Just two more to reach a magic number! At least, seems like it oughta be. Best for continued publishing this amazing work in '09. Happy New Year!

68 [CHARLOTTE MINT]: [Two Photographs of the Charlotte Mint Building], two glossy photographs, the first nominally 8x10", possibly made from a copy negative, showing the mint building from the front as originally constructed, obelisk type memorial to the left, markings on the reverse suggest the photo was to be used in a newspaper. Second photo, 2½x4½” depicting the building as reconstructed, 1930s automobile parked in front, view similar to that shown on Birdsall page 35. (50.00)

Two photographs, the larger showing the mint as originally built in the 1830s and the smaller after its depression era reconstruction. Curiously Birdsall’s The United States Branch Mint at Charlotte does not contain a photograph of the original building.

90 THOMAS L. ELDER: The Elder Monthly/Elder Magazine, 1906-1908, all issued, 23 numbers in 19, 404 pages total, red cloth, card cover of Vol. 1 No. 1 mounted on the front board, hinges just a trifle loose. Near Fine. (750.00)

Davis 346. Elder's first house organ filled with news, original articles, and public lynching of his enemies, who in the early days were any collectors who did not pay their bills (names and addresses published) or who wrote letters displaying their ignorance of numismatics. On rare occasions there was praise.

In noting that J. N. T. Levick was known to be getting the “interesting little disks together in 1852,” Elder posed that “numismatics can hold a man in his later years. Mr. Levick can be found at every sale, minutely examining the pieces, making careful pencil notations, buying whenever anything suited his taste, and pricing his catalogue with the precision of clockwork. We doff our hats to J. N. T. Levick, the “youngest” coin collector in America.”

In general, dealer’s periodicals are considerably scarcer if not rarer than the auction sale catalogues each produced, and those of Thomas Elder are no exception. Initiated in March, 1906 as a monthly, Elder shifted to a bi-monthly format in June 1907 when several large consignments competed for his time. After changing the title to the Elder Magazine for the last two issues, he suspended publication entirely.

For the last 135 weeks there has been one or more items written by Dick Johnson in every issue The E-Sylum, but not a one in issue #52, the last issue for the year 2008. This despite a news story on an interview with the head of the Russian Bank sent at 2:01 Sunday in ample time to make the issue. The last time an E-Sylum was sans Johnson was issue #26 in 2006 where he had filed three articles in time for insertion.

I do not know how many other New York Numismatic Club members read The E-Sylum, however the convention Alan Weinberg wrote about is the Metropolitan New York Numismatic Convention, which has nothing to do with the New York Numismatic Club, although as with many things New York, there are interlocking members. As for the later days of the NYNC, when the Barbazon Hotel was converted into Luxury Condos the Metropolitan NYNC was the opening event at the then recently-opened Vista International Hotel at the World Trade Center. It ran there until the 1993 WTC bombing, which occurred in the parking garage located directly UNDER the ballroom which would have been the bourse one week later... That event effectively killed the show.

Thanks for the review of Niall Ferguson's new book. It is an interesting read, covering broad swaths of human enterprise. Interestingly enough, he got it wrong on the history of Roman coinage when he says that the aureus-denarius-sestertius coinage was minted with "all bearing the head of the reigning emperor on one side, and the legendary figures of Romulus and Remus on the other." He is mostly right on the first half of the assertion but wrong about the reverses.

He is not the only author who refers to coinage without checking his information. Some of Bernard Cornwell's series of historical fiction based on British history makes coinage-related mistakes as well.

I acknowledge that this may seem pretty picky on my part, but these simple misstatements leave a nagging concern in the back of my mind about information utilized in other parts of the work that might be equally questionable.

I look forward to reading your newsletter and just read your last installment on the Amero. If you go to myspace.com/northamericanunion and look on the right hand side, about half way down there will be a video there with Mr. Pervis on the CNBC stock channel talking about the Amero.

Normally, I would not have taken the rumors of changing our currency seriously, but when I saw them talking about it on the stock channel my ears perked right up. While Hal Turner could be all the things that he's accused of, I don't know because I've never listened to his show. The point is, the North American Union aka Security and Prosperity Partnership is very real.

There is a woman Senator from Ohio who has complained about this to Congress many, many times. By the way, I have also heard of another currency called the DEY, Dollar, Euro, Yen that is being considered.

To my knowledge there is no such thing as either a CSA or any other silver ingot specifically associated with the Civil War. These seem to be modern fantasies sold on the Internet.

Has anyone done the most obvious test of the CSA ingots - a specific gravity measurement?

I have wrapped up novel #5, about the young lady who inherits a rare coin, takes it to a show, meets a nerd, who is actually a football player. Novel #6 is in the research stages...a fictionalized memoir of Two Moon, one of the models for the Buffalo nickel.

