Non-fiction

Coins and Tokens of Tasmania – 1803-1910 – Roger McNiece

The definitive work. We really admire people like McNiece who through their passion for their interest put the hard yards in, the effort, to produce such a useful work. Tooley, Spence, King etc all come to mind.

Published by Platypus Publication, Hobart in 1969, a first edition. Rather rare. Printed on the Mercury Presses bound by Walch .. how more Tasmanian can you get.

Octavo, 112 pages, numerous illustrations to help one along. An excellent copy with a full dust jacket a little rubbed.

Roger McNiece was a founding member of the Tasmanian Numismatics Society.

And, more than coins and tokens. We start with Specie .. the currency of NSW and the consequences of the Settlement of Van Diemen’s Land. Sorrell and Brisbane’s reforms. Arthur and the Sterling Money Act. The allowance for South American Dollars, Sicca Rupees, Mexican Dollars ..

Then Paper Currency and Police Fund Notes and Treasury Bills. A lengthy chapter on Private Promissory Notes and numerous individual issuers. A chapter on Barter and the use of Rum Therein. Special Bank Issues and then the last third of the book taken up with Trade Tokens – so collectable.

More than Coins and Tokens – the McNiece Standard

$80.00

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Papers of the Royal Society of Tasmania – November 2008 – Vol 142

Large scale softcover, perfect bound 98 pages. Quality production. Nice photographic images etc. Published by the Society.

Two Antarctic vignettes by H.J.G Dartnall, only two pages each but intriguing. First, about John Forbes, known as Mawson’s sailmaker. The second, more intriguing is about Tasman Spalding from Dunalley,. Tasmania, a 23 year old who served on the Terra Nova relief voyage. He was entitled to the Polar Medal but did not receive it possibly because his name got transposed and hence proved difficult to find at the time of handing out.

Other interesting articles include aspects geology at Heard Island; a new freshwater sponge discovered at Lake Peder; the diet of the Tasmanian Devil.

Terrific illustrations from scientific work – sections, micro photographs etc.

Royal Society Tasmania – superb work

$25.00

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Rare Large Sized Microscope Size – Lantern Fly – China (Duplicate)

No date or maker but this presentation was a specialty in the late Victorian / Edwardian era. Reference authority “Bracegirdle” shows a number of “outsized” examples but none quite like this.

In modern terms known as the spotted lantern fly. The insect is on the move and a potential threat in Australia – modelling has shown that it could survive well in western and north-western Victoria. When we say a threat, it was endemic to China and Vietnam but moved into South Korea in 2006, Japan in 2009 and the USA in 2014 … so the move is on.

Here the little blighter is beautifully preserved and presented in Canada Balsam … we know that CB was the mounters choice due its quality and the cursive narrative says so.

A microscopical rarity outsized mount of the Spotted Lantern Fly.

$150.00

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Mount Morgan – Centenary of First Gold Discovery in 1882 – Rockhampton 1982 (Duplicate)

A nice example of the interesting medal struck by the Rockhampton Coin Club and made in Brisbane by A.J. Parkes in 1982.

An uncirculated commemorative, 40 mm diameter, 40gms in copper alloy. Strong relief and a super example.

The obverse carries a design by artists Don Taylor of a miner / prospector on his knee observing his gold pan with some intensity, other mining accoutrements in the background. On the reverse we have an image taken from a 1908 photograph of the working mine … an image all too familiar to Voyager.

Still with its original information with its brief history of the Mine.

Mighty Mount Morgan commemorated in medal form, and it deserves it!

$50.00

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Duodenal Ulcer – Moynihan

A special issue from the Classics of Medicine Series. Large octavo, 379 pages bound in full deep blue leather with lavish gilt work to boards and spine. Page edges richly gilt, marbled endpapers, silk marker ribbon intact.

A faithful facsimile of Moynihan’s key book on duodenal ulcers published by Saunders in 1910.

The author, Berkeley George Andrew Moynihan, 1st Baron Moynihan KCMG, CB, FRCS (1865-1936) was some fellow. He joined the Navy then after two years studied medicine at Leeds University and after graduation soon rose to be a surgeon. In the First World War he became Major General and was Chairman of the Army Advisory Board. He went on to do great things in medicine and was rewarded becoming the President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1926.

He is quoted as saying that to be a perfect surgeon one must have the heart of a lion and the hands of a lady … and even more poetically “Infinite gentleness, scrupulous care, light handling and purposeful, effective, quiet movements which are no more than a caress, are all necessary if an operation is to be the work of an artists and not merely of a hewer of flesh”.

You could trust Moynihan with your duodenum

$60.00

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Faeroe Islands – The Atlantic Islands – a Study of the Faeroe Life and Scene – Kenneth Williamson – First Edition 1948

First Edition published by Collins, London in 1948. Octavo, 360 pages, with the elusive dust jacket albeit foxed. Book a bit aged but excuse it for its now rarity.

The author, Williamson, was staged on the Faeroe Islands during WWII and this book is based on the seemingly ample spare time he had whilst there.

Forward by the distinguished Eric Linklater.

Illustrated with the authors pen drawings and from original photographs.

Good chapter on the whale hunting festival “Grindarakstur’ which will interest those that are interested. Excellent on the natural history, terrain, outer islands etc with a super Glossary of Faeroese Words and index of place names for those challenged by modern devices!

The Faeroes more than just a trivia quiz subject.

$70.00

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Coins and Tokens of Tasmania – 1803-1910 – Roger McNiece

Papers of the Royal Society of Tasmania – November 2008 – Vol 142

Rare Large Sized Microscope Size – Lantern Fly – China (Duplicate)

Mount Morgan – Centenary of First Gold Discovery in 1882 – Rockhampton 1982 (Duplicate)

Duodenal Ulcer – Moynihan

Faeroe Islands – The Atlantic Islands – a Study of the Faeroe Life and Scene – Kenneth Williamson – First Edition 1948

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