Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 3, Number 11, March 12, 2000:
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
Copyright (c) 2000, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
SUBSCRIBER UPDATES
We have no new subscribers this week, thus our subscriber
count holds at 285. Surely we have more numismatic
bibliophiles in the world than that. Pass the word!
ANOTHER ASYLUM DELAY
I'm terribly sorry to report to our members that there has
been an additional delay in getting the 1999 No. 4 issue
in the mail. It was printed a couple weeks ago, and
should at last go in the mail this week. We apologize for
the delay, this time due to a mailing label snafu.
Meanwhile, work continues on the 2000 No. 1 issue,
and our backlog of submissions is once again fairly low.
Please consider contributing an article. Long or short, we
can use any item of interest to numismatic bibliophiles.
CRITIC'S CORNER, CONTINUED: BREEN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA
Allan Davisson writes: "Re: Breen's numbering problem: Dalton
and Hamer had the same problem. That is why they used the
obscure term "bis" when something came along that merited
insertion. Open-ended numbering systems can be problematic
as well. Richard Lobel has come up with a new and endlessly
open system for numbering English coins but I find it
cumbersome and oddly unsatisfying."
In contrast, Alan Luedeking writes: "I believe Mr. Schmidt's
assessment of Breen's straight-through numbering system was
perhaps a trifle harsh; first off, the empties are specifically
"reserved for future issues" and are only available after
currently circulating issues. No other meaning can possibly
be intended. Should a new intra-type item be discovered (such
as the cited 1914/13 Buffalo variety), it ought to be given the
number 2592.1. If 23 new varieties of a particular coin were to
be discovered the number of the last one would simply be
XXXX.23. Sub-sub varieties (or die states) could be easily
added, such as a XXXX.6.2. The obvious advantage is that
the item number is always in order, and you can instantly tell
when any item is a post-Breen discovery.
Secondly, the system allows for infinite expansion everywhere.
No more large cents located within the Lincoln cents, which
Breen, who was a superb mathematician, never intended. Also,
given that the Federal issues are not strictly organized by
denomination but by first by metal and then by denomination,
(note nickel three-cent pieces occur before silver trimes),
straight through numbering makes sense, since it is always easy
to find any piece by number, regardless of type.".
ROMAN IMPERIAL HANDBOOK REPRINTED
Laurion Numismatic Press announces that it has just reprinted
Van Meter's "Handbook of Roman Imperial Coins," a catalog
of 8,100 coin types, 1000+ photographs, plus useful tables
and charts. 334 pp., softbound. Retail price: $34.95; For
further details, see their web site at:
http://members.aol.com/LaurionPub/
DIGITIZING SLIDES
Alan Luedeking writes: "Does anyone out there know an easy
way to scan or convert color slides into digital images? My
entire collection is photographed on color slides, which I use
for occasional school presentations and at club meetings. It's
easy to carry slides in the same coin boxes designed for 2x2
flips; but now I wish I had them all in my laptop to be able to
make sexier Powerpoint presentations and be able to send
images by e-mail for research... Please don't tell me I have to
photograph everything all over again!"
Actually, today there are a number of alternatives for
digitizing slides. Most photo processing shops now offer
such services. I've borrowed slides from friends, given them
to a processor, and received back the original slides plus a
CD-ROM disk containing the digitized pictures. I've found
the process very acceptable and affordable. This was over a
year ago. Does anyone with more recent experience care to
comment?
MONEY-COUNTING BOOK RESEARCH
NBS Board Member Larry Mitchell writes: "I am in the process
of completing primary research for an article on early children's
money-counting books. To date, such research has focused
primarily on materials in the renowned Elizabeth Ball Collection
of Historical Children's Materials at the Lilly Library, Indiana
University.
To provide as comprehensive an overview of these books as
possible, though, I would appreciate hearing from anyone who
may have such books in his or her collection, or who may know
of such collections that are available for primary research. A
typical title in this genre is:
The Pence Table Playfully Paraphrased / by Peter
Pennyless. London: J. Harris, <1818>.
Any help would be appreciated and gratefully
acknowledged upon publication." Larry may be contacted
at numislit@yahoo.com
FORRER INDEX
Paul Withers writes: "There was an index published to go
with the van der Dussen-Baldwin set. This was published
jointly by the Royal Numismatic Society and the British Art
Medal Society. It was prepared by the late Joan Martin of
the British Museum and her text was considerably modified
by my wife before it was edited and we printed it. This index
makes the work navigable and thus extremely useful.
We did have a small number of these in stock, but now all
have gone. However, I have to say that despite its extremely
reasonable price of just 40 pounds it was almost totally
ignored.
It is a sad feature of our society that people want information
but are seemingly unwilling to pay for it."
GLEANINGS FROM THE CRITIC'S CORNER
Dick Johnson, who has for some time been researching
American engravers and diesinkers, writes: "This is what I
learned about Forrer's work from everyone's recent
E-Sylum contributions:
(1) Accuracy of the data is of the greatest importance.
(2) Indexing [and organizing the material] is also important.
(3) A need for data on American artists exists. (George Fuld).
(4) A book such as this is frequently referenced.
(5) Users like it.
(6) The data it contains has great longevity [it is still useful and
necessary a century and three major reprintings later].
(7) Buyers have to be talked into purchasing it
[reminiscent of the days of the encyclopedia salesman!].
(8) Types of binding are really not that important but must be
suitable for a lot of hard use. (George Kolbe).
What writers didn't say also gives intelligence:
(9) The arrangement of the data can be left up to the compiler.
(10) The same can be said for the content.
"My analysis of Forrer is the very disconcerting need to
search through four alphabets to make sure you have every
entry on an artist. Listings of numismatic items are given in
run-on text; how much better it would have been if these
had been tabular.
"Forrer's style was eclectic, he copied a lot of other material
verbatim, cut and paste style, occasionally in another language,
mostly French. He did include some nonexistent artists, like a
J. Beach that should have been J. Boyle, but these errors came
from his contributors. He's more accurate on items that passed
through the offices of Spink & Son that he could physically
examine.
"Perhaps his greatest sin, however, was listing material from
sales literature, like attributing items to Robert Sneider that he
sold rather than engraved [Sneider had purchased and restruck
a lot of Lovett's dies, but did not identify these as Lovett's,
leaving the impression they were his creations, which Forrer
perpetuated]. Also Forrer had an idiosyncrasy of calling every
artist in the Western hemisphere 'American'."
If you would like to comment further on Forrer's Biographical
Dictionary, send your comments to your editor here for print,
or directly to Dick Johnson at dick.johnson@snet.net.
FEATURED WEB SITE
This week's featured web site is the currency collection of
the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C.
"The NCC Gallery houses a large collection of currency
that includes subcategories of bank notes, coins, tokens, and
scrip. There are nearly 3,000 coins and over 6,000 pieces of
paper money in this collection."
http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/gallery/currency.html
The reference page lists an item I've never heard of:
"Cooper, J.M. North Carolina Currency: a Pictorial Summery
(i.e. summary) of coins that Circulated in North Carolina from
Colonization to Date and Some of the Provincial and State
Issued Paper Money, 19??." Is anyone familiar with this?
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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