What? After all the good money we pay for our subscriptions!? Oh, wait...

As if I haven't given up enough for Lent! Now this!! How much can one suffer?

Perhaps this is just as well. It's easy to get complacent about the wonderfulness (as Bill Cosby used to say) of The E-Sylum appearing in our inboxes every Sunday. This short delay will remind us of how much we miss it when it's not there, and more importantly, of how much work it is for you to produce such consistent excellence week after week.

Regarding Pete Smith's suggestion of a web site for coin and medal listings, I am reminded of the extreme difficulty I have with Japanese and Chinese medals with legends in seal script - you can't even find a dictionary for that stuff.

The silver medal is in seal script, the bronze one in clerkly script. The first, second, and fourth characters in the right column of each piece are the same characters, but you can see how differently they are written, and how much harder it is to figure out what each stroke represents in the florid seal style.

Similarly, the second and fourth characters in the left columns are the same - and you can see more similarity, but it's still obvious that the calligrapher took great liberties with the seal script characters. They can be a real bear to read (and can be even more elaborate and far from "normal").

I’ve traveled to witness six total solar eclipses, and I’ll be making it number seven for the “Big One” out in the Pacific (off the coasts of China and Japan) this July. However, I’m aware of very few actual commemorative coins and medals; in fact, the only eclipse numismatic items that come to mind offhand are the coins and banknotes issued by Romania for the 1999 solar eclipse. (One of the plastic banknotes has a projection hologram of the partially eclipsed sun that Joe Boling likes to demonstrate.)

I’m sure there must be other eclipse-related numismatic items (including other coins listed in the standard catalog); if I come across any others (including for this year’s event), I’ll let you know. Surely the Chinese mints and eBay sellers won’t miss such an opportunity! There are still a few cabins available on my cruise out of Tianjin, China (near Beijing) this July … see http://www.astronomyvacations.com/ for more info.

Off the top of my head, I know of a coin from Turkey in 2006. There was an article in the July 31, 2006 issue of Coin World about that coin. The story mentions other such issues and resources. The Proof .925 fine silver 30-yeni-lira coin was the third Turkish coin to feature an eclipse. In 1999, the Turkish Mint issued two Proof silver 4-million-lira coins honoring an Aug. 11, 1999 eclipse. Romania in 1999 also issued a 500-leu coin and 2,000-leu bank note to celebrate that eclipse.

"Eclipses have been depicted on coins since ancient times, reports Michael Marotta in the December 2005 issue of Numismatist. A partial listing of numismatic items depicting eclipses is available at the Web site eclipse-chasers.com/tseCoins.html ".

Thanks to you and Dick Johnson for the notice about the 45365 movie. Apparently, the trailer can be viewed at the Internet Movie Data Base, a famous Web site for movie buffs.

This E-Sylum item has instigated a state-wide search for the earlier film on Sidney, Ohio. I copied Beth Deisher when I originally sent this to you. She expressed her interest in the film. This is perhaps the only film record of Coin World's first days. My son is a film historian and I asked him to track down this film. Let's hope a copy still exists in a film archive somewhere.

This is the story of my most UNUSUAL coin find. I am a vintage toy dealer. Recently I purchased a group of toy trucks at a rural upstate New York auction. One truck was in really rusty, terrible condition so I decided to throw it out.

As I was walking to the trash can with it I noticed it had some type of friction mechanism inside the cab. I actuated the mechanism & out popped what I thought was a round game piece or slug, but then I noticed it looked like a coin. I recognized it because I happen to be a coin collector.

I got out my loupe and looked at it closely. It turns out it was an 1854 Seated Liberty quarter! On the date side it had traces of old mountings and the other side had been planed down and made into a love token with the initial "J" with a fancy scroll on either side. This probably has very minimal value but what an unusual way to find an old coin or love token!

Elsewhere in this treatise, reference will be made to the wartime Hawaiian currency known as "Emmons' money," which was substituted for the regular United States currency.

[General Emmons was the Commander of the Hawaii Department as of December 17, 1941 having replaced General Short. General Emmons was the first Military Governor of Hawaii. The Hawaii overprint notes were first issued during General Emmons tenure as Military Governor.]

The only distinguishing marks were overprints indicating that it was currency to be used in Hawaii. I obtained the first four one dollar bills of the Emmons money to be issued in Hawaii by exchanging for it four one dollar bills of regular currency. At my request, General Emmons endorsed his name on all four bills and I did likewise. I then sent all four bills to Admiral Nimitz with the request that he endorse his name on all four bills, retain one for his scrapbook and return the other three to me.

With his reply, dated July 29, 1942, Admiral Nimitz returned all four of the bills, duly endorsed, and stating that he was not including American currency in his scrapbook...

