One more thing, as Peter Falk would say. Stack’s says they will ship you the book free (for a limited time) if you mention the code SSNYFREE.

We are very excited about our progress with our blog site Stella Coin News and have been very busy uploading the DLRC Press books. We have just posted David Lange's Second Edition Buffalo book and John's Washington Quarter book online with more to come.

We would like to submit this press release to inform your readers of our newest accomplishment with the site. I think your following will find our on-line site very helpful.

The inauguration is still six days away, but the hunt is already on. Obama fans and historians alike are scouring the city for the best inaugural trinkets and other keepsakes. FOX 5's Tisha Thompson gives you an insider's look at one high-priced item the real collectors are scrambling for.

The Darrell C. Crain Collection of Official Presidential and Vice Presidential Inaugural Medals, displayed in the Special Collections Department of GW’s Gelman Library, is one of the rare complete sets of Presidential and Vice Presidential Inaugural medals. The collection begins with the McKinley medal of 1901 and continues through the second Clinton/Gore Inauguration in 1997. The collection was assembled by Crain in honor of his father, who designed medals for Presidents Wilson, Harding, and Coolidge. Crain, a 1932 alumnus of GW’s School of Medicine, presented the medals to the University in 1976. At that time, it was the only complete set of inaugural medals in existence.

On the occasion of his second inauguration, William McKinley decided to have commemorative medals made as presentation gifts to the inaugural committee members and other officials. Generally, the medals are struck in gold, silver, or bronze, and range in size from 45mm to 70mm in diameter.

I love this token! The obverse design should must be adopted by the Social Security Administration for their logo! Our Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp has been operating a Confederate Veteran Retirement Fund based on Social Security for some time now. Donations are moved to the general fund, but will be reimbursed to the retirement fund if a bona fide Confederate Veteran applies for retirement. Since the last Confederate soldier died December 19, 1959 we are unlikely to have a funding problem.

There is so much good in this medal -- and its satirical design! -- illustrated in last week's E-Sylum that to criticize even one tiny portion of it seems sacrilegious. But here goes. I apologize in advance for using the word "excellent" so often.

You first notice the color, the patina, excellent. Your eye is drawn to the obverse pyramid, the featured device; this is rendered in excellent detail. The All-seeing Eye and the U.S. Treasury seal is right off the dollar bill for the symbolism of money, emphasized by the word DEBT below. Excellent.

The human figure bent over with arms outstretched supporting the pyramid brings the satirical nature into sharp focus. It is modeled with enough detail to indicate the man's weariness. Excellent. The subsidiary devices of the political parties' symbols, the donkey and elephant, are supported by the arms forming a six-pointed star. Excellent use of subsidiary devices, a numismatic star and spacing. The human figure becomes the lower point of the star. That is subtle and excellent.

The incuse obverse legend on a very lightly textured background within a linear border is -- you guessed it -- excellent. A similar style legend treatment and repeated pyramid design appears on the reverse. Double excellent. This incorporates the art characteristics of Parallelism and Agreement. So you see why I say "double excellent."

The reverse is a tad bit busy. It could be improved by switching and removing some lettering. Delete "demand justice." Switch the double-line legend at the top to the outer border in one line just inside the medal edge. Double-line legends are killers to maintain continued eye interest.

I love the broken dollar sign, that earns a Big E. I also love the legend NOT ONE DOLLAR FOR THE TAXPAYER. Here I would recommend dropping the two question marks and making the word TAXPAYER into an arc legend just inside the inner border. The flying monkey and flying pig add charm that are art Repetition to the two political symbols on the obverse. Two more "excellents."

Overall this is an an exceptional design by a highly creative and talented artist working in modern technology -- on his own computer medal design software -- resulting in a timely and desirable medallic item. Congrats Dan.

