Misattributed, Misattribution. An error of attribution, authentication or cataloging; misclassifying a numismatic item. The error is usually due to inexperience of the cataloger, who probably had not seen a similar specimen before. Accurate attribution requires wide knowledge, both of numismatics, technical aspects of production, plus a knowledge of history, language, and the period of the piece being cataloged. Misattribution is uncalled for and a disservice to the reader, client, owner, estate, auction house, museum or whomever the attribution is prepared for. See attribution, cataloging.

[[ Photo Medal & Clipping Comparette C4 {1912} 376:271 ]]

Example of Misattribution ` Cataloging the United States coin and medal

collection was ot easy for Thomas Lewis Comparette,

curator, while the collection wa still at the U.S.

Mint in Philadelphia (in 1926 it was transferre

to the Smithsonian). His published catalog of 1912

contained many errors.

Perhaps the worst example is attributing the

Washington Declaration of Independence Medal (Baker

53) to the Signing Centennial of 1876. He attributed

it correctly to George Washington and the scene is

the Signing of the Declaration of Independence and

the artist was Wright – all because these appear on

the medal. But the date, the era, was wrong. It was

created a quarter century before 1876 because the

engraver, Charles Cushing Wright, had died in 1854!