I was delighted to read the article on the late Charles A. Ricard and his Napoleonic collection. I enjoyed several conversations with Charles in recent years and investigated one particularly interesting sidelight involving him and Napoleon at the Rochester Numismatic Association.

When I joined the Coin World staff in 1974 I found a full set of the Token & Medal Society's TAMS Journal. There was an early article reviewing the TAMS Presidential Medals which have appeared annually since 1912-1913. I idly glanced over photo plates, each medal obverse with the name of the president portrayed, "Dr. George French... John J. Pittman..." Then I was bowled over by two photos, "Charles A. Ricard, Charles A. Ricard as Napoleon!" The first was dressed in a business suit and tie, the second was an undraped bust with laurel wreath!

Only years later did I learn directly from Charles that only ONE existed, made by meticulously re-engraving a medal with the business suit! This unique piece was created as a tribute to Charles and his already famous Napoleonic collection! Marvelous.

One of my upcoming columns makes reference to the small gift envelopes made for presenting quarter eagle coins a century or so ago. I sold one of these on eBay, and I wish now that I'd saved the photos. I'm hoping that a reader has such an item and can send me photos or loan it for that purpose.

We have a choice of deciding which story is the one to believe. Non-numismatic publications are notorious for misreporting facts about coins. In comparison, the list I used is from an untraceable source and could be equally unreliable. It may be that the Denver Mint began producing planchets for half dollars on February 1, 1906 in anticipation of coinage, as the reporter made no comment about actually seeing finished coins. I believe that would have been an integral part of the story, as most such accounts relate the pleasure of handling the new "mint drops," "silver jewels" or other such journalistic puffery.

In all likelihood my untracable source (the clipping from Rare Coin Review) was, in fact, the Morgan article somehow separated from its original source.

I looked up the Rare Coin review issue that David Lange used as a source for his excellent column. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the issues on Edward B. Morgan’s 1914 ANS Exhibition list and the issues covered in the RCR, and the dates agree in every case. It seems extremely likely that the 1914 listing was the source for the RCR document.

I was always taught that you can’t define a term using another form of the same term, such as defining a runner as someone who runs. ...

Well, how about a linear foot as the (standardised) length of an adult man's foot?

Or a PENNYWEIGHT: The intended weight of a sterling-silver penny from before 900 until 1344, 32 grains according to the Tower pound of 7680 Tower ("wheat") grains, being 1/20 of an ounce and 1/240 of a pound: 1.457975475 grams. With the adoption of the Troy system in 1527, the "pennyweight" was now defined as 24 (Troy) grains or 1/20 of a (Troy) ounce or 1/240 of a (Troy) pound: 1.55517384 grams. Note that the Tower pound of 7680 "wheat" grains was equivalent to 5400 Troy grains (also known as barleycorns), while the Troy pound is 5760 Troy grains. (The Avoirdupois or common pound of 16 ounces is 7000 of these Troy grains.)

Also, there was one spoof definition that I came across many years ago, and, as a computer programmer with background in maths, I really liked:
RECURSION: See "recursion".

Funny, I've always known it as the Victory Medal, NOT "Freedom". Maybe poor reporting, and others copied the original mistake? 'Cos I cannot visualise museum staff making this blunder. Errhh, do YOU know of any "Freedom Medal" NOT involving the USA or its President?

The Mirror makes an additional mistake: "His family later received the Freedom Medal, given to soldiers killed in the war."

Survivors also received this - the reporter seems to have been confusing it with the Death Plaque? Or simply misinterpreting other reports "... posthumously awarded to a soldier who died during the Great War."

Not only is trade becoming cashless, even Cricket may lose the Coin toss.