We have been receiving bids for items in our October 28 auction at a steady rate. Those on our mailing list should have received the hard-copy catalogue by now and should inform us if they haven.t. Catalogues are available at no charge to anyone who wants one. Only two copies of the hardcover edition have yet to be reserved, so anyone interested in one should contact us immediately. An un-illustrated version of the catalogue is available on our Web site at www.fanningbooks.com and I can be reached at dfanning@columbus.rr.com .

I have been asked about the deadline for the sale, which is given in the catalogue as 8 p.m., eastern time, on October 28. As my phone will probably be very busy around the closing of the sale, I.ve decided to adopt the practice of accepting bids until ten minutes have elapsed without a phone call. This should allow us to accommodate callers trying to get through toward the end of the sale.

Yankee Doodle didn't really have a pocket, at least not the kind we know. He probably just kept a cloth or leather bag tied inside his coat. Just as we do with the paper dollars and copper-clad cents that we put in them, built-in pockets are another convenience third-millennium Americans take for granted.

It was not always so. As inevitable as America's success seems to have been, the fact remains that most of our early history was spent a false step from disaster. Though it happened very quickly by history's standards, transforming a motley collection of European outposts into a wealthy and powerful young nation was quite an ordeal.

The monies of pre-1840 America were both witnesses to this remarkable change and vital instruments of it. They tell of imperial and personal triumph . and folly. They celebrate our remarkable capacity for invention and adaptation. More importantly, they speak of the great American struggle between diversity and unanimity that was and remains a defining national principle. As we evolved from pluribus to something approaching unum, so did our money.

Early Americans were separated widely by geography, history, language and a host of other barriers, but they shared one unifying concept: The inevitable human tendency to trade. Trade occurred spontaneously in the wilderness, at street front shops, in smoky taverns and on waterfront piers. It reached down to the Caribbean, across the Atlantic and all the way to the Orient. In time, England tried to control nearly every official aspect of American trade.

Even a king, however, cannot watch everyone, especially when his colonies are remote and immersed in a complex socio-political landscape. When the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts, for example, the Spanish already had occupied Florida for over half a century and the nearby West Indies for even longer. French Huguenots had attempted settlement in what are now the Carolinas. Coureurs de bois (.runners of the forest.) were roaming France's wilderness empire and the Dutch would soon have a foothold in what is now New York, incorporating in 1655 a 1638 settlement of Swedes and Finns.

It would not be long until African traditions and slave trade economics found their way to America. Then there were the Native American populations. Each group coveted things that the others possessed. Only law and lack of currency stood between these groups and trade. Both constraints proved weak deterrents, however, as colonists circumvented the former and adapted or invented the latter. These were early signs of American independence.

These lead tokens were excavated by archaeologists at Ferryland, a seventeenth century fishing village. Dr. Louis Jordan described them in a presentation to the annual convention of the Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4) in 2006

For this purpose, Kirke ran a .common tavern. in his own house. It seems likely that the lead tokens were used as small change in the tavern. Based on the sizes of the recovered pieces, units of one, two and three were used, though just what the unit was is in question. The .DK tokens. differ from most Elizabethan lead tokens in that they are struck rather than cast. Based on research done by Ray Williams and presented at the 2006 C4 convention, it appears that the weights of the tokens correspond to musket balls of known calibers. Since musket balls were accepted in their most useful (spherical) form as half-farthings, the reason for pounding them flat and stamping them with David Kirke's monogram is a mystery

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.

I really like the Mint Director's web site. But I am confused about the title. David Rittenhouse is generally considered the first Mint Director in 1792. Who were the Mint Directors from 1773 until his appointment in April 1792? Here's some additional trivia about a Mint director:

Mint Director Jay W. Johnson was born in Bessemer, Michigan (in the upper peninsula) on September 30, 1943 and resided there until he left for college in 1961. My brother (James C. Borckardt, 1956-1974) was born in Wakefield, Michigan (about six miles from Bessemer) on September 28, 1956, and lived in Bessemer in 1956 and 1957. Jay and his family attended the church in Bessemer where my dad was the minister in 1956 and 1957, although when I asked him, Jay apologized for not remembering my dad. Attached is a photo of the Bessemer church.

