In the notice of Baldwin's sale of the Arielle collection, shown is a Sierra Leone 1791 proof dollar with the legend "ONE DOLLAR PIECE" and the clasped hands symbol for 'peace.' I wonder whether 'piece' was meant to be spelled as it is? No, I haven't made any effort to find out. Yes, lazy...

Of interest last week were the photos supplied by Larry Korchnack of the National Coin Album pages for Roman coins, Publisher Numbers 500A through 500F and Lange Numbers RNSRA1 through RNSRA6. I was aware of these from vintage ads in The Coin Collector's Journal, and David Sundman also has a set of them. I was hoping to photograph David's pages for my book, but this never quite came together, and Larry's photos arrived after the color pages were already laid out fully. The Roman pages were offered for a very short time in the mid-1930s and were not good sellers, being discontinued before the end of that decade.

Even more rare are the National pages for English copper coins by type from James I through George V. These were offered only in the large or portrait format pages, Lange Numbers RNLE1 and RNLE2 (the Publisher Numbers are unknown). I was not able to find even a single example of either of these pages, so they too must have been flops for Wayte Raymond. They were offered concurrently with the Roman pages, and I'm attaching a page from my book which shows the ads for both.

Jane and I arrived there at about 10:30 but our purpose was to see an exhibit which includes over 30 pieces from our collection. As a second thought I purchased two rolls of quarters.

The current exhibit at Fort McHenry focuses on anniversary celebrations of the Star Spangled Banner in 1889, 1914 and 1964. The room where it is located is just past the ranger station on the left. Most people likely assume that they cannot or should not enter the room. Next year the focus will be more on the actual Battle of Baltimore in 1814.

At this time, we also have two different exhibits at the Fire Museum of Maryland. One has to do with the Fire Department in the early 1870's and 1880's. The other features the Battle of Baltimore and related items including document signed by Admiral Cochrane, Admiral Cockburn, Major General Ross, all British leaders of the attack. Other documents are signed by Major General Samuel Smith, military leader of the defense, Major George Armistead, commander at Fort McHenry and James McHenry (they named a fort after him), and other pieces.

Coins to include in the Smithsonian exhibit: the first and last U.S. $20 gold pieces...not for circulation...1849 and 1933.

I am going to pick one item and it's a coin. I would think in order to tell the story of the value of money, you could not go wrong with a Brasher doubloon. Firstly, it's the first American gold coin, it is an excellent draw for people, the design is original and inspiring, and it is a suitably big enough coin that it would be able to be seen easily without too many visual aids. An added thought is that it cannot only tell the story of how money circulated in the early Republic (the bridge between foreign circulating coins and early US coinage), but also the story of American numismatics itself.

The coins have storied pedigrees that spans the history of coin collecting in the US, plus have even bridged the gap into popular culture, to include the movies (The Brasher Doubloon, 1947) and it does not get much more American than Hollywood. In addition, it can be used to discuss trade in the 1780s and 1790s, as well as the value of the coin itself as an objet d'art. That would be an excellent way to broach multiple subjects in one object and not restrict it to just numismatic arcana.