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About Us The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit association devoted to the study and enjoyment of numismatic literature. For more information please see our web site at coinbooks.org Subscriptions Those wishing to become new E-Sylum subscribers (or wishing to Unsubscribe) can go to the following web page link Membership There is a membership application available on the web site Membership Application To join, print the application and return it with your check to the address printed on the application. Print/Digital membership is $40 to addresses in the U.S., and $60 elsewhere. A digital-only membership is available for $25. For those without web access, write to: Jeff Dickerson, Treasurer Numismatic Bibliomania Society P. O. Box 578, Weatherford, TX 76086 Asylum For Asylum mailing address changes and other membership questions, contact Jeff at this email address: treasurer@coinbooks.org Submissions To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com BUY THE BOOK BEFORE THE COIN Sale Calendar 1/4/2025 - Workman's Books

 

Content presented in The E-Sylum is not necessarily researched or independently fact-checked, and views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.

WAYNE'S WORDS: THE E-SYLUM DECEMBER 8, 2024

New subscribers this week include: Chris Nield and Diane Reed, courtesy Pam West. Welcome aboard! We now have 7,255 subscribers.

Thank you for reading The E-Sylum. If you enjoy it, please send me the email addresses of friends you think may enjoy it as well and I'll send them a subscription. Contact me at whomren@gmail.com anytime regarding your subscription, or questions, comments or suggestions about our content.

This week we open with a new NBS podcast episode, more Workman's Books numismatic literature sale selections, two new books, an early U.S. Mint researcher, updates from the Newman Numismatic Portal, and more.

Other topics this week include coins of the Roman provinces, the 1816 Royal Mint competition, Tidy House coins, the ANS Summer Seminar, ANA's Omaha dalliance, curator Dr. Lawrence Lee, fixed price and auction selections, 1715 Fleet coins, and treasure law in the U.S.

To learn more about the Dan Hamelberg Library, the treasure of the Atocha, proof nickels, Henry W. Crotzer, Elwin C. Leslie, Robert D. Osterholm, the disposal of metallic credit cards, medalist George Mills, punch anomalies, Carson City dimes, Booty Salvage and Dorothy Gale's ruby slippers, read on. Have a great week, everyone!

Wayne Homren
Editor, The E-Sylum

 

NBS BIBLIOTALK PODCAST WITH DAN HAMELBERG

NBS Podcast Discusses Rare Documents from the Dan Hamelberg Library

The latest episode of the NBS Bibliotalk podcast, "Collection Highlights Continued (Part 2), with Dan Hamelberg" is now available on the NBS website and other popular podcasting platforms such as Apple Podcasts. In this post, Dan focuses on historical documents with Mint and Treasury Department connections. It is challenging to identify highlights from this unparalleled library, but among them are the Thomas Jefferson-signed copy of the April 2, 1792 Mint Act, and a March 28, 1792 letter from John Adams discussing the fate of the Mint Act.

Moreover, the collection traces the formation of the Mint beginning with precursors such as Jefferson's 1790 Report on Weights, Measures, and Coins, and the 1786 Confederated Congress legislation that established the dollar and decimal coinage as monetary standards. The collection does not stop with the establishment of the Mint in 1792. Hamelberg further collects Mint appointments, and desiderata such as an 1859 letter from the Mint Director James Snowden to the Philadelphia collector Joseph Mickley, inquiring about Washington pieces for the Mint Cabinet. Among modern items are a President Nixon-signed letter presenting "first strike" Eisenhower dollars.

Spending time with Dan to put together this podcast was a pleasure, and we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did creating it.

Link to "Collection Highlights Continued (Part 2), with Dan Hamelberg" on the NBS website:
https://www.coinbooks.org/resources/podcast.html

WORKMAN'S BOOKS SALE 7 SELECTIONS, PART TWO

Lot 61: Bierly, William. IN GOD WE TRUST - THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, MONEY, BANKING, AND RELIGION. Whitman Publishing, LLC, Pelham. 2019. 8vo. xvi, 336 pages. original pictorial boards. Notes. Glossary. Bibliography. B&w and color photos and illustrations throughout. English text. The David Baker Library. Fine. Our national motto debuted on United States coinage during the chaos and heartache of the American Civil War. It has appeared on our money ever since. Numismatic researcher William Bierly has dug deep into the origins and history of In God We Trust. Now he tells its full story, introducing Reverend Mark Watkinson, the preacher who rallied the Treasury Department to recognize Almighty God in some form on our coins . . . Mint Director James Pollock, former governor of Pennsylvania, a commanding figure who worked toward the same vision . . . and Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, nephew of an Episcopal bishop, who marshalled our nation's vast resources and financed the war with bold innovations.

President Abraham Lincoln figures in the tale, as does a cast of military generals, wealthy industrialists, poets and artists, powerful bankers, and everyday Americans, North and South. Bierly shows how the upheaval of the Civil War changed not just the face of our coins and paper currency, but the very foundations of modern American banking and finance. The story continues into the renaissance of beautiful American coinage started by President Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s . . . the revival of the 1950s, and the Unwritten Constitution . . . legal challenges by modern-day atheists . . . and controversy surrounding In God We Trust, public and school prayer, Ceremonial Deism, and other hot topics in today's headlines. Lot weight: 1 lbs 15oz. Subject(s): United States Coinage History.

To read the complete lot description, see:
https://www.icollector.com/Bierly-In-God-We-Trust-The-American-Civil-War-Money-Banking-and-Religion_i54896596

Lot 74: Bowers, Q. David. THE COPPER COINS OF VERMONT AND INTERRELATED ISSUES 1783 - 1788. Stack's Bowers Galleries, New York. 2018. 4to. xii, 163, (1) pages. original pictorial boards. Author signed bookplate. Limited edition #247 of 500 copies. b&w and color coin and historical photos throughout. English text.Fine. Lot weight: 1 lbs 15oz. Subject(s): United States Coinage.

To read the complete lot description, see:
https://www.icollector.com/Bowers-The-Copper-Coins-of-Vermont-and-Interrelated-Issues-1783-1788_i54896609

Lot 125: Cayon, Adolfo & Clemente Cayon & Juan Cayon. LAS MONEDAS ESPANOLAS DEL TREMIS AL EURO DEL 411 A NUESTROS DIAS. Cayon-Jano S.L., Madrid. 1998. 8vo. 1269, (9) pages. original charcoal leatherette, gilt. 12th edition. B&w coin photos throughout. Spanish text. Fine. This book is an illustrated catalog and price guide to the coins of Spain and its colonies for the period 411 through 1998 covering the Visigoth period through the reign of Juan Carlos I. The book is organized by denomination then by date and then by mint. Each date/mint has a type number and prices in euros in VF grade. Each denomination type has an obverse and reverse coin photo where possible. Lot weight: 6 lbs 3oz. Subject(s): Spanish, Spanish American Coinage.

To read the complete lot description, see:
https://www.icollector.com/Cayon-Las-Monedas-Espanolas-del-Tremis-al-Euro-del-411-a-Nuestros-Dias_i54896660

Lot 165: Craig, Alan K. GOLD COINS OF THE 1715 SPANISH PLATE FLEET - A NUMISMATIC STUDY OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA COLLECTION. Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, Tallahassee. 1988. 4to. xvi, 83, (1) pages. original gray cloth, gilt, jacket. Inscribed by the author to David Baker. Map. Tables. Glossary. Bibliography. 12 color coin plates. B&w line illustrations. English text. The David Baker Library. Fine. This is a catalog of the gold cobs in the State of Florida Collection that were recovered from the 1715 Spanish Plate Fleet wrecks and handed over to the state as part of their division from the salvors. A history of the salvage operations, the minting processes, the mints, and the coins are covered in this work. Lot weight: 1 lbs 3oz. Subject(s): Spanish American Coinage.

To read the complete lot description, see:
https://www.icollector.com/Craig-Gold-Coins-of-the-1715-Spanish-Plate-Fleet-A-Numismatic-Study-of-the-State-of-Florida-Colle_i54896700

Lot 179: Crum, Adam J. [editor]. A CATALOGUE OF TREASURE FROM THE S.S. CENTRAL AMERICA. Monaco Rare Coin, Newport Beach. 2007. 4to. 25 pages. original pictorial card covers. Tables. Color photos throughout. English text. The David Baker Library. Fine. This publication is a catalog of treasure recovered from the wreck of the S.S. Central America as presented for sale through Monaco Rare Coin. Lot weight: 0 lbs 5oz. Subject(s): Sunken Treasure.

To read the complete lot description, see:
https://www.icollector.com/Crum-A-Catalogue-of-Treasure-from-the-S-S-Central-America_i54896714

Lot 247: Florin, Lambert. GHOST TOWNS OF THE WEST. Promontory Press, New York. 1973. 4to. (6), 872 pages. original brown leatherette, gilt, jacket. Maps. B&w photos throughout. English text. The David Baker Library. Fine. Prepared by the West's most traveled spook hunter, this is an accurate guide to over 400 ghost towns in the western U.S. and Canada. With tales of greed and gold, pictures of dust-blown ruins in the coyote country, and specters drifting out of shaft heads, the author brings back that other life in the ageless West. Hundreds of rare photos make the ghosts of the early West walk again. Lot weight: 5 lbs 4oz. Subject(s): American Ghost Towns.

To read the complete lot description, see:
https://www.icollector.com/Florin-Ghost-Towns-of-the-West_i54896782

Lot 452: Mathewson, R. Duncan, III. TREASURE OF THE ATOCHA - A FOUR HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR ARCHAEOLOGICAL ADVENTURE. National Center for Shipwreck Research Ltd., Key Largo. 2004. 8vo. 164 pages. original blue embossed cloth, gilt, jacket. Signed by the author. Frontispiece photo. Mapped endpapers. Appendices. Bibliography. Maps. B&w and color photos and illustrations throughout. English text. The David Baker Library. Fine. This book tells the story of the finding and salvage of the 'Atocha', which sank off Key West, Florida in 1622, from the archaeologist's perspective. The author was the lead archaeologist who worked on the 'Atocha' salvage. Lot weight: 1 lbs 8oz. Subject(s): Sunken Treasure.

