Selected Articles from Winter 1999/Spring 2000 Newsletter (no. 85)

Professor Maria R. Alföldi, one of the Germany’s most distinguished numismatists, was awarded the Huntington Medal in a ceremony on March 18, 2000. Professor Alföldi has been Professor of Numismatics at the University of Frankfurt and in her long career has created a remarkable work of writings on ancient numismatics. Due to an illness Professor Alföldi was unable to attend the ceremony. The citation was read by Arthur Houghton, who was standing in for Huntington Committee Chairman Mark Salton.

Professor R.-Alföldi began her career in 1958 with the publication of “Die Konstantinische Goldprägung in Trier”, which was followed by a number of important articles on Constantinian numismatics. Her book “Antike Numismatik” is one of the best introductions to the field of numismatics. The publication of Roman coin finds in Germany is another area of important research of Professor Alföldi.

The medallist’s address was read by Professor Kenneth Harl, who, at very short notice, had agreed to deliver Alföldi’s lecture. Her lecture on the buildings of Rome on coins was received with much interest. Professor Harl, a life member of the Society, is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Tulane in New Orleans. His many contributions to the field of numismatics include a study of Roman Provincial coins, and most recently a major work on coinage in the Roman world.

On February 12, 2000, the American Numismatic Society presented its J. Sanford Saltus Award for Signal Achievement in the Art of the Medal to Professor Bernd Göbel of Halle, Germany. The American Numismatic Society annually presents its J. Sanford Saltus Award to an international medallist for exceptional artistry during his/her lifetime. Professor Göbel was the first German to receive the Saltus Award in its eighty-year history.

As traditionally done to honor the recipient of the Saltus Award, the ANS is displaying a retrospective show of Göbel’s work. This is the first exhibit of Professor Göbel’s work in the United States. The American Numismatic Society’s exhibit will run from February 12 through May 14, 2000 and will be open to the public Tuesday through Friday. The lecture was funded through an endowed gift made possible by First Vice President and Council Member, Stephen K. Scher.

In his medallic creations, Bernd Göbel balances the tensions between image and word, between subject and form, in a way that makes each of his medals instantly recognizable as his own. Examples of his style may be seen in such works as his 1991 medal “Procrustean Bed”, in which the recently united Germanys are depicted as uneasy bedfellows submitting to the classical prescription of respective amputation and stretching to achieve harmony. In his 1995 medal, “Gallic Hen”, which he created in response to French nuclear testing, the traditional use of barnyard animals to represent various European powers is updated with the superimposition of a chicken’s head, a human skull and an atomic cloud shattering the French patriotic motto within a tri-color border. It is the outspoken voice of humanist values that serves as the unifying motif in Göbel’s work and ultimately sets him apart among other medallists of his generation.

A concurrent, separately organized exhibit of contemporary work by German medallic artists was shown at the Medialia…Rack and Hamper Gallery in mid-town Manhattan.

On December 3, 1999, the ANS honored Arthur A. Houghton for his leadership as President of the American Numismatic Society from 1994 to 1999. Approximately 200 people attended the formal dinner, which was held at the new ANS building at 140 William Street. Council Member Dr. Arnold-Peter Weiss presided as Master of Ceremonies and presented Mr. Houghton with an ANS chair to commemorate his service as President. ANS Executive Director, Dr. Ute Wartenberg presented Mr. Houghton with a surprise award-an Oscar. Mr. Houghton had once jokingly remarked to Arlene Jacobs that he “deserved an Oscar” for his service to the ANS. Mrs. Jacobs, who organized the gala’s theme of the ‘desert under the stars’, in honor of Mr. Houghton’s dedication to Middle Eastern studies and Islamic art, was able to acquire the statue for the event. Following the dinner, Mr. Donald G. Partrick, the new President of the ANS, presented Mr. Houghton with the Members’ Medal and thanked him for his service to the ANS.

The evening was sponsored in part by Harlan Berk, Bowers & Merena, Cathy Bullowa-Moore, Christie’s, the Classical Numismatic Group, John Herzog, and Linda Houghton.

Other friends of the ANS in attendance were: Phililp Diehl, the Director of the U.S. Mint; Robert Campbell, President of the ANA; Ed Rochette, Executive Director of the ANA; and Mrs. Emily Fowler, wife of former ANS President Harry Fowler.

The issues of Russia’s Central Asian possessions in the era of the Soviet revolution are the focus of an unparalleled collection of banknotes and coins donated to the ANS in December by Columbia University Professor Emeritus Edwin Allworth. During the nineteenth century, Czarist Russian armies pushed south and southeast, gradually conquering ancient realms including Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Daghestan in the Caucasus, Khwarizm in the delta of the Oxus, the oasis of Marw in the Khurasan desert, the khanates of Bukhara and Samarqand on the Syr Darya or Jaxartes, and Tashkent in Turkistan. From 1917 onward, when the Czarist Empire collapsed in revolution and civil war, many of these alien territories were able to split away with their own nationalist revolutions, or fell under the control of dissident Communist or Czarist armies. Gradually, in 1919 and 1920, Soviet control was extended throughout the former empire, but the brief period of disintegration had already produced a great variety of banknotes and coins.

