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NI

BULLETIN

[NUMISMATICS INTERNATIONAL

FOUNOI 0 1964

Volume 29 Number 7 ISSN: 0197-3088 Price .... Two Dollars

“ — — “ “ - “ “ “ 'N

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURE ARTICLES

Engraved Puzzles, by Bob Forrest 163

Sun-Face on Indian Coins, by Devendra Handa 158

Wellington in Lower Canada, by Peter Kraneveld 149

DEPARTMENTS

Book News & Reviews — 166

Member Notice Page 168

INSIDE N.L

Librarian’s Report 147

Membership Chairman’s Report — 147

OTHER ITEMS

A Curious Dutch Doit, by Matthew J. van der Voort 148

CHINESE SYMBOLISM: Feng-Huang -- The Bird of Paradise,

by Patrick D. Hogan 168

CHINESE SYMBOLISM: Lung — The Dragon, by Patrick D. Hogan 165

Coins of King Edward VIII, by Soli R. Icewalla 167

Countermarks for Lesbos, by Patrick D. Hogan 162

Money Between Gravel 156

The 1911 Coinage of Canada, by Dolores H. Davis 157

Copyrighted by Numismatics International, P.O. Box 670013, Dallas, Texas USA 75367-0013

JULY 1994

BOARD OF GOVERNORS

	DR. HOWARD L. FORD Chairman & Past-President
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MEMBERSHIP FEES: Individual & Club Memberships - $15.00 Annually. Junior Membership (18 years of age and under) - $10.00 Annually. Senior Membership (70 years of age and older) - $10.00 Annually.

146

INSIDE NX

MEMBERSHIP CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

July, 1994 Applications for Membership: The following persons have applied for membership. If no written objections are received by September 1, 1994, their membership will become effective on that date.

2441 Kenneth Seymore, P. O. Box 1342, Upland, CA 91745

(Salvador Pesos, Philippines, U.S.)

2442 Antonio Tejadaflores, 2310 Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90068

(Ancient Greek, Modern Foreign)

Life Memberships: Life Memberships are available to members of three years standing upon application to the Board of Governors and the payment of the $200.00 fee. Conditional Life Membership is available upon payment of $60.00 down and four quarterly payments of $35.00.

LIBRARIAN’S REPORT

I. Acknowledgement is made below to those who have donated material to the NI Library:

Grover C. Criswell

US60.CriG: 1992:CWB

CRISWELL, GROVER C.

Confederate war bonds.

Pub. 1992, 72pp, illus.

US60.CriG:1991:CM

CRISWELL, GROVER C.

Colonel Grover Criswell’s compendium, a guide to Confederate Money.

Pub. 1991, 58pp, illus.

Serge Huard

JM40.NazV:1993:SC

NAZAZOV, V. A.

Summary catalog of the coin projects, patterns, fantasies, and coins not issued, of the Soviet Union. (Russian text)

Pub. 1993, 46pp, illus.

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II. In addition to the above we would also like to thank Randolph Zander and Cecil Webster for their gifts of numismatic material to the NI Library.

III. In our April Bulletin we listed under an unknown source the work by Carlos Castan and Juan R. Cayon, Las monedas Espanolas desde Don Pelayo a Juan Carlos I, anos 718 a 1979. our thanks to Michael Scott who quickly pointed out that the book was donated to the NI Library by the co-author Juan Cayon. We appreciate Michael Scott’s kindness in bringing this to our attention for the Castan/Cayon is a significant addition to the NI Library collection and we do want to publicly acknowledge Mr. Cayon’s thoughtfulness in providing the Library with a copy.

Granvyl G. Hulse, Jr., Book Librarian James D. Haley, Periodical Librarian

A CURIOUS DUTCH DOIT

Matthew J. van der Voort, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Reprinted from NI Bulletin, March, 1971)

As many collectors, and certainly those who collect Dutch coins, will know that in the time of the Dutch Republic of the Seven United Provinces, each province struck its own coins but under the general rule of the combined Government at the Hague, the so-called General States. Within the limits of the thus ordered alloy and weight, the provinces were free to strike their coins.

The Province of Zeeland had as its design a swimming lion with the legend "Luctor et Emergo" - I struggle and escape.

Now in 1754 the die-cutter and mintmaster of the Mint at Middelburg, the capital of the Province of Zeeland, had a quarrel with the provincial authorities about his reward and the consolidation of his position. This Mintmaster was named Holtzhey. Since the authorities did not give in to his demands, he cut a die and had doits struck with the legend "Luctor et Ementor" — I struggle but perish.

When this was discovered, he was fired from his office and as the story goes, sentenced to imprisonment as long as the coins would have disappeared from circulation.

There is no documental evidence of this sentence, which seems to be an impossible one in view of the fact that to this day once in a while such a doit comes to the light. In my collection is an EF specimen and, more important, one of the same date, 1754, with the normal legend. Of course, the provincial authorities decided the coin was no legal tender, but the general public was only too eager to keep such a doit. The official withdrawal of the coins was a failure since the trick of Holtzhey was considered a good joke, by the people anyway.

The other doits with the date 1754 were of course legal tender, since they were struck by Holtzhey’s successor, who, believe it or not, was his own son!

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Wellington in lower Canada

Peter Kraneveld, Draveil, France

If Time magazine had existed, it would have elected Arthur Wellesley Man of the year 1815. Arthur who? You probably know him better as the Duke of Wellington, Prince of Waterloo. He acquired those grandiose titles in 1815. He had defeated Napoleon’s generals in Portugal and Spain and invaded France. Then he led the allied1 armies to an uneasy victory at Quatre Bras and took up positions on St. Jean hill, east of Waterloo. A day of mutual killing might have ended in a draw or even a French victory if Grouchy had done a better job of pursuing the Prussians Napoleon had beaten at Ligny. Instead, Blucher2 3 returned just in time to decide the battle.

