1909 Honus Wagner baseball card auctioned for $2.1M

The T206 card, originally released by the American Tobacco Co., went for $2,105,770.50 in an online sale, Goldin Auctions said Saturday.

While the company said the price was a record for a baseball card sold at auction, a similar Wagner card in mint condition was purchased for $2.8 million in a private sale in 2007.

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Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

5 tips to help determine the value of an old piano

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (PRWEB) – A vintage instrument often occupies a special place in a person’s heart and mind, whether it is the heirloom piano from a grandparent’s home or an old piano from church. As such, many people find themselves coming into possession of these antiques as they get passed down or handed off.

Michael Stinnett, owner of the Antique Piano Shop in Tennessee, says the most common question he receives through his website is, “What is this piece worth?”

“The best way to determine the value of your old piano is to get it appraised by a professional,” he said. “However, there are a few things an owner can look for that can give a sense of whether the piano is valuable or not.”

Stinnett offers these five tips to determine the potential value of an antique piano.

1. Age – Piano age is different from car age. A car becomes an antique when it’s 25 years old. However, most 50-year-old pianos are considered modern. In order for a piano to be considered antique, it needs to be closer to 100 years old, and age alone does not make it valuable. The Antique Piano Shop generally deals in instruments built before the Great Depression, although there are some rare pieces built during the World War II years that are considered historically important.

2. Unique qualities – Does the piano have any ornate or custom woodworking? Does it have an interesting or unusual design? Is it made with an uncommon wood or other material? Was it previously owned by or made for a celebrity? An answer of “yes” to any of these questions may mean that particular piano is more valuable than its counterparts.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, pianos were generally offered in different grade levels. For example, a manufacturer would offer “Good,” “Medium” and “Best” grades. The “Good” grades were usually the basic and simple models, often with only two pedals instead of the more popular three pedals, and were usually sold at a more affordable price for the average consumer. The “Medium” grades, which were sold in the largest quantities, were usually a bit more elaborate, larger and offered additional features such as three pedals instead of two pedals. The “Best” grades were extremely elaborate, and would have cost as much as a small house at the time.

3. Brand name – In general, particularly when dealing with pianos made in the 20th century, pianos that cost more when they were originally purchased are worth more today. In theory, brand names with a lot of name recognition like Steinway, Mason & Hamlin, Knabe and Chickering, could potentially have more value than lesser-known brands. In the real market, however, Stinnett says he is seeing lesser-known brand names, often of superior quality, selling for as much or more than pianos from more well-known manufacturers because they are perceived as more rare.

4. Condition – This one comes with a caveat. While a piano that needs a lot of work may not have much “as is” value, it could be worth much more after restoration. However, when determining that value of the piano as it currently sits, condition certainly comes into play. Is the finish coming off? Are the pedals functional? What do the hammers and strings look like on the inside? The answers to these questions can determine how much a piano can sell for right now. Before selling, an owner might want to consider having a professional restore an antique piano, as restoration can significantly increase the value of the instrument.

5. Level of restoration – Similar to condition, the level of restoration can go toward determining the value of a piano. Many people often mistake a piano as being “restored” when in fact only a few cosmetic improvements were made. Since most people don’t know what to look for, especially on the inside, they might be surprised to learn that their piano wasn’t restored at all, but just refinished or painted, which is a far cry from complete restoration. This can mean the piano isn’t worth as much as the owner might have thought.

To learn more, visit the Antique Piano Shop restoration services page at http://www.antiquepianoshop.com/restoration-services/ or the online museum at http://www.antiquepianoshop.com/online-museum.

Group preserves stories behind Arizona's antique quilts

It is compiling the stories behind Arizona's quilts, asking people to bring their quilts to what the group calls documentation days across the state so it can put them into the Quilters Index, an online database for anyone engaged in women's studies, socioeconomic history – or quilting.