I, too see the face of a mustachioed man with curly black hair on the right. On the left, however, I see a skull with sunken eyes. These are as clear to me as my own image I saw this morning at breakfast on the left lower quadrant of a piece of whole wheat toast!

On the secret Longacre signature, I admit that I can't see much in the enlarged images presented. Maybe a primitive, cartoon-like face on the right, but it would need to be sharper to be convincing.

Cartoon signatures are not unprecedented for the era. James McNeil Whistler transformed his JW monogram into the famous "Butterfly" signature, which actually does not represent a butterfly at all, but is a cartoon self-portrait of the upper part of his own face.

The dark areas are his hair and eyebrows, and in the 1883 and 1885 iterations on the linked page, he even includes the white forelock of which he was so proud. As far as I know, he signed all of the etchings that he, personally, printed with one form or another of the "Butterfly".

The enclosed photograph of the 1856 $1 Gold Dollar with the irregularly spaced and rising .hand stamped. date is (SEM-EDX) 55% Au, Gold .Gilt., Brass: 84% Cu/16% Zn. Exactly 5% difference, (80%Cu/20%Zn) in copper content than my earlier (SEM-EDX) tested 1851 Orichalchum Gold Dollar.! Please note the known .tested. 1849 gold dollar discussed on USPatterns.com website is 51% gold, and most likely gilt because of the very, very low weight!



Regardless gilt or solid, my coin is amazingly within 1Kt. gold of that coin (seven years apart one pattern is 12.24Kt. the other; 13.20Kt), 157 year old coincidence? If either coin was meant to deceive someone, they would have been made with 21.5Kt. or 90% gold content, not the 51% and 55% respectively that we see on these two known coins.

A lone 12Kt. or 13Kt. gold coin set on a table with a pile of, .coin of the realm., 90% gold coins could get one shot. The color of the gold from the .known. low gold content tells everyone that these coins were not intended for commerce!

Someone has drawn numerous tiny oblique parallel lines on the numeral 1 above the word dollar and somehow managed to stay within the lines. For lack of a better term; notice the unique .Pinocchio. nose of the numeral 1 extending far to the left, unlike the production gold dollar coins of 1856. Did I mention there are faces in each upper corner?

This Gilt dollar is extremely rare, if not unique! Quite possibly the first .Large Head.! On this day JBL was obviously experimenting with a Brass planchet instead of gold. I am told that, .brass was not really used in the Mint to strike coinage at that time.. I believe more accurately, brass was not known to be used for the tinniest of all United States coins, at that time. Quite possibly the date was hand stamped because an 1856 die did not exist at the .needed. time, since the 1856 Obverse of the $1 Gold Dollar was in a transitional stage. Third time is the charm, and the only change on the reverse would have been the .date. that we see haphazardly stamped on this coin and rising noticeably upward to the right!

After viewing a picture of the Gilt/Brass 1856 gold dollar, Mr. Saul Teichman wrote the following on August 20th 2008: .The 1856 looks like it was a handmade die.. Is it noticeably different than the other 1856 gold dollars? See for yourself, is it unique? What do we really have here? A .one-time. counterfeiter who wants to get caught, shot or jailed, by tediously making 13Kt. .handmade looking. gold coins from scratch, instead of simply and quickly copying an existing 1856 coin.

Perhaps, more likely, we have a previously unknown JBL pattern, trial, or experimental piece? If one believes all the pattern books available, an 1856 $1 Gold Dollar pattern does not exist, period. Do numismatic scholars believe Mr. Longacre decided not to make any $1 Gold Dollar patterns in 1856 or is it more reasonable to believe that not one has yet been found?

