New Book: "Fads, Fakes & Foibles" 1 1

[RWB]

Press/Media Release

Seneca Mill Press LLC proudly announces release of the latest numismatic book by Roger W. Burdette:

Fads, Fakes & Foibles.

Most nineteenth century Americans thought of coins and currency in two practical ways: a concern that their pieces of coin or paper currency would be accepted by merchants for purchases and a desire to have more.

For those few involved in economic policy and politics, other, more esoteric aspects of coinage were of concern. Their three principal subjects were prevention of adulteration or counterfeiting, direct equivalence of international gold coins, and use of metric weights for coins. Underlying each of these were certain economic assumptions and profit opportunities that pushed governments toward decisions.

Adulteration and counterfeiting were of concern to all because bad coins meant that merchants and banks would reject the money a person offered in payment. In this regard, it must be remembered that gold coins were simply convenient tokens containing a certain weight of pure gold. Banks and merchants could, and occasionally did, reject legitimate gold coins because they appeared heavily worn or were lighter than official standards. This was the focus of James T. Barclay and his obsession with preventing degradation of the national coinage.

Nickel mining maven Joseph Wharton went to great lengths to promote alloys of nickel and copper for minor coins valued up to ten cents. Here, he cracked skulls with persistent mint officers who thought of base metal coins only as temporary Civil War substitutes for silver dimes and half dimes.

Businessman Dana Bickford, alternatively, was concerned with the ability of travelers to easily know the value of their American money in certain European currencies. His idea for a gold international coin was not intended as a standard of value, but as an equivalency calculator. His changes were of design, not content although much of the work was facilitated by George Dunning, former Superintendent of the New York Assay Office.

Silver producers of the 1870s wanted to stop the decline in silver value compared to gold. Others wanted a bimetallic standard so that gold and silver would circulate equally. Backers of standard international coinage wanted to follow principles of the Latin Monetary Union and have the gold coins of all major nations exactly equal one another. Further, many idealists across the world wanted all coin weights expressed in grams of pure gold or silver and coin diameters and weights to be whole numbers. Here we find Wheeler Hubbell proposing a bimetallic coinage alloy and U.S. coins of metric weight. He was neither first not last to advocate these measures, but was certainly the one most favored by a Congressional committee. Nicholas Veeder, on the other hand, wanted not an alloy but a mechanical union of the two metals much like modern bimetallic coins.

Others proposed to protect coins by adding an iron ring, or striking pieces with one or more holes to permit a convenient diameter while aiding the blind in identifying a coin’s value.

Fads, Fakes & Foibles brings together a strange crew of idealists and opportunists – creators of the best known, but little understood coinage proposals. The author, building on original archival sources separates fact from fancy while providing today’s collectors with a delightful journey through some of the oddest coinage proposals ever made.

Fads, Fakes & Foibles is available from Wizard Coin Supply (www.wizardcoinsupply.com‎). Cover price for the 8½x11-inch book containing 273 full  color pages is $29.95. Purchasers may also request a complete digital index edition at no cost. This will facilitate subject searches and provides a convenient copy for use on smart phones, tablets, and similar portable devices.

OK to repost on other sites.
 

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Edited June 14, 2021 by RWB

[Just Bob]

Are signed copies available?

Never mind. I just saw the other thread that said that the signed copies were available.

 

Edited June 11, 2021 by Just Bob

[physics-fan3.14]

Here's a linky-text to make it easier: 

Fads Fakes and Foibles

[RWB]

On 6/11/2021 at 4:27 PM, physics-fan3.14 said:

Here's a linky-text to make it easier: 

Fads Fakes and Foibles

Thanks for adding the link !

[RWB]

There is no extra charge for an autographed copy. Ask when ordering.

[RWB]

Each copy includes the ability to download the complete, searchable text in PDF format. This acts as an index for the book.

This replaces the CD used in previous publications.

Before printing it was realized that a diminishing number of book buyers have access to a CD/DVD reader or even a USB port. That meant the only way to get the index to everyone was to post a buyer's download link on the Wizard website. Making access dependent on the internet is not a preferred option, but for now it seems to be the best available.

[RWB]

Book sales are going well and reader responses are excellent!

[RWB]

A 9-day bump.

[SamuelBraswell]

On 6/11/2021 at 2:03 AM, RWB said:

Press/Media Release

Seneca Mill Press LLC proudly announces release of the latest numismatic book by Roger W. Burdette:

Fads, Fakes & Foibles.

