ANR gets a lot of different consignments-- how burdensome is this on the catalogers?

Longacre

ANR seems to always pull the rabbit out of the hat and come up with really interesting consignments. I was whipped up into a frenzy looking at the ABNCo vignettes (honestly, I never even knew what a vignette was before the auction catalog came out). Now I see that they have landed a significant consignment of Norweb Washingtonia (or, as the Dinosaurs in NY refer to it, Washingtoniana). On the ANR website, there is a quote by John K. as follows:

"There are few collections of Washingtonia more important than Norweb’s,” noted ANR’s John Kraljevich. “This is a first-rate grouping of historical numismatic Americana, carefully gathered over decades and long whispered about by specialists. The chance to work on a collection built by one of the great names in American numismatics is a rare treat.”


Although all of these non-core consignments are great, does anyone know how burdensome they become on the staff catalogers? Of course a cataloger might eat this stuff up because it is his chosen profession, but I think that the time researching the more esoteric items must be very difficult. Compare this Washingtonia consignment to a consignment of AU-58 Ike dollars. With the Washingtonia, the cataloger is destined to pull all-nighters, just to meet the publication deadline. With the Ike dollars, the cataloger can put in a 9-3 day, get in 9 holes of golf before dark, and be home in time to catch the latest re-run of the Brady Bunch.

IGWT

It's got to be the tough assignments that are fun. And, if you run out of time, you can always punt by cutting and pasting your boss's auction descriptions from previous sales.

Aegis3

Yeah, but which would you rather catalog, the Washingtonia or the Ike dollars? I would definately pick the Washingtonia, because it's just so much more interesting.

Conder101

I think you will find that the catalogers would much rather work on some of the great odd ball stuff. Really what more can you say about your 900th MS-67 81-S morgan dollar. Work as a cataloger for five years and you've had to describe and try to make exciting 20,000 Morgans. You get the feeling that EVERYTHING IS GENERIC!

Then someone drops the ABN plates on you or the Norweb's Washington material. Something fresh exciting and DIFFERENT!. Of course it is only good if you also have access to a fantastic research library like ANR has. If you don't you are going to have real headaches.