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About Us The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit association devoted to the study and enjoyment of numismatic literature. For more information please see our web site at coinbooks.org Subscriptions Those wishing to become new E-Sylum subscribers (or wishing to Unsubscribe) can go to the following web page link Membership There is a membership application available on the web site Membership Application To join, print the application and return it with your check to the address printed on the application. Print/Digital membership is $40 to addresses in the U.S., and $60 elsewhere. A digital-only membership is available for $25. For those without web access, write to: Charles Heck, Treasurer Numismatic Bibliomania Society P. O. Box 2058, Bluffton, SC 29910-2058 Asylum For Asylum mailing address changes and other membership questions, contact Chuck at this email address: treasurer@coinbooks.org Submissions To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com BUY THE BOOK BEFORE THE COIN Sale Calendar Kolbe & Fanning August 27, 2022

 

Content presented in The E-Sylum is not necessarily researched or independently fact-checked, and views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.

WAYNE'S WORDS: THE E-SYLUM JULY 10, 2022

New subscribers this week include: David Carpenter, courtesy Judy Blackman; Robin Clay and Megan Pellegrino, courtesy Harry Waterson; Emma Howard of SPINK, courtesy Helen Wang; Whitney Nakata, courtesy Kellen Hoard; Thanks also to Tom DeLorey for an additional new subscriber. Welcome aboard, everyone!

Thank you for reading The E-Sylum. If you enjoy it, please send me the email addresses of friends you think may enjoy it as well and I'll send them a subscription. Contact me at whomren@gmail.com anytime regarding your subscription, or questions, comments or suggestions about our content.

This week we open with three new books, updates from the Newman Numismatic Portal, notes from E-Sylum readers, and more.

Other topics this week include Reed Hawn, Bill Rau's pattern database, the La Capitina shipwreck, Thomason's scientific medals, keystone medals, the Sommers Island gold pound, Alan Turing, Alfred Wallace, Bauman Belden, Servant to the Home medals, the Medal of Freedom, coins and paper money from the Titanic wreck, and the oldest national bank still operating under the same original name and Office of the Comptroller Charter number.

To learn more about the Baldwin's sesquicentennial, U. S. National Bank Notes, Operation Bernhard counterfeits, the Magdalen Islands token, Federal Reserve bank bags, Hillbilly Handfishing, Fred Weinberg, the Connecticut Snipe Nose Copper, Make Business Better scrip, the missing 1,000 tola gold coin, a medal inspired by Isadora Duncan, carpet beaters, and the Fields medal, read on. Have a great week, everyone!

Wayne Homren
Editor, The E-Sylum

NEW BOOK: BALDWIN'S 150 GREATEST RARITIES

To watch the video, see:
Celebrating 150 years of Baldwin's Coins | Baldwins Coins (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0XGJIaXlYg)

Read more here

 

NEW BOOK: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF U. S. NATIONAL BANK NOTES

It is with excitement that Andrew Shiva announces the release of the Encyclopedia of U. S. National Bank Notes published jointly by his National Currency Foundation and the Society of Paper Money Collectors.

The encyclopedia is huge, currently containing some 1,500 pages, 1,400 illustrations and 210 tables divided into 144 chapters organized into 17 topical sections.

Read more here

NEW BOOK: FORGING SECRETS

The Spungen Foundation will celebrate the release of an important new book, Forging Secrets, with a dinner event at this year's World's Fair of Money®. Forging Secrets tells the story of Operation Bernhard, the Nazi counterfeiting scheme which used concentration camp prisoners to forge Bank of England notes in an effort to destabilize the British economy during World War II.

This book is one-of-a-kind, both in look and content. It features a die-cut cover, special insert sleeves for Operation Bernhard notes, and sixteen different authors, aided by an army of researchers, translators, and volunteers. (The sixteen contributors include editor and contributor Joseph E. Boling, James Downey, Ray Feller, Steve Feller, Fred Schwan, Danny Spungen and Kiel Majewski).

