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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 Workman October 22, 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 SEPTEMBER 18, 2022

New subscribers this week include: Leonard Gresens, and James. Welcome aboard!

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 and a book review, updates from the Newman Numismatic Portal, machine engraving, and more.

Other topics this week include Gunmoney, Philippine emergency notes, food stamp change, changing tastes in art, fixed price and upcoming auction highlights, the money cowrie, foreign coins struck by the U.S. Mint in WWII, monarch portraits and pronouns, medal heroes, and two dollar bills.

To learn more about Joseph Eckhel, James Earle Fraser, Laura Gardin Fraser, Emily Damstra, Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek coinage, the Denver Coin Expo, the Startled Queen, mechanical die engravers, the Alexander Distater, the tournament horseman tetradrachm, the Red Baron medal, the U.S. Mint's six-sided coin, the reluctant philatelist, and the Clemson Tiger Twos, read on. Have a great week, everyone!

Wayne Homren
Editor, The E-Sylum

 

NEW BOOK: GUNMONEY, 3RD EDITION

We are pleased to announce the new publication of Edition III of Gunmoney by Philip Timmins. All dealers and collectors of Gunmoney will find this updated reference book highly useful.

It is inevitable that any book concerned with the complex Gunmoney series of coins should require revision periodically. I thought Edition II would be a near complete and definitive listing for the subject. How wrong was I. Edition III incorporates many updates to each month, revised pricing and new chapters not included in the first or second editions of the book. This includes new chapters on the manufacturing practices of the Mints and on Gunmoney coin metallurgy which has increased the page count by 38 pages from Edition II. I appreciate that some may consider the book too detailed and others not detailed enough. I hope a balance has been reached for both beginners, collectors and dealers.

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NEW BOOK: ARS CRITICA NUMARIA

Ars critica numaria

Joseph Eckhel (1737-1789) and the Transformation of Ancient Numismatics

Bernhard Woytek, Daniela Williams

Published Online: 2022/09/01

ISBN 978-3-7001-8774-5
Print Edition

ISBN 978-3-7001-9184-1
Online Edition

This richly illustrated volume explores the life and work of the Austrian classical scholar Joseph Eckhel, a crucial figure in the transformation of numismatic studies into a modern discipline. Eckhel has been celebrated widely as the ‘father of numismatics' since the 19th century: still, this is the first book in the history of scholarship entirely dedicated to him.

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NEW BOOK: PHILIPPINE EMERGENCY NOTES

Unlike the first two editions of his earlier book, this book is completely in color and on glossy paper, thus eliminating the need for an accompanying CD. Besides covering the CSIs that are found on Iloilo and Leyte emergency notes, it also discusses the historical development of these notes. In addition, it presents a completely new, highly detailed, and well-documented hypothesis for the reasons why CSIs were needed on notes and why very few are from the island of Leyte. The book also provides a detailed chronology of the various redemptions of emergency currency, including copies of the required forms, Japanese counterstamps, and examples of redeemed notes. Although the book can be considered a continuation of his research and therefore the next volume in the series, it is written in such a way that it can be treated as a stand-alone text.

Ray Czahor of Cookie Jar Collectibles, a well-known dealer and collector of Philippine numismatics, has stated, In my opinion, all serious collectors of Philippine/emergency notes need this new 146-page book for their libraries!.

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BOOK REVIEW: 100 GREATEST CANADIAN COINS

Emily S. Damstra and the 100 Greatest Canadian Coins and Tokens

A new Whitman Publishing book, 100 Greatest Canadian Coins and Tokens, by Dr. Harvey B. Richer, debuted this summer at the annual convention of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association in Ottawa, then at the American Numismatic Association World's Fair of Money in Chicago. Now the 160-page hardcover coffee-table volume is available from bookstores and hobby shops and online. Here, Emily S. Damstra, a prolific designer of U.S. and Canadian coins, reviews the book and shares some thoughts on Canadian numismatics.

Damstra is a natural-science illustrator, nature artist, and coin and medal designer. Through her work, she explores many aspects of nature, science, and culture, from Paleozoic seas to modern life. Her illustrations appear in numerous publications, on interpretive signs in museums and natural areas, and occasionally in our pocket change. As of this writing, she's created more than 40 designs for the Royal Canadian Mint and nearly two dozen coin and medal designs for the United States Mint. Outside of work, she is often found in the yard, engaged in a perpetual campaign to oust the invasive species from her native-plant garden.

