| 2003
| ScrapBook
Subjects
|
Page
Index
Links
|
Link:
Newark Museum Press Setup Strike
Link:
Precious Bits Of Flotsam...
Link:
[ How Many Hobos Can Dance On The Head Of A Nail? ]
Link:
[ The Head of A Screw Makes An Interesting Canvas! ]
Link:
It's Back... Real Gold Creations Are Beautiful!
Link:
1804 Double Struck Dollar On A Silver Strip
Link:
[ New Maris Plates Added To Notre Dame's Website ]
Link:
Newark Museum Tokens In Silver And Pewter
Link:
Struck On A Blank Clad Ike Dollar Planchet
Link:
Fifteen Years Have Passed
Link:
[ You Want How Much For Postage&Handling? ]
|
|
Enlargement scans available on WWW and ScrapBook CD-ROM.
|
|
|
Up Next!
Link:Go there NOW!
Growth Fund Benefit Auction
...Part I
|
Coming Soon!
Link:Go there NOW!
Treasure Trove
...Pages ONE and TWO
|
|
| 11/30
|
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
Newark Museum Press Setup Strike
When I asked Timothy if they had any pewter tokens struck from the Newark
Museum dies before they took the screw press to New Jersey, he told me
that he had just melted the remainders back into raw pewter. Then when I
was back in Eureka Springs on my next trip I saw a single token laying in
a plastic sack on the office mail table. Ron said it wasn't being held for
anything special that he knew of so I could have it.
What is interesting with this specimen is that it clearly is a "press setup"
strike. You can see that the obverse die and the reverse die hadn't yet been
aligned properly when this token was struck. The obverse/hammer die is
off-center while the reverse/anvil die isn't which is what one would expect
since the planchet was laid on the reverse/anvil die.
It is always a great experience when I go and visit TheGuys in Eureka
Springs!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
|
|
|
| 11/28
|
c.1991 Texas Renaissance Festival
TwoHeaded 'Royal Mint' Dragon Die Trial
Struck uniface on a type'1' pewter planchet.
Precious Bits Of Flotsam...
...Cast Up By The Tides Of Time.
It has been way too long since I last acquired any sort of
pre-GMM 'Royal Mint' specimens to add to my collection. Timothy
came up with these three insignificant pieces from some crook or
cranny when he was cleaning up the other day. They may have been
nothing special to TheGuys but they are absolutely enthralling to the
Ol'FatMan. I hope you find them interesting as well.
The TwoHeaded Dragon die (above) is the reverse die for the
400th Anniversary Medal, Elizabethan Renaissance Era 1589-1620 -by Royal
Mint (RonLandis.) We have seen three other specimens that were struck
with this die in SBsubjects:
1) Link:Property of GMM MintMaster and
2) Link:Wisdom Faith Courage.
The Pan/Tree Demo dies used for the demonstration medal
(below) have been seen before in SBsubject:
1) Link:The Road To Perfection and the Pan
(obverse) die was used to create the understrike on the
Segovia/Windjammer die trial shown in SBsujbect:
2) Link:A Complicated And Interesting Numismatic Specimen.
Finally... the Good For $1 TRF dies (below) have had
extensive discussion/study in the following SBsubjects:
1) Link:Good For $1 In Trade...Royal Mint,
2) Link:Texas Renaissance Festival Tokens and
3) Link:Texas Renaissance Festival 'Roller Mill Mint'.
There are three different $1 token die sets and one $2 token die set on
Ron's TRF roller dies.
I'm certainly not doing these specimens justice... each deserves its own
SBsubject ...but they came as a group and I hated to split them up. They
have been 'together' for a long time now... over a decade already.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
|
c.1991 Texas Renaissance Festival
|
Pan/Tree Demonstration Medal
HotStruck by hand on crude silver planchet.
|
Good For $1 In Trade Die Trial
Rolled with a 1984-D Lincoln Cent
|
|
|
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
How Many Hobos Can Dance On The Head Of A Nail?