This book will expose audiences old and new to the faces and facts inside this secret Nazi scheme. In fact you will be meeting some very incredible people including descendants related to Operation Bernhard.

Your keynote speakers and panelists for the evening will include Charlotte Krüger, granddaughter of Bernhard Krüger, the Nazi SS officer in charge of Operation Bernhard; and Debbie Walter daughter of Hans Walter, one of the forgers of Operation Bernhard.

Space is very limited and an RSVP is requested. Please RSVP by Wednesday, July 27 by email to Creative Operations Ambassador Mikayla Hoppe (mikayla@spungenfoundation.org) or online:
https://forms.gle/ZXLEWUaFHBKrT52U9 .

For more information on the Spungen Foundation, see:
www.spungenfoundation.org

RICHARD REED HAWN (1949-2022)

William Hawn was born in Butler County, Nebraska on April 12, 1918, the son of Texas geologist and oilman Richard Hugh Hawn (1895-1947) and Dorothy Hewitt Blakenay (1896-1967).

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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NUMISMATIC AUCTION CATALOGS

The Ultimate Bibliography of Numismatic Auction Catalogs

During the ANS Long Table Zoom call on July 8, which was hosted by ANS President Ute Wartenberg Kagan and featured Basil Demetriadi and his library, the discussion noted the bibliographic catalogs developed by Ted Buttrey (1929-2018) at the Fitzwilliam Library in Cambridge, UK. These catalogs enumerate no less than 55,000 auction sale catalogs and fixed price lists. These lists were updated through 2016 and surely represent the most complete such compilation. While the Gengerke bibliography (American Numismatic Auctions, 1990) listed 18,000 items, this was confined to sales containing American material.

Buttrey's goal was to list everything, and, while gaps no doubt remain, these catalogs represent yet another legacy from this important numismatic scholar. As a test case, I looked up his entries on the Schulman series, which represents a tangled web spanning five generations. He dedicates 13 pages to the topic and includes a handy family tree that is useful in sorting out this complicated group of publications. The Buttrey lists are available in seven PDFs files that total about 1,300 pages. I lean digital and try not to print out things, but I'm considering making an exception in this case!

Link to the Numismatic Catalogue Archive at the Fitzwilliam:
https://numismatic-catalogues.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/catalogues/

Link to ANS Long Table archives:
https://numismatics.org/pocketchange-type/long-table/

 

NEWMAN PORTAL ADDS BILL RAU'S PATTERN DATABASE

In the course of my internship work for the Newman Numismatic Portal this summer, I had the opportunity to work on, without a doubt, one of the most impressive numismatic projects I have encountered. Few other words are needed to describe it, both because the above description is complete and because readers ought to spend less time reading this update so that they might spend more time exploring it.

The project I speak of is Bill Rau's essentially complete dataset of prices realized at auction for U.S. patterns between 1851-2001. It is a genuinely staggering document to behold; over 70,000 lots are listed, with detailed information on each. Even for a non-collector such as myself, it is simply interesting to explore by virtue of its scale. The spreadsheet which contains this meticulously assembled information spanning centuries is available on the Newman Numismatic Portal at the link below, and contains 12 different tabs with varying data.

Read more here

VIDEO: STORY OF THE LA CAPITANA

Story of the La Capitana Shipwreck of 1654
Dave Horner
46:17

Dave is an author, diver, maritime historian. He was responsible for the discovery of the La Capitana shipwreck. When the ship was built it was the largest vessel ever in the Spanish flotilla and it had the treasure just as large!

David adds:

The video is available for viewing on NNP at:
https://archive.org/details/SEDWICK16003Story

 

MORE ON THOMASON'S SCIENTIFIC MEDALS

Judy Blackman writes:

Edward was born around 1769 in Birmingham, England. His father Edward Thomason Senior (1740-1793) was a manufacturer of buckles for over forty years, and his mother was Mary Garlick. During this period, shoe-buckles were worn by all classes of society, and Senior Thomason's manufactory produced as many as a thousand pairs of buckles daily.