Professor Allworth is preparing a study of the notes from Khwarizm and Bukhara in particular, as evidence for and products of their social and economic revolutionary environments. These rare and little-known notes (488 total) are the core of Professor Allworth’s collection of paper money, however the collection also includes many other notes associated with Central Asia, Russia or the revolutionary era. Many of these are on silk, such as the illustrated object on the right. There are also banknotes from Chinese Turkestan, otherwise known as Xinjiang, which was occupied by the Qing in 1749 but not annexed until 1880 - during the same epoch as the Russian campaigns and the British push north from their base in India.

The Allworth collection also includes 531 coins from Central Asia, ranging in date from ancient Parthia to the post-Soviet republics of today. Professor Allworth’s coinage of the Shaybanids (104 pieces), a family who ruled Bukhara and Samarqand in the sixteenth century, is the most important series among the coins; however, the collection also includes many gold and minor coins of the Central Asian khanates before their conquest by the Russians, and other materials of interest. Until the collapse of the Communist regime, coins and notes from these regions were difficult to obtain, therefore Professor Allworth’s generous gift compliments and creates a rare section of our collection. The ANS 1999-2000 Hamad Fellow, Roxani Margariti, is cataloguing the collection.

Over the past two years, the library staff has worked closely with Gaylord Information Systems of Syracuse, NY, and W.L. Hill Consulting, Dallas, Texas, in converting the existing ANS card catalogue records to machine-readable format. The library’s objective was to have all of the present card catalogue records converted to MARC tagged records. MARC (i.e., machine-readable cataloging) is the standard format adopted by the library world. Based on an examination of several thousand cards in the catalog, ANS Librarian, Francis Campbell, prepared an initial list of guideline specifications to be used by Gaylord.

Ms. Tamara Fultz, Assistant Librarian, compiled a list of MARC fields which the Library would need for the project and for ongoing cataloging. As the project progressed, the records converted by Gaylord were transferred to Dallas for inspection by W. L. Hill. They were then forwarded to the Society by electronic file transfer, where they were proofed by the library staff.

The ANS is pleased to report that the library’s dictionary card catalogue is now completely converted to machine-readable records and library staff is able to search and edit the entire database using keyword terms. Some 140,000 records, representing the entire catalogued library collection of books, periodicals and auctions have been converted to MARC tagged records.

The ANS is also pleased to announce that our members and the general public can now access the library’s bibliographical resources via the internet, which in the past could only be appreciated by visitors to the library and those in possession of the catalogues published by G.K. Hall. The Hall catalogues only include the publications cataloged by the library down to the year 1978.

As we complete the card catalog conversion, we again acknowledge our late Council member and Chairman of the Library Committee, Harry W. Bass Jr., whose support and encouragement powered us forward.

We are also truly grateful to the Harry Bass Foundation for continuing that support and encouragement.

Thanks to the efforts of David and Susan Tripp of Stuyvesant, New York, The Garrett Numismatic Archives have been donated to the ANS Library by The Johns Hopkins University. The Tripps, who were also instrumental in directing the Virgil Brand Archives to the Society, have donated $1,000 toward the care of the Garrett Archives. It is their hope and the hope of the ANS that others will follow suit in helping us to preserve and make accessible these invaluable documents.

T. Harrison Garrett, whose family managed the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, began collecting coins while a student at Princeton in the mid-1860’s. He and his two sons, Robert and John Work, formed the Garrett collection, which came to be unrivalled in terms of rarity, quality, and provenance. John Work Garrett, who had the collection moved to Evergreen House, died in 1942. Evergreen House, its contents, and the surrounding estate were given to The Johns Hopkins University.

The archive relating to the Garretts’ collecting activity includes some 1,000 letters as well as the original notebooks kept by T. Harrison Garrett and John Work Garrett. The latter’s handwritten card file is also included. On some 3,000 cards, all series, ancient to modern, which comprised the collection, are recorded. The cards contain detailed descriptions of the coins, along with the price paid and the provenance of the specific coin. Among the highlights of the archive are the unique typed and annotated catalogue of the Garrett collection prepared by Henry and Samuel Hudson Chapman, who conducted numismatic auctions in Philadephia, either jointly or individually, from the late 1800’s until the early 1930’s. The correspondence includes a letter from Edward Maris to T. Harrison Garrett, in which Maris offers Garrett his entire collection of New Jersey Coppers. There is extensive correspondence with Lyman H. Low, including the letter of transmittal of Low’s personal collection of Hard Times Tokens. In a letter from the Chapmans, John Garrett is offered the chance to purchase the entire Virgil Brand collection.

In addition to the Chapmans, a host of other dealers are represented in the correspondence. These include Edouard Frossard, B. Max Mehl, Leonard Forrer, Wayte Raymond, Edward and George Cogan, George Massamore, and Jacques and Hans Schulman. Among the items related to our own Society are a letter informing John Work Garrett of his election to the Society and his subsequent election as a Fellow. He later joined the Society’s Council and was made an Honorary Councillor for Life. There are also letters with Howland Wood, Bauman Belden, Sidney P. Noe, and Edward T. Newell, whose cumulative careers at the Society span almost three quarters of the past century.

Along with the Brand and Garrett Archives, the Library also holds the Norweb ledgers. In time, the ANS would like to add to this resource other papers relating to major American collections.