As was usual in the British army of those days, Wellington had made career by using his connections. He was aide-de-camp of the viceroy of Ireland and in 1793 he bought a lieutenant-colonel’s commission. After spending a few years in India, Germany and Denmark as a diplomat he got his big chance in 1808, when he was sent to Portugal as a lieutenant-general with 10,000 men. He beat Junot at Roliga and Vimeiro and forced Soult to fall back. The Spaniards were happy to give him a hand to liberate Spain. He succeeded admirably and was promoted field marshal. After Waterloo he was a certified hero.

Well, maybe not everywhere. The British and their loyal colonies loved him. Benedetto Pistrucci made a model (140 mm.) of a medal for the Battle. The real thing was just too large to be struck, but Pistrucci got to design the St. George and the dragon reverse that first appeared on the 1817 sovereigns, graced a number of gold coins and crowns and persists on some British pseudo-coin issues. Wellington just wasn’t as popular in France and the US, where in 1814 his veterans had sacked Washington, to the disgust of Dolly Madison1.

' British and Netherlands. The Dutch commander, the later King William II, got him the princely title

2 Blucher was as bad at big speeches as Napoleon was good at it. The Prussian generals’ most “famous” speech to the assembled army, just before crossing the Rhine, was: “So, jetzt wollen wir den Kerl Napoleon mal priigeln” (OK, let’s spank that boor Napoleon).

3 Granvyl Hulse, the NI librarian, wrote me that on his great grandfathers’ death, his purse contained the coins a person of that period living just south of the Canadian border would use to pay his debts and included a Wellington token, which indicates that they circulated in the US too! Nevertheless, a Boston merchant who settled in Montreal took the trouble to replace Wellington on Breton 980 by an American Eagle.

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The Napoleonic era brought radical changes in the way coins were used. Before, coins were practically the only medium of exchange. While in France, the failure of Law’s Bank had given the French a bad taste of banknotes4 the Bank of England banknote issues were so successful that after the war, the Bank was surprised to find that the public preferred paper money to gold.

In the case of copper coin the British were not so progressive. John Hume had argued that it was wrong for the government to take a margin on coin and that the metal of the coin should be worth its face value. When his friend Isaac Newton became Mint Master in 1699 these ideas were put into practice. The result was disastrous for the small traders. Coining became a cost item, instead of a hidden tax. Between 1760, when George III acceded to the throne and 1816, when silver coins were made token money, copper coins of all denominations were struck only in 10 out of 56 years5 6.

With the price of copper on a bungee cord, the British government had no incentive to strike copper coin. At the same time, a loophole in the law made it possible to strike private coppeC. The first wave of tokens occurred from 1786, when Matthew Boulton used steam presses to strike the first Parys Mines Co. tokens, to 1797, when regal copper was again struck after a long interval. These were the wildly unpopular “Cartwheel” pennies and two penny pieces of 1797: pocket destroyers of one and two ounces of pure copper. As the price of copper went up at the outbreak of war7 , these coins could survive only because they were handy weights for grocer’s scales8.

The rise of industry, new machinery and a continuing dearth of copper coin brought about a second wave of tokens between 1811 and 1817. They celebrated the gains of the industrial revolution: there were issued

4 see Lips for the argument that one of the most important reasons Napoleon lost the war was that while he created a solid monetary system, the British created a huge public debt by printing uncovered banknotes | Lips, Harry Paysage financier de I’epoque Napoleonienne in Numismatique et Change, number 220 (September 1992) pages 29 to 31 and number 222 (November 1992) pages 37 to 39.

5 1770-1775, 1797, 1799 and 1806-1807.

6 The law was enacted at a time that copper coin was rare and despised. It referred only to silver coins.

7 Copper is quite useful in such items as cannons and cannonballs. In 1797 the price of copper was £105 a ton, in 1808 it was up to £200 a ton |Seaby, Peter and Monica Bussell: British Tokens and their values (London 1 970) |.

8 My copies are somewhat underweight. Maybe this made the coins even more popular with the grocers so despised by Napoleon, who called the British a “nation of shopkeepers”.

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by metal works (showing collieries and engines), but also workhouses9, drapers and a real estate agent. Some of them were neutral, showing the local castle or another well-known sight, a coat of arms, commerce or a national symbol, others were showing a popular hero. And who could be more popular than Wellington?

Davis10 gives a charming account of the Wellington tokens. Mr. John Kirby Picard, a lawyer and the owner of the Hull lead works was quite a rich man, who had a magnificent house in Hull11, where the rich and famous of his days were gambling. He enjoyed their protection, so he could endeavour to issue tokens with Wellington’s bust. The Mint Master’s wife sent him a profile of the General in 1812. Wellington liked the idea and had the tokens introduced in the army in Spain. The Prince Regent (the later George IV) invited him to court to show his pieces. Since they are much smaller than other pennies of the period they may at first not have been intended to circulate in Britain, but they did circulate there, because in 1813 Picard called them in, complaining about forgeries12

In 1816 new British regal coins came out. The gold coins were standard coins: they could be privately minted (at the Mint and for a fee) and melted at will and were legal tender for any amount. The small silver coins were token coins: only the government could mint them, they were lightweight and legal tender for a limited amount only, but redeemable in gold. In 1817 the further issue of tokens was forbidden and in 1821 new regal token copper coins were finally issued.

