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Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 09, February 25, 2001: an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Copyright (c) 2001, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. SUBSCRIBER UPDATES We have two new subscribers this week: Rick Witschonke, and Peter Mosiondz, Jr., who writes: "Please reinstate me to The E-Sylum. I can not leave this hobby that I love so much." Welcome aboard, and Welcome Back! Our subscriber count is now 371. Or is it? Chet Dera writes: "You do a great job on The E-Sylum and I enjoy every issue. I have forwarded your E-Zine to several people many times, either in part or in total. So you have more than the listed number of subscribers. Keep up the good work." AMERICA ONLINE OUTAGE: When a couple of America Online subscribers reported that they hadn't received the last issue of The E-Sylum (February 18th), I sent a note to a random sample of AOL subscribers. Only one said he'd received it. There are 87 AOL folks in all. To be sure I resent the issue to all of them. Let's hope this won't become a regular occurrence. NEXT ASYLUM ISSUE Editor E. Tomlinson Fort reports that the finishing touches are being put on the next issue of our Print journal, The Asylum. The No. 1 issue of the 2001 volume, which boasts an extra four pages, will contain the following articles and departments: "President's Message" by Wayne Homren. "Letters to the Editor" "In Memoriam: Frank Katen (1903-2001)" by His Friends and Clients. "Frank Joseph Katen: Pathfinder of Numismatic Literature" by Joel J. Orosz "Frank Katen - An Appreciation" by George F. Kolbe "Frank Katen, M.A. Powills and Frank Causey Wilson's Bulletin" by Wayne Homren "Frank Katen vs the ANA" by Pete Smith "An Overview of Copyright Law for Numismatists" by Ben Keele. "The Printer's Devil: Colburn's Cogan: An Exercise in Reconstructing Provenance" by Joel J. Orosz. TEMPUS IN NUMMIS Lawrence Lee of the Durham Western Heritage Museum (home of the Byron Reed collection) writes: "The recent E-Sylum discussions over the correct term for various anniversary dates caused me to turn to the definitive work on time in numismatics, Tempus in Nummis. In Volume 2, beginning on p165 of their metacognitive work, authors James Sweeny and Robert Turfboer devote an entire section to the language of anniversaries. Among their factoid gems: a tertiomillennial marks an anniversary of 333 years, while a sesquibimillennial occurs every 2,500 years. Which will be about how long it will take anyone to surpass Sweeny and Turfboer in covering the subject." [Editor's note: Hail to Sweeny and Turfboer! And shame on me for not going to my bookshelf before asking my original question. Of course, if I hadn't brought the subject up, we'd have missed everyone's interesting replies. Tempus in Nummis, published in 1992 by Numismatics International, is one of my favorite numismatic books, and I'm glad to see others think likewise. ] CELEBRATE "SHROFF" TUESDAY BY THROWING BAD COINS AT BANKERS Michael E. Marotta writes: "Discussing the etymology of "Shrove Tuesday" I discovered "shroff" in the Merriam Webster Ninth Collegiate. (It is also in the 6th and 10th. Although it is in the New World hardcover up through 1969, it is not in my paperback edition from 1979.) Searching the ANS Library returned no hits on this word. What is most interesting is that actually testing money is explicitly one of the services of the shroff. I then found other references online that point to variants such as serafine (xerafin), a word for Arabic gold coins well known to American colonial merchants. http://original.bibliomania.com/Reference/HobsonJobson/data/831.html Sir Henry Yule C.B., K.C.S.I. and A. C. Burnell Hobson Jobson: The Anglo-Indian Dictionary pages 831-832 SHROFF, s. A money-changer, a banker. Ar. sarraf, sairafi, sairaf. The word is used by Europeans in China as well as in India, and is there applied to the experts who are employed by banks and mercantile firms to check the quality of the dollars that pass into the houses. "Shroffing schools are common in Canton, where teachers of the art keep bad dollars for the purpose of exercising their pupils; and several works on the subject have been published there, with numerous illustrations of dollars and other foreign coins, the methods of scooping out silver and filling up with copper or lead, comparisons between genuine and counterfeit dollars, the difference between native and foreign milling, etc., etc." ANNULAR VS. ANNULET Dick Johnson. writes: "The criteria for a good numismatic term is that it has a specific meaning and cannot be confused with anything else. "Annular" fits this criteria and its use can be encouraged in numismatic literature. It should not, however, be confused with "annulet," which means "a raised circular line or ring" in numismatics. In medallic art annulet can be found in several uses. In fabricating certain medallic items--badges are a good example--a stock badge can be customized by applying a newly created center emblem. The stock item contains an annulet -- raised round circular line in the die and the struck piece--where the circular emblem is to be affixed. The same term holds true for the feet applied to the back of a medallic paperweight. Annulets will be placed in the reverse die (usually at the four corners), and the separate feet -- usually half balls -- are applied within these small raised circles. The annulets serve as an attractive frame for the applied item. A special kind of annulet, called a "limiting guide" is engraved in the die where a hole is to be drilled in the struck piece. The U.S. Mint did this for some early Indian Peace Medals. Examples: James Madison (Julian IP-5) and John Tyler (IP-21). The tiny raised circles, at the 12 o'clock position inside the rim, served as the focus for the drill bit. The existence of a limiting guide meant the struck piece was intended to be holed. For coins, there are annulet mintmarks (small circular rings). Example: England's annulet coinage of Henry VI." QUESTIONS ON HORAN'S REPRINT OF MCKENNEY-HALL George Fuld wrote in with a few questions on the Horan book: 1: "I have checked the Horan edition of 120 plates, and only 27 of the 120 contain Indian Peace Medals. Is there this much difference between the original 150 plates and the Horan edition? [Editor's note: Fuld later wrote: "I must apologize--upon further checking of the 128 Horan plates, actually 41 show Peace Medals!! Sorry for misinforming Don G."] 2. Incidentally, I can't find Horan's reference to McKenney collecting Peace medals -- only a long reference to the John Q. Adams issue. Did I miss something? 