This week's version of the JR Newsletter features an additional
biographical sketch of a member of the JRCS Hall of Fame, news about the JRCS
web page, and some other interesting information.
First, Louis Scuderi provided a short comment about a dime
attribution mentioned last week. He
wrote: "1834 JR8?"
His contribution qualifies as likely the shortest in the
brief history of the newsletter, but he makes a good point. The dime in question was an 1835 dated
dime…so the comment last week should have identified the dime as an 1835
JR8. Sorry for any confusion that may
have created. I replied to Louis that
when you put a half dime guy in charge of a newsletter, these kinds of things
are bound to happen (for all denominations but half dimes).
------
George Polizio wrote to add another piece of information
about JRCS Hall of Fame member Stewart Witham:
I just wanted to add something to the biography of Stew
Whitham. Stew probably amassed the most comprehensive collection of tokens that
were struck for Augustus B. Sage by George H. Lovett. These were included in
Bowers & Merenas sale of the Miller collection Nov. 1992.
------
Steve Crain provided an excellent biographical sketch of
JRCS Hall of Fame member Dr. Daniel Valentine:
Dr. Daniel Webster
Valentine
March 7, 1863 – January 24, 1932
Stephen A. Crain
Daniel W. Valentine was born in New
York City, on March
7, 1863. Little is known of his early years, except that he was
educated in public and private schools, and later received his D.D.S. from the
New York College of Dentistry in 1887. With the exception of one year spent in
Vienna, he practiced dentistry in New York City from 1887 to 1896, and later
moved to Englewood, New Jersey, where he practiced for another thirty-five
years.
He married Ada Belle Colwell in
1896, with whom he had two daughters, Marion and Margaret Beattie Valentine.
Dr. Valentine became interested
in numismatics very early in life, and although he was a general collector, he
confined himself primarily to United States
issues. He was very active in several numismatic organizations, including the
American Numismatic Association, American Numismatic Society, and the New York
Numismatic Club, for which he served as President for two terms, in 1918 and
1920. He was commemorated on a New York Numismatic Club Presidential medal,
designed by J. M. Swanson, of which there were eight silver and fifty bronze
medals struck.
Valentine assembled several
notable collections, including a comprehensive collection of United
States fractional currency, for which he
published Fractional Currency of the
United States in 1924. This publication was issued in a cloth bound edition
of 225 copies at $5.00 each, and in a limited, leather bound edition of
twenty-five numbered copies at $15.00 each. He also assembled a collection of United
States one dollar gold coins, complete by
mintmark.
Dr. Valentine is perhaps best
remembered for his extensive collection of United
States half dimes, which he exhibited at the
American Numismatic Society in 1914. He published his monograph United States Half Dimes in 1931, with
the American Numismatic Society, as #48 in their series Numismatic Notes and
Monographs. This work has been reprinted twice, in 1975 by Quarterman
Publications, and again in 1984 by Sanford J. Durst. In each of the reprints,
the original photographic plates were copied, but were printed as ‘screen’
prints, comprised of a series of dots, like a newspaper photo, which cannot be
magnified or enlarged for greater detail. Collectors and researchers are
advised to locate a copy of the original ANS
NNM #48 for its quality ‘collotype’ prints of the photographic plates, which
like a photograph can be magnified for detailed study. For the Liberty Seated
series alone, Valentine identified 257 different die marriages, greatly
expanding upon the previous work of Will W. Neil, published in The Numismatist
in 1927. While some of the die descriptions in the Valentine half dime
reference are vague and ambiguous, and it often appears that he was unaware of
the distinction between die marriage
and die state, he provided us with
the most comprehensive reference on the series to date. Critics might argue
that his die descriptions, particularly for the post Civil War dates, are so
brief as to be almost meaningless, but I suspect that some of this brevity
might be attributed to an imposed publishing deadline. Valentine published his
monograph late in 1931, and died, evidently of apoplexy, or stroke, on January 24, 1932. As a medical
professional, he would have been acutely aware of his declining health, and
apparently rushed to complete his work before health issues would no longer
allow him to continue.
All of Dr. Valentine’s collections were sold at public
auction prior to his death by Thomas Elder, in three sessions, on December 8,
9, and 10, 1927, in New York City, except for his remarkable collection of
half dimes, which remained intact at the time of his death.
------
Finally, JRCS web master Paul Hybert wrote with some
exciting news about the JRCS web site:
Some club members have been
working on a new look for the club's web site, and we have a first
effort. Please look at the first draft at:
www.jrcs.org/BETA/
The main points of the new style are: a navigation bar at the top of the page
(with drop down selections for some items -- hover your mouse over an item, and
a menu will appear for some items), a banner below the navigation bar, the text
now has smooth left and right margins (ragged right was the old way), and each
paragraph starts with indented text.
In the future, the same banner will be used on all pages. Because we have
not agreed upon a banner, one appears on only the top of the main page.
Please submit an image for a banner -- let it be 1,000 pixels wide, and 200
pixels tall. The submitted images will be added to the bottom of the main
page as they are received at jrcsweb(at)yahoo.com,
and we hope to decide upon a new banner by the start of 2015.
The only pages that do NOT have the new look are the various JR Journal
indexes: by-author, by-subject, and by-issue. But these pages' content
have been updated -- start at the navigation bar, and follow Publications
-->> Journal Index to see all of the indexes into the JR Journal.
Were you aware these were on the old web site?
Let us know if we left something out, if something is hard to find, or
something seems awkward. We want pages that look good on a large browser
window on a desktop monitor, and also look good on a smart phone's
display. We want pages that a browser can download
quickly, so we prefer text over images, and small-sized image files over
larger-sized files. Our site is hosted for free from a simple server: no
java-enabled apps, no search engines, no member logins, and no user uploads.
