COIN BOARDS: RATION TOKENS, GHOSTLY TONING

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V24 2021 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 24, Number 9, February 28, 2021, Article 26

In the Spring 2021 issue of Coin Board News, Dave Lange notes recent research assistance from E-Sylum readers and gives us a nice shout-out. Another item shows some unusual ghostly toning on a coin once stored in a Whitman folder. With permission, we're republishing both items here. Thanks. -Editor

YET ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP In CBN #44 I ran a short piece about the coin boards produced circa 1970 to hold tokens issued during World War II by the Office of Price Administration (OPA). I noted that the creator of the boards was Joseph A. Lawonde, but I knew very little about him. My story was reproduced in The E-Sylum, a wonderful online publication that comes out weekly and features news and reviews of numismatic literature and research. Another reader of The E-Sylum sent me an old flyer put out by the Society of Ration Token Collectors around the same time as the boards. In it, Joe Lawonde was revealed as the editor of The Ration Board, the society's quarterly bulletin, and his address was given as 135 Duer Street in North Plainfield, New Jersey. The boards were offered for sale at $3 to members and $4 to non-members, with orders going to A. G. Kressly in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. The SRTC is still active today, and its website is linked through the Token and Medal Society: http://www.tokenandmedal.org/. By the way, The E-Sylum is sent online for free, and it's my favorite read each week. Write Editor Wayne Homren at whomren@gmail.com to sign up. Drop my name, and he may extend my free subscription!

NATURAL PHENOMENA DEPARTMENT With this issue featuring an item about my article on Whitman folders in The Numismatist, this seems like a good opportunity to run a photo that pertains to that subject. More specifically, it pertains to the way in which coins stored in such folders may develop very distinctive toning. In this instance a 1916-D half dollar stored for many years inside the Whitman folder for Liberty Standing Half Dollars (Publisher No. 9021) reacted with its printed end flap in a most peculiar manner. The letters of the title actually masked the reactive paper from toning the coin in stencil fashion, and this resulted in the reversed text appearing on the coin as untoned metal. I've seen this selective toning on many coins, and it's particularly aggressive on ones that were cleaned before insertion into the folder. What does it say on your coins?

Thanks to Dave's publicity, we did pick up a couple new subscribers. To subscribe to HIS great newsletter (one of MY favorite reads), contact him at DavidWLange@outlook.com -Editor