Edward Junior began manufacturing in his father's factory around 1793, establishing a trade in gilt and plated buttons. The business expanded to manufacture medals, snuff boxes, watch cases, vases, sculptures, tokens and coins, and later plated gold and silver works. Later, at age 66, in 1835, Junior sold the business to Whitegrave and Collis.

Read more here

 

NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: JULY 10, 2022

Federal Reserve Bank Bags
Phil Iversen writes:

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
U. S. MINT CANVAS BAGS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n26a11.html)
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: JULY 3, 2022 : 1938 Nickel Mint Bags (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n27a12.html)

Read more here

COIN DESIGNS CELEBRATING FREEDOM

After 246 years, are we a free people? Does the constitution still have meaning?

If our coins were to represent us here are a couple of concepts that might be on them. First up are two half dollars, using a smaller, heptagon shape, so vending machines can accept them, showing our liberty to vote. This design is based on a pattern design for a Delaware state quarter.

Read more here

VOCABULARY TERM: KEYNOTE, KEYSTONE

Keynote, Keystone. A medal associated with a series but with a feature different from all others in the series. The medal usually symbolizes the entire series and is most often struck first, or is presented with the entire purchase of the series. A Yellowstone Medal was a keystone medal for a National Park Centennial Series, 1972; or a Treasury Seal Medal with the 11-medal set of America's First Medals, 1976. The Medical Heritage Society Series issued by Franklin Mint included an Aesculapius Medal, 1969, as separate but similar item to the series. For their Apollo Flight Series Franklin Mint called the initial medal a keynote medal, as they did for a 1972 medal at the beginning of issuing the Great Olympic Moments Series. In France such a medal is called pre-series.

Read more here

THE SOMMERS ISLAND FRAUD

From 1979 to 1981, Bowers & Ruddy Galleries sold the outstanding collection of T. Harrison Garrett in four highly celebrated auctions. Among the 2,453 lots was a highly questionable purchase made by Garrett in 1884 from dealer and future author Lyman H. Low. The coin in question was a Sommers Island twenty shilling gold piece.

On October 24, 1884, Lyman Low wrote to Garrett offering him the greatest rarity and choicest gem which has ever come into my hands, a unique Sommers Island twenty shilling gold piece. Low theorized that a number of them were struck off, but proving useless, they probably found their way to the melting pot. Despite the piece appearing questionable to typical Sommer Island coinage, Low considered it genuine and concluded I bought it on my judgment and sell it on my reputation.

Read more here

 

HARVEY STACK'S NUMISMATIC FAMILY, PART 125

1998 started off with a great numismatic surprise! In late December of 1997 Congress passed into law the Statehood Commemorative Quarter Dollar Coinage Act, and during the first week of January 1998 President Bill Clinton signed the law authorizing the new issues. This act provided for the Mint to each year issue five individual quarters for general circulation, commemorating each state's entering the Union. These quarters would be issued in the order that the states joined the United States, starting with Delaware and, in the first year, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut. The series would run for 10 years and result in a set of 50 state quarters. This followed the idea I had presented before the Banking and Finance Committee of Congress in 1995, and I was indeed honored that the idea was adopted. Over the next decade these quarters would be struck by the billions and offered a way for people to once again collect coins from their daily change at just the cost of the coins' face value.

Read more here

FRED WEINBERG INTERVIEW, PART ONE

Fred Weinberg Interview
By Greg Bennick

For anyone who has collected error coins in the last half century, Fred Weinberg is both a familiar name and an inspiration. In 2021 when he announced his retirement, I knew that a comprehensive interview for ErrorScope would be a great way for the magazine to wrap up his career, especially since he did so much for the publication in its early days. This interview was conducted in February 2022 by phone and it has been an honor to put it together for the magazine!

Greg Bennick: So, tell me: why errors? With all the things out there to collect, what's the allure of errors to you as a specialty? What's fascinated you most about them?

