In the October 15, 2017 edition of The E-Sylum there was some confusion over the dates for certain mint directors. The correct dates are as follows:

Robert Patterson, July 1, 1805, to July 14, 1824

Dr. Robert M. Patterson, July 1, 1835, to June 30, 1851

Dr. Henry R. Linderman (second term), April 1, 1873, to January 27, 1879

In scanning through the contents of last week’s E-Sylum, Dick Johnson’s “Mint Set” submission caught my eye for a full reading. While have no argument with the basic description he sets forth, I would take issue with one detail; “ . . . sold by the mint that manufactured them or their sales agency.”

Back in the mid-1960’s, when Eva Adams and the United States Mint were intent on killing coin collecting, from their perspective, they had undertaken, by publication in the Federal Register, as I recall, to co-opt the application of the term “Mint Set” for exclusive use by the Mint. This was at the time that they introduced the marketing of the 1965 Special Mint Set packaging. At that time I undertook some research, which I’m unable to locate in any of my files presently, confronting they with it, which established that the term “Mint Set” had been applied to privately assembled coin sets back into the 1930s, at least, on the advertising pages of the Numismatic Scrapbook, and The Numismatist as well, I believe.

The bottom line is that the U.S. Mint was thwarted in their co-opting effort. Thus, a “Mint Set” is any set is today, really, any set of coins assembled of any mint’s coins, regardless of the point of assembly, or condition, in my opinion. In reality it could be a year set . . . or a set representative or an era or a time-frame . . . it would simply be appropriately representative of the products of that mint.

I was looking through John Spring, Ancient Coin Auction Catalogues 1880-1980 (Spink, 2009) : 100-109, on the Hamburgers. David Fanning pointed out the reference so I put him in the acknowledgements. The main correction was that Leo Hamburger separated from Joseph on January 1, 1904, not in 1910 as I originally had it. Spring's book is excellent and I added it to the bibliography. I actually forgot about Spring's book when I wrote the piece.

Last week you asked, "I didn't know we HAD a Netherlands/America Enduring Friendship medal. Now I'd like to see one, too. Can anyone help?" This eBay lot image is probably not good enough quality for publication, but should be fine to show the type.

Your comment about the Netherlands/America friendship medal jogged something in my numismatic consciousness and brought to the fore a Swedish-American friendship medal issued in 1976 for the Bicentennial. No idea if it is a US Mint product or not, but it's large (50 mm) and heavy, and appears to be silvered bronze. Conspiracy theorists can have a field day with the reverse of this piece: look at what is approaching the twin towers.

Last week you asked, "Described by the seller only as an "UNUSUAL QUARTER MEDAL" this whatzit has a design similar to the U.S. Standing Liberty Quarter. But what exactly is it?" It's normally described as a counter. I don't know its original purpose.

Beyond noting that the flower is a lily, the original quotation is to gild gold and paint the lily, a subtler and more telling phrase.

In 1954, Irving Berlin was presented with a Congressional Gold Medal by President Eisenhower. Attached is a poor picture purporting to be the galvano. Can any of our readers supply a good photo of the medal?