Numismatic titles in archive.org's National Emergency Library

On March 24, 2020 archive.org released for unlimited borrowing the 1.4 million book titles they call the National Emergency Library.

They believe the global pandemic justifies their action. (They give their legal and moral justification here.)

The National Emergency Library is not just medical books. It is everything they have. For the duration of the emergency you can download all kinds of amazing things. Here is a list of their numismatic holdings by decade. It includes some very rare auction catalogs and club journals.

I encourage everyone looking for an at-home project to consider finishing your own numismatic works and prepare them for publication. Stay home. Use this library for research during the pandemic.

• 52 titles 2020
• 2398 titles 2010s
• 2140 titles 2000s
• 1678 titles 1990s
• 1911 titles 1980s
• 1607 titles 1970s
• 1148 titles 1960s
• 789 titles 1950s
• 958 titles 1940s
• 407 titles 1930s
• 313 titles 1920s

Older CNG catalogs

The auction house Classical Numismatic Group has an excellent web site with a good search engine that can be used to study over 300,000 coins and related objects that have appeared in their sales.

The searchable database begins with sale 60 (22 May 2002).

CNG sold many important coins before their 60th sale. Some of their old catalogs are for sale at CNG's own catalog site. They can also sometimes be found in book auctions. A brief index of the focus of each catalog can be found on Warren Esty's site.

Many people don't know that catalogs for sales 1-56 have been uploaded as searchable PDF files and are freely downloadable. I have created a simple list of direct links to the catalogs.

1. CNA I
2. CNA II
3. CNA III
4. CNA IV
5. CNA V
6. CNA VI
7. CNA VII
8. CNA VIII
9. CNA IX
10. CNA X
11. CNA XI
12. CNA XII
13. CNA XIII
14. CNA XIV
15. CNA XV
16. CNA XVI
17. CNA XVII
18. CNA XVIII
19. CNA XIX
20. CNA XX
21. CNA XXI
22. CNG XXII
23. CNG XXIII
24. CNG XXIV
25. CNG XXV
26. CNG XXVI
27. CNG XXVII
28. CNG XXVIII
29. CNG XXIX
30. CNG XXX
31. CNG XXXI
32. CNG XXXII
33. CNG XXXIII
34. CNG XXXIV
35. CNG 35
36. CNG 36
37. CNG 37
38. CNG 38
39. CNG 39
40. CNG 40
41. CNG 41
42. CNG 41
43. CNG 43 September 24, 1997
44. 44 was Triton I. CNG Triton I
45. CNG 45 March 18, 1998
46. CNG 46
47. CNG 47 September 16, 1998
48. 48 was Triton II. CNG Triton II
49. CNG 49 March 17, 1999
50. CNG 50
51. CNG 51 September 15, 1999
52. 52 was Triton III. CNG Triton III
53. CNG 53 March 15, 2000
54. CNG 54
55. CNG 55
56. 56 was Triton IV. CNG Triton IV part 1 and CNG Triton IV part 2

Wearing down a replica to make it appear genuine

The 19th century forger Becker discovered he could make his product seem genuine by applying artificial wear.

It seems some modern forgers have relearned his trick. Antiquanova.com sells nice replica Neapolis staters for 45 euro in fine silver and 6 euro in tin.

A UK-based eBay seller has the following coin listed with 6 days remaining. Six bidders have worked it up to £26.00.

NFC chips coming to slabs

CoinWeek reported on December 27 that PCGS will partner with HID Global to begin embedding high security Near Field Communication (NFC) chip technology in slabs starting in early 2020. There will be apps for NFC-enabled smartphones to verify the slabs are authentic, and to display the information on the slab. Typically NFC readers need to be 4cm or closer to read the chips. It may be possible to read the chips from a few feet away using a giant circular antenna.

Changes at Corpus Nummorum Online

I recently noticed that Corpus Nummorum Online is greatly enlarged. Many new coins, and a new search engine. This project is worth keeping an eye on.

New gold bullion counterfeiting scam

Peter Hobson reports for Reuters on “Fake-branded bars”.

These aren't bars that are short of gold. The fakes are said to contain legit gold, but stamped with the names of refineries that did not issue the bars.

