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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: Jeff Dickerson, Treasurer Numismatic Bibliomania Society P. O. Box 578, Weatherford, TX 76086 Asylum For Asylum mailing address changes and other membership questions, contact Jeff 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 10/15/2024 - Numismatic Antiquarian Bookshop Lang 11/2/2024 - Kolbe & Fanning 1/4/2025 - Workman's Books

 

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 OCTOBER 13, 2024

< 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 an unusual new NBS BiblioTalk podcast, three numismatic literature auctions, our new books, a periodical, updates from the Newman Numismatic Portal, and more.

Other topics this week include Maryland tokens, Argentine paper money, a rock and roll celebrity collector, happenings at the National Numismatic Collection, artificial intelligence in numismatics, Henry Miller, Hillyer Ryder, Herbert Kwart, Kellen Hoard, Howard Daniel, Homo Superior, fixed price and auction previews, Confederate banknotes, Whatnot, and the National Archives.

To learn more about the BCD Library, plantation tokens of the Dutch East Indies, the mint of Tilimsan al Jadida, the Waitangi Crown, counterfeiter Jim the Penman, women who modeled for American sculpture (and coins), Presidential Election Campaign Medals, toned coins, dangerous AI mass-produced crapola, the Human Brain medal, and Byzantine coinage, read on. Have a great week, everyone!

Wayne Homren
Editor, The E-Sylum

NBS PODCAST FEATURES AI-POWERED GUEST HOSTS

NBS Podcast Features AI-Powered Guest Hosts

< The latest episode of the NBS Bibliotalk podcast, "Literature Collecting and the Impact of Technology" is now available on the NBS website and other popular podcasting platforms such as Apple Podcasts. This episode is AI-generated and was created using the Google NotebookLM podcast engine. Text copies of Asylum issues were ingested as a basis for the podcast.

The virtual hosts provide an overview of the numismatic literature collecting field and discuss the impact of technology on the hobby. From the days of Sylvester Crosby and the Chapman brothers, the podcast conveys the appeal of numismatic literature and encourages listeners to find and collect their own special items.

While the production value is high, and the hosts seem eerily human, I found the content to be a bit lacking in substance. Still, the ability of AI to progress this far is astounding, and one can only expect it will continue to improve rapidly. Let us know what you think!

Read more here

LANG NUMISMATIC LITERATURE AUCTION 4 SELECTIONS

Dear collectors and friends of numismatic literature, We would like to remind you of the upcoming online auction of the Numismatic Antiquarian Bookstore Lang ! This auction offers you the opportunity to purchase valuable books and documents on coins, medals and numismatic history - from the comfort of your own home.

Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Start: 16:00 CET
Location: Online at Auex.de

Auction Highlights:

• Rare numismatic works from different centuries
• specialist literature on numismatics and medal studies
• Copies from the DF Grotjohann and Reinhold Jordan libraries

A selection of particularly interesting books:

Read more here

 

K&F BCD LIBRARY SALE, PART 2 HIGHLIGHTS

< On Saturday, November 2, Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers will be holding the second sale of material from the BCD Library, the most extraordinary private collection of material on the coinage of antiquity that we have ever handled. Featuring classic references, modern die studies of individual cities, descriptive catalogues of important collections, and much else, the BCD Library has something to offer anyone with an interest in the ancient world. The online catalogue can be accessed at bid.numislit.com.

Some highlights of this first sale include:

 

Read more here

 

WORKMAN'S BOOKS SALE 7 ANNOUNCED

Workman's Books' seventh bid sale of rare and out-of-print books is currently being cataloged! The sale will close on Saturday, January 4, 2025. The sale features selections from the David Baker (1966 - 2023) library that includes many lots of rare and hard-to-find items on Latin American numismatics, U.S. and world numismatics, history, militaria, shipwrecks, sunken treasure, lost treasure, treasure hunting, lost mines, and treasure in the American West.

This bid sale is being held through the online venue iCollector, and all registrations, approvals, and bids will be handled there. For this bid sale the lots will be closing on a timed interval with extensions for any bids placed within 5 seconds of closing. If you already have an iCollector account, you still must "GET APPROVED" to bid for each sale by entering and confirming your information for this bid sale, like reviewing your shipping information and choosing your preferred way of payment.

