Michael Hodder and Q. David Bowers
Today, we might feel hesitant about letting anyone cover our coins with tissue paper and rub a soft pencil over the paper to make rubbings of the coins. In the days before coin photography was as easily done as it is today, taking a rubbing was an accepted way of making a "picture" of a coin, which could be transported safely and even sent through the mail. Carefully done, by someone with experience, making a rubbing does not affect the surface features of a coin in the slightest since the pencil point never actually touches the coin and the pressure needed to make a good "picture" of the coin is slight. Another common way of making a representation of a coin was to press it into soft, sculptor's clay. The impression left behind in the clay was then filled with fine plaster, allowed to harden, and the resulting cast showed one side of the subject coin. Taking impressions from both faces of a coin gave two, uniface casts, that could be laid side by side to show both surfaces of the original coin. This practice is still common in institutional collections and numismatic museums, such as the British Museum in London and the American Numismatic Society in New York City.
Emery May's book of rubbings was started in 1908, and the impressions she took of her father's coins show that she had a good and steady hand. The rubbings are clear and well defined, without smudges, and do not go beyond the edges of the specimens from which they were made. Experience shows they did no harm whatsoever to the coins. Some rubbings of large cents, the 1794s in particular, are detailed enough to make Sheldon attributions from them! A few examples may be seen in photographs in this chapter.
Using Crosby's reference as a guide as she did, the first coins included in her folder are a pair of New England shillings struck circa 1652. Emery May identified them as "Crosby fig.2, page 45" and "Crosby fig.3, page 45", which were very good as attributions by a 13 year old girl. Comparing her rubbings with Sidney Noe's later (1943) reference work on the series, we can easily attribute the specimen she identified as Crosby figure 2 as Noe's dies II-A, with the large die break over the upper left crossbar of the X in the denomination XII. The other NE shilling can only be a specimen from Noe's dies III-C, based upon the shape of the descender of the N in NE on the obverse and the attentuated top of the second Roman numeral in the denomination on the reverse. Crosby's line drawings on page 45 of his reference are not well detailed. The obverse drawings are close enough to match up with actual coins, but the reverse drawings are less distinct. In particular, neither of Crosby's reverse drawings show the large break characteristic of reverse A. Yet, Emery May correctly associated the first NE shilling with Crosby's figure 2, and the second with Crosby's figure 3, even though she could not have been completely sure about the attributions at the time.
Massachusetts Willow Tree coins follow next in sequence in Emery May's rubbings book, as they did in Crosby's reference. The first specimen shown in her book is unattributed, excusably so. Willow Tree coins were hand struck and this specimen was double struck, very severely so on the reverse. Additionally, it is from a late state of the reverse die, with most of the denomination and all the date obscured. However, her rubbing was of excellent quality and we can match the coin up exactly: it is Noe-12, from dies 3-C, the Lambert Sale (1910) specimen we know Albert Holden purchased and which was later plated in Noe's book.
Following Massachusetts Willow Tree coins are Oak and Pine Tree specimens, each identified by Crosby's die numbers. Rosa Americana issues include an example of the rare ROSA SINE SPINA penny; and among Voce Populi coins is a scarce Large Letters variety of the farthing. Five of the seven major "types" of the Higley copper coinage are also included. The unique silver Maryland-Lord Baltimore shilling, variety without colon after MARIAE on the obverse, is also represented; decades later this coin was donated to the American Numismatic Society by Ambassador and Mrs. Norweb. Thirteen year old Emery May noted that the piece was "believed to be unique in silver;' information she obtained from Henry Chapman, who sold it to her father in June, 1911.
The Lambert Sale Willow Tree shilling and the unique Lord Baltimore shilling were purchased in 1910 and 1911, respectively. This establishes that Emery May's rubbings book, while begun in 1908 as she wrote on the first page, was continued and added to over the ensuing three years, the height of her father's collecting activity, which we have described previously.
Federal issues, starting with the cents and half cents of 1793, are allotted one page per year. At the top of each page, Emery May reproduced the larger denominations, the dollar and half dollar, if minted for a particular year (for example, no silver coins were struck in 1793, so the page for this year includes copper coins only); subsidiary silver and nickel (where appropriate) coins followed, the bottom part of each page being given over to the copper or copper-nickel issues. Separate pages were devoted to Proof sets of particular years; Albert Holden owned Proof sets of 1857-1860 among other dates, and each of these, for example, is given its own page.
There is a separate page for rare half cents, particularly the Proof issues, which are divided in columnar fashion to indicate whether they were originals or "restrikes". Pattern issues were also included on separate pages. Albert Holden collected pattern coins as year sets. For example, he owned a six-piece set of the 1873 Trade dollar patterns and a group of Paquet's 1859 half dollar patterns. These were listed as patterns of 1859, patterns of 1873, and this arrangement was continued for all the other pattern coins in his collection. The 1861 Confederate restrike half dollar he owned was included on the page devoted to patterns of 1861. The 1870 pattern page included specimens of Longacre's and Barber's designs of that year. Careful notes were taken of the edge types and metals of each pattern, as well. At the time there was no published reference book on the series; that awaited the 1912-1913 effort of Edgar H. Adams and William H. Woodin.
Half cents and large cents were favorites of her father's. The rubbings of these denominations include notes of the popular nicknames given to some of them, as the 1797 large cent called the "Dropped C" variety (corresponding to Sheldon-134), or the 1804 half cent still known as the Spiked Chin variety. Particular care was taken with the early coppers, and where possible Emery May drew lines between obverse and reverse die rubbings, apparently to suggest die linkages. Occasionally mistakes were made, as in the "marriage" she proposed between 1801 large cent obverse 7 with reverse C, which today is not recognized by large cent specialists! Still, some of her die linkages were correct, not a bad feat for a 13 year old girl. Even more surprising is the fact that she noted die alignments, by aligning the coin rubbing to show the original placement of the obverse and reverse dies in the coin press. Not many collectors today bother to make these observations, nor even collectors of early American copper coins who are known for their concern for technical details like these. For a young girl in 1908, this concern for the finer numismatic details is quite surprising.