Read more here

MORE ROSA AMERICANA PRICE LIST #23 SELECTIONS

1766 Pitt Halfpenny

10. 1766 Pitt Halfpenny. Betts 519, W-8350. Very Fine, well struck save for the extreme right edge of the reverse, an area that is often seen weak on this type; this causes a loss of the legend there, the remainder of the letters on either side mostly strong. The bust of Pitt and the ship are both sharp and show solid VF design detail. Nice medium brown, the surfaces hard and pleasing to the eye. A fascinating issue, one that is clearly important to the American colonial collector as the design not only names America on the reverse, but refers to the infamous Stamp Act which both propelled Pitt into prominence and, a decade later, the American colonies into revolution. Collectors of this historic issue are often faced with just two choices: paying a lot of money for an AU or Uncirculated specimen or finding a more affordable circulated one that is rough or damaged – this is the rare exception that is circulated, not damaged, quite pleasing in color and overall eye appeal, yet still quite affordable.......... $900

Read more here

HOLABIRD JULY 2022 SALE SELECTIONS

Lot 3085: 1902 National Bank Note Foraker, OK $10

Foraker, OK - $10 1902 Plain Back Fr. 629 The First NB Ch. # 10356. An exceptionally rare note with two of the three reported notes are listed in the census without grades, having been off the market for so long that their grades are unknown. Last Known note to sell in public auction in 2010 was a "NET" Fine for $1,600.00. This Note is a Solid VF with wonderful embossing and color. Miniscule pin hole above cashier signature. Does not detract. Who knows when another will appear or be as nice?

To read the complete lot description, see:
FNB of Foraker $10 Large, Newly Discovered! [153825] (https://holabirdamericana.liveauctiongroup.com/FNB-of-Foraker-10-Large-Newly-Discovered-153825_i45588281)

Read more here

INDIA HUNTS FOR WORLD'S BIGGEST GOLD COIN

The gold coin that finds a mention in the travelogues of Venetian traveller Nicolao Manucci and Capt Hawkins was last seen in the possession of Nizam VIII of Hyderabad, Mukarram Jah, in the late 1980s.

The Central government has resumed the search to look for two special gold coins minted during the Mughal period, one of which, a 12kg gold coin, is touted as the biggest coin ever minted and has been missing for nearly four decades.

Read more here

ROYAL MINT HONORS ALAN TURING

The Royal Mint has released a new collectable 50p coin to celebrate the life of British scientist and codebreaker Alan Turing.

Computer genius Turing is best known for breaking the German Enigma code during World War Two, leading to victory over Nazi Germany.

Historians believe he may have shortened the war by four years - saving tens of thousands of lives.

Read more here

 

MORTON & EDEN OFFER ALFRED WALLACE MEDALS

Alfred Russel Wallace OM, FRS (1823-1913), was one of the greatest scientists and evolutionary thinkers of the modern era. Together with his contemporary Charles Darwin, Wallace is acknowledged as the co-founder of the theory of natural selection, more commonly termed today as evolution.

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MEDALLIC REPRESENTATIONS OF DANCE

As with other forms of decorative art in turn of the century France, medals were a part of popular culture just as they were a part of the art world. Whether produced for widespread distribution, or in limited numbers, they remain as contemporary illustrations of iconic people and events which help define the popular idea of France during the Belle Époque. Though little known today, it should not come as a surprise that dancers were a common theme for medals created during the period. The Société des Amis de la Médaille Française (SAMF) was the brainchild of Roger Marx, who was employed by the French government as Inspecteur Général des Musées des Départements.

Read more here

ALBERT WEINERT AND BAUMAN BELDEN

I was talking with ANS fellow Scott Miller recently and mentioned to him an article I was working on about Bauman Belden, who was the Society's secretary and librarian before being named director in 1908, one of the ANS's first paid positions. Scott referred to a bronze plaque depicting Belden hanging in our Sage room. What?! This was news to me, though I have sat underneath that portrait many times. In my defense, Belden's name doesn't appear on the plaque. But the artist's name does: A. Weinert.