“Every woman makes a quilt for a reason. Before women's rights, before women had the right to vote, a voice to speak out, in almost any culture, the only way a woman could speak was through her art, and needle art in particular,” said Jan Hackett, one of 25 documentation volunteers. “So, antique and vintage quilts tell us about the life of a woman and her family.”

The project is not limited to historic creations. Quilts will be accepted for documentation whether they were made 100 years ago or yesterday and even if they were made in another state and brought here, Hackett said.

“Ten years from now, if I'm gone, somebody picks up one of my quilts and then says, ‘Why did she do this?’ ...  And I'm not there to tell the story. I document that quilt, and somebody will know that I chose the fabric for one reason, I chose the pattern for another,” Hackett said. “It tells about who I am.”

Darlene Reid, a 2010 Hall of Fame inductee who helped at a recent documentation day at the Gilbert Historical Museum, said, “The sad thing about women and quilts is they don't document their quilts. The quilter remains anonymous.”

The Quilters Index, developed by the Alliance for American Quilts in partnership with Michigan State University, currently contains records for 45 quilts made in Arizona.

The Arizona Quilt Documentation Project really began in 1986, when 13 women from different parts of the state documented about 2,700 quilts and created an educational program called Quilt-Ed to help teachers use quilt-making to teach history, math, art, language, writing and vocabulary. The group also produced exhibitions and a book called Grand Endeavors.

All that information was only on paper, and the records were donated to Arizona Historical Society Museum, which keeps them in a box.

“Nobody knows about them; nobody knows that they are there,” Hackett said.

The volunteers will be converting those records to the Quilters Index, along with an additional 800 documentations that another group gave to the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott in the 1990s.

The documentation volunteers are also looking for museums around the state that may have quilt groups interested in scheduling a documentation day or presentation.

The documentation day at the Gilbert Historical Museum complemented its annual “Art of Quilting” show, now running through the end of May. Another documentation day is scheduled there on May 11.

Hackett said the volunteer, non-profit documentation project will be ongoing. To help defray some of the expenses, the group is looking for funding and planning fundraising. Another goal is to train volunteers in various parts of Arizona.

“We would like to see documentation days become at least an annual event all over the state,” Hackett said.

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Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com

Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-03-23-13 0705GMT

Bones of contention: Cities joust over King Richard III

Officials in Leicester say the monarch, who was unceremoniously buried without a coffin 528 years ago, will be re-interred with kingly dignity in the city's cathedral.

“The decision has already been made,” said Leicester mayor Peter Soulsby. “All the permissions have been granted and the various authorities involved have agreed that the interment will take place in Leicester.”

Not so fast, says York, a city 100 miles to the north that claims the late monarch as its own.

“Every taxi driver I talk to, every shopkeeper I talk to, they are very excited about it – they want Richard back in York,” said Michael Ormrod, professor of medieval history at the University of York. “There is a view that he is a king for York.”

York City Council said Wednesday it is petitioning the government and Queen Elizabeth II, arguing that “one of the city's most famous and cherished sons” – who grew up in the region and was once known as Richard of York – should be buried in the northern city.

The two cities have launched rival petitions to the government. As of Wednesday, York had the edge, with more than 5,700 signatures on a petition calling for Richard to be re-interred there. Leicester's petition had more than 2,000 names.

Yorkists hope the queen will intervene on behalf of her 15th-century predecessor, though Buckingham Palace says it is not getting involved.

Richard had few links to Leicester, apart from dying in battle nearby in 1485. Historians agree he had strong ties to York.

He belonged to the House of York, one of two branches of the ruling Plantagenet dynasty. William Shakespeare's play Richard III opens with the lines: “Now is the winter of our discontent/ made glorious summer by this son of York” – a punning reference to Richard's brother, King Edward IV.

Richard spent much of his childhood in the county of Yorkshire. As an adult, he ran northern England during his brother's reign, and he is sometimes called the country's last northern king.

Ormrod says there is evidence Richard wanted to be buried in York Minster, the city's medieval cathedral.

