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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 Watch here for updates!

 

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 MARCH 23, 2025

New subscribers this week include: Howard Hodgson. Welcome aboard! We now have 7,245 subscribers.

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 one new book, updates from the Newman Numismatic Portal, notes from readers, Central States events, and more.

Other topics this week include Hell Money, medieval Mediterranean coinage, relief etching, the S.S. Central America treasure, electrotypes, fixed price and auction selections, my numismatic diary, the Crown Coin, Emperor Norton I, and the Golden Age of Hobbies.

To learn more about Bonanza Books, BEX Engraving, Trump Trinkets, sculptor Paul Jenuwine, Mayan jade beads, the Byron Reed Collection, the 1856 Sampson Medal, Leonard Baskin, Robert Ready, Richard August, Venezuelan 500 mil Bolivar notes, minters for coin club medals, the coins of Domitian, the Colored Seal Notes of Colonial Georgia, and the National Bank Notes from Wahoo, Nebraska, read on. Have a great week, everyone!

Wayne Homren
Editor, The E-Sylum

 

2026 RED BOOKS SHIPPED

Whitman Brands™ announces distributor shipments of the all-new, completely reimagined 2026 Red Book have left the Alabama distribution center. All print formats, including Kindle e-book, will be available in all major retail outlets starting April 8, 2025. A limited number of copies will be available for sale at the upcoming Whitman Expos™ Spring Show, March 27-29, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland. Additionally, Jeff Garrett and John Feigenbaum, Red Book editors and co-hosts of the Red Book Podcast on YouTube (now in its 6th episode), will be available Friday at 11am EST for a special book signing session.

This year’s release of the Red Book, now in its 79th edition, features a complete redesign from cover to cover, larger 6 x 9" format with an intuitive layout, more than 12,000 listings, updated market values in up to nine grades using Collector’s Price Guide (CPG®) Retail pricing, GSID? catalog numbers, updated research, the latest mint data, and much more.

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NEWMAN LIBRARY REMAINDERS AVAILABLE

Newman Library Remainders Now Freely Available to Hobby Community

Following the Heritage Auctions’ sales of the frontline portions of the Eric P. Newman numismatic library in 2018 and 2024, the Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society (EPNNES) is now freely deaccessioning its library remainders to the numismatic public. The remainders consist primarily of modern American auction sale catalogs and periodicals, in addition to archival materials from the Newman museums and a wide variety of reference works. Materials scanned since the advent of the Newman Numismatic Portal (NNP) are voluminous, and EPNNES wishes to continue to grow its digital presence, rather than maintaining a physical collection.

Eric P. Newman collected not only coins and paper money but further collected libraries. Beginning with the Burdette G. Johnson library in 1947, Newman acquired libraries from multiple individuals and institutions. The sheer mass of material was never completely consolidated, so searching through the library as it stands today is somewhat of a treasure hunt, and there is no doubt a surprise or two remaining in the stacks.

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VIDEO: BANKNOTES OF THE AFTERLIFE

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MORE ON BONANZA BOOKS

David Fanning writes:

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NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: MARCH 23, 2025

Banknote Math
Martin Purdy of New Zealand writes:

To see the full note on Banknote News, see:
Iran 2,000,000-rial cheque (B303a) confirmed (https://banknotenews.com/?p=46335)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
IRAN RELEASES NEW 200,000 TOMAN BANKNOTE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n11a25.html)

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2025 CENTRAL STATES EXHIBITS ANNOUNCED

Collectors’ exhibits return, two Midwest museums will have displays, and a limited number of free ANACS-encapsulated Nebraska Homestead commemorative quarter-dollars with special insert labels will be featured attractions at the Central States Numismatic Society convention (convention@CSNS.org). The show will be in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Illinois, April 24-26, 2025.

The Higgins Museum of National Bank Notes will display rare Nebraska money at booth #2200 as part of the CSNS multi-year program to honor all 13 states that comprise the organization’s geographical area.

"Nebraska is the second state we’re recognizing following last year’s salute to Iowa," explained CSNS President Mitch Ernst.

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NUMISMATIC ARTWORK AT PNG DINNER

The first unveiling of a new artwork celebrating the creative genius of Augustus Saint-Gaudens will be held during the Professional Numismatists Guild (www.PNGdealers.org) awards dinner on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at Morton’s Steakhouse in Schaumburg, Illinois. Attendees will have the exclusive opportunity in a silent auction to acquire the remarkable signed and numbered artwork entitled, "Golden Splendor—The 1907 Saint-Gaudens High Relief Double Eagle."

