I need your help to find the solution to a little mystery.
What does the famous coin expert and, well, unsavory character, Walter Breen say from 13 minutes and 55 seconds into the following video up to 14 minutes and 10 seconds?
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I can puzzle out the first words, I think he says this:
"How did the old expression go? Um, what is it, barbers and walkers and [BLANK], oh my! Or however it went."
Problem is, as you can see, I can't make out the whole thing because he's garbling his words a bit. What does he actually say where I put the [BLANK] in my transcription?
Also, I understand this is a play on words based on a famous line from The Wizard of Oz, "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!", but what are the "barbers" and the "walkers" here? I'm pretty sure they refer to something very specific in numismatics but I'm at a loss.
Bear with me, I have an interest in coins, but it's not American ones that I specialize in, plus, English is not my first language.
"barbers" are Barber coins (dimes, quarters and halves) and the "walkers" are Half dollars, all common vernacular in the US numismatics. I suggest you obtain The Red Book of US coins if you are to continue in this hobby to become familiar with these coins.
ijn1944, "Unsavory" is putting it lightly. Here's what wikipedia says about Walter Breen:
"Walter H. Breen Jr. (September 5, 1928 - April 27, 1993) was an American convicted child sex offender, activist for pedophilia as part of NAMBLA, numismatist, writer, and the husband of author Marion Zimmer Bradley. He is known among coin collectors for writing Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. "Breen numbers", from his encyclopedia, are widely used to attribute varieties of coins. He is also known for activity in the science fiction fan community and for his writings in defense of pederasty."
merclover, captainrich, Kloccwork419, and SilverCents, thank you very much for clearing this up!
And since I'm at it, could anyone explain to me the title of a book that Walter Breen helped William Sheldon write?
The tome in question is "Penny Whimsy".
It was a treatise on early American coins, or early pennies, or large "coppers", whichever you may call them. But why the title "Penny Whimsy"? I'm at a loss at the usage of the word "whimsy" here. I guess this could be a question pertaining more to an English language forum than to a numistatics one, but I'm sure you'll forgive me. :-)
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Posted 01/04/2021 8:11 pm