To read the complete lot description, see:
https://www.icollector.com/item.aspx?i=54896987

Lot 659: Suarez, Rasiel. ERIC II - THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ROMAN IMPERIAL COINS Dirty Old Books, Tumwater. 2010. Large 4to. xx, 1455, (3) pages. original pictorial boards, jacket. Signed by the author. Limited edition #1300 of 3000.Color photos throughout. English text. The David Baker Library. Fine. The release of ERIC II follows five years of intensive work in going well beyond the scope of the first edition. Where 2005's ERIC provided a solid introduction into the field of Roman coinage this follow up aims for a much higher ambition with a fully comprehensive catalog of even the most obscure issues while maintaining the user-friendly format of the original. Also retained and significantly enhanced is the use of high-resolution color photography from cover to cover. The plates for each ruler have been upgraded with better and more photos with the rest of each section making rich use of color elsewhere. The listings are now more informative and are internally referenced with pertinent ancillary data. A significant improvement has been made in extending the catalog over the entire Byzantine series thus covering the complete span of coinage from the days of Augustus through the downfall of Constantine XI some 1,500 years later. Lot weight: 9 lbs 4oz. Subject(s): Ancient Roman Coinage.

To read the complete lot description, see:
https://www.icollector.com/item.aspx?i=54897194

To visit the firm's website:
https://workmansbooks.square.site/

Sale link: https://www.icollector.com/The-David-Baker-Numismatic-and-Treasure-Library-and-other-Consignments-Sale-7_a68681
PDF sale catalog: https://workmansbooks.com/downloads/WB%20Auction%20007%20catalog.pdf
Print catalog: https://www.lulu.com/shop/alan-workman/sale-7-the-david-baker-numismatic-and-treasure-library-and-other-consignments/paperback/product-v8jre6n.html

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
WORKMAN'S BOOKS SALE 7 SELECTIONS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n48a02.html)

 

LEATHERBOUND U.S. PROOF NICKEL BOOK AVAILABLE

John writes:

The nickel book can be ordered either by sending a check for $225 (and their gold volume number) to:

JDRC
4804 Laurel Canyon Blvd. #805
North Hollywood, CA 91607

OR

at the book website: orcararities.com

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NEW BOOK: U.S. PROOF COINS VOL IV: GOLD (https://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n07a02.html)
NEW BOOK: U.S. PROOF COINS VOL II: NICKEL (https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n18a03.html)
LEATHERBOUND U.S. PROOF COINS VOL II: NICKEL (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n35a04.html)

NEW BOOK: ROMAN PROVINCES, 300 BCE–300 CE

The Roman Provinces, 300 BCE–300 CE
Using Coins as Sources
by Andrew Burnett

Provincial coinage gives us a unique insight into the Roman world, reflecting the values and concerns of the elites of the many hundreds of cities in the Roman empire. Coins offer a very different perspective from written history, which usually represents the views of the senatorial class, and which was usually composed long after the events that are described. The coins, in contrast, provide evidence without hindsight, and uniquely allow a systematic examination across the whole Roman world. This volume makes it possible for instructors and students and scholars to deploy a complex set of material evidence on many historical topics. It includes over two hundred illustrations of coins with detailed captions, so providing a convenient sourcebook of the most important items, and covers topics such as the motivation for Roman conquest, the revolution of Augustus, the world of the Second Sophistic and the crisis of the third century.

• Provides a clear and comprehensive narrative and good illustrations well described in the captions to enable students to grasp the historical potential of Roman provincial coinage
• Employs a chronological structure in order to help students understand clearly the scope and historical development of Roman provincial coinage
• Clearly explains for students the prevalence of inflation and the break-up of the Roman monetary system in the third century CE

Format: Hardback
Publication date: 13 November 2024
ISBN: 9781009420136
Dimensions (mm): 216 x 140 mm
Weight: 0.62kg
Contains: 226 colour illus. 16 maps
Page extent: 406 pages

For more information, or to order, see:
The Roman Provinces, 300 BCE–300 CE (https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/books/the-roman-provinces-300-bce300-ce/4DAACB2DADBDDCB78ED19901723D4B03#overview)

MINT RESEARCHER HENRY W. CROTZER

An Early U.S. Mint Researcher

Courtesy of Roger Burdette, the identity of an early Mint researcher has been uncovered. In 1899, Philadelphia Mint Superintendent Daniel M. Fox wrote to Mint Director James P. Kimball regarding the research work of Henry W. Crotzer, a cutter in the coining department at the Philadelphia Mint. Prior to the transfer of Mint records to the National Archives in the 1930s, the only way to examine historical records was within the Mint itself, and access would have been much easier for someone who was already a Mint employee.

Fox first describes Crotzer's work in processing archival material at the Post Office, where a large portion of the Mint records were stored, and then writes "he has made up a very large book showing the correct coinage for each year by denominations – which is a very valuable record for reference….in making up this book he made careful examination and comparison, step by step, of books and records in the office of the Coiner of this Mint, especially comparing and verifying the records, checking errors, and when possible harmonizing discrepancies."

Historical research tends to ask more questions than it answers, and, while the discovery of the identity of Crotzer is an interesting tidbit, one can only wonder as to the disposition of Crotzer's "very large book." Is it today preserved in some dusty corner of the Mint or in the Director's office?

Link to Daniel M. Fox letter summarizing Henry W. Crotzer's work:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/642906

To read the complete obituary, see:
Death of Capt. Henry W. Crotzer at Philadelphia (https://www.newspapers.com/article/lewisburg-journal-clipping-for-wayne/160377540/)

 

VIDEO: VIET NAM COMMEMORATIVE DOLLAR

The tale of the 1994 Viet Nam silver dollar commemorative is a moving story of the creation of the wall and the names of the brave soldiers listed on the wall. In this historical narrative you will learn:

• the names of soldiers listed on the coin and the story of how each of them died
• about the Viet Nam Memorial Wall and the controversy when it was first built
• how the coin was authorized and the designers involved
• story of the battle of Ia Drang Valley including actual photos and diagrams
• names, pictures and biographies of some of the men who died there
• name of the woman whose hand is shown on the coin

Speaker(s): Gerald Tebben.

To watch the complete video, see:
Viet Nam Commemorative Silver Dollar of 1994 (https://youtu.be/czSSoohX8Oc)

 

MORE ABOUT ELWIN CRAMER LESLIE (1909-1999)

A few weeks ago, I bought a presentation copy of the book "Coinage of The Mexican Revolutionist Zapata / A Classification Guide" by Elwin C. Leslie and Erma C. Stevens. My copy is signed by Erma C. Stevens (1902-1973) to Ray Erkson. I didn't know about the existence of a presentation copy of this book. Amazingly, all of the text and drawings were made by the graphologist Elwin C. Leslie (1909-1999).Comparing both varieties of the book, the only difference is that normal copy has printed the text "This First Edition / is limited to 500 copies / THIS IS COPY / No. /# of copy". I couldn't find more information related to the presentation copy event. A short notice appeared in "Plus Ultra", the monthly publication of The Azteca Numismatic Society (TANS), which informed that the normal printing was about sold out. In Mexico once in a while appears in numismatic auctions. This book was briefly reviewed in World Coins (Vol. 5, No. 58, October 1968, page 832).

Title: Coinage of The Mexican Revolutionist Zapata / A Classification Guide
Authors: Elwin C. Leslie and Erma C. Stevens
Year: 1968
Covers: Soft
Pages: (3), viii, 81
WxHxT: 16.4 x 22.2 x 0.9 cms
Copies: Presentation: 50 and Normal: 500

Elwin C. Leslie also designed two stamps for Bermuda:

Also, 16 November 2024 Zaida Leslie (great-granddaughter of Elwin C. Leslie) wrote an email to Wayne K. Homren offering to share some pictures of her great-grandfather. Wisely, Wayne wrote me: "This is why we put all our issues out on the web. You never know when someone with information will find us". So I contacted her the same day and she shared kindly some pictures of Elwin C. Leslie, his wife June and his children's too. Also, she shared with me some anecdotes related to her great-grandfather. Zaida says Elwin's brother Clement Earl (Poughkeepsie, NY 1907-Virginia 1999) was also a pretty good hand writer.

Elwin's anecdotes:

1. He discovered the largest limber pine in Colorado by the Blow Out outside of Ouray; Colorado.
2. He learned to ski when he moved to Ouray and skied at Telluride. It was surprising he didn't get a speeding ticket for going so fast.
3. Very sweet man with a sense of humor.
4. His wife June was a very sweet lady, lived to 103 (Circa 2013).

Finally, I'd like to thank Zaida Leslie for sharing the photos of her great-grandfather as well as some of his anecdotes.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
ELWIN CRAMER LESLIE PHOTO SOUGHT (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n18a11.html)

NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: DECEMBER 8, 2024

Metal Credit Card Disposal
Rgarding the disposal of metallic credit cards, Harry Waterson writes:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: DECEMBER 1, 2024: More On Credit Cards (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n48a12.html)

More on Dr. Heinrich Traun Medals

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
DR. HEINRICH TRAUN MEDALS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n45a13.html)

A Bethlehem, PA Parking Token
Larry Dziubek writes:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
2024 ADVENT COIN CALENDAR, PART ONE : 4. Bethlehem (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n48a22.html)

Ben Franklin, Money Sleuth

Coin of King Solomon - NOT
Adam Philippidis writes:

One side of the coin features an image of Luna, the Roman goddess of the moon, and an image of the zodiac sign for Cancer; the other side depicts Antoninus Pius. The coin also bears the inscription "Year Eight," indicating that it was produced during the eighth year of Pius' rule, which spanned from 138 to 161 C.E.

To read the complete article, see:
Roman Coin Depicting Zodiac Symbol Discovered off Israel's Coast (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/roman-coin-depicting-zodiac-symbol-discovered-off-israels-coast-180980495/)

Phil Barber writes:

To read the complete lot description, see:
EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (31.5mm, 22.13 g, 12h). Zodiac series. Dated RY 8 (AD 144/145).

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: DECEMBER 1, 2024 : A Coin of King Solomon (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n48a12.html)

THE 1816 ROYAL MINT COMPETITION

George Mills was a medalist who is best known for his medal engravings as part of James Mudie's series of national medals. Mudie's medals were created by Mills and others to celebrate the British victories over the French and Napoleon. Mills is also known for his excellent British crown patterns that he made at the request of Mudie and Richard Whiteaves.

The image is of a petition, or more commonly referred to as a pattern, Guinea that was made, in copper, by Mills. Mills submitted the Guinea to the 1816 Royal Mint competition for the position of second engraver. Mills at the time was working at the SOHO mint in Birmingham England under the supervision of Mathew (Matt) Boulton.

The Master of the Royal Mint at the time of the competition was William Wellesley Pole. Pole wanted a competition to select a second engraver. Thomas Wyon was Pole's chief engraver at the mint. When William Wyon expressed an interest in the second engraver position, Pole told William not to submit or apply for the position as he already had too many Wyons working for him at the mint. Pole selected Sir Thomas Lawerence, a well known English portrait painter, to oversee and judge the competition.

