NUMISMA

From NBSwiki

The One Hundred Greatest Items Of United States Numismatic Literature Rank: Number 87

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Clain-Stefanelli 765, Davis 399, Sigler 1930

Frossard gave up the editorship of Scott’s Coin Collector’s Journal in December, 1876, intending “to relinquish, for a time at least, all connection with numismatic publications.” The “urgent importunities of many correspondents” persuaded the reluctant writer otherwise, and so Numisma began a long run only a month later, in January, 1877. Frossard now had his own platform, and quickly set the tone by referring to the Coin Collector’s Journal as “Scott’s Diluted Monthly Pap.” Later he accused Scott of using the “printer’s devil” as a proofreader, though beyond Scott his liveliest complaints were reserved for Chapman’s Bushnell catalog (#57 in our survey), a multiple installment rant spread over several issues in 1882. The July, 1884 number follows up with Frossard’s celebrated bibliophilic insult, describing a Chapman catalog “with margin sufficiently large for corrections.” In between the editorial comments is a chatty newsletter offering coins for sale, auction previews and results, want ads, occasional feature articles, and numerous displeasures regarding delicacies that somehow escaped the Mint. Remy Bourne’s 1983 reprint of the entire run has happily made this engaging periodical more accessible to modern readers, who might prefer to save their shekels for an original Bushnell instead of the original Numisma.