Due to a snafu with my domain registration, I've had to change the address of my website to a dotnet extension, as shown below. Nothing else has changed, but please update your favorite places to show the correct URL: www.coincollectingboards.net

I've heard reliably that Hal Birt, Jr, a longtime Tucson Arizona coin dealer and author of the Arizona trade token reference (responsible for increasing the interest in Western trade tokens, along with James J. Curto), died last week from old age and the infirmities associated with being a long time cigarette smoker. Hal was about 81 (give or take a year or two). A very nice and informative man.

Hal Birt's book was titled Arizona Tokens and Scrip. It was published in 1990 and it is still the "bible" on Arizona trade tokens, although the Stack's Ford sale and the Schingoethe catalogs are now the bibles on Arizona scrip.

Dr. Charles Radford Stearns began his eternal life with Christ Sunday, August 31, 2008 after experiencing all he could during the time God gave him on earth.

He was born in Evanston, Illinois on October 12, 1940 to George Radford and Elisabeth D. Stearns and is survived by his wife of 42 years Mary Lucy (Franzman), his children Katherine Radford Stearns, Kristine Radford Lively (Ty), Thomas Radford Stearns and Ana Silva

After attending Notre Dame University he graduated from the Chicago College of Dental Surgery (Loyola) in 1967) to serve as an officer in the United States Navy in Albany, GA from 1967-1969. Dr. Stearns practiced general dentistry in Winder, GA but assembled the perfect staff in Lilburn, GA where he worked until his retirement in 2006.

Adventure travel, scuba diving, numismatics, underwater and wildlife photography and the Georgia Aquarium were just a few of his interests. His most significant trait was unbridled enthusiasm for anything he embraced, in his later years being the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Lilburn Relay for Life.

In numismatics he was a long term member of ANA and was serving on the board of Governors. He was a speaker at conventions on several topics and as a collector, displayed exhibits and won the Howland Wood award. He played a large part in getting the book State of Georgia Treasury Notes, Certificates and Bonds completed and opened the door to many new collectors and exhibitors.

He will be missed greatly by those whose lives he touched. Let us remember that we need not mourn when great men as these are lost, but rather celebrate that they had lived among us.

So sad to hear of Rad Stearns' passing. He'd fought cancer so hard for the past several years, and always remained positive about it. Such an enthusiastic guy, always contributing and sharing, and with a passion for many areas of numismatics, Georgia Colonial currency being one of his favorites. He had a world class collection of it. He actually cost me a lot of money because he exhibited his collection of it at an ANA show 20 plus years ago. I saw it, got hooked, and have been collecting it ever since. He took such pride and joy in sharing by exhibiting at shows many of his varied numismatic interests.

He was always active and contributing & sharing his passion for our hobby. He recently ran and was elected to the ANA Board, and had a lot of sound ideas to help dig the ANA out of its current mess.

He was proud of his wife and children. Just a wonderful, generous human being, and a friend whom Im proud to have known & whom Ill miss dearly. Thank you Rad for all you did to better our world.

It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Dr. Charles Radford Stearns, DDS on August 31, 2008. He was a close and personal friend of both of us. This is a great loss not only for his wife Mary Lu and their family, but also the entire numismatic community. Dr Radford Stearns had a great love for the numismatic hobby and contributed in many ways. He ran for the American Numismatic Association Board of Governors for the 2007-2009 terms and was successful. He will be missed on this important Board for which he brought knowledge, wisdom, energy and enthusiasm.

He was a great collector of Georgia Colonial Paper Money winning the ANA Howland Wood Best in Show Award. Besides collecting Georgia Colonial Paper Money, he also was a collector of Russian Money. Dr. Stearns not only exhibited at the ANA, but many other conventions around the country including CSNS and FUN. He was General Chairman for the 1987 American Numismatic Association (ANA) Convention in Atlanta, GA., where he received the ANA Goodfellows Award. This award is given to the ANA General Chairmen.

He also served at various ANA Conventions as Assistant General Chair, Educational Forum Chair and Exhibit Chair. He has served on the ANA Audit Committee. During this current term, he was Co-Chair of the Educational Committee. He has been on Numismatic Theater programs for the ANA, FUN, CSNS and many others. Besides these achievements, Dr. Radford Stearns has served in many capacities for the Georgia Numismatic Association and Blue Ridge Numismatic Association. He was appointed by President Gerald Ford to the United States Assay Commission.

