The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 1, January 4, 2004, Article 5

JOSH TATUM AND THE NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF NUMISMATICS

Neil Shafer writes: "Hello Wayne, and Happy New Year!
I enjoy the E-Sylum and write when something comes up
that I can comment on. I'm not sure many readers remember
the ill-fated New England Journal of Numismatics, a 2-issue
magazine published in 1986 for which I had the pleasure of
serving as Editor-in-Chief. It was operated by New England
Rare Coin Galleries even while they were under FTC
investigation (a fact they had somehow withheld from me).

Vol. 1 No. 1 came out during Summer of 1986, and in that
issue there was an anonymous article I found somewhere
about Tatum and the 1883 story. It was dual-titled "A
Numismatic Believe-it-or-Not" "When is a Nickel Not a Nickel?"
Maybe Krause Publications had the original, I don't know,
because the illustration was obtained through that office. In this
version it says that Tatum and a jeweler obtained 1000 of the
new V coins and worked on them as needed.

By the way, there is also an ad for the NBS in this issue, and it
lists Alan Meghrig as treasurer. I was surprised that NBS was
founded as far back as 1980 but that's what the ad indicates.
Just thought the readers would like to know all this."

[I just so happen to have these NEJN issues handy in my library.
As Neil notes, there is no source cited for the information in
the article. It was certainly a quality publication and I was sad
to learn of its demise. Walter Breen, Elvira Clain-Stefanelli,
Douglas Ball, Arlie Slabaugh, RIchard Doty, R.W. Julian,
Randolph Zander, Neil himself and others all contributed to the
debut issue. And yes, NBS was already around back then -
see the next item. -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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