Any suggestions for info on Two Moon, besides the familiar Buffalo Nickel volumes? Today I went to Borders downtown and found a reference book on the Cheyennes, which will help tremendously! Thanks.

He was head of the melting and refining dept. of the US Mint, at Philadelphia from Jan 1798 until Jan 14 1836, when he resigned on account of poor eyesight. - Cloud Family Journal Vol. XIV, No. 4, p. 91 Aug. 12, 1845
Death Notice At his residence in Delaware county, on the 31st ult., Joseph Cloud, Esq., aged 75 years. The deceased was appointed an officer in the U.S. Mint at Philadelphia, by General Washington, and held the situation till removed by Gen. Jackson. He was highly esteemed by all who knew him, and regarded as a man of fine scientific attainments.

Joseph CLOUD was "Refiner and Melter" of the United States Mint (Philadelphia) from 1797-1836. He was elected to America's oldest scholarly organization the American Philosophical Society (founded by Benjamin Franklin), in 1806. He served as Secretary (1812) and Curator (1814-22) under Thomas Jefferson who was President of the Society from 1797 to 1814. By training, Joseph Cloud was a chemist. Following are excerpts from Chemistry in Philadelphia, by Edgar F. Smith (1919), pp. 86-90: "He had an honorable share in finally establishing the individuality of palladium . . . Cloud's papers are thoughtful and give evidence of wide knowledge in chemistry and skill in experiment. . .

In just 16 days, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will be sworn in as President and Vice President of the United States, opening a new chapter in our shared story. You can own an enduring piece of American history by visiting the official Inaugural Store today.

The 2009 Presidential Inaugural medallion is meticulously sculpted in solid bronze by Marc Mellon. The front shows Barack Obama. On the opposite side is the Presidential Inaugural Seal. Includes wood base and a certificate of authenticity. Note - Medallions will not ship until Jan. 10th.

Marc Mellon’s obverse (front) design for the 2009 Official Barack Obama Presidential Inaugural Medal was recently approved by the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee. The Official Presidential Inaugural Medal has a history going back to the time of Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

The series is widely collected, and considered to be an important part of the art history of America. Proceeds from the sale of the 2-3/4” medal will help make the inaugural events open to as many people as possible, as we commemorate the day Barack Obama takes office as the 44th President of the United States.

Marc Mellon is one of America's foremost representational sculptors, well known for his portrait busts, commemorative statues, and other works in bronze exploring the worlds of dance, sport, and family life.

Schooled to pursue the sciences, Mellon left pre-medical studies for the study of history and philosophy before discovering art as a vehicle to embrace all of his interests. From the start he enjoyed the challenge of conveying something of the inner life of his subjects, multi-faceted portrait busts, dance and sports sculptures in balance and motion, and strong figures of women that project a modern female sensuality.

Times are rough
Times are hard
Here's your f*^#ing
Birthday card

John Law. Credit Is As Dead As A Rat, 1701. B.115, var; B.XXVI. Unsigned. Silver. 26.2 mm. 109.8 gns. Obverse: A man dead on the ground his wallet of now worthless letters of credit lying beside him inscribed WEXEL|BRIEFE. Reverse: An empty suit of clothes seen from behind with date 1701 on the waist. Very Fine. Silver gray toning with some iridescence. The types and legends refer to a drying up of credit and some sort of replacement fraud (''Now You See It, Now You Don't'') and contingent mass bankruptcy but not necessarily the collapse of Law's Mississippi scheme.

Last week the Good Lord evidently realized that not enough people had been reading Hyman Minsky’s explanation of how financial cycles end in Ponzi schemes – the stage in which banks keep the boom going by lending their customers the money to pay interest and thus avoid default. So He sent Bernie Madoff to dominate the news for a week and give the mass media an opportunity to familiarize newspaper readers and TV watchers with just how Ponzi schemes work. What Mr. Madoff did was, in a nutshell, what the economy as a whole has been doing under the moniker “wealth creation.”

The books also included a warning that anyone who stole or vandalized a book would be subject to a curse "terrible and merciless as long as he lives."

The National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian Institution, one of the largest numismatic collections in the world and the largest in North America. Located in the National Museum of American History, Behring Center, the NNC includes approximately 1.6 million objects. There are over 450,000 coins, medals and decorations and 1.1 million pieces of paper money (including the recently acquired “Confederate Treasury horde” of cancelled Confederate paper money) in the collection, highlighting the entire numismatic history of the world.

The NNC contains many great rarities in coins and currency, from the earliest coins created 2,700 years ago up to the latest innovations in electronic monetary exchange, as well as fascinating objects such as beads, wampum, dentalia, and other commodities once used as money.

The collection emphasizes the development of money and medals in the United States. The core of the U.S. collection, consisting of more than 18,000 items, including coins of great rarity, came to the Smithsonian in 1923 from the United States Mint.