Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 3, Number 10, March 5, 2000:
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
Copyright (c) 2000, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
SUBSCRIBER UPDATES
We have one new subscriber this week: Mike Keating.
Welcome aboard! This brings our subscriber count to 285.
KARL MOULTON CATALOG
Karl Moulton of Congress, AZ, has published his 86-page
February 2000 catalog of numismatic literature, specializing
in 19th and 20th century numismatic auction catalogs, and
featuring "the largest selection of prices realized lists ever
published!" Mr. Moulton can be reached at this address:
numiscats@aol.com.
ORVILLE J. GRADY MAIL BID SALE
Orville J. Grady has issued a catalog for his mail bid sale
XXIV, closing March 31, 2000. The 672-lot sale
features consignments from Frank Van Zandt and others.
Mr. Grady may be contacted at this address: 6602
Military Avenue, Omaha, NE 68104-2518. He does
not have an email address, but lists this telephone number:
(402) 558-6782.
COL. BILL MURRAY LITERATURE REVIEW
The Coin Collector's Yearbook for the year 2000,
published by the editors of Coinage magazine,
includes an article by NBS Board member Col.
Bill Murray. The article is titled "Coin Books -
Whatever Your Taste, Something New Has Just
Been Published For You". It includes reviews of
such recent publications at "U.S. Coin Scales and
Counterfeit Detectors" by Eric Newman and the
late George Mallis, Q. David Bowers' new book on
the S.S. Brother Jonathan, and three new books on
Lincolns cents.
HOW MANY E-SYLUMS ARE THERE?
The first correct response to last week's question about
the total number of E-Sylum issues published came from
Fred Lake: "The answer to the number of issues of the
E-Sylum that have been published is pretty easy. (I think?)
Including this issue (Vol.3,No.9), there have been 73 issues.
I cheated and went to the NBS web site and looked in the
archives of the E-Sylum. Hard to believe that there have
been that many weekly emissions. Keep up the good work!"
I had to go to the archive myself before posing the
question, so Fred wasn't cheating, he was just being
resourceful. Good job, Fred!
CRIME DOESN'T PAY; NEITHER DOES BINDING
In response to Ben Keele's question about binding,
George Fuld notes: "When I had my original library which
was sold in 1971, I had bound 90% of my auction catalogs
and journals and found that when they sold, the value was
about the same as if they were not bound. Thus even though
binding was much cheaper then, it didn't pay. However, I
bound them for a different reason -- when using them for
research, when not bound everything would get out of order
and I couldn't find things. So binding is much more helpful for
this -- its effect on value is questionable."
Dave Lange writes: "It's been my experience that binding is
worthwhile if you intend to keep your periodicals for a
number of years and use them frequently. Don't expect
to recover the cost of binding when you go to sell these
publications. I've noticed that even nice sets of periodicals
in matching bindings bring somewhat less than it would
cost to replicate such binding. I always try to buy long runs
of periodicals already bound. This has proved less expensive
than trying to assemble sets piecemeal, with all the resulting
duplication."
In summary, George Kolbe adds: "In my experience, the
money spent on binding numismatic periodicals (and most
books and catalogues) is rarely recovered in full upon their
sale, but they're surely a lot easier to consult in that form.
As for book storage: cool, dark, dry (but not too dry)."
SUBSCRIBER PROFILE
New subscriber Prof. R. Balasubramaniam of the Indian
Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India writes: "I heard about
the Society from a webpage, which listed nearly all the
numismatic sites. My interests are on the technical aspects
of coin making, especially, the die striking process,
microstructural characterization of the coin material, etc.
Some of our studies are quite interesting in that we know
much more about the die striking process based on
observations at higher magnifications using a scanning
electron microscope."
CRITIC'S CORNER: BREEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA
In response to D. Wayne Johnson's remarks on Breen's
numbering system, Michael Schmidt writes:
"You liked this!??"