William Wyon secretly submitted an entry to the competition, also a pattern Guinea, against the expressed wishes of Pole. Sir Lawerence chose Wyon's submission as the winner of the competition and Wyon became the second engraver. Wyon went on to become one of England's greatest engravers. Mills on the other hand died in his early thirties and never achieved his full potential or recognition.

After conducting a significant amount of research, I believe the below coin is unique and is the one Mills submitted for the 1816 competition. I further believe it was a part of Edward Hawkins' personal collection. Hawkins was the Keeper of Antiquities for the British Museum and a numismatic author. Hawkins wrote about this coin in his papers. Mills' Guinea which was owned by Hawkins was sold at auction shortly after Hawkins' death. This coin is mentioned in Wilson and Rasmussen's book on "English Pattern Trial and Proof Coins in Gold, 1547-1968", where it is listed as of the highest rarity. It is also listed and imaged in Roderick Farey's "A Guidebook to the Guinea 1663 to 1813".

The .C. below the bust of King George III, is to denote that the likeness is after, or based upon, Sir Francis Chantrey's sculpture of the king.

Mills went on to win three gold medals from the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) between 1817 and 1823 for his engraving of medals. One of his winning submissions, the Vulcan medal, was adopted by the RSA as one of their gold medal for excellence. Mills competed against both Thomas and William Wyon, among others, during the Royal Academy exhibitions where he won the three RSA gold medals.

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
1820 PATTERN FIVE POUNDS GOLD COIN (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n34a30.html)
COINS AS TALISMANS: SAINT GEORGE'S DAY (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n17a10.html)
PISTRUCCI'S WATERLOO MEDAL (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n26a21.html)

TIDY HOUSE COINS, PART ONE

The Tidy House Products Company was founded in 1940 when two radio station workers in Shenandoah, Iowa purchased the rights to Perfix, a cleaning powder. Cy Rapp and Al Ramsey incorporated the new company naming it Tidy House Products Company of Shenandoah, Iowa. They changed the spelling from Prefix to Perfex and expanded the line of cleaning supplies in 1941.

In 1943 the company began operating in Omaha. Its headquarters was at 5010 Underwood Avenue. In 1951 the Tidy House Products Company moved to an 85,000 square foot manufacturing and packaging plant in North Omaha located at 1432 Evans Street.

Tidy House Products Company manufactured a line of household cleaning products. Their brands included Perfex household cleaner, Dexol Bleach, GlossTex liquid starch, and Shina Dish. The Tidy House Products Company was one of many industries scattered throughout the North Omaha community.

The Pillsbury Company acquired Tidy House Products Company in June 1960. Mr. Rapp joined their board of directors, and its brands were continued under the Tidy House label. The Pillsbury Company sold the Tidy House line back to Cy Rapp in June 1964. Mr. Rapp incorporated the company, naming it Tidy House Products of Omaha. A large part of Tidy House's success was due to their progressive marketing techniques in newspapers, on radio, and television.

Robert D. Osterholm, "Bob," was the President of the Tidy House Corporation. He enjoyed coins and hit upon a clever way to sell cleaning supplies by offering a free collector's coin in boxes of Tidy House products. Indian Head cents were packaged into specially marked boxes of Dexol bleach in January and February 1965, and again in September and October 1966. Buffalo nickels were packaged into specially marked boxes of Perfex Cleanser in September and October 1967.

The first silver coin offered was a free 1964 Kennedy half dollar. To receive your free coin, you were required to return three price-stamped box tops from Tidy House products and the order form printed in the newspaper to Tidy House. This advertisement first appeared on page 17 of the Omaha World-Herald on October 1, 1964. The offer expired on November 30, 1964.

One of the best-known cases of silver dollars being used for promotional purposes is the Tidy House Products Co. Morgan dollars. An advertisement on page 43 in the June 1, 1966, Evening World-Herald offered the "famous Morgan silver dollar, minted over eighty years ago in the New Orleans mint closed by the government in 1909." To purchase your silver dollar, you were required to mail in one dollar, three price-stamped box tops from Tidy House products, and the order form printed in the newspaper to Tidy House. The offer expired on August 31, 1966. The offer was repeated in the June 11, 1967, Omaha World-Herald. The half page advertisement on page 133 claimed, "Last year we filled orders for tens of thousands of scarce silver dollars… all we could get our hands on." This offer expired on July 31, 1967.

Osterholm acquired mint sewn bags of common date Morgan dollars for the promotion. On one occasion when he opened the bag and saw so many ruined by improper storage, he hired a chemist in California to "fix them." The original packaging used by Tidy House contained high concentrations of sulfur. Over time certain dollar coins stored in this packaging have developed a pleasing rainbow tone, while others have toned virtually all dark.

A new advertisement on page 135 in the June 2, 1968, Omaha World-Herald offered 1964 Kennedy half dollar "mint sets" for just $1.00 plus three Tidy House box tops. The offer expired on June 30, 1968.

There are two distinct types of packaging for the dollar coins. The first type of packaging has the words DID YOU KNOW… under the dollar. A sales brochure included with the coin offers brilliant uncirculated San Francisco minted dollars for sale by AAA Coin Co. of Omaha. AAA Coin Co. of Omaha was owned and operated by Bob Osterholm. The packaging for the coin and advertisement has the return address of 750 Omaha National Bank Bldg. and was sent third class mail. This type of packaging was used for the 1966 promotion.

The second type of packaging has the words NOW MORE SCARCE… MORE VALUABLE… MORE WANTED… under the dollar. A sales brochure included with the coin offers brilliant uncirculated dollars for sale by Omaha Coins. Omaha Coins was also owned and operated by Bob Osterholm. The shipping envelope for the coin and advertisement has the return address of Post Office Box 489 D.T.S. (Downtown Station.) This type of packaging was used for the 1967 promotion.

Brian Greer of Urbandale, Iowa shared an image of a third type of holder with me. It was the only one I had seen and requires more research. I found an image of this third type of package in the auction archives of Heritage Auctions. I knew Quent Hansen collected Tidy house coins, so I shared the image with him. Quent did not have one in his collection, but thought it could have been used as a shipping package when you ordered additional dollars from AAA Coin Co.

Only common date 1880's Morgan dollars, frequently from the New Orleans mint, were packaged. No Peace dollars were packaged. Buyers should beware of Peace dollars switched into holders and advertised as original.

No records of these promotions have been located to date, so the quantity of coins packaged is unknown.

The Tidy House Products Co. of Omaha was sold to Church & Dwight Co. of New York City in August 1969. Church & Dwight Co. is known for the manufacture of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda, and many other products.

This article started out in July 2024 with just a few pages. With help from Brian Greer, Quent and Cathy Hansen, Ed Bishop, John Osterholm, Rob Kinsey, John Jackson, Michael Burney, and a few others it turned into a 19 page (and growing) history of the coins used in Tidy House Soap Company promotions.

Thanks, should be given to dealer Brian Greer of Urbandale, Iowa for sharing an image of a third type of holder with me. It was the only one I had seen and requires more research. I found an image of this third type of package in the auction archives of Heritage Auctions. Thanks should also be given to Mike Burney of Nomad Numismatics in Kansas City, MO for the image of the money bag. It was the only one I had seen and requires more research. If you know anything about either item, please contact me at coinguyatleebooksellers@yahoo.com. Thanks.

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
QUERY: TIDY HOUSE PRODUCTS AND PROMOTIONAL COINS INFORMATION SOUGHT (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n37a14.html)
BEWARE THE COIN SWAP TRICK (https://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n07a21.html)

ANS AT GOBRECHT GRAVESTONE DEDICATION

On November 13, 2024, I was honored to have represented the ANS at a truly historic numismatic event—the graveside memorial ceremony for Christian Gobrecht, third Chief Engraver of the United States Mint. This took place at Lawnview Memorial Park in Rockledge, Pennsylvania. The event and the headstone were sponsored by the Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC), a numismatic group dedicated to the works of Christian Gobrecht. The ceremony attracted many people that Gobrecht would have considered significant, namely personnel from the present-day U.S. Mint and from his own family. This included U.S. Mint Director Ventris C. Gibson, Philadelphia Mint Superintendent Robert Kurzyna, fourteenth Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint Joseph Menna, as well as U.S. Mint Medallic Artists Phebe Hemphill and John McGraw. Four descendants of Christian Gobrecht were able to attend, each of whom still live in Hanover, Pennsylvania, the same town where the Chief Engraver was born in 1785. Additionally, Tom Uram, President of the American Numismatic Association (ANA), and Leonard Augsburger, Project Coordinator of the Newman Numismatic Portal and ANS Fellow, were both on hand to unveil the memorial with Gibson and Menna (Fig. 1).

While initially trained as a clockmaker, Gobrecht had a fruitful career as an engraver—first engraving illustrations and banknotes in copperplate and, later, as a die engraver. In addition to engraving, Gobrecht was an inventor of several devices, from musical instruments to a medal ruling machine that was used for the mechanized reproduction of illustrations. As a die engraver, Gobrecht first began creating medals. His earliest known design is the 1825 Franklin Institute Award medal, which shows that he was already extremely competent in the art (Fig. 2). Others from this era include the 1827 New England Society medal, the 1828 Charles Carroll medal, and the 1828 Philadelphia Museum Admission medal.

Gobrecht is first known to have applied for employment at the U.S. Mint in 1823. By the late 1820s, he was making letter punches and dies for the Mint, though these are indistinguishable from those made by other engravers. In 1835, Gobrecht was hired at the Mint as an assistant engraver, under Chief Engraver William Kneass. The following year, Gobrecht executed his magnum opus, the 1836 Gobrecht dollar (Fig. 3), whose Seated Liberty design was then used on all other silver denominations, from half dime to half dollar. In 1838, his Coronet design replaced the earlier Classic Head design. After several years of experimenting with an updated bust for the copper one-cent piece, a similar Coronet design was finalized in 1839 and used on the half cent the following year. By the time he had become Chief Engraver in 1840, Gobrecht had already successfully redesigned every denomination of United States coinage.

Gobrecht was originally interred at Monument Cemetery in Philadelphia upon his death in 1844; his wife, Mary, daughter, Rebecca, and son, Charles, were all buried there later as well. In 1956, the entire family was reinterred when that cemetery was ceded to Temple University by the city. During that process, their original headstones were discarded, and replaced by a simple ground-level marker with GOBRECHT for the entire family plot. After years of neglect, the marker became overgrown and the exact location of the family's resting place was lost. Through extensive research, the plot was rediscovered in 2008 by Bill Bugert, LSCC member, renowned numismatist, and co-author of The Complete Guide to Liberty Seated Half Dollars (1993) with Randy Wiley. At the ceremony, Bugert shared his journey of discovering the plot to the attendees. The new gravestone marks the site for all four Gobrechts once again (Fig. 4).

