John Baptist Gardella (1881-1961), was born on February 19, 1881, at Newtown, El Dorado County, California, son of Giovanni Gardella (1845-1936), and Columba Ramazano Gardella (1859-1895), bothimmigrants from the Ligurian region, Genoa, Italy.

In 1900, while still a youth at Newtown, California, he advertised wanting to exchange minerals and stamps for a 5"x 8" printing press. Evidently, Gardella had aspirations of being aprivate publisher from his youth. He helped his father worked his gold mine at Diamond Springs, El Dorado County, California, which he began in 1870. He and his father would return to the mines andwork them on and off over the next few decades. He collected many mineral specimens while mining and would often trade them for other collectibles.

From 1905 to 1917 he lived in Oakland, California. In 1910, he, his wife, and his father lived at 1840 Chestnut Street, Oakland, California.

In February 1911, he and his wife began to publish Collectors' Monthly, devoted to general collecting with articles and news about coins, stamps, relics, curios, minerals and soon in each issue. Advertisers included coin dealers : W. F. Greany of San Francisco, Charles K. Warner of Philadelphia, Arthur H. Kraus of Milwaukee, R. L. Dietrick of Lorraine, Virginia, Frank Dodgeof Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Robert Blakely of Prescott, Arkansas, Lewis Brodstone of Superior, Nebraska, Ben Cohen of Oakland, John P. Pittman of Plymouth, Illinois, and of Winnebgo, Minnesota,P. C. Hartell of Whitestone Landing, New York, H. Landecker & Co., of San Francisco, Fred Michael of Chicago, T. J. Baldwin of New York, Arthur Grote, Woodstock, Illinois, S. Archie Hamilton, ofCresco, Iowa, and so on. Numismatic articles included a survey of prices for Large Cents, the 1853 Half Dollar, and a column by P. C. Hartell discussing coin auction sales in New York each month.

In May 1916, he published his final issue of Collectors' Monthly.

In 1920, he lived in Diamond Springs, El Dorado County, California where he worked a gold mine as a prospector.

In 1930, he owned an orchard at Placerville, El Dorado County, California. He remained there the rest of his life.

He published four articles in the Placerville Times on the old gold miners of El Dorado County. He intended to publish a book on that subject but he died prior to undertaking that task.

He died on Saturday, August 25, 1961, at his orchard in the Camino area, El Dorado County, California. He was cremated at East Lawn, Sacramento, California.

To read the complete article, see:
GARDELLA, JOHN BAPTIST(https://sites.google.com/a/numismaticmall.com/www/numismaticmall-com/gardella-john-baptist)

The entire inventory of the Lupia Numismatic Library is for sale. Since neither the Chapman Family Correspondence Archive as a whole nor that of Hiram Edmond Deats could find an institutional orprivate buyer they shall, unfortunately, be broken up into parcels and sold from the NumismaticMall.com.

Every item in the Deats and Chapman Archives will be sold to anyone bidding a fair market price. Individual items will be available before the remaining archives are broken up into parcels sold atphilatelic auctions in the U. S. and Hong Kong.

Check NumismaticMall.com frequently as dozens of new items with estimates will be posted daily beginning August 21, 2017 until everything is sold lockstock and barrel. Many treasures and surprises will be found, so keep looking.

All inquiries will be given prompt and courteous attention. Write to: john@numismaticmall.com .