"My discussion of auction house
symbols with Karl Moulton grew from the need to record
a large quantity of auction lot references in a databank
I am building on the engravers, diesinkers and medalists of
American coins and medals. At present I have entered these
citations for only a handful of auction houses, coding these
with a three-letter symbol.
I was suggesting (even hoping!) Karl would set an industry-
wide standard for this in his new directory of numismatic
auction sales (USNAC), the continuation of Martin Gengerke's
earlier directory. Obviously Bowers & Merena auction sales
would bear the symbol B&M. But what do you do when
B&M joins forces with a Stack's or with Presidential Coin &
Antique as they did in the Julian Liedman and David Dreyfus
sales? (And how would you identify the Apostrophe sales?)
Joe Levine is very conscientious in identifying artists in his lot
descriptions in his Presidential C&A auctions. I have resolved
to cite all his auction sales as far back as practical. I asked
him what symbol he preferred. He chose "PCA" and I have
used this.
So maybe each auction house would like to pick their own
symbol. And (hopefully) Karl would be the clearing house
for these and publish these in his (USNAC) directory.
Karl would have to resolve any conflicts. But he could be
like the New York Stock Exchange in selecting the
symbols for each company's stock listed on the exchange.
Incidentally, the citation for the first lot in LaRiviere's Betts
medal section in Bowers & Merena's recent catalog reads:
B&M 181:2001"
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