The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 36, September 7, 2003, Article 7

SHORT SNOTER?

  Howard A. Daniel III writes: "While at the recent 2003 ANA
  Convention, I was approached by Richard Kaminski.  He read
  in "World Coin News" about a "short snorter" I had bought and
  had one he wanted me to see.  He handed me an envelope and
  inside it was a letter and the left half of a United States Series
  1917 2 Dollars note.

  The letter is dated "Friday -March 18th" but no year, but he
  said it was sometime in the 1960s.  The second paragraph has;
  "My reservation of the Bar dinner is enclosed as well as the
  recipe we talked about in the even you do not have it as hand
  and also a short snoter for Richard."

  A "short snoter"?  I reread it and the second word is "snoter."
  I told him it was not what I had written about and was
  something completely new to me.  He asked if it had any value
  and I told him I had no idea but we could go visit a dealer on
  the bourse.

  Leo May is one of the most knowledgeable dealers about
  "short snorters" and we found him.  Leo read the letter and
  looked at the half note with the same disbelief as myself.  I
  said "snoter" must be an old American slang word that we
  had not yet heard about in numismatics.  He agreed but he
  did not like my pronunciation of the word because it sounded
  like something from my nose.  He wanted to emphasize the
  "note" in the middle of the word.  I agreed this was much better
  and I would research the word.

  Richard wanted to sell the piece and the letter, so I asked
  Leo for a value.   Leo mentioned a value and Richard
  offered it to me.  I agreed to buy it but only for a "Bank Note
  Reporter" article and to donate it to the ANA Museum.
  Richard agreed and I paid him.

  The primary languages for "snoter" appear to be English,
  Scottish and Irish slang.   Within them, "Snoter" was
  connected to babies with what came out of their noses, but
  there were also a reference within the Royal University of
  Scir-Hafoc about someone teaching ten or more times.
  Then there is a reference to the "Snoter Stone", which is a
  historical site.

  Does any E-Sylum reader know this word or have a reference
  to it?  I will keep the letter and the half note until after the
  article is published so if you want a copy of both, I can send
  it to you.  Then I will mail it to Larry Lee, ANA Curator, as
  a donation to the ANA collection.  This will allow future
  researchers to find it if they ever run across "snoter" in their
  research.

  Please contact this editor and/or me at
  Howard at SEAsianTreasury.com if you know anything or
  want to guess about "short snoter."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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