QUERY: COLUMBIA FARTHINGS

Dave Hirt writes:

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BOOKHUNTING IN VIET NAM

The first image in your item Finding Rare Numismatic Literature Online looks like an alleyway bookshop and it brought back some old memories to me.

When I first went back to Viet Nam after the war in 1989, I found a used bookstore on the main street in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). It contained thousands of books which were confiscated by the government from abandoned houses of people who got out of the city before April 30, 1975. I walked around inside and could not find anything so I stopped to talk to an old man working behind a counter. His name was Mr Le Thach and he spoke English. After I told him I was looking for old dictionaries, economic and banking histories, and books about coins and paper money, he asked me if I wanted books about Viet Nam! I told him if he had other than Viet Nam, I would be interested in seeing them, but I really wanted ones about Viet Nam. He was very pleasantly surprised.

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VOCABULARY TERM: CURATING

Curating. The many curatorial duties to identify, catalog, preserve and protect specimens for study. Curators may be called upon for a variety of activities from appraising to exhibiting to writing about the objects under their care. But a curator may be said to be an administrator of objects. Of greatest importance is conservation and preservation – protecting and keeping these objects from damage, deterioration and disappearance. Fortunately numismatic objects are easy to preserve, since most are metal, but their small size can be a problem. Paper money and nonmetal objects have their own problems of preservation.

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FRANCIS RICHARD KIMBALL (1859-1922)

Francis Richard Kimball (1859-1922), was born on March 11, 1859, at Hopkinton, New Hampshire, son of Harvey Kimball (1822-1878), and Grace Judith Kimball.

He married Maria Putney Connor (1862-1910) and they had a daughter Grace Judith Kimball.

He was a member of the ANA and BNS.

He was a dealer in stamps and coins. He published Kimball's Illustrated Coin Guide.

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HARVEY STACK'S NUMISMATIC FAMILY, PART 91

December 1983 brought our sale of the spectacular John L. Roper Collection of Early American and Colonial Coins. We were honored to have been chosen to present this auction, comprising 684 lots of many of the choicest and rarest coins in this specialty, one of the most important collections ever formed and then sold at auction.

John L. Roper II, was a native of Norfolk , Virginia who traced his ancestors to the earliest settlers in this colony. Mr. Roper (whose friends called him Jack), was for decades CEO and president of the Norfolk Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. Active before, during and after World War II , their dry docks were used by many of the commercial and military ships of companies worldwide. In the early 1970s, under the direction of Jack and his sons, the company built a new dry dock facility to accommodate the largest ships that sailed the seven seas. Jack was dedicated to the City of Norfolk, was an active officer in several banks and work diligently with many charities. He loved the history of the Virginia settlement and the development of Norfolk. He decided to collect the money used in the colonies as a result of this great interest in the early days of his state and city. He loved to discuss the history of each colony and the evolution of the money that was used as our country grew from the earliest European settlers through the establishment of the United States of America. The Roper Collection contained a major assemblage of all the colonial coins struck, obtained from dealers like Stack's, and from auctions of his time, with many featuring some great pedigrees.

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MEDALLIC ARTIST HEIDI WASTWEET

Heidi Wastweet is a name that is familiar to many collectors of modern coins and medals, especially those for whom the artistic aspect of coins is especially important.

Heidi is a California-based sculptor who specializes in bas-relief sculpture that includes coins and medals as well as public art monuments. Bas-relief involves carving a design into a surface so that figures and motifs project slightly from the background.

Like many celebrated coin designers of the past such as American legends like Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Adolph Weinman, her true métier is sculpture, which is reflected in her medallic work that often features designs rendered with deep relief.

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BEP ARTIST LEN BUCKLEY TO SPEAK AT MPCFEST

Leonard Buckley, designer of military payment certificates (MPC) and fine artist will make the key note presentation at MPCFest XX/ZFest II on April 10 via Zoom.

Buckley is best known among MPC collectors as the designer of MPC Series 692 which is also widely recognized as the most beautiful series of MPC. Because of the extraordinary designs Series 692 is also of interest to many collectors who are not MPC specialists.

Len’s artistic career as a designer was focused on literally making money. Out of high school, he began a seven year apprenticeship in New York, training in the art of steel die and intaglio plate making used to print world-wide currencies, postage stamps and financial securities.

With a total of ten years experience, he moved on in 1967 to Washington DC. There he worked at the U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing as a bank note designer. After six years, he went on to become the supervisor of the bank note design staff. In his 32 years with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, he was responsible for the designs of many postage stamps, currency, military payment certificates and security documents for the federal government.

