The prices realized list for Lake Books' sale #95 is now available for viewing on our web site at: http://www.lakebooks.com/current.html You can also find a link in our "past sales" page. Our thanks to those who participated in this sale and we will post the catalog next month for our sale #96 which will have a closing date of January 20, 2009 and features selections from the library of Charles Hoskins.

Lot 4271 INDIA, a collection of books dealing with the coinage of various eras in Indian history, punch-marked types, hordes held by museums, various journals of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1873, 1931, 1934, Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1880-1881 and a host of other books, Very fine, some scarce. (31)

Lot 4270 HYMAN, Coleman P., An Account of the Coins, Coinages and Currency of Australia, Sydney, 1893, endorsed on the first page 'With the writer's compliments' and on the last page is a notation 'This concluding note was written on the 14th June, 1893' and initialed CPH. Front and back cover torn, some foxing on first few pages, otherwise very fine and rare.

Lot 4276 LONG, Mark H., A Skeleton Catalogue of Australian Copper Tokens, Sydney, 1st January, 1901, ex A.Burton library with his hand-written notes throughout. Fine and rare.

Lot 4290 NUMISMATIC SOCIETIES, minutes and reports of meetings of a number of different societies in Australia including presentation reports on a variety of numismatic topics, many by early period legends of Australian numismatics, includes Australian Numismatic Society, 1914 - onwards. Fine - very fine and historically very important. (1,000 plus documents and booklets)

Not only [...] is Mr. Fosters subject one of crucial importance; he states his case clearly, drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, touching upon many diverse cultures, from the Chinese to the European to the North American. His professional familiarity with all types of currency and coinage grounds the book, making it refreshingly free of airy theories and complicated jargon, accessible to any intelligent reader. Lastly, his style is brisk and lively, enriched by the author's own varied life experience. I highly recommend it.

Loved your book on the history of paper money. It should be required reading in every college's ECON 101 course.

Much has changed in the numismatic market since the first edition of this book went to print 20 years ago, particularly in connection with the 20th century gold series. Third-party certification has now become the industry standard for authentication and grading. The Internet has made numismatic research considerably easier and has made information readily available to anyone with access to a personal computer. And, of course, many important collections of 20th century U.S. gold coins have sold during the 20-year period from 1988 to 2008. Clearly, an update and revision were definitely in order.

Much of the information and conclusions that Akers incorporated into the first edition of this book remain, nonetheless, principal among which is his decision to exclude the circulated grades from the book Additionally, Akers comments about the popularity and rarity of the four 20th century U.S. gold series are still valid in the numismatic market of the 21st century.

Did you try to sing the tune on the note?

With regard to the 1844-O Eagle, the coin was offered in Elder's sale of the Woodin collection.

It was listed as lot 1263 and sold to Virgil Brand for only $50 and was entered into the Brand journal as #57068. The coin was not appreciated then as other gold proof eagles purchased at the time brought the prices shown below:


1838 proof $10 lot 1201 $200 Journal id - 57063
1843 proof $10 lot 1203 $100 Journal id - 57065
1848 proof $10 lot 1213 $100 Journal id - 57066 later to Pittman
1858 proof $10 lot 1223 $102.50 Journal id - 57067 same price as Jewett coin (this could also be the Jewett coin)

As most bibliophiles know, Woodin kept his half eagles which I believe were sold to Newcomer in the mid-1920s thus the 1844-O half eagle has a different pedigree.

Great photograph of John Kraljevich in this week's E-Sylum.

Advocate of the establishment of a public library in Boston. Born in Paris near the close of the eighteenth century. In early life, a student of surgery with some army practice in that profession. Of wide European reputation as a ventriloquist and minor theatrical performer. After 1827 devoted his time and private fortune to the promotion of a system of international exchange of books, and in this connection advocated the establishment of free public libraries and museums in all countries.

I've not seen a numismatic account of the note hoard. Is anyone aware of the contents? Were there National Bank notes? It would be a shame if the contents were never recorded for posterity. Would buyers pay a premium for notes traceable to a particular hoard?

I was supposed to handle the distribution of this hoard, until greed set in. The homeowner, Amanda Reece, is the friend of a client of mine, and I talked to her. Bob Kitts, her contractor, sued her, made it public, and lawyers for the original owner got involved. She claimed $60,000 was stolen from her closet, took a trip to Hawaii, and is now considering bankruptcy.

To answer your question, I wanted to have the bills certified, given a hoard name, and sold in that method. People will definitely pay more for an item which has an interesting story attached. I know I would have liked a certified piece of D.B. Cooper money.

