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V20 2017 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 20, Number 22, May 28, 2017, Article 14

NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: MAY 28, 2017

On the Candidates for NBS Elections
Regarding the slate of candidates for the Numismatic Bibliomania Society' upcoming election, Dave Bowers writes:

What a super slate of officers. The Board should be expanded, if needed, to accommodate them all! A gathering of eagles!

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
2017 NBS ELECTION CANDIDATES (http://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n21a03.html)

More On the Mystery Item Struck on Civil War Token

Mystery item struck on Civil War token obverse Mystery item struck on Civil War token reverse

Regarding the unusual piece Bill Miller of Denton, MD asked about, Jeff Rock writes:

A fruitful avenue of research would be to check into luggage or baggage tags (and indeed the word at the top of the token looks like it could be 'baggage'. There was a 1913-1914 court case of Boston Railroad vs. Hooker which actually states "Baggage liability is limited to personal baggage not to exceed one hundred dollars in value for a passenger" which reads pretty darned close to what is visible on the token itself.

Ah, the magic of Dr. Google. Often it's just a shot in the dark, but a lengthy search string can sometimes squarely hit the mark. Thanks. Below are a couple links Jeff and I found. -Editor

BARSTOW V. NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN H.R.R. CO (https://casetext.com/case/barstow-v-new-york-new-haven-hrr-co)
Boston & Maine R. Co. v. Hooker 233 U.S. 97 (1914) (https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/233/97/case.html)

Symposium On The Allure Of Tokens And Medals
Susan Trask writes:

The Civil War Token Society (CWTS), Token and Medal Society (TAMS) and Medal Collectors of America (MCA) are hosting a Money Talks presentation on Thursday, 3:00 pm at the American Numismatic Association in Denver this August titled ASK THE EXPERTS! A SYMPOSIUM ON THE ALLURE OF TOKENS AND MEDALS. I'm moderating a panel featuring David Schenkman, Bill Hyder, Steve Hayden, Neil Musante and Q. David Bowers. We would love your readers to submit their questions for the event to me via email at susantrask@mindspring.com or write to me at P.O. Box 2053, Sister, Or. 97759.

What a stellar panel! Here are a few of my own (deliberately provocative) questions on the topic.

  • Why hasn't somebody written the Red Book of U.S. Medals?
  • Or the MEGA Red of U.S. Tokens?
  • TAMS was originally founded to include Paper Money collectors, but that faction soon split off to form the Society of Paper Money Collectors (SPMC). Now that there are national specialized groups for medals (like MCA) and tokens (like NTCA, the National Token Collectors Association), does TAMS still have a need to exist?
-Editor

Query: Mayflower Medal Marking
Jim Duncan of New Zealand writes:

A colleague has a Mayflower medallion, silver, 1620-1970. Obverse the ship, reverse a map of east coast America. He is curious about some edge marking - STERLING H d over m 70P 02896.

The 'sterling' is obvious, but not much else, capital H, lowercase d over lowercase m? That's all greek to me. Can someone help?

Hmmmm. I'm not sure myself what those symbols might mean. What do our readers think? -Editor

On Numismatic Investment Returns
Regarding the Economist article on investment returns in tangible alternative asset classes, Bill Eckberg writes:

I, too, have studied the “investment returns” on coins, specifically US early coppers. The main finding was that you can make coins look like a fabulous or very poor investment by cherrypicking your starting and ending dates. Yes, generally prices rise, but there always seem to be several years of stagnation between price increases. The result of that is that you can make coins look like a fabulous investment or a poor one depending on what dates you choose to begin and end your study. Because of this, all such studies are biased.

Of course, any study of coin price performance over time has another important flaw: it has zero predictive power.

So, collect coins because you enjoy them. If you’re lucky, you might buy and sell at favorable points in the cycle. Of course, collectors collect over a period of time, so it is highly unlikely that the bulk of your collection will have been bought at a favorable point in the cycle. You can protect yourself somewhat by buying series that have a strong collector base and by buying quality within a grade/price range, but luck is a key to successful “investing" in coins.

Finally, please let me indulge my personal pet peeve a propos price/performance plots (and my love for alliteration). For some reason, too many of them are shown on linear scales. They mean nothing unless they are plotted on a semi-log scale. A change from $1-2 is exactly the same rate of return as a change from $1M-2M.

All quite true. Thanks. -Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
STUDY EXAMINES RARE COIN INVESTMENT RETURNS (http://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n21a19.html)

Young America Furnace Company Note Misprint

Young America Furnace Cmpany $3 note

Philip Mernick of London writes:

Young America Furnace Cmpany $3 note closeup I may have missed it but I don’t see anywhere in your items on the Young America Furnace Company notes the fact that the top note seems to mis-printed. It has an upside down “n” in the title making it 'Yonng' rather than 'Young'.

Actually, Dave Schenkman pointed this out to me when he first showed me the sheet of notes, but I didn't mention it in my write-up. Good catch! Dave sent me an image of another denomination with this error. Thanks. -Editor

Young America Furnace Cmpany 5c note

Dave adds:

The error also appears on the 5 cent denomination.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: MAY 14, 2017 : Young America Furnace Company Notes (http://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n20a17.html)

Ancient Persian Coin Proves Aliens Exist

A few weeks back we illustrated this coin from the May 2017 Stacks Bowers World Online Auction. -Editor

PERSIA. Achaemenidae. Xerxes II to Artaxerxes II obverse PERSIA. Achaemenidae. Xerxes II to Artaxerxes II reverse

PERSIA. Achaemenidae. Xerxes II to Artaxerxes II, ca. 420-375 B.C. AV Daric (8.33 gms).

ET on Daric182 Mel Wacks writes:

Besides the interesting articles I usually find something worthy of reprinting (with permission of course) in The Shekel. But this time I found something else--it sure looks like ET peeking out, with a spidery body, on the reverse of a daric. Did anyone else spot this?

Thanks for the great image mark-up. I'd noticed that similarity but decided to wait and see what others thought. Mel's response came in the morning after that issue was published, but no one else has picked up on this. If the UFO bloggers see this, maybe it'll become the next viral sensation. "OLD PERSIAN COIN PROVES ALIENS WERE HERE IN 400 B.C." -Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
STACK'S BOWERS MAY 2017 WORLD ONLINE AUCTION (http://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n19a19.html)

Stacks-Bowers E-Sylum ad 2017-05-28 consignments


Wayne Homren, Editor

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