Burdette Renaissance Coinage book-- the $10 Eagle "with periods" is not really periods aft

Longacre

I was reading the Burdette Renaissance of American Coinage 1905-1908 book. The book is chock full of tidbits of information, as well as highly detailed information on the Saint Gaudens coinage (Saintguru, you must be eating this book up). I will post more about the book later, but there was a good tidbit about the "periods" on the $10 eagle and the $20 double eagle. It seems that they are not periods at all. Per Footnote #312 of the book, "the "periods" were actually triangular stops intended to bound the inscriptions. They were used on both the eagle and double eagle designs. Poor quality reductions rendered them as round or oval pellets, or periods."

Pretty interesting stuff. The book even shows the original $20 model that clearly has the triangles, and then the final design that shows the blobs or "periods" that we all know and refer to.

RYK

Cool stuff. I was hoping that RGB would publish some 19th century stuff, as I have so little interest in 20th century coinage. I recently read a blurb in ANR's Numismatic Sun regarding an 1815 $5 about which RGB uncovered some mid-19th century letters in his studies. He seems to be the pre-eminent numismatic scholar of our time.

Edit: Speaking of crickets chirping... Touche!

RWB

Look for an article on the 1895 silver dollar - in a month or so in Coin World or Coin Values magazine.

There was an article in Coin World about 6 weeks ago about the use of gold dollars in jewelry from never-before-published US Mint letters. Also, one on the 1876-1877 double eagle design change is in the works.

As is my approach, all are based on original contemporary documents writen by the participants.

RWB

Hoot

<< <i>Cool stuff. I was hoping that RGB would publish some 19th century stuff, as I have so little interest in 20th century coinage. I recently read a blurb in ANR's Numismatic Sun regarding an 1815 $5 about which RGB uncovered some mid-19th century letters in his studies. He seems to be the pre-eminent numismatic scholar of our time. >>



I'd certainly agree Roger's among the top of the crop for scholarly numismatic research. His books are extraordinary works. The most recent book (1905-1908) has a fair bit of information in it that pertains to late-19th Century numismatics and the carryings on of the Mint. Very worthwhile.

From what I understand, there is a great deal about early to mid-19th Cen. U.S. numismatics that is not well documented. This is still a wide-open field for original research. Much of the information that may be accessed in the future will llikely come by indirect reference to what occurred inside the walls of the Mint. Could be a lot of fun for a true historian.

Hoot