Dr. Radford Stearns received many honors from the numismatic community that he was so dedicated to and loved so much. In 2004, he received the ANA Glenn Smedley Award and in 1995 two Presidents Awards. The coveted Numismatic News Ambassador Award was bestowed on him in 1988.

This great Numismatist, Doctor and family man has left a mark on everyone who has crossed his path. He will be in the memory of everyone who knew him. His work and accomplishments in the hobby and professionally will never be forgotten. All of our prayers and thoughts to his wife Mary Lu and the family. On behalf of numismatists everywhere, Rad, you will be missed but never forgotten.

One of the American presidential candidates is very superstitious. He carries a lucky quarter, a lucky nickel and a lucky cent to all important events. He also carries a laminated four-leaf clover in his wallet at all times. He also has lucky clothing, a lucky sweater and lucky shoes. Guess which one?

Here at Harlan Berk's coin store in downtown Chicago, it is not unusual to see $50 and $100 bills with small rubber stamps on them. They are presumably bankers' and money exchangers' marks from overseas, indicating that the bank or exchanger in question has examined the note and found it to be genuine. It is the equivalent of the Chinese chop mark on 19th century crown-sized coins such as Trade Dollars. We just ignore them, and use our own observations of official counterfeit detection devices on the bills to verify them. After all, any counterfeiter could put any variety of "chop marks" on his bills to make it easier to pass them.

The "M" in the star of David on the $50 note is a money-changer's chop mark. Hundreds exist - so that the money-changer will not have to examine the note closely the next time he receives it, to determine its authenticity. Such marks are widely used in the mid-east, somewhat less in the far east.

Pharmacist-numismatists would have to start with fellow Western Pennsylvania Numismatic Society member Chick Ambrass.

I have an unfair advantage. I have a copy of my book, American Numismatic Biographies in digital format. It is quite easy to search for the term pharmacist or pharmacy. These six people owned, operated or worked in pharmacies:

• Alden Scott Boyer
• Robert Coulton Davis
• Lewis Feuchtwanger
• George Francis Heath
• Henry H. Leiter
• William Elliot Woodward

I realize Lewis Feuchtwanger and Henry Leiter were not numismatists, but they are in ANB. Another former pharmacist in ANB that I didn't mention is Hubert Humphrey.

Byron was a pharmacist by trade and an avid and omnivorous collector. His collection was sold by Bowers and Merena 26-28 Jan 1989. There is a biography of him in the catalog. The catalog does not say when he was an ANA governor, nor when he was ANA chief judge, but I know the former was while I was living in Seattle 1971-76, and the latter was sometime after that. His library was bought by Tom Sheehan.

From reading the bio for Byron, I see that another numispharmacist was B. F. Miles.

I can name nine:

• Robert Coulton Davis (1813-1888),
• Georg(e) Ludwig Ulex (d. 1883)
• William Forrester Dunham (1857-1936) ANA member no. 361
• Isaac Hands Gibbs, charter member of the ANS in 1858.
• Isaac John Greenwood, resident member of the ANS since January 12, 1859.
• William Elliot Woodward, coin dealer
• Harlow Elliot Woodward (1851-), son of William Elliot Woodward, who was not only a druggist in Boston but continued his father's business trading as W. E. Woodward Company, at 40 Bromfield Street, Boston, Massachusetts until about 1895.
• Alfred Bower Taylor(1824-1898), 1015 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. An apothecary who manufactured bottled perfumes and toilet waters. He was a founder and served as the recording Secretary of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia.
• Dr. S. J. Caswell, MD (1847-), 616 George Street, Rockford, Illinois. ANA member no. 417

Thank you again for another fascinating installment of the E-Sylum. I just had to jump in on this weeks issue regarding edge reeding. My friend Dick Johnson made a comment which no longer is true. He wrote:

I could bring up designs applied under collar struck reeding, such as the British colonial coin edges, where the security marking are applied during the rimming operation and are not obliterated during striking. But I am sure Dick is more than aware of these pieces and was not referring to this type of operation.

However, in direct reference to his comment, the Japan Mint has released a 500 yen nickel-brass coin that is produced using helical reeding. This diagonally oriented reeding is contained in the collar which forms the coin edge upon striking. The ejection of this coin requires a new advance in coin press technology which allows the coining collar to rotate as the die pushes the coin out of the collar.

