Welcome to The E-Sylum: Volume 2, Number 28:  July 11, 1999: 
an electronic publication of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. 
   

SUBSCRIBER UPDATES  

   This week's new subscribers are Andy MacKay, Ken Barr, 
   Bill Bareford, Mark Tooth of Arca Books, and Harold Welch. 
   Welcome aboard!  This brings our subscriber count to 177. 
   Can we reach our goal of 200 by the end of the ANA 
   convention?  Please help spread the word! 
   

FAN MAIL  

   This nice note arrived from Ken Bressett earlier this week: 
   "Congratulations on your best issue yet of E-Sylum. It just 
   keeps getting better and better all the time, and I want you 
   to know how much it is appreciated by your readers."  

   Darryl Atchison wrote "I am so happy that I took a few 
   moments to look into the E-Sylum, as I think there is a good 
   possibility that some real progress will be made concerning 
   American numismatic publications.  I'll see how we do on the 
   ANA auction list first.  I have loads of other questions.  But 
   it's best to take things one step at a time."  

   Darryl reported being contacted by subscribers researching 
   Canadian blacksmith tokens and compiling a rarity table and 
   price list for Canadian numismatic literature. 
   

ASYLUM ERRATA  

   The Summer 1999 issue (Vol. XVII, No. 2) has been mailed 
   and many of our members have already received their copies. 
   A couple of errors have been reported:  

   William Malkmus, author of the article,  "More on Bude's 
   De Asse" reports: "The figures were numbered correctly: Fig. 
   1.  Fig. 3, Fig. 2 (1 and 3 fit on one page; 2 on another).  But 
   the captions for 2 and 3 were transposed.  I think if readers 
   were to be aware of that, the article might be a bit more 
   comprehensible."  

   He also correctly notes that "George Fuld had three different 
   titles assigned to his article.  Good thing it was only two pages 
   long!"  The correct title is "Harry Bass vs. the Fuld Library" . 
   Perhaps a future issue will contain an article titled "Armand 
   Champa vs. the Champa Library" to complete the possible 
   permutations...  

   Minor miscues aside, the issue was another fine effort by 
   our new editor, Marilyn Reback.  The issue reintroduced 
   advertising, the lack of which which was a miscue on the part 
   of myself and the Board last time:  "I thought you were going 
   to handle that."  "I thought YOU were going to handle that..." 
   Oh, well.  We're handling it now, and while we're on the 
   subject, please considering buying an ad in the next issue to 
   help support the publication of The Asylum.  Send your ad 
   copy and any questions to me at whomren@coinlibrary.com 
   

RARE NBS EPHEMERA PRINTING ERROR  

   Speaking of errata, somewhere in my vast "archives" is a 
   sign rescued (i.e. "looted") following the 1989 A.N.A. 
   convention in Pittsburgh.  The sign hung over the NBS table 
   and proudly proclaimed our organization as the  

      "NUMIATIC BIBOMANIA SOCIETY"  

   Spelling was apparently not a strong point of the ANA's sign 
   printing firm that year. 
   

DAVID RITTENHOUSE, FIRST MINT DIRECTOR  

   From "David Rittenhouse", by Brooke Hindle, 
   Princeton University Press, 1964, p331-332:  

   "President Washington appointed David Rittenhouse 
   director of the mint of the United States on April 14, 
   1792, less than two weeks after the act establishing it 
   became law. ... The choice of Rittenhouse as director 
   seemed peculiarly appropriate to men who differed on 
   other subjects.  Regarded in all quarters as the leading 
   Newtonian philosopher in America, he was popularly 
   most honored as a practical scientist - a 
   mechanic-scientist.  What could be a more fitting 
   capstone to his career or a more fortunate result for the 
   nation than that Rittenhouse, like Newton, should become 
   "Master of the Mint"." 
   

FEATURED WEB SITE  

   The Independence Hall Association of Philadelphia 
   maintains a web site of interesting tourism information 
   for historical locations in and around Philadelphia, 
   including the U.S. Mint.   This page summarizes the 
   history of all four Philadelphia mint buildings.  

      http://www.libertynet.org/iha/tour/_mint.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)