correction on my reply to this weeks Numisma-Quest Question

[chrisfuccione]

In this weeks Numisma-Quest question I put in a snippet of a interview with Elvira Clain Stefanelli on the Smithsonian Institution taking over the Philadelphia Mint's coin collection. In my haste I forgot to put in one of her replys. This is another example on why I should proof read. Well here it is corrected. CHRIS

 

 

1923.

 

This infomation I got is from a interview with Elvira Clain Stefanelli who the time of the interview was the the curator of the National Coin Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.

 

I will print the infomation that dealt with the Philadelphia Mint and the Smithsonian Institution

 

LEGACY: How are relations between the Smithsonian and the Mint?

 

CLAIN- STEFANELLI: Very good, today.

 

LEGACY: Haven't they always been?

 

CLAIN-STEFANELLI: No. You see, there was the old wound that had been festering since the Philadelphia collection came to us in 1923. There was a lot of resentment locally over that.

 

LEGACY: Why? Surely more people see the coins here than in the Mint.

 

CLAIN-STEFANELLI: Let's put it this way. It was sort of nebulous how the transfer was affected. The terminology was "transferred." In government jargon this word means a gift. In other words, it's not reversible. But because of this unusual term, it was in the minds of some legal people at the Mint that the process could be reversed, and the coins go back. Of course, I would like to see all those coins stay here. It would be very, very painful for us if we should lose them. We won't though, because it has gone through so many lawyers. And you see, the Mint can never rival us in terms of the number of visitors. Sometimes in the summer, we have as many as 20,000 people who visit the various Smithsonian buildings in one day. The Mint is very popular but people go there for other things. They come to see the process of how coins are made. Showing them an exhibit would be an afterthought

 

LEGACY: Haven't they always been? LEGACY: Haven't they always been? LEGACY: Haven't they always been?

 

CLAIN-STEFANELLI: Let's put it this way. It was sort of nebulous how the transfer was affected. The terminology was "transferred." In government jargon this word means a gift. In other words, it's not reversible. But because of this unusual term, it was in the minds of some legal people at the Mint that the process could be reversed, and the coins go back. Of course, I would like to see all those coins stay here. It would be very, very painful for us if we should lose them. We won't though, because it has gone through so many lawyers. And you see, the Mint can never rival us in terms of the number of visitors. Sometimes in the summer, we have as many as 20,000 people who visit the various Smithsonian buildings in one day. The Mint is very popular but people go there for other things. They come to see the process of how coins are made. Showing them an exhibit would be an afterthought

 

 

Here is the link to the rest of the interview.

 

LINK

 

I would highly recomend reading it. The life of her and her husband Vladimir was very intresting to say the least. As a teenager she had to flee her home in Romania during WWI. She maried Vladimir in 1939. They spent part of WWII in the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald. After the war they renoused thier Romania citizenship becauseRomania was occupied by the Soviets. They spent a few years living in Italy. And then they were offered a job at Stacks to catalog coins. They started at the Smithsonian in 1956.

 

I have two books by her I highly recomend.

 

THE BEAUTY AND LORE OF COINS

gives the history of coinage from the primitive time to the present(1974).

 

The second one SELECT NUMISMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHY lists all the major numatic books up until 1965. There is a newer book that was done around 1981 that is more complet

 

Sorry about the rant but I wanted to mention her for a while and I guess this was a good of time as any to do it.

 

CHRIS

 

 

[Hoot]

Great stuff Chris - thanks!

 

Hoot