Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 3, Number 48, November 19, 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: F. J. Wagner, Welcome aboard! This brings our subscriber count to 353. ECKFELDT-DuBOIS WITH GOLD SAMPLES SOLD One of the star rarities of American numismatic literature traded hands on Thursday, November 16. An 1850 first edition of "New Varieties of Gold and Silver Coins, Counterfeit Coins, and Bullion, with Mint Values," by U.S. Mint Assayers Jacob R. Eckfeldt and William E. DuBois, sold for $9,500 to an anonymous buyer at an auction by Pacific Book Auction Galleries of San Francisco. The first edition of this cambist contained "actual samples of California gold underneath two small formica disks mounted on p.45", plus "a leaf printed in gold on blue paper showing varieties of California and Mormon coins." From the catalog description, in which other bibliographers are quoted: "Rare first edition of one of the most sought-after and most fragile books on gold coinage at the time of the California Gold Rush. The second edition of the following year, with slightly expanded text, did not contain the original samples of California gold which add to the unique character of the work. Streeter calls the slender volume "An important reference book for the beginning of gold mining in California," and Wheat remarks that "Actual samples of California `grain' and `bar' gold, and reproductions of privately minted 1849 gold coins of California and of the Mormons in Utah render this little book an extraordinary and colorful contemporary souvenir of the Gold Rush." Pages 21 to 31 describe four varieties of California gold coins issued from the following mints: "N.G. & N." of San Francisco, Oregon Exchange Company, Miners' Bank of San Francisco, and Moffat & Company of San Francisco; chapter IV is entitled "Gold from California." SPINK BOOKLIST Spink and Son announces: "We have published an extensive on-line book list, containing more than 500 titles, some of them very hard to find anywhere." The address is: http://www.spink-online.com/spink/images/coins/lists/999.htm For more information, contact aeilers@spinkandson.com BURNS SHOW SCHEDULE Literature dealer John H. Burns reports that he will have a table at the Thanksgiving-weekend Michigan State show in Dearborn, MI, as well as at the Lanham, MD show the weekend of December 1-2. DOWNEY FOUND Within minutes of the publication of last week's E-Sylum, Paul R. Hybert came through with an email address for dealer Sheridan Downey, and others followed his lead. W. David Perkins writes: "Sheridan Downey does not currently have a web site. One is "in progress" but no date to be on-line is established. (I spoke with him today about this)" MARIA THERESA THALER INFO SOUGHT Serge Pelletier writes: "I am doing some research of the Maria Theresa Thaler and have come acroos the following "Readers Ask" column in Coin World (April 4, 1994): "The Maria Theresa taler of Austria is probably the coin most often officially restruck of any coin in the world. It has been restruck by Mints in at least 11 countries since it was introduced in 1780. The same date appears on all restrikes. There have been many good articles on the Maria Theresa taler published. Coin World published a detailed history of the coin in the Sept. 15, 1976 issue. The various restrikes and countermarks are address in detail in "The Most Beautiful Coin in the World, The Story of the Maria Theresa Taler" by David Thompson and in the article "Kontermarken auf Maria- Theresientalern, Insbesondere auf Levantetalern" by Franz Leypold. Thompson published his book privately in 1990. He can be contacted through Thompson Publishing, 3803 Half Turn Road, Box 234, Colorado Springs, Colo. 80917. The 1992 article by Leypold was published in the fourth issue for that year of "Mitteilungen der Osterreichischen Numismatischen Gesellschaft." Write to Osterreichischen Numismatischen Gesellschaft, Burgring 5, Wien (Vienna) 1, Austria about the article." Would you or one of your readers have ready access to any of that material?" LANGE BUFFALO NICKEL BOOK UPDATE David W. Lange writes: "I've been told by my publisher that the second edition of The Complete Guide to Buffalo Nickels will ship from the printer November 22. The regular printing is entirely in pictorial hardcover and retails for $36.95. I'm offering copies at $30 plus $4.50 for 1st class shipping. I'll be pleased to sign and/or personalize any copies I sell. Please specify your wishes when ordering. At present, the deluxe edition is oversubscribed. Those whose copies are reserved have already been notified. I'm maintaining a waiting list for those who presently do not have a copy reserved, so if any of the reserved buyers drop out, waiting list customers will be notified in the order their request was received. Please address any orders to me at POB 288, Morris Plains, NJ 07950 or email me at DWLange@aol.com. I'll be away November 16-26, so please understand if I don't respond to emails during that time." PIKE'S ARITHMETIC Philip L. Mossman writes: "I'd like to comment regarding the reference to "Pike's Arithmetic -- A New and Complete System of Arithmetic Composed for the Use of the Citizens of the United States." I agree this is a fascinating text which explains clearly the many intricacies of the colonial and early federal monetary systems. I used it liberally, in addition to other resources, in my own book, “Money of the American Colonies and Confederation,” (New York, 1993) for the preparation of Appendix I. In that section, I attempted to outline the complex computations used to convert currencies between the various local monies of account of the period and