INTRODUCTION TO THE CATALOG OF PRIVATE

INTRODUCTION TO THE CATALOG OF

NEW YORK ENCASED

Introduction

The first draft of the New York encased coin catalog is still in process. The draft as of March 13, 2004 contained 1220 listings, including 582 listings from New York City, which includes 121 listings from Brooklyn and 50 listings from Queens. It also included 134 listings from Buffalo, 37 from Rochester and 30 from Syracuse. The catalog is still a work in process so please help by sending information on new pieces or on pieces with incomplete information to the author at P.O. Box 14465, Cleveland, Ohio 44114, with complete descriptions and rubbings or Xeroxes. Or send an email to ohioencased@adelphia.net. You can order the full catalog for $10 for an electronic version (specify word or word perfect) or $20 for a printed copy bound (that's 239 pages, probably more when you order).

I am also cataloging Michigan and Ohio, so send your information about those states. Those catalogs are available for $5 each for the electronic version, $15 for a printed copy.

There are still many New York pieces not listed. New York pieces come on eBay almost daily and a very large percentage of them are unlisted pieces. When I went over the tentative first draft that had 535 pieces listed with Joel Reznick and compared it with his collection to obtain new listings, only about a third of Joel's pieces were already listed. I am now certain that there are at least 2000 different New York pieces and my best guess is that the final total will be in the neighborhood of 3000, perhaps even more.

There are more encased from New York than from any other state, by a wide margin. I have reached this conclusion by collecting encased and watching encased sales for many years. In my opinion, Pennsylvania is the state with the second most encased and Illinois and Ohio are third and fourth. Also, there is no doubt but that New York City is the city with the most encased to its name, even ahead of that great encased city, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The fact that there are more encased from New York than any other state or city should not come as any surprise. Encased pieces have been manufactured from 1900 to today, with the largest numbers made in the forties and fifties. For most of that period, New York was the most populous state in the country and also the center of commerce and trade. There were more potential advertisers, merchants and events in New York. And so too, there are more New York encased.

There have been many series of encased, where more than one piece has been made for an event, a location or an advertiser. As would be expected, many of the special series of encased are from New York. The largest group of encased from a fair or exposition is from the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo. I have written several articles on the encased cents from the Pan American Exposition in the TAMS Journal, the Casement and the Pan-American Daily, the publication of the Pan-American Expo Collectors Society, headquartered in Buffalo. The many different varieties that I have described in those articles are cataloged here.

New York City has what is probably the largest merchant series in terms of total number of encased produced -- the Stork Club series. The Stork Club was a New York nightclub, with food and entertainment. The Club produced a great number of encased from the mid thirties to the mid fifties, which are cataloged here. Buffalo has what I once believed was the longest running merchant encased series, although it now appears it has been edged out. The Gamler's Jewelers series spanned six decades, beginning I believe in 1928 and ending in 1977, a total of 49 years. To the best I can tell the Newark, New Jersey, Borok Furniture series began in 1934 and continued to 1984 (a piece I first saw in 2003), a total of 50 years.

The 1949 and 1950 RCA "MP" television series is not as well known as the 1947 and 1948 Chevy series, but it is a very interesting series nonetheless. These encased cents were given to anyone who placed an order for the new "MP" television. All pieces that I know of in this RCA series are from the New York City metropolitan area. The complete list of all known pieces in the series is with the listing of the (NY)-BRX-TR-10 piece.

On the other hand, one top honor that New York missed out on is in the souvenir series. The number one souvenir encased and also the longest running encased series is without doubt Washington D.C., which began producing souvenir pieces just after the turn of the century and continued making them until at least the mid-seventies (1974 the last known piece to me). I have heard that these encased souvenirs were available for purchase as souvenirs at the bottom of the Washington Monument. In souvenir encased only, New York comes in second with the Souvenir of Niagara Falls series (last known piece 1967), probably followed in unaccustomed third place by New York City souvenirs. However, the souvenir of Niagara Falls series certainly has the most valuable pieces, with the barrel encased and the teddy bear encased.

