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May 12 is International Nurses Day and marks the 199th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. Nightingale is the founder of modern nursing and today acknowledged for elevating the occupation to a professional level. British by birth, she rose to prominence through her medical service during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Among her greatest contributions was the use of statistical methods as a tool to manage public health. It is no surprise that Nightingale has been the subject of engravers ever since, such as this $2 Western Bank of Missouri note from the Eric P. Newman collection. A second example comes from Minnesota, a Winona County Bank $1 from 1858. A final example reminds us of the ever present paper money counterfeiters, this an 1859 $20 counterfeit note from the Farmers Bank of Missouri. The last was acquired by Newman from D.C. Wismer, the dealer who tipped off Newman to the existence of Missouri paper money in the Col. Green estate – Newman followed up with Chase Bank (the estate administrator) in New York, and the rest is history. This particular note sold for only $132, a lot of provenance for a little currency.
Image: Western Bank of Missouri $2 (1861), from Newman VII (Heritage Auctions, 10/2015, realized $6,462.50).
Image: Winona (MN) County Bank $1 (1858), from Newman VII (Heritage Auctions, 10/2015, realized $2,115).
Image: Farmer Bank of (Liberty) Missouri $20 (1859), counterfeit, from Newman VIII (Heritage Auctions, 11/2017, realized $132).
Update: In the E-Sylum of 5/20/2019, paper money researcher Mark Tomasko demonstrated that the identification of Florence Nightingale on these notes is in error. See https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n20a11.html.
John Adams Bolen (1826-1906), diesinker of Springfield, MA, issued a number of medals in the 19th century variously related to numismatic, civic, commercial, and patriotic subjects. His work has been thoroughly and capably cataloged in Neil Musante’s The Medallic Works of John Adams Bolen (2002). Bolen’s oeuvre was exceptionally documented for the era, and the 1866 manuscript of his die register is now available on Newman Portal. Scanned from the American Numismatic Society (ANS) Rare Book Room, this document (mostly in Bolen’s hand) was donated by Tony Terranova to the ANS in 1995 and prior to that appeared in the Armand Champa library sale (part 2, Bowers & Merena 3/1995, lot 1074).
The Bolen manuscript was published in the American Journal of Numismatics (August 1866) and has been well-known since, but the images of Bolen’s own handwriting, as presented here, convey a historicity and sentiment not necessarily acquired from the heretofore published version. Apart from Musante’s comprehensive treatment of the subject, the Stack’s March 2011 Americana auction sale catalog, presenting the Q. David Bowers collection of Bolen medals, is an essential reference for the Bolen collector.
Link to Medal Dies Cut by J. A. Bolen: https://archive.org/details/medaldiescutbyja00bole
Link to Q. David Bowers collection of Bolen medals (Stack’s, January 2011): https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=3&AuctionId=517032&page=281
