The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 49, December 5, 2004, Article 8

HOW A DEDICATED BIBLIOPHILE ACQUIRED A KEY JAPANESE REFERENCE

The following is an excerpt from Joe Boling's
account of his numismatic adventures, reprinted
from the Tuesday November 30, 2004 issue of the
MPC Gram (Number 1217):

"Shortly after arriving in Germany I had an
opportunity to buy the complete eleven-volume set of 
the Zuroku Nihon no Kahei, lavish silk-bound
large-format books that had been published one at
a time in Japan for the past several years. Charlie
Warner in Tokyo had a set for $750. I did not have
$750. I had to go to the Chase Manhattan branch in
Heidelberg and take out a loan (it probably ran 8-10
months) to get the funds to pay for the books, but
they were worth every dime. I used them a lot over 
the next 25+ years, taking care to always handle them 
with clean hands and to repack then in their original 
glassine wrappers and cardboard cases before every 
change of station. They were still like new when I 
transferred them to the ANA two years ago. ANA had 
one set in the rare book room already - from Rev Coole. 
Rare book room books do not circulate - you have to go 
to Colorado to look at them. Nancy Green agreed that if 
she got my set, then she would allow one set to be 
loaned by mail, so if you are looking for something
exotic in Japanese numismatics, there is a resource 
that not many collectors have at their fingertips.

[Nancy Green showed me the Coole set when I 
visited American Numismatic Association headquarters last
year. Many thanks for Joe for making his set available 
to researchers. Few bibliophiles are so
dedicated as to take out a loan for book purchases,
and not nearly enough of us make significant donations
to our hobby's key libraries. -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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