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FAROUK 1933 DOUBLE EAGLE RETURNS TO MARKET

Sotheby’s New York is pleased to present Three Treasures – Collected by Stuart Weitzman, a dedicated live auction of three legendary treasures from the personal collection of the renowned fashion designer and collector. On 8 June 2021 Sotheby’s will offer the fabled and elusive 1933 Double Eagle Coin, which set a world record when it last sold at auction in 2002, and the only example that is legally sanctioned by the United States government for private ownership; the sole-surviving example of the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta, the most famous and valuable stamp in the world; and The Inverted Jenny Plate Block, the most well-known and sought-after American stamp rarity. Iconic as they are rare, the Double Eagle and the British Guiana will be offered with estimates of $10/15 million each and are poised to set new world auction records in their respective categories, and the Inverted Jenny will carry an estimate of $5/7 million, set to eclipse its own record for an American philatelic item.

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MUENZEN GUT-LYNT ONLINE AUCTIONS

Muenzen Gut-Lynt: A New Platform For Online Auctions and Numismatics

Muenzen Gut-Lynt is a new online auction house for numismatics. The brand was established by renowned dealers and auction houses from Switzerland and Germany. On 28 March 2021, they will be holding their first auction with over 950 pieces.

The new online auction house is based just outside Düsseldorf in the manor house of an old Lower Rhine estate, the eponymous Gut Lynt.

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WORLD BANKNOTE AUCTIONS SALE 6 SELECTIONS

Lot 6011: 1919 Armenia 250 Rubles

Armenia 1919 (ND 1920) P-32 PMG Gem UNC 65 EPQ 250 Rubles

Popular type from Armenia. While uncirculated examples come around from time to time, most are fairly ugly. This one is above average.

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HERITAGE MARCH 2021 PARTRICK SALE SELECTIONS

Lot 15006: Gold Small Size St. Patrick

(C. 1663-1672) Small Size St. Patrick, Gold--Scratched--NGC Details. AU. W-11530, Martin 1a.2-Ba.14, Unique. 184.9 grains. This example with a provenance dating to the late 1700s is the only genuine gold St. Patrick coin known today. It is the piece that appeared in the June 1909 Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge sale of the Rashleigh Collection that passed from Philip Rashleigh of Menabilly in the late 18th century to his great nephew, Jonathan Rashleigh, and to his son, Evelyn William Rashleigh. Plated in the 1909 Rashleigh catalog with the scrape across the cathedral visible in that appearance.

A second gold example was offered in the Norweb sale in 1988. That plain-edge piece was from the same dies as silver examples that Eric P. Newman identified as counterfeit in his article, "A Snake Breeds a St. Patrick Farthing," that appeared in The Numismatist of May 1962. The Norweb gold counterfeit failed to sell.

To read the complete lot description, see:
(C. 1663-1672) Small Size St. Patrick, Gold--Scratched--NGC Details. AU. W-11530, Martin 1a.2-Ba.14, Unique. .. (https://coins.ha.com/itm/colonials/-c-1663-1672-small-size-st-patrick-gold-scratched-ngc-details-au-w-11530-martin-1a2-ba14-unique/a/1330-15006.s)

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NUMISMATIC NUGGETS: MARCH 14, 2021

1573 Gold Klippe 1 Krone

From spring 1572 to 1574 the Geusen kept a blockade ring around Middelburg. After several attempts to relieve the city, which was loyal to King Philip of Spain, failed, the city surrendered to the Prince of Nassau-Orange on February 19, 1574. During the blockade, two consecutive series of emergency coins were issued, and the city had a third series minted soon after it was taken. On December 20, 1572, the magistrate decided to mint emergency coins from the silver implements made available by the guilds and the council. On January 20, 1574, the city decided to convert the existing golden equipment into emergency money. The last series of those golden and silver cliffs that emerged after the surrender,

To read the complete lot description, see:
Stadt. Einseitige Klippe zu 1 Krone 1573 (Januaremission), Brause-M (https://www.kuenker.de/en/auktionen/stueck/288837)

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THE VIGGBYHOLM HOARD OF VIKING SILVER

As a professor in numismatics, the study of currency, I have spent my life becoming an expert in coins, so was called to help them learn more about this exciting discovery. It turned out to be a very interesting find. Most of the coins were the types that we usually see in Sweden: English, Bavarian, Bohemian (Czech) and Islamic coins as well as imitations of Islamic coins. But one of the coins was unusual.

Found within this hoard was a Norman coin from the late tenth century. It is only the second Norman coin found in Sweden, and they have rarely been found in the rest of Scandinavia. This is surprising because the duchy of Normandy was created when King Charles the Simple of West Francia (roughly modern-day France) gave a bit of land to the Viking chief Rolf (or Rollo) in 911.