"This exquisite creation is the result of an extraordinary collaboration between Robert Julian, a renowned numismatic artist celebrated for his intricate and historically rich coin drawings, and Robert Lamb, an acclaimed artist specializing in large-format acrylic paintings that capture breathtaking detail and emotion," explained PNG Executive Director John Feigenbaum. "Together, they have reimagined one of the most iconic coins in American history: the 1907 Saint-Gaudens High Relief Double Eagle, bringing its timeless beauty to life on a grand scale."

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MEDIEVAL MEDITERRANEAN COINAGE SEMINAR

The Summer Skills Seminar, "Medieval Numismatics: An Introduction" will be held via Zoom from Monday, 23 June to Thursday, 26 June 2025 from 10am to noon and 1pm to 3pm MDT.

This Summer Skills Seminar will introduce participants to the dynamic interactions of Roman and Sasanian coinages in the Late Antique period, which gave way to the tripartite division of Latin, Byzantine, and Islamic coinages of the succeeding centuries. We will examine how these three coinages developed and interacted through the later medieval centuries, laying the groundwork for the modern monetary systems.

Each student will choose a coin of the period from an online or personal collection and share with the group the circumstances of the minting of the coin, the state of scholarship on the coinage, and a report on the circulation of the coinage from the evidence of hoards and excavations. Major analytical methodologies will be explained along with a chronological survey of Mediterranean coinages from the sixth through fifteenth centuries. No prior experience with numismatics is expected.

Course overview
Coinage was a part of the lives of virtually all inhabitants of the regions around the Mediterranean from late antiquity to the later Middle Ages. Coins served as a means of pay, of commerce, of savings, and were one of the few emanations of their government that medieval people experienced in daily life. This course will begin with an overview of the Late Roman coinage, which lived on in the coinage of the Byzantine Empire, and in the gold coinage of the Islamic states. In the same period, the Sasanian coinage of Persia gave way to the silver Islamic coinage. In Mediterranean Europe, new coinages sprang up, based often on local rather than national polities. The course will examine the later development of the Byzantine, Islamic, and Mediterranean European coinages, with special emphasis on the interactions of the three coinage traditions during the Crusading period.

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VOCABULARY TERMS: RELIEF ETCHING, RELIEVING

Relief Etching. A method of producing raised relief by dissolving away all incuse surface area with acid leaving the wanted raised area undisturbed. This is accomplished by coating the surface with a wax forming an etching ground and scraping away the area to have the incuse area eaten away by acid. Such a piece has no modulated relief – it is a flat original surface with incuse design areas. See acid etching, photoetching.

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THE 1856 SAMPSON MEDAL

In 1904, workers were excavating for construction of a subway power house near Eleventh Avenue between Fifty-Eighth and Fifty-Ninth streets in Manhattan. A workman dug up a large silver medal, took it home to clean it and returned to turn it over to the son of former police Captain John Delaney.

Delaney recognized the name on the medal as Thomas Sampson. He knew that Charles H. Phillips, a records keeper at the police headquarters, was the brother of James C. Phillips, who was married to Cornelia Sampson, daughter of Thomas. The medal was sent to Cornelia, residing at Mount Vernon, New York.

The medal was presented to Sampson in 1856 by the Life Savings Benevolent Association of New York (LSBANY). The medal is 51.1 mm diameter and should contain about 41 grams of .999 silver. It was struck by Tiffany & Co., with dies attributed to George Hampton Lovett.

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TREASURE TALK WITH BOB EVANS, EPISODE 1

It was October 5, 1989, and my crewmates and I had brought ashore over a ton of gold to the dock in Norfolk, Virginia. We were met by US Marshals, since legal activity regarding our find was adjudicated in the US District Court in Norfolk. Local law enforcement was fully represented (of course,) seemingly every high-powered, elite unit of the Norfolk Police. They had snipers on nearby rooftops monitoring the action. Armed Brinks agents posed with their vehicle, right next to the dock, ready to whisk the gold off to secure storage as soon as it could be loaded into the armored truck. There was also a very large crowd of happy investors, family, friends, and the award-winning marching band from Herndon, VA High School.

