WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: NOVEMBER 12, 2017

Pittsburgh Numismatic Archive Material

I found myself with a day off work Friday November 10, 2107 because of the Veteran's Day holiday on the 11th. As it happened, the fall Whitman Coin Expo was taking place at the Baltimore Convention Center.

In the morning I packed my backpack with several files of interesting numismatic information I'd found while cleaning out a file cabinet in my home office last weekend. But first I typed up descriptions of the material to email to Newman Numismatic Portal Project Coordinator Len Augsburger. I would be giving him these to scan for NNP. Here are a couple descriptions readers should find of interest.

University of Pittsburgh Early American Room Coin Collection

The University of Pittsburgh's signature building is the Cathedral of Learning. A key feature of the Cathedral are the Nationality Rooms. Little known or used is the early American room. Tucked away on an upper floor, it is a recreation of an early settler's cabin. And little known to most numismatists, the room contains a display of early American coins donated by George H. Clapp.

This file contains notes and information written at different times by local numismatists Glenn A. Mooney and Wayne K. Homren.

For more information on Pitt's Nationality Rooms, see: http://www.nationalityrooms.pitt.edu/

1991 Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Wadsworth Room Numismatic Literature Appraisal

When the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh deaccessioned the bulk of their coin collection in the late 1970s/early 80s, the collection's research library was transferred to the rare book department of the Carnegie Library. This file contains a 1991 appraisal for the library by local numismatic bibliophile Wayne Homren, with assistance from numismatic literature dealer John H. Burns.

Charles and Hubert
My northward drive was uneventful and I parked on an upper floor of the Sheraton hotel's garage next to the Baltimore convention center. At the registration area I ran into Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker of CoinWeek, who showed me their brand new steadi-cam mount for their camera equipment.

Mark and Leif

Among my visits was the table of Mark Ferguson, dealer and publisher of the CAC Market Values price guide. We discussed a collection he'd recently sold for the estate of an old customer.

Mark also introduced my to his assistant, Leif Larson. Leif is an artist who has branched out into numismatic topics. He had one work with him for sale, and he kindly supplied this image. Nice work. For more information, Leif can be reached via his web site at http://www.leiflarson.com/

QDB and Steve Hayden
At the table of token dealer Steve Hayden I ran into Dave Bowers,who was effusive in his praise for my work on The E-Sylum, calling me a polymath. "Jack of all trades, Master of none" is closer to how I feel, but I do have wide-ranging interests and tastes. I'd been hoping to snag Steve as a regular advertiser since I feel the material he handles is a great fit for the interests of our readers. He does plan to submit an ad for his next auction sale.

Chip Howell
As I was finishing up with Dave and Steve along came Chip Howell, a member of my office coin club. He gave me a tube of dollar coins for Nummis Nova member Ron Abler - they'd discussed these when Chip joined us for dinner a couple months ago.

Jim, Craig and Rob

One of my next stops was Charlie Davis' table, where I ran into Jim Neiswinter. Jim showed me a nice Alan Grace binding of the ultrarare 1870 2nd edition Maris pamphlet on Varieties of the Copper Issues of US Mint for the Year 1794. My Nummis Nova friend Joe Esposito came by and shared a card with the cover of his upcoming (non-numismatic) book, Dinner in Camelot. Look for it in April!

Seated at Charlie's table were Craig Sholley and his wife Bonnie. While speaking with Craig and Jim I saw Rob Rodriguez sidle up and bellow, "Hey, I'm looking for some A-hole named Wayne Homren - anybody seen him?" I pretended to look around and shrugged my shoulders. I told everyone how I would carry my daughter on my shoulders in department store and ask strangers, "Have you seen a little red-haired girl walking around here? I can't find her anywhere." Everyone would play along and get a lot of giggles out of her. She's thirteen now and heading to high school next year.

Craig had already emailed me a submission about the Continental Dollars in response to Rob's earlier article. An absolutely fascinating (and friendly) conversation ensued with Craig and Rob dissecting points of contention between them. Craig was still unconvinced of a 1776 U.S. origin, but acknowledged that Rob's elucidation provided a stronger argument in favor of that than had been presented earlier in The E-Sylum. I wish CoinWeek had been there to capture it with their video camera. Both agreed that actual evidence on the origins of the coins has not yet been found and agreed that they'd each be the first to publish any smoking gun evidence regardless of the side it supports. I'd had a front-row seat to first-class numismatic debate.

Tony Terranova
I think it was sometime before lunch when I stopped to see Tony Terranova. We talked about the Continental Dollar discussions in The E-Sylum. Tony has handled some 100 of the coins in his years as a dealer and said quite a number of them show signs of circulation wear, and some were pretty heavily circulated. I noted that because highly circulated pieces are worth much less, they're not the ones to appear often at major auctions. Tony encouraged researchers to look at PCGS CoinFacts and 3PG population reports to note the circulated examples.