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ANS LAUNCHES BACTRIAN INDO-GREEK RULERS

The ANS and Oxford University launches Bactrian Indo-Greek Rulers (BIGR)

The American Numismatic Society (ANS) and the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents at Oxford University are pleased to announce the launch of Bactrian Indo-Greek Rulers (BIGR, numismatics.org/bigr), a new online typology and research tool for ancient Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek coinage. BIGR is a component of Hellenistic Royal Coinages (numismatics.org/hrc) and has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as a two-year joint ANS-Oxford University project. The award comes through the New Directions in Digital Scholarship in Cultural Institutions program that partners the NEH with the United Kingdom's Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) intended to fund trans-Atlantic co-operative projects. At the ANS, Dr. Peter van Alfen and Ethan Gruber have worked with their partners Prof. Andrew Meadows and Dr. Simon Glenn at Oxford University, who are funded by the AHRC, along with Dr. Gunnar Dumke at Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg in Germany, Prof. Gul Rahim Khan at the University of Peshawar, and Dr. Asma Ibrahim at the State Bank of Pakistan.

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NEWMAN PORTAL ADDS FOOD STAMP NEWSLETTER

Newman Portal Adds Food Stamp Change Newsletter

With food stamps denominated in dollars, how did stores make change for odd amounts? Simple – they issued privately produced tokens. The number of variants ran into the thousands, and the collector urge to create order from the disparate issues took root. Jerry Schimmel led the way and began producing the quarterly Food Stamp Change Newsletter in 1980.

Collector interest was ultimately insufficient to sustain the publication, and Schimmel wrapped up the Newsletter in 1984, with the last two issues serving as an index to the series. Wikipedia notes that states began moving from paper stamps to debit cards in the late-1990s, and today this is a non-issue. Newman Portal acknowledges Michael Wehner for his assistance with this title.

Image: Inaugural cover of the Food Stamp Change Newsletter

Link to Food Stamp Change Newsletter on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/618069

 

VIDEO: AMAZING DENVER COIN EXPO

Amazing Numismatic Walkabout at Denver Coin Expo October 2021.
VIDEO: 42:04.

David Lisot, Host, CoinTelevision.com with Bryson Bailey, Harrison Beagles, Jerry Britton, Revick Galstaun, Hal Greimann, Tom Hallenbeck, Neal Hatgi, & Sanford Howell, & Haley Niles,

David Lisot walks about and shows you great coins, why people collect, the local Denver Coin Club, and what is the best part of coin collecting. Learn why you do not want to miss a Denver Coin Expo!

David adds:

An excerpt of the video is available for viewing on the Coin Television YouTube Channel at:
https://youtu.be/MdR_jaz1eUY

NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: SEPTEMBER 18, 2022

The Startled Queen Coin
Jim Wells writes:

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VOCABULARY TERM: MACHINE ENGRAVING

Machine Engraving. In the broadest sense, any engraving not done by hand, by any device other than a hand-held burin or graver. All machine engraving must have a pattern or template to control the cutting away of the metal surface which is accomplished by a CUTTING POINT, rotary milling bit, or laser. In contrast, hand die engraving places all control in hands and mind of the human engraver creating modulated relief in varying depth and shapes.

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THE FRASERS AND CHANGING TASTES IN ART

Great monuments built in the past are being removed because they are no longer considered appropriate representations of our public values. Art of the Frasers, James Earle Fraser and Laura Gardin Fraser, are both subject to such changes.

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NUMISMAGRAM MEDAL SELECTIONS: SEPTEMBER 2020

102140 | FRANCE. Mutual Fire Insurance silver Jeton. Issued 1819 for the Seine & Oise Departments (not including Paris) (32mm, 12.50 g, 12h). By Barre at the Paris mint. IL RENAIT DE SES CENDRES (he is reborn from his ashes), falcon standing left (likely representing the triple god Ptah-Seker-Osiris), wearing atef crown with solar disk and two uraei; serpent to right; to lower left, altar bearing radiant head and supporting egg among flames / ASSURANCE MUTUELLE CONTRE L'INCENDIE, DÉPts DE / SEINE ET OISE / ET DE LA SEINE / (PARIS EXCEPTÉ) in four lines within oak wreath. Edge: Plain. About Uncirculated Details. Highly brilliant and lustrous, with some alluring iridescence nearer the peripheries, though some scattered hairlines from a light cleaning are noted for completeness. A very rare and highly interesting type featuring a good deal of iconography from ancient Egypt. $295.

One of the more historically important events involved in Napoleon's French campaign into Egypt during the end of the 18th century was the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799. A stele from Ptolemaic Egypt that conveyed a decree from the king in three different languages (Egyptian hieroglyphics, Demotic, and Ancient Greek), it provided the first chance to crack the code of hieroglyphics, which to that point had remained shrouded in mystery. The first transliteration of the hieroglyphics was completed by Jean-François Champollion in 1822, which the discovery of the stone arousing great interest in all things ancient Egyptian—likely the reason for the use of iconography here, just three years before Champollion's transliteration.

