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The E-Sylum: Volume 7, Number 50, December 12, 2004, Article 4
ELECTRONIC NUMISMATIST PUBLISHED
Jorg Lueke writes: "I would like to announce the
creation and release of the Electronic Numismatist,
a .pdf collection of the rare first six volumes of
the Numismatist. The project will hopefully be
continued to include all volumes prior to 1964.
More information can be found at
http://www.ancientcoinvalues.com/24.phtml and is
reproduced below. The cost for this set is $29.95.
History and Description
Dr. George Heath started the Numismatist (initially
called the American Numismatist) in the fall of 1888.
In that year and the following the magazine's purpose
was to market Dr. Heath's offerings as well as connect
with and educate fellow numismatists. I am uncertain
of the success of the former, but the latter objective
was achieved and the magazine quickly grew. In 1890
the magazine began to fill out with a series if articles
and the volumes from 1891 and 1892 are filled with
wonderful historical and still practical articles.
In 1891 the American Numismatic Association was founded
and the Numismatist would soon be adopted as the official
publication, an honor the magazine still holds to this
day. The first six volumes are very difficult to find.
The Electronic Numismatist
The Electronic Numismatist is a project to convert the
old issues of the magazine into electronic format. The
reasons and benefits for this are many.
To preserve the information contained in the magazine.
Contemporary accounts of numismatic events give us an
unfiltered view on what collectors thought of events
as they occurred. The first set of six volumes saw the
introduction of the Barber coinage as well as the
Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The Numismatist also
offers interesting biographical sketches of famous
numismatists like Lyman Low and Ed Frossard. The
articles are often times apt in the present day as
well. The Numismatic Foundation Stones series is
priceless. Where else can you learn how to build a
classic coin cabinet?
To make the information more easily accessible.
Books are wonderful but also a little difficult to use.
Electronic files can be searched, linked, cut and pasted,
taken on laptops and CDs. Articles on similar subjects
can be accessed with the click of a button. They are
simply more practical especially when combing though
large amounts of data.
To increase the exposure of modern numismatists to
this material.
Numismatic material from the late 19th century can
be expensive and difficult to locate. By converting
the data to electronic formats it can be made accessible
to anyone. There is no need to worry about staining a
rare text.
For fun!
How much did a 1793 cent cost in 1893 anyway? The
advertisements are scanned and preserved as found.
We have converted, bookmarked, and indexed onto
.pdf the first six volumes of the Numismatists issued
from 1888-1893 into the first compilation of
material called The Electronic Numismatist.
Subsequent volume sets are planned in the following
schedule:
Vol 7-16 (1894-1903) Apr.2005
Vol 17-26(1904-1913) Jul.2005
Vol 27-36(1914-1923) Oct.2005
Vol 37-46(1924-1933) Feb.2006
Vol 47-56(1934-1943) May.2006
Vol 57-66(1944-1953) Aug.2006
Vol 67-76(1954-1963) Nov.2006
The final set of volumes and a master index comprising
all volumes will be free to those who have ordered the
prior volumes.
Changes and Cost
We have attempted to keep the feel of the magazine as
close to the original flavor as possible. To be useful
we felt strongly about adding the bookmarks and indexes.
In some cases the layout has been altered. We have
also standardized certain names to make them easier to
find. Finally, we have interjected updated comments,
especially to highlight areas of study that have seen
significant changes. We have also kept some of the
original spelling oddities and hope the magazine will
feel historic even as it is presented in a new medium
for the first time.
Unfortunately it takes thousands of hours of labor and
thousands of dollars to convert, edit, check, arrange,
scan, type, acquire and organize this material. While
the original text is in the public domain the new
structures, indexes, commentary are copyrighted with
all rights reserved. We do wish to share as much of
the information and will be happy to release portions
for non-commercial use but we must also make an effort to
recoup the labor intensive cost of this process.
The cost for this first set of volumes is $29.95. When
you order you will receive a file (include $2 to be
shipped a CD via mail) and a personalized password you
will need to open the file. That's it!
Samples
You can see some sample pages including the index at: Sample
Questions
Email all questions to numismatist at ancientcoinvalues.com
"
[Digitizing The Numismatist has been a much-discussed
project over the years, and it's nice to see it finally
starting to happen. It is only likely to be completed
if the project is commercially viable. So if you have
the urge to have this periodical at your disposal in
electronic form, don't procrastinate when it comes to
ordering your CD. The sample files look quite clear
and readable - take a look online. -Editor]
Wayne Homren, Editor
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.
To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com
To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum
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