Mike and Tom
Since I had to be back for a 2pm meeting with Jeff Garett I was unable to join the Maryland gang for their 1pm lunch. Unable to scare up lunchmates at the last minute I headed across the street to the Pratt Street Ale House around 12:30, figuring I might just run into friends there anyway.

I was right, and pulled up a table next to my Nummis Nova buddy Mike Packard and Tom Gesner from Massachusetts. We had a great conversation over lunch with topics ranging from Mike and Tom's battles bidding against each other for the same coins, to Nummis Nova and the Spinx Society, how Mike got into collecting and researching Massachusetts coppers, and some of our best buys over the years. For me, these included an 1858 Constitution and Bylaws of the American Numismatic Society for $10, and an rare encased postage stamp for under $300 which I later sold for over $9000. BTW, Tom and I can recommend the crabcake sandwich. While paying the check I exchanged texts with Roger Siboni and learned he was at the C4 area looking at Mike's Massachusetts coppers!

David and Jack
After lunch I headed for the C4 table area to look for Roger, but accidentally walked past it. I ran into David Lisot of CoinTelevision and we chatted a bit about the show, the Newman Numismatic Portal, and the videos he was making later in the day of talks at the show. He kindly pointed me in the right direction.

At the C4 table area (Hobo Village?) several collectors were milling about. I said hello to Will Nipper before being flagged down by Jack Howes. We discussed the Newman Portal's new image collection feature.

Robert Schwartz
Having missed Roger I went to Jeff Garrett's table next. He was running late from lunch so I caught up with longtime E-Sylum supporter Robert Schwartz of Archives International who'd been talking with a potential consignor most of the morning. He'd just freed up and we discussed The E-Sylum and upcoming auctions. We continued our conversation while walking out to the lobby area where Bob ordered lunch. It was a nice chat.

Jeff and Ian
On our way back in I saw Jeff at his table. I pointed at a nice Bechtler gold and kidded, "How much do you want for this $350 coin?" Jeff rattled off the price marked on the piece, about 20 times higher.

We discussed the ANA Edition of The E-Sylum, then Jeff walked me over to introduce me to Ian Russell of Great Collections. I sat down and we had a nice conversation, and made plans for ads in future E-Sylums.

Charlie Davis
Next I circled back to see numismatic literature dealer Charlie Davis as usual shared a table with Neil Musante. During both of my visits Neil was busy and I didn't get a chance to say hello. Hi, Neil! Charlie was busy too, and this time I watched him sell a copy of Allan Schein's new book on the incuse gold Indian coins designed by Bela Lyon Pratt.

While Charlie and I chatted I snapped photos of some interesting books on his table.

JK and Erik
At John Kraljevich's table I was unsurprised to see Erik Goldstein, the numismatic curator at Colonial Williamsburg. I have no idea how the conversation turned to body hair, but Erik noted his general lack of it and said that JK on the other hand, "has had that beard since he was nine." That reminded me of a onetime sighting of a hairy man at the beach, whom I said "looked like a monkey in a diaper." I left before the conversation could get around to numismatics, but there was plenty of that all day, as JK's table was swarmed by visitors every time I passed.

Somewhere along the way I visited Len Augsburger at E-Sylum supporter Gerry Fortin's table. Craig and Bonnie Sholley came by looking for Love Tokens. Gerry had none, but we all got a good look at Bonnie's love token bracelet, which is very timely because of the recent article on the topic by Carol Bastable.

Ellen and Shanna
One of my last stops for the day was the table of E-Sylum supporter Shanna Schmidt. I greeted her boothmate "Shanna's Mom" and apologized for forgetting her name (it's Ellen). Mary Lannin had introduced me to her at the last Baltimore show I attended. Conversation topics included their busy show schedule, Shanna's blog, Jeff Zarit and siege coins. I promised to introduce Shanna to my friend Dr. Lawrence Korchnak. Larry is a collector of siege coins who is working on a manuscript for a book.

Looking at the time I realized that if I left right away I'd be able to make it home to Virginia in time to have dinner with my family. On the way out I met and spoke with Mary Burleson of Whitman and Brian Kendrella of Stack's Bowers about the show and their respective company's contributions to the Newman Numismatic Portal.

I pulled my jacket out of my backpack and put it on against the cold. I walked down the street to the Sheraton where I'd parked my car. Traffic was relatively light and I did indeed make it on time for dinner. It was a productive show and I'm looking forward to March already.

Here's a belated hello to some folks I saw from a distance and barely had a chance to wave to, including Wayne Herndon, Allan Schein, Julian Leidman, and Vicken Vegparian.

WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: NOVEMBER 12, 2017

THE BOOK BAZARRE