It would seem Mr. Longacre forgot to leave us the definitive periodical for identifying 19th Century patterns. For example, it could have been called: My Mint Pattern Coins for Sale, unfortunately we all know JBL did not write that incriminating book. What we should all remember is that history records that he did get caught signing his coins from time to time. How will we identify these forgotten patterns? Consider the following rhetorical questions:

• Is every pattern coin a perfect specimen?
• Should less then perfect patterns be dismissed?
• Are there no more patterns to be discovered?
• Has every pattern now been accounted for?
• Will the missing patterns remain forever missing since we lack a written account from JBL?

Compare this untouched photograph next to a production 1856 $1 Gold coin photograph and notice the wonderful discrepancies.

Maybe this topic has been handled in the past, but I'm curious about techniques others use to locate numismatic (and other) literature for sale on the internet. Presumably everyone knows how to use Google and to search eBay and large retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. But which English-language multi-dealer search site works best, and which are the best foreign language sites?

When I sell out of a worthy title at my own site I remove the price and substitute a "FIND IT" link to a links page with my own favorites. My top recommendation is www.addall.com/Used/ and I occasionally use others such as: www.usedbooksearch.co.uk/cgi/search.cgi , www.bookfinder.com , and www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchEntry .

I haven't had much luck finding either foreign or English language titles at sites dedicated to French, Spanish, German, and other language sites, but wonder what other readers might recommend.

I didn't know Dora dePedery-Hunt particularly well, but I am glad I did have the pleasure of having had the opportunity to make her acquaintance, at least, and to be involved with the presentation of the ANS Saltus award to her in 2003.

She was an impressive, creative person. Even works that she fashioned late in her career, at a relatively advanced age for anyone, have a spontaneity and liveliness about them that say much about her personality. Dora built her career in eras and worlds spread greatly apart. She made a successful name for herself on two continents through a lot of effort and talent, and was especially interested in helping and sharing her realizations with young artists following in her footsteps.

She had an openness and sense of humor that were appealing, and which will be treasured by those to whom she offered encouragement and inspiration both through her personal sponsorships and her sculptures.

Thanks for all your marvelous efforts with The E-Sylum.

I was on the road last week when you ran the obituary on Dora DePedery Hunt, and used the ANS photo from her 2003 Saltus medal presentation. It is my photo, which I may have shared with the ANS. I thought that it may have looked familiar!

During the Cold War, Spies from both the East and West used Hollow Coins to ferry secret messages, suicide poisons, and microfilms undetected. On May 1st, 1960 U2 Pilot Gary Francis Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union and taken captive. In his possession was a hollow silver dollar containing a poisoned needle that was to be used to take his own life in such a circumstance.

For one reason or another, he did not use it and was held for 21 months by the Soviets. He was then exchanged for Soviet spy KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel) at the Glienicke Bridge, in Berlin, Germany. Colonel Fisher was also no stranger to hollow coins...his original capture by the United States FBI was directly related to a hollow nickel that was used to transport microfilm.

On the following pages are exact duplicates of Cold War Spy Coins. They are all precision machined from actual coins, and are absolutely indistinguishable from a solid coin to the naked eye. They can be safely handled without danger of separation, and can easily circulate without detection. These exact replicas are proudly made in The USA.

The year was 1953. An innocent newsboy discovered an unusual coin that just didn't "sound" right in this pocket. Upon greater examination, it was discovered that this was no regular nickel, but had been hollowed out and a sheet of microfilm had been hidden inside. That nickel, and the encapsulated microfilm, was the downfall for Colonel Vilyam Fisher, and his entire spy ring. This replica is precision made from genuine US nickels

In 1847, the Kingdom of Hawai'i, under the reign of King Kamehaheha III, issued its first official coinage -- a large one-cent copper penny -- to alleviate the chronic shortage of small denomination coins circulating in the Hawaiian Islands. The next and last official coinage of the Hawaiian Islands was minted in 1883, by King Kalbkaua I; however during the intervening period, the change needs of the Hawaiian Islands were met by circulating private-issued tokens and the coins of the United States of America.

Following is a list of known coins and tokens issued by the Kingdom of Hawai'i and various business concerns during the period of 1847 and 1891, with allied Medcalf & Russell numbers: