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NORBERT LANDRY'S COIN ALBUM
What I found most interesting was the description of the "coin album", which surely must be one of the earliest examples of a coin storage product in this country. -Editor The regular monthly meeting of this Society was held on Thursday afternoon. The President read a letter from the Secretary, Mr. Appleton, dated Paris, May 16, mentioning many rare coins and medals he had purchased in Rome, Florence, and elsewhere. He describes a visit to the Kirchenian Museum at Rome, formed by an old Jesuit two hundred years ago, and thought to contain the most perfect series in existence of medieval curiosities then open to Florence, lent by the owners, in which was a large collection of Italian coins of cities and provinces. Mr. Fowle exhibited a silver dracon of Corinth and silver coins of Trajan and Vespasian, a Roman family coin and a number of fine bronze pieces, both Greek and Roman. Mr. Wiggin presented to the society, in behalf of the inventor, Mr. Norbert Landry of San Francisco, Cal., a "coin album," designed for the safe exhibition of coins, so that they may be neither soiled nor stolen by the curious. The coins are placed between two sheets of glass, inclosed [sic] in wooden frames revolving on an axle within a box and occupping [sic] but half a circle, so that the box may be closed. The box may thus be opened and the separate layers of coins turned over successively and look at, something like the views in a large stereoscope. The invention was carefully examined by the members, who considered it very well adapted for small private collections; and a vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Landry for his kindness in presenting it to the Society. Mr. Wiggin called the attention of the Society to some exceedingly curious gold and silver Roman Catholic medals, charms, crosses, etc., recently brought from Mexico. Among them was a reliquary of "San Ignacio de Loyola," in the form of a book of heavy gold, with relics of St. Philip de Neri and St. Joseph. A present of a Lincoln medal in white metal, having on the reverse his famous words, "With malice towards none, with charity for all," was received from the engraver, Mr. J. A. Bolen of Springfield, Mass. Mr. B. Alonzo Brock of Richmond, Va., was unanimously elected a corresponding member. I found this item in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the year 1866. -Editor No. 55,121. —Norbert LANDRY, San Francisco, Cal.—Coin Holder.—May 29, 1866– The leaves have panelled recesses, upon or between whose glass surfaces the medals or coins are placed, and rotate upon an axis to display them in succession. Claim.–The arrangement of coins and medals upon a vertical inclined or horizontal axis, between or upon transparent substances, to be revolved at pleasure, for the purpose of displaying said coins or medals, substantially as herein described and set forth. Here's a diagram from the application. -Editor  To read the complete patent, see:
The San Francisco Examiner for December 12, 1878 reports on the suicide of a banker named Norbert Landry. The December 19, 1878 issue has an article about the man's estate which included "the patent right of his "coin-holder," coins and medals to his brother, Joseph Napoleon Landry, of New River, Louisiana." -Editor Coin album researcher David Lange writes: "It's not too different in concept from what Eliasberg used to display his collection, though clearly smaller. "I did not know about this, and clearly it did not catch on at the time. I'd be very surprised if even a single example survives, but I'll keep watching eBay!" Len Augsburger reminded me of a display at last year's ANA World's Fair of Money with a number of U.S. Patent models relating to coins. I had photographed some of the cases for my Numismatic Diary. A close look at my photo revealed that the patent models were part of an exhibit on U.S. gold coins. Erwin E. Brauer won First Place in Class 15 for "1795-1933 Major Design Types of Regular-Issue American Gold Coins." As it turns out, he's an E-Sylum reader, so I sent him a draft of this article for comment. -Editor Erv Brauer writes: "I'm excited to hear from you. I have been collecting for 60 years. I was in the right place at the right time to connect with Cliff Petersen in the Los Angeles area when he owned the remaining neglected US Patent Models in the early 1970's. Over years, I obtained about fifty very small to large models connected to numismatics, the only large collection extant. They have been my collecting and research specialty since the 1970's. "So when I saw Norbert Landry in your email, I knew the name. In fact, I am lucky enough to have Landry's original patent model! It's taller than a 3 inch display case. I built a folding plexiglass case for the spring Michigan State show as non-competitive exhibit for its first time out. Same footprint as a 3 inch case but 24 inches tall. "The model is full size, about 10 or 12 inches, wood holders on an iron rod as pictured. No coins. Some chips and damage as is normal. The models are in storage. I'm glad to hear that old Norbert's idea has seen the light." Wow! What a delight to know that the original patent model still exists! We can all look forward to seeing it someday, or at least a photograph once it comes back out of storage. Thanks, everyone! This made my day. -Editor  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 All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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