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1859 SAGE NUMISMATIC BOOKS RAFFLE TOKEN
Harry Waterson submitted these thoughts on a current eBay lot of special interest to American numismatic bibliophiles. Thanks! -Editor
November 1859 A. B. Sage Numismatic Books Raffle Token This token is currently listed on eBay #111660596273 The seller is JRH Specialty Services of NJ who acquired the token from Steve Tanenbaum 
The seller says it is an unlisted variety of a G. H. Lovett token. He did not say how it differed from what is listed. Or give a size. What I don't understand are the 'terms'? How did they work? Are they the cost of a library card? In any case, a famous maker, a famous numismatic bookseller with the Tanenbaum imprimatur. As an item of interest, how many numismatic books would Sage have owned in 1859?
Born in 1842, Augustus B. Sage was the founder of the American Numismatic Society and an early New York coin dealer. There were but a
handful of books on American numismatics published at that time, and a numismatic library would have consisted of auction catalogs and
books on foreign and ancient coins.
I've always been fascinated by this token, but never acquired one for my collection. QUICK QUIZ: There were at least TWO raffles in the world of 19th century American numismatics. What are the others? -Editor To read the complete eBay lot description, see:
THE BOOK BAZARREWayne 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@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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