Should the ANA’s highest award be named for a "scoundrel?"
RWB
Posts: 8,082 ✭
The highest honor conferred by the ANA, the Farran Zerbe Memorial Award is given in recognition of numerous years of outstanding, dedicated service to numismatics.
Farran Zerbe was, evidently, less than popular with Mint of Treasury personal, and thought of as someone waiting to "put one over" on others. His ANA dealings seem “tainted” and other than his traveling curiosities show, he appears to have had minimal positive impact on the hobby of numismatics.
The suggestion has been made to the ANA Board that the ANA’s highest award be renamed in honor of Eric P. Newman, as one who continues to embody the highest standards of numismatic scholarship, service and ethics. Having heard nothing on the subject, I’m wondering if the suggestion fell on deaf ears?
I’m wondering what others think.
Farran Zerbe was, evidently, less than popular with Mint of Treasury personal, and thought of as someone waiting to "put one over" on others. His ANA dealings seem “tainted” and other than his traveling curiosities show, he appears to have had minimal positive impact on the hobby of numismatics.
The suggestion has been made to the ANA Board that the ANA’s highest award be renamed in honor of Eric P. Newman, as one who continues to embody the highest standards of numismatic scholarship, service and ethics. Having heard nothing on the subject, I’m wondering if the suggestion fell on deaf ears?
I’m wondering what others think.
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Comments
But the ANA has a checked past, of which all of us who have been members for a while realize, and so that fact that a "scamp" is named after its most prestigious award should not be a surprise.
Perhaps it could honor individuals who best contribute both world-class research and executive leadership to the numismatic community. Guys like Bass, Adams, Bowers, Siboni come to mind. No dobut there are others (don't mean to leave anyone out!)
<< <i>Regardless of what one thinks about Zerbe, there is no question that both the ANA and ANS should have a most prestigious award named after Newman.
Perhaps it could honor individuals who best contribute both world-class research and executive leadership to the numismatic community. Guys like Bass, Adams, Bowers, Siboni come to mind. No dobut there are others (don't mean to leave anyone out!) >>
You're not getting rid of Zerbe. His name is on those special 1921 slabs.
A Newman Award would be superb.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
<< <i>Isn't there a Sanford J. Saltus award named after a man who was doctoring coins with cyanide when he accidentally drank the cyanide rather than the ginger ale sitting near the cyanide in the same type of glass? >>
Recent scholarship suggests that it was actually a suicide, not an accident.
If memory serves, Saltus actually endowed the award, for excellence in medallic sculpting.
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<< <i>Isn't there a Sanford J. Saltus award named after a man who was doctoring coins with cyanide when he accidentally drank the cyanide rather than the ginger ale sitting near the cyanide in the same type of glass? >>
Recent scholarship suggests that it was actually a suicide, not an accident.
If memory serves, Saltus actually endowed the award, for excellence in medallic sculpting. >>
Unless a suicide note was left, how can anyone be sure? The story that I read was that he had a glass of ginger ale and a glass of cyanide and he accidently grabbed the wrong glass and took a big drink. Cyanide was a popular chemical for dipping old copper to give them a nice red color.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Farran Zerbe (1871-1949) was an internationally renowned numismatic lecturer, writer, and collector whose holdings, which included over 50,000 coins and an extensive library, were sold to Chase National Bank in 1928 where it formed the basis of a money museum, of which Zerbe served as curator until 1939. Born in Tyrone, Pennsylvania, his business and personal life after 1900 was devoted to numismatics. He was a head numismatist at major U.S. Expositions held in St. Louis (1904), Portland (1905), and San Francisco (1915-16) and was a member of the United States Assay Commission from 1909 to 1923. He was the owner of the journal The Numismatist from 1908 until 1910 when he sold it to the American Numismatic Association (ANA). He also served as ANA president from 1908 to 1910. Zerbe was an associate member (1923), fellow (1928), and patron (1947) of the American Numismatic Society.
Article about Zerbe by Ed Reiter
To coin collectors under the age of 50, the name “Farran Zerbe” doesn’t have much meaning without the word “Award.”
The Farran Zerbe Award has attained wide recognition as the highest honor given each year by the American Numismatic Association. Farran Zerbe himself, though, has largely been forgotten except by hobby scholars and old-timers. This is understandable, of course; time tends to blur the names and deeds of most mortal men. It’s also unfortunate, though, for Farran Zerbe the man – like the ANA award that bears his name – was a numismatic treasure of the highest order.
