Antique Coin Boards with David W. Lange – www.coincollectingboards.com …..
For Collectors of Antique Coin Boards
Number 60 — Fall 2021
ANA CONVENTION A SUCCESS
It was wonderful to get together in Chicagomont for this much-missed annual event. While some friends informed me in advance that they would be sitting this one out over health concerns, I was pleased to see so many familiar faces. It was a gratifying experience in other ways, too, since I received awards from two different organizations. My piece on Whitman’s First Edition coin folders that ran in the December issue of The Numismatist received a First Place Heath Literary Award for the best article to appear in that publication during 2020. The Numismatic Literary Guild’s (NLG) annual competition resulted in an award of Best Specialized Book in the category of Numismatic History and Personalities for Volume Three in my series of books detailing coin album publishers and their product lines.
This was, of course, my study of Whitman Publishing Company that was published last year.
My regular spot in The Numismatist titled USA Coin Album also won for Best Column—United States Coins to 1900. I’ve been writing monthly for that publication since 1988 when I was recruited by its editor, Barbara J. Gregory, who has only recently retired. We chatted at the ANA Banquet, as seen above.
FOLDER MANIA
In the absence of new board purchases, I’m including another list of vintage coin folders for sale. These have proved to be very successful for me, as the interest is there, and prices are still low.
WHEW! THAT WAS A LOTTA WORK
The image gallery is now complete; my collection of coin boards from all seven vintage publishers has been posted at the Newman Numismatic Portal for all to view. I still have many other boards in my collection that I didn’t scan, but these are distinguished solely by vendor stamps and stickers.
Check out the NNP’s Image Gallery at https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/imagecollections?searchLetter=C.
BOOK UPDATES
The mass scanning project prompted so many minor revisions to my coin board book that it’s not even reasonable to include them here. Examining my collection closely for the first time since the manuscript was prepared 15 years ago made me recognize certain patterns that have resulted in several renumberings and consolidations. These will be provided in full with my annual update files to be included in the Winter issue of Coin Board News.
MARKET ACTIVITY
There have been a fair number of board listings over the past quarter, with about half of them rolling over repeatedly.
One nice item that has not yet sold is a publisher-bound album of Whitman Second Edition coin boards, Volume II (quarters and halves). As a rule, these albums offer the only opportunity to acquire the delicate flocked boards without fading or loss of printing, yet I’ve found them to be a tough sell. For some reason, collectors won’t buy them, even though the aggregate value of the individual boards in such condition is much higher than the price being asked for the album. If you want to get ahead of the pack, I have a couple for sale.
Other offerings are complicated by the inclusion of partial coin sets, requiring one to calculate the net value of the board after the removal of said coins. I desired to buy for inventory a Whitman Third Edition board for Washington quarters, but the inclusion of 31 coins, one of which was a 1932-D grading Fine or so, made this impractical. The recent addition of sales tax on items sold to Florida addresses has added to my overhead, at least on items selling for less than $500. In fact, that was one of the deciding factors with this particular board.
FOR BOARD AND ALBUM ENTHUSIASTS
The recent ANA convention also marked the debut of a wonderful new book by hobby great Kenneth Bressett. Titled A Penny Saved, it tells the complete story of Whitman’s iconic Red Book. Actually, it includes a lot of information about the Blue Book and other Whitman products, too. Featuring a richly illustrated biography of Red/Blue Book creator, Richard “R. S. Yeoman” Yeo, it also includes Ken’s own autobiography. The photos of Whitman, Yeoman, and Bressett memorabilia are simply amazing, and among these are many board- and folder-related pieces.
In many ways, this new work complements my own Whitman book, and I was pleased to loan Ken and book-designer Barbara Gregory several photos from it. This beautiful hardcover book lists at $39.95 and is available directly from Whitman Publishing, LLC.