This development left a huge mass of henceforth worthless private copper tokens on the market. Most could only be melted at a loss, since peace had brought lower copper prices. For some, there was a solution, though: they could circulate in Canada.

One of the first tokens to reach Canada was the Magdalen Island penny

9 A workhouse is an institutions were “drifters” were learned a trade. The intention was good, but conditions were miserable.

10 Davis, W. J. The Nineteenth Century Token Coinage of Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, to which are added tokens of over one penny value of any period (Moseley 1904. reprinted London/New York 1969) pages 179 and 180.

" Summersgangs House on Holderness Road. Although a street by that name still exists, I have found no mention of the house.

12 Picard died broke in 1 843.

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(Breton 520)1' . This token, one of the heaviest to circulate in Canada was introduced by Sir Isaac Coffin, when he visited his North American possessions in 181514. Sometime between 1813 and 1816 light, anonymous tokens started to appear in the Montreal area. The first showed a ship (Breton 965 and 966), then came a type with a military officer15 and the text “Victoria Nobis” (Victory is ours, Breton 982). These pieces were lighter than the regal coins, lighter even than contemporary British tokens. Their success paved the way for a flood of even lighter tokens, showing Wellington and Brittania or a crowned Irish harp on the reverse (Breton 969, 971, 972, 979, 980 and 981). Similar tokens showed the ship, familiar from earlier imports (Breton 989, 990, 995, 996, 1003, 1004 and 1005) or the bust of a civilian16 (Breton 1006). Most if not all of these were made in Britain17.

The series was eventually succeeded by other light tokens, always deteriorating in weight and quality of execution, more and more made in Canada. The last and the worst series, the “blacksmith” and “Tiffin” tokens, appeared first in 1825. They were eventually driven out of circulation by tokens issued by local banks. Light tokens made a short-lived comeback in 1837, when the Bank of Montreal used the plural “sous” on its one sou token. Tokens of reasonable weight were issued by local merchants until the introduction of a national Canadian coinage in 1858.

So much is clear: most, if not all “Wellingtons” were struck in Britain. Some circulated in Britain (or among the British troops in Spain), others in Canada, some in both places. Davis classifies some as English or Irish, others as “non-local”. Practically all are claimed as Canadian by Breton.

13 Breton numbers refer to Breton, P. N., Popular Illustrated Guide to Canadian Coins, Medals, Tokens, etc. (Montreal 1912)

14 The “Copper Company of Upper Canada” tokens dated 1794 reached Canada only around 1870; they are made for collectors, rather than for circulation as merchants’ tokens. The “Vexator Canadiensis” pieces of 1811 fit in the “blacksmith" series issued between 1835 and 1837.

15 Courteau takes him for Admiral Nelson (Courteau, E.G. The Non-Local Tokens of Canada in The Numismatist, May 1924)

18 McLachlan takes him for Louis Joseph Papineau, a French Canadian patriot (McLachlan, R. W. Is the “mysterious” bust on Canadian coins really that of Wellington? in The Numismatist, June 1916).

17 Bowman links many to Thomas Halliday,an engraver of Birmingham (Bowman, F. The designers and engravers of Canadian coins and tokens in The Numismatist, January 1949).

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McLachlan1* argues that all copper tokens circulated for halfpence in Canada. He therefore takes all pennies and farthings to be British, rather than Canadian. He bases his conclusion on a statement made on the 10th of March 1817 from one John Reinhardt, tobacconist, to a special committee of the House of Commons19 that for two years past a considerable quantity of Pieces of Copper ... has circulated in the Country ... as Copper Coin or Halfpence. These pieces have been in part clandestinely introduced into the Country as merchandise. / have for nearly two years past received and paid them as Copper Coin ... About the month of December last they suddenly fell into discredit and no one would take them as Coin. The chief reason is that they abound too much ... Most of these pieces were inscribed “Wellington” ... some of them have been imported among cargoes by merchants.

If one takes Mr. Reinhardts’ statement literally, it would indeed indicate that “Copper Coin” and “Halfpence” are synonyms. There are arguments against such an assumption. These rest on the series with the RH monogram on the obverse and a ship on the reverse (Breton 989 to 991). This series consist of a penny, halfpenny and farthing. The halfpenny is generally accepted as Canadian, even by McLachlan20. It seems highly unlikely that the halfpennies were produced only for Canada and the other two tokens were made exclusively for circulation in Britain, especially because the halfpennies and pennies are about equally common.

1 am inclined to believe that Reinhardts’ statement merely indicates that the overwhelming majority of the copper was taken for halfpence and that the RH pennies and farthings were struck for Canada. This being said, it is still possible that the issuers were unable to circulate many farthings (they are quite scarce) and that the pennies were accepted only for half a penny. I would also accept as Canadian a very rare token showing George III on the obverse with the text BON POUR DEUX SOUS and the date 1812 and on the reverse Commerce seated with the text ONE PENNY TOKEN. However, in view of the similarity of this

,s McLachlan, R. W. The Canadian Wellington Tokens in The Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal, third series, volume IV (1902) pages 41 to 49.

19 Journal of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada for 1817, page 114.

20 R. W. McLachlan, The Coins of Canada in The Numismatist, October 1914. The ship on the RH tokens is also used on a token assigned to Halifax, Nova Scotia (Breton 965).

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token to Breton 958, I accept this token and its variants21 as Canadian as well.

A series, similar to the RH tokens has a seated female personifying Commerce on the obverse and the value in letters on the reverse (Breton 962 to 964). It is generally accepted that these tokens were struck for use in Britain but later shipped to Canada. I would prefer to call them British, since they were struck for use there, but it is possible to argue that they belong in a collection of Canadian tokens, because they circulated in Lower Canada.