The whole situation is really unfortunate. There would have been big 6-figure money involved and I am sure some of the notes got damaged. I have never heard of any of the bills surfacing, so I guess this is not the end of the story.

There were seven $500 notes shown and one $1000. It looked like seven notes are Federal Reserve District D and one is G, but the images weren't clear enough to be certain of that.

The stories about grumpy book dealers and coin dealers reminds me of something which happened to me about 20 years ago. I was born and grew up in St. Louis, but I didn't have any interest in Missouri history or Missouri collectibles till I moved to Wisconsin in the mid 1970's to join the staff of Krause Publications.

At first I worked on the Standard Catalog of World Coins, but when that edition was finished, I was assigned to World Coin News. My title was Editorial Assistant, but at that time the entire staff of WCN was Russ Rulau and myself, so I have often fudged a bit and said I was assistant editor.

One day Russ asked me what I collected. I told him I collected Chinese coins. He then asked, "What else?" in a tone which suggested there should be another answer. I didn't really collect anything else at that time, but in thinking about it later, I realized I was interested in Missouri obsolete paper money, though it was too rare for me to collect.

I decided to collect Missouri bank checks. This led to Missouri tokens and Missouri post cards, and I realized I was homesick and didn't know much about Missouri history. I began buying books on the subject.

On one of my trips to St. Louis, I visited the usual used bookstores on Delmar and Aamitin's downtown, but I noticed another used bookstore in phonebook, on DeMun, near Washington University. I drove out there and found a small but well-stocked book store in an out-of-the-way area. I selected a pile of books, took them to the counter where they were totaled.

As I was paying for them, the owner noticed my Wisconsin drivers license. He informed me he could not sell the books to me because I was from out-of-state. It didn't matter whether I wanted to pay with cash, check or credit card, he would not sell me the books because he said he only sold books about Missouri to people who lived in Missouri. It didn't matter that I had lived the first 25 years of my life in St. Louis, nor that I was interested in researching Missouri history -- he would not sell me the books.

He explained that California book dealers would buy Missouri books from him and sell them out west where they would not be available to Missouri residents. When he had refused to sell to California book dealers, they sent "agents" to secretly buy his books! I left, with my pile of books sitting on his counter, and have never been back. To my surprise, he is still in business today.

In the 1930's and 1940's (before my time), the stamp business in New York was centered on Nassau Street, mostly in one multi-storied building, which was full of stamp dealers. Stamp dealers seem to be even more eccentric than coin dealers. One prominent dealer in the building had a sign on his door which read: "State your business and get out."

About grumpy dealers, here's my contribution, originally published in the MPCGram 180, 28 November 2000.

In the summer of 1976 I was driving across the country visiting friends, relatives, and dealers on my way to Fort Harrison (Indianapolis) for a 13-week school. I had been buying Japanese coins from Almanzar's in San Antonio for several years, so I wanted to drop in there (among several other shops in SA). I finally got there early one afternoon and asked to see their world paper money, emphasizing Asia (by that time my type set of Japanese coins had been completed).

I was told that they had a fair quantity of foreign paper money, but that they didn't have time to show it to me. I reminded them that their principal stock in trade was Latin American material, and that they never listed nor auctioned the kinds of notes I was interested in; if they were ever to sell them, it would have to be across the counter in their shop, and I was there as a ready buyer.

They still insisted that they did not have time to show me their carton of world notes. I asked why, as there were obviously a couple of clerks in the shop, in addition to other staff in the back room working on an auction. The response was that someone would have to sit with me while I went through the box, and they could not afford to dedicate a clerk to me for that purpose. I asked what it would take to hire a clerk to watch me; the answer was $20 an hour. I said OK, bring out the box and assign a clerk; here was my first $20.

I spent almost two hours going through that box, and found the following items that I can still recall and identify:

• the first known violet Malaya $100 note (SB2178b) in AU, $3 (there are now 3-4 known) [and eight years later, only 3-4 more]
• a counterfeit Central Reserve Bank of China 500 yuan note (SB1241aq), the first I had seen, in XF for $2.50
• a Japanese military ten yen note (SB2011) with rubber stamps on the back of Lawrence P. Hoseman, whoever he is (F, 75 cents)
• a Japanese military five yen note (SB2025) with odd vermilion and ink characters stamped and written on it (I still have not figured out their significance), VG for 30 cents

The total invoice reads: You can see from the $6.55 accounted for above that I bought a lot more notes that day, and it was the best $20 consultation fee I ever paid.

• No tie-less wide lapels or sneakers at this race day. Ermine bindles abundant.
• Stylish duo caught on CCTV but the falcon did not land in the nest!

