plate coin
Bill Krummel
expert. Even at the local coin club gathering I think I have a small
reputation for having coin knowledge. Outside of those small circles,
though, I am continually astounded by how little I know about the coin
collecting hobby.
Last night I attended the local coin club meeting. I was shown a webpage
printout of a Teletrade auction similar to this one;
http://www.teletrade.com/coins/lot.asp?auction=2732&lot=1042
and was asked what was meant by "PLATE". I had to admit I had no idea nor
had I ever heard or seen the term before as part of a coin description. No
one at the club meeting had an answer. However, one club member had brought
a coin that was a cent variety that he had discovered and submitted. With
the coin was a letter from some variety expert (I don't remember the name)
and in the letter was the same term, "PLATE". This led to speculation that
"PLATE" must be a descriptor of a discovery coin of any particular variety.
Can any rcc'er better explain the term "PLATE"? And, approximately how long
has the term been around?
Bill
Charles Edwards
seller's reference to a page number indicates the solution. It means
that this coin has been used as an illustration in a book.
Chas. Edwards
Bill Krummel
"Charles Edwards" <chas...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:d7fab576-2363-4c64...@j21g2000yqe.googlegroups.com...
Well, that was a suggestion ( a member's guess) I heard last night at the
club meeting and I rejected it, thinking that a coin used as a book
illustration would not be worthy of notation on plastic. If true, that
would mean the cent returned to the member as a discovery coin has had it's
image taken for inclusion in a future book or book revision. It that
particular case, "PLATE" would mean the coin _will be_ used as an
illustration in a book.
Bill
Dave Allured
A cascade of two mistakes, arguably more. The coin was gold plated some
time in its past. I judge this not from expertise, which I lack, but
from a casual glance at the striking and very irregular color. That
haint copper! The high point wear clinches it!
Mistake #1: A typo on the slab label. The "D" is missing from the word
PLATED. If intentional by the slabber due to a length restriction on
the alteration code, then IMAO it is still a mistake. Mistake #2:
Teletrade copied and failed to edit the typo in their auction
description.
--Dave
Mr. Jaggers
Others have commented that a "plate" coin is one that has pictured in a
book. I will only add that the book is normally one that became a standard
reference for its subject matter, and that the coin is close to or at the
top of the condition census for that particular date/mint/variety/die state.
Another lesser-known use of the term "plate" is to name certain large
Swedish copper slabs that have been stamped several times with a coin die.
Usually, though, this use of "plate" is followed by the word "money" instead
of "coin."
James the Diehard
oly
>
> - Show quoted text -
Of course you are correct, mon vieux. No need to be a diehard on this
one.
A plate coin was "the coin" used to produce a photo for a well-known
standard numismatic reference book.
Just another example of how the hobby is failing to convey to the next
generation something that everybody once knew or understood without
question or controversy.
I have an incredibly chopped up Cap & Rays 8 reales that was one of
the numerous plate coins in "Chopmarks by Rose". Although I was aware
of the provenance it before I bought the coin, this piece is so
distinctive that you couldn't confuse it.
oly
oly
>
> - Show quoted text -
I might expound - in the early days of numismatic printing with
photographic illustrations, it was prohibitively expensive to scatter
photographs of coins through out the text (and quality was poorer that
way too). So the coins were all gathered together in groups of coins
on a single "photographic plate" and photographed that way. Each
plate was itself numbered and each seperate coin on the plate was
numbered, so it could be referenced in the running text of the book.
The plates were typically bunched that way in one place, usually bound
in the back of the book.
And the term "plates" is also pre-photographic. Hand engravings of
coin images were assembled together in "plates" in the eighteenth
century and the term "the plates" was used much the same as today.
I've been reading on the creation of the British Museum and on several
early 18th century numismatists. They assembled "plates" for their
publications and these hand engraved copper plates were usually very
expensive to create and might themselves be used and reused over many
decades.
oly
Mr. Jaggers
The "hobby" is failing? I don't recollect any feeling on my part that the
"hobby" ever owed me anything. Of course, I had a mentor or two along the
way, but mostly took the initiative to find out what I needed to know on my
own, because it so was much more efficient.
In fact, when I think back to the early days of the North Lugburz Coin Club,
which my young teenage self helped charter way back in nineteen mumbly-nine,
the adults that were around me really didn't seem to have much knowledge of
numismatics at all, they were just guys filling Whitman folders from their
pocket change. I'll bet that very few, if any, knew what a plate coin was.
James the Selfstarter
Mr. Jaggers
Do you happen to know what type of method was used to produce the always
high-quality plates in the Quarterman coin books? Were they collotypes?
James the Kodak Brownie
Charles Edwards
Do you happen to know what type of method was used to produce the
always
high-quality plates in the Quarterman coin books? Were they
collotypes?
James the Kodak Brownie
***********
The Quarterman reprints sometimes reprinted books with collotype
plates but the three reprints from him that I have in my library use
standard printing techniques (dots) and not collotype. I met the man
who issued these reprints (and whose name escapes me for the moment)
in 1975 and asked him how Quarterman had been chosen, indicating that
the only similar use I had known was Allen Quartermain of "King
Solomon' s Mines." He said that I had guessed correctly.
Chas Edwards
Coin Collector
I met the man
> who issued these reprints (and whose name escapes me for the moment)
> in 1975 and asked him how Quarterman had been chosen, indicating that
> the only similar use I had known was Allen Quartermain of "King
> Solomon' s Mines." He said that I had guessed correctly.
>
> Chas Edwards
Would that be Al Hoch? I haven't talked to him in a few years, but he
was suffering from Parkinson's Disease and tried to talk me into the
publishing business. I declined.
Charles Edwards
Yes, it was Al Hoch.