The Elder Rare Coin Book

/:<2^. owrrENTS ?<i»4 j^nxmxsjoa Li«ts oi Rsr« Aa^isicfta^ Cftiii»diajE^ Ez&g^laL, Irlsii ftiid Scotcii Caimr T»lfie« tai Wogrmgr^ Es^cksiss^r Article* am Coins C^3mnm.%&& of tlieWofid, Coin Coliecfelagj, Etc, k " 4l i'Uiiia.ua5Z3> 97 V»*D*IA3 L. iCLDC: »2 iUMS7 2fird STiSK^r '•sT. j«Ew yc^ Cfrir The Elder Rare Coin Book A Comprehensive Work on Numismatics, Coin Premiums, Numismatists, Coin Collecting, Foreign Exchange, the Coinage Systems of the most important countries in the world, e Special articles by noted authors on the Coinages of the American Colonies, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Greece, Rome, Etc. O Exhaustive lists of the Premiums paid for afl Rare Coins, Medals, Tokens and Paper Money of the American Colonies, the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, also for the rare Lincoln, Washington, Franklin and other Medals, Jackson or Hard Times Tokens, Merchants’ Tokens and Cards, Indian Peace Medals, Colonial and Continental Paper Money, Etc ^ Twenty-eight full-page plates showing coins actual size, and much additional information COMPILED AND PUBLISHED BY THOMAS L. ELDER, Member of the American Numismatic Society, Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Soci- ety of Great Britain, Member of the British Numismatic Society, Member of the New York Numismatic Club, Member of the American Numismatic Association, Etc. THIRTY-TWO EAST TWENTY-THIRD STREET, NEW YORK CITY (Telephone 5899 Gramercy) Copyrighted by Thomas L. Elder 1913 Pro.sccution will promptly follow all infringements on this work IXTHOOKTION. BY FRANK C. HIGGINS, F. R. N. S. The study of Numismatics, so termed from the Greek word Numisma, meaning “legal money”, is the science pertaining to the coins and monies of ail times, places and peoples, considered especially from their historical and artistic aspects, and by extension numismatic science embraces also the study of medals and tokens. Numismatic science is considered one of the most important branches of archaeology, being an unfathomable source of precise knowledge concerning bygone persons and events, who albeit their living importance would have left but few traces behind them but for the coins which bear their names and effigies. The coins of the ancients are above all indispensable to students of mythology, comparative religion, government, the administration of justice, military equipment, commerce, traffic, industries, literature, customs and costumes of long vanished races. Beyond this, the examination of coins is of the highest importance to the history of Art and popular customs of all peoples. From this definition it may be argued that the additional questions which suggest themselves with reference to the making of coins, such as their chemical composition, the variations in their weights and values, are unimportant to the collector, but in the same time the study of coins under even these dry aspects has furnished much valuable data to the scientillc world. The pursuit of numismatic study is also a most potent stimulant to the study of certain auxiliary sciences, such as history, geography, archaeology, paleography, epigraphy and heraldry. It is easy from these con- siderations to perceive that the study of coins, rightly engaged in, has a most elevating tendency, for but a moment’s reflection is necessary to show' that but poor success is to be anticipated from the study of ancient coins w'ithout the aid of mythology, or of mediaeval coins without comprehension of at least the rudiments of heraldry. Engaging in the study of numismatics is, therefore, an embarkment in the pursuit of knowledge of the most desirable character to the man or woman of culture. So far as young people are concerned, all that we have said applies to them with still greater force, because the study of coins furnishes to the young an incentive to the pursuit of erudition unparallelled by almost any other motive which could be sug- gested. The old saw, that “there is no royal road to learning,” falls absolutely flat in presence of the intellectual joys offered to young and old by the incentive to research presented by a handfull of old coins, and so great is the fascination thereof that there are as few' instances of collectors of coins who have not pursued the numismatic hobby taken up in youth throughout their entire lives as there are many instances of the collectors of stamps, minerals, bird’s eggs and other classifiable impedimenta having abandoned all interest after a comparatively short period of application. Another remarkable feature of coin collecting resides in being far more often a source of profit than of expense, for the enthusiast quickly learns to deter- mine between that which is common and plentiful and that w'hich is rare and especially desirable, so that given the apathy of the rest of the world the majority of