Now you might be saying, "Who the hell are you to criticize Dan Carr's medal?" Well, I was trained by the best medal critic in America, Julius Lauth, vice president & art director of Medallic Art and 40-year medallic veteran when I worked for the company in the 1960s and 70s. He oversaw the company's productions and dealt with perhaps 350 medallic sculptors in creating hundreds of medals a year. He was also chairman of ANS Medals Committee at the time.

Julius taught me what is good and what is bad in medallic art. I also saw him in action in dealing with artists (whose egos could be so easily bruised). I was standing at the sculpture table once when a sculptor laid out a pair of models he just completed. Julius viewed the reverse which had a tree on it.

Pointing to an open area he asked the artist in a low voice "Would it improve the design to have more tree limbs here?" The artist fell all over himself agreeing with Julius and agreed to remodel the reverse -- another day's work -- with Julius' subtle suggestion. "By George, Julius, I believe it would," he said.

I wish I could treat medallic artists like Julius did. Dan, all I am suggesting is to remove a couple of tree branches on your reverse. Make another reverse die -- you can sell twice as many to collectors -- type I and type II. You have created an absolutely stunning medallic design here. It's Excellent!

Tsvi Rogin wants to have translated from German into English Liselotte Weidauer's 1975 book Problemeder frühen Elektronprägung. This is the standard reference on early electrum coins. The plates are useful, but if you don't read German, her other thoughts are inaccessible.

As far as I know such translations violate no copyright laws provided you're doing so for personal use, not as a commercial enterprise. I don't know whether, legally, you need to have a copy of the original. I do know that buying a copy of the original, which I've done, with a book out of print like this doesn't benefit the author (or heirs).

I believe that these kinds of group translation projects could be a way of overcoming a longstanding problem in ancient numismatics, the inaccessibility of content written in German, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Georgian, and other languages in which it's felt to be too expensive for the author or publisher to provide an English or other translation of the work.

Tsvi is not asking for money yet, just if there's enough interest. He suggested though that an appropriate fee for a translation with plates into a pdf document would be $20 to $25. He says he has someone who can do the translation. If you're interested, as I am, email him at emeslyaakov@yahoo.com .

I have recently read Colleen McCullough's book The First Man in Rome. In the glossary (which is generally quite helpful) she describes the Sestertius as a "small silver coin". As any numismatist with even a passing interest in Roman coins will attest, the Sestertius is most certainly not small or silver. I do not think this is being picky at all. One would hope that authors specializing in historical fiction would strive to get such easy-to-verify facts straight.

I just read Jared Dawber’s comment on First Man in Rome in the latest E-Sylum – actually McCullough is right – the first appearance of the sestertius as a coin was in silver and it was quite small – valued at 2.5 asses or 1/2 a quinarius or 1/4 denarius. The coins were only issued from 211 – 206 BC.

The brass sestertius that Jared refers to and that most of us are familiar with was not introduced until the time of Augustus (around 18 BC). So for the time period which the First Man in Rome discusses, McCullough is perfectly correct – in fact I am very surprised and impressed that she caught a numismatic detail that most numismatists, even those who collect Roman coins, would miss. Yet another reason why the First Man in Rome series is one of my favorite historical novels!

I saw your reference to Salt Spring Island scrip in the most recent E-Sylum and smiled. I just wanted to let you know Coin World has published numerous stories about these notes since 2002.

This report is very interesting in itself but there is a thought provoking comment near the end "We don't know how much they will be worth but it will be less than they were at the time". I wonder how often this is the case with coin hoards?

In the past we have talked about numismatic-related tattoos. Well, the nice lady behind the phones at the New York offices of Spink-Smythe, Lori Lewin, has one on each wrist. She also dresses in some fantastic vintage clothes. She let me take these photos for The E-Sylum while I was in NYC for the International Show.

World Sikh News is pleased to present a peep into the vast coin collection of Jatinder Singh Hundal and it would be interesting to see know if his collection of Sikh coins is matched by anyone else as he has a sample collection of virtually most of the coins minted during all the years of the Sikh Misl period and that of the Sikh Raj.