Most nineteenth century Americans thought of coins and currency in two practical ways: a concern that their pieces of coin or paper currency would be accepted by merchants for purchases and a desire to have more.

For those few involved in economic policy and politics, other, more esoteric aspects of coinage were of concern. Their three principal subjects were prevention of adulteration or counterfeiting, direct equivalence of international gold coins, and use of metric weights for coins. Underlying each of these were certain economic assumptions and profit opportunities that pushed governments toward decisions.

Adulteration and counterfeiting were of concern to all because bad coins meant that merchants and banks would reject the money a person offered in payment. In this regard, it must be remembered that gold coins were simply convenient tokens containing a certain weight of pure gold. Banks and merchants could, and occasionally did, reject legitimate gold coins because they appeared heavily worn or were lighter than official standards. This was the focus of James T. Barclay and his obsession with preventing degradation of the national coinage.

Nickel mining maven Joseph Wharton went to great lengths to promote alloys of nickel and copper for minor coins valued up to ten cents. Here, he cracked skulls with persistent mint officers who thought of base metal coins only as temporary Civil War substitutes for silver dimes and half dimes.

Businessman Dana Bickford, alternatively, was concerned with the ability of travelers to easily know the value of their American money in certain European currencies. His idea for a gold international coin was not intended as a standard of value, but as an equivalency calculator. His changes were of design, not content although much of the work was facilitated by George Dunning, former Superintendent of the New York Assay Office.

Silver producers of the 1870s wanted to stop the decline in silver value compared to gold. Others wanted a bimetallic standard so that gold and silver would circulate equally. Backers of standard international coinage wanted to follow principles of the Latin Monetary Union and have the gold coins of all major nations exactly equal one another. Further, many idealists across the world wanted all coin weights expressed in grams of pure gold or silver and coin diameters and weights to be whole numbers. Here we find Wheeler Hubbell proposing a bimetallic coinage alloy and U.S. coins of metric weight. He was neither first not last to advocate these measures, but was certainly the one most favored by a Congressional committee. Nicholas Veeder, on the other hand, wanted not an alloy but a mechanical union of the two metals much like modern bimetallic coins.

Others proposed to protect coins by adding an iron ring, or striking pieces with one or more holes to permit a convenient diameter while aiding the blind in identifying a coin’s value.

Fads, Fakes & Foibles brings together a strange crew of idealists and opportunists – creators of the best known, but little understood coinage proposals. The author, building on original archival sources separates fact from fancy while providing today’s collectors with a delightful journey through some of the oddest coinage proposals ever made.

Fads, Fakes & Foibles is available from Wizard Coin Supply (www.wizardcoinsupply.com‎). Cover price for the 8½x11-inch book containing 273 full  color pages is $29.95. Purchasers may also request a complete digital index edition at no cost. This will facilitate subject searches and provides a convenient copy for use on smart phones, tablets, and similar portable devices.

I can say that this book is one of the most interesting for me. I've read a lot of them, and this one I can recommend to others. But to be honest, sometimes my hobby really helps me out, because I have a writing course at my university, and when I have no idea what to write about, or the professor tells us to write about something we want, I can always write about coins. However, because this type of writing is difficult and time-consuming, I occasionally seek assistance from https://essays.studymoose.com/buy-research-paper/ when I see that I'm trying too hard, but there are no results. Yes, reading to them can be interesting, but not always, especially if it's a part of home tasks.

OK to repost on other sites.
 

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Cool, never heard about this book before, but I googled the author, and he is pretty popular. And I think that the book will be interesting for me, even though I don't know a lot about coins. But, I'm really interested

Edited July 20, 2022 by SamuelBraswell

[RWB]

In includes a lot of the outrageous - and plain stupid - coinage ideas put forth in the 19th century. It contains a lot of new information about these projects and corrects many past errors.

 

[FlyingAl]

On 7/20/2022 at 8:43 AM, RWB said:

In includes a lot of the outrageous - and plain stupid - coinage ideas put forth in the 19th century. It contains a lot of new information about these projects and corrects many past errors.

 

It was a good read, I throughly enjoyed it, particularly the goloid section. 

[The Neophyte Numismatist]

Wizard is stating the book is hardbound, is that accurate?

[FlyingAl]

On 7/25/2022 at 3:41 PM, The Neophyte Numismatist said:

Wizard is stating the book is hardbound, is that accurate?

Yes, it's a hardcover book.