A special commemorative medal was created especially for the ceremony (Fig. 5). ANA President Tom Uram took the important initiative to produce 50 exclusive medals recognizing this important event. The obverse of the medal replicates that of the Gobrecht dollar, albeit without a date. The famed signature C. GOBRECHT F. is still readable on the base of Liberty's seat. The reverse of the medal uses the same wreath that is found on the half dimes and dimes Gobrecht designed, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around, and CHRISTIAN/ GOBRECHT/ Grave memorial/ unveiling/ November 13, 2024 within. These medals were only available to those in attendance at the ceremony.

To read the complete article, see:
The ANS Attends Historic Commemoration of Christian Gobrecht (https://numismatics.org/pocketchange/the-ans-attends-historic-commemoration-of-christian-gobrecht/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
CHRISTIAN GOBRECHT HEADSTONE DEDICATION (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n47a07.html)

APPLY NOW FOR ANS 2025 SUMMER SEMINAR

The American Numismatic Society (ANS), one of the United States' leading scholarly organization and museum dedicated to coins, currency, and economic history, is pleased to announce the 69th Eric P. Newman Graduate Summer Seminar in Numismatics. Since 1952, this esteemed program has advanced the study of numismatics, fostering academic careers and producing influential scholarship. Many alumni of this prestigious seminar have gone on to make significant contributions to academic and numismatic fields (see the list of participants from previous years).

Each year, a renowned scholar in the field of History, Art History, Classics, or Numismatics serves as the Eric P. Newman Visiting scholar, further enriching the scientific offer of the Summer Seminar. The 2025 Visiting Scholar will be Professor John Ma (Columbia University, New York).

About the Seminar

This intensive eight-week program provides participants with:

• Lectures and workshops on numismatic methods, theories, and history by ANS staff and distinguished guest scholars
• Direct access to the ANS's world-renowned collections
• A chance to complete a research paper on a chosen numismatic topic, guided by the expert mentorship of the resident Curators and of the Visiting Scholar

Eligibility

The seminar is primarily designed for:

• Doctoral candidates in fields such as History, Art History, Archaeology, Textual Studies, and Digital Humanities
• Master's students with strong academic credentials may also be considered
• U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and international students studying at U.S. institutions with eligible visas
• Prior experience in numismatics is not required.

Important Dates

• November 22, 2025: Applications open
• March 3, 2025: Deadline for application submission, letters of recommendation, and supporting documents
• April 15, 2025: Candidates will be notified of their application status

Funding

A limited number of stipends of up to $4,000 are available to assist with living and travel expenses.

To read the complete article, see:
Apply now for the 2025 Summer Seminar (https://numismatics.org/2025seminar/)

VOCABULARY TERM: PUNCH, PART TWO

Sources of punches. Breen reports that an early American machinist, Henry Starr, provided letter and figure punches to the United States Mint in Philadelphia from 1816-1824. After this time it was Christian Gobrecht who furnished these punches (which was his first effort in a long campaign to be engaged as an engraver at the mint). It does point out that engravers could make their own punches, but would purchase these if suitable punches were easily available elsewhere.

While relationship between punchmaker and engraver was close, it was also close to those craftsmen who made the matrixes for printers' type. If an engraver could prepare a die for a coin or medal he could also prepare the set of matrixes for making type. After assistant engraver John Reich left the U.S. Mint's employ, he established a type foundry for Philadelphia printers with three partners. This collapsed with the financial panic of 1819; he relocated to Pittsburgh and reestablished a type foundry there June 1820.

Continued use of punches. When punches were first developed by hand engravers, who prepared the entire design by hand, their use carried over when die-engraving pantographs came into use. For the most part pantographs created only the portrait or device, leaving the lettering, dentiles, dates and ornamentation to be applied by hand again. (There was a technical reason for this in the development of early pantographs – the quality of cutting lettering near the border was not as good until later models, notable the Janvier, solved the problem.) See pantograph.

Thus, coin and medal dies as late as 1900 were often times hubbed with the main device, then hand punched with lettering, dentiles and dates.

Treatment after punching. The normal use of a punch is to sink it into metal. This causes adjacent metal to be pushed aside, or erupted, as the punch creates the cavity in the metal. Often it is necessary to flatten, remove, or reduce this ridge next to the cavity. (Sometimes, as in diamond scratch point inscribing, this ridge is purposefully left intact to heighten the impression of the depth of the cavity.) The metal thrown up around the cavities of edgelettering is called edge push.

If this ridge is flattened, an astute diesinker will sometimes go back and repunch the cavity to eliminate any overhang of metal that flowed back in the cavity from the flattening. All in all, the punch user must have an intimate knowledge of tool steel and the movement of surface metal. If the ridge remains and is unsightly he might want to remove it by CHASING.

Punches used in edgelettering. Applying lettering on a struck piece can be accomplished with punches. These can be done with individual punches, but more often with a logotype punch (of several characters and symbols). Applying the maker's name is often done in this manner.

A special kind of punch die is created to effect lettering on the narrow rounded edge of a coin or medal, the roller die. Tiny raised punch letters appear at the apex of a double beveled disk. The medal to be edgelettered is laid in the pan of a special hand press, the roller die is impressed under pressure against the edge of the medal and the roller die rotated imparting the letters. See roller die.

Punches used in hallmarking. With the rise of hallmarking fine silver in England in the 15th century it was natural for this mark of fineness to be applied to an object with a punch. The punchmark of three characters – sovereign, maker and date – could easily be applied by separate punches and easily changed as date or sovereign changed. The guilds of goldsmiths would chose a typeface and usually run through 25 characters – a different one for each year – alternating between capital letters and lower case. See hallmark and hallmarking.

For those houses with a large production, a gangpunch could be made for applying all three characters at one time. Such gangpunch would be discarded March 30th of each year after the new gangpunch was prepared; it contained the symbol for the new year, the old one would then be obsolete.

Punches used in counterstamping. Most counterstamping is surreptitious and never intended by the designer of the original numismatic piece. A single punch, logotype or more than one punch were used to impart letters or characters to the host piece. Mostly the counterstamping is done by someone inexperienced in diesinking and the lettering does not have a uniform base line, the characters are not well spaced and are tilted to give a quite amateurish look. Counterstamping is done to the struck piece, to the existing host coin or medal, never to the die (it would be diesinking if so performed).

Special punches. Some punches are employed to create texture, as a background punch or dapple tool. When applied to a surface in multiple locations this will create a textured field. A matting tool, also use to make texture, is a punch used in chasing.

Also some special punches are those that have a wheel at the end that are rolled over soft metal to create a line of some ornaments. These are called beading tool, beading roulette or milgrain tool.

Punch anomalies. Incorrect punches or those used upside down or even sideways create anomalies. Overpunching, or using the correct punch a second time to correct a wrong position or wrong punch, will correct these errors somewhat. However this requires sinking the punch slightly deeper into the die creating varieties of great interest to numismatists in the pieces struck from such a die.

Overdates are created by using a punch to change a date to perhaps a later year, adding additional life to a once used die. Such overdating is done by punches.

Cataloging punches. Studying individual punches is like studying individual fingerprints, each has it's own individuality, though this may be very slight. Recognizing that two different coins with exactly the same punch used for each diesinking proves – generally – they came from the same source: perhaps, from the same period, the same mint or even, from the same engraver.

It is a very advanced stage of numismatic science to study punchmark linkage – identifying the same punch used on different dies. This has occurred for American colonial and early U.S. coins. It ceases importance when punches were no longer used in preparation of dies (basically after 1900 with the introduction of the die-engraving pantographs which cut the entire die at once without adding lettering afterwards).

References:
NC12 {1988} Breen, p 202.
C67 {1988} Cooper, p 19.

To read the complete entry on the Newman Numismatic Portal, see:
Punch, Puncheon (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/dictionarydetail/516571)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
Vocabulary Term: Punch, Part One (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n48a15.html)

THE ANA CONSIDERED OMAHA FOR ITS HOME

I frequently read old newspaper articles during my research. I recently came across some articles I found interesting that related to the proposed ANA Museum in Omaha.

The first article appeared in the Omaha World-Herald on Tuesday, March 22, 1965.

Omaha's presentation pointed out that:

• Omaha is near the geographical center of the United States.
• The Interstate Highway will run just north of the ANA headquarters building, bringing thousands of visitors.
• The ANA development fits in neatly with the cultural center and the cultural center ties in with developments in the Central Omaha Plan.
• With the consent of the Byron Reed heirs, the famed Byron Reed coin collection – now owned by the city and housed in the public library – could be lent to the ANA for display at the new headquarters building.
• The proximity of the Boys Town Philamatic Center will serve as an additional lure to Omaha and the ANA headquarters.

During the ANA convention in Cleveland in 1964, representatives from Oklahoma City, Wichita and Kansas City spoke at the convention. They offered free land and exclusion from taxation.

The ANA site selection committee included Ralph Cleaver, Charles Johnson and First Vice President Matt H. Rothert. Sixteen cities made proposals and one or more committee members visited most of these cities. They rated these on fifteen factors and seven cities stood out over the other nine. Of those, four cities were clearly better than the other three.

The ANA Board voted by secret ballot with Omaha placing first, Colorado Springs placed second, Oklahoma City third and Kansas City fourth.

The Omaha plan made it sound like an ideal location. This was followed by an article in the Omaha World-Herald on Saturday, May 29, 1965.

The decision apparently was due to Omaha's inability to put together a promised parcel of land soon enough for the coin group. An explanation appeared in the Evening World-Herald later on May 29, 1965, in a statement from Charles M Johnson, chairman of the ANA site selection committee:

So, the ANA headquarters and museum were built in Colorado Springs. Since then, what has happened with the Omaha site?

• The interstate highway was built just north of the site.
• Parts of Twenty-Third Street were closed.
• The site now contains apartments and housing for Creighton University on the other side of the freeway.
• The Omaha cultural center proposal included the Great Plains Museum, a Space Science Center, a Garden Center and a Science Industry building. None of these were ever built here.
• The Byron Reed Collection was moved to the Durham Western Heritage Museum, now known as just the Durham Museum.
• The Joslyn Art Museum, now known as just The Joslyn, has recently reopened after extensive renovations.
• The Boys Town Philamatic Center is now closed.
• Omaha remains near the geographic center of the United States.

This is a small part of a larger untold story. Did any other prospective tenant show a serious interest in the cultural center? If the ANA was the first, why couldn't the city offer a site large enough for their needs? Did the ANA failure discourage other tenants?

There are ANA members who still think the Omaha location would have been better than Colorado Springs. Perhaps if the ANA had located in Omaha, the Byron Reed collection would have remained there instead of the Durham Museum. As things have turned out, the Omaha option has not lived up to the promotional hype.