Read more here

HOOVER SERVANT TO THE HOME MEDALS

Read more here

2022 FIELDS MEDAL WINNERS

The Fields Medal is often referred to as the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize, but it is granted only every four years and is given, by tradition, to mathematicians under the age of 40, rather than to more senior scholars.

The Fields Medal originated from surplus funds raised by John Charles Fields (1863–1932), a professor of mathematics at the University of Toronto, as organizer and president of the 1924 International Congress of Mathematicians in Toronto. The Committee of the International Congress had $2,700 left after printing the conference proceedings and voted to set aside $2,500 for the establishment of two medals to be awarded at later congresses.

Read more here

2022 MEDALS OF FREEDOM AWARDED

Clockwise from left, businesswoman Laurene Powell Jobs, former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, Gold Star father Khizr Khan and lawyer Fred Gray

President Biden on Thursday awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, to 17 people in a wide variety of endeavors, including gymnast Simone Biles, Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington and, posthumously, inventor Steve Jobs and former senator John McCain.

Welcoming the recipients in the White House East Room, Biden called them an extraordinary, extraordinary group of Americans who strive for the idea of America as the the cause of freedom shines like the sun to light up the future of the world.

Read more here

STOLEN GOLD MEDAL RETURNED TO OLYMPIAN

Maria Carrillo stepped outside the back door of her office to walk her two dogs one evening when she noticed a plastic fast-food bag had been dumped on her property.

When she picked up the McDonald's bag, it felt heavy and she thought there might be a rock inside.

She opened it and saw an object gleaming in the middle of the crinkled hamburger wrappers and empty french-fry boxes. It looked exactly like an Olympic gold medal.

Read more here

THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF MCCONNELSVILLE

The First National Bank of McConnelsville in southeastern Ohio is the oldest national bank still operating under the same name and the same OCC charter—number 46, to be exact.

As of the first quarter of 2013, the bank had $141 million in assets and several branches in neighboring towns. But the town remains about the same size—under 2000 inhabitants—as in 1863. Bank accounts and shares of stock have been handed down through families from the time the bank was launched.

Read more here

TITANIC COIN AND PAPER MONEY DISPUTED

The caretakers of the Titanic are battening down the hatches for a court battle to prevent four artifacts recovered from its wreckage site from going up for auction.

Read more here

LOOSE CHANGE: JULY 10, 2022

Historical Impact of Type 1, 3-Cent Silvers

The law that authorized Type 1 Three Cent Silvers led to a permanent change in the monetary order of the United States. In the United States, silver was never again regarded as money to the extent that it was before trimes were minted.

Three Cent Silvers are unlike Three Cent Nickels, which were minted from 1865 to 1889. Three Cent Nickels do not contain any silver and Three Cent Silvers do not contain any nickel.

Type 1 Three Cent Silvers were minted from 1851 to 1853. Type 2 Three Cent Silvers were introduced in 1854, and the third type began in 1859. The distinctions between Type 2 and Type 3 Three Cent Silvers are not as significant as the differences between Type 1 and Type 2 coins.

To read the complete article, see:
The Huge Historical Impact of Type 1, 3-Cent Silvers (https://www.greysheet.com/news/story/the-huge-historical-impact-of-type-1-3-cent-silvers)

Read more here

ROYAL MAIL ADDS BARCODES TO STAMPS

To send a hand-written letter is to take a break from today's digital world, says Dinah Johnson. So when she heard about the U.K. Royal Mail was adding barcodes to their stamps, she wasn't exactly thrilled.

The new stamps, unveiled earlier this year, allow correspondents to track their letters and share link photos and videos by scanning the digital barcodes with an app.

Read more here

FEATURED WEB SITE: COMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCY

This week's Featured Web Site is the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, suggested by Tom Kays. Thanks!

Tom writes:

https://www.occ.gov/about/who-we-are/history/index-history.html