Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 6, Number 25, June 20, 2003:
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society.


SUBSCRIBER UPDATE

  Among recent new subscribers is NBS member Peter Koch.
 Welcome aboard!  We now have 569 subscribers.


S. S. CENTRAL AMERICA FILM TO BE SHOWN SUNDAY

  No, it's not Sunday yet.  But in order to publish the following
  announcement in a timely manner, this edition of The E-Sylum
  is being sent a couple days early.  Dave Bowers writes: "This
  Sunday, June 22 at 7 p.m. on the History Channel, the
  Charlton Heston-narrated film about gold and the S.S.
  Central America will be shown.  I have a few "bit" parts
  as do other "numismatolgists" you know."


NEW SPINK WEB SITE

  From the company news release: "Spink is pleased to
  announce that our new website at www.spink.com is now
  live, offering stock for sale on-line, an on-line bidding facility
  for our auctions, and much more.

  The website has been designed with the needs of the collector
  in mind and new features will follow. We would very much
  appreciate your comments and feedback on the new site,
  and hope that you find the spink.com experience an
  enjoyable one."

  [The Spink book department has its own section on the
  site.  To get there directly, use this link:
  http://www.spink.com/departments/books.asp -Editor]


ABOUT THAT 1873-CC NO ARROWS DIME

  Scott Rubin writes: "About the 1873-CC No Arrows Dime -
  I wrote an article which appeared in Bowers and Merena's
  Rare Coin Review and I think reprinted in the Eliasberg
  Catalogue along with the Quarter.  In the article I mention that
  the 19th century Randall Sale contained such a dime.  At the
  time of Heaton's book on mint marked coinage he did not
  consider this coin to be unique which at the time lead me to
  believe there was more then one of them."

  Rusty Goe writes: "Well, it was fun while it lasted, but PCGS
  has acknowledged that there has NOT been a new 1873-CC
  No Arrows dime certified.  Apparently, the listing in the Pop
  report was due to a "mechanical error" (typo).

  This is what we suspected all along, and that is why we
  asked to speak to one of PCGS's key personnel, who
  undeniably confirmed that there was in fact a second specimen
  graded.  We had no reason to doubt the veracity of their
  spokesman, who was unwavering even after being informed
  of what a significant event it would be.

  Several years ago a similar incident occurred. A second
  1873-CC No Arrows dime appeared on the PCGS pop
  report, but it was almost immediately discovered to be a typo.
  The owner of the coin actually had some fun with it at coin
  shows, showing his beat up circulated 1873-CC No Arrows
  dime in a PCGS holder, and offering it for sale at approximately
  $5500.  The certificate on the holder said No Arrows, but the
  coin itself, of course, had the arrows.  If you have a 1999 pop
  report, you can look it up.  But it was soon corrected, and it
  wasn't until 2003 that this latest one appeared.

  Coin World's Bill Gibbs pursued this current story after we
  reported it to him.  Upon further examination of their data,
  PCGS's rep. told Gibbs that his initial response had been
  pre-mature, and the population figure was for an 1873-CC
  WITH Arrows dime in the VG - VF range. Bill Gibbs and I
  agreed that this would have been a sensational story if it had
  in fact been a NO Arrows dime.

  Incidents such as this illustrate how influential population data
  can be to the coin hobby.  Integrity and accuracy are of
  paramount importance, and can not be taken lightly. There
  have been millions of coins certified since 1986, and it is easy
  for many to get lost in the shuffle.  Most of the coins are
  inconsequential, e.g. - 1881-S dollars in MS-63.  But
  statistics for classic rarities must be held to stricter standards.
  A red light needs to flash when dates with extremely low pop
  figures are added to the reports.  If these additions prove to
  be accurate, press releases need to be issued to share the
  news with the rest of the collector community.

  In some ways its disappointing that a second 1873-CC No
  Arrows dime was not discovered, but in another way, it is
  also satisfying to preserve the revered status afforded to the
  Eliasberg specimen.  Coin collecting can always use celestial
  classics.