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NEW BOOK: MARYLAND TAMS JOURNAL SPECIAL ISSUE

< MARYLAND TAMS JOURNAL - SPECIAL ISSUE

Language ? : ? English

Paperback ? : ? 200 pages

ISBN-13 ? : ? 979-8339695776

Item Weight ? : ? 1.3 pounds

Dimensions ? : ? 8.5 x 0.46 x 11 inches

$12.99

Maryland Token and Medal Society dues are due on January 1, 2025 for the 2025 membership year. Four journals are sent out to the membership per year. Email journals are in full color and snail mail journals are black and white paper. Send $10.00 to MD TAMS 2917 Churchville Road, Churchville, MD 21028

For more information, or to order, see:
MD TAMS JOURNAL - SPECIAL ISSUE: ARTICLES (https://www.amazon.com/MD-TAMS-JOURNAL-SPECIAL-ARTICLES/dp/B0DHVW3CDW/ref=sr_1_1)

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NEW BOOK: DUTCH EAST INDIES PLANTATION TOKENS

This new 6th edition lists 378 tokens with description, including one new Estate: Besilam – S & W, 16 new discovered tokens, 22 tokens provided with new data and 28 new token images. A detailed description is also given of the estates and companies that issued these tokens.

Each token is identified by its denomination, shape, size, weight, metal composition and die axis position. Insofar as possible, a colour illustration has been provided. The catalogue is in English and has an introduction in English and Dutch.

Read more here

NEW BOOK: NETHERLANDS TRADING SOCIETY, 3RD ED.

New Book update: 3rd edition August 2024 :

Geldswaardige Documenten van de Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij

Monetary Documents of the Netherlands Trading Society 1888 – 1946.

< This book and catalogue on the Monetary Documents of the Netherlands Trading Society describes, unique, for the first time, the intriguing history of the Cash orders of the 1800 and 1900 series of Medan, Menado and Gorontalo in the Dutch East Indies. Also the history of the Shanghai banknotes is covered in detail, from the very first negotiations to have them printed to explaining the designs with historical images and accompanying information, circulation and specimen banknotes of 5 and 10 dollars, dated 1st January 1909. A full description of the 50 and 100 Dollars specimen notes, dated 1st January 1922, has also been added.

This 3rd edition contains interesting new information and additions to the previous editions.

Read more here

 

NEW BOOK: BILLETES ARGENTINOS 1884 – 2024

< Eduardo Colantonio:
Billetes Argentinos 1884 – 2024

2nd edition Buenos Aires 2024.

249 pages, format 18 x 25.5 cm, hardcover, full color with numerous illustrations.

In Spanish.

ISBN 978-631-00-4255-8

Costs approx. EUR 45, to order from the author : educolantonio@gmail.com

International shipping is possible.

Eduardo Colantonio has been considered a proven expert on Argentine paper money for many years. His catalogue on Argentine paper money, first published in 2016, which has quickly become a standard work for this collecting area, has now been republished in a second updated and expanded edition.

Read more here

ORIENTAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY AUTUMN 2024

< Journal of the Oriental Numismatic Society
Autumn 2024

  CONTENTS

Editorial
Paula Turner

A unique Yaudheya copper coin
Devendra Handa

Decoding symbols on Sasanian bronze and lead coins from Shapur II to Yazdgard II (309–457 CE)
O. Kucera

XRF analysis and Georgian–Sasanian coinage: A new dataset
Jonathan Ouellet

The mint of Tilimsan al Jadida and a new coin for the Marinids
Ludovic Liétard

Civic copper coins of Shushtar
B. Millancourt

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ANS MILLER & RYDER CORRESPONDENCE DIGITIZED

Henry C. Miller & Hillyer Ryder Correspondence Scanned at American Numismatic Society

Scanning of the Howland Wood papers at the American Numismatic Society continues apace, with 2,225 individual [A-R] correspondent files scanned to date. This work began in November 2023 and promises to be complete in early 2025. Wood served as ANS Curator from 1913 to 1938 and clearly dedicated substantial time to handling his daily correspondence. Hillyer Ryder is best known for his contribution in 1919 to the American Journal of Numismatics (first series, vol. 53, part I of III), which covered die varieties of Vermont and Massachusetts colonial coppers. In the same edition, Henry C. Miller published on the Connecticut copper varieties. The die variety analyses paired well with Crosby’s Early Coins of America (1875), which filled in the historical and legislative background of these issues.