Introduction to Encased Generally

The following is essentially the same introduction that I wrote for the Ohio and Michigan encased catalogs, both of which preceded this one, with minor changes on New York specific issues. If you have not read the Ohio or Michigan catalog, I hope you find this introduction interesting and informative.

I will begin in this introduction by giving a very brief overview of encased coins. More details are available in several TAMS articles on encased by Michael Kolman, Bryan Ryker, Joel Reznick, Jim Hemphill and me. Of particular interest is Bryan Ryker's 1995 eighty page article and catalog of Fankhauser encased, still available from TAMS or Bryan.

Encased coins began in 1899. There were very few encased made in 1899, a few more in 1900 and then an explosion of encased came in 1901. Encased have been made in every year since. There was a second explosion of encased in 1946 following the war and then a very large number of encased produced throughout the 1950s. Less encased were produced in the 60s and still less in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Today, I believe that only around 10-20 encased are made in any year, if that many.

Most encased are made out of aluminum. Indeed, the explosion of encased was made possible when aluminum became a cheap and abundant metal in the 1890s. Encased are struck by a die, with the cent or other coin placed in the middle of the planchets just prior to the striking. It is the strike that places the coin firmly in the encasement.

Before we start the catalog, we need to get some terminology straight. The side of the encasement with the advertisement or description of the event is generally called the obverse of the encasement, because that is the side that is of the most interest to collectors of encased. The side with the good luck message is called the reverse. There is no general consensus in the hobby as to what to call the aluminum part of the encasement, but I have seen and will use either "holder" or "encasement."

In most encased coins, the obverse of the coin faces the side of the encasement with the good luck message, which as you now know from the previous paragraph is the reverse of the encasement. The reverse of the coin faces the advertisement side of the encasement. My best guess is that this is so because the good luck message side was the top die, called the hammer die, while the advertisement was the bottom die, the anvil die. Thus, when the operator naturally inserted the coin heads up into the blank encasement for striking, the encasement's reverse die matched the coin's obverse. For this reason, in almost all of the cases where the encasement dies are not aligned, the cent is properly oriented with the reverse of the encasement.

In a very few encased, the cent is rotated in position as to the holder. This would only occur if the operator was indifferent to the position of the cent or made a mistake on an individual encasement. Some encased that often come with rotated cents are noted in the catalog. However, because it is rare that a cent is rotated, if the cent is not oriented to the encasement, this is a warning to check a piece carefully to determine if the cent is indeed the genuine original cent struck with the encasement.

Cataloging Method

The New York encased cataloged here are generally listed under New York cities, alphabetically. The New York City boroughs are listed at the end of the New York City section. If a borough, such as Brooklyn, is specifically listed on the encasement as the city, then I have used the borough, and not "NYC" for the catalog number. Neighborhoods of the boroughs are listed following the borough they are in. Thus, "Long Island City" is under Queens, under New York City. New York City is the city that the pieces with "Long Island City" on them are actually from.

I have continued to use the cataloging number method from Bryan Ryker's 1995 TAMS article, where he gave numbers to the 600+ Fankhauser encased, including four New York encased. There is some controversy in the hobby on this, as many prefer to use the cataloging system that has been used for many years for tokens. Indeed, if I were starting from scratch with the first published encased catalog, I would use a different numbering system. However, I believe that Bryan's method is one of a number of possible reasonable methods and I have used it in the interest of conformity.

The catalog number is given first. It consists of four items: (1) the state, (2) the city, (3) a two letter code for the merchant or event, (4) followed by a two digit number, or on very rare occasions a three digit number. For all these encased, the state is New York, "NY." The city is a three letter description, usually the first three letters of the city unless there would otherwise be two or more cities with the same designation, such as the Bronx (BRX) and Brooklyn (BRO), or another three letter description better describes the city, such as "NYC" for New York City. If parentheses are around the state or the city, it means that that place's name is not on the piece itself and has been attributed or inferred. Review the discussion on mavericks below to see how that is done.