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ATLAS NUMISMATICS SELECTIONS: MARCH 23, 2025

1081349 | GREEK. PTOLEMAIC KINGS OF EGYPT. Ptolemy I Soter. (Pharaoh, 305/4-282 BC). Struck circa 306-300 BC. AR Tetradrachm. NGC AU (About Uncirculated) Strike 4/5 Surface 5/5 Overstruck. Alexandria. 15.69gm. Diademed head of Alexander the Great right, wearing elephant-scalp headdress / A?EZANAPOY. Athena Alkidemos advancing right, holding shield and wielding javelin, Corinthian helmet, ?? monogram and eagle on right. Svoronos 169; SNG Cop. 30; CPE 72; Lathe Biosas S.-678 (this piece).

Ex Münzen und Medaillen AG Auction 85 (Basel 1997) Lot 147.

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NUMISMAGRAM MEDAL SELECTIONS: MARCH 23, 2025

102737 | ITALY. Vatican City. St. Peter's Basilica bronze Medal. Issued 1857. Most Remarkable Edifices of Europe series (59mm, 90.45 g, 12h). By Jacques Wiener in Brussels and struck at the Geerts mint in Ixelles. BASILICA DI S. PIETRO A ROMA, perspective view of the eastern façade of the exterior of the Basilica, from a viewpoint just to the left of center // Perspective view of the interior looking down the nave toward the baldacchino; in four lines in exergue, DA GIULIO II INCOMINCIATA / NEL MDVI / DA PAOLO V COMPIUTA / NEL MDCXII. Edge: Plain. Ross M201 (R1); von Hoydonck 152; Reinecke 50. Choice Mint State. Rich red-brown surfaces, with great brilliance. A few minor stains are noted around the dome on the obverse, though these can be somewhat obfuscated given different lighting. Please refer to the video for the most complete in-hand appearance. Compare to an inferior example from the Q. David Bowers Collection in Stack's Bowers ANA sale (16 August 2021), lot 45187 (which sold for a total of $480). $465.

Located in what is now the Vatican City—the Papal enclave situated entirely within Rome—St. Peter's Basilica was planned by then-Popes Nicholaus V and Julius II to replace the old St. Peter's Basilica. Begun in 1506 and completed in 1626, it is the largest church in the world, with respect to its interior, and is the most renowned structure of Renaissance architecture. An iconic site for pilgrimages, its famous dome still features rather prominently in any skyline of Rome.

From what is today eastern Netherlands and western Germany, the Wieners were a Jewish family of exceptional medalists, especially known for numerous numismatic works throughout the Kingdom of Belgium. Eldest brother Jacob (Jacques), along with younger brothers Leopold and Charles, created some of the finest works of medallic art of the 19th century, and all are particularly noted for their work in the highly detailed and intricate work of architectural renderings.

To read the complete item description, see:
102737 | ITALY. Vatican City. St. Peter's Basilica bronze Medal. (https://www.numismagram.com/product-page/102737)

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STACK'S BOWERS 1794 DOLLAR ELECTROTYPE

The price of any 1794 silver dollar places it out of the range of most collectors. For the 125 to 150 known examples, most are low-grade and/or problem coins, and these carry price tags starting in the mid-five figures. Coins higher up on the grading scale are worth well into the six figures, and those at the very top of the Census bring seven-figures. Thus, any time a 1794 silver dollar comes in it is an exciting event.

A few months back, an inquiry was submitted to Andrew Bowers that contained a sampling of silver coins and other common date coins. In the middle of the picture was a seemingly high grade 1794 silver dollar, which looked very promising (i.e. it did not have the look of the countless fakes we see often, purchased online through various websites). Andrew had the client send better photos and ascertain the weight. After reviewing the information with Vicken Yegparian, they asked the owner to submit it to us for in-person evaluation.

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STACK'S BOWERS RICHARD AUGUST MEDALS

Anchoring our Spring Showcase Auction’s wide selection of Numismatic Americana is the Richard August Collection of Early American medals and Washingtoniana. Mr. August, a connoisseur and a true gentleman in every sense, assembled over the course of more than half a century one of the most important collections of Early American medals to cross the auction block. While some collectors seek completeness in various series, Dick’s approach was to buy what looked interesting. In following his advice, I reviewed the catalog and selected a few highlights that stand out. While perhaps not as valuable as his beautiful silver Libertas Americana medal, these are all rare and stand out on their own merits as highlights in this incredible collection.

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AN EMPEROR NORTON 50 CENT BOND

San Francisco, California. Imperial Government of Norton I. 1870s 50 Cents. PMG Very Fine 25.

No. 2890. A piece of ephemera by any objective measure. This item nonetheless has ties to one of the most colorful and eccentric personalities to call San Francisco home during the Nineteenth Century. The colorful history of this beloved eccentric and his rise to power and fame can be traced back to the late 1840s when San Francisco sat on the cusp of explosive growth thanks to the influx of prospectors and fortune-seekers attracted by the California Gold Rush from across the world and the United States.