3. Are the original 150 plate set available on the internet???" Your Editor investigated the internet question, and found hundreds of references to McKenney-Hall, but these lead mostly to dealers peddling copies of the prints. For those on a tight budget, you can buy a pack of 52 playing cards featuring the prints. One of the few noncommercial web sites featuring the prints is the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, which has six McKinney Hall images: http://nmaa-ryder.si.edu/ George's first two questions are addressed in the following note from Jan Monroe: "I am not an expert on the original McKenney-Hall plates. However, I have looked at a set of books produced in the 1930's as I recall that showed about the same percentage of medals (i.e.about the 27 mentioned.) The Horan book does show many prints of indians wearing peace medals. The Asylum article on the McKenney prints and books published years ago should provide more information for George Fuld as it was a great piece of research. [Editor's note: Jan is referring to an article by Don Groves in the Autumn 1995 issue of The Asylum (Vol XIII, No. 4, pp19-21, titled "North American Indians - McKenney & Hall." On Page 86-87 of Horan is the section on the ordering of the peace medals from the US Mint by McKenney for the Indians. On page 66 the book states that "McKenney toured the countryside on horseback, collecting curiosities from an Indian Mound for his archives and interviewing survivors of the Indian and Revolutionary wars and the war of 1812." .... Before the expedition was finished bales and boxes of Indian costumes, bones, jewelry, beadwork, pipes, medals...had been sent back to Washington." It is not really clear if "his archives" is McKenneys personal collection or if it was for the Federal Government. On page 62 the book states that "The archives and Indian Portrait gallery were now part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs..." The general tone of the book is that McKenney was very interested in the Peace Medals and was actually the individual that convinced the War department to issue Indian Peace medals. The War department thought they were too expensive. McKenney reviewed the models prepared by Furst of Presidents Madison, Monroe, and Adams. McKenney was in a position to purchase copies of medals if he wished and his employees distributed the medals to the Indians. McKenney wrote to the Secretary of War in 1825 outlining the history of the Indian Peace Medals. Given this history and his interest I believe that it is quite likely that he did have at least a few Indian Peace Medals although the book does not mention a personal collection. It is unclear from the Red Jacket discussion as to whether he intended to purchase the Red Jacket medal for himself or the war department. After rereading the text I may have assumed too much. At the time of his death McKenney was impoverished and if he had a collection of medals it would have been sold to help pay for the publishing of his book or his living expenses. McKenney was a great man and a true public servant who accomplished great things but died with little recognition for his accomplishments." VIOLA BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS MCKENNEY In the category of "no one asked, but here it is anyway", my web search turned up a reference to a biography of McKenney: Viola, Herman J, "Thomas L. McKenney : Architect Of America's Early Indian Policy, 1816-1830" Sage Books, Chicago, 1974. Perhaps one of our readers can track down a copy and let us know what it may say about the peace medals. SOME NOTES ON MCKENNEY AND HALL PORTRAITS OF AMERICAN INDIANS AND THEIR PEACE MEDALS Bill Spengler writes: "I took particular pleasure from your note in the last E-Sylum on the above subject because of long personal association with original lithographs, large and small sized, from the McKenney and Hall portfolios and other contemporary series. My parents began collecting these so-called "Indian prints" in the 1930s and managed to assemble about sixty of them by the 1970s when they divided and gifted them to me and my three siblings. We each inherited about fifteen, supplemented by a few which we purchased ourselves along the way. Most of these have now been handed down to the third generation. I have kept my favorite trio which happen to be among the most popular of the entire portfolio: Red Jacket, "MA-KA-TAI-ME-SHE-KIA-KIAH" or Black Hawk a Saukie Brave", and Keokuk "Chief of the Sacs and Foxes" depicted with his young son (the only father-son combo in the series). All, including Keokuk's son, are shown wearing presidential peace medals. Red Jacket's medal is identified in your note as one of President Washington dated 1792. Black Hawk's appears to be of President Andy Jackson who brought him to Washington as a sort of paroled prisoner where his portrait in a red feather headdress was painted by Charles Bird King in 1837. (There is a later portrait of a more mature Chief Black Hawk wearing a blue coat, not in the McKenney-Hall portfolio but sometimes available in original lithograph.) The presidential portrait on the peace medals worn by Keokuk and his son does not look like Jackson's, as