Dickeson/Elder So-Called Dollars, HK-854 and 857-866.

keets

I have always been intrigued with the issues by Prof. Montroville Dickeson and Thomas Elder, especially medals which share the "Confederation" design shown on the two examples above. CaptHenway(Tom DeLorey) is the acknowledged expert on these and he wrote two nice articles with some good biographical information and a nicely done cataloguing of the issues of Thomas Elder. The Numismatist from June and July of 1980 is where they can be found.

The difficulty in knowing with certainty who issued what and when they were struck can be confusing for two reasons: dies were first owned by Dickeson and then Elder --- and --- none of the medals carry a date. The good Capt credits them to Dickeson based on the planchets and I recently found some new information(to me, at least) which agrees with that but dates some of the issues to some time prior to 1863. I had been searching for medals or information about medals months ago and was directed to an archived page for JK Americana/John Kraljevich which included a link to an old auction catalogue. Apparently the sale was held in Boston and the Boston Public Library had a copy which was digitized in 2010.

Included in the sale items is a small group of medals which correspond to listings in the current edition of So-Called Dollars. The catalogue cover and the relevant pages are shown below. The item listings are numbers 943-947 inclusive. Here are the HK cross reference numbers I come up with:
943 --- HK-863 and HK-863a-d.
944 --- HK-864, HK-865 and HK-865a-d.
945 --- HK-866 and HK-866a.
946 --- HK-866b-c.
947 --- HK-854.

I think I currently own only two of these but have owned each by type but not necessarily in every planchet type. Dickeson was a rather prolific issuer during his time and Elder followed some 40 years later. While both issued a lot of different designs and Elder especially a lot of planchet types, neither man issued very many medals. Most of them are R-7/R-8 and hard to find. I expect that both PCGS and NGC will still encapsulate these as "(No Date)" until something more certain can be found in old records, but this tends to state that they were struck perhaps 15-20 years before the Centennial Exhibition. To my knowledge that had always been the perceived year of issue.

Enjoy and add anything relevant you know, especially if your initials are TD!!

Al H.

CaptHenway

Fascinating!

CaptHenway

‘Tis late and this merits further study while fully caffeinated. That said, I had never heard it suggested that these were Civil War era pieces.
My first thought is that the Continental Currency themes were inspired by the new US currency issues of 1861-on, which could have created interest in the earlier national currency.

Flatwoods

Interesting find Keets !
This is how knowledge is gained.

Flatwoods

I sure wish that I could have seen the items in that sale at the time.

keets

keets

we all know, or should know, that the word "Numismatics" is the study of all things related to Coins/Exonumia. to that end I probably fail and spend an inordinate amount of my time collecting instead of studying. I admire those among the forum members who research and publish. my problem tends to be time management. I have books that sit unread, among them is a copy of Dickeson's The American Numismatic Manual of the Currency or Money of the Aborigines, and Colonial, State, and United States Coins, written around 1859. my copy is a 3rd edition and very difficult to read because the print is quite small, really just a "copy" of the original in both size and font.

I need to set aside some time and tough it out, the man fascinates me.

Sonorandesertrat

Dickeson's book, the first edition of which used the term Numismatical instead of Numismatic, essentially put together the forerunner of the Red Book. His own collection was partly auctioned off in 1870:
Mason & Co. (May 19, 1870): Seventh Continuation Sale. Catalogue of a Valuable Collection
of Coins, Curiosities, Autographs, Etc., Being a Portion of the Collection of Prof.
Montroville Wilson Dicke[n]son…
There may be other auction catalogs of his collection, but I don't have them.

CaptHenway

Just flipped through a copy of Dickeson's Manual (1st Edition, 1859) on the Newman Portal and did not see any early paper money.

Smudge

Good post, thank you for the research and the lesson.

CaptHenway

What was the first publication to list historical information about Continental Currency as collector's items, as opposed to contemporary publications while they were still trying to circulate?

I would assume that for a long time they were dis-respected as worthless trash, as Confederate currency was for a long time until Grover Criswell started promoting it. Who first said "Hey, those are neat! I think I'll collect a set!"

Kkathyl

thanks for the info.

bkzoopapa

I believe the Scott catalogue of 1878 had the first comprehensive listing of Colonial/Continental currency

CaptHenway

Thank you. I will see if the ANA has it in their library.

CaptHenway

Does anybody have a copy at hand?