Zerbe was born in 1871 in the Pennsylvania town of Tyrone, and that’s where his interest in coins was born, as well.
The incident that changed his life – and sparked his lifelong interest in numismatics – happened when he was 11 and working as a newsboy in Tyrone. One day, a customer paid him with a coin he had never seen before: a strange silver coin about the size of a dime, but bearing odd inscriptions and the legend “50 Cent.” Thinking this to be a peculiar half dollar, he sought to deposit the coin in his bank account – but the teller handed it back, explaining that the bank wouldn’t accept French coins, and that’s what this was: a French 50-centimes piece. Far from being dejected, young Farran was intrigued. The episode aroused his fertile imagination and stirred his mind to wondering: What do other people use for money throughout the world?
The youngster began to read everything he could find on the subject. He also began to acquire coins and medals – always basing his purchases not on intrinsic value, but rather on historical interest or importance. By the time he reached adulthood, Zerbe has assembled a collection of considerable substance. He also had become a topnotch numismatic scholar with a knowledge of the subject that was broad as well as deep.
In 1900, at the age of 29, he joined the ANA – then a fledgling, intimate group that was not yet a decade old. Just four years later, the membership elected him first vice president, and in 1907 he became the organization’s seventh president, an office he would hold for two one-year terms.
Zerbe’s involvement with coins spilled over at an early stage from hobby to profession. Because of his extensive knowledge of the field, he came to be in demand as a consultant. When plans were being drafted for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, a world’s fair held in 1904 in St. Louis, influential hobby friends recommended Zerbe for the post of chief numismatist – a job that would entail supervising the sale of official coins and medals. He got the appointment and, among other things, oversaw the sale of the Jefferson and McKinley gold dollars – the first commemorative gold coins struck by the U.S. Mint. The very next year, Zerbe obtained a similar post at yet another fair: the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Ore. And, once again, his work involved the sale of gold coinage – this time a single coin honoring the explorers in whose honor the show was being staged. Although he was selling coins, Zerbe was no mere huckster. At each of the expositions, he organized displays of items from his collection and sought to sell the fairgoers not just on the coins but also on the hobby.
In 1908, the ANA’s founder, Dr. George Heath, passed away – and, since Heath had owned and published The Numismatist, the organization’s official monthly journal, there was some concern regarding the publication’s future course. The matter was resolved when Zerbe purchased the journal from Heath’s heirs. For the next two-and-a-half years, he served as both editor and publisher. Then, in December 1910, he sold the publication to the ANA.
Zerbe was to play an advisory role at one more exposition: the Panama-Pacific fair, which took place in San Francisco in 1915. And the numismatic output there exceeded that of any similar show before or since – reflecting, in all likelihood, the skilful work of Zerbe behind the scenes. To mark the exposition, the U.S. Mint produced five different coins – two of them $50 gold pieces.
The peripatetic collector became a familiar figure not only at expositions, but also at auctions. He attended almost every important coin sale of his day, and became close friends with the nation's leading dealers – people like Thomas Elder, B. Max Mehl and Wayte Raymond. He also formed lasting friendships with pre-eminent collectors such as F.C.C. Boyd, Maurice Wormser and Col. Edward H. Green.
Following World War I, Zerbe was instrumental in persuading federal officials to issue a new silver dollar marking the cessation of hostilities. The coin turned out to be the beautiful and much-admired Peace dollar, issued by the Mint from 1921 through 1935.
As years went by, Zerbe’s collection grew ever more impressive – not only in terms of size, but also from the standpoint of value. He might not have concerned himself with this when he was buying, but in the course of purchasing so many coins that were interesting and important, he ended up with many that were worth a lot of money, as well. By 1926, the collection was among the finest of its day, and Zerbe decided that it ought to have a permanent showcase – perhaps in a museum, where people could see and savor it all year ’round. That year, he entered into negotiations with the Chase National Bank in New York – and three years later, the bank acquired the collection. Vernon L. Brown, who served as curator of the collection for a number of years, recalled those transactions in a 1978 interview. “I don’t know whether the bank initiated the negotiations or Mr. Zerbe did – whether the egg came first or not,” Brown said. “From what I gather, though, it was Mr. Zerbe’s idea to put the collection on permanent display, and a lot of other people had the same idea, too. Mr. Zerbe had set up a couple of exhibits for the bank when it opened new branches in uptown New York, and they had received good publicity – so, with that in mind, the bank was probably interested in the idea and probably approached Mr. Zerbe.”
