CHICAGO COIN CLUB MEETS AT S&S LIBRARY

The Chicago Coin Club embarked on a field visit for their March 2024 meeting attending a presentation by club member Shanna Schmidt at the offices of Shanna Schmidt Numismatics Inc. It was a full house for Shanna's presentation on The S & S Library, The Formation of a Numismatic Library. As the saying goes, buy the book before the coin, the favorite companion to any coin collection is owning books that provide a solid understanding of the collection. Most numismatists over time had some semblance of a library to reference coins, find pedigrees, or simply learn more about their origin. The S&S Library is the result of eight years of cooperation. Shanna's presentation laid out the assembling of the library, why it was created, and future ideas for its use. Club members spent time before and after the meeting viewing the stacks of historic books and catalogs finding publications dating back hundreds and hundreds of years.

During the presentation Shanna laid out the Evolution of the Library to house 8,776 individual books and growing. Sharing out of copyright literature with the public and the NNP. The extensive process of book preservation through conservation and book binding for damaged or well-worn books. Expansion of the library to a second location in Chicago for needed extra space. Also, an impressive eight hundred (800) linear feet of catalogs with an emphasis on ancient coins.

Shanna then discussed why bother with a numismatic library discussing coin research being very important and is most effective with a book over surfing the web. Considerations of space and cost however can be a major factor. The presentation then evolved into Where to Start citing the ancient coin basics in Greek and Roman Republic, Roman Imperial and Byzantine plus sources with specializations in Jewish and Eastern coinage. Source examples for general reading on coins and collecting were given as the ANS, ANA, NMN, Numismatic Chronicle (RNS) Coin World magazines, Celator magazine among others.

 

Discussion of the importance of Auction Catalogs and how their use in uncovering past sales listings and coin pedigrees assist collectors in their pursuits. The presentation concluded with discussion and examples of Private Collections, i.e. Bunker Hunt Collection, Samuel Pozzi collection and Garrett collection. Then mention of Focused Die Studies and how many numismatic libraries can consist of specific die studies or analysis. For those with space and cost concerns a list of popular options was given including CoinArchives (for free) or the Pro-Version (an annual fee but with hammers), AC Search (image search), Newman Numismatic Portal, Academia.edu, Wikipedia.org, HathiTrust.org, JStor and Ebsco.org (for humanities) just to name a few.

The evening ended with showing several publications from the collection that club members passed around the room for examination. Books as small as the 3 inch by 4 inch Historisch - genealogischer Calender, oder Jahrbuch der merkwurdigsten neuen Welt - Begebenheiten fur 1784 Leipzig zur Messe bey Haude und Spener von Berlin that contained images of the Continental Dollar and the large 14 x 20 Roman Republican Aes Grave from E. J. Haeberlin with amazing plates of early Roman cast coins and is considered a primary resource.

The Chicago Coin Club's motto DOCENDO DISCIMUS, meaning We Learn by Teaching is practiced with educational featured presentations at each club meeting and this March meeting with the in-depth presentation of Numismatic literature was a prime example.

 
Shanna presenting in S & S Library reception room

For more information on the Chicago Coin Club, see:
http://www.chicagocoinclub.org/

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
BCD CATALOGS ARRIVE IN CHICAGO (https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n52a07.html)
NNP TO DIGITIZE LITERATURE OF ANCIENT NUMISMATICS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n39a09.html)
S&S LIBRARY UPDATE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n09a08.html)

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