[Your homework, dear readers, is to find these four notes and obtain images of them. General Green's papers are at the Army's Judge Advocate Generals Legal Center and School Library in Charlottesville, VA. The Adjutant General note may be at the Adjutant General Museum at Fort Jackson, SC. If not, the curator should know where to look.

I could find no information on the papers of General Emmons. There is no indication what General Green did with the note intended for Admiral Nimitz. It may still be in his papers in Virginia. For the record, the papers of Admiral Nimitz are at the Operational Archives Branch of the Naval Historical Center at the Washington Navy Yard.]

Purchased in 1794 for the summer home of Adam Eckfeldt, the Eckfeldt farm, Greenwood, extended from Manoa and Earlington Roads to City Line Avenue and Darby Road. President Madison appointed Adam Eckfeldt to the office of chief coiner of the U. S. Mint in Philadelphia. Both Adam’s son Jacob Reese Eckfeldt and grandson, also Jacob, were assayers of the mint. Grandson Dr, John Eckfeldt, an early resident of Brookline, wrote Cobbs Creek in the Days of the Old Powder Mill.

Some months ago, it will be remembered, says the Sacramento Bee, considerable outcry was made because J.L. Polhemus, (a druggist in its city) stamped with his store-mark all pieces of foreign coin that came into his hands.

Since then the coin has greatly depreciated, and it is said that a cunning financier in Sacramento, is, and has been, engaged for some time in collecting all francs and forty-cent pieces containing the Polhemus stamp, intending to make him redeem them at the rate they were current at when he put his endorsement upon them; and having taken legal advice upon the question, he is confident of calling the druggist to refund. It is said that at least one hundred dollars will be made by the speculation.

We just saw the reference to our horse Numismatist in The E-Sylum. The origins of racehorse names come from many influences, but in this case, the name Numismatist came from the name of the Sire (Yankee Gentleman) and the dam (Near Mint).

We were told by an Englishwoman friend that every gentleman should have a collection. This, coupled with name Near Mint (an obvious reference to quality), inspired the name Numismatist.

Though we hold gold coins for investment purposes, neither of us would be classified as numismatists. The subtle play on words here is that we want the horse to collect all the coins he possibly can. So far, he has won four races, and collected over $141,000. He will run at Arlington Park in Chicago from May 1 through the end of September.

The "Amero" notes pictured in Turner's blog were actually mock-ups which had been created as part of a project and posted to the designer's Flickr photo-sharing account, from which a few select images were lifted and promulgated out of context as supposed examples of "real" Amero notes.

As a picture of the back of one of these Amero notes clearly shows, the bill was an element of a project intended to "prompt discussion about questions related to the monetary interdependence in North America" and was most assuredly not, as Turned asserted, an official specimen of "a new currency already being printed and quietly distributed around the world."

There has been an Alaska related medal that has always puzzled me. It is catalogued in the second edition of Alaska's Coinage Through the Years by Gould, Bressett, Dethridge and Dethridge, 1965.

It was made by Medallic Arts Co. (MACO). It has President John Adams on the obverse, and the Alaska state seal on the reverse. I have never figured out the connection. Why would an Adams presidential medal have the Alaska state seal on the reverse, or vice versa?

I recently had an article in Paper Money Values about the "Berliner," a scrip primarily used in the Kreuzburg section of Berlin (my own money! - ha ha).

The item concerning www.jetons-monnaie.net said "It's in French". True statement, but the site includes a flag which, when clicked on, yields a fairly good English version. The site is well done, has some good information, and also has some good references.

You can get authentic information about Austrian Notgeld from Familie Kreunz . The address of her web site is http://www.austriannotgeld.com/some_information_about_austrian_.htm She also publishes a book about Austrian Notgeld that can be bought from her.

While most Austrian Notgeld is very inexpensive today, some Austrian Notgeld can be quite scarce. Both pieces you showed in the last issue were the more common issues.

Two excellent reference books on Austrian Notgeld Currency are Das osterreichische Notgeld 1917 bis 1922 and Das Osterreichische Notgeld Sonderserien 1919-122 both are written by Gottfried Meyerbeck.

The first lists and gives valuations for the regular issues, and the second lists and gives valuations for the Special Collector Issues. Written in German, both books are easy to follow.

Welcome to Rebel States Currency. I am a collector of both Confederate and U.S. currency that was issued during the American Civil War. The following pages contain currency issued by the seceded state governments of the individual Southern states as well as currency issued by the central Confederate government, U.S. Fractional currency, and Civil War sidearms used by both sides, from my personal collection. Also included is a comprehensive list of the serial numbers of known modern fake Confederate and Southern state issued notes as well as instructions on how to tell the difference between a real note and the modern made reproductions that are being represented as authentic on some of the internet auction sites.