It is said to be a way to launder conflict gold. Many of the forged bars are said to originate in China.

Over the last three years, over 1000 bars worth over $50,000,000 have been found.

Crime currencies

• Lorenzo Totaro reports for Bloomberg that Italy’s Mafia Uses the Old Lira as Its Own Parallel Currency (June 15)
• This Local Italy, no byline, The lira is still being used in Italy - by the mafia (June 17)
• Arthur L. Friedberg reports for CoinWorld that Organized crime resurrects Italian lira for illegal transactions (July 8)

It is difficult to search for these stories, because there is a crypto currency also called “Italian Lira”. The crypto version has a total market cap of 1 BTC (about $14,000 USD).

Chesterwood

Last Monday I toured the Massachusetts studio of the sculptor Daniel Chester French. He designed the Lincoln memorial. There are quite a few pictures of the memorial on Twitter today. The pictures are taken from behind temporary fencing erected for tonights' Salute To America.

The memorial was intended to show the difficulty of Lincoln as the decision maker during the Civil War. Lincoln knew his actions would lead to many deaths. French's monument is a powerful representation of the necessity and undesirability of war. Even if you have seen the actual memorial it is enlightening to see the earlier, smaller versions, that the artist used to work out the design.

The actual sculpture was carved right here in the Bronx in 1922 by the Piccirilli brothers. They were Italian immigrants. An article by Lucie Levine points out "The brothers faced anti-immigrant sentiment even as they worked to realize some of the United States’ most patriotic sculptures.... The Lincoln Memorial Commission rejected French’s suggestion to have “Piccirilli” inscribed on the pedestal of the Lincoln Memorial."

Stater of Kherei

DYNASTS OF LYCIA. Kherei, circa 430-410 BC. Stater, Tlos mint.
Obv: Helmeted head of Athena to right.
Rev: 𐊜𐊕𐊁𐊕𐊚𐊆𐊛𐊋-𐊗𐊍𐊀𐊇𐊆 (Lycian; =kerẽi-tlawi); Gorgoneion within border of dots in a circular incuse.

There are two or three known examples. The photo is my composite of the Jameson specimen and the example auctioned in Switzerland by Nomos.

The inscription is in Lycian and names the ruler and the city of issue.

US Mint suspends redemption program

A Coin World article by Paul Gilkes reports that the US Mint has suspended the Mutilated Coin Redemption Program “pending the development of additional safeguard”.

As previously reported here, the US government pays $19.84/pound for dimes, quarters and half dollars that are bent, broken or corroded. Chinese recyclers were returning 'coins' that did not have the metallic composition of original coins. Every year millions of dollars of such coins are somehow being found in China by firms that recycle cars and electronic equipment.

• part 1
• part 2

Counterfeiter Daniel Johnson

A story in the LA Times by Del Quentin Wilber includes photos of the counterfeit $100 bills produced by Daniel Johnson. The Secret Service seized fake bills with a face value of $300,000 from Johnson's counterfeiting plant and home.

The counterfeiter was killed in a shootout with US Marshals in May 2018.

Dr. William H. Sheldon, Ted Naftzger and the Large Cent Thefts.

John Kleeburg's lecture on the large cent thefts at the ANS last year.

https://youtu.be/KDR5W7zJzMk. 70 minutes.

Copyright has expired for US books from 1923

After many extensions, US books printed in 1923 are now out of copyright. This week the Internet Archive made 33 numismatic works from 1923 available.

1923 wasn't a stellar year. The works are mostly auction catalogs. Included is Henry Chapman’s Ancient and modern foreign and American gold coins collected by the late Enrico Caruso, the sales catalog of the opera singer's coin collection.

No illustrations. This is the copy from the American Numismatic Society library. The catalog is 'priced' (sale prices recorded in the margins).

Laser cleaning of ancient coins

Briefly noted: An 8-year-old paper by Eleni Drakaki, Andreas Karydas, et al: “Evaluation of laser cleaning of ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine coins”. Successful results are claimed, sometimes in conjunction with mechanical cleaning.

The article is a followup to an earlier paper, “Laser cleaning on Roman coins”. The image for this post comes from the first paper.