York has not always made a noise about its ties to a king who for centuries was Britain's most reviled monarch. Richard was defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field by the forces of Henry Tudor, who took the throne as King Henry VII, ending a bloody tussle over the crown known as the Wars of the Roses.

Tudor historians painted Richard as a villainous usurper and accused him of multiple crimes – most famously, the murder of his two nephews, the “Princes in the Tower.”

Richard's supporters hope the discovery of the king's remains will lead to a reappraisal of his reputation.

For those in York who have been keeping Richard's flame alive, this is a bittersweet time.

Mike Bennett, who runs York's small Richard III Museum, said he had been circulating a petition for months – since the reports of the skeleton's identity emerged – “but it's only since the bones have been declared to be him that others have jumped on the bandwagon.”

Still, Bennett will be delighted if Richard comes home to York. It would give a boost to his small museum tucked into a gatehouse in the city walls, where visitors are invited to act as jury in an imaginary trial of Richard for the murder of the Princes in the Tower.

For now, the battle over the royal bones remains civilized. There's no new outbreak of the Wars of the Roses – yet.

“I have many good friends in Leicester,” Ormrod stressed.

The professor would not go so far as to call burial in Leicester an insult – but he said it would, at least, be an irony.

“Leicester was a very big stronghold of the house of Lancaster, Richard's rivals for the throne,” he said. “He was buried almost in enemy territory in Leicester.”

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP-WF-02-06-13 1526GMT

Seamstress slips into something comfortable: vintage fashion

FORSYTH, Ill. (AP) – Women gliding down the wedding aisle 111 years ago could seek material assistance if their bodies had been jilted by capricious genetics.

Fashion requirements around 1902 suggested the bride's radiance would be enhanced by a full bosom and that, of course, posed a problem if you didn't happen to have one. The haute couture answer, according to vintage clothing expert Nancy Torgerson, was “bust ruffles.”

Torgerson collects antique clothing, and her Forsyth home is bedecked with fashion statements your great-great-great-grandmother would have been intimately familiar with.

“Bust ruffles were a fashionable feature,” says Torgerson, 71, lifting and dropping some on a silk wedding dress to demonstrate how the ruffles give the illusion of amplitude. “It was called pigeon breasted, which I think is ugly, but at the time it was attractive to them.”

Perhaps nothing shows us as whom we were quite so intimately as the glad rags we used to wear. Torgerson has collected antique clothing, mostly women's, for more than 20 years. A talented seamstress, she started collecting after being asked to make vintage clothing for costumed historical re-enactors. She began prowling antique stores and other emporiums, hunting the genuine article to “make sure I was doing it right” and fell into collecting as easy as slipping into something comfortable.

Her husband, Dick, would accompany her on frequent fabric fishing expeditions and got swept up in the hustle and bustle of it all. So much so, he now collects antique sewing machines.

“I was looking for something to collect. I like anything mechanical, and there were all these old sewing machines,” says Torgerson, 73, who regularly dresses up himself to play a 19th-century Illinois governor who actually lived in Decatur, Richard J. Oglesby, a man to whom he bears a remarkable resemblance. But unlike Oglesby, Torgerson now has dominion over several dozen venerable sewing machines. “And I think the oldest machine I have is from 1860,” he adds.

All these ye olde Singers et al survived the journey down through the years because they were expensive and treasured objects. Nancy Torgerson says wedding dresses frequently persist in the fabric of time because they, too, were precious things. “I didn't start out to collect wedding dresses, but then I found that is what people saved,” she explains. “And they saved them because they were special.”

You can get a taste of what the preserved nuptial styles of yesteryear look like when Torgerson gives a presentation on wedding dresses and accessories from the 19th and early 20th centuries Jan. 27 at Rock Springs Nature Center in Decatur. She'll have plenty of samples for the audience to look at, including several flashy numbers going back as far as 1841 that don't faintly resemble the fluffy white and impractical creations that adorn 21st-century brides.

