KEN LOWE'S ACCOUNT OF THE HOMREN AJN HOARD

The highlight of this issue is the offering of the "HOMREN HOARD" of issues of the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NUMISMATICS, a hoard that had been ignored, overlooked, and/or forgotten for half a century. We are thrilled to tell you the tale. We are also honored to be the exclusive distributors of these issues. [See page 22]

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NUMISMATICS BACK-ISSUE HOARD DISCOVERED

[NOTE: On Monday December 8, 1997, this news release was sent to the numismatic media and also was sent out over the INTERNET]

The Money Tree, numismatic booksellers of Rocky River. OH have announced an extraordinary discovery of an old publisher's backstock of the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NUMISMATICS (AJN). Published initially bv the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society in 1866, the journal continued under various editorships until 1924. Many important articles on U.S. and worldwide numismatic subjects were initially published within its covers. Complete sets are rare and highly sought, commanding up to $10,000 in auctions.

The present hoard was apparently stored in a warehouse for half a century. It was recently purchased by Wayne K. Homren of Pittsburgh. PA. Mr. Homren is currently serving as Vice-President of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS). "I've been hoping to build a set of AJN's for years, but It's been hard to locate many of the issues. They just weren't out there. 1 was astounded to learn of the existence of the publisher's backstock 'hoard' in October, and moved immediately to purchase it. My wife and I travelled on Thanksgiving weekend to pick it up."

The hoard consisted entirely of original, unbound issues. There are many complete volumes although only about half of the journal's 53 volumes are represented. In addition, there are a number of individual issues for assorted years spanning the entire 1866-1924 period.

"I love numismatic literature, but I only need one copy of each." Mr. Homren said. The remainder of the hoard has been consigned to The Money Tree for sale. "This is truly a remarkable find - I'm still a bit overwhelmed by its size and scope." said Ken Lowe, a partner in The Money Tree. "It is like finding an original mint roll of bust half dollars - it's unheard of these days."

And now for the inside story....

Thanksgiving weekend, Sunday night, November 30, 1997. My phone rang. The Caller ID indicated a call from Wayne Homren. Neat. For the uninitiated. Wayne is the Vice-President of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society, the longtime owner of Rebellion Numismatics, and perhaps more than anyone is responsible for the renaissance in numismatic organizations in Western Pennsylvania, although he is far too modest ever to acknowledge this. He was a tireless worker at the 1989 A.N.A. convention in Pittsburgh, has held numerous offices in the Western Pennsylvania Numismatic Society. PAN. and is a major reason why the PAN show has grown large so over the last several years. Additionally, Wayne, or Mr. Pennsylvania Numismatics, as I have tagged him, has an absolutely wonderful numismatic library.

Also, in our last issue, we noted that Wayne was engaged. We are pleased to note that Myron. Daryl, and I attended Wayne and Dee's wedding in Pittsburgh July 5. 1997. A sunny day. A magnificent celebration. The wedding was held at an historic and majestic church. Dee was as lovely a bride as has ever been. And as for Wayne ... in the words of John Burns, "The boy cleans up real good." The reception was limited to the population of the known world. Good food, a wonderful hall, and great company. At the reception, we were seated at a table with Pat McBride and his friend Dawn, and Glenn and Jean Mooney. I have long been familiar with Mr. Mooney and his important numismatic writings and research, but had never gotten to meet him. Mr. Mooney was among the prominent group of post-war Pittsburgh numismatists including Howard Gibbs, Ray Byrne, and Sidney Eastwood. Suffice it to say, I spent virtually the entire reception in splendid conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Mooney. What a thrill! Such warm, engaging, wonderful, and generous people. I can clearly see his legacy and his influence in the large number of the active, excellent younger numismatists in western Pennsylvania.

Wayne's regular calls usually consist of his having some important news, his giving me some information about numismatic literature, his requesting for information about numismatic literature, his sharing with me various treasures he has discovered and obtained [Wayne's numismatic sources are so deep and extensive, I secretly refer to him as "Deep Book"], and some good old rambling conversation that enriches both of us and the phone company.