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VIDEO: RANDY BACHMAN SELLS HIS COLLECTION

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THE INTERNET ARCHIVE AND THE NNP

< Jeff Burke writes:

I responded:

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WAITANGI CROWN MINTAGE FIGURES

By way of background, for a long time the established understanding was that there were 364 proofs and 764 uncirculated coins, but this was rectified in 1992 by research by Dr Michael Humble published in the NZ Numismatic Journal of that year (NZNJ #70, p. 13ff), which established that, in addition to the 364 coins issued in proof sets, the total mintage also included 104 loose proof coins, which reduced the total for the uncirculated coins to 660.

The table in the article on the Sterling Currency website contains an error in the totals along the bottom, since the "totals" shown for proof and uncirculated coins mix mintages for both (take a second look at what's being added up in each case and it should become clear!). The totals in the right-hand column are correct, however.

Read more here

MORE COINS ON BOOK COVERS

< 1) Pound, Arthur, 1934, The Turning Wheel, with "25th Anniversary of General Motors" medal by Norman Bel Geddes, Medallic Art Company silver-stamped on cover (actual medal placed on book cover for comparison and reverse of the medal imaged separately).

Read more here

NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: OCTOBER 13, 2024

Homo Superior and David Bowie

Ken Spindler of San Diego writes:

For more information, see:
Oh! You Pretty Things (https://genius.com/David-bowie-oh-you-pretty-things-lyrics)
Homo superior (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Homo_superior)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NUMISMAGRAM MEDAL SELECTIONS: OCTOBER 6, 2024 (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n40a16.html)

Read more here

NATIONAL NUMISMATIC COLLECTION UPDATES

We have some updates from the NNC that we want to share with your readers.

First, we are updating The Value of Money gallery as it approaches its 10th birthday next year. For this purpose, we have closed the gallery to the public and it will reopen around November 15, 2024. For a description of the updates and new content, please see here.

Also, the NNC was recently featured in the Smithsonian’s podcast Sidedoor in an episode on Jim the Penman. You can find that here.

Finally, over the past two years we have been working in partnership with the National Museum of Ukraine in the Second World War (also known as the War Museum) to create a web exhibition using coins, banknotes, and stamps to highlight Ukraine’s cultural heritage and the impact of the Russian invasion on it. You can see that here.

Read more here

WOMEN WHO MODELED FOR AMERICAN SCULPTURE

Get to know Audrey Munson and Hettie Anderson, two of Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French’s favorite models. These women carved a living for themselves out of an emerging and competitive field at a time when women were only just beginning to find work outside the home. Although the final sculptures largely depict allegorical figures and goddesses, its these all too real women whose faces decorate American civic spaces. Join us as Rebecca McCarron, Michener Registrar, brings the models’ names and identities to the forefront.

This is a two-part program that requires separate registration for each event.

Read more here

2024 MICHIGAN STATE EDUCATIONAL EVENTS

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GOOGLE'S NOTEBOOKLM CREATES PODCASTS

< Have you heard about the latest hit podcast? It’s called Deep Dive—and you have to check it out.

Each show is a chatty, 10-minute conversation about, well, any topic you could possibly imagine. The hosts are just geniuses. It’s like they know everything about everything. Their voices are soothing. Their banter is charming. They sound like the kind of people you want to hang out with.

But you can’t. As it turns out, these podcast hosts aren’t real people. Their voices are entirely AI-generated—and so is everything they say.

And I can’t stop listening to them.

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THE GOOD AND BAD OF AI IN NUMISMATICS

AI Coin Analysis and Grading

My work on AI coin analysis and grading has me closely following advancements in AI models, and the industry is evolving rapidly.

Previously, AI could only analyze static images of coins, which severely limited accuracy.

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VOCABULARY TERM: PRODUCT MEDAL

Product Medal. A medallic item made of a composition that is the business product of the issuing firm. It is surprising the number of enterprising firms that have used what they manufacture or sell to fashion into a medal. Most such product medals are fabricated by the manufacturers themselves and not by employing the services of a conventional medalmaker. Most product medals are distributed free to prospective customers of the issuing firm as a form of advertising.

