Michigan Mining Scrip Reference Book Now Available

A reference book for novice and veteran collectors alike is now available with data and color images of scrip, checks and fiscal paper from the copper and iron mining districts of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. After a presentation of the history of U.P. mining and its need to use scrip during the era prior to having a national currency, the authors share items from many personal collections and from the archives of various libraries and museums.

This project was conceived over 15 years ago by numismatic collectors and icons Judith Haskins Davis and Chester L. Krause (1923-2016); later, David H. Gelwicks joined those authors to help bring the book to fruition. The results from more than 150 cumulative years of collecting by the three authors are in this hardbound volume of 320 pages, including 550 full-color images and informational text representing items from 1824 to 1963.

Michigan Mining Scrip includes:

· background details of 129 copper and iron mines and miscellaneous related topics

· biographical data, quotations and human interest stories of topics intimately connected with the 19th-century history of Michigan’s mining industry

· images comprehensively detailing scrip from the mines

· locations of the mines with maps, coordinates and graphics

· specific reference information for numismatists: what the authors yearned to have for themselves as young collectors of fiscal paper

Authors Davis and Gelwicks welcome you to visit them and purchase the book on Sunday, August 8, 1-5PM, at The Minnetonka Resort Thunderbird Gift Center (562 Gratiot Street, Copper Harbor) and on Monday, August 9, 1-3:30PM, at Copper World (101 Fifth Street, Calumet).

The book will also be on display and immediately available for purchase at: Ishpeming Rock & Mineral Show, Ishpeming Elks Club, August 7; Quincy Mine Hoist Rock Swap, Quincy Mine Hoist, August 11; Copper Country Rock & Mineral Show, Houghton Elementary School, August 13-15.

Additional details and book purchase information can be requested by email (michiganscrip@gmail.com).