Anyway, as Wayne began his side of the conversation he stammered slightly, seeming a little distracted. He began, "You'll never guess what I have." This is the exact phrase I used several years ago when I called Armand Champa to tell him that I had the longtime missing 5th copy of Thian's REGISTER... in my hands. It was then that Wayne told me of his having bought this hoard of AJN's. He also mentioned that he was in physical possession of the issues and that they were spread out in piles in his dining room. [At the October PAN show, Wayne and Dee invited Myron & Daryl, David & Sherry Sklow, and me to their lovely and large new home.] As wonderful as Dee is, I cannot imagine that she was particularly thrilled at having all of these AJN's on the large dining room table and all over the new carpet.

Over the course of a few discussions held in the next few days, we negotiated a mutually satisfactory "deal". Wayne offered to draft a news release. He said it take him a day or two to get it to us. With virtually no tweaking, Wayne's draft turned out to be the actual news release. However in the interim, I made some phone calls to our friends around the country to share news of the find. A news release is really only an announcement. One call tell if the news touches anyone by the actual response it generates. Before Wayne's release had been faxed to us two days later, I had already gotten a slew of phone calls at the office and at home. What was extraordinary about this was that many of the calls came from people whom I had not phoned, from people the people I had phoned had not even phoned. Apparently the news spread kind of like a phone-tree or a chain letter. We got calls from friends, "I'll take one of everything you have." [This is not a joke, we already have 2 firm orders for one-of-everything, and that's without their even knowing the pricing.] We got calls from strangers: from Texas, from Chicago, from Ireland, New Zealand, California (northern and southern), Boston, and from 2 libraries — one public, one university. Small problem, not only had we not decided what to price them at, we hadn't even seen them yet.

Wayne had assured us that these issues had not been touched since 1947. But one of the basic laws of numismatic literature is that numismatic literature attracts water: the rarer the book — the more water it attracts. So Myron & I arranged a quick one-day trip (Sunday, December 8, 1997) to drive to Pittsburgh, close the deal, pack the AJN's in the car, and drive back to Cleveland.

A brief but necessary digression. For our new readers: [Our regular readers already are all-too-aware of this.] Myron and I could get lost in a closet. When we travel we don't miss cities, we miss states. If we had been Christopher Columbus, we would not have advised him to sail west, we would told him to sail ... straight up, or in circles. Amazingly, we arrived in Pittsburgh early as we did not get lost. As for the ride home [Russell Logan, you may want to sit down at this point] we got back on the PA turnpike and were making great time ... going east. Except Cleveland is west, unless we had planned to circumnavigate the PA Turnpike. Simple solution, we got off at the next exit [Myron, was it the Rhode Island exit?] to turn around. Simple. Myron asked me which was the entrance ramp back on, I pointed left. We drove left. Myron hit the brakes. In a moment of clear inspiration, Myron decided to drive back up the entrance ramp in reverse to get a view of the overhead sign. Amazing, or in retrospect maybe not, had Myron not done this, we would have again continued on our merry way east. A small matter of driving over a median got us to the correct entrance ramp. And we were on our way homeward.

Back to the story, we got to Wayne's house and took a gander at the hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds ad infinitum of issues. Virtually all of these issues were original and unopened. That is, its component sections had never been trimmed at the edges or silt open with a paper knife. Thus the untrimmed edges slightly overlapped the covers. Also one could not open the pages all the way because the pages (folded in the printing process) had not been sliced open at the top. Yes, these were as advertised, absolutely untouched.

Some of the covers had some minor chipping at the periphery. Remember, in earlier days, printers bound their books or periodicals with flimsy paper covers recognizing that most collectors would send their books to their respective bookbinders who would remove any original covers before rebinding them. Subsequently, these books would be finely bound, generally in leather. For years, periodicals continued to be issued with flimsy covers. However, many of today's collectors want their older periodicals with the original covers. Further, in many cases much valuable information was printed on the covers. Thus, that these covers were only trivially chipped and slightly soiled, if at all, is of special note.