One must remember to visualize the coin that is struck is locked into the devices of the die and this in turn (pun intended) serves as the drive dog for removing the coin.

I realize that the term drive dog may be unknown to many of your readers - it is a machine tool term. A drive dog is a device that transfers rotary movement of the machine to the workpiece, in this case the rotary movement of the ratcheting ejection to the coin. If the face of the anvil die were blank, there would be no tooth to transfer the rotation to the finished coin.

I was unaware of that coin press technology that ejects a diagonal reeded coin. I am starved to learn more about it. Tell me everything you know about it! Is that Japanese coin the first? Was this developed privately or at one of the Japanese mints? I can indeed imagine how this works. Clever of the Japanese to invent it.

The Japanese Mint did develop the technology themselves. They are using Schuler MRH150s, same as the US Mint. They are running these ratcheting collars at just over 700 strokes per minute! I will grab a still shot of the collar off some video of the Japanese Mint that my partner Sean has. No use in grabbing a still of the striking, because at 715 SPM the camera didn't see much! The 500 yen piece is the only coin I know of thus far that has this edge. I can only imagine there were test pieces, but this is the first production piece. These are the same pieces that have the latent imaging and the micro-dot technology as well...show-offs!

Here's an image that shows the collar itself. This image was taken by Sean Moffatt at his visit to the Japanese Mint during the 22nd Mint Directors Conference in Osaka.

This is fabulous coining technology information! You have taught me something I didn't know. This will likely be news to E-Sylum subscribers as well.

Can anyone translate the inscription on this gold medal from Athens 2004? It belongs to Olympic home run record-holder Crystl Bustos (USA Softball, 2000-gold, 2004-gold, 2008-silver), and she'd like to know what it says.

These are the first words of Pindar's 8th Olympian ode: Mater O chrusostephanon aethlon, Olumpia despoin' aletheias O mother of gold-crowned contests, Olympia, queen of truth

(most of the individual words are recognizable: mater=mother, chrusos=gold, stephanos=crown, aethlon has given us athlete, despoina is the same root as despot.)

The Charlotte medal was pedigreed in the Noble catalogue to an earlier Noble auction, in its earlier incarnation as Spink Australia, in Sale 6 on 20 November 1981. I do not have a prices realized for this auction, but I believe that it sold for something in the order of A$ 11,000. Prior to this and the Ford ownership, the medal, as also mentioned in the Noble Auction catalogue, was in the collection of A.H.F. Baldwin and, previously, that of the Marquess of Milford Haven.

What was not mentioned in the catalogue is that the medal was published in 1919 in the first volume of the Marquess of Milford Haven's collection of naval medals, as No. 40 on pages 463, and on 465, where it is illustrated.

I trust that this finds you well and add my congratulations and praise for the work that you are doing on the E-Sylum.

Tom Kays, who added information about the Castine Hoard in the last E-Sylum, was also the one who brought the website to the attention of the colonial community. He is the author of a wonderful article, that's 30 pages in length, and I recommend to all to enjoy. I reread it often. The article appeared in The Colonial Newsletter and is available to read on the web. It gives you a good idea of the coins circulating in the tobacco colonies, it reads easy, is historically informative and makes us all appreciate how easy it is to make a transaction today.

Even if you don't collect colonial coins, most of us have an interest in our colonial history and can still enjoy this work.

Fabulous! That makes a LOT of sense. Given that there are at least two different types of wax, I wonder if that means these molds were actually used in production over a longish time period, where the wax would need to be touched up from time to time.

I wish I could prove the provenance back to Pinches. Unfortunately, this came from an estate sale. Whatever the previous owner knew, it's been lost.

I'll definitely try to track down a copy of that ANA Journal. I'm not actually collecting electrotypes, but I've picked up a few that I like, and I definitely don't know as much as I could. Thanks, Dick!

You have made a correct assumption. The evidence of two kinds (or colors) of wax could very well indicate it was cast at two different times. This could be decades apart! Electrotypers generally only keep one kind of wax on hand. In fact, you could have this done now.