A two letter merchant or event description follows. That is usually the first two letters of the merchant advertising on the encased or the event. If an individual is listed, such as I.H. Godin, then I use the first two letters of the individual's last name. Look for the I.H. Godin piece under NY-LIT-GO-10, not -IH-10. The same is true if Associates or Sons, or some other description follows. Thus, Jane E. Condit Associates is under NY-NYC-CO-10 and C.A. Phillips & Sons is under NY-FKV-PH-10. However, if a full corporate name is given, then I will catalog the piece under the first two letters of the business, even if that is someone's first name or initials. Thus, I. Jablow & Co. is cataloged under (NY)-NYC-IJ-10 et. seq. and not -JA-10; and Don Allen Chevrolet is NY-ALB-AL-10, as Don Allen Chevrolet is not the name of a corporation. The only exception is the first two Gamler pieces, which list a corporation, "Harry Gamler Inc." I have kept those with the numerous other "Gamler" pieces under -GA and not HA. Where the first word of a business simply identifies the type of business, such as Hotel Knickerbocker or Club Romway, then I still catalog it under the actual name of the business, Knickerbocker and not Hotel and Romway not Club.

If there is both a merchant and a product advertised, then I usually use the merchant. For example, there are many encased pieces across the country where a shoe store also lists the type of shoes it sells. Those are listed under the merchant. An example is Shoe Nuf. Inc., a merchant from Levittown selling American Juniors Shoes. Look for that piece under "SH" and not "AM."

When there is a salesman and a company on a piece, I will use the company for the catalog number if I believe the address on the piece is the location of the company. I will use the salesman if I believe the address is that of the salesman. If I have no way to tell whose address it is, or if no address is given, then I will catalog the piece under the company's name. For example, look for the Pat Woods, I. Jablow & Co., New York City piece under IJ for I. Jablow and not under WO for Woods, because where no address is given, I use the name of the company.

Souvenir pieces are under "SV" and exposition pieces are under the first letter of the exposition followed by an "X" for "Exposition." Thus, the Pan American Exposition pieces have "PX."

The two digit identification number that follows starts with -10 and goes up by tens for different merchants and by twos for the same merchant. Room is being left to add new numbers when new pieces are discovered. Generally, the older encased receive the lower numbers. I have kept the same catalog numbers for the Fankhauser pieces that already have published catalog numbers, so that in those cases where an earlier merchant has the same first two letters as a Fankhauser merchant, the Fankhauser piece will still have the lower number.

After the catalog number comes the date, followed by shape and size. The coin is a U.S. cent unless otherwise noted. The metal of the holder is aluminum, unless some other metal is described. "/" separates lines on the piece; "//" indicates that the writing has gone from above to below the cent and "\\" means turn the piece over. This is also consistent with Bryan Ryker's method, not universally accepted in the hobby.

In the drafts of this catalog, I have felt free to change the catalog number from one draft to the next to correct mistakes and to make the -10 catalog number an earlier date than the -20. I feel free to do this as the catalogs are only "drafts." Once I am comfortable enough with this catalog to call a version the "First Edition," then thereafter the catalog numbers will remain the same and I will work around the current numbers when new pieces are discovered.

Shape Abbreviations:

RD = round, followed by diameter in millimeters, if known

RD-O = round, off center cent

H = horseshoe (will be noted if holed top or bottom)

SH = squat horseshoe (1901 type where the bottom is cut as opposed to curved) The squat horseshoes all have the patent date, "Pat. Apr. 11, '99" at the top of the reverse, between the KMA and the NGB. I do not list that information on each piece. The April 11, 1899 patent referred to on the squat horseshoe piece is U.S. design patent no. 30,516, for an "Advertising Medal." It was issued to John C. Bean of Lexington Massachusetts. Almost all the SH pieces have 1901 cents, although some have 1900 and 1902 and a very few legitimate 1903. I know of no legitimate pieces with cents after 1903. See, NY-KIN-SV-10 for a description of the three types of reverse dies known for this piece.

