Here's the contents list for The Asylum, volume 26 no. 3 (sent to the printers last week):

• Leonard Augsburger - A Bibliographic Guide to American Content in the National Numismatic Collection
• Dennis Tucker - How to Succeed in Numismatic Publishing (by Really Trying)
• Roger deWardt Lane - Self-Publishing Has Been Quite an Adventure

Check this link out. I saw this man perform at the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival and was astonished and gratified at the beauty of his music: www.castinbronze.com

The author is Will Nipper, a C4 Member. I believe that Will started this work years ago as a personal reference, organizing his notes and research into an accessible format. It then got to be so large that he decided to publish it - not for wealth or fame, but more to leave a legacy for his children so that they will know more about his hobby interest.

He has accumulated a lot of colonial and early federal history, along with the coins in commerce circulating during those periods. This has as much history as it has information about the coins. This is not a C4 publication and has not been edited by our editors. It is a summary of Will's research and personal observations. He published this privately.

It is about 560 pages including the index and endnotes, hardcover with a very attractive glossy dust jacket. The dust jacket has beautifully taken and printed images, as opposed to the low res image on the website. The paper for the pages is a nice quality, but I don't know what it's called.

This book would be appreciated by a novice entering the field of colonial coinage, as well as the advanced collector looking for information about the series he specializes in. I do plan to purchase a second unautographed copy that I can make notes in. When I do obtain a nice autographed copy of a book, I like to keep it clean of my chicken scratch.

On that website, the final paragraph of the preface seems to accurately sum up the book.

In Yankee Doodle's Pocket is intended to split the difference between numismatics and history. It even might be described as a "whodunit" or, more honestly, as a love story.

If I have succeeded then neither hardcore historians nor serious numismatists are likely to be fully satisfied.

Ray is pretty accurate in describing the book. It actually is about 576 pages (including index, bibliography and end notes) and covers the period up to 1840, for reasons described in the preface. It basically describes anything used as money during the period -- including barter items, paper money, foreign coins and tokens, US Mint issues, hard times tokens, etc, and, yes, "colonials." It's a narrative rather than a reference book. That is, it's intended to be read.

I've set up a 25% discount code on the website. Your readers can take advantage of the discount by entering "esylumreader" in the shopping cart's special offer code.

.This is a very useful book. Bowers.s critiques of the illustrated coins are more instructive than the generalities about ideal coins found in most grading guides. This kind of .real-world. grading is hard to impart to beginners..
.David W. Lange, research director, NGC

.Dave Bowers.s text reveals the decades of experience he.s accumulated dealing in rare coins. If a picture is worth a thousand words, readers will be rewarded by the millions with this landmark publication..
.Jeff Garrett, numismatic author and coin dealer

This book seems to be something new to me. Have you had it in The E-Sylum? There is also another book with a similar title about Australia in the same area of this website.

"American History As Seen Through Currency" by Joanne C. Dauer and Edward A. Dauer is a companion volume to "Australian History 1901 to 2001, As Seen Through Banknotes". Over 390 pages in full colour, this impressive work is now on sale at a special price!

For the first time, see from the library of one of America's foremost collectors of U.S. paper currency, some of the rarest bills ever engraved. Learn about the historical events that occurred when these notes were printed, spanning the years 1861 to 1929.

The currency notes are reproduced in full colour from high-resolution digital files. Read the fascinating history behind many of these one-of-a-kind notes, some with a market value in excess of $1,000,000. All three notes pictured on the cover are unique outside government holdings.

The history of the evolution of Australian currency notes since Federation is a fascinating one. With the foreword written by by Ian Macfarlane, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia from 1996-2006, this volume brings an international perspective and significant new information to the History of Australian Currency. The official note issue begins with the superscribed series printed by the Government before World War I, and ends with today's polymer notes.

This limited edition leather-bound book with slipcase has previously unpublished banknote images and information sourced from the Reserve Bank of Australia Archives, leading collectors, dealers, historians, mesuems, and the Dauer Collection.

With the collaboration of the Reserve Bank, this 352 page full-colour tome extensively covers Pre-Federation 1851 to 1900, Federation notes from 1901 to 2001, military issues of both World Wars and Vietnam, and 20th century shinplasters.

I'm afraid my library isn't as grand as the one in the latest issue, but I'm attaching a couple photos of my numismatic library at NGC, as well as two photos of my coin album library at home.

I would cast a vote for Dave Bowers epic A California Gold Rush History Deluxe Edition. Only 400 copies were made, it included a gold sample, and supposedly cost over $1,000 to make. It was only made available to purchasers of 'significant' ingots from the SS Central America wreck.

