Item 1990/1 - Three letters from Peter Seaby, the second with an attachment:

1 item, paper

Three letters from Peter Seaby, the second with an attachment:
(a) in manuscript, one folio (recto & verso), date 16 June 1990, thanking IS for his letter and St Peter paper. He mentions the practical difficulties posed in reproducing the inscriptions but is working on a system to set the type by computer as camera-ready copy to reduce production costs. He says that one of their contributors is unable to submit before mid-August, which pushes back the deadline. He also considers "the question of the two 'modern forgeries' that cam through Seaby's". He remembers that Seaby's purchased a little group of five or six St Peter coins some 15-20 years earlier, possibly about 1970. He says that "they came from York [...] wrapped in an old scrap of newspaper (1939-1945 vintage?) stuffed into a Bryant & Mays matchbox". They should have been given to CEB for proper recording, he continues, but he thinks that "PFP [Frank Purvey?] was keen to make a quick sale". One or more of them might have been illustrated in SCMB. He says that he wondered at the time whether the coins "could be a stray batch from the Walingate hoard" [?]. He concludes with a note that will get in touch with Frank to see if he recall anything further but is inclined to think that non were forgeries.
(b) in manuscript, one folio (recto & verso), date 24 July 1990, following up on the previous letter, saying that Frank replied to his query about the St Peter pennies that Seaby's purchased in 1970. There were six coins, he said, in a matchbox or cigarette tin, wrapped in a pre-war newspaper cutting; the original owner said that his grandfather had found the coins or that the coins had been found among his grandfather's effects, but he could not recall which. He does remember photographing all six of the coins for someone, if not for CEB then possibly Marion [Archibald] or E. J. Harris. Going through the plates of the Bulletin for the years 1970-1977, he has reconstructed the group. The attachment consists in a manuscript list of the coins with transcriptions of the legends and SCMB references.
(c) in manuscript, one page, date 7 September 1990, saying that he has heard from Eric Harris and is enclosing his letter and the three photos that he sent, though neither the letter nor the photos are now associated with the letter from PJS. He further says that Frank Purvey must have made his photos for someone else but supposes that two of EJH's coins might have come from the 1970 group.