For a start, many old dresses are not white but in hues ranging from bronze to a brownish red. One silk 1859 number is done in brown and black silk stripes with some added flash coming from accents executed in black velvet. Torgerson points out that the version of the 1859 dress we're feasting our eyes on now has a skirt altered to reflect the hot fashion trends of the 1870s, and thereby hangs a tale: These bridal gowns were reusable, designed to be available for parties, events and other special occasions. Nobody back then wanted to spend a fortune in time and money making a dress you could only wear once, big-bosomed or otherwise.

“A dress like this would have been a very serious investment,” she says. “So wear it once and put it away like we do today? No, no, no.”

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Online: http://bit.ly/V9kyUK

Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-01-17-13 2308GMT

VIDEO: A virtual gallery walk with Amer. antiques expert Leigh Keno

NEW YORK - For years you've seen his expert appraisals of American furniture on PBS Television's Antiques Roadshow. Now you can listen and learn insider details about some of the finest early American productions through a series of videos titled "Leigh Likes."

In preparation for Keno Auctions' exciting Jan. 22 auction, which features important American furniture, paintings, folk art and decorative art, Leigh Keno critiques his personal favorites from the sale via informative "highlight" videos. No furniture buyer will want to miss his observations on what makes a piece special, or why a particular piece of furniture was constructed a certain way.

Double-click on any of the videos below to enjoy Leigh Keno's informative series, and don't forget to click on the link at the bottom to visit the LiveAuctioneers online catalog for Keno's Jan. 22 sale:

View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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Saco River expects six-figure price for 1865 baseball card

PORTLAND (AP) — Six-figure bids are expected when an auction house sells a rare 148-year-old baseball card that was discovered at a yard sale in rural Maine, the auction house manager said Wednesday.

It's not the same as a modern baseball card, which became commonplace beginning in the 1880s. Instead, it's an original photograph from 1865 of the Brooklyn Atlantics amateur baseball club mounted on a card. The card shows nine players gathered around their manager.

Thibodeau said he's aware of only two such cards in existence, the other at the Library of Congress. Putting a dollar-figure value on it is difficult, he said, but he expects it to fetch at least $100,000 at the Feb. 6 auction. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide the Internet live bidding for the sale, enabling bidders from throughout the world to vie for the rare card.

"There hasn't been another one that's sold," he said. "When there are only two known in the world, what's it worth?"

Last summer, the auction house sold a rare 1888 card of Hall of Fame baseball player Michael "King" Kelly for $72,000. The priciest baseball card ever is a 1909 Honus Wagner card, which sold for $2.8 million in 2007.

The Library of Congress has had another copy of the Brooklyn Atlantics photograph since the late 1800s, when it took possession of it from a New York court where the photographer, Charles Williamson, had submitted it for copyright.

In its book "Baseball Americana," the Library of Congress calls it the first dated baseball card, handed out to supporters and opposing teams in a gesture of bravado from the brash Brooklynites, who were dominant and won their league championships in 1861, 1864 and 1865.

It's not known how many were produced, but the Library of Congress is aware of only the two copies. A trading card grading firm, Sportscard Guaranty LLC, has authenticated the card as the real thing, said Bob Luce, senior grader at the New Jersey company.

The Maine man bought the card by happenstance. While at a yard sale, he bought a photo album, old Coca-Cola bottles and a couple of oak chairs for less than $100, Thibodeau said.

While looking through the album, the buyer came across the baseball card. He later mailed it to Saco River Auction, having read about the auction house's sale of the 1888 card last summer. Thibodeau did not release the man's name, saying he did not want to be identified.

The rarest card around came from a 1923 promotional set of 30 cards, each with a black-and-white likeness of Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, or some other baseball star. The cards were distributed by the Maple Crispette Candy Co. in Canada, and the person who collected all 30 could claim a prize, said Jim Gates, librarian at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

But only one Casey Stengel card was produced among the entire bunch, Gates said, and that card is located in the Hall of Fame archives.

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Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Antique Spitfire plane collapses on UK runway

LONDON (AP) — Airport officials say an antique Spitfire aircraft owned by engine company Rolls-Royce collapsed shortly after landing at East Midlands Airport in central England.

