my collection is an 
   1818 cent with the Washington/Lafayette counterstamp. 
   Maybe this is the place where it was handed out." 
  

MOVIE MONEY MIXUPS 

   Inspired by our recent discussions of movie money, Tom 
   DeLorey writes: "It is reliably reported (I have not seen the 
   movie) that in "Pearl Harbor" there is a scene set a few days 
   before the attack where some sailors are betting on a boxing 
   match, and one sailor is seen clearly holding a HAWAII 
   overprint $1 bill.  Of course, these notes were not introduced 
   until July of 1942." 

   Michael Schmidt also reported the inconsistency.  "In the 
   recent movie Pearl Harbor there is a scene that takes place 
   shortly after the main characters arrive at Pearl in early 1941 
   that shows a boxing match taking place on the deck of one 
   of the ships. A wad of money being used in the wagering is 
   shown and it is Hawaii overprint currency which was not 
   issued until early 1942." 

   Your Editor took the liberty of submitting an edited version 
   of Schmidt's notes to the Internet Movie Database 
   (http://us.imdb.com/), which has a section for each film listing 
   the known goofs in fact, continuity, etc.   Perhaps we can 
   educate a few movie fans about numismatics. 
  

MORE PATTERN PHOTOS AVAILABLE 

   Saul Teichman writes; "The E-sylum subscribers might be 
   interested in the following patterns - Isabella Quarter trials 
   struck on cardboard that are in the ANS. 

      http://uspatterns.com/uspatterns/p3497.html 
      http://uspatterns.com/uspatterns/p3500.html 

   The nice thing about cardboard is you can write on the 
   back side as [Mint Director] O.C. Bosbyshell did in this 
   case. 

   They might also find these 1932 Washington quarter 
   reverse hub trials interesting as, to my knowledge, they 
   have virtually never been seen by the collecting fraternity 
   before their placement on the uspatterns.com website." 

      http://uspatterns.com/uspatterns/p3614.html 
  

A LITERARY HOAX 

   Asylum Editor E. Tomlinson Fort provided a copy of 
   the latest catalog from Oak Knoll Press, publishers of 
   bibliographical references and books about books. 
   One interesting item for sale is a book titled "Anatomy 
   of a Literary Hoax" by Sid Berger.  From the catalog 
   description (Spring 2001, p112): 

   "This strange but true tale started in 1979 when Henry 
   Morris added a fictitious reference book to a lengthy list 
   of works cited in the bibliography of Nagashizuki, a book 
   authored by Timothy Barrett and printed by Henry Morris. 
   It took five years for the author and Sid Berger to finally 
   notice this bit of Morris humor.  The conspiracy began! 
   Morris was shown a xerox of a title page for the 
   fictitious reference book to show that it actually existed. 
   In reality the conspirators had the title page created by 
   Paul Duensing.  Morris was taken in hook, line, and sinker. 
   But now the story continues - you must read this book to 
   see how!  The edition is limited to 300 numbered copies." 

   Oak Knoll Press is located in New Castle, Delaware, 
   and may be reached at: http://www.oakknoll.com/ 

   Can any of our readers point out intentionally humorous 
   items inserted by authors of numismatic literature?  More 
   than a few have found their way into auction catalogs for 
   coins and even numismatic literature, although if you 
   eliminate swipes at fellow dealers the list dwindles quickly... 
  

FEATURED WEB SITE 

   This week's featured web site is about Chopmarks and 
   Philippines Counterstamped Coinage. 

      http://www.chopmarks.com/ 
  

  Wayne Homren 
  Numismatic Bibliomania Society