on Black Hawk's medal, though their likenesses were painted by King in Washington the same year, 1837. This was Jackson's last year in office and Martin Van Buren's first, so perhaps their medals were awarded by the latter. The details of these medals are quite unclear on the original lithographs and even more so on the mediocre reproductions in Horan's 1972 reprint. Only historical research into the actual presenter and date of presentation of the medals can resolve such questions. Hopefully someone will undertake this identification for ALL the peace medals in this important series of portraits -- of which I counted fifty-three, rather than forty-nine, if you count the three medals ostentatiously sported by Naw-Kaw and the three by the "Winnebago Orator". I might point out that while these lithographs are attributed to Thomas L. McKenney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs under four presidents up to and including Jackson, and his historian colleague James Hall, they only reproduced prints of paintings most of which had been made by King and his pupil George Cooke in Washington in the 1830s; or copied by King from original paintings done earlier by James O. Lewis at the sites of treaty councils with exotic French placenames such as Butte des Morts ("Hill of the Dead"), Fond du Lac ("Bottom of the Lake", i.e. the southern end of Lake Winnebago) and Portage, all in eastern or southern Wisconsin. I was born and raised between the first two named places, longer ago than I would care to admit, and grew up in awe of the memory of many of these personages. More later when I find the time to comment further, as Red Jacket, Black Hawk and Keokuk & Son beam down on me." PORTRAIT GALLERY PEACE MEDAL EXHIBIT Still more information turned up by the web search: Indian Peace Medals from the Schermer Collection are on display at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. January 26, 2001 through June 3, 2001. From the museum's web site: http://www.si.edu/activity/exhibits/sib.htm "On view are 19 peace medals presented to Indian tribal leaders by the United States government between 1793 and 1881, along with a British medal depicting George III and given to Canadian allies during the War of 1812. The U.S. medals, usually made in silver and with a portrait of the current President on one side, were often given to secure treaties and cement political loyalties. The pipe and hatchet motif appeared on the medals until 1850 and symbolized peace. Also on view is a complete 3-volume set of The History of Indian Tribes of North America by Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall, one of the 19th century's most important works on the American Indian. The series, printed in Philadelphia from 1837-1844, includes biographies of Native American leaders and 120 hand-colored lithographic portraits that reproduce painting made by Charles Bird King and other artists. These objects were donated to the National Portrait Gallery by Lloyd and Betty Schermer." DYE'S COUNTERFEIT DETECTOR FOLLOWUP Being naturally curious, your Editor decided to assign a staff reporter to follow up on the recent eBay sale of an 1850 Dye's Counterfeit Detector and Universal Bank Note Gazetteer" (reported in the February 4, 2001 E-Sylum, v4, no. 06). Then I realized, "Hey, I don't have a staff!" So playing beat reporter, your Editor contacted the seller seller himself, asking how he acquired the item and what he thought of the bidding which took it from a $9 opening bid to a final $1225 hammer price. The gentleman wrote: "I found the item while browsing an upstate NY antique co-op looking for photographs to add to my collection. I stopped at one booth, and the photos were terrible, so I started looking at the paper items available. The detector was priced at the reasonable sum of $15. After looking through it, I decided it was worth that much as an interesting diversion to read, and then resell. As to its value, I felt sure someone who collected paper money would be interested in it for more then I paid for it, but to be honest, I thought it likely that the amount it would resell for was in the $50 to $100 range. I was surprised by, and don't pretend to understand the reason for the final bid. Needless to say, if I ever see another, I've learnt something useful here." FEATURED WEB SITE This week's featured web site is a maker of medals and reproduction coins, The Bigbury Mint in South Devon, England. "To satisfy the needs of Living History Groups, collectors and retailers, the Bigbury Mint produce a range of semi - replica hammered coins that really do look and feel authentic. Weights, alloys and fineness are kept close to the original remedies and coins can be supplied as new or in a gently toned and aged condition. Original coins are carefully analysed to determine engraving techniques and over years experience is used to re-create the dies in fine detail. The Bigbury Mint acts as a real period Mint with it’s own mintmark, issuing coins under it’s own name. There has long been a conflict of interests over those who supply this type of coin with some wanting absolute replication and with others worried about the whole idea of copies. The Bigbury Mint offers a reasonable compromise. Apart from using our own mintmark we will normally alter the reverse legend to include an appropriate version of the word ‘Bigbury’. An example of each of our replica coins are held at the British Museum for reference." http://www.bigburymint.com/ Wayne Homren Numismatic Bibliomania Society Content presented in The E-Sylum is not necessarily researched or independently fact-checked, and views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the 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. Visit the Membership page. Those wishing to become new E-Sylum subscribers (or wishing to Unsubscribe) can go to the following web page link. |
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