  As a sidenote: Special thanks to Len A. who offered us an
  interesting piece of Carson City lore.

  Any comments can be sent to: Rusty Goe,  Southgate Coins
  5032 S. Virginia St., Reno, NV 89502,
  mariesgate at sbcglobal.net


HALF CENT RESEARCH QUESTIONS

  Gregg A. Silvis writes: "Two questions for readers of
  The E-Sylum:

  1.  I have a photocopy of an article entitled "Famous Half
  Cent Collection," which I believe comes from page 52 of
  the Vol. VI, June, 1928 issue of Guttag's Coin Bulletin.
  Could someone please confirm that this citation is correct?
  Also, I believe that in the August, 1928 issue of Guttag's
  Coin Bulletin, it is stated that this same collection, that of
  Commodore Eaton, was sold within 24 hours.  If possible,
   I would like to get a copy of this August, 1928 issue.
   Please contact me at gregg at udel.edu.  Thanks!

  2.  I understand from various sources that copies (drafts?)
  of Walter Breen's unpublished half cent book had some
  limited circulation among some dealers during the late 1950's
  and early 1960's.  Would anyone be able to confirm this?
  Are there any copies floating around out there? Thanks
  again!"


FROSSARD SALE PRICE SOUGHT

  David Fanning writes: "I am still in need of the following
  information and would be very grateful to hear from anyone
  who can help me out:   The price brought by lot 548 in
  Frossard's 23rd sale (August 3, 1882). This is a (by our
  terminology) 1794 Breen 60, Sheldon 68 cent.  Thanks
  much."


PERKINS TO PHILADELPHIA IN 1792

  Gar Travis writes:  "I have a Wednesday, July 11th 1792
  edition of the Columbian Centinel, printed and published (on
  Wednesdays and Saturdays), by Benjamin Russell in State-
  Street, Boston, (Maffachufetts).  I understand the spellings
  and wish we could still "ufe" them.

  The second page numbered 138 in this No. 35 VOL. XVII
  (whole No. 867) under the dateline Salem, Massachusetts
  has some news regarding Mr. Perkins.

  "We hear that the ingenious Mr. Perkins, of Newburyport,
  has been sent for to Philadelphia, to execute the coinage of
  the United States."

  [Gar attached an image of the item, which I forwarded to
  David Perkins.  -Editor]


FANTASTIC 1804 DOLLAR BOOK VARIANT

  On the COINS mailing list, Peter Gaspar (our first E-Sylum
  subscriber) wrote:  "I was asked to post to the whole list
  the explanation for my comment at the end of a posting on
  the 1804 dollar:  "PS: There is a version of the Newman-
  Bressett book that is as rare, if not as costly, as the 1804
  silver dollar."

  "Production of the 1962 book was beginning just as David
  Spink made his sensational presentation at that year's Detroit
  ANA convention revealing the existence of the previously
  unknown King of Siam presentation set containing what is
  these days called an "original" striking of the 1804 dollar.
  That revelation required a quick rewriting of part of the book,
  and almost all of the copies already printed were destroyed.
  Messrs. Newman and Bressett arranged for a few (perhaps
  a dozen total) of the page proofs of the original edition to be
  bound, and these look from the outside just like the normally
  issued book. Cognoscenti still examine copies of the book
  hoping to find a first version.  I did a census of surviving
  examples of the first version last year, but regrettably have
  been too swamped to properly collate and publish the data.
  That book is rare, one of the rarest American numismatic
  books of the 20th century, but of course it commands only a
  modest price on the occasions on which a first version copy
  comes up for sale.  Hence the teaser I included at the end of
  my brief note."

  [I believe it was while visiting the library of P. Scott Rubin
   that I first learned of the existence of this rare variant of the
  Fantastic 1804 Dollar book.  I later bought my own copy at
  auction.  I wrote an article for The Asylum about it a year or
  two ago.  -Editor]


FRANKFURT MONEY MUSEUM

  Bob Knepper of Anaheim, CA writes: "The last E-Sylum
  asked about numismatic museums in Europe.  One I have
  visited a couple times is the Money Museum of the Deutsche
  Bundesbank, Wilhelm-Epstein-Str. 14, Frankfurt/Main,
  Germany. Email at geldmuseum at bundesbank.de.  Internet
  at www.bundesbank.de.