Which US note is the most common?

There are more hundred dollar bills in circulation than $1s.

H/T Marginal Revolution.

Three-dimensional reconstruction of Roman coins from photometric image sets

“Three-dimensional reconstruction of Roman coins from photometric image sets”, a 2017 Journal of Electronic Imaging paper by Lindsay MacDonald, Vera Moitinho de Almeida, and Mona Hess.

The present study combined two datasets representing the surface topography of the two Faustina coins (Fig. 1). First, they were scanned by a 3-D color laser scanner, producing a point cloud of the surface shape. Second, they were photographed in an illumination dome with directional lighting. The two representations were combined to produce a digital elevation map (DEM) of each coin with the accuracy of the scanner and the fine detail of the photography.

The Insane Million Maker Master Counterfeiter

Good documentary storytelling on counterfeiting: Snap Judgement recently made a 22 minute segment about Frank Bourassa, a Canadian who counterfeited a quarter of a billion US dollars in twenties in 2009.

I calculate that $200,000,000 in $20 bills would weight 10 tons and would completely fill a 12' moving van.

NGC population reports for graded ancient coins

Catalogers of high grade modern coins often boast about coins having only a few specimens, or even no specimens, known in a higher grade.

Ancient coin catalogers will sometimes say "finest known" but they rarely say things like "only a population of 43 coins better".

On NGC's slab verification pages, for example https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/4629247-016/NGCAncients/, there are no population reports comparable to modern coins. That page says "Total Graded by NGC: Not Available".

Yet I noticed the Heritage Auctions web now includes NGC Ancients population reports. I noticed this watching their Long Beach auction yesterday. Here is an example from a recent Heritage online-only auction: https://coins.ha.com/itm/ancients/g...m-9h-ngc-ms-5-5-3-5-test-cut/a/231836-61011.s . The auction listing displays the slabbed population with the grade of the current lot highlighted in yellow.

Here is the owl population as of September 7th 2018:

The auction house gives an NGC population report and includes the count ranked star (= "impressive"). They don't mention "fine style" or "test cut" or the x/5 ratings. This particular lot has a huge test cut that doesn't make it into the numerical chart.

I was curious to see the single starred "Choice MS" example in the above population report. It is https://coins.ha.com/itm/greek/anci...22-gm-5h-ngc-choice-ms-5-5-5-5/a/3066-30035.s, and it sold for $36k last month.

Replica hobo nickels

Is anyone familiar with Chinese hobo nickel replica maker Gyphongxin? The e-Sylum discussed Chinese hobo nickel replicas but I still meet advanced collectors who do not know the scope of it.

I purchased the "hobo dime" above with the Medusa skull design last year. It looks like a 1916-D. Often the creations of the artist (or artists?) "Gyphongxin" duplicate award winning hobo nickels but I haven't found the prototype for this one. A store on Alibaba.com is selling these for $1.70 and they say they have 9837 pieces available. The seller also has one with a 1916-S reverse with 9995 available.

In hand the coins don't look particularly great. Other Chinese replicas do look great. I recommend anyone interested in the Chinese replica coin production quality listen to Charles Morgan interview Beth Deisher on the CoinWeek podcast.

There is a new wrinkle in how the coins are being shipped. The half-dollar at the top of the page sold on eBay for $4 with free shipping. It shipped from China to the nation of Georgia. (Not the US state, the former Soviet republic.) A different shipper slapped a sticker with a return address in Tbilisi over the first sticker. This process caused the replica to take six weeks to arrive. Why is the seller is willing to pay for double postage and send the coin around the world the long way? I suspect US Customs authorities are looking for and stopping these replicas.

I recommend everyone check out this Alibaba.com store. Perhaps the ancient Greek and Roman coins won't fool you. Perhaps the US coins or the world silver won't fool you. There are a few things in this store that look very good in a photo and sell for a dollar or two.

The Feather Heist

Good reporting on museum security: This American Life recently made an hourlong episode about the 2009 smash-and-grab burglary at the Natural History Museum, London. Bird carcasses and feathers worth more than $1,000,000 on the fly-fishing black market were stolen. Some have been recovered.