whose inhabitants care as little about coin collecting as they do about Shakespeare, the opportunities for picking up gems in the open mart are far more plentiful than would be imagined. The really knowing buyer is constantly able to add to his collection specimens which INTRODUCTION. represent a more substantial profit upon his whole investment than if he were only buying for mercenary motives, and so judicious coin collecting, backed up by conscientious study, represents thrift and economy as well as pleasure, culminating in the eventual dispersion of a store of treasure thus amassed for the benefit of heirs or the collector's own pressing necessity at accumulative profit belonging to scarcely any other type of investment. We might demolish another well worn proverb by stating that coin collecting furnishes the most brilliant example of the eminent possibility of both “eating one’s cake and having it too.” Learned men in all parts of the world are ardent collectors, and the aristocratic classes of Europe probably hold the record for the most scientific and far-reaching pursuit of the possi- bilities of numismatic science. To name the great people of the old world who have been enthusiastic collectors, would be to enumerate a catalogue of reigning sovereigns, great admirals, generals, statesmen, public men, savants and scientists which would fill a goodly sized volume. Up to within a few years, Europeans have probably led in the domain of classic numismatic science, but as one after another the vicissitudes of life bring the great European collections of Greek, Roman and mediaeval coins into the market, it is noticed that the choicest specimens are finding their way to the United States, which has alw'ays led more especially in the appreciation of “Americana” as the coinage of this country is popularly termed among its devotees. To those w'ho might upon trivial examination of the subject imagine that the outlets were so carefully watched that it would be almost as impossible for the location and character of the most valuable pieces to be unknown to experts as are the famous precious stones of the world it will come as a revelation to learn that there is scarcely an important sale in the country which does not bring forward desirable coins the very exist- ence of which was unknown but a short time previously. The value of many American coins have advanced as much as four hundred per cent, in the last ten years, and this in large rather than small figures. Accidental finds are as numerous to-day as they were in the early history of American coin collecting. The writer knows of one coin in particular which sold in America at public sale in 1882 for $6.60, and which in October, 1908, brought at Mr. Elder’s public sale in New' York the remarkable sum of $7 85; and of another which was sold for $90, and resold at auction for $3000. The interest attached to numismatic' study begins with the possession and examination of coins of great beauty and interest in fine condition, which cost but little more than their intrinsic value to acquire, it being possible to purchase genuine ancient Greek and Roman coins with fine portraits of the reigning sovereigns in a condition which is most gratifying to the possessor at as low as twenty-five cents each. After the skeleton of a collection has been formed, and interest stimulated by the acquirement of such low' priced coins, the collector will begin to fill in examples of greater cost and rarity, coming perhaps soon to that greatest of all a collector’s joys the discovery of his best and most valued specimens accidentally in out of the way places at as little or less cost than his most ordinary. As his knowledge increases, and a sort of natural instinct for ferreting out bargains developes the pursuit quickly turns from an expense to a profit, and in time the sale of dis- carded specimens frequently suffices to provide the funds for a continual improvement of the collection. s A mtlKF inSTOKY OF OOINAOF. BY T. LOUIS COMPARETTE, PH. D. It is difficult to say which people are to be credited with the useful, and now indispensible, invention of coins. Chinese history, or tradition, records the use of coins proper at a date as early as 1 200 B. C., while Greece preserv- ed two rival traditions: the one that the Lydians in Asia Minor were the originators of coins, having struck them in electrum (a mixture of gold and silver) about 7 00 B. C., the other that Pheidon, King of Argos, anticipated the Lydians by a little with his silver coinage in Aegina. The most widely accepted view now is that among Occidental peoples the Lydians were the first to use coins, but that progress in the final development of the invention was so slow that the appearance of coined money in Aegina was almost simultaneous with its first production in Lydia.

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