In view of the above-mentioned, well documented description by Davis, I think it is undeniable that Breton 984 to 988 are British. On the strength of this classification and Mr. Reinhardts’ statement I reject as Canadian Breton 970, 974 and 975.

In September 1912 Mr. MacLachlan argued in a paper, presented at an ANA meeting that Breton 977, 978 and 983 are British, as they are not found in Canadian hoards. I accept his argument and therefore reject these tokens as Canadian.

In the following table I am reviewing the tokens that are listed by both Breton and Davis, suggesting a classification and giving the name of the issuer when known. You should remember, though, that there is no reason why the same token could not have circulated in both areas. Even those made for Canada could have slipped into circulation in Britain. They were made there and they may have been the “counterfeits” Picard was complaining about. Nevertheless, I can only agree with a remark made by Mr. McLachlan made in the ANA paper quoted above: If we were to accept as Canadian all the coins that were made current in Canada by Royal proclamation our Canadian list would have to be expanded so as to embrace the coins of the known world, current during the eighteenth and earlier part of the nineteenth centuries. In fact, by that standard, most US coins would qualify as Canadian, since they were, until recently, legal tender there.

I would like to thank and recommend the NI library and Mr. Granvyl Hulse for valuable help in the preparation of this article.

21 Breton 957 and 959.

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Canadian and British tokens

Breton	Davis	#	Country	Issuer
880	Not local	65	Canada (Nova Scotia)	Carrit & Alport
886	Not local	71-74	Canada (Nova Scotia)
887	Not local	75	Canada (Nova Scotia)
888	Not local	67-70	Canada (Nova Scotia)
894	Dublin	71	Canada (Nova Scotia)
957	Not local	25-26	Canada, Lower	Tiffin
958	Not local	27-29	Canada, Lower	Tiffin
959	Not local	19-22	Canada, Lower	Tiffin
960	Not local	47-57	Canada, Lower	Tiffin
961	Not local	58-60	Canada, Lower	Tiffin
962	Not local	42-46	British and Canadian
963	Not local	106-107	British and Canadian
964	Not local	118	British and Canadian
965	Not local	101-103	British and Canadian
966	Not local	99-100	Canada, Lower
969	Not local	92	Canada, Lower
970	Not local	32-33	British (Not local)
971	Not local	88	Canada, Lower
972	Not local	89	Canada, Lower
973	Not local	91	Canada, Lower
974	Not local	35	British (Not local)
975	Dublin	54	British (Dublin)
976	Dublin	60	Canada, Lower
977	Not local	82	British (Not local)
978	Not local	80	British (Not local)
979	Not local	83-86	Canada, Lower
980	Not local	87	Canada, Lower
981	Dublin	61	Canada, Lower
982	Not local	79	Canada, Lower
983	Not local	61	British (Not local)
984	Yorkshire	93	British (Yorkshire)	J. K. Picard
985	Yorkshire	92	British (Yorkshire)	J. K. Picard
986	Yorkshire	107, 114	British (Yorkshire)	J. K. Picard
987	Yorkshire	99, 101	British (Yorkshire)	J. K. Picard
988	Yorkshire	116	British (Yorkshire)	J. K. Picard
989	Not local	38	Canada, Lower
990	Not local	104	Canada, Lower
991	Not local	117	Canada, Lower
994	Not local	109-114	Canada, Lower
1003	Not local	94	Canada, Lower
1004	Not local	95-96	Canada, Lower
1005	Not local	97	Canada, Lower
1007	Not local	115	Canada, Lower
1011	Not local	77	Canada, Lower
1012	Dublin	79-83	Canada, Lower

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MONEY BETWEEN GRAVEL

863 Silver Coins and 21 Silver Pieces of Jewelry

(The following was extracted from an unnamed news magazine in Holland. It was submitted by Albert Dirkzwager and was translated from Dutch to English by Dr. Robert Turfboer.)

In February 1968, from piles of gravel on the East Harbor dike at Goes (Zeeland, the Netherlands), emerged hundreds of thin, silver coins. A short time earlier this pile of gravel had been scraped off the bottom of the river Maas [Meuse] near Roer [between Maastricht and Nijmegen] by a dredge. Subsequendy the material had been shipped to Goes.

Part of it - 245 tons - landed at the wharf of a concrete plant and another 125 tons was used for concrete right away. This is no longer available for searching.

In a small amount of gravel, which was dropped on a road, private citizens still find a few coins. The large portion (of the coins and jewelry) however was discovered when the 245 tons at the wharf was systematically searched. This lead to a find of 883 silver coins and 21 silver pieces of jewelry.

Right away a problem arises: who can claim this treasure legally? Legal conclusions, sponsored by all parties involved from the dredgers to the wharf, find no right for treasure that is classified as movable property, like dredged gravel. The Royal Coin/Medal Cabinet declared the find important. In January 1969 the Limburg Museum of Art and Antiquities bought the coins. The Maastricht Museum has placed 79 coins and 21 jewelry items in its permanent exhibit, the rest is kept in depot.

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According to the Royal Coin Cabinet the original treasure must have been much larger. No one knows of course how many coins remained outside the dredged area, and how many were lost in transit by ship and by truck. How many coins got lost permanently and how many were found by individuals? After a request from the Zeeland Numismatic Circle, collectors and dealers reported and brought in for registration 250 additional coins and 6 jewelry items. These items were purchased from third parties who had obtained these items from the find area. This has now become the largest find of Carolingian material ever in the Netherlands. Almost two thirds of the treasure are coins of the Emperor Louis de Pious (814-840 AD).