The airport said in a statement the World War II-era plane's undercarriage failed as it touched down Monday afternoon. The pilot was unharmed and the damaged aircraft was towed away.

The sleek-looking Spitfire played a pivotal role in the Battle of Britain, when the single-seat fighter helped beat back waves of German bombers. More than 20,000 were built, although only a few dozen remain in working order today.

Rolls-Royce, which built the Merlin engines used to power the fighters, says it bought this plane in 1996. It typically appears at airshows and corporate functions.

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Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Ephemera gift illuminates life in 19th century Alaska

That low-key deposit, from the widow of the late AC President John Larson, is now illuminating life in pre-territorial 19th century Alaska. The collection brings to life a colorful snapshot in Alaska's history -- the era when it abruptly shifted from being a Russian colony to a U.S. territory.

Kegs of lard, 25-pound shipments of dry mustard, barrels of tar and even a new safe were among the items recorded in invoice logs being shipped to the largely uninhabited frontier. The records are all written in immaculate cursive handwriting, showing products delivered by companies such as Taylor & Bender Wholesale Grocers, "sole agents for Dr. Hufeland's celebrated Swiss stomach bitters.''

The Alaska Commercial Company donated the documents last month to the University of Alaska Fairbanks Rasmuson Library, which is working to record and parse through the details of the intriguing collection. They provide a deeper understanding of a sometimes blurry period in Alaska history.

Dennis Moser, department head of UAF's Alaska and Polar Regions Collections and Archives, said the collection already includes lots of material from the era, but in "dribs and drabs'' that don't always add up to a larger view of everyday life. A log book of items that were shipped to the port of St. Michael and Yukon River villages in about 1870 provides clarity in a sometimes blurry period.

"It says everything about what people were doing at that time,'' Moser said.

The invoices include the earliest known shipment of "Bost. Pilot Bread'' into Alaska, with 25 cases entering the state on Oct. 4, 1869. Pilot bread -- a sturdy, non-perishable cracker -- remains a staple of rural Alaska diets.

It also showed the powerful link between San Francisco merchants and Alaska in the years after Russia sold the area to the United States. Dozens of companies from the city are represented in the invoice book -- Goodwin & Co., Hawley & Co. Importers of Jobbers and Hardware among them -- providing everything from nails to peanuts for the remote outposts.

Turning over the documents to UAF is important to AC Company president Rex Wilhelm, whose more than 200-year-old company dates back to days of Russian ownership, when it was known as the Russian American Company. Wilhelm has a job steeped in such history that he can trace his title back to the famed fur-trader Alexander Baranov, the first governor of Russian Alaska.

The position has helped make him an amateur historian at AC, working to uncover historic documents from online auctions or old records. For a company that dates back to 1799, he said, there are surprising gaps in its history.

"There's just a lot to look at, but the unfortunate thing is that we didn't have a lot of the heritage materials you'd expect of a company 200 years old,'' Wilhelm said.

Wilhelm actually mailed Larson's widow a decade ago inquiring about old records, but heard nothing until they were dropped off last spring. He said the deeply private woman didn't provide details about how the collection of invoice books, drawings and more than 600 photographs had been stored, but he said it was a thrilling gift.

The collection also includes detailed color drawings of each turn-of-the-century Northern Commercial Company store, with vivid enough backgrounds that the site of each building could still be located today.

"I would think that archaeologists, if they wanted to go back and see where some things could be found, could use them for that,'' Wilhelm said.

Maritime historian J. Pennelope Goforth, of Anchorage, helped facilitate the transfer of the documents between the AC Company and UAF, which will work to preserve the delicate papers and photos.

Moser said the records are particularly fascinating because the significance of items purchased by Alaskans in the 1870s can be easily grasped by modern residents of the state. The AC Company and its predecessors are a big part of that history, he said.

"When you have an institution that has a very deep significance, you want to include them in the story,'' Moser said. "We're excited to get this -- they're an extremely significant player.''