H-FOB = horseshoe with fob at top

W = wishbone. The wishbone piece was made by Whitehead and Hoag Company of Newark, N.J., and that company's signature is on all pieces, unless weakly struck and worn off. It was the subject of design patent no. 34,523, dated May 21, 1901, invented by Albert R. Lache and assigned to the Whitehead and Hoag Company, both of Newark. There are no legitimate dates known of the wishbone shape after 1901.

B = bell

CP-R = chamber pot hole right (as viewed from obv.)

CP-L = chamber pot hole left (as viewed from obv.)

Reverse Abbreviations

APFOM -- A Pot Full of Money

IATNP -- I am the Nimble Penny

IBGL -- I Bring Good Luck (most times, the "Good Luck" is on another line, but I do not usually use the "/")

GLKMAP -- Good Luck Keep Me and Prosper

GWBASD -- Go Way Back and Sit Down

KMAAHM -- Keep Me and Always Have Money

KMAHGL -- Keep Me and Have Good Luck

KMANBCS -- Keep Me and Never Be Caught Short

KMANBB -- Keep Me and Never Be Broke

KMANGB -- Keep Me and Never Go Broke

KMAP -- Keep Me and Prosper

KMAYWHGL -- Keep Me and You Will Have Good Luck (usually the "have" appears on the line below)

KMFGL -- Keep Me for - - - Good Luck

LPPP -- Lucky Penny Pocket Piece

* is used in the description of pieces to indicate that there is some doubt about the word, letter or number used, either because of unclear reporting, or because the only sample piece available was too worn in that spot.

Victory Reverse

The Victory Reverse is the reverse made in 1945 to celebrate victory in WWII. Victory is at the top. V-E Day May 8 is in a scroll at the bottom left, V-J Day Sept 2 is in a scroll at the bottom right and World/ Peace is at the bottom middle. This is the type 1 Victory Reverse. There is another reverse without the scrolls and with "Year" at the bottom instead of "World/Peace" but I know of no New York pieces with this type 2 reverse (and I am not yet 100% certain that this type 2 reverse is an original, authentic to 1945, reverse).

Acknowledgment of the Sources for the Encased Pieces -- without them this catalog would not have been possible

I would like to thank the many people who took the time to help with this catalog. Without them, the catalog would be much shorter. Some of the entries have been taken from various auction catalogs and some from Internet sales. Except for the most expensive pieces, the mail bid catalogs did not usually contain a picture of the item. In addition, the cataloger would usually just list the important information from the piece and not describe the entire piece, as I try to do here. If there are no slashes in the description of a piece in this catalog, that is because I have not seen the piece and am merely passing on the description from an auction catalog. If anyone wants to follow up on my work, most of these catalogs are available from the TAMS library.

The names of the contributors and the auction catalogs appear in the catalog and identify the source of each piece.

Different Dates and Different Dies

If more than one date is known for a piece, I list the source of each date, separated by a semi-colon, with the source of the earlier date first. If I can verify that the pieces were struck with different dies, a completely different catalog number is given. If the encased pieces with the different dates were made by the same dies or if I cannot verify that different dies were involved and the dates are close enough together so that it is likely that the pieces were struck at or near the same time, only one catalog number is given. However, where the dates are far enough apart so that I believe it is likely that there was more than one die involved, where there is a difference in price because of a different date or mintmark or where the items have already been cataloged with -A and -B designations, such as the Fankhauser pieces, then I do use the -A and -B designations. The longer I work at this, the less I have to use -A and -B, as I examine more and more of the different pieces.

If the letters on two similar encased pieces do not appear in the same position relative to each other, the two pieces must have been made with two different dies. Dies wear out and have to be replaced. If there is a gap between striking, it is possible that the original die has been lost, so that a new die must be prepared. Usually the engraver tries to make the new die as close to the previous die as possible, but never exactly succeeds. The lettering is often just a bit off.