When I get the urge to carve another nail I'll get a smaller but softer metal nail and do a better job. I can carve 2-3 hours before I've got to sharpen gravers when I'm carving buffalo nickels. Nailheads dull them in 2-3 minutes. I did find out by carving a nailhead that my gravers are too large for small carvings so I'm going to make a few small ones up. William Jameson... Sunday, November 16, 2003 3:40PM
|
Click for
Hand,
ScrewHead
or
Completed
enlargement on CD-ROM
The Head of A Screw Makes An Interesting Canvas!
Very shortly after Bill sent me the scan of his nail carving another
minature carving scan arrived in my INBOX... the darker scan in the
center. I thought Bill was finished with his carving experiment until
a couple days later I got the modified screw carving scan shown on
the right.
I'm finished with the nails and screws. I may carve a hobo on a pinhead one
day. William Jameson... Tuesday, November 18, 2003 11:50AM
I have to say that my life is richer every day thanks to my association
with talented people like Bill Jameson and the other fantastic nickel
carvers that it is my priviledge to know. Now where did I put that pin?
I gotta send it to Bill!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
|
|
| 11/19
|
A Mark Honea photograph.
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
It's Back... Real Gold Creations Are Beautiful!
eBay item 2204850187 (Ends Nov-29-03 13:47:38PST) -
Gallery Mint 1787 Brasher Dubloon - COPY.
This is a Gallery Mint Museum COPY of a 1787 Gold Brasher Dubloon. Ephraim
Brasher was a goldsmith in New York (and a neighbor of George Washington),
who produced gold coins, as well as testing and guaranteeing the value of
foreign gold coins. Most were counterstamped with his initials "EB". This
piece is unusual in that it IS NOT stamped with Brasher's initials. As with
all Gallery Mint products, it is struck on a planchet of the same specifications
(26.5 grams of 22 karat gold), and using the same technology as that available
to the early U.S. Mint (i.e., on a Screw Press). Gorgeous Uncirculated!
classiccoins... Nov-19-03 13:47:38PST
This wonderful solid gold Landis creation was last seen on eBay in August of 2002.
We archived it in SBsubject
Link:Missed
It By THAT Much!
and noted the interesting fact that it missed receiving an "EB" counterstamp.
Here is your chance to purchase this wonderful specimen... go for it!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
|
|
|
| 11/18
|
A Clifford Bolling photograph.
Click for
Expanded and Enlarged
view on CD-ROM
1804 Double Struck Dollar On A Silver Strip
After a week or more of tantalizing tidbits under construction in the GMM
Scrapbook, finally the Growth Fund Benefit Auction webpage is complete.
Great stuff! I can hardly wait for more... and the CD with the entire auction
list. Keep up the great work!
Mike Ellis mentioned that he thought the 1804 Double Strike error might
be unique, but I have one too. It is the 1804 $1 struck on the coin strip.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't intended to be a double strike, but it is. Does
it count if it was struck on a strip??
Clifford D. Bolling... Tuesday, November 18, 2003 8:14AM
Cliff... your piece does and does not meet the criteria! LOL!
Verne... maybe you should change the verbiage on Lot#8 to read that
this is the only one known other than one on a trial strike on a silver
metal strip.
Mike Ellis... Tuesday, November 18, 2003 10:19AM
We saw Cliff's silver dollar strip back in October of 2000 in SBsubject
Link:If
Strips Of Chicken Are Called "Chicken Fingers"... and the double
striking was not a pièce de caprice. Cliff just asked for 1796 and 1804
dollar die trials on a silver strip. I clearly remember him being quite
surprised when the 1804 impression arrived double struck.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
|
|
New Maris Plates Added To Notre Dame's Website
We looked at Maris Plate 3 from...
Link:The Coins of Colonial and Early
America, A Project of the Robert H. Gore, Jr. Numismatic Endowment
University of Notre Dame, Department of Special Collections, by Louis Jordan
...in SBsubject
Link:Nagy, Maris, NJNS Lot#7 And The Real GMM
Deerhead.
