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V11 2008 INDEX
E-SYLUM ARCHIVE
LORD ASHCROFT'S VICTORIA CROSS COLLECTION GOES TO IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM
For some time The E-Sylum has chronicled the craze for
Victoria Cross medals and other rare military medals of the world. Lord
Ashcroft has been the market-maker in VCs, building a substantial
collection with an eye toward finding a permanent home to display it.
Those plans have now come to fruition. Ashcroft's medal collection will be
housed in a new gallery at the Imperial War Museum in London. I visited
the museum on my stint in London last summer, and the new gallery provides
all the more reason for numismatists to make a stop there on their
travels. -Editor
The world's largest collection of Victoria
Crosses, owned by Lord Ashcroft, the deputy chairman of the Conservative
Party, is to be put on permanent display in the Imperial War Museum. Lord
Ashcroft will also pay for a new £5 million gallery to house his
collection.The 152 medals, which range from the Crimean to the Falklands wars, will be displayed alongside the 50 VCs and 29 George Crosses (GCs) already held by the Museum.
The gallery, which will be named after Lord Ashcroft, will examine the creation of the VC and the George Cross and the personal stories behind the award of the medals.
Lord Ashcroft bought his first VC at auction in 1986 – the medal awarded to Leading Seaman James Magennis, one of two crew serving in a midget submarine that planted limpet mines on a moored Japanese cruiser at the end of the Second World War.
The trust he set up to care for and protect the medals now owns more than one tenth of all the VCs ever awarded.
Lord Ashcroft is the author of Victoria Cross Heroes, published in 2006 to mark the 150th anniversary of the creation of the VC by Queen Victoria through a Royal Warrant. The foreword was written by the Prince of Wales.
To read the complete article, see: World's largest VC collection to go on show (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2270310/
World's-largest-VC-collection-to-go-on-show.html )
CANADIAN DEATH RACE COINS
An E-Sylum reader forwarded this story from the Calgary
herald about the Canadian Death Race, in which contestants must carry a
coin across the finish line. -Editor
The Canadian Death Race never
actually killed anyone. Once, it came close.Entrants from as far away as Australia will take part in the ninth incarnation of The North Face Canadian Death Race on Aug. 2 and 3 in Grande Cache, a Rocky Mountains foothills town about 400 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. It's a test of physical and mental endurance that has become an annual challenge for elite athletes and weekend warriors.
The Death Race plays on the Greek myth of Charon, the ferryman who ushered the souls of the dead across the river Styx and into Hades for a fee of one gold coin per soul.
Each of the 1,000 or so entrants will receive a specially minted coin they must take with them as they make their way through the rugged mountain terrain surrounding Grande Cache.
Racers must have their coin to cross the Smoky River near the end of their trek. Losing the coin means instant disqualification.
To read the complete article, see: Death Race brings brave souls to Alberta (http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=1ffe9b87-efcd-4307-ae6e-9e695bb8ecd9)
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@gmail.com
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