I posted a blog about store cards from the Arnold Numismatic Co. in January 2019. At that time I stated that I was looking for an example of the Arnold Numismatic catalogue to go with the tokens. I finally acquired a copy from Kolbe & Fanning's April auction. The Guide has the penciled date of 1914 on the cover, but if you look at my earlier blog, you will note that the advetisedprice was 15¢ in 1912. The various sales sheets tucked inside the guide indicate the sales price is 10¢. The cover indicates the catalog is the Fifth Edition. Their guide was first copyrighted in 1905, so I suspect this edition is from 1910. Early catalogs such as these provide tantalizing glimpses inside the hobby. An ad from A. G. Heaton in the back of the Guide caught my eye. Heaton published his monograph promoting collecting coins by branch mint, i.e. collecting by mint marks, in 1893. I was also interested to note that you could buy a copy of the Arnold Family Tree since they included their family coat of arms on their tokens.But back to mint mark collecting. The idea was still taking hold in 1910. In the Guide, mint marks are included in the definition of numismatics terms, but no by prices indicate any premium for rare mint marks. The Guide does note that 1878 silver dollars with 8 tail feathers do not warrant a premium. Heaton's ad caught my attention because I have an original 1893 copy bound in board covers. An ink notation on the inside cover notes the copy was purchased from the April 21, 1900 Lyman Low auction of the library of the Scott Stamp and Coin Co. Heaton was still selling his monograph in 1910 for the same one dollar issue price. My copy brought 70 cents in the 1900 sale. The monograph was issued with a paper cover, so I suspect the board covers were added by the Scott company. I do not know who bought the monograph in 1900, but at some point it was donated to the ANA Library and sold at the 1970 library surplus sale during the Second Annual ANA Summer Seminar. As an aspiring young numismatist at the time, I snatched up item for a whopping $1 to begin building my own library. And so began my interest in building my own library and ephemera collection.

I am always on the look out for the unusual, mysteries to be solved, or something I can tell a story about. Now it can be said that I have literally bought a piece of crap, really a pressed facsimile of a buffalo nickel.

One attraction of exonumia (tokens, medals, things that are like money but different) is the wide variety of collecting themes available. I have many and varied interests and collecting themes that I wander among looking for items that catch my interest. When one dealer asked what I was interested in, I replied: "Anything I can tell a story about." Coin dealer store cards are one of my many interests.

A new addition to my ephemera collection has an interesting back story. Although it is undated, I believe the B. Max Mehl advertising flier dates to the end of 1909, likely around the end of the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. “Alaska Gold,” “Just Issued” refers to Jules Charbneau’s AYPE three gold token set released in early 1909. You can read more about the tokens in the January 2013 issue of The Numismatist in an article by Jeff Shevlin and myself, “Jules Charbneau’s 1909 AYPE Gold Dollars.”

The store cards, tokens, and medals of Thomas Elder are among my collecting topics. In addition to the actual pieces of exonumia, I watch for interesting ephemera items that relate to my collection. In the instance discussed here, I acquired the blank subscription form for Thomas Elder's proposed series of numismatic tokens devoted to the Colonial and Continental Coins of America. Elder states his intention that the series be limited to protect those who subscribe to the series. Each token would be limited to 10 in silver and 25 each in German silver, brass, copper, white metal, and aluminum. The issue would be limited to 135 examples of each token.