"The November 21 issue of The E-Sylum has an item; "A Tael of Emergency Chinese Money", which has several errors in it. I believe these pieces were first cataloged in Eduard Kann's Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Coins, and the writer of your item likely used it as his primary source. Eduard Kann was completely misinformed about these pieces being used to pay Chinese troops on the Burma front because he had been told the old Lao characters on the reverses were Burmese and they were from Yunnan.

These pieces were circulating in the French Protectorates of Laos and Tonkin, until the Chinese troops from Yunnan province were sent south by the United Nations to take the post-WWII Japanese surrender above the 16th parallel in French Indochina. When the Chinese returned to Yunnan, they were carrying the French Indochina opium bullion coins, which they then sold to silver and goldsmiths, who eventually sold them into Hong Kong where many entered the numismatic marketplace. At that time, numismatists identified them as Yunnan-Burma pieces because of Kann's misidentification.

The first error in the item is the title because they are not emergency Chinese money. They were minted in Hanoi to assist the government in buying opium from the highland people in Tonkin and Laos, and not Yunnan province in China. The largest percentage of taxes for the French, and especially during WWII, was from the sale of opium and they badly needed silver coins because the highland people did not accept banknotes.

Since they were not meant for anywhere outside of French Indochina, the ounce and half ounce pieces are in Vietnamese weights of about half (19 grams) or one lang or luong (38 grams), and the reverses have the old Lao for half or one bheuy pure silver. The Vietnamese used Chinese calligraphy but some were altered over time. The obverse of the first varieties had the Vietnamese character Phu, which did not have any changes from the Chinese Fu, for prosperity. Most of the highland people could not read or write so designs were more important to them. The second series changed the obverse character to a deer design. The first deer design did not satisfy the highland people so a second design was created for them.

My primary source about these pieces is Dr. Francois Thierry, who has since retired from the National Library of France. He has written detailed articles about these pieces and assisted me in my research. The old Lao was not correctly translated until Dr. Allan Barker's wife Soi assisted me. Soi's father was a linguist and taught her about the old Lao. I also did research in the current National Library of Viet Nam, which has many of the French Indochina WWII era newspapers and official documents. "

Thanks, Howard! -Editor

"Caricatures of Jews on Hobo nickels are clearly antisemitic, and the less we see of them the better."

Agreed. I thought the Numismatist editor's response was perfectly fine until the last sentence. George's comment was about the removal of the previously published image, and that bothers me, too. All of our E-Sylum issues are archived online as an historical record. We make mistakes all the time but don't go back and alter the record - we acknowledge the mistake in a following issue to correct the record and move on. -Editor

"I am not one who wants to erase history. As a matter of fact, I picture many antisemitic medals on my website, such as the content of "ANTISEMITIC BIGOTRY ON HISTORIC MEDALS" by Dr. Benjamin Weiss. But it is not necessary to illustrate a generic article about Hobo nickels with an antisemitic example."

It's not clear that the ANA member who wrote about the photo even asked that it be removed. Pointing it out is important. Education is the key. Even though I was aware of the topic from an earlier E-Sylum article, the coin in the October Numismatist looked like an ordinary Hobo nickel to me - just another man wearing a hat. I'm afraid I wouldn't have thought twice about using it either. The letter and response were very helpful. Removing the image, not so much. Luckily I had my hardcopy issue handy so I could check and learn what the discussion was about. Thank you. -Editor

"While I wholeheartedly agree with the (normally) perfect George Kolbe about the needless censorship of the ANA I would like to point out my disagreement with the remaining 1%.

"I would refer to his comment about Hitler appearing on coins. If I remember correctly, the dictator appeared on numerous medals and Notgeld and innumerable stamps but never on a circulating coin. Strange but true.

"We, as numismatists, are caretakers of history, not censors. Should we then destroy all the offending items of history? How many ancient coins would be consigned to the melting pot or just never to see their images used again in modern publications? To the fires of censorship go Caliguila, Stalin, Victoria and Jefferson. All who have offended, participated in genocide or slavery.

"While I do not condone their actions I understand them in the context of the history in which they lived. We should learn from their actions so that their mistakes, or atrocities, should never be inflicted upon humanity ever again.

"Now, back to our normally scheduled program of enjoying numismatics……."

"I was intrigued by the Dunbar & Co. receipt letter for a gold deposit made by Henry D. Cogswell. Dr. Cogswell (he was a dentist) is a name familiar to me from an article I researched and wrote 40 years ago.

"Cogswell attributed his success in life to clean living and the avoidance of alcohol, so he used much of his fortune installing public drinking fountains throughout the United States. One of these stands in San Francisco's Washington Square Park, and it's topped by a statue of Dr. Cogswell. On the centennial of its installation in 1979, a time capsule was retrieved from the base of the fountain and its contents revealed. Among its treasure and trash were numerous medals and coins, the latter including worn pieces from circulation as well as freshly struck examples from the San Francisco Mint. I examined the numismatic items in person at the California Historical Society during 1981 and wrote an article and inventory for the Pacific Coast Numismatic Society. This was later published in the Summer 1984 issue of Calcoin News. An expanded version, including my own photographs, was published in the January 1985 issue of The Numismatist.

"I know I still have my photos somewhere, but I can't quite find them in a timely manner to share here. Nevertheless, the Calcoin News article is accessible at the NNP, and The Numismatist is available to all ANA members at its digital archive."

Interesting. Thanks! -Editor

"Thanks for mentioning Slab Lab in the latest E-Sylum. What a great way to learn about some of the major players in this great hobby/industry of ours! The 3-part episode with Jim Halperin was fascinating, as I consider Heritage to be of one of the great success stories of today's numismatics. Only thing is... I think I would have taken the $22 million Jim was offered for New England Rare Coin Galleries when he was in his mid-twenties."

It's a great series, and a new one with Jimmy Hayes has just been posted. -Editor

"How about a new "What is It" coin. This elephant with an umbrella above was with a neat collection of Thai gambling tokens, And one 18th century Burmese (Myanmar) coin. Three sizes 18, 20, 22 mm, and this one with possible character on the base. The height (about 10 mm thick) of the elephant makes the picture hard to take. The surface has green and white highlights suggesting some copper and some lead content."

 

Can anyone help? Click on the images to see higher resolution version on our Flickr archive. -Editor

"I watched Jeopardy! Wednesday and a man named Sam Buttrey was one of the contestants. I immediately thought of Ted Buttrey and then when they did the contestant interview he mentioned his father was an expert in Mexican coins! He won and will move on in the Professor's Tournament!"

 

Julia did some online searching to confirm that Sam is the fourth of Ted Buttrey's four children. Ted was instrumental in calling attention to the problem of false Western gold bars on the numismatic market and faced off against Mike Hodder in the famous "Great Debate" on the topic. He spent the last part of his career in the numismatic department of the Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge, England, where I visited him in 2007. -Editor

Jeffrey S Zarit passed along this obituary of Rod Eric Bates, a dealer from Port Isabel Texas. Thanks. -Editor

For bibliophiles, Chriss Hoffman passed along this Free Range cartoon from November 11, 2021. Thanks! -Editor