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ATLAS NUMISMATICS SEPTEMBER 2022 SELECTIONS

Siculo-Punic Tetradrachm with 1914 Pedigree

1070106 | GREEK. SICILY. Siculo-Punic Coinage. Struck circa 350-300 BC. AR Tetradrachm. NGC XF (Extremely Fine) Strike 4/5 Surface 5/5.

17.17gm. Charioteer driving racing quadriga left, horses arrayed in ascending tiers; Nike flying right above to crown charioteer, Punic [RŠMLQRT] in exergue / Head of Tanit-Kore-Persephone right, wearing tripe pendant earring and necklace; three dolphins swimming around. Jenkins, CPS I, 68, 60. ""RShMLQRT"" issue.

Ex Feuardent Freres, Paris (05/1914) Lot 157.

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KÜNKER AUCTION SALE 376 HIGHLIGHTS

Ancient Showpieces from the Köhlmoos and Salton Collections With several extensive collections on offer, Künker's Fall Auction Sales contain favorite pieces of every collector of ancient coins. Whether you want to invest in rarities or are looking for an affordable Roman denarius: Künker's Falls Auction Sales will provide you with great opportunities.

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SYDNEY F. MARTIN COLLECTION PART TWO

Part II of the landmark Sydney F. Martin Collection will feature some of the areas that Syd was most passionate about, including his front line set of 1785 and 1786 Connecticut coppers, French Colonial coinage, Rosa Americana coinage and Washingtonia. The sale will be held during the 2022 Whitman Coin & Collectibles Winter Expo in association with the C4 annual gathering. Syd was an avid member of C4, and the sale being held live during this convention is a tribute to his significant contributions to the C4 club and the friendships he built among the members.

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MONETARIA MONETA - THE MONEY COWRIE

Money began as a language for expressing gratitude and became the lever of the extraction economy — the currency of aggregate human entitlement. In the golden dawn of modern capitalism, Henry Miller — passionate, idealistic, and broke — sang the thrush song of warning: The dilemma in which we find ourselves today is that no matter how much we increase the purchasing power of the wage-earner he never has enough. A century hence, the dilemma has swelled to a carbon cloud of doom — and yet money keeps washing through this pale blue dot no longer capable of regarding itself as a world without its circulating medium.

How did we get here?

It turns out we came on the back of a small marine gastropod mollusk, in the lap of a fierce Maldivian queen.

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MONEY AS A PHILOSOPHY

It's hard to imagine life without the concept of money. But for most of human history, there was no money, in the modern sense of the word. For a better look into the role money plays in our world today, let's turn back the clock to the dawn of money.

The oldest written references to daily life in ancient Greece can be found in the epics of Homer, namely in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Though these texts are works of mythology, Hellenistic scholars have long looked to them for clues about everyday life in ancient Greece.

The epics indicate that the Homeric age, which lasted from 1200 to around 800 B.C., was an age without money. Homer expresses the value of objects not in terms of coins, but cattle. Each of the gold tassels of Athena's aegis, for instance, is described in the Iliad as being worth 100 oxen. The German economic historian Bernard Laum traces the economic significance of cattle back to sacrificial practices.

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ISLAMIC COINS FOUND BEHIND EGYPTIAN TEMPLE

Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered a nearly 1,000-year-old cache of gold and silver coins behind a temple in Esna, a city located along the Nile River.

The hoard, which was discovered by a team of researchers from Egypt's Supreme Council for Archaeology, includes coins minted throughout different parts of the Islamic era, which began in A.D. 610(opens in new tab), when Muhammad received his first revelation, and lasted until approximately the 13th century(opens in new tab).

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RARE QUARTER-SHEKEL RETURNED TO ISRAEL

American investigators returned a rare silver coin to Israel on Monday that they say was minted as a marker of independence during the Great Revolt against Roman oppression of A.D. 66-73 and centuries later was looted from an archaeological site in the Valley of Elah.

The coin was seized in 2017 when collectors tried to sell it at an auction in Denver, where it was listed as having an estimated value between $500,000 and $1 million. But it did not clear the legal hurdles to be returned to Israel until this summer.

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FOREIGN COINS STRUCK BY U.S. MINT DURING WWII

As with during World War I, the United States Mint played a vital role in supporting the Allied powers throughout World War II. Through the 1874 Act of Congress authorizing the production of foreign coins, the Mint was able to supply 26 countries across the globe: Australia, the Belgian Congo, Belgium, Bolivia, Cuba, Curaçao, the Dutch East Indies, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, French Indochina, Greenland, Guatemala, Honduras, Liberia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Surinam, and Venezuela.

