The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 52, December 24, 2006, Article 5

CORRECTION: DU SIMITIERE's MUSEUM CONFUSED WITH PEALE's

Gar Travis' answer to last week's quiz question (the fourth Philadelphia
Mint) was correct, but wrong in the details. Joel Orosz writes: "I'm
afraid that www.answers.com has done Gar Travis wrong.  Gar quotes
this source as saying that Pierre Eugene Du Simitiere conducted his
museum in his house in 1794, when he moved it into rented quarters in
the American Philosophical Society; then in 1802, he moved it once more
into the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall).  Pretty neat
tricks, these, for a guy who passed away in October, 1784.

"The museum of which (wrong)answers.com is speaking was that of the
artist Charles Willson Peale.  Interestingly, Peale's Museum also had
a coin collection on exhibit for much of its long tenure.

One last thing--when Du Simitiere's Museum collection was auctioned
on March 19, 1785, it had one large lot of coins and one large lot of
paper money, making it the earliest known public auction of numismatic
items in the United States (the broadside detailing the sale is pictured
on p. 52 of my book about Du Simitiere, 'The Eagle That Is Forgotten'."

[The E-Sylum fact-checker team has been taken to the woodshed and
thoroughly flogged.  Sorry we missed this one!  All the more reason
for all of us to reread Joel's wonderfully written and researched
little book.  -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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