The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 40, October 5, 2003, Article 5

COMPUTERS AND NUMISMATIC WRITING

  Dick Johnson writes: "An article on the  Arts & Leisure web
  site asks the question: Has technology changed writing?

  I don?t see any technology changing numismatic writing
  other than the computer. I comb the aisles at Staples and Office
  Max looking for new technology for my writing tasks.  I still
  see 8 ½ by 11-inch paper for putting words on such paper
  (now recycled) and filing folders for organizing this paper.
  Sure there are faxes and printers and fancy cell phones, but
  no new technology that really helps me write.

  Can I ask the question: Has the computer changed
  numismatic writing?

  Oh Yes!   So much of numismatic literature is compiled
  rather than composed.  We authors are more gatherers of
  facts and recording these facts, perhaps in a useful order,
  than we engage in narrative creation.

  Look at any numismatic catalog.  Facts strung together in a
  somewhat logical and standardized order, often in tabular
  format.  American authors are best at this, we invented the
  coin catalog with columns of date, item, quantity struck,
  and prices by condition. This was a 20th century American
  invention, and numismatic catalogs in other countries have
  followed this format.

  We owe the pioneers of this creation, Wayte Raymond and
  Richard Yeo(man), for example, medals of honor for
  creating this numismatic genré. They were not great authors,
  they were great compilers. Plus they had the foresight to
  organize all that data into a useful form.

  Imagine the chore these authors had to endure by putting
  their text on paper with a typewriter! Oh, what numismatic
  books they could have produced if they had had computers!

  That was the situation before computers.  There were some
  numismatic books written in an intermediate transition phase,
  and ?Walter Breen?s Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and
  Colonial Coins? is an excellent example of this stage.  The
  publisher put Walter Breen in an empty office in midtown
  Manhattan with one girl computer operator. Walter brought
  in his research, thousands of slips of paper, notes of every
  conceivable kind. (Sound familiar authors?)

  Whether Walter dictated or wrote drafts, I am unaware.
  But it ended up on the computer, while he was handy to
  review and revise, perhaps checking his notes (and his
  fabulous memory). It all ended up on  that modern age
  instrument of creation, the computer.

  Today numismatic authors must use a computer.  It is
  impossible to enter data in the quantity and vast detail,
  and be able to move it around and organize it in the manner
  a computer can do.  Has the computer changed numismatic
  writing? Yes sir. It sure has."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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