A Scion Society of The Baker Street Irregulars
Numismatists Do Not Fear Change
“The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster.” – A Study In Scarlet (STUD) With that comment, within the first two hundred words of STUD, we are given a strong viewpoint of Dr Watson’s regarding his participation in the Second Anglo-Afghanistan War of 1878 – 1880.… Continue Reading
“Here are your wages.” – A Study In Scarlet (STUD) Sherlock Holmes handed each of the original Baker Street Irregulars a shilling and said, “Here are your wages.” As you know, today’s Irregulars have as a symbol the Victorian shilling. This, more than any other, is the coin we associate with Holmes. Though the Canon… Continue Reading
If anyone has experienced the thrill of a summer in Houston, Texas, you know indoor reading is one of few options left for survival. During the summer of my 14th year, as other young men were discovering their first love — fishing, or a summer job, I discovered the stories of the Canon. As I… Continue Reading
Sherlock Holmes as sketched by Sidney Paget, considered the master Holmes portraitist. We all know who Sherlock Holmes was, the greatest detective of Victorian England in all of literature. I’ll be willing to bet that most readers of this column have also read some, if not all. of the stories that are called by fans… Continue Reading
“The Capital and Counties Bank, Oxford Street branch, are my agents.” – The Adventure of The Priory School (PRIO) London in 1894, when Sherlock Holmes returned from his incognito foreign journeying, was enjoying the Golden Age of British Imperial investment and expansion, bringing an enormous accretion of wealth to the Capital City of the Empire.… Continue Reading
“Give up a hundred thousand quid?” – The Adventure of The Mazarin Stone (MAZA) We, as modern American readers, have always had some problem in translating the British monetary system of the Victorian era into something more tangible, such as purchasing power. One who is not completely familiar with the monetary system of the time… Continue Reading
“… But you’ll always find scratches round a keyhole.” – The Adventure of the Golden Pince Nez (GOLD) Reprinted from the December 1987 issue of The Numismatist In honor of the centennial of the introduction of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Marika Somogyi has added her name to the list of Sherlockian interpreters with an… Continue Reading
“The campaign brought honours and promotion to many …” – A Study In Scarlet (STUD) In A Study In Scarlet, we learn that Dr. Watson was wounded during the Battle of Maiwand. Since Watson was a participant in the Second Anglo – Afghan War, he would have received the Afghanistan Campaign medal. The Afghanistan Medal is… Continue Reading
“… he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the solar system.” – A Study In Scarlet (STUD) Watson was amazed that Holmes did not know or care that the earth revolved around the sun. Holmes went on to comment that ‘you say that we go round the sun. If we went… Continue Reading
“… Here are your wages.’ He handed each of them a shilling.” – A Study In Scarlet (STUD) The above advertisement comes from the June 1987 issue of The Baker Street Journal (page 100, to be exact). A New York based company, I/R Miniatures, was selling replicas of the three different designs of the shillings issued during… Continue Reading