| 2003
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Subjects
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Page
Index
Links
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Link:
Numismatic Art Award for Excellence in Medallic Sculpture
Link:
Today's News About Encased Postage
Link:
Wrong Sized Maris 8-F New Jersey Cent
Link:
[ A Real 1786 New Jersey Cent ]
Link:
Con$ept 'Fallen Die' Error
Link:
Coinage Of The Americas Conference
Link:
Fleur De Coin - 'Flower Of The Die'
Link:
U.S. Silver Coinage... An Endangered Specie!
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Enlargement scans available on WWW and ScrapBook CD-ROM.
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Numismatic Art Award for Excellence
in Medallic Sculpture
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Press Release: August 2, 2003
We are proud to announce the recent honors awarded to our Chief Engraver,
Ron Landis. Mr. Landis has been chosen to receive the "Numismatic Art Award
for Excellence in Medallic Sculpture". The gold medal has been awarded since
1966 and is considered to be one of the highest honors in the field. Past
recipients include numerous medallic sculptors, engravers, and coin
designers around the world including the last three Chief Engravers of the
U.S. Mint.
The award is to be presented August 2, at the annual convention of the
American Numismatic Association in Baltimore, Maryland. Landis will not be
able to attend the awards banquet, so it will be accepted by his long time
friend and supporter, ANA Education Director, Gail Baker.
Ron has been making medals, tokens and reproduction coins for the past
twenty years, and is a partner in the Gallery Mint Museum with Machinist,
Joe Rust. Their goal is to create a working mint museum that will illustrate
the evolution of coin-making arts from Ancient Greece through the Industrial
Revolution periods.
Copyright © Gallery Mint Museum 2003 All Rights
Reserved
Link:Today's
News from the Gallery Mint Museum
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A Ron Landis photograph.
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Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
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Today's News About Encased Postage
During the Civil War, coins were in short supply. In an effort to
remedy the situation, postage stamps were monotized and were traded
in cardboard folders that wore out quickly. John Gault invented and
patented a simple brass token that a postage stamp could be encased
in. The encased postage had a mica window that the stamp could be
viewed through. The back side had advertising messages from the
companies that ordered the small denomination 'coins' from Mr. Gault.
They were eventually replaced by government issue fractional currency.
Today, the surviving pieces are highly collectible in many areas of
collecting. It is a postage stamp, yes, but an encased postage
actually served as legal tender, so it also falls under the category
of paper money. They are also of interest to Civil War buffs and
token collectors. We have been experimenting making our own version
of encased postage. We don't know if we'll make direct reproductions
of John Gault's pieces, or do our own versions. These are still in
the experimental stage. One of the big problems we are having is
finding the good quality mica for the windows.
Ron Landis... July 30, 2003
Copyright © Gallery Mint Museum 2003 All Rights
Reserved
It is really nice to see Ron's
Link:Today's
News from the Gallery Mint Museum
being updated to help keep all his fan's "in the know" about his many
ongoing projects. Sure do appreciate the news Ron!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 8/2
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A Clifford Bolling photograph.
1786
New Jersey Cent
- Maris 8-F
Struck on a planchet intended for a Maris 62.5 recreation.
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Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
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Wrong Sized Maris 8-F New Jersey Cent
I finally received my 31mm 1786 New Jersey copper in the mail today,
over a month after the post mark of June 30, 2003. No explanations
or guesses why it took so long. According to the mintage figures,
only 2 of these were struck on the larger planchets used for the
1787 New Jersey pieces. The rest were struck on 28mm planchets.
Cliff Bolling... Friday, August 01, 2003 12:43AM
Again... a conflict as to what to name this SBsubject! My first thought
was the title of Cliff's EMail... Finally Got Here! All though
appealing... I decided it wouldn't be very helpful later on when searching
down through the index for something specific. A lot of my SBsubject
titles have that problem... "Clever" isn't always "Smart!"
Cliff keeps his eyes open on eBay. I saw this specimen before Cliff
bid on it but, in my rush, just took it to be a "regular" Maris 8-F
Landis recreation. Once Cliff bid I was loath to beat him up trying
to take it away from him. Nice catch Cliffy!
It is interesting how differently some scans come out. Cliff first sent
me the above scan and I really like it... although I don't know how
much like the specimen it actually looks. Then he sent me separate scans
of the three pieces shown below in the comparison side-by-side scan.
These came out drastically different. Cliff can't see the color red and
all three scans were dramatically different shades of red... SIGH!
...off to my graphics software. I got the scans to come out relatively
the same colors but... again ...they may not be anything close to the
colors of the original individual specimens. Anyway, I appreciate all
the hard work Cliff went to in providing these scans for us.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
A Clifford Bolling photograph.
Regular Maris 8-F(left)
Wrong Sized Maris 8-F(center)
Regular Maris 62.5(right)
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on CD-ROM
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1786
New Jersey Cent
- Maris 14-J
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Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
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A Real 1786 New Jersey Cent
This is a beautiful example of a Maris 14-J. The J reverse was very long lived and combined with more obverses than any other NJ. Look at that prominent center dot in the shield. The die engraver would find the center of the die and use a compass to scribe a line to guide his placement of the letter punches for the legend. You can see clearly on the plow that the engraver first cuts the outline of the device into the die, then removed the material between the lines to create the plow. You can see that the bottom plow handle had not had enough metal removed from the die to totally fill in between the lines. On the other hand, proportionately, the plow share was cut too deeply into the die and did not fill between the lines either. You can see so much on a high condition coin that is missed on a circulated piece. Although one of the most common of NJ Copper varieties, this one is in exceptional condition!!!
Ray Williams... Saturday, August 02, 2003 6:56AM
I no longer know where I first saw this high grade New Jersey cent
specimen. The reason I saved the scan was because of the, to me,
unusual way the eye of the horse was portrayed. Of course Ray sees
lots of other interesting details on this piece because of his long
experience with Colonial coins. I LOVE hanging around with folks who
know a LOT about anything numismatic. Thank you for sharing Ray!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 8/1
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2000
Statue Of Liberty '13-ray' Con$ept
Brass - Piedfort -
26.7mm
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Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
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Con$ept 'Fallen Die' Error
This is something you won't see everyday. In fact, we're taking
measures to make sure it can't happen again. So far, this is the
only error that has occurred during the run of piedfort prototype
dollars.
The basic problem is that the upper die was only held in with a set
screw, which can work loose under the extreme pressure and vibrations
of normal use. As the ram of the press come down to strike the piece,
the upper die fell out of it's adapter, and landed cockeyed on the
planchet, creating this error that we are having a difficult time trying
to categorize. For now we'll call it a "fallen die" error for lack of
a better term.
The damage it caused to the machinery was minimal compared to what could
have happened had the die landed on the collar, for example. The fact
that the planchet is double thick, gave enough cushion that it didn't
seriously damage the dies. It only dented the rim portion of the reverse
die slightly. That was able to be repaired by cutting the rim a bit
deeper on the lathe.
Being a thick planchet, it struck much of the design into the planchet
at a strange angle, almost piercing all the way through the planchet.
This error caused considerable damage to the upper die adapter which
was able to be machined back to a useable shape.
Of course, we will not re-create this error, but it may be offered at
auction at a future date. Ron Landis... March 1998, "Gallery Mint
Report," Volume 5, Issue 1.
Ron has already pretty much said it all in his Gallery Mint Report.
It is nice to learn that he may consider placing this specimen in his
upcoming auction... details to be forthcoming at some future date.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 8/1
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AMERICAN
NUMISMATIC SOCIETY
1997 Coinage Of The Americas Conference
Silver - struck on a GMM $1 planchet with edge lettering -
37.3mm
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Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
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Coinage Of The Americas Conference
The uniface silver medal shown above is truly unique... one of a kind!
It is NOT the medal(s) referred to in SBsubject
Link:Special American Numismatic Society Medal.
That one is a small pewter medal of the ilk that Ron regularly creates
on his traveling mini-mint. This silver medal was struck by Ron from a
demonstration die created at the same ANS seminar/workshop discussed in
the aforementioned SBsubject. He told me he struck it after returning to
Eureka Springs and that he will not strike any additional copies of it.
Needless to say... but I will say it anyway ...this silver medal is
permanently impounded in Ron's Museum Collection.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 8/1
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Mercury /
Messenger Of The Gods
Silver -
25.7-25.9mm
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Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
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Fleur De Coin - 'Flower Of The Die'
When Ron handed me this fantastic medal he said that it was one of his
few Fleur De Coin specimens, perhaps his only one. If you will
check below, where I have shown you three of his regular issue medals
struck from these dies, you will see why this terminology really does
apply in this specific case.
The copper and brass "cobs" shown below were demonstration specimens
struck by hand during Ron's Royal Mint period before the creation
of the Gallery Mint Museum. If memory serves me correctly...
I sold the first of the three on eBay for some trivial sum and the
other two are in my private collection. The silver FDC specimen shown
above is in Ron's Museum Collection.
We have visited about these "Mercury" medals previously in SBsubject
Link:Mercury - Messenger Of The Gods.
Ron is a source of never ending wonderment! By this I mean someone who
produces wonder; a marvel and NOT the alternative definition of
producing puzzlement or curiosity.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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1796
GMM LibertyCap HalfCent
struck over
Washington Quarter Dollar
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Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
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U.S. Silver Coinage... An Endangered Specie!
I couldn't resist playing a bit with words here... Specie
versus Species. It is fun to slip a different word into a
commonly encountered context. Gives a person pause sometimes.
Sorry about my weird sense of humor ...but... what a difference
one little letter makes!
Our friend Lane Brunner won the above 1796 GMM LibertyCap HalfCent
pièce de caprice struck over a silver 1964 U.S. Washington Quarter
Dollar. He got it at a super cheap price too! Someone I don't know
won the below 1793 GMM LibertyCap Cent pièce de caprice struck over
a silver U.S. Walking Liberty Half Dollar. This piece went a bit
higher but was still a decent price for such a COOL specimen.
I almost entitled this SBsubect; U.S. Silver Coinage... In Mortal
Danger! but couldn't pass up the Specie/Species wordplay. Clearly
any silver pieces that get close to Eureka Springs are not likely to
survive the experience. I have found that even Proof silver specimens
are not safe in that environs. Ron's environs?... enough
silliness already!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
1793
GMM LibertyCap Cent
struck over
Walking Liberty Half Dollar
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Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
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