I'd like to correct something I read in the Whitman Publications article Chopmarked Coins Featured in 3rd Mega Red". The founder of the Chopmark Collectors Club is Mr. Everett R. Jones of California, USA. Mr. Colin Gullberg is the current editor of our Chopmark News. In the past I have had some contacts with Mr. Jones and I think he deserves the honor to be mentioned here. Mr. Gullberg is doing a wonderful job as our editor and has revived the CCC at some time.

Yes, Everett was the founder of the CCC in 1990. He passed away two years ago. I wrote the chapter on chopmarks for the Mega Red Book but not the press release.

I regret the typo that misidentified Colin as the CCC’s founder without mentioning Everett Jones.

In last week's post on the Erie Canal medal, it mentions Philip Hone, the Mayor of NYC at that time. When his estate was sold in 1852 it included numismatics. The catalog is listed in Gengerke under E.H. Ludlow on 04/28/1852. I remember seeing this catalog offered in a Woodward sale in the 1860's. Woodward stated that it was mostly paintings and other things, but had a few numismatic items.

Some of the designs of English lead/pewter tokens illustrated in referenced http://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/1983_BNJ_53_7.pdf and http://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/1984_BNJ_54_11.pdf are interestingly close to lead tokens over 1000 years older issued in Lanka with Brahami inscriptions and illustrated in http://coins.lakdiva.org/OBRW/lead_tokens.html

Among other things I am a Civil War Re-enactor and at the re-enactment of Secessionville as a major in the 79th NY Cameron Highlanders we were present when the Hunley was brought up and got to see a mock-up of it on Boone Plantation in North Charleston. Very impressive, Boone Plantation is the one usually shown in the movies about the Civil War.

At one time I compiled a list of numismatic authors who served prison time. I lost track after the first half dozen. Dale Birdsell was one of them.

Dick Grinolds said that he was not aware of Birdsell's current status. He is still dead. Dale Estin Birdsell was born on June 4, 1920, and died on April 8, 1998. He was a veteran of the Army during World War II and is buried in Quantico National Cemetery in Virginia.

He wrote Ku Klux Klan Tokens, published in 1977 with a second edition published in 1981. Indeed he had insider information as a member of the Klan and a KKK organizer in Arkansas.

Birdsell wrote checks to support the Klan. He was charged with writing more than a million dollars worth of bad cashier's checks. In court he asserted that he was the reincarnation of Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the KKK.

I was perusing the blog messynessychic.com and came across this interesting book photo that might be nice to share with readers.

I saw the article on your web site about the salvage of Indian rupees from city of Cairo sunk by uboat in WWII. The captain was my uncle so I received two coins. With the coins I have the letter from the salvage company explaining that only a few were saved from meltdown for relatives of the survivors. Captain Rogerson was my uncle and won an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for saving so many lives.

Just as a sidebar to the Medal of Honor, I remember back in my days at Rarcoa. I ran the Orders and Decorations Department. We sold US medals and had virtually everything in stock. Trading on medals was somewhat confusing and many in the business used to advertise that you needed to send a stamp along with your payment in order to make it a "trade" not a sale. This really was not true.

At one time we had a set (3 different-Army, Navy, Air Force) of unissued MOH's on display in the window. We got a visit from the FBI responding to a complaint someone had filed. They said they normally did not care about it but had to follow up on the complaint. We decided to eliminate US medals completely and donated a complete set of US medals to the ANA. The MOH's were Unissued, and how those became available was interesting.

After the Vietnam Nam war we had a former supply clerk come in with a group of Navy unissued medals including a MOH. He said that the larger ships in the war had a stock of medals for field awards. At the end of the war when many ships were being decommissioned they were given orders to "deep six" all medals to avoid paperwork and shipping. Of course many went home in duffle bags instead of the ocean. Despite of a so called ban on the sale of all medals, many vets came looking for replacement of various medals for ones they had lost, carrying letters from the War Dept telling them they did not have them and to go to a dealer and buy them. Typical Government Confusion I suppose.