WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: AUGUST 19, 2012

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V15 2012 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 15, Number 35, August 19, 2012, Article 19

Bonham's September 2012 Los Angeles sale catalog

Tuesday August 14th was the meeting night of my monthly Northern Virginia numismatic social group, Nummis Nova. Julian Leidman was our host, and we met at Jerry's Seafood in Lanham, MD. Their trademark dish is the Crab Bomb (check it out at crabbomb.com/). I ordered it, and it was da bomb...

I arrived nearly an hour early, but I wasn't the first one there - Howard Daniel was already at a table enjoying an appetizer. I sat down and we had a great conversation. When the waitress asked Howard how he was doing, he said "Terrible .... I'm still married..." He was kidding of course, and continued to kid the staff to death throughout the evening. When asked how his dinner was, he said "I need a doctor..."

Howard gave me a surplus copy of the catalog for the upcoming September Bonham's sale in Los Angeles. Coincidently, the Kellogg & Humbert gold bar illustrated on the cover is discussed elsewhere in this E-Sylum issue.

As others began to arrive the restaurant staff set us up in another area, building up a long table. Howard and I were at the far end, and others filled the remaining seats on arrival. Other attendees were Chris Neuzil, Dave Schenkman, Eric Schena, Gene Brandenburg, Joe Levine, Jon Radel, Julian Leidman, Roger Burdette, Tom Kays and guests Andy Singer and John Huffman. This was the first occasion Andy's been able to join us.

Because of the recent convention our theme for the evening was new acquisitions and ANA medals and memorabilia. I brought a couple of ephemera binders which included some early issues of The Numismatist and early ANA publications such as Charles Tatman's The Virginia Coinage and Frederic Haskins' Everybody's Coin Book. Here are some images.

AMPEX 2012 ANA Convention room keycard ad

In the way of modern ANA convention ephemera, Dave Schenman showed off his room key card, which has advertising from AMPEX.

Some folks brought along their ANA membership anniversary medals. A couple of us have been members for 25+ years. Dave Schenkman showed off his 50-year member medal. He also had a medal awarded to him by the Token and Medal Society (TAMS). It was an award he'd created himself many years ago to honor authors in the token and medal field - the David Schenkman Literary Award. Now the organization awarded it to HIM - he'd won his own medal!

A lot of other show-and-tell items were passed around the table. Tom Kays passed around a box of small English silver coins, a dug lot purchased from a metal detectorist, and representing 500 years of British history. Eric Schena brought some rare Virginia tokens.

Since the theme was new acquisitions, I brought some newly found tokens from Nuttsville in Lancaster Co. on Virginia's Northern Neck. I was lucky to get a set of six tokens, only two of which actually state the town name (the two illustrated here). These supposedly came from a descendant of the original merchant. W. T. Richardson appears on the 1920 Bradstreet as a dealer in general merchandise. I love this sort of thing since it demonstrates that new discoveries can happen with relative frequency in the field of local token collecting.

Dave Schenkman passed around this new acquisition from the ANA - a Third Avenue Rail Road transportation token (NY630-O):

At the Philadelphia ANA convention Howard had been given the task of delivering my NLG award plaque. He recruited fellow NLG member Joe Levine to make the presentation, and Howard captured the event with a photo (see the above article in this issue).

As for me, I proudly passed around my newest Carnegie Hero medal, this one from France. The overseas Hero Funds are completely separate from the U.S. Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, with separate management, funding, and medals. This is a nice one.

My other exhibit was delivered to me by Joe Levine - it's the Anna Hyatt Huntington elephant medal I purchased from his fixed price list.

Joe also brought a couple books he thought I'd be interested in. I made him and offer and took them home. One was a copy of Prime, and the other was a nearly pristine copy of the 1914 ANS Colonial Coin exhibit catalog. They came from the estate of Harvey Elfenstein. Joe will be offering Elfenstein's vast collection of American Numismatic Society medals and an extensive collection of American Numismatic Association Badges and medals. The ANS collection includes the very rare "TO GUS FOR VALOR" medal, one of only three struck. Below are some images Joe kindly passed along. Did any of our readers know Elfenstein?

QUICK QUIZ: So who's Gus? And what was the occasion for the awarding of this medal?

Several folks hung around after dinner and it was then I had a nice conversation with Roger Burdette and Chris Neuzil, who had spoken to Bob Julian at the ANA convention about research for Bob's upcoming book on the early days of the US. Mint. But by about ten after nine I decided to hit the road. It was time to avoid the fate of the getting-in-late guy from Tuesday's Good Clean Funnies joke:

The other night I was invited out for a night with the guys. I told my wife that I would be home by midnight... "I promise!"

Well, the hours passed quickly and the beer was going down way too easy. At 3 am, drunk as a skunk, I headed for home. Just as I got in the door, the cuckoo clock in the hall started up and cuckooed three times.

Quickly, I realized she'd probably wake up, so I cuckooed another 9 times. I was really proud of myself for having such a rapid, witty solution, even when smashed, to escape a possible conflict.

The next morning my wife asked me what time I got in, and I told her 12 o'clock. She didn't seem disturbed at all. Got away with that one, I thought!

Then she told me we needed a new cuckoo clock. When I asked her why she said, "Well, last night it cuckooed 3 times, then said, 'Oh crap,' cuckooed 4 more times, cleared its throat, cuckooed another 3 times, giggled, cuckooed twice more, and then farted."

To read the complete article, see: Getting In Late (www.gcfl.net/archive.php?funny=6429)

Wayne Homren, Editor