The bank acquired not only the collection, but also the collector: Zerbe became the first curator of what then was called the Chase National Bank Collection of Moneys of the World. Vernon Brown joined him in 1931 as assistant curator, then took over as curator in 1939, when Zerbe retired. “I was not particularly knowledgeable about numismatics when I joined the bank,” Brown later recalled. “I knew a little something about coins, but I never had collected any. I’ve often wondered, in fact, just why Mr. Zerbe chose me. The reason, I guess, is that he was looking for someone who was not too deeply versed in numismatics. He was looking for someone who could learn about the subject quickly, but who didn’t have a lot of preconceptions. Mr. Zerbe,” he added, “was a very fine man, and I was very fortunate to be able to work with him. He was extremely knowledgeable and very considerate, and I learned a great deal by working at his side through those years.”
According to Brown, Zerbe’s overriding concern in assembling his collection was variety, not condition. “What he wanted,” Brown said, “was a representative sampling of coins from throughout the world. He was trying to put together all the different types and forms of money that were being used then or had been used before, and he didn’t necessarily want the finest specimen known – or the rarest, either. He did acquire some rarities, of course, but that was not his goal.”
Among the rarities that did find their way into Zerbe’s collection were an 1804 U.S. silver dollar, a 1792 pattern quarter dollar, a New England shilling of 1652 and Willow, Oak and Pine Tree shillings, also from the 17th century. There were, in addition, items of unusual interest to historians: checks signed by nearly every U.S. president, for example, and a 5-shilling note of 1709 – the first note printed in New York by the state’s first printer, William Bradford. Odd and curious items also abounded: a 19th-century “money tree” from the East Indies, a dog teeth necklace from the Solomon Islands, elephant tail bristles of the 18th century from West Africa and large, circular stone money from the Yap Islands in the Pacific – the so-called “Yap stone” currency. At one time or another, all had been used as money. Zerbe’s collection was massive when the bank acquired it – and it grew even larger thereafter. “We kept up with all the new issues as they came out,” Brown related.
In time, the Chase National Bank became the Chase Manhattan – and the money collection, too, was renamed, coming to be known as the Chase Manhattan Money Museum. The collection underwent a series of moves, as well, finally ending up in the Rockefeller Center tourist complex. But, wherever it went and whatever it was called, it remained a big draw for the bank, attracting thousands of visitors every day and gaining Chase enormous good-will. Eventually, though, bank officials came to have second thoughts about this unusual asset. In 1973, the museum’s doors were shut and Chase officials announced that the moneycollection would “go on the road,” so to speak, as a traveling exhibit to be shown throughout the country. The bank, it was explained, had decided to “change its emphasis to a consumer-oriented approach.”
In 1978, with the hobby still waiting for the show to get on the road, a new announcement was made: The collection was being transferred, under a loan arrangement, to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. On Dec. 31, 1979, the bank announced that the loan was being converted to a gift. The Zerbe-Chase Manhattan Collection, encompassing some 25,000 items, was being given outright to the Smithsonian.
Farran Zerbe continued to serve the hobby in his later years. In 1928, he became chairman of the ANA Board of Governors, and he held that office – since discontinued – for several years. Later, he was chosen as ANA historian, and he served in that role until his death. Between 1904 and 1941, Zerbe attended 27 ANA conventions, and he always played a vital, central role in the proceedings.
Death came to Zerbe on Christmas Day 1949 at the age of 78, saddening the holidays for his many numismatic friends. Jack W. Ogilvie, a long-time ANA historian himself, eulogized Zerbe as the “Dean of American Numismatists.”
“Numismatics,” he said, “has lost one of its beloved pioneers. One who did more to popularize numismatics in this country than anyone we might name.” Few would dispute that assessment. Farran Zerbe served the numismatic hobby in general – and the ANA in particular – throughout his productive life. That, after all, is the reason the Zerbe Award bears his name. And that is the reason it’s so special.
