NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: MARCH 13, 2022

PREV ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE FULL ISSUE PREV FULL ISSUE

V25 2022 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 25, Number 11, March 13, 2022, Article 9

NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: MARCH 13, 2022

Treasury Secretary Yellen Visits Denver Mint

Dick Grinolds passed along this tweet from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Thanks. -Editor

Dick adds:

"Not much to it but it's nice to see someone higher than an assistant under-secretary setting foot inside a mint facility. It brings back memories from 1989 when the mint hauled a press down from Philadelphia to the east side of the Capitol for a first strike ceremony for the Congressional Bicentennial silver dollar. I sat right behind Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia who even with his broomstick straight posture still barely came up above my waist.

"After the dignitaries speechified, struck individual coins and left, a number of invited guests also were able to strike (but not keep or buy) a coin. They had torn down the tables and chairs and were starting on the tent when I was the second to last person to push the button to the press and strike a coin. Still, it was one of those numismatic memories that last."

To read the tweet, see:
https://twitter.com/SecYellen/status/1502382104579035139

Boris, Roger and Tony in TV Numismatics
Steve Hill writes:

"I just want to highlight two more television episodes that feature coins and collections prominently.

"In chronological order, first we have Boris Karloff starring in British TV crime show of the 1950s Colonel March of Scotland Yard where he plays detective with an eye patch solving crimes others can't. I recently watched episode 16 first broadcast in 1956 called "The Stolen Crime" where the whole plot line and clues to a murder hinged on a valuable Roman coin collection in a grand mansion house and the way it was ticketed and presented giving the clues.

"Secondly episode 2 of The Persuaders! from 1970 starring Roger Moore and Tony Curtis (I believe more well known to a UK audience at time), called "The Gold Napoleon" features gold bullion smuggling in the form of Napoleon gold coins across the borders from Monaco where the episode is set. Roger Moore disguises himself to visit a coin Dealer in Monaco who is involved with the crime and is interesting to see how the TV company fitted out the coin shop he enters.

"These shows are viewable in the UK via Amazon Prime for a fee."

Thank you! -Editor

For more information, see:
Colonel March of Scotland Yard (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_March_of_Scotland_Yard)
The Persuaders! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Persuaders!)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
MORE NUMISMATICS IN TV AND MOVIES (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n10a10.html)

Tracking Morgan's Medal
Julia Casey writes:

"I enjoyed reading about the Daniel Morgan medal! I thought I would make an attempt to fill in some of the gaps as to where it has been all these years. There is an intriguing mention in 1951 to a medal in the possession of Josephine Neville Strong Callahan (then age 83, of Redwood City, California) "a great great granddaughter" of Daniel Morgan. A newspaper article in the July 7, 1951, Gaffney Ledger (South Carolina) described how Mrs. Callahan wanted to move General Morgan's remains from Winchester, Virginia to Cowpens and establish a Daniel Morgan Memorial. She offered to donate these items to the memorial: "Gen Morgan's personal Bible, a portrait of him, a medal presented to him by Congress and his life story written by an uncle of Mrs. Callahan" (emphasis added).

"Josephine Neville Strong Callahan was Jesse Barker Neville's niece. Jesse Neville is the last Neville family member documented to own the gold Daniel Morgan medal. He died in 1914 and I could not establish that he had any children. Mrs. Josephine N.T. Callahan is listed on a record attached to Jesse Neville's findagrave.com entry as the person who arranged for his ashes to be sent from Los Angeles to Cincinnati for burial.

"An article in the American Art Journal ("Portraits of Daniel Morgan, Revolutionary War General," by David Meschutt Vol. 17, No. 3 (Summer, 1985)) Indicates that Mrs. Callahan bequeathed the General Morgan portrait to a Percy Robert Blythe when she died in 1956. Blythe donated the portrait to the Virginia Historical Society in 1959. I don't know if her medal also went to Blythe.

"Mrs. Callahan's efforts to move General Morgan's remains to Cowpens led to a squabble with another Morgan great great granddaughter, Madeline Daniels, who opposed the move. Mrs. Callahan even went so far as to issue "credentials" to a Cowpens "shovel-carrying undertaker and two assistants" who traveled to Winchester but were rebuffed. An entertaining article about this dispute, titled "Who Gets the General's Body?" was published in Life Magazine (September 3, 1951). Many thanks to Len Augsburger for locating a copy of this article! When I checked findagrave.com, the burial of Daniel Morgan is still shown as the Mount Hebron Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia.

Daniel Morgan's findagrave.com entry:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/2755/daniel-morgan

Jesse Neville's findagrave.com entry:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/79005930/jesse-barker-neville "

Daniel Morgan Historical Marker Saratoga

Thanks! We may never learn exactly where the medal has been all this time, but it's a miracle it has survived. -Editor

Julia adds:

"I was out driving around the vicinity of the Saratoga Battlefield for one of my jobs a couple years ago and I saw this historical marker and snapped a photo. "

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
GOLD DANIEL MORGAN COMITIA AMERICANA MEDAL (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n10a28.html)

How Insurance Shaped America
Laurence Edwards writes:

"Those interested in economic history generally might be interested in this talk hosted by the Antiquarian Society."

Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding
with Hannah Farber

Thursday, March 31, 2022, 2 pm EDT

This program is free but requires advanced registration.

Unassuming but formidable, American maritime insurers used their position at the pinnacle of global trade to shape the new nation. The international information they gathered and the capital they generated enabled them to play central roles in state building and economic development. During the Revolution, they helped the U.S. negotiate foreign loans, sell state debts, and establish a single national bank. Afterward, they increased their influence by lending money to the federal government and to its citizens. Even as federal and state governments began to encroach on their domain, maritime insurers adapted, preserving their autonomy and authority through extensive involvement in the formation of commercial law. Leveraging their claims to unmatched expertise, they operated free from government interference while simultaneously embedding themselves into the nation's institutional fabric. By the early nineteenth century, insurers were no longer just risk assessors. They were nation builders and market makers.

Deeply and imaginatively researched, Underwriters of the United States uses marine insurers to reveal a startlingly original story of risk, money, and power in the founding era.

Not directly numismatic, but of interest for anyone interested in the history of economic development. -Editor

For more information, see:
Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding with Hannah Farber (https://www.americanantiquarian.org/virtual-book-talks)

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

PREV ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE FULL ISSUE PREV FULL ISSUE

V25 2022 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE