Did You Know: Curious and Unusual Facts

• Henry R. Linderman, long-time employee and at one time director of the mint, was trained as a medical doctor.

• Montroville W. Dickeson, author of the first large, illustrated coin collecting book in the United States, the American Numismatical Manual, 1859, was trained as a medical doctor. However, while Dickeson spent a lot of time in numismatics and, in particular, archaeological excavations in the Midwest, he did have time to engage in medicine in Philadelphia.

• Numismatical and numismatology were common terms in the third quarter of the 19th century. Today we scarcely ever see them. Nomenclature changes, what with Uncirculated giving way in popularity to Mint State, although the latter is hardly a new term and was used in the 19th century, but sparingly. In the field of paper money, New has been replaced with Uncirculated, a different twist on words, usually abbreviated as Unc. The designation PQ, for Premium Quality, was dreamed up by our own Dave Bowers a few decades ago, used in print, and now seems to be popping up everywhere. Where newps, is for “new purchases,” coin dealer jargon, came from, we don’t know.

• No Washington quarters were struck in 1975. Washington quarters were struck in 1975. Both statements, seemingly contradictory, are correct, in a way. No quarters bearing the 1975 date were made, but the mints were busy striking quarter dollars, but they were dated 1776-1976, prestruck for the forthcoming Bicentennial.

• The first coin club in the United States was the Philadelphia Numismatic Society, which antedated the American Numismatic Society (March 1858) by just a couple months or so.

• The Boston Numismatic Society, founded in 1860, will have a joint meeting on April 10, 2006, with the Currency Club of New England, with Dave Bowers and Dave Sundman presenting the program. It will be held in Newton, a suburb of Boston. If you’d like details, mark  on your calendar to e-mail Dave at qdbarchive@metrocast.net next March, as the occasion draws closer, and he will send you details.

• Although two-cent pieces were last officially coined in 1873, during the 20th century there were at least two movements to make more, and in the 1930s some models were prepared. Nothing happened to the later ideas, however.