Obvious metal firms dealing in bronze, brass, copper, silver and such could have medals in typical fashion made by medal manufacturers. But any composition that can be fabricated – struck, cast or molded into a permanent form – could be made by the companies themselves.

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HERBERT JACK KWART

Herbert Jack Kwart is a book author, coin columnist and investment counselor born in 1922. If he is still living, he can be added to our list of hundred-year-old numismatists.

Herbert was born on January 31, 1922, in Pittsburgh, the son of Louis (1891-1961) and Millie (1892-1974) Kwart.

He began collecting coins as an Eagle Scout. As an adult, he was a scout leader and district scout commissioner. He received scouting’s Silver Beaver Award, the highest honor for an adult scout leader.

Read more here

KELLEN HOARD INTERVIEW, PART ONE

GREG BENNICK: Hi everybody, Greg Bennick here with the Newman Numismatic Portal. Thanks for joining yet another interview in the series that I'm doing with prominent numismatists and interesting people. And I'm here today with Kellen Hoard. Kellen and I are co-inhabitors of the Pacific Northwest, and we're both here in the Northwest corner of the United States today. We're going to have a fun conversation. So, Kellen, thanks for hanging out. I appreciate it.

< KELLEN HOARD: Good to see you, Greg. I think I'm only "a prominent numismatist" to my mother, but I appreciate you saying that.

GREG BENNICK: You know, that never ends, right? As long as we have our moms with us, that's always true. I put out a book this last week. I had a book come out. And my biggest fan, I don't know how many copies she purchased, is indeed my mother. So that's exciting.

KELLEN HOARD: My mother has been very supportive of numismatics for me generally. I started when I was nine years old, and so I couldn't drive myself anywhere. I really couldn't do much of anything. And so, she, even as a non-numismatist, was supportive and driving me to coin club meetings. My first show, which was the ANA Portland show in 2015, which was great. And she was totally there for me 100%. The day I turned 16, she said, "Go get your driver's license. You're taking yourself to your coin shows now. I was here for you while you weren't able to, but you are more than welcome to go do things all by yourself now."

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NUMISMAGRAM MEDAL SELECTIONS: OCTOBER 13, 2024

102719 | BELGIUM. Luik (Liège). Chapter of St. Lambert's bronze Méreau or Communion Token. Dated 1686. Used for the receiving of food during feast day celebrations (20mm, 4.32 g, 6h). ANNIVERSARIVM, skull and crossbones // ECCLESI LEODI, crossbones between two flames. Edge: Plain. De Renesse pl. LXXI, 4; Revue Belge 1875, pl. V, 13. PCGS VF Details--Damage. Somewhat mottled brown surfaces; some damage near the center of the reverse. Popular and haunting type. Please note, PCGS attributes these types incorrectly, as the reference to the De Renesse plate and number should be as referenced here and not on the slab (or in the population report, for that matter). $595.

To read the complete item description, see:
102719 | BELGIUM. Luik (Liège). Chapter of St. Lambert's bronze Méreau. (https://www.numismagram.com/product-page/102719)

Read more here

 

HERITAGE AUCTIONS: BYZANTINE COINAGE

Our October 15 Spotlight: Byzantine Ancient Coins Showcase Auction allows you to experience the historical significance of Byzantium through its coinage. From gold solidi to bronze folles, each coin provides insight into the economic, cultural, and political aspects of the Empire. The 194 lots in this auction are currently open for bidding, and this auction will conclude with a Live Session though Heritage Live on Tuesday, October 15 at 7PM CT.

A particularly notable coin offered here is an AV solidus of Philippicus (Bardanes), graded Choice AU 5/5 - 3/5 by NGC. One of a debilitating string of short-lived rulers from the early eighth century, Bardanes was a general of Armenian origins who was proclaimed emperor upon the final overthrow of Justinian II. Almost immediately, he alienated the clergy and populace by reviving the Monothelete heresy (proposing that Christ had a single, divine nature and will) which had supposedly been stamped out decades previously. He was also unsuccessful in stopping Arab and Bulgarian advances, prompting the Byzantine army to depose and blind him after 18 months of ineffective rule. He was replaced by the finance minister Artemius, who reigned as Anastasius II. This extraordinary piece shows the unusually fine artistry employed on the coinage for so ephemeral a reign, showing the emperor holding two symbols of office dating back to Roman times: The globus cruciger and scipio aquila, a scepter topped by an eagle.

