Welcome to The E-sylum: Volume 2, Number 20:  May 16, 1999:  
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.  
   

SUBSCRIBER UPDATES   

   Bruce Perdue is our newest subscriber. Welcome aboard!  
   Bruce is an editor of the Numismatic Literature catagory on  
   the Open Directory - see more below.  
   

THE OPEN DIRECTORY   

   Yours truly has signed on as editor, together with Bruce  
   Perdue, of the Numismatic Literature category of the Open  
   Directory, a categorized  index of web sites across the internet.  
   You can bet that my first suggestion was to add the NBS  
   homepage.  Bruce not only added it, but listed it first! Thanks!   

   The Open Directory is used by Lycos http://www.lycos.com/  
   and other web sites as part of the search  results shown to  
   web surfers.  The Open Directory is available directly at  
   http://dmoz.org/   Type "numismatic literature" to see the  
   current entries.   

   Please forward to me any suggestions for good sites to be  
   added to the list.  
   

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT   

   NBS president Michael J. Sullivan notes:   

   "We are now preparing the second Asylum issue of the year  
   for mailing mid to end of June.  If you are a current NBS  
   member in good standing and would like to place an ad, please  
   send your ad copy to Marilyn Reback at anaedi@money.org.   

   We are now accepting nominations for the positions of  
   President, Vice-President, Secretary-Treasurer, and the Six  
   Board positions.  If you are a current NBS member in good  
   standing, please send your nominations to President Michael J.  
   Sullivan at numisbookmjs@earthlink.net."  
   

SUBSCRIBER PROFILE: WENDELL WOLKA   

   With this issue we introduce a new occasional feature of the  
   E-sylum:  Subscriber Profiles.  These are short articles  
   describing the background and/or collecting interests of our  
   readers.  Wendell Wolka of Ohio is our first profilee:   

   Wendell Wolka collects a wide range of numismatic and non-  
   numismatic items,  including things as diverse as wire service  
   photos of pre-WW2 commercial airliner crashes and medals of  
   Martin Luther and the Protestant reformation.  Closer to home,  
   he collects obsolete bank notes from Indiana and Ohio, colored  
   proof notes, and notes of France and the French colonies.   

   Numismatic literature interests center on antebellum state and  
   federal  reports, letters, counterfeit detector publications, bank  
   documents, and just about anything else related to state banking  
   prior to the end of the Civil War in Indiana and Ohio. A recent  
   passion is an attempt to fill in a complete run of Bankers  
   Magazine up to 1865.  
   

BIBLIOGRAPHY UPDATES   

   The following Medieval Coinages sections of the bibliography  
   are new, courtesy of our bibliographer Larry Mitchell:   

    54.  LOW COUNTRIES  
    55.  GERMAN LANDS  
    56.  ITALY  
    57.  AUSTRIA & HUNGARY   

   The bibliography also resides on our web site.  
   Click on Bibliography.  
   

U.S. MINT WEB SITE WISHLIST   

   In response to my note about meeting with Philip Diehl, Paul  
   Hybert asked:  "Some articles in the "Gobrecht Journal" refer to  
   an original document called "The Registry of Dies."  That is a  
   register of how many dies were shipped to each branch mint,  
   and when.  I recall reading that the book (or a copy of it) is at  
   the Smithsonian.   

   I was wondering if you know of any plan to put the book on  
   the web?  Or is a photocopy available to someone interested  
   in putting it on the web?"   

   This would be a boon for researchers; I forwarded Paul's  
   question to Mr. Diehl.  
   

FEATURED WEB SITE   

   While we're on the subject of the U.S. Mint, this interesting  
   site features "Historic Views of the United States Mints."  
   Many of the illustrations are from U.S. and European  
   postcards produced from 1900 to1930. Some are scans of  
   photos taken as early as 1854.   

       http://home.ptd.net/~nabors/mints.html  
   

  Wayne Homren  
  Numismatic Bibliomania Society   

  The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a  
  non-profit organization promoting numismatic  
  literature.   For more information please see  
  our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/  
  There is a membership application available on  
  the web site.  To join, print the application and  
  return it with your check to the address printed  
  on the application.   For those without web access,  
  contact Dave Hirt, NBS Secretary-Treasurer,  
  5911 Quinn Orchard Road, Frederick, MD 21701   

  (To be removed from this mailing list  
   write to me at whomren@coinlibrary.com)