Each morning I get a subscription email from NPR called the Writer's Almanac. It is also played on many NPR stations at about 8:30.

Today it noted the birthdays of four important people - Robert Frost, Tennessee Williams, Joseph Campbell and A. E. Housman. The first three are generally well known, but it was the last that struck me.

Frost is known to poetry readers for the Yankee / New England viewpoint of things; his poem presented during the Kennedy inauguration, and the famous line of "a road less traveled." I have often been on those roads.

Joseph Campbell is known through the 1990s Mythology series with Bill Moyers which was presented on PBS. I knew about him earlier in the 1980s as he was a professor at Sarah Lawrence College, and my friend Michael Druck spoke about him on occasion.

Tennessee Williams wrote many classic plays, and Streetcar Named Desire is a favorite of mine. Not at first for the story, but the use of the streetcar. My first trip to New Orleans was as a teenager in the late 1970s, and I got to ride on those stalwart streetcars, as well as photograph the unrestored New Orleans Mint.

However, it was the mention of poet A. E. Housman that struck me most. It was in speach class as a sophomore in Brooklyn Technical High School that I became familiar with his work. We were assigned a project to recite a poem. I decided to choose one which had a numismatic connection, and as a collector of British type coins at the time (I exhibited coppers of George III at the NY ANA in 1976, yikes that was a traumatic experience). I fell into Houseman's "When I was one and twenty" which includes the lines: "When I was one-and-twenty / I heard a wise man say, 'Give crowns and pounds and guineas / But not your heart away. / Give pearls away and rubies / but keep your fancy free. / But I was one and twenty / no use to talk to me."

Many of those lines I could still recite today.

Written in the last part of the 19th century, I knew that crowns and pounds were coins, but the guinea did not exist as a coin after the 1820s. But it continued in use as a measure of account, usually to make expensive items sound cheaper. (The guinea is 21 shillings, the pound is 20 shillings). Thus houses, cruises and other items were rendered often in guineas rather than pounds.

I was leaning economics as well as poetry.

George

The new color $5 Federal Reserve Notes, featuring a larger portrait of Lincoln, a circle of stars, along with two different 5 watermarks and a large purple 5 on the back have been released March 13th.

The first spend event was at the gift shop at the recently restored cottage that Abraham Lincoln used as a "summer" White House on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in northwest Washington DC.

The new bills will eventually work their way into the banking system, and you should be seeing some soon.

George

London, England - March 7, 2008 - Spink, the world’s leading auctioneers of Coins, Stamps, Medals and Banknotes, Bonds and Share Certificates, based in London and established 1666, has agreed to acquire R.M. Smythe & Company,  specialists in Antique Stocks and Bonds, Banknotes, Coins, and Autographs,  based in New York City and established in 1880. Both Spink and Smythe are known around the globe for their illustrious histories, impeccable reputations and unparalleled expertise. The merging of these two companies is the next logical step in line with Spink’s strategy for the future and will create the first truly global, fully integrated, collectables house.

So there you have it for numismatic news from the weekend!

 

George

 

For the twenty years during which I was active in the numismatic scene of New York City, fall of 1973 thru summer 1994, there was a core group of active dealers, collectors, convention workers and club members who would have contact with each other sometimes weekly, but at most semi-monthly.

There was also some movement between the between certain firms by the staff members.

One of these folks was Robert S. Archer, and I was reminded that this month is the tenth anniversary of his death.

Bob's collecting speciality were early 20th century proof and specimen issues of the British Commonwealth. Many of these were struck at the Heaton Mint. They are beautiful coins. They were sold in a Sprink sale.

His professional career took him first from a life as a Madison Avenue advertising account executive to the Numismatic Director of Spink & Son, USA Inc. which opened with a boutique office on the 19th floor of 445 Park Avenue. They held sales in special locations for the time - The Plaza Hotel and the Waldorf-Astoria. At the Waldorf sale, they also intrduced the book Art of Coins and their Photogrpahy, with a reception that not only included finger food, but a string quartet.

Upon leaving Spink, he would spend time at the numismatic department of William Doyle Galleries, mostly dealing with estate collections, then Sotheby's, and finally, Stacks / Coin Galleries where I got to work with him for four years before my re-location to Wisconsin.

When I got to be his co-worker, he was recovering from a divorce, and had a wonderful daughter, who would eventually attend Harvard.

Bob had trouble controlling his diabeties, and after a long a steady decline, he had one health issue heaped upon another. Toward the end he was having a most difficult time and was mostly confined to a wheel chair.

Be careful out there.

George