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Information from: Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner, http://www.newsminer.com

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Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Boston church votes to sell book published in 1640

BOSTON (AP) – Congregants of one of the nation's oldest churches have voted to auction off a 372-year-old hymn book that's expect to fetch $10 million to $20 million at auction.

Members of the Old South Church in Boston authorized the sale of one of its two copies of the Bay Psalm Book, which was published in 1640. It is among the first books ever published in North America, and only 11 copies remain.

Board of Trustees Chairman Phil Stern says the church wants to continue growing its endowment and take care of some “critical capital needs.”

He says although there was loud opposition to the sale, the vote wasn't close, with 271 votes cast in favor and 34 against.

Members also authorized the sale of 19 pieces of Colonial-era silver.

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-12-03-12 0333GMT

NY college receives gift of Ansel Adams photos

Among the images is the famous "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico'' as well as several well-known scenes of Yosemite National Park and photographs of artist Georgia O'Keeffe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

The College of New Rochelle said that the gift, worth $2.5 million, is from Caryl Horwitz, former director of its graduate art department. Her late husband acquired the collection in the 1980s.

The 75 photographs make up what is known as Adams' Museum Set Edition of Fine Prints, a selection he made beginning in the late 1970s. He created several Museum Sets before his death in 1984.

In March, when the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles acquired 25 of the 75 prints, senior curator Judith Keller said, "The Museum Set is significant in several ways, the first being that it helps us understand how Adams evaluated his work, and how he wanted future generations to view it.''

The gift was made to honor former Sister Dorothy Ann Kelly, who was president of the college while Horwitz was there.

Current President Judith Huntington called the donation "a profound compliment'' to the 109-year-old school, which has a picturesque campus in New Rochelle and five outposts in New York City. The College of New Rochelle was the first Catholic college for women in New York and its School of Arts and Sciences is still women-only.

"This gift has so much meaning to CNR,'' she said. "More than I can describe. Our focus has always been in the arts and the liberal arts.''

She said the college has not decided how or where to display the photographs -- there are security and climate-control issues to solve -- but will try to make the collection available to as many people as possible.

Fifteen of the signed images will be displayed at the college's Castle Gallery for a celebration on Thursday night.

The college said that when Horwitz's husband, Martin Horwitz, a business executive and art collector, bought the photographs, he agreed the collection would one day be donated to a museum or school.

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Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WWI posters found in American Legion post's attic

TV programs would make you believe stuff like that happens every day ... it just never happens to us.

But it has happened in Greencastle, and the Putnam County Museum has become the beneficiary.

Museum Executive Director Tanis Monday says Jeff Bray and William Tucker, members of Greencastle American Legion Post 58, were cleaning out the attic at the building when they came upon something quite special.

“They came in and said, ‘We've got some old pictures,’” Monday told the Banner Graphic (http://bit.ly/OQsKrR ). “I was thinking, ‘Pictures, OK ... probably Putnam County Legion pictures blown up.’”

But she went down to the Legion post to investigate the find.

“Then I saw these posters and said, ‘Oh my goodness.’”

What the Legion cleanup crew had discovered in the attic were more than 40 World War I-era posters, urging Americans to buy U.S. Government Bonds through the Third Liberty Loan program.

Fourteen of them, in varying sizes, are now hanging on the wall of the Putnam County Museum at 1105 N. Jackson St.

“It's like our own little ‘Treasures in the Attic’ story,” Monday offered.

The great thing about the find is that someone at the Legion saved those posters not once but probably twice. They could easily have found their way into the trash or a private collection over the past 50 or 60 years.

The posters, created in 1918 and 1919, were framed by the company Cartwright & Pease in 1940. Sometime, likely in the 1960s or 1970s when the Legion building was built on Indianapolis Road, the posters were moved and stored away in the attic.

“Fortunately they cleaned out the attic,” Monday said of Legion members, “and had the presence of mind to think, ‘We want to share this history with others.’”