Auction results have sold it as accompaniments with ingots for over $80,000 (Heritage 7/04, Lot 8787) and on the secondary market for just over $3,850 (Stack's 5/08, Lot 4011). However, it was never offered publicly for sale, which may disqualify it from this contest!

I was not there but it seems that a person working as security at a coin show in Oregon saw a large cent he was interested in, asked the dealer how much and the dealer replied, $450. The dealer had sold it to the original owner who had passed away and it was back on the block.

It had been offered to several other dealers who felt it was a fake because of the reeded edge. Go figure - all they had to do was look at the RED BOOK. So with a $12.00 book in hand the fellow purchased a wonderfully rare and historic piece. He is a young man with a young family and will probably use the proceeds for a good home and nest egg. I suspect he will become a book buyer as well.

When asked about the coin the dealer had no regrets and was happy that the fellow purchased it. One of my good buds was at the show and is not given to rumors. He had first hand knowledge of the events. So keep your eyes pealed for what will be some very spirited bidding when the coin does show up for auction.

The accompanying photograph is an untouched original that I shot of a coin I own and represents an area less then one-quarter square inch on the coin.s surface.

The best way to view this image is in a totally darkened room. Put the image on your screen and walk away a comfortable distance to view it. Try and acclimate your eyes for a few minutes to the lighting conditions from 3 to 10 feet from the screen. Let your eyes wander and have an open, receptive mind and enjoy for the first time ever, secret artwork from the engraver never intended to be seen by us, the .outsiders..

These early 19th Century vignettes by Mr. James Barton Longacre do not scream for attention, as they merely whisper to those who will listen intently.

If you can see J.B.L..s face, (to the right of the top center triangle), his bold signature is below and to the right of his self portrait.

Mr. Longacre.s signature resembles a boat anchor with the J and the L sharing a common vertical line. The top left horizontal bar of the signature appears to touch his chin. Notice that the J in the .anchor. gently turns upward, while the L terminates (in the far right .white strip. area) in a diamond shape or arrow design. Could that be Jim.s dog at the far top left?

Play, connect the dots, with the black spots at the far top left and watch the faces shift from one face to another, go very slowly. Notice the three spots that vaguely resemble the constellation Orion angling upwards. Focus on the two spots to the right then the two to the left. Take your time - he is a wonderful artist!

Tip #1: viewing your screen standing up from the far left side, find the dots that make the upside-down isosceles triangle (top left area). This will bring the .big dog. into focus every time.

Tip #2: do not get discouraged, patience will prevail. Remember these micro engravings were for his personal enjoyment, not ours! To view these images we become guests in Mr. Longacre.s miniature world of camouflage, image-shifting and plausible deniability!

Authors often ask about the Amazon and Google programs, as well as about Net Library and other electronic sales media, so it is worthwhile setting out briefly our current policy in this fast-moving and ever-changing world of book publishing and on-line sales.

Google take a copy of each published book and allow 20% of the book to be searchable on the web. (If you start at the front cover of the book on-line and scroll down, you'll see a yellow note between the cover and subsequent page that explains this is a preview only. The user can preview up to 20% of the pages, but then they hit the 20% limit and will not be able to view any additional pages. Google monitor the number of hits.)

he Amazon .Look-Inside-the-Book. is not searchable. The general consensus is that the Google ability to search for specific text or topics within a title offers the end user a very high level of certainty that .this is the book they need to purchase., hence the choice of Google. Indeed, Cambridge University Press uses the Google Book Search facility. You will notice that the opening Google page preview states: The total pages displayed will be limited.

Regarding several of eBay's new policies, here's my take:

1) The "PayPal thing." 11 out of every 12 orders that I get are from PayPal, so that's not a big deal for me. However, you can still do business with your customers who do not pay electronically, you just cannot use eBay's "Checkout" to do so.

2) The "4.3" thing: This is more disturbing. As of November 1, if ANY of your four components (S&H, Shipping Time, Communication, Item as described) are under a 4.3 for a current 30 day period, eBay will pull the plug on your future listings until your rating goes up. I can see where under a 4.0 is reasonable, but a 4.3 is asinine. Talking to other Powersellers, the problem is that most buyers do not realize that rating you a "4" is putting you out of business as eBay's wording of these rating needs to be revised.

