Page 23 - January1960

January, 1960 NATIONAL BUTTON BULLETIN 2l

garnitures and some are veritable works of art. . . . old Roman and Greek coins
are imitated in metal buttons.',
. we lave only to visit the bution department to see how Fashion again favors
coins today.
.- Ttris study of lloman-emperors pictured on coins 0ong as it is) hardly more
than opens. rw the field gf buttons. rn fact, it is onry 6"Ci"toiirprJte dtrapter
"o.*
on the subject of ancient coins.
There are several other equally important types of ancient coin buttons. Greek
-the
goiru make up one coins datinb back to Roman nepumic aie another.
-group. _
Buttons that reproduce "the other side" of Roman coins are nfea wittr interest.
.credits: w9 are especially grateful to the following collectors for having made
enriching contributions to the picture flle: M-argot Jac6by, .roseptr Staven, E-ugenia
Lydecker, Joseptrine carlson, viviane E?teu, Ethel Ivrciitrait, rreten Fwpu,r and
the Lester Lorahs,
. N.ote: For budgetary reasons, when photographing, some of the Iarge buttons
--
have been reduced in size in the four plates accoripanying this articfe.
AnT IN BUTTONS (VoL B, r9t0)
Anyone might thin\ it a_ queer thing that a death in the Royal Family
should start a man's fortune, but that is what.happened 'way back iir the earii
part of the last century at the death of Ifing Wilfiamiv of Engiancl.
- -They say about the proprietor of a cloth strop in Ballinabog, that he possessed
little sctrooling but insisted on writing his own letters. one-day hel wrote to a
wholesale house in Dublin. Then he tried to read his own letter but couran't. rre
showed it to the clerk but he couldn't read it either. Thereupon the master saicl
to the clerk, "r chne forget what r ordhered in the letter.' rrowanivir they're
better scholars in Dublin than you or me an' they,ll be able to reaa it lu m
bound." So the letter was posted.
rt seems that in the Dublin wholesale house all they could make out of ttre
letter was that he wanted b or 6 hundred thousand oi maybe a million black
covered buttons, and that he wanted them bad.
T'he Dublin man thanked him for his esteemed order and said that he sent
all he had in stock and all that he could buy from other conterrrs, but he
couldn't send everything at once as it was a very big order. The resi-tie statea
would be sent as soon as they came from the factory.
when the first truck load of black buttons arrived in Ballinabog the mer-
chant realized there must have been some mistake. when truck naa "atter truct<
load kept coming in, he was dumbfounded. ..saints Above! rfs iuinJa an, alis-
graced I'll be," he said, .'I can,t sell or pay for thim, aJ'd l,ll have to taii,,
well, the good King william rv died the next day and th€ merchant for aI
his grief, had an idea that made him smile when he came aov,o io-trre, strop--
rt w-as-that.molrning suits would be worn far a.nd near a^nd that biack buttois
would be in big demand.
- sure enough in a day or two later came a letter from the Dublin house
asking.if he. had any of the black buttons left. They were r"ad.y iJtate ttrem
back at a big premium, and the merchant sold out 6very button rre trao at rris
own price.

PLEASE SEE THE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR, SPECIAL AWARDS
INSIDE THE BACK COVER