Sale #5 was a great success and I would like to thank every person that participated. Invoices are in the mail, and packages are shipping! Just a highlight or two: lot 250, the First Mint Photograph realized $2337.00 in spirited bidding! Lot 133, the "101" Elder Sales brought $5511.00, lot 244 (surprise) the Youth's Companion realized $240.00 on a $25.00 estimate! Lot 819, Volume 5 of The Numismatist realized $825.00. Of note is all these mentioned were reduced bids! Check my web site for the complete PRL.

Sale #6 is set for February 2009. We are accepting consignments for all future sales. numismaticbooks@aol.com PH: (719) 302-5686, FAX: (719) 302-4933. Visit our web site www.finenumismaticbooks.com

The catalogue for our October 28 auction is in the mail. A serious printer delay has caused the catalogue to mail late. Bidders should keep in mind that the sale closes at 8 p.m. eastern time on October 28 and should plan their bids accordingly. The catalogue is also available (albeit in unillustrated form) on our Web site at www.fanningbooks.com . To receive a copy of the catalogue, please write us at dfanning@columbus.rr.com , or call (614) 754-1069. Thanks to those of you who have already placed bids. We look forward to an exciting sale.

Our sale #95 has now been posted to the Lake Books web site and can be viewed at: www.lakebooks.com/current.html The sale has a closing date of Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 5:00 PM (EST). Bids may be sent via email, fax, telephone or regular mail. The sale features selections from the library of John T. Hamilton III. John is a well-known collector of medals and tokens in addition to having an interest in the full range of numismatics. He also had a number of his books specially bound thus condition is generally quite fine.

Recently I issued a new book: CATALOGUE OF BANKNOTES OF THE CIVIL WAR IN RUSSIA. GENERAL AND SPECIALIZED ISSUES, Volume II (UKRAINE)

Hard-bound, size appr. A4, 416 pages, many illustrations. Parallel texts Russian/English. Cost 50 US dollars + shipment. Prices in US dollars. Additional information at istom@vlink.kharkov.ua

Jeff Reichenberger's comments on the 1936 World Series program made me perk up. I suspect other elderly expatriate New Yorkers will comment, but just in case (since Mr. Reichenberger wondered "what may have inspired his choice of the buffalo nickel"):

The 1936 Series (N. Y. Giants vs N. Y. Yankees) was one of the so-called "subway series" (since New Yorkers could attend all games via the subway, for the then-current five-cent fare, represented by a Buffalo nickel in 1936).

Not too earth-shaking, but 70-plus years later, some subtleties can get lost.

It was a "subway series" between two New York teams. In those days the subway fare was still five cents, hence the nickel.

It hasn't been published yet. But I'll be happy to send anyone the full article for review.

I am a baseball fan, too (go, White Sox!) and I enjoyed the piece on the 1936 World Series program. Back on July 1, 1980, the 70th anniversary of Comiskey Park, there were a few items of interest to collectors. Fans could enter the park and pay old-time prices.

A silver dime bought a hot dog and a small soft drink. A silver quarter bought a general admission ticket. A silver half dollar paid for a box seat. A special commemorative medal was given out to the first 15,000 fans entering the park that night. I attended the game, and the Angels beat the Sox...but it was a fun night!

The S-79 reeded edge 1795 large cent was published in Bowers & Merena Coin World ads. They have the coin, now slabbed as G-4, on consignment and it will be auctioned in November at the Baltimore coin show. The slab is clear and reveals the all-important reeded edge. Word is among collectors that the coin will hammer for more between $200 and $300K.

I contacted the Kennedy Library to see if the coin was in their collection. It is not. However, Mara Vostral found reference to it in an old exhibit. It was connected to JFK's dog tags, which are in the possession of his brother, Senator Edward Kennedy.

The image is out of focus and expanded well beyond any usefulness. If the elements are truly on the coin's surface, then they should be identifiable by using a microscope to take pictures that are in focus.

Yet again I'll take up the Wikipedia cause. On the one hand, there are lots of errors in lots of printed "authoritative" sources (these can be hard to fix). On the other hand, if it's wrong and you can document it, you can fix Wikipedia right away.

To use or reject Wikipedia naively is no help. To exercise critical judgment and caution, and to help make it better, is the nature of scholarship. People are going to use Wikipedia; why not then work to improve it?

Since Wikipedia is dedicated to NPOV, a neutral point of view (a troublesome concept in some situations), it won't have the ilan and personal insight that a signed encyclopedia article can have. What one day seems a bias may turn out to be the direction forward. Still, Wikipedia is clear about its goals and methods, which are worthy, and it's a way of reaching a broad general audience.

So, are some E-Sylum readers going to work to improve and oversee Wikipedia articles and subjects?

"I have to accept the challenges of working inside the limits of a small disc and obeying the strict rules of the striking, casting and finishing processes. But the clay is soft and it yields pleasantly, almost too easily to the touch of my fingers. Maybe, after all, these limitations are necessary. I welcome these odds - my medals are the result of a good fight against them - and at the end at least I can look back on a bravely fought battle."

"Clasp it in your fist, let your warmth enter the cold metal and then take it to the window. Watch it: The light hits some edges, hidden crevices appear, there are some mounds you had not even seen before. Feel the tension of the surface, There is life underneath. It is not a cold piece of metal any more: Trees grow here, bodies leap high, faces emerge. All of this is brought about by you, and only you can arrest this magic moment or change it at any time with a light flick of your fingers."

That's Dora in the picture above in March 2003 when she was presented with the J. Sanford Saltus Award for Signal Achievement in the Art of the Medal by the American Numismatic Society (ANS). (She is flanked by Stephen Scher on the left, who endowed a lecture that is presented every year in conjunction with the Saltus Award presentation, and Robert Wilson Hoge on the right, the ANS's Curator of North American Coins and Currency.)

The Saltus Award citation called Dora "one of the foremost, and most prolific, medallic sculptors of the 20th and now of the 21st centuries," "a premier artist of Canada" and "Canada's grande dame of medallic sculpture."

While looking for autographs we found this great page that lists all the U. S. Mint Directors from 1773 to present - great for collectors, researchers and historians of the U. S. Mint.

Credit for the success of the Mint belongs in great part to David Rittenhouse. In Philadelphia today, his name graces the city.s most fashionable address . Rittenhouse Square, about a mile west of the Historic District. Like Benjamin Franklin and John Bartram, he was one of those extraordinary men of early Philadelphia with diverse interests who made manifold contributions: he was a clockmaker, philosopher, surveyor, mathematician, politician and astronomer;

He determined the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland long before Mason and Dixon; many credit him with having built the first telescope made in the United States; he constructed an orrery, a device familiar mostly to astronomers and crossword solvers . it.s a clocklike mechanism that describes the position of the planets as they orbit the sun; and, he was director of the Mint for its crucial first three years.