There were other connections between the Joslyn Art Museum and local numismatic collections. During the period of 1960 to 1970, the ANA had an exhibit of medals on loan to the Joslyn Art Museum.

In 1985 there was discussion about moving the Byron Reed Collection to the Joslyn Art Museum. A decision was made to go with the Durham Western Heritage Museum instead.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
ANS EVALUATES NEW LOCATIONS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n46a10.html)

DR. LAWRENCE LEE INTERVIEW, PART FOUR

GREG BENNICK: Very cool, indeed. So, switching from a famous coin, to a famous name: did you know John J. Ford Jr.? And if so, what connection did you have with him?

DR. LAWRENCE LEE: I grew up in Colorado and that's how I got interested and into the Denver Mint. I got interested in the private gold coin minters of the Gold Rush era: Clark, Clark & Gruber, Dr. John Parsons, J.J. Conway, and Denver City Assay. I wrote an article called "Dr. Mummy, the G-Man and the J.J. Conway Dies." These were the dies that struck the J.J. Conway coins, of which there's maybe a total of 15 known (I will come back to that in a second). These dies were in the Colorado State Historical Society. I went down to the museum, and into the archives. I found the dies and wrote them up and described how they'd gotten discovered in a guy's attic. It was a really great story. I traced the dies all the way back to 1861.

I wrote this up and published it. I sent it in to The Numismatist and amazingly it won an award. I didn't even know I was in the running for it. It was the Olga Raymond Memorial Award, which was sponsored by John J. Ford. It was given by him, and at his direction, mostly to people writing about territorial gold pieces. So here I was writing about something that wasn't entirely new but this aspect of it was original. No one had written this up: how the government tried to seize the dies because they said they were counterfeit.

As a result of all of this, John began corresponding with me. At this point I had not yet met him, but he would send me gifts. He sent me the Henry Clifford catalog of territorial gold pieces. Interestingly (and this is the point I'm still intending to come back to), most of the pieces in there from Colorado were purchased by one man, Frederick Mayer, who I later worked for when I became his private curator. So, all the coins in this particular catalog from Colorado that John had sent me, I was later able to be involved with when I became the curator for Dr. Mayer. We'll get to that story.

I almost felt like Ford was preparing me in a way, to help him with gold ingots and selling them and authenticating them. I became interested in the Conway pieces because there's like only 15 Conway pieces known in denominations of $2½, $5 and $10. There's only three $10's known. Two of them are in Smithsonian. And the third one, that $10 as well as two of the five known $5 gold pieces (as well as a lump of gold, which consisted of two melted $2 ½'s and two melted $5 gold pieces, all found together at Fort Union, New Mexico) were all struck in 1861. John Ford told me a really good story of how they were found. Basically, they were discovered and taken illegally on federal land because Fort Union, was a federal monument.

In 1861, the only time the Civil War broached Colorado was when General Shelby and his troops decided to come up from Texas and attempt to seize the Colorado gold fields since a lot of the gold miners were Southern sympathizers who had mined in Georgia in the Georgia gold strike. When the Colorado strike happened, half of the, all the miners out there were Southern sympathizers.

Gen. Shelby thought he would have a groundswell of help there. They sent a contingent, a fairly large contingent, of Confederate soldiers north to New Mexico. At Glorieta Pass, which is at the border of Colorado and New Mexico, they had a battle in the mountains between the Union forces and the Colorado Volunteers who rushed down in the dead of winter to fight the rebels coming up to seize the gold fields and specifically, the Clark Gruber mint in Denver. The battle was won, and the Union troops settled down at Fort Union and it was at the sutler store in Fort Union where the Conway coins were found: some soldier in the Colorado First Volunteers had carried them all the way from the mining town of Parkville. These Conway coins later found their way into Frederick Mayer's collection, who I'm still intending to talk about.

John Ford gave me the background story. He told me the people who dug the coins up at Ft. Union were a survivalist gang who lived in the mountains of Colorado and were not to be messed with. They were probably guilty of various crimes but I foolishly tried to contact them. I drove up this encampment in Colorado and was told, "No further" and "Go away."

So, I didn't really get to know more about the story of how they actually found the coins. But the story was all the Conway coins were found in the sutler store in Fort Union, New Mexico, as a result of the civil war encroaching in Colorado. That's a pretty good story.

GREG BENNICK: I agree!

DR. LAWRENCE LEE: Really cool thing is that John Ford sold these coins to Harry Clifford. Clifford sold them in auction, and they were bought at auction by Frederick Mayer who then later hired me to be his personal curator. So, for three years, I developed an exhibit of his personal Colorado gold, his territorial exhibit collection. It consisted of a complete set of everything. It included a lot of pattern coins from Conway, but he also had Conway's $2 ½, $5, $10. He had Parsons coins, including the $2 ½ and the $5 as well as the Parsons mint over strikes, when they set up the press on a dime and some other coin. He had all the Denver City Assay patterns. There was only one DCA token he didn't own and those are a great story. They've been a subject of the entire book themselves because of Winslow J. Howard, the guy who engraved and struck them.

Anyway, they all ended up in Frederick Mayer's collection. Mayer made his fortune in the oil business and for many years was the richest man in Colorado. He wanted me to make a personal museum exhibit case in his downtown Denver home. He owned the only private home in downtown Denver and he built it for five million dollars. It was multi-story and was really cool. He had one gallery of nothing but Spanish colonial artwork and then on the top floor he'd made this one long hallway and it had five, wall-mounted exhibit cases. Two of the exhibit cases held Clark Gruber pieces. One was Conway, one was Dr Parsons and the other was Denver City Assay.

Now, John Ford told me about Dr. Parsons and I did a lot of research on both Dr. Parsons and the Clark Gruber guys after they sold their coins and what happened to them. That is all unpublished research. I'd love to have time in my life to show that Parsons struck coins in 1862 for sure, not just 1861. No one knows that. He later became even more famous as an explorer in Utah, than he was in Colorado.

But anyway, Ford told me that John Parsons was an abortionist, a medical doctor, and that Parsons had had to flee Quincy, Illinois, because of an abortion he performed. That's how he came to Colorado. I don't know that to be 100% true. But it shows the kind of information that Ford had in his file.

To add to the John Ford story: when I did my last book on the Indian peace medals of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, many of those medals were sold to Francis Crane by John Ford. Crane owned 200 and some Indian peace medals, many sold to him by John Ford who kept all of their correspondence. And so about three years ago, I was able to view all this correspondence between these two gentlemen over Indian peace medals. Evidently, Ford sold Crane a medal that turned out to be fake and Crane sent it back and they argued but Ford always said that Crane was such a gentleman about it that he couldn't hold a grudge. Which was somewhat unlike Ford's general reputation.

All of this is an insight into someone (Ford) who I always thought was wanting me to help him out but, maybe he might have seen what an idiot I was and decided to use me for his own purposes.

GREG BENNICK: I love that the culmination of this brilliant story of historical research, experience and analysis is you declaring yourself to be an idiot. That is very funny.

About the Interviewer
Greg Bennick (www.gregbennick.com) is a keynote speaker and long time coin collector with a focus on major mint error coins and US counterstamps. He is on the board of both CONECA and TAMS and enjoys having in-depth conversations with prominent numismatists from all areas of the hobby. Have ideas for other interviewees? Contact him anytime on the web or via instagram @minterrors.

NOTE: The interview was conducted in parts via phone, so no video exists, and editing together audio would have been choppy sounding at best. This transcript is an accurate representation of the whole interview experience. Thank you for reading! -GB

To read the full transcript on the Newman Numismatic Portal, see:
Lawrence Lee Interview (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/642577)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
DR. LAWRENCE LEE INTERVIEW, PART ONE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n46a14.html)
DR. LAWRENCE LEE INTERVIEW, PART TWO (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n47a13.html)
DR. LAWRENCE LEE INTERVIEW, PART THREE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n48a17.html)

NUMISMAGRAM MEDAL SELECTIONS: DECEMBER 8, 2024

103018 | GERMANY. Nürnberg. Marriage silver Medal. Issued circa 1700 (42mm, 12h). By Georg Hautsch. GOTT GEBE SEINEN SEGEN REICHLICH VBER EVCH (May God grant unto you his manifold blessings), young bridal couple standing facing one another, holding hands before God the Father, who blesses the marriage; guardian angel to the left, old man to the right, radiant sun above // LAST VNS GOTT BITTEN, DEN WIR SIND KINDER D HEILIGN (Let us ask God, for we are all children of the Holy One), bridal pair kneeling in prayer before the burning brazier; to the left, angel kneeling left, driving sword through the head of a demon; marriage bed in the background. GPH 1025; Erlanger Coll. 2209. NGC AU-58. Lightly toned, with a good deal of alluring brilliance. A stunning example of the type that is seemingly a bit conservatively assessed, especially by the standards of the two major services. $495.

While one may now purchase a silver round, usually struck to the weight of one ounce and with a variety of religions-themed designs, as a gift for a couple's impending or recent nuptials, the practice is in no way modern. In 18th and 19th century Germany in particular, the practice was commonplace, with mints in Nürnberg striking countless tokens and medals to be used as marriage gifts. These various workshops were not limited to just marriage commemoratives, however, as other religious-themed topics were routinely struck for presentation, such as baptisms and confirmations, while others touched upon parables throughout the Bible. One of the leading references for this area of medallic art is Kreß auction 115 from 1960, which presented the combined collections of Marie Luise Goppel and Dr. Plum-Holler, commonly referred to as Goppel-Plum-Holler, or simply GPH. This item was featured in our E-Sylum ad.

To read the complete item description, see:
103018 | GERMANY. Nürnberg. Marriage silver Medal. (https://www.numismagram.com/product-page/103018)

102994 | UNITED STATES & FRANCE. La Régiment de la Calotte bronze Medal Issued circa 1715 (44mm, 34.17 g, 12h). By Joseph-Charles Roettiers at the Paris mint. RIDERE REGNARE EST (to laugh is to rule), Folley seated slightly right on throne set upon the clouds, holding scepter surmounted by Jester's head // LUNA DUCE AUSPICE MOMO (with the moon as our leader, and under the auspices of Momus), coat-of-arms of the régiment: oval shield decorated with the three phases of the moon above scepter, surmounted by Jester's head, set upon field of bees; above, facing helmet decorated with bells and surmounted by weathervane above cat left; to left and right, simian supporters, each with their heads turned outward and holding smoking cornucopias; all set upon floral scroll. Edge: Very subtle bruise, otherwise plain. [C. Wyllys] Betts –; [Benjamin] Betts XXXVII; Adams S-3; McDowell 1140. Mint State. Glossy brown surfaces. $365. remains a popular analog with the actual corpus of Betts medals.