the new federal denominations. I’m glad to see that other readers appreciate Pike’s work - 200 plus years later!" Eric P. Newman adds: "I was delighted to have Edward A. Krivoniak make reference to numismatic material in the early American arithmetic books of Nicholas Pike through reading Isaac Asimov who seemed to write about almost every subject. This is serendipity at its best. I have both Pike editions in my library and used them and other early American mathematics books and pamphlets to prepare the tables beginning on page 471 of the fourth edition of The Early Paper Money of America. The ability of Americans to make complex money exchange calculations during the American Colonial and Confederation periods and beyond is astounding. All of this points to the broad and exciting scope of numismatic literature." NUMISMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHIES AVAILABLE NBS member Morten Eske Mortensen writes: "Here is information concerning a new World Numismatic Bibliography written by Mulder & Purves and published here in Denmark. The publishing house has no more remaining copies. For price and shipping cost details for those few copies I have left, please contact me at mem@image.dk First come first served: Mulder, C.P. & Purves, A.A.: Bibliography of orders and decorations, Gylling 1999, 321 pp, ill. 17 x 24 cm. Bibliography. 3.331 numbered entries + appr. 700 extra sub-entries all with relation to orders and medals. Thousands of mainly/pure numismatic stand alone titles, off-prints as well as some articles of over 50 pages. English language. Printing run: 400+68 copies." Mr. Mortensen also has a price list of nine other Scandinavian printed numismatic bibliographies. MORE ON COIN HOLDERS Pete Smith writes: "I would like to comment on the study and collection of coin holders. Earlier this year I did volunteer work at the Minnesota Historical Society reviewing their coin collection. Most of the collection has no historical connection to Minnesota and may be considered for deaccession. The largest donation was made in 1921 by a former president of the Society, Charles Phelps Noyes, and part of my contribution was a biography of Noyes. It is clear that the coins have no connection to Minnesota. They might have a value to the Society from a different perspective, representing a leasure-time activity of a prosperous Victorian gentleman. An additional part of my contribution was a review of books Noyes donated to the Society and what they said about his study of coins and his assembly of the collection. After this study was well under way, it occurred to me that most of the collection was housed in brown Whitman envelopes. The collection was donated in 1921 and Whitman envelopes were not available until the 1950's. Other parts of the collection were kept with rectangular pieces of cardboard with round recesses to hold the coins. Many of the Noyes coins retained glue residue from an even earlier mounting. It was my conclusion that the collection, now being considered for reholdering in 2000, had been reholdered at least twice since it was donated. Any while this reholdering may protect the coins, it had destroyed the evidence of the way Noyes had inventoried, marked and stored his collection. I found myself educating the curatorial staff on the history of coin holders. One of my recommendations was that examples of old holders be kept with the collection along with a description of previous reholdering. Although these notes add nothing to the value of individual coins, they are essential to understanding the historical context of the collection. While collectors of "white" Morgan dollars or commemorative coins may have no interest, collectors of toned silver coins should study holders and their effect on toning. Advanced collectors preserve old envelopes and holders as part of the provenance of the coins history. As with any specialty area, study of holders is not for everyone, but we should appreciate those who appreciate the topic and share their information with us." GLEANINGS FROM COIN WORLD The November 27, 2000 issue of COIN WORLD has some articles of interest to the bibliophile: Summer Douglas has an article about 19th-century American coin dealer Edward Cogan (p122); Ken Potter announces the availability of Volume 2 of his reprint of Error-Variety News (p97) Susan Maltby's "Preserving Collectibles" column (p91) provides addresses of some useful web sites on conservation, including: http://www.nedcc.org/ http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/ OLDEST COIN COLLECTION SOON STOLEN Robert W. Hoge, ANA Museum Curator, writes: "Sadly, a note should be added to George Kolbe's mention of Attinelli's p.75 reference to the collection of ancient medals in Benjamin Franklin's Library Company of Philadelphia as being the earliest recorded in this country. The collection was stolen by a burglar not long after it was acquired, thus undoubtedly making it a candidate for the oldest recorded numismatic theft in this country, as well. I have never seen a description of the contents, if one exists." GREATEST COIN THEFTS Dr. Hoge's note inspires a question - what are the top coin thefts in numismatic history? In the field of U.S. numismatics the theft of coins from the Joseph Mickley collection comes to mind, as does the Dupont theft of important U.S. rarities, several of which were recovered many years later. Please send in any interesting stories relating to coin thefts, and ideally, where are the thefts are documented. FEATURED WEB SITE This week's featured web site is The Handbook of Biblical Numismatics by Mel Wacks. http://www.amuseum.org/book/ 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)