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THE MARKSTETTEN COIN HOARD

On 18 June 2017, a coin hoard was discovered near Markstetten: at one point after 1228, an unknown person buried a clay vessel, which contained exactly 560 pfennigs. Except for one piece, all pfennigs were minted in Regensburg. At the beginning of the 13th century, the town was not yet the free imperial city as we mainly recall it today, but a powerful bishopric, and several parties tried to control it, including the noble members of the cathedral chapter, rich citizens and the Bavarian duke.

The major part of the Markstetten Coin Hoard consists of two coin types: type Emmerig 206 with 255 specimens, and type Emmerig 207 with 292 specimens. Until now, both of them could not be dated more specifically than around 1225, an indication that had been laid out by Hubert Emmerig in his work Der Regensburger Pfennig published in 1993. Eugen Voronin, who examined the Markstetten Coin Hoard from a numismatic and historical perspective, was able to date the coin types even more precisely. In order to understand his reasoning, we have to recall the political situation in Regensburg.

It would be wrong to assume that there was only one ruler of Regensburg in the late Middle Ages. Quite the opposite: many parties tried to assert their influence in the city. First, there was the cathedral chapter, which consisted of later born sons of noblemen who tried to promote the interests of their families. The cathedral chapter elected the bishop, and the decisive element was not the priestly vocation of the candidate but the power constellation regarding everyday life politics. Which noble family managed to convince enough canons to support them in order to make their candidate succeed?

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1879 $4 COILED HAIR STELLA IN ALUMINUM

Today’s Ho-Hum Metal Was Yesterday's Precious Object

The gold Coiled Hair Stella is a famous rarity, with those from 1879 having only about 12 to 14 pieces known today. Heritage will be offering a fascinating rarity that is actually even harder to find than the already-difficult gold version: an 1879 Coiled Hair Stella pattern coin struck in aluminum, Judd 1640! This fabulous piece from the Bob Simpson Collection is rare in its own right as a pattern coin and also has the advantage of being associated with the famously short-lived Stella pattern series, which was struck for only 2 years in 1879 and 1880.

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REBECCA LUKENS’S IRON MILL

The inside of Rebecca Lukens’s mill is featured on this $10 Bank of Chester Valley note

A sudden tragedy thrust Rebecca Lukens into the family business and into history, making her the nation’s first woman industrialist and the only woman to run and eventually own an iron mill in the United States during the 1800s.

In 1825, at the age of 31 and expecting her sixth child, Rebecca Lukens endured a heart-wrenching loss. Her husband, Charles Lukens, died unexpectedly from illness. On his death bed Charles made Rebecca promise she would take over Brandywine Iron Works and Nail Factory, the family business which he had been running prior to his untimely death. Rebecca’s father, Isaac Pennock, was the original owner of the mill. He had died in 1824, and while he did not leave the business to Rebecca and Charles directly, he had made Rebecca a verbal promise that it belonged to her.

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INDIAN BANKNOTE EXHIBIT

The first banknotes of India would be cut in half and sent separately by post for security reasons. The recipient would paste them together and present them at the bank for encashment.

An exhibition on 200 years of Indian banknotes, from Bank of Bengal to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is under way at the RBI Museum in Council House Street, Dalhousie Square. Organised jointly by The Numismatic Society of Calcutta and the RBI, it showcases some of India’s earliest banknotes.

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BITCOIN BANKNOTES

Former Director of the US Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) Larry Felix and Bitcoin Foundation Founding Chairman Peter Vessenes today announced a new project to create Bitcoin-backed banknotes through their co-venture, Noteworthy.

As the CEO of Noteworthy, Mr. Felix will oversee the design, development, and launch of the banknotes. I am thrilled to lead this transformative project, he said. A physical banknote provides a level of trust, familiarity, and accessibility that digital assets on their own have yet to achieve. I look forward to working with the Noteworthy team to create a beautifully designed, easy-to-use, counterfeit-resistant banknote of the highest quality.

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LOOSE CHANGE: MARCH 14, 2021

WWII Barter Kits

A researcher’s inquiry recently got me thinking about an interesting item I’d once found in a pile of unprocessed materials in the ANS Library. It was an auction catalog put out by a division of the U.S. Department of Defense to sell World War II escape & evasion kits, also called barter kits.

These kits, each containing a handful of gold objects, including coins, were, according to the catalog, issued to pilots and paratroopers to barter their way out of difficult situations if they were downed in unfriendly territory. Reportedly, none were ever used for this purpose, so the kits were gathered and shipped off to the New York Assay Office, where they sat until 1979, when they were offered for sale in this auction.

Two kinds of kits were issued, one for the Atlantic region, containing gold rings, half- and one-pound gold sovereigns, and twenty- and ten-franc gold coins, and one for Southeast Asia, containing gold rings, a gold embossed pendant, a gold four-linked chain, and a 21-jewel Swiss calendar watch.

To read the complete article, see:
WORLD WAR II BARTER KITS (http://numismatics.org/pocketchange/barter-kits/)

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