If you are reading this from a Gallery Mint Museum ScrapBook CD-ROM,
you can use the following links to view Plate-I:
Link:Upper Left,
Link:Upper Right,
Link:Lower Left and
Link:Lower Right quadrant scans. Otherwise you'll
need to go to the links in the website excerpt I've provided for you below and
click on the links to Notre Dame's stored images. Be warned... they are HUGE
files and take considerable time to download to your computer.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
|
New Jersey Copper Die Variety Charts 1786-1788
by Roger Moore, M.D. [revised Sept. 8, 2003]
{ an extract from
Link:A
Listing of Die Variety Charts }
|
A sample of 1787 obverses from Plate-I
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
Maris Plate-I:
A number of charts exist showing the numerous NJ obverse and reverse die varieties and their known pairings. However, the chart which has withstood the test of time and still serves as the primary reference for identifying NJ coppers is a photograph which appeared in 1881 as part of the classic book, A Historical Sketch of the Coins of New Jersey, written by Edward Maris, MD. A copy of this photograph, which measures 14 3/4 inches by 19 1/8 inches, broken down into four quadrants can be viewed by clicking below:
Link:Upper left quadrant
Link:Upper right quadrant
Link:Lower left quadrant
Link:Lower right quadrant
The Maris 1881 photograph is called the Maris plate-I photograph and is a picture of an actual plate made up of the know die varieties of the NJ coins using real coins, electrotypes of coins and possibly photographs of coins. Each die variety is indicated by a specific number (for the obverse dies) or letter (for the reverse dies). The die combinations are shown by ligature lines draw between the relevant obverse and reverse dies. Once the Maris plate-I was photographed, it was disassembled and no know portion of this plate is know to exist at this time.
A sample of 1787 obverses from Plate-I
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
Maris Plate-II:
A second plate exists, which consists of 140 NJ electrotypes soldered onto a zinc sheet measuring 18 inches by 24 inches and which is very similar to the Maris plate-I in regard to the NJ die varieties used and their arrangement on the plate. This plate which is called the Maris plate-II is believed to have been made sometime between 1881 and 1900 by Dr. Maris and it presently resides in the New Jersey Historical Society. In spite of the similarities between the Maris plate-I and Maris plate-II, a number of differences do exist. The most important differences include showing the "21-R" die combination with the addition of a new ligature line, as well as having a rearrangement of the coin images in order to show the die combinations of the "83-gg" (the "gg" was later changed to "ii"), and the "blank obverse-u". None of these die combinations were known when the photograph of the Maris plate-I was published. Four quadrant photographs of the Maris plate-II can be viewed by clicking below:
The following four images are used with permission from the Maris Plate-II in the Collection of the New Jersey Historial Society (Accession number 1953.44).
Link:Upper left quadrant
Link:Upper right quadrant
Link:Lower left quadrant
Link:Lower right quadrant
Maris Plate-III:
A third plate made up of a zinc sheet with 140 electrotypes of NJ die varieties soldered to it which was made by Dr. Maris presently exists in a private collection. It was made at some point after the Maris plate-II. The primary difference in the Maris plate-III, compared to the Maris plate-II, is the rearrangement of the electrotypes in the lower left quadrant in order to allow for a better representation of the "21-R" die combination. In the 1940s a photographer names Steven Nagy made four photographs of the Maris plate-III representing each quadrant. Sets of these photographs are occasional available for purchase and one set (in the CNLF photofiles), which has been written on in a number of places to make corrections, can be viewed by clicking below:
Link:Upper left quadrant
Link:Upper right quadrant
Link:Lower left quadrant
Link:Lower right quadrant
A more complete description of the three Maris plates is available in an article, "The Maris Plates", by Roger Moore MD and Dennis Wierzba, published in The Colonial Newsletter, vol. 43, number 2, August 2003, sequential page 2495-2527.
Images of Selected NJ Varieties from Maris 10-78
From the C4 Photofiles Angel Pietri has provided color obverse and reverse images of selected New Jersey varieties in Maris number order, starting with
Link:Maris 10-G.
Attributions have been updated and corrected by Ray Williams in an e-mail of Sept. 10, 2003. The number following the Maris attribution is the C4 photo number. Thus Maris-10-G-1093 represents a New Jersey Maris 10-G combination, which is inventoried as image 1093 in the C4 Photofile.
|
|
| 11/3
|
Pewter Token -
23.2-23.6mm - 5.2g - Reeded Edge
Screw Press -
restored by the Gallery Mint Museum
Newark Museum Tokens In Silver And Pewter
Isn't it wonderful what happens when you give one of Ron's dies enough metal
to fill in all the detail he endues his engravings with? I have used extra
bandwidth here to provide you with the above scan simply because it is such
a magnificant example of Ron's die work. I am posting scans below of both the
silver and pewter regular production tokens struck on TheGuy's screwpress.
Last week I shared what details I had about these 2003 Newark Museum tokens
in SBsubject
Link:Once Upon A Dime.
I am now in contact with a fellow on the museum's staff and he has sent us
photographs of TheGuy's screwpress as installed in their exhibit. He tells
me that both the silver and pewter tokens are available for purchase in their
museum gift shop.
For those of you who are accessing the ScrapBook from our CD-ROM you can see
a closeup here of a
Image:second pewter token,
23.4-23.9mm - 5.2g - Reeded Edge,
with an odd planchet defect on the reverse ...and... while I am at it I might
as well show you again the two silver die trials below the production run
tokens so you can compare them. The production tokens are noticeably, albeit
only slightly... approximately 1.5mm ...larger than the trial tokens.
Click for
Silver
or
Pewter
enlargement on CD-ROM
 
Silver(left) -
23.2-23.6mm - 7.0g - Reeded Edge
Pewter(right) -
23.2-23.6mm - 5.2g - Reeded Edge
|
Click for
1st Trial
or
2nd Trial
enlargement on CD-ROM
Silver - Die Trials -
21.5mm(1st)
22.0mm(2nd) -
5.0g(1st)
5.1g(2nd) - Plain Edges
|
I rebuilt these scans so they are as close as I can make them to the correct
relative proportions of the actual tokens.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
As a special bonus to all who purchase ScrapBook CD-ROMs...
...six pictures of the Newark Museum ScrewPress Display:
First... a couple shots from the bow...
Image:First and
Image:Second.
Next... two shots from the
Image:Port and
Image:Starboard quarters.
Followed by... a shot of the
Image:Making Money informational display.
Finally... a closeup shot of the
Image:Machine Struck Coins
panel in that display.
|
|
|
|
| 11/2
|
A Clifford Bolling photograph.
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
|
Struck On A Blank Clad Ike Dollar Planchet
Just got my new 1796 $1 struck on a blank clad Ike dollar planchet. They
used Obv 6/Rev 7, the only specimen I have with either of those dies.
Pretty neat piece, this one even has the lettered edge, which my similarly
struck 1794 $1 does not have. Both show a weak strike, I suspect because
the clad planchet is significantly harder than the silver used normally.
I don't seem to be able to get the color right in the photos, but both
look really neat on clad planchets. The brilliant luster seems to refract
differently than the silver.
I just found out that Fred Weinberg is selling clad Ike planchets for
$165! I still have a few that I picked up for less than $40 a while back.
I guess that makes these pieces worth more than they used to be...?? Keep
up the good work on the Scrapbook! It is a fine work and will be a standard
reference for a long time.
Clifford D. Bolling... Saturday, November 01, 2003 8:06PM
I always look forward to EMail messages from Cliff... he wanders off into
the most interesting numismatic byways and is generally deep into his study
of GMM dies and die combinations. Sometimes I get a headache trying to
compare my specimens to his studies but we both sure have a lot of fun...
almost like we had good sense even though we both know we don't.
;-)
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
A Clifford Bolling photograph.
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
|
|
|
|
| 11/1
|
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
HOT struck
Silver -
29.2-30.2mm(left)
28.2-30.2mm(center/right) -
15.8g(left)
15.7g(center/right) - Plain Edge
|
Fifteen Years Have Passed
It was 1988 when Ron Landis created one-half ounce hot struck silver medals
to commemorate the 500th Anniversary, 1492-1992, of the Segovia Mint in Spain.