Examining various dies and the dates in the pieces suggests to me that most encased pieces were made with original rolls of the same date and mint marked cents. Thus, on a large series, such as the Gamler series and on the City of New York City of Wonder series, there is not a lot of variation in the dates of cents used with the same dies. It is the rare piece that appears to have been made with a wide variety of cents. An example of that is the maverick Roosevelt Savings Bank piece attributed to Brooklyn, (NY)-(BRO)-RO-10, which used a variety of circulated cents. Maybe someday even a 1909 SVDB will appear!

On some of the "Souvenir of" pieces, the "O" and the "F" of "of" are widely separated. That is what is meant in this catalog by the use of "widely separated."

Holes in Encased

If I believe that a piece was holed as made, I note that, along with the location of the hole. Unless the hole is very crude, it is usually difficult to tell if the hole was added to all of the pieces made or if someone punched a hole only out of the piece in question. This is because the holes were not built into the planchets, but rather were punched out after the piece was manufactured. Therefore, a well made, punched, hole by a consumer will look exactly the same as the hole made by the manufacturer. A drilled hole is easy to tell and is what is meant when "crude hole" is used.

Pricing -- An Art Not a Science

I have received comments that readers of this catalog appreciate my giving an estimated value on the pieces. I have tried to do that, even though I often do not have enough information to do anything but made an educated guess. I intend to add more values in subsequent drafts of this catalog.

Where a value is given, it is intended to include a range of plus or minus about 20%. It is not intended to be specific. I could easily put slightly different prices on the same item depending on when I placed the value. Both $7 and $8 really only mean a price between $5 and $10, and a reasonable sale could even occur slightly outside that range. Unreasonable sales are not all that rare as often neither the seller nor the buyer has a good grasp on the value of the piece.

Because of the small market for encased, pricing can vary substantially. Two people who really want a piece can bid the item up beyond any prior expectations. On the other hand, prices can be very soft if demand drops only a little. Experience on eBay shows that once one person acquires a piece, the next sale can realize substantially less, because one less collector is now bidding on the piece. Values are based on my experience with these and similar pieces and upon auction prices realized.

The value given is based on a nice, problem free EF piece. Reductions should be made for pieces with problems or which are more worn than EF. Pieces with nice cents with luster, particularly nicer Indian cent pieces, are worth more. A nice encasement, particularly an older encasement, with no noticeable marks and no tinpest (greying) is also worth more. The values are only for original, non-replaced coins. If the coin has been removed and replaced, the value drops dramatically, especially among the common pieces. I have written extensively on replaced coins in my 1999 TAMS article and in the Casement. Keep in mind that the original coin was struck with the encasement. The coin should therefore be in the encasement tightly and cannot be pushed out with pressure. There should be no light showing between an original coin and the encasement. The original coin will lie even with the encasement or under it -- it will not stick out over the encasement. Replacement coins are a particular problem with Indian cents, probably because many of the original Indian cents were removed in order to spend them.

There may well be marks on the coin from its second striking in the encasement. This can include a flattening at the rim, markings made from the encasement die at the edge of the coin and even marks made on the high points of the coin by the pressure of the strike. Unless egregious and detracting, these marks will not reduce the value of the encased piece. In fact, they can enhance it by giving evidence of the originality of the cent.

Maverick Identification and Attribution

A "Maverick" is a token that is not self identifying as to the location of the advertiser or event. Some mavericks are more obscure than others. On some encased pieces, even though the city or state is not listed, it is fairly obvious where the piece came from, either because the described entity is well known or the address given can only be from one city. An example of the famous entity type is the Souvenir of Coney Island. This immediately suggests the famous amusement park at the south end of Brooklyn. An example of the address type would be the 14th Street Bank maverick, located at 5th Ave. and 14th Street, which immediately suggests NYC. Broadway, Madison and Lexington are other streets that suggest, but do not prove, NYC. The phone number can be helpful too. Chelsea was an exchange, to the best I can determine, only in Manhattan and in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

Other mavericks require research. Valuable tools include old city and state directories; the Internet, in particular the map and nearby business features of a search engine like Yahoo; and the telephone and email: calls to local libraries, historical societies or even the businesses themselves.