Struck for the Régiment de la Calotte, a festive and carnival society of military origin, this medal has been traditionally (and rather erroneously) ascribed to John Law, the famous Scottish economist of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Surrounded by a bad reputation for the disastrous results of his financial and economic adventures—such as the Mississippi bubble—he is now considered to have been a forerunner in his field. The whimsical nature of this medal could be viewed as a satire upon Law, with Benjamin Betts initially considering it a ridicule of the "Bubble-blower," but later acknowledging in his article "John Law and his Medals (continued)" in the January 1907 American Journal of Numismatics (vol. 41, no. 3) that the type listed as XXXVII was then no longer considered an applicable type. Given its presence, however, in a reference penned by an author named Betts, the type has oftentimes continued to be associated with John Law, possibly with unscrupulous or unknowing dealers and auction houses confusing the already unnecessary Benjamin Betts listing as, in fact, that of C. Wyllys Betts—the author of the reference commonly known for early American and related types. Though the attribution to the jovial French society is, indeed, correct, and though it is not associated with the exploits of John Law, it nevertheless remains a popular analog with the actual corpus of Betts medals.

To read the complete item description, see:
102994 | UNITED STATES & FRANCE. "La Régiment de la Calotte" bronze Medal. (https://www.numismagram.com/product-page/102994)

102752 | NETHERLANDS. Dutch Household Society silver Medal. Issued 1828 for the society's 50th anniversary (48mm, 35.83 g, 12h). By Johann Georg Holtzhey. EER EN VOORDEEL (there is an advantage...), warrior, in ancient armor, standing right, crowning female figure of Industry standing to the left, leaning upon beehive to the right; rising sun at a distance, cornucopia between them // HET / VIJFTIGJARIG / BESTAAN / DER NEDERL. / HUISH MAATSCHAPPIJ / GEVIERD / 1828 in eight lines; all within garlanded oak wreath. Edge: Plain. Dirks 309. PCGS SP-64.

Incredibly vibrant on the obverse, with intense color, along with a blast white reverse; stunning prooflike brilliance throughout. Rare in silver, and the only example observed in the PCGS census. $795. Growing out of a Dutch society for the promotion of trade, industry, and prosperity, the economic branch was founded in 1777 and sought to encourage entrepreneurs to find work for the poor and train children in spinning and weaving vocations. This item was featured in our e-Sylum ad.

To read the complete item description, see:
102752 | NETHERLANDS. Dutch Household Society silver Medal. (https://www.numismagram.com/product-page/102752)

103017 | SWEDEN. Alfred Nobel silver Award Medal. Issued 1920 for participation on the nominating committee for the prize in medicine (26mm, 12h). By Erik Lindberg (in 1901). Bust left; ALFR• / NOBEL – NAT• / MDCCC / XXXIII / OB• / MDCCC / XCVI across field // INVENTAS • VITAM • IUVAT • EXCOLUISSE • PER • ARTES (and they who bettered life on earth by their newly found mastery), basin and serpent-entwined staff of Aeculapius; wreath behind. Edge: SILVER 1920. Ehrensvärd 22; Lagerqvist 3A. PCGS SP-62. Gunmetal gray toning, with some hints of iridescence and pleasing brilliance. Tied with just two others for the top spot in the PCGS census for the date. $495.

One of Lindberg's early tasks was the creation of the Nobel Prize medals, the Nobel institution for the awarding of these prizes having been newly established. Outside of the Peace Prize (presented instead in Oslo) and the Economics Prize (created much later by the Sveriges Riksbank and not considered part of the Nobel canon), Lindberg's renditions continue to be used for the prize medals to this day, as well as the medals presented to the respective nominating committees. Though the actual prize medals are almost never encountered in the market, the nominating medals do appear and have become quite popular as they are generally as close as one can realistically get to an actual prize medal.

To read the complete item description, see:
103017 | SWEDEN. Alfred Nobel silver Nominating Committee Award Medal. (https://www.numismagram.com/product-page/103017)

COMPLETE CARSON CITY DIME SET OFFERED

The upcoming sale of the Gerry Fortin Liberty Seated dime collection, by GFRC Online Auctions, features a rarely seen complete set of the early (1871-1874) Carson City dimes. These issues are long recognized as the "stoppers" of the series, and the allure of the Carson City coinage has only increased in recent years. The 19th century collectors paid little attention to mintmarks, and these coins tend to be encountered only in low grades or with various problems. The Fortin set includes well-detailed examples at collector-grade levels, with all four pieces approved by CAC, which has certified less than 20 examples of any of these issues. Indeed, this sale likely represents the first public sale of an early CC-dime set with each piece being CAC-certified.

The Carson City Mint struck few dimes in its early days, and each of these issues is represented by only a single die pair. Die wear was sufficiently minimal that the same reverse die was used for all four of these years. A horizontal die crack through the mintmark begins to appear on the later 1872 coins and progresses through 1873 and 1874. The situation changes greatly in the mid-1870s with the massive silver production in the west. Fortin documents 33 different die marriages for the 1875-CC issue, with similar numbers for the subsequent 1876-CC and 1877-CC emissions.

The Carson City Coin Collectors of America club (2005-2015) served as a nexus that signified the popularity of Carson City coinage, though to be sure collectors have been attracted to the romance of the Old West, not to mention the minimal production levels, for a long time. The appearance of this set of four dimes, original examples in mid-circulated grades, will only serve to highlight the desirability of these mementos of a frontier Mint in the American west.

Link to GFRC Online Auctions:
https://www.seateddimevarieties.com/auction.html

Link to Liberty Seated Dime Varieties:
https://www.seateddimevarieties.com/Date_mintmark_variety.htm

ROMAN COINS FOUND IN WORCESTERSHIRE

A hoard of gold and silver Roman coins dating back to the reign of Emperor Nero have been found during building works in Worcestershire.

The treasure, consisting of 1,368 Iron Age and Roman coins, includes the largest collection from the emperor's reign ever found.

Worcestershire Heritage, Art & Museums said the hoard was discovered in the Leigh and Bransford area, west of Worcester, in late 2023.

Experts from the charity said the find was "one of the most important archaeological discoveries in Worcestershire in the last 100 years".

Most of the coins are silver denarii, minted in Rome and dating from the time of the Roman Republic in 157 BC up to Nero's reign between AD 54–68.

The sole gold coin is an Iron Age stater, which was minted for the local British tribe, the Dobunni, who were in the area now known as Worcestershire and neighbouring counties to the south and west in AD 20–45.

"It tells us about what was happening here 2000 years ago, when the Malvern hills were maybe the boundary of the Roman Empire."

One expert theory is that the hoard represents the savings of a wealthy local farmer, who made his money by supplying the Roman army with grain and livestock.

The sheer number of coins meant that the hoard would have represented a "very considerable sum of cash" at the time it was buried, the expert said.

To read the complete articles, see:
Hoard of Roman coins found during building work (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gxnjq3ye0o)
A Hoard of Gold and Silver Roman Coins Dating Back to the Reign of Emperor Nero was Found in Worcestershire (https://arkeonews.net/a-hoard-of-gold-and-silver-roman-coins-dating-back-to-the-reign-of-emperor-nero-was-found-in-worcestershire/)

STOLEN 1715 FLEET COINS RECOVERED

A collection of 37 gold coins — with a combined value estimated at more than $1 million — have been recovered after they were stolen by salvagers back in 2015 from a famous 18th century shipwreck off Florida's Treasure Coast, state authorities announced Tuesday. A professional treasure hunter has been charged in connection with the case.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced the recovery in a news release, calling it a "major milestone in a long-standing investigation into the theft and illegal trafficking of these priceless historical artifacts." As required by state and federal law, the recovered artifacts will be returned to their "rightful custodians," the agency added.

The suspect, Eric Schmitt, is facing charges of dealing in stolen property.

The coins were aboard the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet, a convoy of 11 ships filled with treasure from the New World that were lost to a hurricane in July 1715. The shipwreck gave Florida's Treasure Coast its name.

Schmitt spoke to "CBS Mornings" in July 2015 after his family's business, Booty Salvage, helped find the coins while searching in shallow waters off the coast of Fort Pierce.

In 2015, members of the Schmitt family, working as contracted salvage operators for a company called "1715 Fleet - Queens Jewels," uncovered 101 gold coins worth $4.5 million, FWC said. Fifty-one of these coins were reported correctly and adjudicated, but 50 coins were not disclosed and were subsequently stolen. FWC investigators, in collaboration with the FBI, launched an investigation on June 10 for the missing coins.

Evidence linked Schmitt, to the illegal sale of multiple stolen gold coins between 2023 and 2024, FWC said.

Authorities executed multiple search warrants, recovering the stolen coins from private residences, safe deposit boxes and auctions, FWC said. Five stolen coins were reclaimed from a Florida-based auctioneer, who unknowingly purchased them from Schmitt.

To read the complete article, see:
Gold coins stolen from 18th century shipwreck off Florida coast recovered (https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/gold-coins-worth-1-million-dollars-stolen-1715-treasure-fleet-florida-recovered-suspect-charged/)

To read the complete press release, see:
https://1715fleetsociety.com/official-1715-fleet-society-press-release/

For more information on the 1715 Fleet Society, see:
https://1715fleetsociety.com/

LONGACRE'S ONE DOLLAR GOLD COINS

The history of the One Dollar gold coin truly began with the discovery of gold in California. Prior to that 1848 event, there had been gold discoveries in both Georgia and North Carolina but neither of these events required a One Dollar gold coin to be struck. The Seated Liberty Silver Dollar and its predecessors handled the job quite nicely.

James Barton Longacre, the Chief Engraver of the United States Mint, designed a small gold coin that was first struck in 1849. That particular coin was plagued with problems and only lasted until 1854. There were a tremendous number of complaints about the exceedingly small diameter (13 mm) of that first effort. Coins that small and very thin could easily be lost and when that loss represented a day's wages, it was a problem that could not be ignored.

Longacre redesigned the coin in 1854, and the diameter was increased by 15%, from 13mm to 15mm. This was the new Type Two coin design. While that alone was an improvement, the problems were not over. Now the issue was not size, but the strike. Longacre's new design was sculpted in significantly higher relief than the earlier Type One coins. Now the coins did not strike well as parts of the design were now barely legible, That proved totally unsatisfactory as well.

So in 1856, a third design was offered by Longacre to the American public. His design was similar to the Type Two design in that this coin depicted Miss Liberty wearing a Native American headdress, facing to the left. Much like the prior design, it also displayed the motto "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA," around the periphery. Miss Liberty retained the word "LIBERTY," on the crown of her headdress. In fact, her head was enlarged over the Type Two coin. Her hair was arranged in a different position and her headdress was positioned higher and more upright. The relief of this new Type Three design was significantly lowered. This was not done for aesthetic appeal. It was done in order to reduce the number of places where recessed areas in the dies were exactly opposite one another. That would allow for the metal to flow more evenly between the dies and permit the coins to have a better and fuller strike.

