PAUL BOSCO ON MANHOLE COVERS AND NUMISMATICS

I think I can say, without much fear of contradiction, that I am the champion of "weird stuff" in numismatics. However, even I would not include manhole covers, round and metallic as they are, as part of numismatics.

This does not justify a cavalier and patronising attitude toward these useful objects, such as was exhibited in the April 6 issue.

My friend Wolfgang Dressel, a conceptual artist from Berlin, proprietor of the gallery Kuprac, collected photographs of manhole covers in the early 1970s. Like high denomination Yap Island Stone money, it is impractical to collect the actual objects, so one collects the documentation,

In the mid-'70s I read a magazine article about manhole covers, I think in London streets. Penny Lane, perhaps. The article described what song melodies could be played by pinging successive covers, while perambulating particular paths. With the possible exception of Moby Dick and a Numismatist article on flush toilets, it was the most interesting thing I've ever read.

Latterly, my friend Wolfgang has been shown to have been a visionary. There is a Wikipedia entry for manhole covers, and hundreds of photographs of them on Google Images. A book, Manhole Covers, by Mimi Melnick, features an introduction by a distinguished critic/theorist/photographer, Cal Arts professor Allan Sekula (1951-2013). He writes: "Manhole covers are the secret cousins of coins..."

I have little idea what he means, although I may track down the book and read the rest of that sentence. My point is, it's not always safe to assume something is ridiculous.

THAT SAID:

On the subject of grading manhole covers on a 70-point scale, the great surface area both justifies and cries for this degree of precision --far more so than their dimunitive numismatic "cousins". Now, how one takes into account the reverses, which, presumably, are never to be seen, is probably a question for philosophers, like chickens, eggs, and falling trees in forests. One nice aspect of manhole-cover-grading is that nothing should be body-bagged for "environmental damage".

The municipality with the #1 Registry Set would inarguably deserve to host the ANA Convention. As long as it's not "Chicago".

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: THE E-SYLUM 2014 APRIL FOOL'S ISSUE: SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM WHITMAN PUBLISHING, LLC. (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n15a17.html)

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