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<< <i>Isn't there a Sanford J. Saltus award named after a man who was doctoring coins with cyanide when he accidentally drank the cyanide rather than the ginger ale sitting near the cyanide in the same type of glass? >>
Recent scholarship suggests that it was actually a suicide, not an accident.
If memory serves, Saltus actually endowed the award, for excellence in medallic sculpting. >>
Unless a suicide note was left, how can anyone be sure? The story that I read was that he had a glass of ginger ale and a glass of cyanide and he accidently grabbed the wrong glass and took a big drink. Cyanide was a popular chemical for dipping old copper to give them a nice red color. >>
ANS Bio of Saltus
J. Sanford Saltus was born on March 9, 1853 in New Haven, Connecticut, the only son of Theodore Saltus, founder of the Saltus Steel Company.
Saltus devoted much of his life—and inherited fortune—to supporting the arts, founding prizes at the National Academy of Design (in 1908), École des Beaux Arts (in 1910) and Art Students' League. In 1913, Saltus endowed the ANS award that bears his name.
Saltus was also an avowed Francophile and commissioned statues of Joan of Arc in New York City and New Orleans; in France in Nice, Blois, Rouen, and Domrémy; and in England at Winchester Cathedral. Saltus was equally passionate about the fate of the lost Dauphin, Louis XVII, and amassed an extensive library of works on the fate of the Dauphin, which he eventually donated to the Salmagundi Club.
Saltus joined the ANS as a life member in 1892 and quickly became one of its more active members, serving in a number of capacities: from 1897 to 1898 he was Second Vice President, and from 1900 to 1905 Corresponding Secretary. He was also an avid proponent of the Society's publications and medallic programs, serving on the Society's publications committee from 1899 through 1905 (he chaired the committee from 1900 to 1904) and on its orders and decorations committee from its inception in 1901. In addition, Saltus provided significant funding for the Society's efforts to commission commemorative medals and he had a role in many if not most of the medals the Society issued between 1897 until his death in 1922.
Saltus died on June 23, 1922 under peculiar circumstances: while in London to attend a meeting of the British Numismatic Society, Saltus poisoned himself with cyanide. After his death it was suggested that Saltus had committed suicide because a secret engagement was not going well; however, the cause of death was officially listed as "death by misadventure"—the coroner held that Saltus had been drinking ginger ale while cleaning coins with the cyanide and had accidentally mistaken the glass of cyanide for the one containing ginger ale. At the time of his death, Saltus was president of both the New York Numismatic Club and British Numismatic Society.
<< <i>The Zerbe article as quoted is largely tall tales and "fact through passage of time." His influence at the Mint Bureau, other than trying to help director Andrew entrap pattern collectors in 1910, was far less than the Chapman Brothers and others who were trusted. >>
Maybe so...maybe not.
No offense, but this illustrates the problem of research - and particularly research on the Internet. Without primary source documents, whom do we believe? And, for that matter, what constitutes a reliable primary source document in cases such as this? Hand written records kept by mint employees and other officials who may or may not have had their own agendas?
This - plus the preponderance of "fact through passage of time" - is why definitive historical research is so difficult.
Regardless, I posted the above articles to give a little more context to this thread...especially for people who may not even know who Zerbe was.
Camelot
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
<< <i>I understand Babe Ruth was a rather nasty person, but that doesn't seem to have tarnished his image. >>
It is said he ate a lot of hot dogs.
<< <i>Time has a way of sometimes, scouring away the worst of peoples worst attributes and deplorable activities. >>
Quite true. A lot of the "inside knowledge" never gets into written form.
I could say that every coin show I attend I hear things that I would never write down, but then everyone would ask me what is was, and I would have to politely demur
My now deceased friend, the Pullman Porter, was quite thankful for the rides home fom Boston given by the Babe.
The time in question was the pre internet time, info was slow moving and most of the masses were in the dark about everyday things.
NGC registry V-Nickel proof #6!!!!
working on proof shield nickels # 8 with a bullet!!!!
RIP "BEAR"
absolutely should be named after a scoundrel. Dr. Sheldon was not the only well-known
numismatist that should have worn stripes a bit more often than he did...
Someone as intelligent as yourself should realize scoundrels are always more popular than honest people.
Stewart
My Complete PROOF Lincoln Cent with Major Varieties(1909-2015)Set Registry