The jewelry items are mostly from belts, like buckles, etc. Together (6 items) they weigh 350 grams, whereas the (250) coins weigh 1800 grams. The jewelry therefore made up a considerable portion of the unknown owner’s treasure which he entrusted to the bottom of the Maas.

********************************************************************

THE 1911 COINAGE OF CANADA

Dolores H. Davis, WiUiamstown, New Jersey, NI #320 (Reprinted from NI BULLETIN, November, 1970)

"The Godless Coin" or "The Graceless Coins" term was widely used for the 1911 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cent issues of Canadian coinage upon which the traditional DEI GRA (Dei Gracia) was omitted. Because of this a large number of these coins were defaced in numerous ways.

The only 1911 coin thought by most people to be struck retaining the words DEI GRA in the inscription was the 191 1C Gold Sovereign. However, there was another issue of 1911 in the denomination of a $1.00 silver piece. The obverse of the coin bears the crowned effigy of His Majesty George V wearing the Royal Robes and looking to the left with the inscription: "GEORGIYS V DEI GRA: REX ET LND: IMP:". The reverse of the coin bears the denomination, the word "CANADA" and the date within a wreath of Maple Leaf. The Royal Mint, London, England prepared dies and shipped them to Canada, but they were never used by the Ottawa Mint. However, the Royal Mint in London is know to have struck 4 pieces, three of which are supposedly in British Museums and the fourth piece in a private collection.

The $1.00 dies and Royal Mint issues therefore shows proof that the $1.00 denomination for Canada was contemplated struck in silver twenty-four (24) years | prior to the first issue for circulation in 1935, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the reign of King George V.

157

SUN-FACE ON INDIAN COINS

Devendra Handa, Chandigarh, India, NI #2404

Fig. 1

Gwalior Coins with Sun-face

Gwalior coins with sun-face on the obverse (Fig. 1) are well known. Some specimens of this type were first listed by Yeoman1 but all the known coins were published by Jan Lingen who rightly observed that "The sunface coins were one of the first machine-struck coins of Gwalior State and are dated from Samvat 1944 (1887) to Samvat 1946 (1889). 1,2 Gwalior State was founded by Ranoji, the son of the headman of a village in the Satara district (Maharashtra), who in 1714 AD became the slipper- bearer to Balaji Visvanatha, the first Peshwa. From this humble position, from which the name "Sindhia" is derived, he rose to become one of the foremost leaders of the Marathas under the second Peshwa, Baji Rao I (1720-40 AD). It was, however, Ranoji’s youngest son Mahadji who laid the real foundations of an independent state and captured with great skill and bravery the impregnable fort of Gwalior. After Mahadji’s death on February 12, 1794, Daulat Rao acceded to the throne. It was he who shifted the capital from Ujjain to Gwalior. Mahadji’s coins

158

show a scimitar and a symbol with five arrow tips pointing to a central dot.3 We feel that this is a solar symbol which continued on the coins of the subsequent rulers and was later given a prominent and more aesthetic shape in the form of sun-face on Gwalior coins during 1887-89 AD.

\

Fig. 2

Maratha coin of Gulshanabad Mint

©

V

y

The earlier occurrence of the sun-face as a numismatic symbol may, however, be seen on the Maratha silver rupees of Gulshanabad (Nasik) bearing the date AH 1183 (=1769 AD), struck during the reign of Peshwa Madhav Rao (176 1-72). 4 The symbol occurs in the sin of the word Manus on the reverse (Fig. 2). It, however, disappears as suddenly as it appeared on the said coin. The precise causes of its appearance and disappearance are not known. However, four years later, the sun-face reappears on the silver coins of another Maratha State in Central India - coins of Malhamagar (Indore) issued during the reign of Ahilya Bai Holkar, and continues subsequently (Fig. 3). 5

159

It is well known that Malhar Rao Holkar, the founder of the Holkar state of Indore, was in the service of the Peshwas and it was after the defeat and death of Balaji Raji Rao in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 AD that he retired to Indore where he died four years later. The adoption of the sun-face symbol by the Holkars is thus not surprising. It remained the most popular symbol on the Holkar coins until 1902 when the Indore mint was closed by arrangement with the Government when it was obliged to accept the British protection.6

Silver rupee of George Thomas

Sun-face occurs on the silver rupees of George Thomas also (Fig. 4). These pieces were struck from the Sahibabad Hansi mint and bear the date 1214/42 (=1799 AD/42). George Thomas was an Irish military adventurer who had come to India with the fleet of Admiral Hughes. He deserted the Royal Navy in 1781 in Madras and joined the army of the Nizam of Hyderabad as a private gunner. Then he had a short stint with the Poligars of South India. In 1787, he reached Delhi whereafter he served Begum Samru for some time and then joined the service of the Maratha chief Appa Khande Rao, a feudatory of Sindhia, in 1793. He defeated the Sikhs and captured from them Shamli, an important town near the eastern bank of the Yamuna in Muzaffamagar district (U.P.). After Appa Rao’s death in 1797, he was taken in service by Bapuji Malhar, the Maratha Governor of Saharanpur, but was dismissed later and became a freebooter, plundering towns and cities around Delhi. By the close of 1798, George Thomas carved out an independent principality for himself and established a mint in his capital Hansi and issued coins as noted above.7 Having remained in the service of the Marathas, George Thomas must have been conversant with the currencies of the Maratha states of Madhya Pradesh and may have adopted the sun-face symbol from them. It occurs in the sin of the word Jalus on the reverse of his coin just like many of the Indore coins.