Some tokens are mavericks even though they give some information as to location, because that information is ambiguous. Tokens that list only the city and not the state can be a problem if there are more than one of those cities in the country. A good example is the Howard Motor Sales, Albany, piece. I originally thought that was from Albany, New York, the largest Albany in the country, but it turned out to be from Albany, California.

Some mavericks will never be located, like the "Babe's My Pal" piece. Well, oops here. After I wrote that last sentence, the "Babe's My Pal" piece has actually been identified to Des Moines Iowa, where Babe had a famous restaurant. How about, "The Union," now that one would be almost impossible to absolutely verify. Others are unlikely to be attributed, such as "Globe Loan Co.," because even if a Globe Loan Co. is found, there is usually no evidence that it is the right one.

The tradition in token collecting has been to attribute tokens to cities. Some tokens, however, were not made for cities, but instead for larger geographic areas. A good example would be the encased in my collection with 1937 date: "Souvenir Northwest Territory Celebration 1787-88 1937-38." I know that there were 150 year anniversary celebrations in several towns in Ohio and Indiana and one in Minnesota (I have a similar token that has a Minnesota city on it) and I suspect elsewhere in the Northwest Territory. This token cannot be attributed to any city or state because its scope is broader than that -- it covers the whole Northwest Territory. It is not a maverick because its location is identifiable. It belongs in a catalog of mavericks and encased not identifiable to any particular state.

Because of the tradition to identify tokens to cities, tokens of corporations are attributed to the corporation headquarters, even when the token is national in scope. The best example of this is the attribution to Detroit Michigan of the Chevrolet 1947 and 1948 encased generic pieces announcing the Chevy encased series: "S.A." Chevrolet's Got It! Even though the piece is certainly meant to be national in scope, tradition puts it in Detroit. There are many examples of pieces attributed to corporate headquarters in New York: Doubleday Books and Records to Garden City and American Express to NYC are but two of them.

Some pieces did not list a city because the city was not important to the person who commissioned the piece. Examples of this are National and State Park pieces. The park is the focus of the piece and not the city. In the interest of uniformity, I have decided that if a piece refers to a single geographic area, I will attribute it to a town. Thus, the Letchworth State Park pieces are attributed to Castille, the mailing address of the park. Every place has a mailing address and every mailing address has a city and state. It is my job to determine what that mailing address is.

The ACE had a Maverick identification program. Members could submit their mavericks, which are given a number and other members submit attributions. If a New York piece has been identified by this program it is listed as AM(x). For the last several years, the source of the attribution has been listed in the Casement. Beginning in January 2004, Bob Perdue began to write a quarterly column on Mavericks for NTCA's "Talkin' Tokens."

The Internet has been very useful in identifying mavericks. Help comes from the map and business location programs, both Yahoo and expedia (www.yahoo.com and www.expedia.com). Help also comes from the phone exchange website, www.ourwebhome. com/tenp/, which contains listings of exchanges from various cities. Also, the search engine, www.google.com is very useful to find cites that refer to old merchants.

It is quite possible to wrongly identify a maverick, either because of sloppy research or because a piece is ambiguous and the wrong business has been identified. Some reasonable assumptions have to be made. For example, technically the Souvenir of Cleveland and Souvenir of Columbus Zoo pieces are ambiguous mavericks, because they do not clearly identify Ohio cities. However, a reasonable assumption is that the more famous Ohio cities are indeed the cities referred to, and that if Cleveland, Tennessee were to make a souvenir token, it would list Tennessee on the piece. I list a piece as verified if it is very probable that it is from that location based on those kinds of reasonable assumptions. If there is doubt about the attribution, I list the piece as Unverified, and further research is required. I have tried to list the source of my attributions here so that anyone coming behind my work will have a good start.

