Every week I enjoy John Lupia's posts on early collectors. This week I want to comment on Dr. Charles Edward Frazer's catalog of the Barrett (in some references spelled Barratt) collection. The correct date of the Barrett sale is March 27, 1879. In W.E. Woodward's 33rd sale in 1880, two plated copies were offered - one realized .30 cents, the other.38 cents. Interestingly enough, two days before Frazer's sale, the consigner, Dr Barrett had sold his paper money, both Colonial, and Confederate at Bangs, cataloged by C. H. Bechtel.

Isn't that New York Temperance token an Elder piece, Wayne?

Your June 9 issue of The E-Sylum included a reference to a medal with the text "THIS MEDAL / IS DEDICATED TO / THE CITIZENS OF / THE RUM-SOAKED / CITY OF NEW YORK." This obverse is shared with two reverses.

These were cataloged by Thomas K. DeLorey in Thomas L. Elder A Catalogue of His Tokens and Medals. originally published in The Numismatist in 1980 and later published as a monograph.

The first reverse [DeLorey 72] has the legend "SOME OF THE / EFFECTS OF RUM: / REVELRY / ROWDYISM / RIBALDRY / RIOT / ROGUERY / REMORSE / RUIN." It is the second reverse [DeLorey 73] illustrated in The E-Sylum. It was struck in silver, German Silver, copper, aluminum and several other possible metals.

I came across a discussion of this coin while researching a song lyric. The Song is "California Humbug," a traditional song. This song was used in episode 3 of Ken Burns's PBS series "The West" which concerned the California gold rush. The lyric of interest to me was "The gambler deals from the bottom all day And loiters about the Diana."

I assumed the Diana was a California casino or hotel. In looking for evidence, I came across the Diana coin. Since there seems to have been some question about the coin's authenticity, I thought you might be interested in this song which may provide at least some support for authenticity.

I don't disapprove of someone who owns something making it look better - museums do it with artwork all the time. But there the process is (nowadays at least) reversible and the repair work is thoroughly documented and part of the history of that piece of art. If the same were done with coins it would be less problematical.

I'm sure we've all seen coins that a collector had repaired (a hole filled, a scratch removed, a spot lifted, etc.) and when it was sold the collector let the repair work be known. But the next sale, or the one after? That good faith disclosure disappears soon enough, especially when the repair work was well done.

Slabs, oddly, have compounded the problem because sometimes looking through a piece of plastic and not being able to see the edges makes some repairs much harder to spot. For all intents and purposes when a repaired coin makes it into a slab without the work being mentioned it essentially reclaimed its virginity. The coin is "good" until some collector breaks it out of the holder - and is left with a much less valuable coin.

Another one for E-Sylum readers to identify, please. It is cast brass, approx 31-32mm square. I am guessing a pass or toll ticket, from somewhere in Belgium or the Netherlands, but none of my usual contacts for such things have been able to identify it. I feel that the piece ought to be in Minard van Hoorebeke, but I cannot see it. It appeared on Ebay recently advertised as English, but it quite clearly isn't.

It is the third example of these which I have seen in the course of the last 10-15 years, all dated 1677, and the first of them at a fair on the table of a Low Countries dealer. I think that there is probably a range of values, and I guess that the numeral, "XVI" in this case, refers to the number of horses or people who have been paid for to pass through the gate or over the bridge.

Some time ago, I was in Cincinnati's famous used bookstore, The Ohio Bookstore, when I found a cache of numismatic literature catalogs. My suspicion was that someone had downsized (or worse), and they had ended up in the company of century old National Geographics, the best sellers of 1956, and a million other books. I didn't really need them but I felt someone else would want them. I bought them all for fifty bucks, put them on a shelf in my office, and forgot about them.

I'm now in the in the process of moving, and I don't want to move these catalogs; time for the orphans to find a new home. They all appear to be in excellent condition. if any E-Sylum readers want to add them to their holdings, they can have the lot for the $50 I paid for them plus the media mail shipping charge. First come, first serve. Contact me at heathmacalpine@hotmail.com