The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 22, June 3, 2007, Article 3

HAEBERLIN'S AES GRAVE: MOST IMPRESSIVE NUMISMATIC BOOK?

In his blog "A Gift for Polydektes" Ed Snible wrote (on Monday May 28):
"I recently saw E. J. Haeberlin's Aes Grave (1910) at the ANS library.
The plate volume is the most impressive numismatic publication I've
seen.

"First, it's huge. The pages are folio size. I wish I had measured them.
My recollocation is that each page was 3'x2', although that seems
impossibly large. It is probably about half that.

"Second, the printing. The book was printed with a collotype process.
This makes each page near photographic in quality. No masking or
pixelization. The paper may have changed color but the ink doesn't
look faded at all. The black and white printing gives them a dreamlike
quality.

"Third, the 'coins'. Very large Roman cast coins. Coins weighing half
a pound. The designs aren't complex or especially lifelike. The
primitive casting technology forced the Romans to use very simple
designs. Simplification gives the coins a powerful and primitive
appearance. The coin's large size gives them an alien appearance.

"Finally, the surfaces. I don't know if the rough surface represents
a patina or the casting technology. The collotype process seems to
have captured it perfectly."

To read the complete blog entry, see:
Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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