NEW BOOK: A NEW LOOK AT NEWFOUNDLAND VARIETIES

The Newfoundland Numismatic Enthusiasts (NNE) is for collectors of coins, tokens, medals or paper money of Newfoundland (Canada’s most Eastern Province). This club was formed on July 22, 2006 at the RCNA convention held in Niagara Falls, and it’s still thriving today. Current President Bill Kamb agreed to a re-print of portions or the entire Newfoundland Varieties article which appeared in the club’s newsletter The Logbook, Vol. 1, No. 4 (March 2010); and the author who is also a member of the NNE also agreed!

Barry M. Borsellino has dedicated more than six years authoring a NFLD Varieties book which has reached 315 pages and Barry expects will be close to 400 when finished. He recently rewrote the introduction which is included here. “The book is nearly complete and I’m weary. Soon it will be time for me to think about other things!” Barry shared. Here is his introduction to A new look at Newfoundland Varieties.

“I had never planned to write this book. It just sort of happened!

“The purpose of this book, is to create a general reference document which will fully illustrate and contain comprehensive listings, of as many Newfoundland coin varieties as possible! My intentions are to approach this subject in a fresh and original fashion, while also incorporating any of the currently, known varieties. Because of the size of this project, it will not happen immediately and it will definitely take much more research and hard work to achieve this goal, but with this publication, the beginning of this series has finally arrived!

“The contents of this book will be limited to those varieties which occurred as a result of the intentional changes and modifications made to the production dies. I will not be considering mint errors unless, they are significant and unusual or if their origins are questionable.

“It was nearly five years ago when I purchased an 1888 Newfoundland 20-cent coin, which struck me as looking a bit odd but at the time, I really couldn't say why it seemed particularly different. I already had an 1888 example in my collection but I was looking for an upgrade and this new coin was to be the replacement. It wasn't until I placed the two coins side by side, before I was really able to identify exactly what that difference was. The date and specifically the 8s were different! My new coin had two short, stubby little 8's that were nearly touching each other, whereas, the original one had tall, elegant and well spaced 8's.

“Originally, I had focused my search on the Victoria 20-cent coins but I quickly expanded my areas of interest into the 10- and 50-cent Newfoundland series as well. Eventually, I plan cover all of the Newfoundland decimal coinage but it will undoubtedly take many more years of research before I have achieved a comprehensive volume of Newfoundland varieties. I know that I still have a lot of ground to cover but I feel that I now have enough material to produce a first edition, with others to come in the future. This first book was originally to be dedicated to the Victoria series but it has now been expanded with the inclusion of a very comprehensive George VI section. Perhaps there will even be a few other surprises by the time I get this one published.

To read the complete article, see: A New Look At Newfoundland Varieties

Wayne Homren, Editor

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