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The E-Sylum: Volume 10, Number 13, April 1, 2007, Article 5 NUMISMATIC PLAGIARISM UPDATE The March 27 issue of Numismatic News has an article by David L. Ganz on the litigation between numismatic auction firms Heritage and Superior over alleged plagiarism of auction catalog descriptions. Heritage filed a complaint with the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas against Superior, which in turn filed a counterclaim against Heritage. Ganz notes that the full text of the complaints is available for a fee on the court's web site. See the following URLs. PACER is the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system. www.txnd.uscourts.gov/ pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/ Ganz mentions the Maine Antiques Digest article on the suit; see below for a link to our initial E-Sylum item on the article and suit. According to Ganz, a trial is scheduled for April 2008. He writes: "Issues in the Heritage v. Superior case have potential significant impact on collectors, dealers and auction houses, many of whom have used the descriptions of competitors with abandon in advertising, catalogs, auction handbills and even commercial or educational exhibits, both with and without attribution." One E-Sylum reader forwarded the following lengthy example of text found word-for-word (with just one exception) in catalog descriptions by published by both Heritage and Superior (in May 2005 and August 2006, respectively). The lone difference is that in one account the low-end mintage estimate is 425 and in the other the estimate is 415: "One of the most popular and endearing patterns ever issued by the Philadelphia Mint. As seen on virtually all known examples of this issue, there are faint striation lines crossing Liberty's cheek and hair. These were the result of the planchet preparation process and were caused by the rollers used to squeeze the gold ingots into long strips for cutting out the planchets. Normally, these roller marks would be eliminated during the striking process, but on these stellas virtually all show some evidence of these faint lines. The exact same scenario is found on S-mint Barber coinage for many years, with similar lines crossing Liberty's face. This is the only generally available stella, from a mintage variously registered from 415 to slightly over 700. Of course, the term--available--is relative, and in comparison to demand for such pieces, coins of this quality are indeed rare. The actual number produced, in 1879 and 1880, is thought to be somewhat greater. These coins are known in two different alloys; the standard alloy is 90% gold and 10% copper, and also in the metric alloy which is 85.71% gold, 4.29% silver, and 10% copper. The specific alloy of this coin is unknown, nor is the alloy generally given in other auction descriptions, as it would require elemental analysis. The point seems to be moot. The obverse has a large date logotype, the digit 1 is slightly high, and the entire logotype is slightly curved. The reverse die has the D in UNITED doubled, the original placement slightly above the final position. "This obverse die and the similar Flowing Hair die of 1880 were both designed by Charles Barber, while the much rarer Coiled Hair obverse dies of 1879 and 1880 were designed by George T. Morgan. It is not known who engraved the reverse die, which was used to coin all the 1879 and 1880 stellas. "The regal beauty of this curious denomination has kept demand very high for an attractive example, such as the coin offered here, and many numismatists have long desired to own such a prize. However, the price of ownership seems to continue to outpace all but those who greatly desire and can afford the cost required to secure an example. Here is an opportunity for yet another collector to fulfill the dream of finally obtaining one of America's most popular and unusual denominations ever produced" NUMISMATIC CATALOG COPYRIGHT CONTROVERSY esylum_v10n07a02.html To read the complete Maine Antique Digest article, see: Full Story Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum | |
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