The contents were generally untouched, never opened. I want to use the word "Pristine" but Myron won't let me because a page here or there may have some dustiness, or a corner fold. BUT! I can say that I have seen no copies superior to those here. I spent some hours over a period of several years with the famous, original, unbound set which Armand Champa bought from Dave Bowers and which Armand subsequently had bound [Bowers & Merena, CHAMPA II, lot 1012, illustrated on color plate 21 by Alan Grace. This set was described, and accurately so, as "virtually unimprovable". The "Homren Hoard" does not contain a complete set of AJN's. However, the Homren volumes and individual issues are in fact at least the equal of those in the Champa set.

I spent the better part of 10 years assembling the best set of the first 4 volumes of the AJN, largely because these volumes each consisted of 12 issues, and of volumes 3 & 4 containing the 3 photographic plates that are both historic and valuable: the U.S. Mint Building, the famous "Levick" plate of large cents, and the "Hall" plate of type coins. The "Homren Hoard" had many copies of these important, rare (or at least decidedly-eluslve) plates. Let's just say that the best of my issues and or plates is inferior to the worst or more accurately, "least best" of the "Homren Hoard".

We cannot overemphasize how special these issues are. We have handled and seen many AJN's during our time in business and before. We have never seen anything to match these. The copies which usually appear in the marketplace generally have had at least several owners, have been moved, opened, dropped, bent, folded, underlined, damaged, poorly trimmed, and been subject to a variety of blblio-crlmes and misdemeanors. The "Homren" issues were not only untouched for 50 years, prior to that they had also been in storage at the ANS. Each of the photographic plates is virtually perfect [I'm sorry, Myron, the plates are pristine.] The surface emulsion is perfect; no folds, no bends, no stains, no chips, no breaks in the "luster".

I am aware that, sadly, that many collectors do not collect 19th century numismatic auction catalogues. Thus, many collectors did not actively seek catalogues from the spectacular Wylie Hoard nearly 2 decades ago.

However, I cannot put this any more straightforward. Each and every collector of numismatic literature should have copies of the AJN from the "Homren Hoard" in his or her library. Many are rare in any condition. All are rare in such high condition. They are invaluable sources of numismatic information — first-hand accounts by the legendary figures from the earliest days of American numismatics. This is truly a special, and probably unique opportunity.

For those who lamented that they either did not buy important and high quality numismatic literature years ago, or that they weren't alive 50 years ago to buy these things — this is your opportunity to go back in time and obtain fine, important, rare, and untouched examples of Numismatica Americana.

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING. We have not picked over the hoard. With the exception of Wayne's putting aside one of everything (and only one) for himself [He's probably entitled, don't you think?], and one other set as described in the next paragraph, nothing else has been bought or taken out or "cherried". Myron and I have not bought, been given, or taken anything. A Money Tree precept, "You're either a dealer or a collector." We have contracted with Wayne that we will only buy if anything is left at the end. It is entirely possible that Myron and I may not be able to buy anything from the Homren Hoard: we would not at all be surprised to see this Hoard sell out. Again, as noted, NOTHING HAS BEEN PRESOLD OR SORTED OUT. The hoard has not been picked. We did contact George Kolbe about his buying volume 53 part 2 (a scarce volume devoted entirely to ancient coinage), but he passed on the opportunity.

THE ONE EXCEPTION: we have taken one of everything including some items of which only one copy existed [and are not offered in this fixed price list.]. That one-of-every thing will be offered in our 30th mail bid sale in late winter 1998.

The prices we are charging for the AJN reflect what individual volumes and issues bring in the marketplace when offered and their excellent condition.

Listed below are the various complete volumes which were present in the "Homren Hoard" [not to be confused with the Leroy Hoard who is back-up running back to Robert Smith - a former student of mine, an extraordinarily and non-stereotypically intelligent and well-spoken young man - for the Minnesota Vikings].

Remy Bourne and I had lamented this past summer that with the Katens' apparent retirement [You can't count them out. Frank had announced his retirement for the first time in 1989], and with the "Wylie Hoard" long having been disseminated that we had probably seen the last of the hoards of 19th century literature. In the words of that great American, Gomer Pyle, "Surprise, surprise, surprise!"

No matter how you cut it, Wayne uncovered a gem, and bought it.

To read the complete lot description, see:
The Best of the Homren Hoard (https://bid.numislit.com/lots/view/1-7XX2V7/the-best-of-the-homren-hoard)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web