The Numismatic Bibliomania Society

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Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 3, Number 17, April 23, 2000: 
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. 
Copyright (c) 2000, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society. 
  

SUBSCRIBER UPDATES 

   We have one new subscriber this week:  Suellen Ruttkay, 
   Product Manager, COIN World.  Welcome aboard!   This 
   brings our subscriber count to 297. 
  

NEXT ASYLUM AT THE PRINTER 

   The year 2000 No. 1 issue of our print journal, The Asylum, 
   is at the printer.  Dues are due, and envelopes for dues payments 
   will be included with each issue.  Now would be an ideal time 
   for E-Sylum subscribers who are not yet members of NBS to 
   join up.  At only $15 per year for North American members 
   ($20 elsewhere), it's a bargain.  Members will receive all four 
   issues of the year 2000 volume of The Asylum.  An application 
   is available on our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/ 

   Editor E. Tomlinson Fort reports that the new issue contains 
   the following: 

      President's Message by Wayne Homren 
      Editorial by E. Tomlinson Fort 
      Letters to the Editor 
      The Development of the Coin Album, Part 5, 
         by David Lange 
      Who's Who in Numismatics by Pete Smith 
      The Printer's Devil: Where Have All the Core 
         References Gone?  by Joel Orosz 
      News from the Net by Pete Smith 
      Index to The Asylum, volumes 16 to 17 
           by William Malkmus 

   Of special note is Joel Orosz's article, lamenting the fact that 
   all the major reference works on American numismatic literature 
   are largely out of print.  He expresses concern that the 
   unavailability of core reference works may be slowing the 
   growth of numismatic bibliomania among U.S. collectors.  We 
   would be interested to hear opinions from the NBS membership 
   after reading the article. 

   Along with Joel Orosz, David Lange and Pete Smith are regular 
   contributors to our journal, and are to be commended for their 
   prodigious efforts.  Our society is in their debt. 

   Finally, William Malkmus has provided an invaluable service 
   to NBS and numismatic researchers everywhere for his yeoman 
   efforts to maintain an index to The Asylum.  Indexing is not an 
   easy task, and we can never thank him enough for his efforts. 
  

NAMED PETRY SALE SOUGHT 

   George Fuld writes: "Does anyone out there have a named copy 
   of the Chapman Petry Collection, May 10, 1893?   I need to 
   know the name of the purchaser of Lot 773 and price paid, 
   if possible.   Thanks to all in advance."   George can be reached 
   at fuld1@home.com. 
  

WHAT'S A BINDING WORTH? 

   NBS Vice President Tom Sheehan writes:  "I recently purchased 
   a set of numismatic books that came in two or three bindings with 
   a couple of volumes unbound.  I decided that the set would be 
   both more usable if bound and more attractive.  Now I didn't hold 
   back much, if anything, in the binding.  The cost of binding and the 
   shipping equaled one third of what I paid for the set. 

   It is entirely possible that my two-year-old granddaughter will be 
   the financial benefactor.  In the meantime I have a "killer" set for 
   my bookshelf.  I find it hard to pass that section of the shelf 
   without admiring the spines or picking one off the shelf just to 
   hold or rummage through. 

   Others might spend two or three thousand dollars to put a real 
   nice paint job on an vintage automobile and know they will 
   never make a dime on the deal.  We can have pride of ownership 
   in numismatics just like in other hobbies." 
  

THERE'S A WORD FOR THAT? 

   The "A.Word.A.Day" mailing list (http://wordsmith.org/awad/) 
   defines a word that aptly describes some current numismatic 
   terms like "raw coin"  or "unslabbed coin": 

      "retronym (RE-truh-nim) noun  [Latin Retro- back + -nym.] 

      A term, such as acoustic guitar, coined in modification of the 
      original referent that was used alone, such as guitar, to 
      distinguish it from a later contrastive development, such as 
      electric guitar. 

      "I would think that the grocery lists would be filled with 
      retronyms. Who felt the need, 25 years ago, to add `regular' to 
      their coffee order,  `real' to their request for sour cream ...." 
      Gaye LeBaron, Public Television `Storm Damaged', The 
      Press Democrat, 7 Mar 1996." 

   Can you think of other retronyms in numismatic literature? 
  

MATTHEW BOULTON WEB SITE 

   Dick Johnson writes: "Has anyone else reported trouble getting 
   into Carl's Website on Matthew Boulton or am I the only one? 
   [last week's featured web site in The E-Sylum].  I have tried over 
   several days without success. 

   Carl is to be congratulated. I am in favor of anything that honors 
   Boulton. He far surpasses anyone else in history for the 
   developments he established for the manufacture of coins and 
   medals. 

   As a coinage technology historian, Boulton is my number one 
   hero.  I traveled to Washington DC last May just to get Dick 
   Doty's new book on the Soho Mint.  Got two copies inscribed 
   and autographed by Dick. [The Smithsonian bookstore only had 
   two copies in stock or I would have gotten more!]" 

   No other problems have been reported.  Later Dick wrote: 
   "Finally, I got in. Great website. I devoured every word. 
   Viva la Boulton!!!"   For those who didn't get a chance to look 
   at it, the address is:   http://www.geocities.com/mboulton1797/ 
  

WHOOPS!, PART TWO 

   Earlier this week I mistakenly sent out a message to many 
   E-Sylum subscribers.  The problem was related to the previous 
   week's mailing list problem, which should now be resolved for 
   good.  Meanwhile, I would like to apologize to those who 
   may have gotten an unwanted message, and to those whose 
   email address may have been revealed to others without 
   permission.  We take our subscribers' privacy seriously, and 
   and this was a big slip.   I trust that the recipients will do the 
   right thing and ignore or discard any revealed addresses. 
  

FEATURED WEB SITE 

   This week's featured web site is the Guernsey Numismatic 
   Home Page 

      http://www.guernsey.net/~sgibbs/numismatics/ 
  
  

  Wayne Homren 
  Numismatic Bibliomania Society 
  

  The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a 
  non-profit organization promoting numismatic 
  literature.   For more information please see 
  our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/ 
  There is a membership application available on 
  the web site.  To join, print the application and 
  return it with your check to the address printed 
  on the application.   For those without web access, 
  contact Dave Hirt, NBS Secretary-Treasurer, 
  5911 Quinn Orchard Road, Frederick, MD 21704 

  (To be removed from this mailing list 
   write to me at whomren@coinlibrary.com)   

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