Last time I was in Paris, a coin dealer gave me a stack of these for free:
They appear to be a (North American) monthly numismatic publication; the ones I got were from February 2013 to March 2014, so from a few years back. I put them away and forgot about them, but I found them again today... I've spent the past few hours reading through them, and aside from the obligatory ads (obviously all numismatic related!), there were some pretty engrossing articles:
Despite the magazine's origins, it seems to have covered healthy range of numismatic subjects; most are for American coin types, but a January 2014 issue had it's main article devoted to a dissection of Canadian coins by monarch; there are of course a few European articles as well, and even one about the "coins of the Qatabanian kings", something I'd barely even heard of...
But I think my favourite's got to be this section, "Past Tense":
This section appears covering one page in every issue, and it covers an American coin with information abut contemporary historical events, the coin itself and monetary purchasing power at the time. All in all a good read, definitely recommended.
By the way, is anyone here a regular subscriber? It appears they've been going since 1888, and are the "flagship publication" of the ANA.
I have most of the issues from 1960 to the mid-1990s. It so happens that a former president of the local coin club was giving them away, and I was the only one interested. There are many important articles in the earlier issues alongside pieces written by collectors that are very descriptive. It's a little annoying that I am missing sometimes just one or two fascicles to complete a year.
And yes, it's altogether quite an important publication. You can access it online for something like $50/year. The very early issues, however, are now in the public domain (though older articles are, of course, often outdated). You can find many in archive.org.
I didn't know about the article about Canadian coins by monarch, which interests me since this is how I organize my collection. Almost every one here organizes their collection by denomination.
@Camerinvs
If you're interested, the Canadian coins by monarch article is on page 35 of the January 2014 issue; titled "Canadian Coins of the British Monarchy" by Dennis Tucker.
Organising coins by monarch is the way many a British collector I know does it; booklets/trays sorted by "Edward VII", "George V", etc. are usually the format in UK coin shops.
And while the freebies I got were definitely a good read, I don't believe I'll be paying 50 US dollars a year, thank you very much, ANA.
Quote: "CassTaylor"Organising coins by monarch is the way many a British collector I know does it; booklets/trays sorted by "Edward VII", "George V", etc. are usually the format in UK coin shops.
Indeed, and the Seaby catalogue is (rightly) organized in the same way. I wished the Numista catalogue was as well. It would make browsing so much easier. Here is my cabinet for British coins:
Oh... wait... That's George III's coin cabinet now in the British Museum.
.
Quote: "CassTaylor"And while the freebies I got were definitely a good read, I don't believe I'll be paying 50 US dollars a year, thank you very much, ANA.
This fee is to access the entire collection via a company that provides electronic journals. I'm thinking of subscribing for one year and download everything that I need.
Quote: "aaronmgd"You should both visit the Newman numismatic portal. A ton of circulars free to read or download.
aaron
Yes, it is a great digital library. Here is the link at WashingtonU. Unfortunately, access to The Numismatist is restricted. But there are many other publications, including the American Journal of Numismatics which is downloadable from the beginning to 2008.
Quote: "Camerinvs"=1emIndeed, and the Seaby catalogue is (rightly) organized in the same way. I wished the Numista catalogue was as well. It would make browsing so much easier. "
If you re-order the catalogue by date or KM# it sorts them into monarchs.
Quote: "Camerinvs"Indeed, and the Seaby catalogue is (rightly) organized in the same way. I wished the Numista catalogue was as well. It would make browsing so much easier."
If you re-order the catalogue by date or KM# it sorts them into monarchs.
Wow! Brilliant! I use search functions and filters to remove all the non-circulating stuff, but never before did I think of looking at the display options >>> date.
On top of it, by doing this Elizabeth's coinage is broken down into her different portraits (4 so far for Canada), which is exactly the way I organize things.
Some of the advertisments from a January 1916 issue.... on the third, under "Something Unique" you can see the commemorative halves, dollars and 2.5 dollars minted last year for the San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exposition (1915) being sold; those were the cash-grabbing, tacky modern commemoratives of their day.
Interesting to see how numismatists operated in a time when the coins we love today were still in circulation, or not even produced yet.
Thanks for pointing that out. Yes, they do show up on eBay. Here is a search for the same thing in eBay via picclick. Prices vary quite a lot. It's unrealistic to sell a single fascicle for more than $5, and if you have it shipped outside the US, it seems to always be at least US $15 postage even for a single fascicle.
Quote: "Camerinvs"Tchou Dynasty, c. 600-300 BC. I suppose it's an old spelling.
Well we here in China latinise it as the "Zhou dynasty".
Never thought it could be misheard so badly.
Well, it is understandable, I assume. Nowadays, pronounce President Xi as 'Shee' and pronounce the naval explorer Zheng He as 'Zing Hee', Zing as in "amazing", He as in the pronoun "he". Given the translation customs of that time was to directly transliterate how they would pronounce it... it's not really that bad.
Quote: "Camerinvs"Tchou Dynasty, c. 600-300 BC. I suppose it's an old spelling.
Well we here in China latinise it as the "Zhou dynasty".
Never thought it could be misheard so badly.
If I recall correctly "Tch" was the Wade-Giles Romanisation of the Pinyin "Zh" syllable. The former French colony of Guangzhouwan was called "Kouang Tcheou Wan", for example.
Quote: "CassTaylor"I always thought Canada had 5 QEII portraits.... gotta remember that 5th portrait is only a British thing for now.
Back on topic though, I've discovered some of the (much) older issues available here:
https://archive.org/details/numismatist01assogoog
Some of the advertisments from a January 1916 issue.... on the third, under "Something Unique" you can see the commemorative halves, dollars and 2.5 dollars minted last year for the San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exposition (1915) being sold; those were the cash-grabbing, tacky modern commemoratives of their day.
Interesting to see how numismatists operated in a time when the coins we love today were still in circulation, or not even produced yet.
Canada has 4 portraits and no plans for a 5th. Australia on the other hand does have 5 portraits like the UK, though the 5th portrait differs
