Why let your ideas die with you?

Some web site is encouraging people to donate their copyrights to society at death.

The bizarre ancient coin videos of Gregory Zorzos

Strange ancient coins by Gregory Zorzos

Coins with Sphinx by Gregory Zorzos

Coins of Alexander the Great Vol 4 by Gregory Zorzos

Coins of the Seleucid Kings by Gregory Zorzos

The ancient Macedonian coins, the Greek letters and the lies

etc, etc, etc...

How people count cash

A video by Samimy Various Films on MetaCafe show styles of currency counting around the world.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1098393/how_people_count_cash/

I count money in the US/Canada/UK style. I was unaware that it was a cultural thing; I assumed everyone counted money like me.

Online Mionnet

Archivum on FORVM has collected links to a complete readable Mionnet set.

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=34502.msg276362#msg276362.

Mionnet describes all the ancient Greek and Provincial coins he knows, and gives them values (in francs, in the early 19th century). The series is insanely detailed, 7000 or 9000 pages, and includes a lot of coins and inscriptions you won't see online elsewhere.

ANS sale of duplicate catalogs

The ANS sale continues. Updated PDFs have been posted with sold-out titles removed. The NFA catalogs I was hoping for were already gone although I bid Saturday, before the announcement hit the e-Sylum.

I did catch a complete or near-complete set of Bankhaus H. Aufhauser/Hauck & Aufhauser catalogs.

If, like me, you are interested in the catalogs for their research value I'd like to remind you of Warren Esty's ancient coin auction catalog site. This site tells how many ancient coins are in each catalog, how good the coins are, and breaks the counts down into Greek, Roman, Byzantine, etc.

I also recommend collectors of Greek coins visit Kolbe 105 catalog for the essays recommending the catalogs of various firms. Most of the firms recommended by Dr. Koppersmith have already sold in the ANS sale.

Advertising-supported eBooks

TeleRead has an interesting post about Wowio royalties.

Wowio is a company that gives away e-Books of recent titles. They can do this because they add advertising. (I haven't actually downloaded any of their titles myself.) No numismatic titles, but I did see a free children's book on ancient Greek science and technology. Amazon sells the same book for about $12 plus shipping.

$2 auction catalogs

The American Numismatic Society is selling duplicates in preparation for the move. The catalogs for the first part of this sale are now online.

The ANS is charging $2 per title! That is a pretty good price for some of these titles, like The Garrett Collection, which regularly sell on eBay for much more.

The catalog of US dealer catalogs is 28 pages. The non-US dealer catalog is 97 pages. These catalogs were put together in haste, and some US dealers like Freeman & Sear appear in the non-US list. So check both.

Some of the catalogs go back to the '50s but must seem to be from the '80s and '90s.

I was surprised to see Numismatic Fine Arts catalog in the sale. Retiring librarian Campbell kept the library's good copies in the Rare Book Room. He would get particular auctions if asked... but there was no browsing. For that reason, I've never seen a real NFA catalog! It used to bug me that Mionnet's own copy of Mionnet (1806-1837), with his hand-annotations, was in the open stacks — but recent NFA catalogs were in the rare book room.

I sent in an order for the NFA catalogs (but not the fixed price lists...)

Notes on Kolbe 105

The downloadable catalog is a “SECURED” PDF! Printing the catalog is allowed, but selecting text, copying it to the clipboard, and pasting it into another document is disabled. For example, pasting information about particular lots into a blog is not allowed.

(DRM is irritating. For historical sciences like numismatics it's especially painful because so much depends upon what has been said before.)

Lot 29 was a surprise to me. It's a CD-ROM of the Library catalogue of British and Royal Numismatic Societies. I wasn't aware of this title, although The ANS library has a copy (in the multi-media section — also new to me). The ANS entry implies the disks were a suppliment to the 2003 Numismatic Chronical.

Catalog 105 follows the usual Kolbe format of being first divided into consigners, then arranged alphabetically by author within each consignment. I don't understand the arrangement; I'd prefer to see it first arranged by subject. So ancient coin books can be found in lots 1-447, and also 582-623. Perhaps this is a good arrangement for future scholars tracing back ownership of books?

Kolbe auction 105

George F. Kolbe's Auction 105 catalog is now up.

715 lots, with emphasis on works on ancient Greek coins. Also included is an essay on collecting books on Archaic and Classical Greek coins by Daniel L. Koppersmith.

Dear JSTOR

The Stingy Scholar asks Dear JSTOR: Why won't you let me in?.