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HOWARD A. DANIEL III REFERENCE COLLECTION

As part of the October 2024 Hong Kong (SAR) Auction Stack’s Bowers Galleries is proud to present the Howard A. Daniel III Reference Collection of Southeast Asia, offered as Session C on October 20 at 9 AM HKT. The sale contains 379 lots and is the reference collection of researcher, author and collector Howard Daniel III, who passed away in April 2023 at age 81 after a battle with advanced melanoma cancer. Included are large groups of research material, handwritten annotations and a variety of items from Southeast Asia, ranging from the common to the extremely rare or even unique. Howard was a well-known specialist of the region’s numismatics. He served in the United States Army, retiring in 1981 as Master Sergeant. Among the places he served was Viet Nam, where he met his wife, and where is interest in the numismatic history of the region began.

The Howard Daniel III Reference Collection is offered in a unique format. Online bidding is available now, with all lots starting at $1. Many notes have been kept in Howard’s original holders, many of which contain annotations as to where they came from, unfinished research and other information. Numerous lots contain groupings of varieties that were not yet added to Howard’s reference works. We strongly urge you to take a look at this unique collection, as an opportunity such as this seldom appears, and once the gavel falls on this sale another chance is unlikely to present itself.

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KUENKER AUCTION 415

Künker, Osnabrück
Auction 415
Osnabrück, 28 October 2024

Orders, Decorations and Medals from the Possession of the Wittelsbachs at Künker

Künker’s upcoming auction of orders and decorations, which will be held in collaboration with Philipp Württemberg Art Advisory GmbH on 28 October 2024, contains a total of 631 lots. The sale goes beyond the scope of orders and decorations to also include many medals and even coins from the estates of Dr. Alexander Eugen Duke of Württemberg and Carl Theodor in Bavaria. You can look forward to very special numismatic and phaleristic rarities from the possessions of people who made history!

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CONFEDERATE BANKNOTE RARITIES

One of the most noticeable legacies of the American Civil War can be found in the multitude of notes issued by both the Confederate States and the Union in order to finance the war. While coinage was scarce in circulation in the North, coinage was practically unheard of in the South where vast quantities of paper money and promissory notes facilitating daily commerce.

Issued during the earliest days of the conflict when accounts of the Battle of Fort Sumter still filled newspapers, two of the featured notes represent rarities issued out of the provisional capital of the Confederate States in Montgomery, Alabama. Representing the $100 and $500 denominations, these notes were produced by the National Bank Note Company of New York and delivered mere days before hostilities commenced in April 1861.

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WHATNOT? WHY NOT?

Seth Chandler doesn’t fit the typical profile of a social media influencer. He’s a silver-haired 52-year-old with fewer than 30,000 followers, and his obsession since childhood has been collecting rare coins. But when he flicks on the livestreaming shopping app Whatnot, he can turn a relatively small audience into big bucks.

His shop, Witter Coin, often reels in upward of $100,000 in orders per week through the app. He has earned millions over two-plus years using the platform, including $4 million last year (and he’s on track for $5 million this year).

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DIGITIZING THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

NARA Chief Innovation Officer Pamela Wright, a graduate of the University of Montana, grew up on a ranch outside Conrad. "My job," she explained, "is to find the most efficient and effective ways to share the records of the National Archives with the public online. NARA has been in the business of providing in-person access to the permanent federal records of the U.S. government for decades, and we are pretty good at it." She added, "We are still expanding and improving our digital offerings" — so far, about 300 million of NARA’s more than 13 billion records have been scanned and posted to the internet — "but now my family in Montana can easily access census records, military records and many other pertinent records from home."

It makes a weird kind of sense that the government worker who understands the value of providing online advice and information to far-flung Americans, and who is driven to connect the citizens of the hinterlands to their own stories as told in our collective federal records, is a woman whose hometown is a 32-hour drive from a reference desk in D.C.

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