In 1758, the Marathas under Raghunath Rao got an opportunity to intercede in the Punjab as a result of intrigues and political manoeuvering at the court of Delhi. They overran Lahore and Multan, appointed Adina Beg as subahdar and left Shavaji, a relation of Sindhia, to support him with a body of troops. It is said that Adina Beg agreed to pay an annual tribute of seventy-five lakh rupees but he died soon after taking over as the subahdar and was succeeded by a Maratha officer. The Marathas were, however, obliged to leave Lahore and Multan when Ahmad Shah Abdali approached Punjab after quelling disturbances in Afghanistan in 1759.8 Lahore was captured in 1764 by the Sikhs who started striking their coins from that place. They overran Multan also in 1767 AD.

Sun-face occurs on some Sikh coins also (Fig. 5).9 It is depicted in the lam of the

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Fig. 5

Sikh coin of VS 1857 with sun-face.

word Akal on the reverse of some Nanak-shahi rupees of the Sikhs from Samvat 1857 (= 1800 AD). This date is quite close to the date of George Thomas’ rupees bearing this symbol. So the Sikhs, too, seem to have adopted it from the same source as George Thomas. Besides the Maratha incursion in Punjab referred to above, there is enough of evidence of the Sikhs fighting against the Marathas and sometimes even coming close to them. Sindhia had concluded a treaty with the Sikhs on May 9, 1785 to pacify them but peace did not last long and hostilities started again after 1788. During 1790-91, the Sikhs continued to disturb Sindhia’s territory and the relations between the two were quite strained. During May- August 1791, the Maratha commanders at Panipat, when hard up for money, got Mahadji’s approval to proceed against Patiala to realize arrears of tribute. The Sikhs continued their raids in the Gangetic doab and became more violent after Mahadji’s death. The Sikh massacre and plunder of pilgrims at Haridwar on 10th April, 1796 is well known. They clashed with George Thomas also during 1797-98 when he was in the service of the Marathas. The rise of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the trans-Satluj region and the defeat of the Marathas at the hands of the British during 1803-05 put an end to Sikh-Maratha sallies but socio-political relationships between Ranjit Singh and the Marathas continued even thereafter for some time.10 It is, therefore, no surprise if we find sun-face on Sikh coins which was a popular motif on Maratha coins of Indore from 1773 onwards.

Notes and References

1. Pv. S. Yeoman, A Catalogue of Modern World Coins, 6th revised edition, Racine, Wisconsin, 1964, p. 252.

2. J. Lingen, "Sun-face Type Coins of Gwalior", Coin Review , Indore, Vol. I, No. 1 (October, 1975), pp. 9-11. See also The Standard Guide to South Asian Coins and Paper Money since 1556 AD, Krause Publications, Iola, Wisconsin, 1981, pp. 169-70.

3. John Allan, Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum Calcutta, Vol. IV, Oxford, 1928, pp. 302-03, PI. XXII.9.

4. K. K. Maheshwari and Kenneth W. Wiggins, Maratha Mints and Coinage , Anjaneri, 1989, p. 77, Type T2a.

5. IMC, IV, pp. 315 ff. See also Dr. P. K. Sethi et al, A Study of Holkar State Coinage, Indore, 1976.

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6. Jerome Remick et al, The Guide Book and Catalogue of British Commonwealth Coins (1649-1971 ), 3rd ed., Winnipeg, 1971, p. 369.

7. See for details W. Francklin, The Military Memoirs of George Thomas , London, 1803; C. Grey, European Adventurers of Northern India (1785-1849), edited by H. L. O. Garret, Lahore, 1929; Shelf ord Bidwell, Swords for Hire, London, 1971; ONS Newsletter, Nos. 117, 135, 137 and 138.

8. Maheshwari and Wiggins, op.cit, pp. 157-61.

9. Hans Herrli, The Coins of the Sikhs, Nagpur, 1993. pp. 63ff. It is found on the Sikh coins of Kashmir also.

10. For details, see H. R. Gupta, History of the Sikhs, 4 Vols., New Delhi, 1982.

COUNTERMARKS FOR LESBOS

Patrick D. Hogan, Iowa City, Iowa, NI LM # 69 (Reprinted from NI Bulletin, May, 1971)

During the last half of the 19th century, when Ottoman rule over the islands of the Aegean was losing strength, various Greek islands and mainland cities counterstamped current coins for their use. Most authority in these cities was in the hands of the Church Councils, and many numismatists consider these countermarks merely coins stamped for Church usage, but it is known that the coins were generally put into circulation in the neighboring countryside. One of the islands that counterstruck Turkish and Egyptian coins found in circulation was the large island of Lesbos, where two cities are known to have so counterstruck coins, normally copper pieces. The more common municipality counterstrikes found are those of Ploumari while the less common appear to be the Mytilene pieces. The Ploumari countermarked coins bear three separate stamps, usually. The first is in Arabic, stating Baladir si Ploumari (Municipality of Ploumari). Ploumari is rendered Pilmar, Bilmar or Plarnar. The date below this is 1316/1897-8. The second counterstamp bears the Greek letters Delta Pi, which is said to stand for Deme Plomarion (City of Ploumari). The third mark is said to be a Church counterstamp, and consists of a Pi on one side and a Lambda on the other side of the coin, both in script characters. The most common coin found with these countermarks are 20-para pieces. I have not seen the Mytilene piece, but understand that it bears a similar Arabic counterstamp, with "Midalu" replacing Pilmar and the date 1301.

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"URCHIN”

A coin of Brabant, the "Urchin" was referred to in the 18th century as being equal to one half of the Heller.