Examples of the posters include a flag-draped soldier with the message “Over the Top for You,” and a little girl whose daddy bought her a bond, “Did yours?”

Monday checked the Internet for dates and information, discovering the Third Liberty Loan initiative began April 5, 1918.

Many of the posters are discolored by age and some have water damage, but then again, they are nearly 100 years old now.

One of the best examples is a colorful poster that proclaims, “Over the Top for You” and features a soldier wrapped in an American flag.

Created in 1918, it carries the signature of artist Sidney H. Riesenberg in the lower left corner, along with the “Buy U.S. Government Bonds” message of the Third Liberty Loan effort.

Another artful piece features a crouching Boy Scout prominently holding a sword captioned “Weapons for Liberty.”

Still another poster features a nurse holding the handles of a stretcher, proclaiming “Hold Up Your End” and noting the goal of War Fund Week was $100 million.

A couple of the posters even took aim at conserving food products. One, depicting a loaf of bread and a bread knife, carries the tagline: “Save a loaf a week, help win the war.”

Still another offers nothing but text and advises Americans to save wheat, meat, fats and sugar ... “and serve the cause of freedom.”

Another interesting poster depicts a father and his Doughboy son with the caption, “Goodbye, Dad, I'm off to fight for Old Glory, you buy U.S. Government Bonds.”

All generations were touched upon by the campaign as one of the better posters features a little girl clutching a bond to her chest. It is headlined, “My Daddy bought me a Government Bond, did yours?”

The posters are on loan to the museum for an indefinite amount of time. But they have already made an impression on Monday.

“They're really quite amazing, in my opinion,” she said.

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Information from: (Greencastle) Banner Graphic, http://www.bannergraphic.com

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-08-20-12 1417GMT

1873 dime sells for a pretty penny: $1.6 million

An anonymous bidder won the pristine coin, said Chris Napolitano, president of Stack's Bowers Galleries, which auctioned it during an American Numismatic Association convention. With a 15 percent buyer's fee tacked on, the final price for the coin was $1.84 million, he said.

The rare coin was minted in Carson City, Nevada, during a one-day run of dimes.

"Generally speaking, in the coin auction business, you might get a couple of people fighting each other'' as they bid, he said Friday. "On this one, we had four or five buyers over a million dollars. We had a fair amount of buyers pursuing it.''

The 1873-CC "No Arrows'' Liberty Seated dime was auctioned Thursday night. It's part of the Battle Born Collection, which contained one of every coin struck in Carson City before the mint there closed in 1893.

All 111 pieces were auctioned off Thursday night, fetching a total of nearly $10 million.

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Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

John Moran to auction historic ‘Rough Riders’ Colt 45 July 24

LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding for the antiques and fine art auction, which will begin at 3 p.m. PDT.

The Colt Single Action Army revolver was carried in the Battle of San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898 by Sgt. Albert P. Wright, Regimental Color Sergeant of Roosevelt's 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, better known as the Rough Riders.

Originally from Yuma, Ariz., Wright served with Roosevelt in Cuba from May 1, 1898 until September 1898, when the regiment was mustered out.

Wright kept the revolver after the war, and it then passed to Herbert D. Lore, proprietor of the Painted Desert Inn and Lore Trading Post in the Four Corners region. Handed down in the Lore family by descent, the revolver remains in as-found condition, and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Colt Archive Properties.

The certificate from Colt states that that this gun was originally sold to the United States government and delivered to the U.S. Government Inspector at the Colt plant on Feb. 17, 1891. It was one of 200 Single Action Army revolvers in the shipment. Its serial number is 138236.

Moran’s estimates the gun will bring $7,000-$9,000.

The July 24 auction comes on the heels of Moran’s record-shattering June sale of a Navajo chief’s blanket for $1.8 million, by far the highest price achieved at auction for a Native American textile.

For details call John Moran Auctioneers Inc. at 626-793-1833 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Baseball cards found in Ohio attic could be worth millions

But some of the names were familiar: Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Cy Young and Honus Wagner.

Then he put the box on a dresser and went back to digging through the attic.