3) The "Free Shipping" thing: Let's say you sell a $100 item and charge $4.95 S&H with D.C. and Insurance. Ebay only gets fees on the $100. If you offer free shipping, that customer may pay $102 for it, hence eBay is making more money. However, I run no reserve auctions starting at under $1.00. Free shipping is not an option for me. As a corollary to the above point, a lot of sellers (including me) have been getting hammered here because buyers do not take into account the cost of materials and "reasonable" processing time for a lot.

What a challenge it would be to assemble a collection of 21st century coinage using this catalog as a guide! I think one would have to be quite the world traveler or know several people who are. These modern coins are largely the pocket change of today, with little value to incent dealers to stock them.

Am I wrong? Is there a dealer or specialty organization that seeks out and distributes these coins to collectors?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Back in the 1790s, forgers in Birmingham were doing the same thing, making fakes and selling them to merchants at a discount. Only then it was halfpennies, and the situation was far worse then than it is now: someone writing to the Gentleman.s Magazine in 1791 observed that .not the fiftieth part of our copper coinage is genuine..

Neither the item in last week's E-Sylum on the Felix Schlag cemetery monument, nor the original article describes the monument in detail. Is the Jefferson nickel design engraved in the head stone? Or is the design in some material affixed to the stone? Recently I had a family member ask me what to do with a metal galvano of a sculptor's parents mounted on a headstone at the family grave site. The director of the cemetery recommended its removal because cemeteries across America can no longer guarantee protection of any metal parts on any monuments. Thieves are stealing the metal and selling it for its scrap value. Bronze decorations (and metal galvanos) are vulnerable because of their copper content. Thieves have no respect for any artistic value of the art object, sentimental value to the family, desecration of the dead, attractiveness of the grave monument, or vandalism of the cemetery.

The trouble is, the galvano has been on the stone for 80 years. It may shatter if removed. My recommendation was to have a modern sculptor make a plaster cast -- on site! -- before it is removed, particularly if this is the only such relief of the portraits extant. Then have a monument maker remove the metal galvano.

Metal and stone are the only permanent material to replace it. An inexpensive epoxy cast could be used for the replacement. However epoxy is not permanent, but it would dissuade thieves as it does not look like metal.

So whaddaya say readers - will some of you chip in? -Editor

We enjoyed the newspaper report concerning the 1858 Philadelphia Mint robbery mentioned in last Sunday's Esylum. We found it an interesting story, and checked further into our resources for more information and found the attached from the Philadelphia North American Newspaper of the 19th of August 1858 entitled Robbery at the Philadelphia Mint.

I beg to differ with the list you published from my friend Dick Johnson regarding upcoming Lincoln commemorations. Dick's list is substantially the same as listed on Wikipedia (not known for its accuracy)

At any rate, the entry "Other tributes slated for the next two years include: A redesigned 2009 penny series and five dollar bill." which also appears on Wikipedia IS WRONG - there won't be another new $5 bill. The redesigned $5 bill was released March 13, 2008

With it goes my sincere thanks for your good-luck piece, which did service above and beyond its routine duties during a rather busy period.

If you can believe Australian coin dealer Steven Temby you can earn a "regular income" by searching for coins worth more than face value from coins still circulating Down Under. He just issued a press release to that effect. He directs Australians to his web site where he sells, for $77, an e-book that lists 31 coins he will buy. He will pay, for example, $200 for a $1 coin on that list. Or $100 for a certain 50-cent coin. Or $50 for a particular 20-cent coin.

Get coins in quantity from a bank, spend an hour or two each evening searching, and take the unwanted coins back to the bank, his publicity directs. "There are over 150,000,000 of these rare coins in circulation today."

Is he a reincarnated B. Max Mehl? At least Mehl gave you a book to read -- the Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia -- for a few dollars. How much did he offer for a 1913 Liberty Head nickel?

Against an elaborate backdrop resembling a Greek temple, Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech. An audience of about 84,000 people in the stadium and 40 million TV viewers witnessed this extraordinary event. So what could be a better tribute to Obama than this commemorative coin that marks the occasion that has now become a defining moment in history for millions of people everywhere.

This stunning profile portrayal of Barack Obama is designed in the bold, beautiful Hellenistic style of an Ancient Greek coin. Although the coin honors Obama.s nomination, it is also intended as a cultural outreach gesture from Greece to those who support Obama in the U.S. and abroad.

The face of the coin shows Obama wearing the headdress of the legendary lion-skin cape that protected the mighty Hercules from his enemies.

Origami is the art of paper folding. The word is Japanese, literally meaning to fold (oru) paper (kami) and comes in many styles and varieties. This post is dedicated to models folded from dollar bills. The subtle genius lies in the way the artist incorporates the prints on the dollar bills into the facial characteristics of the finished figures.