The relief on the reverse was lowered as well, but there are no other noticeable design changes on the reverse. The wreath of comprised of corn, cotton, tobacco, and wheat remained, along, with the numeral "1" and the word "DOLLAR," in two lines inside the wreath. The date still displayed inside the wreath as well and the usual bow tying the wreath together also remained.

To read the complete article, including the first part, see:
A Brief History Of James B. Longacre's One Dollar Gold Coins, Part 1 (https://www.greysheet.com/news/story/a-brief-history-of-james-b-longacre-s-one-dollar-gold-coins-part-1/0)
A Brief History Of James B. Longacre's One Dollar Gold Coins, Part 2 (https://www.greysheet.com/news/story/a-brief-history-of-james-b-longacre-s-one-dollar-gold-coins-part-2)

 

2024 ADVENT COIN CALENDAR, PART TWO

7. The Holly and the Ivy is a favourite carol

The custom of decorating houses with evergreens predates Christianity.

This Tetradrachm of Mithradates VI, Pergamum has a stag grazing left, star and crescent to left, all within ivy-wreath, and holly.

This is a coin from LORRAINE, struck by Charles II, Gros, with helmet over shield, rev. sword between holly leaves,

8. Victorian silver threepence

Another tradition is putting silver coins in Christmas puddings. You had to be careful not to break a tooth when you bit into the pudding. Perhaps it was a way of getting children to eat slowly. Good luck with that!

On 25th December 1925 the Western Gazette reported that the Royal Mint normally issued more coins at Christmas. In previous years silver threepences were popular but that had declined because they turn a "bilious" (sickly) colour when cooked! Before 1920 coins contained 92.5% silver. Perhaps the colour change related to the reduced bullion content.

9. Good King Wenceslas Last Looked Out

Good King Wenceslas features in a popular carol and also on this coin from Czechoslovakia which a gold Dukat, 1933 The legend is based a story about the Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia (907–935), who was not a king. In 1853, hymnwriter John Mason Neale wrote the lyrics in collaboration with his music editor Thomas Helmore to fit the melody of the 13th-century spring carol "Tempus adest floridum", which they had found in a 1582 Finnish song collection.

10. Shopping

Everyone likes Christmas shopping. Well, some do! Christmas Clubs were a way of saving up money over the year to pay for goodies. 1 ½d Christmas Club token from E Harris Bee Hive Stores Hednesford, Cannock Chase. Edwin Harris owned the grocery shop in the 1870s.

11. Donkey

Donkeys feature in the bible story and Mary probably travelled on one when she was pregnant. This is a two pence coin from St Helena

12. Turkey USA coin

2015 USA Quarter 25 cents America the Beautiful series. Kisatchie National Parks Louisiana. Reverse with turkey in flight. Turkey as a main meal remains popular for Christmas lunch. It has taken the place of goose and then chicken. Chicken was for many years a treat as it was expensive for everyday use.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
2024 ADVENT COIN CALENDAR, PART ONE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n48a22.html)

1849 PACIFIC COMPANY $5 GOLD PIECE

Right on the heels of our record-breaking sale of the 1850 Baldwin $10, which achieved $1.26 million in our November Rarities Night, another iconic, seven-figure territorial rarity will cross the block in our February 2025 Rarities Night.

The Pacific Company was one of the earliest of the private mints established in California during the Gold Rush. It is widely accepted that the Pacific Company formed in Boston on January 8, 1849 by John W. Cartwright is the organization originally behind the Pacific Company coinage. Composed of 38 subscribers who contributed $1,000 each to join, the Pacific Company bought and outfitted the vessel York. Included in their equipment were sets of dies for a planned issue of $1, $2.50, $5, and $10 gold pieces. The four denominations all bear a version of the same design: on the obverse is a Liberty cap with stars and rays (closely resembling Mexican silver coins of the period) with the denomination indicated below and on the reverse is a heraldic eagle clutching an olive branch and hammer surrounded by the legend, PACIFIC COMPANY, CALIFORNIA. and the date 1849.

The York sailed out of Boston Harbor on April 1, 1849 and arrived in San Francisco Bay on September 16. One of the company members presciently observed in his diary: "All that board us say that our company will break up as all others have done." That is indeed what happened not long after the party arrived at their destination of Benicia on October 8. Scarcely 12 days later the Pacific Company was officially dissolved, and its members went their separate ways without having ever struck a single gold coin.

Based on a thorough analysis of surviving Pacific Company coins, the dies apparently came into the possession of well-established assay company Broderick & Kohler in San Francisco soon after the original company's dissolution. Col. Jonathan D. Stevenson, a former commander of a regiment of New York Volunteers and a veteran of the Mexican War, found early success in the Gold Rush. He brought in fellow New Yorkers Frederick D. Kohler and David C. Broderick to begin an assay and refining firm that soon branched out into coining using the Pacific Company dies. Broderick & Kohler opted to use the dies with no modification to produce their own coinage, primarily consisting of $5 and $10 pieces.

Unlike most private coiners, Broderick & Kohler did not use a screw press but instead produced their coins using a sledgehammer. When the coins were introduced into daily commerce, they were initially accepted at par under the premise that anything was better than using raw gold dust and placer gold. However, like many other of the earliest private coiners during the Gold Rush, the coin's purity was inconsistent at best, mostly based on the fineness of the metal as originally mined without much further refinement. While some coiners tried to compensate for this by making their coins heavier, the Pacific Company coins were not, earning the business a decent return on investment while short-changing the public who used the coins.

This business model fared well for both Broderick and Kohler because of the high profit margin, and combined with their successful real estate investments, they soon were able to shutter their assay and coining business. Broderick was elected state senator in January of 1850 and left the partnership. Kohler carried on only until March before shuttering the business and selling off all the firm's equipment to Baldwin & Co., long before the comparatively low purity of their product was discovered. When examples of the $5 and $10 coins were assayed by the United States Mint at Philadelphia in 1851, they were found to have an intrinsic value of $4.48 and an astonishingly low $7.76, respectively, among the lowest of the private issuers at the time. Once news of the poor assays reached California, the coins were promptly rejected as sub-par and quickly found themselves in melting pots, accounting for the tremendous rarity of any Pacific Company issue today. Despite the assay results, Kohler and Broderick's reputations appear to have not been substantially impacted. Kohler became State Assayer the following month and continued in local public service until his death in 1864. Broderick was eventually elected U.S. Senator for California in 1857, an office he held until he was killed in a duel in 1859.

The piece featured in Stack's Bowers Galleries' March auction is the finest of only four known examples, pedigreed to the Garrett Collection and graded AU-58 by PCGS and approved by CAC. As the finest known for this intriguing and exceedingly rare issue, the significance of the Garrett specimen for advanced collectors of private and territorial gold coinage cannot be overstated. Its offering in this sale represents a singular opportunity that is worthy of the strongest bids and most aggressive strategy. Once this specimen sells it may be many years, if not decades, before there is another opportunity to acquire a Pacific Company gold coin of any denomination.

The coin is an outstanding Choice About Uncirculated example with dominant honey-gold color on frosty surfaces. Both sides retain abundant mint luster, and the fields are semi-reflective, with vivid reddish-rose iridescence outlining the design elements. The strike is well executed for the type, the detail generally sharp with just the characteristic softness to the eagle's breast and legs in the center of the reverse. That side is rotated slightly more than 90 degrees clockwise from coin alignment. There are only minor handling marks scattered about, all of which are easily overlooked in hand, while a shallow planchet flaw in the upper right reverse field is as made and serves as the most useful identifier.

The four known Pacific Company $5s are as follows:

1 – PCGS/CAC AU-58. Ex our (Bowers and Ruddy's) sale of the Garrett Collection for The Johns Hopkins University, Part II, March 1980, lot 935; Heritage's sale of the Riverboat Collection, April 2014 CSNS Signature Auction, lot 5433. The present example. The early provenance of this coin is unknown, although it may have been acquired by T. Harrison Garrett in the 19th century. It is not included in the inventory of territorial and colonial coins that John Work Garrett purchased from Col. James Ellsworth in 1923. A grading event at the AU-58+ * level that still appears in the NGC Census is believed to refer to an earlier certification of this coin.

2 – NGC EF-45. Ex DeWitt Smith; Virgil Brand in 1908; Horace Brand; Robert Friedberg; Kreisberg-Schulman's Brand-Lichtenfels Collections sale, March 1964, lot 2211; our (Stack's) sale of the Gibson Collection, November 1974, lot 200; our (Stack's) sale of September 1981, lot 417; our (Stack's) sale of the Coles Collection, October 1983, lot 252; Pacific Coast Auction Galleries' Long Beach Sale of June 1987, lot 1813; Paul Padget; Stuart Levine and Donald Kagin; private collection.

3 – AU-50, per David McCarthy. Mint Cabinet; Smithsonian Institution.

4 – Grade Unknown. Ex Waldo Newcomer; possibly "Col." E.H.R. Green; Charles Williams; Willis duPont, acquired ca. 1951, per Walter Breen; stolen from the duPont Collection in 1967 and not yet recovered.

To read the complete article, see:
Legendary Garrett Collection 1849 Pacific Company $5 Gold Piece to Highlight the February 2025 Rarities Night Auction (https://stacksbowers.com/legendary-garrett-collection-1849-pacific-company-5-gold-piece-to-highlight-the-february-2025-rarities-night-auction/)

TREASURE LAW IN THE UNITED STATES

We're familiar with coin finds such as The Saddle Ridge Hoard and the Kentucky Civil War Hoard. The Saddle Ridge coins were found by a couple near a tree on their own property, and the Kentucky coins were found by a metal detectorist on someone else's property. Obviously, these finders were not the people who originally placed the coins there. Why is it that both got to keep the coins and, eventually, sell them?

In the U.S., the law relating to "found" items is regulated by each state, but certain principles are consistent. Items are either mislaid, lost, abandoned or "treasure trove". A wallet that falls to the ground out of someone's pocket is mislaid, because the owner never intended for the wallet to be where it was eventually found. A wallet left on the counter at a grocery store is considered lost, because the owner did originally intend for it to be there, but later forgot about it. Abandonment comes from lost or mislaid items where the original owner showed an intent not to return to recover them, and "treasure trove" refers to items of intrinsic value which have been lost or mislaid for such a long period of time that it is no longer possible to identify who put them there.