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WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: MARCH 23, 2025

Tuesday March 18th brought the monthly dinner meeting of my Northern Virginia Numismatic Social group Nummis Nova. Eric Schena was our host, at Seasons 52 in Tyson's. The restaurant was in a large mall next to a Cheesecake Factory. I parked in a nearby garage. I was late because of traffic and a missed turn (causing me to swear like a Longshoreman with Tourette's Syndrome), but a few seats remained and I squeezed in next to Jon Radel and across from Eric.

Next to Eric was Dave Schenkman, sporting a nose bandage from a minor operation. We told him he must have stuck it where it didn't belong. He was a good sport. Others already at the table included Mike Packard, John Kraljevich, Wayne Herndon, Robert Hoppensteadt, Erik Douglas, Wayne's guest Evan Saltis and my guest Kellen Hoard. Soon Julian Leidman and Roger Burdette arrived to complete our group for the evening. Later in the evening Kellen took this group photo.

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THE COINS OF DOMITIAN

Titus Flavius Domitianus – better known as Domitian – has gotten a raw deal from historians, thanks largely to Rome’s ace gossip columnist, Suetonius (lived c. 69-122). Born on October 24, 51 CE at Rome, Domitian was the younger son of Vespasian, who ruled as Emperor from 69 to 79. For much of his life he was overshadowed by his brother, the popular Emperor Titus, who was 10 years Domitian’s senior (17 centuries later, Mozart wrote an opera celebrating the "clemency of Titus"; poor, nasty Domitian hasn’t gotten any operas). Following the premature death of his brother at the age of 41 (September 13, 81), Domitian was proclaimed Emperor by the Praetorian Guard. He would rule for 15 years until he was assassinated in a palace coup. The abundant collectible coins of Domitian in all metals illustrate a critical period in Roman imperial history.

Domitian and Titus as Caesars

Vespasian was victorious in the chaotic civil war that followed the death of Nero (the "Year of Four Emperors"). He awarded his sons the title of Caesar, which in this era meant something like "junior co-emperor" and "designated successor". A gold aureus of Vespasian datable to 71 CE shows his two sons on horseback, with the inscription "Titus and Domitian, Caesars and Princes of the Youth". Princeps juventutis ("Prince of the Youth") was an honorary title dating back to the Roman Republic that was awarded to young men who performed an ancient equestrian ritual.

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UPDATE: THE CROWN COIN

This article mentions a value of $23M for lengthy crafting processes, which called in artisans from the UK and India to Singapore, Germany, and Sri Lanka and took over a year to produce.

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COLONIAL GEORGIA COLORED SEALS, PART 7

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LOOSE CHANGE: MARCH 23, 2025

Mint Director Ventris Gibson Retires

Ventris C. Gibson, the 40th director of the United States Mint, announced to bureau staff across the country that she will retire from the position effective March 31 despite more than two years left on her presidentially appointed five-year term.

Gibson was asked to step down to accommodate President Trump’s yet unannounced appointee to the 41st directorship of the United States Mint. Whoever Trump nominates will need the approval from a vote of the full Senate.

The Treasury Department hierarchy informed Gibson by telephone of the wishes of the president. The Mint director’s five-year term is a special term appointment that allows the director to remain in office until such time as the incoming chief executive decides otherwise.

Gibson joined the U.S. Mint as deputy director and acting director on Oct. 25, 2021, and was approved by the full Senate June 22, 2022, to a five year term.

With Gibson’s departure, the bureau will be directed in the interim by Deputy Director Kristie McNally.

To read the complete article, see:
Gibson retires from Mint Director's position (https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/gibson-retires-from-mint-director-s-position)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
CHRISTIAN GOBRECHT HEADSTONE DEDICATION (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n47a07.html)

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THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOBBIES

We are supposed to be living in the golden age of hobbies. Great thinkers of the 20th century believed that innovations in technology would make work so efficient that leisure would eclipse labor. In 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted 15-hour workweeks by 2030. This would leave people the opportunity to "cultivate into a fuller perfection, the art of life itself."

This would include hobbies, activities that Benjamin Hunnicutt, an emeritus professor of Leisure Studies at the University of Iowa, calls "pursuits that are their own reward." The opportunity to pursue joyful and meaningful activities was once "sort of the definition of human progress," Hunnicutt said.

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ABOUT THIS ISSUE: MARCH 23, 2025

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