Because New York City was the financial center of America throughout the period when encased coins were being made, there are very many New York banks and savings institutions represented in this catalog. The website www.scripophily.com/nybankhistory.html was extremely helpful in identifying New York banks. The site contains a listing of almost all of the New York banks, including founding and merger dates. Based on my comparison of the information on the site to other information, it is extremely accurate. Where dates and merger information are given in this catalog about New York banks, it almost certainly came from this site.

If you are looking to identify a Maverick, please use the Maverick Cross Check at the end of the catalog. There are still quite a few unverified encased. If you have any information on these unverified Mavericks, please let me know.

Merchants

A trip through a group of encased, and thus through this catalog, can be an interesting journey into the commercial and historic past of the 20th century. The pieces show small and large merchants, small and large towns and historic places and events. Each piece has an interesting story to tell.

One of the things that I have tried to do in this catalog is to find out something about some of the merchants who made the encased to give the encased a human touch. I read somewhere that the half life of a business in this country is five years. For that reason, most of the merchants who made the encased reported here are no longer in business. But some are, even at the same address. On the other hand, the places, the towns and the streets, have generally, though not always, remained the same over the years. I intend to add more color stories to future drafts and editions of this catalog.

New York Geography

New York is one of the larger of the eastern states. In the west, it lies between Pennsylvania and Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The large cities in the west include Buffalo at the eastern end of Lake Erie (and a large snow area due to the westerly winds coming off that lake), Niagara Falls, the honeymoon center, just north of Buffalo on the Niagara River, Rochester on Lake Ontario, Syracuse east of Rochester a bit south of the southeastern part of Lake Ontario and Elmira and Binghamton, just north of Pennsylvania in the middle of the state.

The eastern part of the state extends much further north because Lake Ontario is no longer in the way. The Appalachian Mountains run through the central part of the eastern section and are the Catskill Mountains in the south and the Adirondacks in the north. The large cities to the west of the mountains are Rome and Utica along I-90 in the center of the state.

The Hudson River flows out of the Adirondacks, mostly due south to New York City. Starting in the north, the large cities on the Hudson River are Glens Falls, Troy, Albany (the capital), Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh and then the big one, New York City.

New York's western border is, from the north to south, the Niagara River and Ontario Canada, Lake Erie and Pennsylvania. Its southern border, from west to east is Pennsylvania, then New Jersey and then the Atlantic Ocean. Its northern border from west to east is Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River and then Quebec. Its eastern border from north to south is Lake Champlain and Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and the Atlantic Ocean.

New York City geography is generally given under New York City. Long Island, which is the largest island in the United States portion of the Atlantic Ocean, is partially in New York City and partially beyond it, even though many people who live in Brooklyn or Queens deny being on Long Island. Long Island consists of four counties with British names, Kings, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk. Kings and Queens Counties are in New York City. Nassau is the next county after Queens and takes up the next twenty miles of Long Island as completely metropolitan suburbia. Suffolk County takes up well more than half the island and is very suburban in its western part and fairly sparsely populated out in the far east.

Just to show you that almost all of the people in the state of New York live in or near New York City, I will list the most populous New York counties in order of population at 2000, source the Rand McNally 2000 Millennium Atlas: 1. Kings (Brooklyn), over 2.2 million; 2. Queens, just under 2 million; 3. New York (Manhattan), just under 1.5 million; 4. Suffolk, 1.36 million; 5. Nassau, 1.3 million; 6. Bronx, 1.2 million; 7. Erie (Buffalo, finally a county not in the NYC metro area), 944,000; and 8. Westchester (north of the Bronx), just under 900,000. Hamilton, in the center of the Adirondack Mountains, is the least populated county with just 5100 people, down from 5279 in 1999.