The general principle is that finders of mislaid property have no rights, and the property belongs either to the original owner (referred to by lawyers as the "true owner") if he or she appears, or otherwise to the owner of the premises where the property is found. For lost property, the finder is entitled to possession against anyone but the true owner, and this more or less is true in the case of abandoned property or treasure trove found on one's own property.

So the Saddle Ridge finders, who found the coins on their own land, might have had to give up the coins had the "true owner" appeared and made a claim, but nothing like that happened. The coins became theirs.

The Kentucky coins presented a more complicated case, because the coins would be considered as abandoned items or, more probably, treasure trove, and the finder found them on land he didn't own. In the past, finders were generally awarded ownership of such items unless a true owner appeared, but in recent years the trend has been to award title to the owner of the property where the find took place. The policy behind this was to not encourage and reward trespassers or hired contractors who scour other people's land but don't tell anyone if they find something valuable.

To read the complete article, see:
Does "finders Keepers" Apply To Accidental Finds Of Coin Hoards? (https://www.greysheet.com/news/story/does-finders-keepers-apply-to-accidental-finds-of-coin-hoards)

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
BRITAIN'S TREASURE ACT (https://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n17a38.html)
PORTABLE ANTIQUITIES SCHEME HITS 1.5M OBJECTS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n28a23.html)
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS THE SADDLE RIDGE HOARD (https://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n02a33.html)
MORE ON THE "SADDLE RIDGE" GOLD COIN HOARD (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n10a14.html)
THE GREAT KENTUCKY HOARD (https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n25a18.html)
MORE ON THE GREAT KENTUCKY HOARD (https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n29a20.html)

REVIEW: CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE, 18TH ED.

A new edition of the Chicago Manual of Style comes out every seven years: The latest edition was published on September 19, 2024. There are other manuals of style, but the Chicago Manual is the best for writing in the humanities. Every writer, editor, and copyeditor of serious scholarly work in the humanities must own a copy of the latest edition. No, you cannot get away with buying an earlier edition on the cheap – you will just make life a nightmare for everyone else if you do, for there are numerous changes in the 18th edition, and the differences are significant. No excuses. Keep it close at hand and consult it frequently. The other day I wondered whether the title "Sir" was capitalized. I picked up the Manual, and there was the answer (yes, it is capitalized – see paragraph 8.33).

The jacket of the 18th edition is a lurid acid yellow. With a list price of $75, the Chicago Manual is not cheap. But, with 1198 pages that were typeset, printed, and bound in the United States, it is reasonable value for the money.

There are a bunch of changes in this edition. I don't consider them necessary, I don't consider them improvements, I think Chicago is making changes for the sake of change, but better the devil you know than the one you don't. 13.23: In a note with more than two authors, list only the first author, followed by "et al." – in previous editions, it was more than three authors. 13.72: Do not use the 3-em dash for repeated names in a bibliography; instead, repeat the author's name. 8.52: The word "County" is now capitalized in the names of Irish counties, so you write "County Sligo" instead of "county Sligo."

The blurb on the front jacket flap trumpets a new section about inclusive language (5.255-66); it is unhelpful and trendy. The mere mention of "Latinx" (5.259) already looks embarrassing now. However, the nine paraphrases to avoid the pronoun "he" (5.265) are creative and useful. "Black" should be capitalized and "White" may be (8.39). This is different from the rule used by the Associated Press, who capitalize "Black" but do not capitalize "white," which I find illogical. Happily, Chicago leaves a lot of leeway to authors, editors, and publishers (5.257).

The section on "Good Usage Versus Common Usage" (5.254) remains useful but is getting out of date: I'm afraid "less" versus "fewer" is a lost cause. If you don't believe me, go find a supermarket with a checkout line for "10 Items or Fewer." I don't like the word "decimate," and I'd prefer it to drop out of use. Etymologically it means a loss of ten percent, but it is always used for a loss of much more than that. It's confusing. I'd like to see entries about "y'all" and "veggies": Since "you" long ago supplanted "thou" for the second person singular in English, "y'all" has been pushing its way forward, ceasing to be a regional usage of the American South, but instead a way of distinguishing the second person plural from the second person singular. "Veggies" for "vegetables" is increasingly accepted, at least in journalism and on restaurant menus. In ten to twenty years, it will probably be adopted into formal English prose, and in thirty years "veggies" will have supplanted "vegetables" entirely – it's easier to pronounce.

The most useful paragraph in the entire Manual is 5.209, which obliterates the common misconception that you cannot start a sentence with "but" or "and" (this is also mentioned in 5.254). The section on grammar (5.1-251) is sensible. This is particularly praiseworthy, given that modern grammatical studies have taken some bizarre turns (see 5.2, 5.4).

The Manual says (13.6) that authors should include a URL in citations for every source that they consulted online. This will clutter up the manuscript. In my own experience, the addition of too many codes in a large manuscript causes Microsoft Word to run slowly and even, at times, to crash. And since I have consulted many sources before 1930 (which are all in the public domain), most of my sources can be consulted in Google Books or through Hathitrust or Gallica or digitization projects sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, or indeed, the Newman Numismatic Portal; so nearly every source will have a URL. The Chicago Manual envisions a world where we will read "books" in electronic format; each reference will be a hotlink on which we can click through to see the original passage. O brave new world!

Oddly, there is no guidance on how to cite coin auction catalogs or indeed other art auction catalogs (paragraph 14.134, about exhibition catalogs, doesn't really help).

It is annoying to have to shell out 75 bucks every seven years, and to learn that you no longer must replace authors' names with the 3-em dash, after you spent a whole summer day doing just that. "Oceania is at war with Eurasia! Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia!" Oops, do a global replace of "Eurasia" with "Eastasia." But the Manual is so useful and so important that it is better to have it with these minor faults, than not to have it at all.

For more information, or to order, see:
The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo213648716.html)

John writes:

LOOSE CHANGE: DECEMBER 8, 2024

Bristol Old Vic Theatre Token

A "proper piece of Bristol history" is expected to fetch thousands of pounds when it goes under the hammer this week.

The theatre token from 1766 is one of 50 originally gifted to the first shareholders of the Bristol Old Vic theatre, who helped fund its construction between 1764 and 1766.

The "incredibly rare" item allowed the owner unlimited access to shows and is set to go under the hammer at the Bristol-based Auctioneum on Thursday.

Auctioneer Andrew Stowe said only 20 of the silver tokens are known to still exist adding: "Every now and again, another token gets discovered and this is just one such of those newly discovered tokens."

To read the complete article, see:
'Proper piece of Bristol history' up for auction (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgxzkd4443o)

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
'GOLDEN TICKET' TOKEN STILL GOOD AFTER 250 YEARS (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n27a12.html)
MORE ON THE BRISTOL OLD VIC 'GOLDEN TICKET' TOKEN (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n28a35.html)

California Coiners Dubosq & Company

One of the most frustrating things about dealing with pioneer gold coins is the almost complete lack of records for most private mints. Contemporary newspaper accounts provide much of what we know about these companies. In most cases, these articles were written by people more concerned about whether local merchants and bankers would accept the coins in question than they were with the stories of the people striking them.

A few weeks ago, I learned that rare-book dealer James E. Arsenault had discovered several receipt books from California coiners Dubosq & Company. To the best of my knowledge, this trio of ledgers represents the only documentation in private hands. Their miraculous survival offers a glimpse into the inner workings of one of the 13 private companies known to have struck coins during the California Gold Rush and puts to rest a mystery surrounding the firm's operations.

To read the complete article, see:
Mint Unveiled (Part 1) (https://readingroom.money.org/mint-unveiled-part-1/)

Heritage Sells Dorothy's Ruby Slippers

The once-lost ruby slippers Judy Garland wore in "The Wizard of Oz" have now found a new home.

Nearly 20 years after they were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, the slippers were sold at a live auction Saturday for $28 million, along with a $4.5 million buyer's premium. It was not immediately clear who the buyer was, but it was sold to a phone bidder, according to auction records.

The 2005 theft of the ruby slippers — one of only a few existing pairs that Garland wore while playing Dorothy Gale in "The Wizard of Oz" — haunted authorities, who had billed the shoes as "one of the most recognizable pieces of memorabilia in American film history." After receiving thousands of tips and chasing fruitless leads for more than a decade, the FBI recovered the slippers in a sting operation in 2018.

To read the complete articles, see:
Dorothy's once-missing ruby slippers sold at auction for $28 million (https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/12/07/judy-garland-dorothy-ruby-slippers/)
The Case of the Stolen Ruby Slippers (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/04/30/feature/the-case-of-dorothys-stolen-ruby-slippers/)

ABOUT THIS ISSUE: DECEMBER 8, 2024

Wayne Homren
Wayne Homren is the founding editor of The E-Sylum and a consultant for the Newman Numismatic Portal. His collecting interests at various times included U.S. Encased Postage Stamps, merchant counterstamps, Pittsburgh Obsolete paper money, Civil War tokens and scrip, Carnegie Hero Medals, charge coins and numismatic literature. He also collects and has given presentations on the work of Money Artist J.S.G. Boggs. In the non-numismatic world he's worked in artificial intelligence, data science, and as a Program Manager for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Garrett Ziss
Garrett Ziss is a numismatic collector and researcher, with a focus on American paper money and early U.S. silver and copper coins. He is also a part-time U.S. coin cataloger for Heritage Auctions. Garrett assists Editor Wayne Homren by editing and formatting a selection of articles and images each week. When he's not engaged in numismatics, Garrett is a Senior Honors student at the University of Pittsburgh.

Pete Smith
Numismatic researcher and author Pete Smith of Minnesota has written about early American coppers, Vermont coinage, numismatic literature, tokens and medals, the history of the U.S. Mint and much more. Author of American Numismatic Biographies, he contributes original articles to The E-Sylum often highlighting interesting figures in American numismatic history.

Greg Bennick
Greg Bennick (www.gregbennick.com) is a keynote speaker and long time coin collector with a focus on major mint error coins and US counterstamps. He is on the board of both CONECA and TAMS and enjoys having in-depth conversations with prominent numismatists from all areas of the hobby. Have ideas for other interviewees? Contact him anytime on the web or via instagram @minterrors.

John Nebel
Numismatist, photographer, and ANS Board member and Fellow John Nebel of Boulder, CO helped the ANA and other clubs like NBS get online in the early days of the internet, hosting websites gratis through his Computer Systems Design Co. To this day he hosts some 50 ANA member club sites along with our coinbooks.org site, making the club and our E-Sylum archive available to collectors and researchers worldwide.

Bruce Perdue
Encased coinage collector (encasedcoins.info) Bruce Perdue of Aurora, Illinois has been the volunteer NBS webmaster from its early days and works each week to add the latest E-Sylum issue to our archive and send out the email announcement.