Burdette Book Arrived!

[DWLange]

I received my copy of Roger Burdette's new volume in the Renaissance of American Coinage series covering the years 1909-15. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. While I haven't had time to actually read the text, I did spend an hour or so looking through the photos and captions.

 

The coverage of the Lincoln Cent and Buffalo Nickel is very thorough, as expected, and these are two coins in which I have more than a passing interest. The real prizes to me are his illustrations of Panama-Pacific coin sketches and models. This material is mostly new to me and very welcome.

 

As always with Roger's books, every fact, quotation and illustration is fully documented as to source. This is a difficult and time-consuming undertaking which most numismatic writers overlook, either through carelessness or to obscure their own lack of original research.

 

The cover of the book again features charming artwork that nicely captures the spirt of the period studied. Placing this entry between the other two on a bookshelf in their chronological order results in a nice display of red, white and blue stripes, which I think is a nice touch that required some advance planning.

 

I highly recommend Roger's book to anyone interested in this period of USA coinage. It is a fitting conclusion to the previous two volumes covering 1905-07 and 1916-21, respectively.

 

I see that this latest volume was underwritten by Heritage Auctions, Inc., and that is certainly to the company's credit.

[RWB]

David,

Thanks for the nice comments!!

 

My personal favorite photos are:

1) cr. 1910 photo of Fraser sculpting a bust of a Native American that looks a lot like the nickel;

2) newsboys who sold new Lincoln cents;

3) people lined up to buy Lincoln cents, with a NY cop there to keep order;

4) the Roosevelt and Taft portraits showing how they thought of themselves;

5) the rejected PPIE gold dollar designs;

6) Barber's sketch of a Neptune (Poseidon) medal that likely influenced the $2.50 gold;

7) the Native American girl on the title page.

 

The PPIE info was fun to research because it had never been accessed before, so the book has a lot of previously unknown information. Same for the Coinage Act of 1912, Treasurer’s Treasure, pattern hub destruction, and mint director Andrew, among other sections.

 

[DaveG]

I'm really looking forward to the arrival of my copy!

[physics-fan3.14]

I'm really looking forward to the arrival of my copy!

 

I'm really looking forward to being able to afford all three of these.

[Hoot]

This is a book that I've looked forward to with great anticipation. Roger's work is the new gold standard in numismatic writing, as Dave said, with full documentation of source material. And to boot, Roger is one of the most extraordinary people one might meet - humility and brilliance in a singular persona.

 

My sincere thanks to Roger and to Dave Lange for their contributions of numismatics into my life and the lives of so many more.

 

Hoot

[DaveG]

I got my copy today!

 

What a great book! Well produced (high quality printing and binding), great pictures, etc.

 

I've barely had time to do more than page through it quickly, but I'm really looking forward to sitting down with it!

[BillJones]

I still don't know where to buy this and the other two books. Everybody says "Coin World Ad," but all I see in the classified section is a listing for one book.

 

Books have become harder for me to find once the Dave Bowers source dried up.

[DaveG]

Bill, um, no offense, but really . . .

 

BrooklynGallery, Stack's and the ANA all carry Roger's first two books.

 

 

 

How can numismatic books have become harder for you to find?

 

Don't you like Charlie Davis, Fred Lake, George Kolbe, John Burns or Kyle Vick?

 

Do bookfinder.com, ABEBooks.com, Alibris.com, Amazon.com or eBay not work for you?

[physics-fan3.14]

Bill, check out Wayne Herndon. Roger just sent me a pm and told me to look there, he has a special on all three for $150 (although you probably already have the first 2). And Dave, often those large book sites, like Amazon, have terrible prices if they even have the books. Numismatic books are not something you can rely on Amazon and Ebay to have.

[DaveG]

physics-fan,

 

I totally agree!

 

Everyone should absolutely stay away from Amazon (especially Kyle Vick's listings) and eBay (especially Charlie Davis' auctions)!!