@RogerB said:
So far, no one has come up with a logical reason to include this pattern piece among legal tender coins.
You know my friend Occam? And his razor?
Looking at my first edition Redbook, I see that the $3 gold section ended about three inches from the bottom of a left hand page. The very detailed and profusely illustrated $5 Half Eagle section started on the following page. Perhaps Yeo(man) did not want to cram the text of the half eagle section under the $3's and then start the pictures all by themselves at the top of the next page, so he didn't. That left three inches of white space under the $3's, which was very neatly filled by the Stella section.
Contrary to this highly hypothetical hypothesis is the fact that certain other sections did start with their text at the bottom of one page and the listings starting at the top of the next page. Whatever.
When I was but a lad I was a voracious reader of newspapers, and it always amazed me that the amount of news always EXACTLY filled up the paper. White space was unheard of. Then I went to work for Coin World and learned the mysteries of composition, layout, and "fillers." White space was forbidden!
Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
Headline (bold face): Coin demonetized
Text: The Quatloo of Triskelion has been demonetized.
Written by current News Editor Bill Gibbs circa 1976-1978 when he was working for me in Collectors Clearinghouse. As junior member of the staff he had been assigned the onerous task of writing several pages of fillers of varying lengths for the layout department to have on hand to plug in that pesky white space at the ends of articles. As I did when I had been tasked with writing fillers, he became dangerously bored, and being the good Trekkie that he is threw in this Star Trek reference.
Before he turned in the copy he consulted with me and David T. Alexander to see if he should leave it in the copy. Being bastards of course we said yes. He did, the News Editor did not get it and slapped the headline on it, and eventually it appeared in the paper.
We got at least six letters that I saw from readers who wanted us to know that THEY got the joke. We successfully diverted the first few, but eventually the Editor, Margo Russell, asked what all these letters were about. At that time we could have printed "GOD IS DEAD!" and I don't think we would have gotten six letters from readers.
Bill immediately died on the spot. Dave and I manfully stepped in to explain to Margo what a great inside joke this was and how wonderful it was and she eventually went away satisfied. We revived Bill and went on about our business.
TD
Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
The sets were sold to members of Congress. at the request of the Coinage Committee Chairman, for a precious metal and production cost totaling $6.10. Many members assigned their set to friends or coin collectors, and a few sets went to dignitaries with sufficient political "pull."
Inquiries about them appear in Mint correspondence into the 1930s.
Here is one of several letters to the Mint requesting Goloid and Metric sets. In this one, the House Member is asking to have a set sent to Robert Coulton Davis, curator of the American Numismatic and Antiquarian Society in Philadelphia (not the one in New York). David was both friend and rival of the Mint Cabinet collection with regard to pattern pieces.
Comments
You know my friend Occam? And his razor?
Looking at my first edition Redbook, I see that the $3 gold section ended about three inches from the bottom of a left hand page. The very detailed and profusely illustrated $5 Half Eagle section started on the following page. Perhaps Yeo(man) did not want to cram the text of the half eagle section under the $3's and then start the pictures all by themselves at the top of the next page, so he didn't. That left three inches of white space under the $3's, which was very neatly filled by the Stella section.
Contrary to this highly hypothetical hypothesis is the fact that certain other sections did start with their text at the bottom of one page and the listings starting at the top of the next page. Whatever.
When I was but a lad I was a voracious reader of newspapers, and it always amazed me that the amount of news always EXACTLY filled up the paper. White space was unheard of. Then I went to work for Coin World and learned the mysteries of composition, layout, and "fillers." White space was forbidden!
BEST "FILLER" TO EVER APPEAR IN COIN WORLD:
Just two simple lines:
Headline (bold face): Coin demonetized
Text: The Quatloo of Triskelion has been demonetized.
Written by current News Editor Bill Gibbs circa 1976-1978 when he was working for me in Collectors Clearinghouse. As junior member of the staff he had been assigned the onerous task of writing several pages of fillers of varying lengths for the layout department to have on hand to plug in that pesky white space at the ends of articles. As I did when I had been tasked with writing fillers, he became dangerously bored, and being the good Trekkie that he is threw in this Star Trek reference.
Before he turned in the copy he consulted with me and David T. Alexander to see if he should leave it in the copy. Being bastards of course we said yes. He did, the News Editor did not get it and slapped the headline on it, and eventually it appeared in the paper.
We got at least six letters that I saw from readers who wanted us to know that THEY got the joke. We successfully diverted the first few, but eventually the Editor, Margo Russell, asked what all these letters were about. At that time we could have printed "GOD IS DEAD!" and I don't think we would have gotten six letters from readers.
Bill immediately died on the spot. Dave and I manfully stepped in to explain to Margo what a great inside joke this was and how wonderful it was and she eventually went away satisfied. We revived Bill and went on about our business.
TD
Ahhhh, the goodness of editorial CPR.
Yep....I run into the same problem assembling a book or article for printing, especially when dealing with larger illustrations.
so the Congressmen who "bought them at face value" can keep them legally.
Best place to buy !
Bronze Associate member
Just shows how sweet that thing is....quick point and shoot in crappy bourse lighting and it still looks like a million bucks.
The sets were sold to members of Congress. at the request of the Coinage Committee Chairman, for a precious metal and production cost totaling $6.10. Many members assigned their set to friends or coin collectors, and a few sets went to dignitaries with sufficient political "pull."
Inquiries about them appear in Mint correspondence into the 1930s.
Here is one of several letters to the Mint requesting Goloid and Metric sets. In this one, the House Member is asking to have a set sent to Robert Coulton Davis, curator of the American Numismatic and Antiquarian Society in Philadelphia (not the one in New York). David was both friend and rival of the Mint Cabinet collection with regard to pattern pieces.
I saw a Stella at a recent coin show that had a strange smell. Maybe it was the one that Fred lost.