  The museum has some numismatic exhibits but has considerable
  "economic" data, i.e.. history of inflation, how changing interest
  rates affect the economy, etc.  Also had an exhibit of security
  features in the Euro banknotes.  I liked a silver humpen (stein)
  from 1722 with many embedded coins with the wildman
  design that I collect.  There is a large library in the upper
  floors."


TYPES OF INTERNMENT CAMPS

  Karen Ebel of New London, NH writes: "To understand the
  internment camps coins, background on the government's
  "enemy alien" program is necessary.  All German, Japanese and
  Italians aliens (approximately 1,000,000 people) were classified
  as "enemy aliens" immediately following the Pearl Harbor attack.
  These folks were mostly permanent resident aliens, many with
  families, who had immigrated here years before.  As enemy
  aliens, they had no Constitutional protections and were subject
  to internment for the duration of the war if they violated any of
  the many restrictions on their travel/personal property rights or
  if they were deemed to be "potentially dangerous to the public
  peace."  The evidentiary threshold required for internment was
  quite low and many were interned on the basis of suspicion of
  being sympathetic to Germany, some for 6-7 years.

  No internee was ever convicted of anything.  Most internees had
  no clue why they were interned and were forbidden to speak of
  it when they left the camps.  Many died without telling their
  children.  To this day, the fact of the enemy alien program is
  largely unknown in this country.  That is why few know that
  11,000 Germans and 3,000 Italians were interned, but the
  Alien Enemies Act of 1798 remains alive and well for future use.

  Back to coins.  The federal government operated two
  distinct systems of camps during World War II.  The
  Department of Justice (through the INS) operated a set of
  internment camps for German, Japanese and Italian "enemy
  aliens" and their families (including many American-born
  children).   The Wartime Relocation Authority, a branch of
  the military, operated another set of camps exclusively for the
  evacuated West Coast Japanese Americans.  Some West
  Coast Japanese did end up in the DOJ camps (pursuant to
  the same procedure which applied to Germans and Italians),
  but most were in the WRA camps.  I presume that different
  forms of "scrip" were issued in each system of camps.  I don't
  know anything about the WRA camps.

  My father was a German enemy alien internee at the Ft. Lincoln
  internment camp in Bismarck, ND.  His scrip is marked
  specifically with the name of that camp and is gray pressed paper.
  On Mr. Jacobs' site is an image of Crystal City scrip which is
  orange: http://www.foitimes.com/internment/Facesplaces.htm
  Scroll about halfway down the page.  (A picture of my father
  working on the railroad while he was interned is right next to it,
  by the way.)

  The DOJ operated a number of internment camps for German,
  Italian and Japanese enemy aliens throughout the country,
  including Ellis Island.  See
  http://www.foitimes.com/internment/small.htm.  (Many Germans
  were still held in Ellis Island up to 3 years after the war.)  There
  may very well have been different "issues" of scrip at each camp.

  Individuals held in the DOJ camps got a standard monthly
  payment of scrip and also were paid for work in the camps in
  scrip.  Only scrip could be used for purchases in the camps.

  Thank you to your membership for their interest in this subject.
  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through
  Mr. Homren.   If anyone has any scrip from any of the other
  internment camps,  I'd be interested to know about it.  For
  further details on internment history, please see
  http://www.foitimes.com/internment/gasummary.htm.

  PS:  I noticed that some of your readers are in Mexico and
  South America.  They might be interested to know that over
  4,050 German Latin Americans were taken from their homes
  during World War II by Latin American governments at the
  behest of the US Government.  They were brought here on US
  military transport ships, including over 80 German Jews.  These
  individuals were interned here and many were then exchanged
  back to the Germany for American and Latin American
  prisoners held in Germany. It's not clear whether any Jews were
  sent back, but I hope not.  There were also approximately 2000
  Japanese Peruvians.  The Japanese Peruvians sued the US
  Government and have received a settlement of $5000 per
  individual and an apology.