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(Submitted by R. R. Kutcher)

ENGRAVED PUZZLES

Bob Forrest, Manchester, England, NI #2382

It is generally reckoned, or so it seems, that engraved coins whose histories have been "tied down" are more valuable than those that defy all the researcher’s attempts at attribution. It is certainly true that a great deal of satisfaction is to be gained from cracking the mystery that surrounds a particular engraved coin, and relating it to specific persons or events in history. But equally, part of the fascination of engraved coins can be their very air of mystery. They give us the chance to wonder and to speculate.

Take the interesting bit of folk-art shown in Fig. 1. It is probably of late 18th century date (the underlying copper halfpenny has either worn or been filed smooth) and it typifies the fascination of so many of these old engraved pieces, insofar as one can derive great pleasure from speculating about what the piece is supposed to depict, and what significance it held for the person who designed it or to whom it was given as a keepsake. One side depicts a boy waving a flag. The other, a young girl holding what could be a horseshoe. If so, this could well be a "good luck" piece, perhaps indicative of one or other of the two children undertaking a long journey.

Figure 2

Fig. 2 is interesting for different reasons. It is a Victorian silver threepenny piece of

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the period 1893-1901, with a loop added for suspension. The obverse has been left intact, the reverse smoothed and engraved as shown. The irritating thing here is that the piece is open to twin interpretations. Do we have here fish and weeds under water, or sailing boats on the water, with reeds in the foreground? Was AP an angler or a sailing enthusiast?

Figure 3

Another puzzling piece is shown in Fig. 3. This is an 1893 crown in VF+ condition which, apart from signs of vigorous polishing, has been left intact save that the reverse has been engraved, "Clerk’s Fee 5/-, Sep. 27, 1900." The puzzle here is why would anyone engrave this on a coin which at that time was worth a great deal of money? Is Clerk here a name or a profession? My own theory is that it may commemorate the first wage of a young man starting out on his career as a clerk (of court, say?).

Figure 4

Fig. 4 shows an even more cryptic piece. It is apparently a copper halfpenny of 1770-1775 vintage, worn totally smooth, and with the single word "WINE" engraved upon it. Whether this is some sort of tavern/winery token/label, a wine connoisseur’s novelty coin, or a one word allusion to Proverbs 20.1 is anyone’s guess! Two hundred years ago, someone knew what it was for!

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| ''rfu-

! drbjxil So^ruL uiyrvd.t^TleAA.

Figure 5

Fig. 5 is not a coin, but is so odd that I cannot resist mentioning it here. It is rectangular copper blank, apparently cut from a strip of that metal with bevelled edges, and engraved with a somewhat gloomy quotation from the New Testament: "The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be reasead (=raised)" (I Corinthians 15.52). Goodness only knows what the purpose of this piece was, unless it was some sort of pre-Second Coming and Resurrection of the Dead religious "medalet", or perhaps a piece to be buried with the dead in the hope of resurrection. Either way, the implications are somewhat morbid. If anyone can think of a remotely cheerful alternative, please do let me know!

CHINESE SYMBOLISM: LUNG - THE DRAGON Patrick D. Hogan, Iowa City, Iowa, NI LM #69 (Reprinted from NI Bulletin , Janaury, 1971)

The most common design motif on Imperial Chinese coins is the Dragon. The Chinese word for dragon is LUNG. The Dragon possesses the head of a camel, horns of a deer, ears of an ox, eyes of a hare, body of a serpent covered with the scales of a fish, feet of tiger with talons of a hawk. It is depicted with flame-like emanations from its shoulders and its hips, showing its divine origin. Its scales are of nine times nine, the lucky number. Those on its neck lie in reverse order than those on its body. The claws vary according to rank. His most priceless possession and attribute is the CHU, sometimes called the pearl of spirituality. He carries it in his throat though it floats in the air before him. LUNG brings Spring, rains; it is the fructifier of the earth, the dominant power. It is the emblem of the Emperor, mighty in strength, the guardian and protector of mankind. The water dragon is the symbol of the scholar, the land dragon of the statesman, the sky dragon of the Emperor. The Chinese sky- dragon has five claws, the Japanese has but only three. No mortal can survive the sight of his entire body, so it is partially hidden in artistic portrayal. Mostly through the use of clouds on coins.

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THE BITA SEN

Bita Sen was the Japanese name for bad or counterfeit coins.

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(Submitted by R. R. Kutcher)

BOOK NEWS & REVIEWS

Catalogue Guide of Some Projected Patterns and Unadopted . . . Soviet Coins. V.A. Nazaraov. Rostov-on-Don, 1993.

Card covers, 14x19cm, 45 pp., Russian text with line

drawings .

This small tentative catalogue is compiled chiefly from articles by Moshnyagin and Dashevsky, Fortinsky, and some items from the South Russian edition of Red Star, and from correspondence with collectors. It lists and usually describes various patterns, designs, and off-metal experimental strikes, chiefly of the 1920s and 1930s, and provides much material on the large series of patterns &c of the 1950s and 1960s. The author states that he excludes numerous "rumored" patterns, even if they come referred to more than once. This booklet and R. Kaim's tentative catalogue os some ten years back are the principal published compilations on what remains still a sketchily mapped field.

Reviewed by Randolph Zander.

*****

Standard Catalogue of World Paper Money, Volume Two, General Issues. By Albert Pick. Edited by Neil Shafer and Colin R. Bruce II. Krause Publications, Iola, 1994. Hardcover, 8 1/2 x 11 inches, 1,280 pp., 10,000+

photographs, with valuations for over 22,000 notes from 280 issuing authorities. Available from Krause Publications, Book Department NR, 700 E. State Street, Iola, WI 54990- 0001. Price is $55.00 plus $2.50 shipping.