If you would like to see this process in action -- or if you would like to have a positive made from your mold -- I recommend you bring your mold to the following firm to have this work done, they are the America's most expert medallic electrotypers:

Greco Industries, Inc.
Ricky Greco, VP
Francis J. Clarke Industrial Park
14 Trowbridge Drive
Bethel, CT 06801
Phone: (203) 798-7804
Email: greco86@aol.co

This firm is in a brand new $3 million plant. It was founded by Hugo Greco, former head of the finishing department at Medallic Art Co in New York City. He just celebrated his 50th year in the field. The Greco family brings a great deal of Italian craftsmanship to their work.

As I have mentioned in a recent article in MCA Advisor, foundry casting can reproduce detail down to 1/100th of an inch, die striking can reproduce detail down to 1/1000th of an inch, but electrogalvanic casting can reproduce detail to the width of an atom!! It is far more detailed.

I just thought I would share another J. L. Polhemus counterstamp. Most of these are found on coins from the mid-19th century. This example on an 1833 dime is one of the earliest dated United States coins known with this stamp.

I am amazed that a Federal court has determined that the contract payable in gold is enforceable - I understood that all such contracts were nullified by the gold withdrawal decrees of 1933.

The Cleveland gold clause case is astounding, since US law says explicitly (8 USC 5118(d)(2)): "An obligation issued containing a gold clause or governed by a gold clause is discharged on payment (dollar for dollar) in United States coin or currency that is legal tender at the time of payment."

I believe the court that refused payment in cents is out of luck (David Ganz, tell us!) - didn't the same law that re-monetized the trade dollar also remove the dollar limits on the validity of minor coins?

As for pennies, there is no limit on their legal tender (see 8 USC 5103). Limitations on the legal tender of subsidiary coinage were removed in 1965, when quarters and dimes ceased to be made of silver.

I don't understand the court case, since a fine is as a debt. In payment of goods and services, there is no debt, and legal tender does not apply: see the Treasury's FAQ at FAQs: Currency: Legal Tender Status . (http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.html#q1)

No, there is no law that says a merchant must take any particular kind of currency, said Michael White, spokesman for the U.S. Mint. Businesses are free to set their own guidelines as to what they accept as payment, he said.

Theres an amplification on the Treasury Departments web site. They ask the question a different way, but point to the same answers. ON the web site, the party says I thought that United States currency was legal tender for all debts. Some businesses or governmental agencies say that they will only accept checks, money orders or credit cards as payment, and others will only accept currency notes in denominations of $20 or smaller. Isn't this illegal?

Responding, Treasury says The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," which states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."

They go on to explain that This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services.

Summarizing its position, Treasury goes on to say that Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.

Actually, the citations to federal statutory sources are correct, and so are the examples cited because they are examples of real-life cases that have been decided for the propositions stated. But they ignore the history of what legal tender means, what in fact legal tender really means, and why laws about them were created in the first place.

There are two constitutional issues that are useful to discuss what the words mean. First, is Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which provides "The Congress shall have Power ... To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures...."

Next is from Article I, section 10, which reads, "No state shall ... coin Money' emit bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts...." Courts have consistently held that neither of these provisions of the Constitution renders the country's current money system unconstitutional, staring with the Legal Tender Cases in 1884.

Those cases involved the ultimate political gamble: creation of paper currency at the height of the Civil War, designed to fund the effort. Its inventor: Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury. When accomplished, the federal government reportedly had three days in funding in its vaults; thereafter, it printed what it needed.

Legal tender ultimately is the power of compulsion. It means that the government can require you, willingly or not, to accept a type of money that is tendered. Thats why state-authorized private banknotes were an ultimate failure and sold at discounted prices that were disparate.

Over the years, there have been many challenges to what legal tender means; few recall that prior to 1857, foreign coins circulated freely in the United States. The act of Feb. 21, 1857, (ch. 56, 11 Stat. 163 ) determined that the legal tender of the Spanish pillar dollar continued but for other foreign coins, legal tender status was denied.

It sounds like the ANS has been hoodwinked in this situation and now has to comply with the letter of the law. The kicker has to be the handover of the catalogue which ought to have been used by ANS lawyers in proof of ownership. Is it not enough that the Hispanic society has the coins ?

Last week's E-Sylum announced a new book, Identification Discs of Union Soldiers in the Civil War. Does any one know if this book also touches upon the subject of personalized dog tags engraved on coins?

In the Love Token arena, there are many examples found that list items that might in actuality be hand-made Civil War dog tags. Sometimes this is only a name, sometimes actual dates are listed, presumably for when a soldier enlisted or when enlisted and when mustered out if two dates are listed. The ones that leave absolutely no doubt about their purpose actually list the battles that the soldier saw action in. I look forward to seeing what the authors have covered in this new work.

