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WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: JUNE 18, 2017On occasion I'll publish a diary of my recent numismatic activities such as visits to coin shows, museums or local clubs. -Editor
If you're wondering why last week's issue didn't hit your inbox until the wee hours of Monday morning, nothing bad happened. In fact, it was due to a very good occasion in our household - our oldest son Christopher graduated from high school, and several out-of-town relatives were on hand for a party and the commencement ceremony. I needed to work late Sunday to complete this week's issue. Some of you are reading The E-Sylum for the first time today, but we've been publishing weekly since September 4, 1998, when I started the email newsletter to promote the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. From our web site: The Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS) is an educational organization founded in 1979 to support and promote the use and collecting of numismatic literature. Numismatic literature includes books, periodicals, catalogs and other written or printed material relating to coins, medals, tokens, or paper money, ancient or modern, U.S. or worldwide. Email and the Internet were new to most people then, and I'd had to wait a couple years from my initial idea until enough NBS members even had email addresses. But by 1998 the time was finally ripe, and I had an additional personal reason to start the newsletter - I had a pregnant wife and my days of going to coin shows and club meetings whenever I wanted were behind me. The Internet would allow me to stay in touch with my friends and hobby from the comfort of my home office. Right on schedule our son arrived December 18, 1998 as reported in Volume 1, Number 12. Now 'the kid' is bigger and taller than me, and heading to college in the fall. The E-Sylum has grown a bit, too. From an article or two per week and 88 subscribers, we now have as many as 40 articles and over 3,000 subscribers. Nummis Nova
I modeled it after The Sphinx Society, started by Ray Byrne in 1960. The group has no Constitution, no officers, no committee and no reading of the minutes. It's a pure social group, meeting monthly for a dinner and numismatic fellowship. Here's a report from our latest meeting. After work Tuesday June 13 I made my way to The Esposito's Italian restaurant in Fairfax, VA. I was the first to arrive, but was soon joined by Eric Schena, Dave Schenkman, Gene Brandenburg, Ron Abler and Wayne Herndon. Before long Joe Esposito, Steve Bishop, Mike Packard and Roger Burdette were there as well. We sat at a long rectangular table toward the back. I was dead tired from the long weekend, but happy to see everyone. I didn't bring anything to show, but others did. Eric Schena showed us copies of a manuscript he'd written in college on early Russian coinage. Thomas Paine "End of Pain" Conder Token
 The piece refers to Thomas Paine, the British-born revolutionary gadfly whose pamphlet Common Sense was enormously influential in the American colonies. It's not a favorable piece, showing a corpse hanging from a scaffold with the inscrition "END OF PAIN". The reverse reads "May the knave of Jacobin clubs never get a trick." It is one of several varieties of anti-Paine Conder tokens. Joe Esposito identified it for me as Dalton & Hamer Middlesex 1105. The piece was discussed on the NGC chat boards. Participant Conder101 wrote: While Paine was very popular here before and during the Revolution, afterward he became an annoyance and he had to leave and go to England. He had a similar effect in England where his writings were pro-French revolution. This made him very unpopular with the Royalists (Hence the desire for the "End of Pain".) Eventually he had to flee England for France. He was well received there.....at first. But eventually his writing critical of what the revolution was becoming forced him to flee again. This time back to England. He always managed to annoy the people in power where ever he went. The Jacobin Club was the Society of the Friends of the Constitution, a group of pro-French Revolution political activists. Knave referred to Paine kind of like a spokesman for the Jacobins. May he never get a trick, may he not be successful in his endeavors. To read the complete article, see:
U.S. Silver Dollars
   Neat and Gas Boxing Match Token
  Dave writes: This rare medal was struck to celebrate a fight which took place on December 11, 1821 between Thomas "gas-light man" (so nicknamed because his day job was lighting gas lamps) Hickman of London and the winner, William Neat, of Bristol. white metal, 41mm Great piece. I'd never seen it before. It was an enjoyable evening. The place was thoroughly Italian with the menu in Italian as well. I ordered a salmon dish and it was wonderful.  
Mike Packard and Wayne Herndon  From left, clockwise: Ron Abler, Gene Brandenburg, Joe Esposito, Dave Schenkman and Eric Schena. I ended up having a long conversation with Roger Burdette about how different people perceive and handle money, and about the structural problems of the health care industry in the U.S. So it's not always about numismatics, but always interesting conversation. I was so engrossed I didn't get up to mingle at the other end of the table as usual. Upon leaving some kidded, "See you - it was nice not talking to you!" That's the one thing I dislike about our meetings - restaurants park us at long tables and it's difficult to see or talk with all of the attendees. Still, it was a great night of fellowship as always. 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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