Of these, five were either colonies and do not exist anymore or have since changed their name.

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AN ENGRAVED SUN YAT-SEN DOLLAR

Serving as the first year in the three-year series of Sun Yat-sen Dollars, the famous birds over junk appellation emanates from the three birds seen flying above a junk boat on the reverse. With by far the lowest mintage of the three dates, this initial offering has grown immensely in popularity over the past few years, with high grade examples especially generating great enthusiasm. Though our upcoming fall Hong Kong auction contains a number of these birds over junk Dollars across various grade points, it is likely the lowest-graded example that possesses the most interesting story.

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COINS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II

Her Majesty's first portrait was created by Mary Gillick in 1953, seen here on this 25-cent piece from Canada that dates from 1964

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ON MONARCH PORTRAITS, PRONOUNS AND NAMES

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2023 CANADIAN LUNAR YEAR OF THE RABBIT COIN

Allan J. Behul writes:

2023 Pure Gold Coin – Lunar Year of the Rabbit

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MEDAL HEROES TO ATTEND QUEEN'S FUNERAL

Seven Victoria Cross and 10 George Cross medal recipients will be at the Queen's funeral service on Monday, including one from New Zealand and four from Australia.

Here is a list of them, and their achievements:

– Warrant Officer Class 1 Kim Hughes GC

In 2009, Staff Sergeant Hughes was working in Afghanistan when several comrades were injured or killed by explosive devices.

He set about clearing a path to the injured, providing constant reassurance that help was on its way, and also calmly carried out manual neutralisation of three explosive devices – the single most outstanding act of explosive ordnance disposal ever recorded in Afghanistan.

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YELLEN BANKNOTES ARE FINALLY COMING

US banknotes are set to mark two historic precedents in coming months, as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen swore in Lynn Roberge Malerba as treasurer on Monday.

Yellen's signature on Federal Reserve notes will be the first in US history by a female Treasury secretary. And Malerba's will become the first by a Native American treasurer.

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TIME TO START PAYING WITH $2 BILLS

Inflation has made it hard to buy much with a buck these days.

$1 pizza has disappeared. Dollar stores aren't dollar stores anymore.

So wouldn't it make more sense to start paying with $2 bills instead?

If you had a $2 bill, perfect, said Heather McCabe, a writer and $2 bill evangelist who runs the blog Two Buckaroo chronicling her spending with twos and other people's reactions. It's a very useful thing to pay for a small amount.

Yet the $2 note is the unloved child of paper currency.

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WHY DAVE GROHL LIKES $2 BILLS

In honor of Dave Grohl's birthday today, I'm whipping out some special material I've been sitting on for a long time.

Back on September 16, 2016, I was having drinks with the man himself (he was visiting NYC for some sort of music-business purpose). Downtown at the great Nancy Whiskey Pub with a beloved mutual companion who was the reason we were together at a time-worn, seemingly knife-stabbed old wooden bar table, we got to talking about $2 bills. (I mean, of course!) Before long, he told his own story about why he likes $2 bills.

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TV HOST KNOCKS OVER RARE COIN

Holly Willoughby was left embarrassed when she knocked over a rare coin in a blunder on This Morning today.

The TV presenter and her co-star Phillip Schofield were discussing royal memorabilia on the ITV show this morning as they fronted another episode where they paid tribute to the late monarch and shared stories about the now King Charles III. However, things got a bit tricky when Holly found herself knocking over something quite expensive.

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LOOSE CHANGE: SEPTEMBER 18, 2022

The Slow Queen-to-King Renewal

Some experts estimate it could cost about 350 million pounds (€403 million or $402 million) to stick King Charles' head on UK banknotes and coins and take several years.

The Bank of England says it costs approximately 7 to 8 pence to produce a banknote. There are some 4.7 billion banknotes in circulation in the UK. So the cost to replace these can be estimated at around 350 million pounds, according to Joe Trewick, a writer at The Coin Expert, a website for coin collectors and hobbyists.

"The Royal Mint does not disclose how much it costs to produce new coins, but with 29 million currently in circulation to replace, we can assume the total cost will also be several million pounds," Trewick told DW.

To read the complete article, see:
UK coins and banknotes face slow queen-to-king renewal (https://www.dw.com/en/uk-coins-and-banknotes-face-slow-queen-to-king-renewal/a-63113794)

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INTOXICATED BY BOOKSTORES AND LIBRARIES

If you are at all like me, books never cease to allure you, delight you, amaze and even intoxicate you.

I would rather spend time in a bookstore than a museum, and I dearly love museums, which may explain why I especially adore used-books bookstores — and public libraries, too — because they are like bibliophilic museums, only better, because you are allowed to handle the old artifacts on display.

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