A Scion Society of The Baker Street Irregulars
Numismatists Do Not Fear Change
“The best way of successfully acting a part is to be it” – The Adventure of the Dying Detective (DYIN) In the opening minutes of the film Sherlock, Jr., the actor Buster Keaton is sweeping trash in a movie theater. At approximately the 4:00 minute mark, a gentleman walks out and is counting money in his wallet. Keaton… Continue Reading
“No living man could tell a Prescott from a Bank of England …” – The Adventure of the Three Garridebs (3GAR) A circa 1890 photograph of the Bank of England by George Washington Wilson. There are only two mentions of the Bank of England thoughout the 60 stories of the Canon – in The Dancing Men… Continue Reading
“… a twinkle of amusement …” – The Adventure of the Three Garridebs (3GAR) The Maryland Amusement Token Collectors Association was founded in 1979 by Robert A. Johnson. Over the course of the next four to five years, they would issue over 100 plastic tokens or wooden nickels commemorating various themes. They would be available to interested collectors… Continue Reading
The medal at the right was designed by T. H. Paget to mark the installation of the Prince of Wales as Master of the Honorable Company of Master Mariners. The prince set for Paget to prepare the coins of his reign as Edward VIII, but the right-facing portrait demanded by tradition displeased the new… Continue Reading
Coin Designer To The World Famed British coin designer Thomas Humphrey Paget, whose art adorned the coins of 19 countries, died recently in England. He was 81. Paget, whose signature, “H P,” was carried by millions of coins around the world, received his training at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts. He later studied… Continue Reading
Paget Used Initials H.P. As Signature On His Works Little did Thomas H. Paget, Burwash Common, Sussex, England, realize that six years after he sketched King Faisal II of Iraq in the lad’s tiny school bedroom at Harrow, the King would be the victim of an assasin’s gun. Paget, designer of coins and medals of… Continue Reading
“Somewhere in the vaults of the bank of Cox and Co., at Charing Cross, there is a travel-worn and battered tin dispatch-box with my name, John H. Watson, MD, Late Indian Army, painted upon the lid.” – The Problem of Thor Bridge (THOR) Watson’s Tin Box, a BSI scion that meets in Columbia, Maryland, shares a few… Continue Reading
“… a connoisseur and collector …” – The Adventures of the Illustrious Client (ILLU) It has been a while since we’ve done one of our irregular features – Meet the Garridebs. Since we are discussing The Man With the Twisted Lip this month, it seem logical to interview Chales Prepolec, BSI, MBt, who just happens to have that… Continue Reading
“‘Data! Data! Data!‘ he cried impatiently. ‘I can’t make bricks without clay.’” – The Adventures of The Copper Beeches (COPP) This column is composed of material (Data!) developed for a short course called Appreciating Sherlock Holmes that I teach twice a year in the Community Education Life Enrichment Program for a local community college. It is… Continue Reading
Seventeen thoughts for further ponderance of the case at hand – The Man with the Twisted Lip (TWIS) WATSON’S LONDON GOSSIP COLUMN “Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D. D., Principal of the Theological College of St. George’s, was much addicted to opium,” this tale begins. While the Hounds have often discussed Watson’s protecting… Continue Reading