The specimens that went to Spain were stolen... which I found particularly
disheartening. Ron and I put our thinking caps on and decided to replace the
stolen medals for the Segovia Mint Museum collection with a limited edition
strike of new medals using the original dies as a basis. Ron added "03" below
the "88" and did some other small modifications and detail enhancement on the
dies so that these 2003 medals would not be mistaken for the original 1988
pieces. That way the value of the original issue medals would not be diminished
and we would have a few new pieces for Landis/Segovia fans.
I watched Timothy heat each planchet red hot and place them on the obverse die,
which was the "anvil die," and then Joe struck each medal with the appropriate
reverse die, which was the "hammer die." Only 10 sets of PROJECT (English) and
PROYECTO (Spanish) medals were struck. That was a lot of work! I can't imagine
attempting to create a run of a hundred or a thousand medals... Oh My!
So... I packaged up and sent three medals to the Segovia Mint, one English and
two Spanish pieces. That way Glenn Murray can display the set the same way you
see in the scan above... English-Reverse_Common-Obverse_Spanish-Reverse.
The specimens shown in the scan are the absolute best specimens from the
production run.
The process of hand striking
HOT
Silver
medals is not for the faint of heart and the process does not lend itself well
to a final product that looks like those perfect pieces TheGuys create with
their screw presses. You can see these medals do not show full die detail nor
are they precisely centered. You hit the hammer die and take what you get.
Joe and Timothy did a fantastic job regardless! The handmade character
of these specimens is a large part of their charm.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
|
|
Bobbie
A Clifford Kraft photograph.
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
-by
Clifford Kraft
You Want How Much For Postage&Handling? |
In most cases I have no problem identifying the boys from the girls.
"In most cases"... but at times even the most highly trained persons
with years of experience may doubt their own judgements. In the case
of "Bobbie," my childhood sweetheart, and one of the prettiest girls
in my school (a very small school, where a lot of girls over six foot
just aren't considered attractive.) You must remember that even though
she held down a full time job as foreman of the Hog Kill Line at our
local packing plant, she still went on to get degrees in Veterinary
Medicine and Taxidermy. It was nice to know that if you brought your
sick puppy to "Bobbie," would get it back (one way or another.)
I don't know why it's always at this time of year (Halloween) that I
think of her and her (through no fault of her own) extremely ugly
sister. "They were twins you know." Bobbie was the cute one, if you
ever saw them together you would know what I mean. I believe it was
when she did her impersonations of Dracula or the Hulk that the word
chromosomes entered your mind, but now with all the tests back we know
where to take our puppyies and send our Valentines.
Cliff Kraft... Sunday, October 26, 2003 4:34PM
Alas, the love of my life has forsaken me for a life of Pea Fowl hunting in
the Kansa Territories. She said she felt it better this way, as the meat of
these birds, as-well-as their mounted remains could be sold at a roadside
stands, and she knew of an intersection where everyone seemed to meet. "I
believe the seven plus inches of snow we received may have push the matter
along." She didn't seem to care 'What Brown Could Do For Her,' and decided
to give the U.S.Postal people a try. I really wanted to, and probably will
still, use a picture of her on a card with the caption "YOU WANT HOW MUCH
FOR P&H?"
Cliff Kraft... Thursday, October 30, 2003 1:21AM
Here we have another nice nickel carving from my friend Cliffy. As all good
engravings should, this one speaks for itself. Not only that... this one is
just plain fun! It has been my experience that all the really superlative
nickel carvings have a personality all their own. Thanks for creating this
neat specimen Cliff.
By the way... this carving brings to mind another fun carving Arthur Hutchison
did for this holiday season many years ago... we call him "PunkinHead" but he
really is a nice fellow despite his looks.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
PunkinHead
AKA Jack O. Lantern
-by
Arthur Hutchison
|
|
|
|
/\
__ __
__ __
__
__ __
__ __
__
__ __
__ __
__
__ __
__ __
__
__ __
__ __
__
__ __
__ __
__
|