  [We bibliophiles are infomanics.  No amount of information is
  too much. This is interesting - thank you for the additional
  background information.  -Editor]


ELDER'S MITE BIBLES

  Len Augsberger writes: "Miniature bibles are also sometimes
  referred to as "mite" bibles.   Tom Elder had a few of these
  in his sales in the mid 1930s."


NUMISMATIC ESPANOLA BOOK SOUGHT

  Granvyl Hulse writes: "The following message has just been
  received. Can any in the group help?

  "Spanish Cobb coins are a huge piece of our business. I work
  with these coins quite frequently as I am the Assistant Curator.
  I am writing to you today in a desperate attempt to find a
  book that we can not locate. In 1998 H&F Calico sent us a
  copy of "Numismatic Espanola" that has been vital in our
  work. We understand that there is a more recently published
  version of the book available and that we could actually find
  this book in English (ours is in Spanish and while we can
  stumble through it, it would be nice to be able to easily read!)
  Unfortunately, we can't seem to find the book. I was hoping
  you could aid in locating the book or perhaps suggest
  someone to check with!"


RESEARCHERS: WATCH FOR SPELLING ERRORS

  An article this week in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette serves
  as a reminder to researchers to about the effects of spelling
  errors.

  "E.Z. Hall was seriously wounded in the siege of Petersburg,
  Va., on June 18, 1864. He died in a U.S. Army hospital in
  Washington four days later. His body was put on a train for
  Michigan, but by the time the train reached Pittsburgh, it had
  badly decomposed and was taken off.

  Eugene Zebulon Hall was buried in Allegheny Cemetery.
  Only his gravestone was marked "E.Z. Hail," so for more
  than 130 years, the family did not know what had become of
  him."

  Researcher Bill Reynolds "found the E.Z. Hail gravestone,
  checked the records and discovered the typo. Or, to be more
  accurate, the chisel-o."   When he told Hall's family, they drove
  from Cincinnati to honor their long-lost ancestor.

  "It took years to get the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
  to change the gravestone to "E.Z. Hall," but this spring a proper
  marble marker was put in place. So this Saturday afternoon,
  139 years less one day since the death of E.Z. Hall, his
  descendants will hold a dedication service."

  For the full text of the article, see:
  http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/20030616brian2.asp


OPTIMAL CHANGE

  Len Augsberger writes: "Regarding optimal change, a local
  fast food restaurant will not dispense 99 cents change.  The
  register receipt will actually specify $1.00 change, if, for
  example, you pay for a $4.01 bill with $5.00.  It seems that
  the cost of dealing with the 99 cents change is no longer
  worth a cent.  Given the proliferation of "penny cups", can
  the death of the cent be that far off?"


THE EIGHTEEN-DOLLAR BILL

  Bill Spengler of Colorado Springs writes: "Your amusing
  piece in last Sunday's E-Sylum on the 18-cent coin reminded
  me of the apocryphal yarn about the 18-dollar bill.  It seems
  that a notorious counterfeiter of U.S.currency boasted that
  he could pass anything he fabricated, so his friends bet he
  couldn't make and pass an 18-dollar bill.  So he made one
  and took it to a remote country store in the back woods of
  West Virginia.  There he found a group of local yokels
  gathered around the stove.  "What can we do for you
  stranger?", the shopkeeper asked.  "I wonder if you could
  change this 18-dollar bill for me", he said.  After examining
  it closely the shopkeeper replied slyly, "Sure, I can do that
  for you.  How would you like it, two nines or three sixes?"
  The counterfeiter left in a hurry."


FEATURED WEB SITE

  This week's featured web page is an article about the R.L.
  Baker Soda Water Token of Charleston, S.C. on Tony
  Chibbaro's web site.

     http://www.angelfire.com/sc2/tokenofthemonth/




  Wayne Homren
  Numismatic Bibliomania Society