The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 29, July 14, 2002, Article 14

ORIGINAL ACTS OF PARLIAMENT AND THE UNKNOWN BIBLIOGRAPHER

  In their inventory listings, Broadfoot's Rare & Out-of-Print
  Books of Wilmington, NC includes the following description
  of original acts of the British parliament:

  "Original Acts of Parliament have long been valued and
  collected, appearing frequently in auction records and dealers
  catalogs.  After an Act was passed by Parliament, it was printed
  by the Crown printers in London. Only a few Acts, perhaps the
  Acts for the week, were printed at one time, loosely sewn
  together at the inner margin.  For this first printing, each Act
  had its own individual cover page.  At the end of each year, all
  of the Acts were reprinted and issued in book form; in this
  annual compilation the Acts did not have individual title pages.

  It's not inappropriate to call the first printing of each account
  the first edition, first issue and the yearly printing in book form
  the first edition, second issue, explaining why some Acts have
  separate printed cover sheets and others do not. Thus Acts we
  describe as being "removed" have been taken out of a bound
  volume and as such may have small holes, notches or bits of
  glue in the inner margin where formerly sewn and glued.

  The Unknown English Bibliographer:  Most of these Acts are
  from the library of Harvard University as attested by the small
  and faint blue exchanger stamp dated January 1, 1944 verso
  the title pages. Many of the Acts are in protective cream
  wrappers with the Act noted on the wrapper in black ink in a
  fine and elegant hand, as handsome a penmanship as I have
  ever seen.

  Furthermore, in many cases, the unknown English bibliographer
  penned succinct comments, which place the Acts in historical
  perspective and evaluated their importance.  I'm indebted to
  this person and thus let us raise a toast in thanks to him, "the
  unknown English bibliographer."

  I doubt this person was head of the library and perhaps this
  may be the greatest recognition he received for a job well
  done. I can well envision someone during the war years deep
  in the catacombs of London, sitting on the high stool a la Bob
  Cratchitt, writing up endless stacks of Acts of Parliament by
  a dim light.  If any of you can perhaps determine who this
  person might have been and if he still breathes, I should like to
  send him best wishes and a bottle of the South's finest."

  [There are several compilations of U.S. laws relating to
   numismatics - Dunbar 1891, 1897, a House of Representatives
   document of 1904, a compilation of laws on commemorative
   coinage by Lewis, GPO 1936, David Ganz' compilation and
   Pete Smith's 1998 "Laws of the U.S. Congress Authorizing
   Medals".

    Is anyone aware of an index or compilation of British Acts
    of Parliament related to numismatics?    Or the identity of the
    "Unknown Bibliographer?"   -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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