"I discussed this numbering system once with Walter. He said
he had nothing to do with it and that it was all the publisher's
idea. A straight-through numbering system is very foolish. The
numbers bear no real relationship to the coins they are
cataloging. Yes, they left empty numbers for later additions,
but at the end of each denomination, not at the end of each
series. Take the 1914/13 buffalo nickel. This is a major new
discovery that deserves its own Breen number, but the next
open number comes AFTER all of the Jefferson nickels. In
fact, since the overdate was discovered several years ago, its
number would now be contained WITHIN the Jefferson nickel
numbers.
When it happens with older series the problem gets even worse.
The 1796 NC-7 large cent has a new obverse and the only
stemless wreath reverse for that date. Its Breen number would
be mixed in with the copper plated zinc Lincoln cents. Secondly,
even though empty numbers were left they are rapidly being
consumed by the new issues each year. What do you do
when the empties have been all used up? Re-number
everything? Or does next year's Jefferson nickel just get a
Breen number in the 8300 range? No, the numbering system
in the Breen book is hopelessly flawed."
CRITIC'S CORNER: FORRER'S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
Bill Burd of Chicago Coin Co. writes: "I read The E-Sylum
every week - very enjoyable. Regarding the Critic's Corner,
I would assume most subscribers have Breen's Encylopedia
but wonder what percent have Forrer's Biographical
Dictionary. I am not a critic so I won't comment other than
to say I have found it to be very useful on several occasions."
George Fuld writes: "The subject of Forrer's Dictionary is
interesting. This is a landmark publication, especially for
British related issues. The indexing is poor, and much
American material is sparse -- but it is still the most useful
publication of the type available. Certainly it needs revision
based on today's knowledge, but who would attempt it?
I have found it to be most invaluable over the years, as
long as you didn't take everything as gospel."
George Kolbe writes: "I consult Forrer quite often and usually
find the information I seek. To me, it is invaluable! This is from
a bibliographical view, so I cannot vouch for it from a
numismatic perspective, though I have rarely if ever heard
anything negative from my clientele.
When the van der Dussen-Baldwin set came out I actively
promoted it and sold fifty sets or so. Since then, through my
auctions and private sales I have surely sold near that number
again. No one has ever expressed buyer's remorse, and it has
taken more than a little arm-twisting, on occasion, to sell sets
to those I believe should have it. As I mention in my
catalogues, the most recent reprint (the Franklin reprint
contains printing errors in the first volume) is one of those
cases where the reprint is preferable to the original, though
the elegance of a well-preserved original set in the original
blue morocco is compelling to some (me included).
Not everyone knows that the work originally appeared serially
in Spink's "Numismatic Circular." So, if you buy the relevant
years of that venerable journal, you get quite a bonus. "
[Editor's note: the original was published between 1902 and
1930; The Burt Franklin reprint around 1970, and the
van der Dussen reprint around 1980]
OPEN INVITATION TO E-SYLUM SUBSCRIBERS
Bill Burd added: "I have a decent numismatic library consisting
of approximately 2000 books, over 2000 catalogs, plus price
guides, association publications, newsletters, etc. It is housed
at Chicago Coin Co. Inc, at 6455 W. Archer, Chicago, IL.
Any E-Sylum subscriber that would like to use this library for
research can give me a call. I don't let books leave the
property, but they can come to the store. Bill can be
contacted as follows: Phone: 773-586-7666
Email: ChicagoCoin@worldnet.att.net
FEATURED WEB SITE
This week's featured web site is the Currency Museum of
the Bank of Canada. "The National Currency Collection
contains some 100,000 items consisting of coins, tokens and
paper money in the custody of, or owned by, the Bank of
Canada. It includes a relatively complete collection of the
coins, tokens and of paper money that have been used or
are now being used in Canada. The purpose of the collection
is to portray the development of money through the ages with
particular emphasis on the history of Canada's currency. "
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/bank/english/
Wayne Homren
Numismatic Bibliomania Society
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a
non-profit organization promoting numismatic
literature. For more information please see
our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/
There is a membership application available on
the web site. To join, print the application and
return it with your check to the address printed
on the application. For those without web access,
contact Dave Hirt, NBS Secretary-Treasurer,
5911 Quinn Orchard Road, Frederick, MD 21704
(To be removed from this mailing list
write to me at whomren@coinlibrary.com)
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