by Michael E. Marotta
© Copyright 2000 by Michael E. Marotta
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by Michael E. Marotta
© Copyright 2000 by Michael E. Marotta
If you are a serious collector, you need the literature that supports your efforts. There are only a few sellers and it is easy to get to know them all personally. You can find them all in the classified ads of the numismatic magazines and newspapers. You can meet them at regional and national coin shows. They have websites. They want to send you their catalogs.
For a slice through the middle of what numismatic literature is all about, consider the Remy Bourne 12th public auction catalog of October 6-7, 2000. It is representative of the kinds of catalogs, books, and other printed materials that all sellers of literature have to offer.
The centerpiece of this auction are the books owned by A. M. Smith, a 19th century collector and dealer. A. M. Smith circulated within the Philadelphia insiders. Among the offerings is Smith's own 1885 sales catalog of U.S. coinage, with an introduction by Daniel M. Fox, superintendent of the U.S. Mint. (Imagine a Bowers catalog with an intro by Philip Diehl!) Other works by other authors come from this same library. Included are three versions of the Stickney Sale by Henry Chapman, one with plates and prices realized.
Probably the keystone is Smith's hand-priced copy of the Parmelee Sale by New York Stamp and Coin June 25-27, 1890. At $1200, it is 12 times more expensive than yet another MS-64 Morgan Dollar, but this was the sale where Ed Frossard and Lyman Low got into a wrestling match arguing over a Clover Leaf Cent.
Bourne is offering a letter from James Ross Snowden, Director of the Mint to Joseph J. Mickley, seeking to buy for the Mint any and all original medals, tokens, and other objects with the likeness of George Washington. H. R. Lindermann's 1878 work and Crosby's 1875 book on U.S. coinage are also catalogued.
Not all of the lots are highly desired collectibles. For the true bargain hunter, Bourne lists 71 "value boxes" of books and catalogs for the low end shopper. In the middle range of items are the standard references by J. Hewitt Judd, Henry Adams, Eric P. Newman, Walter Breen, and Donald Taxay. For instance, a New copy of the Breen Encyclopedia carries a recommended bid of $85, with a used copy in Fine offered near $40.
In addition to books, you can find a 10-year run of the John Reich Journal, and partial runs of the Gobrecht Journal and the Coin Collector's Journal among many other periodicals. These are the publications where the facts cited in books first appear -- and often the articles in these journals offer counter-facts and other considerations that do not appear in books.
Remy Bourne may be one heck of a nice guy and a true numismatic scholar. He is nonethless only one of several dealers in literature, among them George Frederick Kolbe (perhaps the dean of numismatic literature), Fred Lake, Karl Moulton, and Charles Davis. If you do not now shop this market, you owe it to yourself to discover its wonders and pleasures. Probably the best overview is to discover the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.