fanningbooks.com

The following are articles written by David F. Fanning on various subjects pertaining to numismatics. Articles may be added to this page occasionally as time permits. All have been published elsewhere, in various journals and other publications.

Please feel free to link to these articles, quote them, cite them or nominate them for lucrative cash prizes. Do not copy and paste them into eBay listings, a practice I'm getting mighty tired of. Also, please refer to both my name and the website's name when citing articles posted here. Thank you.

 

“An Annotated Bibliography of the Published Numismatic Writings of Walter H. Breen.”
Originally published in The Asylum, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Summer 2004), pp. 166-224. A detailed bibliography containing around 500 entries covering published numismatic works written by Breen, most of which are followed by a brief description of the work’s subject, context and importance.

 

“Collecting Numismatic Literature.”
Originally published in The Numismatic Sun, No. 3 (Summer/Fall 2004), pp. 42-46. A somewhat autobiographical article on the various reasons and ways one goes about collecting numismatic literature.

 

"Collectors Who Served in the Civil War."
Originally published in The Numismatist, Vol. 117, No. 11 (November 2004), pp. 44-48. Feature article on the influence of the U.S. Civil War on the nascent hobby of coin collecting, with brief biographies of some collectors who fought in the conflict, including John Haseltine, Édouard Frossard, Lyman Low, E.L. Mason, J.N.T. Levick and George Massamore. Posted with the kind permission of the American Numismatic Association and The Numismatist's outstanding editor, Barbara Gregory.

 

"Early U.S. Auction Sales Containing Colonial Coins: Part One, Sales through 1858."
The first of a three-part article on the subject published in the C4 Newsletter, the quarterly publication of the Colonial Coin Collectors Club. Appeared in the Summer 2007 issue.

 

"Early U.S. Auction Sales Containing Colonial Coins: Part Two, 1859 to the Civil War."
Part Two of the above. From the Fall 2007 issue of the C4 Newsletter.

 

"Early U.S. Auction Sales Containing Colonial Coins: Part Three, the Early Civil War Years."
Part Three of the above. From the Summer 2008 issue of the C4 Newsletter. A fourth part was planned but has yet to be written. 

 

"An Eighteenth-Century Coin Chart: A Mystery Solved."
Written with Eric P. Newman and published in the October-December 2009 issue of The Asylum. Describes the means through which Fanning identified an 18th-century coin chart brought to the attention of the numismatic community in 1996 by Newman and unidentified until this time.

 

"'Guard this one with your life': W. Elliot Woodward's Ninety-Second Sale."
Feature article on a legendary rarity among the Woodward series; includes bibliographic information, background on both the cataloguer and consignors, an overview of the artifacts contained in the sale and a census of known copies. This has been updated since its original publication in the Spring 2003 issue of The Asylum.

 

"When Fakes Become Collectible."
Overview of electrotypes: what they are, how they are made, why they are made and how to identify them. Originally written on request for the ANACS website.