It wasn't until two weeks later that he learned that his family had come across what experts say is one of the biggest, most exciting finds in the history of sports card collecting, a discovery worth perhaps millions.

The cards are from an rare series issued around 1910. Up to now, the few known to exist were in so-so condition at best, with faded images and worn edges. But the ones from the attic in the town of Defiance are nearly pristine, untouched for more than a century. The colors are vibrant, the borders crisp and white.

"It's like finding the Mona Lisa in the attic," Kissner said.

Sports card experts who authenticated the find say they may never again see something this impressive.

"Every future find will ultimately be compared to this," said Joe Orlando, president of Professional Sports Authenticator.

The best of the bunch—37 cards—are expected to bring a total of $500,000 when they are sold by Heritage Auctions in August during the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore. There are about 700 cards in all that could be worth up to $3 million, experts say. They include such legends as Christy Mathewson and Connie Mack.

Kissner and his family say the cards belonged to their grandfather, Carl Hench, who died “in the 1940s. Hench ran a meat market in Defiance, and the family suspects he got them as a promotional item from a candy company that distributed them with caramels. They think he gave some away and kept others.

“We guess he stuck them in the attic and forgot about them,” Kissner said. "They remained there frozen in time."

After Hench and his wife died, two of his daughters lived in the house. Jean Hench kept the house until she died last October, leaving everything inside to her 20 nieces and nephews. Kissner, 51, is the youngest and was put in charge of the estate. His aunt was a pack rat, and the house was filled with three generations of stuff.

They found calendars from the meat market, turn-of-the-century dresses, a steamer trunk from Germany and a dresser with Grandma's clothes neatly folded in the drawers.

Months went by before they even got to the attic. On Feb. 29, Kissner's cousin Karla Hench pulled out the dirty green box with metal clips at the corners and lifted the lid.

Not knowing whether the cards were valuable, the two cousins put the box aside. But Kissner decided to do a little research. The cards were at his office in the restaurant he owns when he realized they might have something. He immediately took them across the street and put them in a bank vault.

Still not knowing whether the cards were real, they sent eight to expert Peter Calderon at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, which recently sold the baseball that rolled through the legs of Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner in the 1986 World Series for $418,000.

Calderon said his first words were “Oh, my God.”

“I was in complete awe,” he said. “You just don't see them this nice.”

The cards are from what is known as the E98 series. It is not clear who manufactured them or how many were produced, but the series consists of 30 players, half of them Hall of Famers.

The experts at Heritage Auctions checked out the family's background, the age of the home and the history of the meat market. They looked at the cards and how they were printed.

“Everything lines up,” said Chris Ivy, the company's director of sports auctions.

They then sent all the cards to Professional Sports Authenticator, which had previously authenticated fewer than 700 E98s. The Ohio cards were the finest examples from the E98 series the company had ever seen.

The company grades cards on a 1-to-10 scale based of their condition. Up to now, the highest grade it had ever given a Ty Cobb card from the E98 series was a 7. Sixteen Cobbs found in the Ohio attic were graded a 9—almost perfect. A Honus Wagner was judged a 10, a first for the series.

Retired sports card auctioneer Barry Sloate of New York City said: “This is probably the most interesting find I've heard of.”

The highest price ever paid for a baseball card is $2.8 million, handed over in 2007 for a 1909 Honus Wagner that was produced by the American Tobacco Co. and included in packs of cigarettes. Another similar Wagner card brought $1.2 million in April. (Wagner's tobacco cards were pulled from circulation, either because the ballplayer didn't want to encourage smoking among children or because he wanted more money.)

Heritage Auctions plans to sell most of the Ohio cards over the next two of three years through auctions and private sales so that it doesn't flood the market. In all, they could bring $2 million or $3 million, Ivy said.

The Hench family is evenly dividing the cards and the money among the 20 cousins named in their aunt's will. All but a few have decided to sell their share.

"These cards need to be with those people who appreciate and enjoy them," Kissner said.