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V3 2000 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 3, Number 18, April 30, 2000, Article 3

CORNELL'S MAKING OF AMERICA WEB SITE

Board member Larry Mitchell writes:

"Among the best resources for ancillary coverage of 19th century American numismatic topics are the monographs and journals currently being digitized as part of Cornell University's MAKING OF AMERICA project. The almost 1,000,000 pages digitized to date are a treasure trove of information for numismatists.

To give you hint of what's available, a very simple search -- using the keyword "coin"--returns the following:

  • >Search "coin" returned 29269 matches in 13479 works.
  • >View the 5809 matches in 243 books.
  • >View the 23460 matches in 13236 journal articles.
  • >View the 29269 matches in 13479 works."

The site's address is:

http://library5.library.cornell.edu/moa/

Bill Malkmus notes:

"This is a fantastic site (I tried it) and it is every bit as great as Larry Mitchell describes."

This site is a fine place to begin a numismatic treasure hunt. American numismatic researchers are encouraged to search it for their favorite subjects; please report back to us if you find any interesting heretofore-unkown nuggets of information.

One random example I came across is an article on "An Alloy of Gold and Aluminum" in "The Manufacturer and Builder", Volume XXVI, 1894.

"In the course of experiments made for the Royal Society's committee on researches upon alloys, Prof. Austen-Roberts made a discovery that will probably be utilized in the coinage of money. His alloy consists of 78 parts of gold to 22 parts of aluminum.

These proportions, moreover, are the only ones in which the two metals alloy perfectly. The product, it is said, is of a beautiful purple color, with ruby reflections, and cannot be imitated. Besides, as gold is 7.7 times heavier than aluminum, the same weight of the latter will be 7.7 times greater in bulk than the former."

Has anyone heard of a coin or pattern ever being stuck on such an alloy?

Wayne Homren, Editor

Google NBS (coinbooks.org) Web

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.

This is a static archive page documenting the originally published content. Links were active at the time of publication but may no longer work. Check subsequent issues for corrections and commentary.

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.  Visit the Membership page. Those wishing to become new E-Sylum subscribers (or wishing to Unsubscribe) can go to the following web page link.

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