To your knowledge has anything ever been written and published about Byron Reed and his collection (other than the Spinks Auction Catalog description about the sale)? Thanks.

Theres surprising little information about Reed. He came out in the late 1850s, I think, got into real estate, did well, collected, left his collection to the city when he died in 1891.

I was involved with the collection on three occasions. I appraised it at the end of 1985 not sure how they contacted me, but they did and I went. Then there was the dedication of the new exhibit in May 1989, and a final trip out in early fall 1996 or 1997 to advise them on what to do next. Lawrence Lee was their curator at that point.

The eternal problem with that collection was an ongoing tug-of-war between the Mayors office and various other branches of the government. The first time I saw it, it had superb US stuff, including both varieties of 1829 5$, in proof; a stellar collection of German thalers, and, for what its worth, the best collection of Sutler tokens anywhere, incl. manufacturers samples. I always meant to get back out and work on the last, but never did.

It so happens I will be leading a tour Wednesday night of the Byron Reed gallery in Omaha's Western Heritage Museum for members of the Lincoln Coin Club as part of our monthly club program. Club members will board a private coach here in Lincoln, ride to Omaha (1 hour), tour the Reed exhibit and then go to Piccolo's Steak House for a much-anticipated feast.

Mitch Ernest will be at the museum as our guest and I will tell him about the two, 3-ring notebooks I have of articles and commentary regarding Reed, his biography, his coins, various fights through the years to sell his collection, the selling of portions of his collection in 1996, the opening of the exhibit in 1998 and the ongoing trials and tribulations of the collection. I will also have a copy of the final report I submitted to the Omaha City Council in 2001, summarizing the collection and its holdings.

We won't get to see it on our tour as it is in a climate-controlled vault, but Reed's library of numismatic books and catalogs (said by Charles Davis in 2001 to be "the last 19th Century numismatic library") is still intact. The collection contains 183 pre-1891 numismatic books (many first editions, including Hickcox, Maris, Crosby, Dickeson, Slafter, Frossard, Doughty and Baker) and 237 auction catalogs (no Attinelli but virtually complete runs of Bangs & Co, Chapman Bros., etc., and almost all with "prices realized" marked in them). Reed's remaining working library also includes another 874 general works, 162 newspapers and over 1,380 documents.

We anticipate having a great time. It's a pity everyone can't be a member of the Lincoln Coin Club.

If comedian Jeff Foxworthy were a numismatist, perhaps he would develop a routine based on the question, You might be a numismatic bibliophile if ...

OK readers, how would you fill in the blank? And is Ray a numismatic bibliophile, or not? -Editor

This explains why I could never find anything about him in Philadelphia before 1855. I've been trying to find out what the "N T" in "Joseph N. T. Levick" stood for since 1986. If he moved North in the 1850s he probably had a pronounced southern accent. And he fought for the North.

There are 2 known pictures of Levick. The first is the one everyone has seen - with the bowler hat & Pince-nez glasses. The American Numismatic Society archivist, Joe Ciccone, told me he recently found an old photo album. Apparently the ANS asked for pictures of the members back in the late 1860s and put them in this album. The other picture is a strange one. If it didn't have Levick's name at the bottom you would be hard pressed to know that it's him.

I realized this morning when I saw today's date in the paper - Levick died 100 years ago today.

You note proudly your 10 years of service in preparing the E-Sylum, but then in the note about the Civil War soldier ID discs, you mention a different publication, The E-Slum. Is this new? I've heard the phrase: get your mind out of the gutter, but this is ridiculous!

Fred adds that the authors reference one of Dick Johnson's E-Slum submissions

Ever wonder about coin collectors from a long time ago? Well I never did until I came across this book and purchased it. It is a fascinating window into, or--to use the title-- a mirror upon coin collecting in Kyoto in 1842. I have reproduced the book in total at this site.

... Kokin kousei, Shinsen zeni kagami (Corrected Against Past and Current Records, A New Selected Mirror of Cash Coins). It was published in three parts but bound together here (21.7cmX15.8cm), perhaps by the purchaser. The colophon of part one states that it was published in the summer of 1842 by Nakamuraya Touji. He was a store owner dealing in old coins and his store was in Kyoto