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- From rogermoore435@yahoo.com Tue Apr 20 08:21:08 2004
Return-Path: <rogermoore435@yahoo.com> X-Sender: rogermoore435@yahoo.com X-Apparently-To: colonial-coins@yahoogroups.com Received: (qmail 97880 invoked from network); 20 Apr 2004 15:21:08 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.167) by m24.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 20 Apr 2004 15:21:08 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO web40502.mail.yahoo.com) (66.218.78.119) by mta6.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 20 Apr 2004 15:21:08 -0000 Message-ID: <20040420152108.29758.qmail@web40502.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [65.210.21.115] by web40502.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Tue, 20 Apr 2004 08:21:08 PDT Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 08:21:08 -0700 (PDT) To: colonial-coins@yahoogroups.com In-Reply-To: <c63b0m+p5nb@eGroups.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-eGroups-Remote-IP: 66.218.78.119 From: Roger Moore <rogermoore435@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [Colonial Numismatics] Re: Sad news for Smithsonian X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=65078925 X-Yahoo-Profile: rogermoore435
Thank you John for sharing this extteordinary story. I was wondering how you got statred attributing Virginians. I will cross reference to the Virginia group. Roger
--- "John M. Kleeberg" <jmkleeberg@yahoo.com> wrote: > --- In colonial-coins@yahoogroups.com, "Steven G > Frank" > <taxi_steve929@y...> wrote: > > The Smithsonian could put EVERYTHING on > display.....right here > > online!! > > Actually, there is an instance of that happening > with another museum > collection - the Library of Notre Dame. And that's > a very positive > museum story, and illustrates well the nuances and > ambiguities of > the problem. > > At some point in the late nineteenth century someone > - JCS has made > the very exciting suggestion that it was Horatio N. > Rust - donated a > large group of coppers to Notre Dame. The > collection was stored > away in the library, and nobody really looked at it > for a century. > Fast forward to the 1990s. Robert Gore donated a > very nice type set > of colonial coins to Notre Dame, and the librarian, > Lou Jordan, > wanted someone to come out and look at it and I was > invited to do so > and to give a lecture. I looked through the type > set, but there > wasn't very much I could contribute, because someone > had cataloged > it very assiduously before me and all the > attributions appeared to > be correct; in fact, the only coins that were > unattributed were the > Virginia halfpence, and that's how I started out in > attributing > Virginia halfpence by Newman variety... Friday > night at dinner Lou > mentioned that there was another collection of coins > in the library, > but it was just a pile of junk. I said I should > probably look at it > anyway. So we arranged to go in on a Saturday. I > didn't expect to > see much of anything, but I figured I might as well > be conscientious > and see everything there was to see. We went into > the small vault > room and Lou turned on the light and pulled out some > albums, and I > began to look through it, and what do I see on the > first page I pull > out - but a bunch of Machin's pieces! (These I can > recognize very > readily, using, as you know, my "George III wearing > lipstick" > technique.) I turn over more pages, and there are > more Machin's > pieces, and next thing I know, there's a Vlack > 14-84A! I thought to > myself, "Now I know how Mike R. must feel nearly > every day." So I > said to Lou, "This is an extraordinary collection. > It complements > very nicely the typeset. In fact, there are pieces > here that are > much rarer than anything in the typeset." > > Notre Dame library had just put one of the first > research areas on > the web - a Dante project, and I remember Lou saying > to his > boss, "We could be the first place to put coins on > the web!" And > they were. They did a lot of work with JCS, and the > result is that > there is now a huge website with vast amounts of > resources about > colonial coins. And Lou has done a lot of other > work in this field, > such as being an editor of CNL and writing his book > about > Massachusetts silver coinage. > > So was it worthwhile for the donor to give his coins > to the library > of Notre Dame? The answer depends upon when you > answer it. As of > 1987 you might say - "What a waste, the collection > was hidden away > in the basement and nobody saw it." As of today, we > can say - "That > donation has had extraordinarily positive effects > for numismatic > research." Thank you, Lou, Jim, Robert Gore, Notre > Dame, and (I > think) Horatio! > > John M. Kleeberg > >
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