I cornered Ken at the Whitman booth, and he graciously inscribed my copy of his new book. Actually, Ken and I have been friends for many years, and we share a love of the hobby’s history. Of course, I dedicated my book on Whitman folders and albums to him as the most prominent personification of that company’s rich product line.
DID YOU KNOW…
…that Whitman prepared a coin collecting kit featuring Disney characters? I did not, but it’s illustrated in Ken’s new book. It dates to the 1970s, as evidenced by the Eighth Edition logo on the nickel coin folder. The project was abandoned, and I wasn’t aware of it while writing my own Whitman book.
Also new to me were the names given to the distinctive papers used for Whitman’s Second and Third Edition boards. The troublesome flocked material of the former was brand-named “Cellusuede” and was created by a fellow named Jack Sutton. Whitman soon discovered, as we collectors know, that it quickly loses its printing, so a switch was made to “Kivar”, which was reportedly washable.
INVESTIGATIVE DEPARTMENT
Howard R. Engel is the current proprietor of the famed bookseller, Richard Stockley Books, in Winnipeg, Canada. He recently gave an online presentation titled “Bert Koper (1899-1963) of Winnipeg: A Canadian Numismatic Pioneer, Tragic Hero and Archetype.” I may have mentioned in a past issue of CBN that Koper’s Park Coin Shop produced boards for Canadian coins, as listed in an ad he ran in the September 1944 issue of The Numismatist.
Howard inquired whether I’d seen any of these boards, and the fact is that I haven’t. I don’t know of anyone even reporting a Canadian coin board. I suspect that these “boards” were more like National Coin Album pages, rather than the 11”x14” boards we typically collect, but it would be truly remarkable to confirm the existence of even a single example. Howard would like to hear from anyone who has more information, and he may be reached at [email protected].
GOOD READS DEPARTMENT
Speaking of book stores, one great store of interesting reading is the weekly online publication The E-Sylum. I await its arrival eagerly every Sunday evening, as it’s the gathering place for the latest information on new numismatic books, requests for information from numismatic researchers, intriguing items that readers own or are seeking, and, not the least, hobby gossip. Editor Wayne Homren just received the ANA’s First Place award for electronic publications, and he’s offering a free subscription to The E-Sylum to all CBN readers. Wayne may be reached at [email protected].
STAMP CLUB
The number of recorded vendor stamps and stickers continues to grow. Here are a few new entries found on vintage coin boards.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
My next coin show is the Long Beach Expo in California, September 30 through October 2. After that is the Whitman Baltimore Expo, November 18-20. At this time both are subject to possible cancellation due to the on-off-on pandemic, but I’m expecting to be at the NGC booth for these events.
FORGOTTEN COIN BOARDS
In 1964-65 a line of coin boards was produced for the collecting of U. S. coin mint errors. These were published by C-B Products, a business owned by Cecil Simpson of Scottsdale, Arizona.
Each board measures 81⁄2” x 11” with rounded corners, and all seem to have been three-hole punched by the publisher to fit a binder. The boards were produced for each coin series current at the time and are color-coded by denominations—cents printed in light brown, nickels in blue, dimes in red, quarters in green, and halves in gray.
Each denomination has separate boards for obverses and reverses, and I seem to have a complete set, aside from the Lincoln cent obverse board. All were assigned Publisher Numbers (see photo captions) that appear at the lower right of their faces, and all but the cent boards are mated to printed backs that include instructions for their use. Text blocks were provided for users to enter descriptions, while the errors could be drawn onto the coin images.
Simpson was also a passionate collector of wooden nickels, and he produced similar holders to store these items.
Offered in four colors—red, black, green, and blue (I’m lacking only the green printing), a free sample was sent to each charter member of the International Organization of Wooden Money Collectors. The back of each board provides written and graphic instructions on the collecting of woods and the use of the boards.
Best Regards,
—David W. Lange, coincollectingboards.com
The author’s desktop, featuring Gramercy coin boards as his computer wallpaper. Photo courtesy David W. Lange