This to my way of thinking is reference to the Melbourne Cup held on the US election day 4th November. It is a special race day with lots of dressed women with flowery hats and rather over the top attention. The race finished in almost a dead heat which was sorted out by the CCTV.

The falcon and the nest could be a reference to a horse (I don't follow the races) that was in the race. It may also allude to his purchase not arriving!

As you note his creative writing was probably penned from having imbibed himself and indulgences on that day (wine or other beverages with a high alcohol content).

I hope this helps Charlie. Not all writers resort to poetic prose in giving a positive response on eBay.

Perhaps your kind readers can identify where some new AW numbers were published. I am looking primarily for the source publication of the description, secondarily for conversions; noting in which auction catalogs or collector notes the information appears.

All of the following are Two Cent patterns

• AW 60A
• AW 415A
• AW 454A
• AW 457A, B, C, D, E, F
• AW 519A, B
• AW 520A
• AW 638A
• Any additional new AW numbers for Two-Cent patterns.

These items were disposed of officially by the ANS in a house-cleaning during the mid-1980s. They were probably used for illustrations in the American Journal of Numismatics when the medals were originally offered for sale, and re-used for the 1957 Centennial History edition. They make for very nice desk paperweights.

The following direct quote is from the first two sentences of a four page handwritten letter from Mr. Victor David Brenner to the president of the ANA, Mr. Farran Zerbe, concerning the use of his initials on the Lincoln cent. There was a furor over the use of mere initials! Can you imagine if anyone had discovered images on a coin?

August 23rd, 1909

My dear Mr. Zerbe,
It is mighty hard for me to express my sentiments with reference to the initials on the cent. The name of the artist on a coin is essential for the student of History, as it enables him to trace environments and conditions of the time said coin was produced.

I thought your readers might enjoy all the anomalies in and around the letter U, from the word: UNITED. I assure you the green, red and orange colors on Witch Eye(TM) are not verdigris or environmental damage! Mr. Longacre doodles on a coin, like most of us would use scratch paper. I can not explain why the images are so plentiful or so small, but that was never my job. I am only the messenger. How many faces do you see? Look very carefully; as these images were never intended to be seen by us, the Outsiders!

Take your time and view this image from several different angles. Increase the brightness on your monitor. Image shifting and camouflage abound! You may view this image at 90,180 and 270 degree rotations. Enjoy!

I cannot speak for others, but when I see the man in the moon, he never has any of his friends with him, nor do any of them wear JL hats!

This man can't read or write but he can carve out the Statue of Liberty inside the eye of a needle. His sculptures are so small that he even thought he may have accidently inhaled his Alice in Wonderland piece. His life's work was sold to a collector for $20 million. Especially impressive was the Charlie Chaplin sculpture that was balanced on the tip of an eyelash.

Willard Wigan was born in Birmingham, England in 1957 and is the creator of the smallest works of art on earth. From being a traumatised and unrecognised dyslexic child, he is now emerging as the most globally celebrated micro-miniaturist of all time and is literally capable of turning a spec of dust into a vision of true beauty.

Willard can create a masterpiece within the eye of a tiny sewing needle, on the head of a pin, the tip of an eyelash or a grain of sand. Some are many times smaller than the fullstop at the end of this sentence.

Many are even smaller still, with some being completely invisible to the naked eye yet, when viewed through high power magnification, the effect on the viewer is truly mesmerising.



He works in total solitude at a quiet retreat in Jersey mainly at night when there is a greater sense of peace in the world and less static electricity to interfere with the immeasurable precision and tolerances required to create the pieces.



The smallest sculptures can only be measured in thousandths of an inch which is why they can sit, very delicately, on a human hair three thousandths of an inch thick. When working on this scale he slows his heartbeat and his breathing dramatically through meditation and attempts to harmonise his mind, body and soul with the Creator. He then sculpts or paints at the centrepoint between heartbeats for total stillness of hand. He likens this process to "trying to pass a pin through a bubble without bursting it." His concentration is intense when working like this and he feels mentally and physically drained at the end of it.

This article was published by the Honolulu Advertiser on Monday. -Editor

Coin weights were made to correspond to the weights of particular coin denominations, and the denomination in question was usually indicated in the design. They were most commonly made of brass or other copper alloy and were generally produced for high-value pieces, gold rather than silver coins. Their purpose was to check the weight of coin in circulation and ensure that coin received was of good quality. Normally they would correspond to the lowest weight at which the coin remained legal tender. They could be used to guard against clipped, worn or counterfeit coin and to check the standards of foreign coin permitted in currency. For example, weights were provided in England for ducats and florins in the sixteenth century; for French louis d'or in the late seventeenth; and for the huge amounts of Portuguese gold in the early eighteenth