FRANK. C. ROSS AND THE ORPHAN ANNE DIME

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V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 2, January 14, 2018, Article 18

FRANK. C. ROSS AND THE ORPHAN ANNE DIME

Dick Johnson submitted this note about coin columnist Frank C. Ross and the Orphan Anne Dime (NOTE: that's not a typo - it's "Anne", not "Annie"). -Editor

Mention of Frank C. Ross as a columnist in Hobbies magazine in last week’s E-Sylum brought back memories. He was writing for the magazine in 1946 (to 1949) when I was becoming active in numismatics. We both lived in Kansas City, but I never met him, nor did he attend any meetings of the local coin club, Heart of America Numismatic Association, while I attended regularly.

Unlike the other Hobbies columnists, who were dealers, Frank Ross was a collector, and somewhat of a “solitary writer” (I define as one who is not active in numismatic organizations). He invented the term “Little Orphan Anne” for the dime of 1844.

Ross had the idea the 1844 dime was scarce for some unknown reason. He formed a small hoard, and promoted it often in his Hobbies column. Breen mentioned in was hoarded but did not mention the Orphan Anne term. I have seen it mentioned elsewhere but it has not been accepted by numismatic scholars. It lacks substance.

He retired in 1949 and died in 1955. I wonder whatever happened to his “hoard.”

Illustrated is a coin from the January 2009 Heritage FUN Auction #1121 (lot 3683).

Via a Newman Portal search I found a report on the May 7, 1948 Heart of American Numismatic Association meeting in the July 1948 issue of The Numismatist where Frank C. Ross's paper on the Little Orphan Anne dime was read. -Editor

Len Augsburger adds:

The Newman Portal revealed that Ross was actually hoarding 1846 dimes, not 1844. Ross’s 1846 dimes showed up in a Bolender sale shortly after his death, where it was reported that Ross hoarded 46s. I think he hyped 44s but secretly hoarded 46s.

Len wrote an article on this titled "Lessons in Hoarding, #44" in the November 2017 issue of The E-Gobrecht -Editor

This suggests to me that Ross was not the numismatic dreamer we made him out to be. He was hoarding a legitimately scarce coin and at the same time diverting his fellow collectors by publicly pumping the 1844 instead. This is numismatic duplicity well practiced – not only do you not reveal the coin you are hoarding, but you actively throw the scent in another direction.

To read the complete E-Gobrecht issue on the Newman Portal, see: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/537643

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEWMAN PORTAL ADDS HOBBIES MAGAZINE (http://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n01a06.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum

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