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WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: JANUARY 20, 2013

The E-Sylum (1/20/2013)


Book Content

I had to miss the January Nummis Nova dinner meeting on Tuesday due to an unexpected family matter. Our theme was alternative currencies. I had been planning to bring several items from my collection to show. I'll save most of them for next month, but I put images of some of my Labor Exchange items together with Steve Whitfield's great branch #1 note in the previous article.

But so we can all share in some of the fun, I asked folks to send us images of some of their show-and-tell items. First, a few beauties from David Schenkman.

1695 Taler obverse 1695 Taler reverse
An 1695 Austrian Taler

Wow - check out that chin! A great condition piece.

1700 crown obverse 1700 crown reverse
A 1700 Crown

Dave writes:

I bought this 1700 crown at a Stacks sale nearly thirty years ago.

arizona-o arizona-r
Arizona Nail in Your Coffin Rebus token

Dave writes:

This aluminum token came to me in a collection I recently purchased. There were a number of good Arizona tokens, but I like this one because of the rebus reverse. I can’t recall seeing another token with a coffin on it. According to Peter Spooner’s catalog of Arizona tokens, Sam Abraham operated a saloon circa 1894-1914. This token would have been good for a drink.

Well, there are at least two other tokens picturing coffins. We pictured them in the April 15th E-Sylum, from the collection of Eric Schena's wife Heather.

Undertaker token reverses

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: APRIL 15, 2012 (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n16a17.html)

Eric Schena writes:

To go with the night's theme of Alternate Currencies, I brought some examples of Baltimore's BNotes - a local/community currency in circulation at the present. I got them along with a brochure that described their use and where to get them. They are really quite well made and very attractive - it's not apparent in the scans but the serial numbers and the large denomination numeral are in gold. I am still looking for some of the other Mid-Atlantic community currencies (Floyd Hours, Anacostia Hours, and Potomacs) and hope to have some of those to show at a future dinner.

Baltimore BNote 1 Baltimore BNote 1 back Baltimore BNote 5 Baltimore BNote 5 back

Eric adds:

I also brought an earlier example of a community currency: this time from the Panic of 1907. This note is a $1 note from the Associated Banks of Lynchburg, VA. There are not a lot of examples of Panic scrip from Virginia and, while this is quite low grade, I am pleased to have an example. I also hope to source some Panic of 1893 scrip someday.

Lynchburg VA Clearing House certificate Lynchburg VA Clearing House certificate back

Thanks for the great images. I'd never seen the Lynchburg Clearing House certificate. I'll bet it's a rare item. -Editor
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