by Michael E. Marotta
© Copyright 2001 by Michael E. Marotta
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by Michael E. Marotta
© Copyright 2001 by Michael E. Marotta
A couple of years ago, I was chatting up the rec.collecting.coins newsgroup to a literary numismatist. I dropped a few names. "Even Robert Julian participates," I said brightly. "Uh, that's R. W. Julian," came the reply. "They are different."
The R. W. Julian who writes here is the same one whose article about William Henry Harrison's medal was the cover story for the December 2000 Numismatist. Robert Julian lives in Logansport, Indiana and is well known among older numismatists for his massive interest in documentation of the U.S. Mint.
Beyond that, there may be no way to differentiate the two men. The bibliographies inconsistently apply the names Robert W. Julian and R. W. Julian. Which of them was bioed by Ed Reiter is not clear. "Who's who in the hobby : Robert W. Julian." (Robert W. Julian 1939- ). Numismatic News Vol. 29, no. 38 (Sept. 19, 1981). We might assume that the elder Robert W. Julian is the one inducted into the ANA's Numismatic Hall of Fame along with Harry W. Bass, Jr., in 1998. But was it Robert W. or R.W. who was bestowed a Clemy?
Consider that in a recent post on the accuracy of Walter Breen's research, rec.collecting.coins's R.W. Julian pointed to problems establishing the mintage figures for the cent coinage of 1815. Yet, these are the bibliographic citations from the Harry Bass Foundation on that research:
JULIAN, ROBERT W. "The Large Cents of 1815-1816". The Numismatist 108 no. 1 (Jan. 1995) pp. 65-69, 109-10. The author corrects and explains mistaken notions that no cents were struck in 1815. Documentary research by the author has helped to illuminate the history of the early Mint and its coining activities, planchet procurement and political machinations. The author's supposition that John Reich rather than Robert Scot was responsible for the engraving of the Liberty head on the obverse of the Coronet Head type may well stir up some interesting debate.
However, I believe that Robert W. Julian of Logansport, Indiana wrote "From Rus to Revolution: Russian Coins Through a Thousand Years. Coin World (Supplement) (March 1988) pp. S3-S33 illus. Having worked for Coin World, I suspect that in 1988, they would have accepted Robert as a venerated expert whereas 12 years ago R. W. was not. I suggest that these works attributed to R. W. are actually the writings of ROBERT W of Logansport:
Perhaps R. W. of rec.collecting.coins would care to help us know how to tell him from Robert W. of Logansport.
(This is not a totally unknown problem. There is some confusion over the works of Hermon A. MacNeil the designer of the Quarter and another Hermon A. MacNeil who was also a sculptor and artist at the same time. I am always pleasantly surprised to come across articles about coins written by other Michael Marottas, most of whom write in Italian, although, there is a citation to my work on computer hacking in Italian. Literati quip that the works of William Shakepeare were actually written by another man of the same name...)