The seventh edition of the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Volume Two, General Issues has recently been released. It covers all legal-tender issues of national governments from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries and has been updated to include over 100 new notes from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia- Herzegovina, the Ukraine, and other new states are listed. All notes are valued in up to three grades of condition. The publisher reports that work on updating Volume One, which covers specialized issues, has begun and is expected to be completed later this year.

Information supplied by the publisher.

*****

Standard Catalog of World Crowns and Talers from 1601 to date. By Chester L. Krause and Clifford Mishler. Edited by Colin R. Bruce II. Krause Publications, Iola, 1994. Soft cover, 8 1/2 x 11 inches, 1,200+ pages with 10,000+ photographs. Available from Krause Publications, 700 E.

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State Street, Iola, WI 54990. Price is $75.00 plus $2.50 shipping.

Four centuries of world crowns and talers accompanied by the first complete pricing update in eight years are compiled in this newly released volume. Listings for issues up to 1800 are cross-referenced to Davenport numbers. From 1800 on, numbers match the Standard Catalog of World Coins.

Information supplied by the publisher.

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COINS OF KING EDWARD VIII

Soli R. Icewalla, NI # 570

(Reprinted from NI Bulletin , November, 1972)

King Edward VIII (Duke of Windsor) sat on the throne of England for ten months from January 20, 1936 to December 11, 1936. Though dies for his coinage (gold, silver and bronze) bearing his head were prepared in Great Britain, only a few sets were struck for national institutions and rdyalty.

The only coin to come out in public was a 12-sided 3 Pence coin which was a new size and shape being tried out for the first time. One theory is that a few were circulated to testing in vending machines. Anyhow, some did come in the market but are very rare (the estimated number is 12).

Coins bearing his name were put into circulation by the British Commonwealth Colonies of British West Africa, East Africa, Fiji, New Guinea and the native states of Kutch and Jodhpur in India.

Unfortunately these coins do not bear his profile. He was very popular and handsome and his profile on stamps is very attractive. It would have came out well if it had been engraved on the coins.

Fiji, a Pacific island which recently became independent, issued a copper-nickel penny in 1936. East Africa (later divided into Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Zanzibar and Somaliland) issued bronze 5 cent and 10 cents in the same year. British West Africa issued 1/10 penny, 1/2 penny and 1 penny coins in copper-nickel, also dated 1936. New Guinea, in 1936, issued a bronze 1 penny coin.

Silver coins commemorating the reign of Edward VIII were issued by Kutch, the then Indian Native State. It issued silver coins in the denominations of 1 kori, 2-1/2 kori and 5 kori and also copper 3 dokdas. These coins were issued by Maharaj Shri Khengarjee Sawai Bahadur "in the name of King Edward VIII", and were dated 1936.

Raja Umaid Singh of Jodhpur, another Indian Native State, also issued a copper quarter anna in the name of King Edward VIII.

These are the only coins of King Edward VIII known to have been issued.

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MEMBER NOTICE PAGE

Howard A. Daniel ID, P. O. Box 626, Dunn Loring, VA 22027-0626: Vietnamese cash-style coins; Schroeder 1-5, Toda 5, 11, 12, 18, 21-23, 37-38, 50-51, 53, 64-65, Craig 192.2, 203, 271 and 281 wanted. If you do not have one to sell or trade, I would like to know that you have one in your collection and a photocopy or rubbing of both sides. Please call me at 1-703-560-0744 if you would like to talk to me about your piece(s).

Jay Kristofferson, 4651 Geronimo St., Chandler, AZ 85226-5308: Research help needed. Central American Republic and related 1822-1854 or so. I can use books, coins, auction catalogs, inventories, any help at all. In spite of working on this project for several years very few areas are close to completion. I can especially use 1/2, 1 and 2 Reales and gold 1/2, 1 and most 2 Escudos. Will pay catalog to double catalog for most coins.

Frank Clark, P. O. Box 117060, Carrollton, Texas 75011-7060: WANTED: Medlar book on Texas obsoletes and script. Please write.

Ralph A. Cannito Box 304, Washington, NJ 07882: WANTED - Islamic/Arabic: all hammered silver coinage from 622 AD to 1900 AD. I am especially interested in rupees, multiple and Nazarana rupees of Afghanistan, Indian Princely States and the Mughal, Ottoman & Persian Empires. Buying one coin or a collection. Dealer and collector offers are welcome. ANA R068117.

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CHINESE SYMBOLISM: FENG-HUANG - THE BIRD OF PARADISE

Patrick D. Hogan , Iowa City , Iowa, NI LM #69 (Reprinted from NI Bulletin , March, 1971)

The Bird of Paradise is depicted on some coins. Westerners often call this animal a "Phoenix", but such a creature does not exist in East Asian lore. The Chinese call the mythical bird FENG=HUANG. It is the symbol of the Empress. It has five colors, denoting the five virtues. Her only resting place is the WU-T’ING tree. She visits man only during peace and is the incarnate of the Yin principle. She figures much in wedding ceremonies. Numismatists have suggested that the so-called "Dragon and Phoenix" design coins of the Republican government (Y-334-6) were meant to commemorate the wedding of the Husan-t’ung Emperor to Princess Elizabeth Yaun in 1922 (the title of emperor was not officially abolished by the Republican government until 1924).

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"ABRAEMOS"

A gold coin said to have been struck by the Portuguese for their possessions in India was called "Abraemos".

(Submitted by R. R. Kutcher)

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