THE COLONIAL NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2007 ISSUE PUBLISHED Public Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 10, Number 44, October 28, 2007, Article 8
THE COLONIAL NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2007 ISSUE PUBLISHED
[CNL Editor Gary Trudgen forwarded the following announcement
on the December 2007 issue of The Colonial Newsletter (CNL).
-Editor]This issue begins with an exchange of messages between
John Adams and Dr. Roger Moore, which is presented as a
Letter to the Editor. Their communication pertains to
the paper on fake Virginia halfpence that appeared in
the previous issue.Next up is a report on a metal detecting find of a 1781
imitation British halfpenny. The report is authored by
the finder, Kevin Jackson, with assistance from Dr. Roger
Moore who recently co-authored an excellent paper updating
information on this series. This paper appeared in CNL-132
and was titled "1781 Imitation British Halfpence Update."
It is believed that this is the first 1781-dated imitation
British halfpenny to be recovered from U.S. soil.The paper in our last issue which examined fake Virginia
halfpence prompted a number of collectors to examine their
reproductions. Jim Biancarosa contacted the principal
author of this paper, Dr. Roger Moore, and arraigned for
him to examine six of his Virginia reproductions. Two
of Jim's coins resulted in new and interesting observations
which are detailed in an update paper titled "More on
Virginia Copper Coinage Counterfeits, Forgeries, and
Facsimiles."Next, David Gladfelter reports the discovery of a signed
small change bill dated March 10, 1796, that was issued
by the Common Council of the City of New-Brunswick, New
Jersey. Previously, only remainder notes of this issue
were known.In our April 2007 issue we reported the untimely death
of Mike Ringo. Mike was one of the most knowledgeable
and highly respected numismatists specializing in the
field of early American coinage. John Kleeberg, a CNL
associate editor, had a good working relationship with
Mike and has provided us with a fascinating personal
look at Mike while detailing many of Mike's discoveries
in numismatics.Our final paper, titled "1748-dated Counterfeit British
Halfpenny Source Indentified," locates the counterfeit
operation that produced several die-linked counterfeit
halfpennies. Since counterfeit operations rarely, if ever,
kept records of their activities, it is difficult to determine
when, where and by whom the many counterfeit halfpence
varieties were produced. Robert Bowser, however, made a
significant contribution to this field of inquiry when he
accessed the criminal court proceedings of the Old Bailey
in London. Here he found detailed testimony by the arresting
officers in several cases involving counterfeiting of English
and Irish coins. Some of the testimony provides truly
fascinating details about small-time counterfeiting operations.
One case provided enough information on the coins being struck
to identify the likely variety produced by that operation
along with others that are die-linked to that variety.CNL is published three times a year by The American Numismatic
Society, 96 Fulton Street, New York, NY 10038. For inquires
concerning CNL, please contact Megan Fenselau at the preceding
postal address or e-mail fenselau@amnumsoc.org or telephone
(212) 571-4470 ext. 1311.- 2007-10-28
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