On April 19 you reported no new members and a count of 1229.
On April 26 you reported 6 new members and a count of 1233.
On May 3 you reported 1 new member and a count of 1234.
On May 10 you reported 2 new members and a count of 1224.
On May 17 you reported 3 new members and a count of 1227

We got our new modern issues paper money book back from the printer last week, and George is very pleased with how it turned out.

Larry is Harvey Stack's son, Susan Stack's brother, nephew to the late Norman and Ben and grandson of founders Morton & Joseph. For the past 10 years or more, Larry was the controlling power at Stack's and was singularly responsible for bringing John J. Ford's estate to auction based on his longstanding friendship with Ford and Stack's relationship with researcher/cataloguer Mike Hodder, who was also close with Ford.

Larry adopted Ford's and Bowers' belief and practice in issuing informative, high quality auction catalogues which proved to be invaluable references years after the auctions occurred.

Ford took me to Werner Amelingmeier's house way back in the 1960's and we were there for several hours. Werner had glass plate negatives to a classic American numismatic reference and, as I recall, it was the original Maris New Jersey plate negatives which Ford planned to use to issue a reprint. Werner also showed me some complete, unbound original S.S. Crosby Early Coins of America texts and plates.

Amelingmeier's connection was Ford's Numismatic Publications, which first became known as such with an ad on the rear cover of the January 1959 issue of The Numismatist. It was for the announcement the publication of "Penny Whimsy". Ford used Amelingmeier's money, and apparently his name as well.

The Ford reconstructions and recollections were fascinating, particularly those of Paul Bosco. A JJF retrospective featuring Paul's roster of likely suspects would surely dwarf any ANA symposium ever held and might provide a perspective more balanced than the current one. Bring it on.

Werner Amelingmeier is prominently mentioned, I believe, in earlier issues of The Asylum, both by Ford and by Harry Bass. Back in the 70s, Werner sent me tons of numismatic literature on consignment, via the good offices of John Ford. Lots of Wayte Raymond publications and a wide variety of other works. I have always assumed that it was the remaining Ford Numismatic Publications stock.

He is definitely Washington Irving, and this portrait is widely copied on the net, as a Google Images search shows.

We have at present in circulation a Pistareen (value 16 cents); the Chile Double Real (value about 19 cents). . . and a number of German and Spanish coins, the value of which we cannot at the moment determine, but which all pass in common for twenty-five cents. . .

I have been enjoying the Kindle thread amongst the many others and I have to initially say that I am quite torn about it. As I am very involved in the technology industry from a work perspective, I am addicted to the latest, whizziest, toys out there. And yet as a Bibliophile and Grolier Club Member, I cherish "the Book". I guess there is a world where the Kindle and the Book co-exist for at least a while, but I hate to see the book relegated to simply a decorative collectible over time.

And on the subject of technology and the E-Sylum, I found myself in a hotel room in Los Angeles not too long ago with my MacBookAir and no wireless internet. I ended up reading the Sunday night E-Sylum on my iPhone.

The Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader are fascinating, but for those of us who work daily on full-color computer displays the lack of color on these ebooks has provided a convenient excuse not to spend money on yet another gadget. I understand that those who mainly read books or newspapers on these devices may not need or want color, but I think color is mandatory if we are ever to have those bulky full-color auction catalogs and numismatic books available in digital format.

Digital color catalogs may not be available soon, but apparently the color readers will be. Several websites, wired.com among them, have had recent articles about the new Fujitsu Flepia, a color ebook apparently still being tested. From the Wired website: [http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/03/worlds-first-co/ ]

"Fujitsu’s Flepia, the color e-book last seen in testing at an upscale Tokyo restaurant, is now available to buy. Don’t get too excited though — even if you’re in Japan, where the Flepia is on sale, it will cost you a whopping ¥99,750, or just over $1000. You get a lot for your money, though. The reader has a an 8" screen which displays 260,000 colors, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (b and g), a mini USB port and, most important of all, a touch screen (although it comes with a stylus so we expect that it is a resistive touch screen, not capacitive like the iPhone.)

This is completed by a soft, on-screen keyboard (just like the Kindle should have) and a battery life of 40 hours (continuos use — Fujitsu says 2400 page turns). Books are stored on an SD card and can be bought from the online bookstore Papyless.

Curiously, the Flepia seems to be a kind of tablet/e-book hybrid. Along with the book reading software, the device comes loaded with Windows CE 5, meaning support for e-mail, spreadsheets, web browsing and the like. If you view this as a low powered, long life computer instead of a color e-book reader, it starts to look less expensive. The Flepia will start shipping on April 20th."

Second, some thoughts regarding the online Breen Complete Encyclopedia. I am mystified by comments from a few people (exemplified by Susan Headley's statement "Why anybody would want to deprive coin collectors of this wonderful resource is beyond me") that imply the copyright holder to that work should simply give up that ownership. Certainly Escala/ Bowers and Merena could choose that path, but there is no ethical obligation for them to do so.

I own and frequently use the Complete Encyclopedia, but it is a big book. I wouldn't mind having a digital version as well, but this first iteration did not meet my expectations. While researching for a recent description of the Indian Head quarter eagle I wrote for CoinLink I noticed that the designer was in one place listed as "Dela Lyon Pratt", rather than correctly as "Bela Lyon Pratt". There were other text anomalies as well, leading me to believe that the text was scanned, run through word-recognition software, and then not completely proofed (admittedly a big job). I also missed the pagination of the original work but that is perhaps a minor issue.

I don't mean to be overly critical but if this book is to be available digitally there are better ways in my opinion to do so without compromising the original text integrity. Krause has made their Standard Catalog of World Coins available in digital format for a price significantly less than the current asking price of Breen's work; and, beating a familiar drum, it's in pdf, a standard digital format. I would like to see the Complete Encyclopedia available both digitally and in print format, and I would (and did for the print version) pay to own a copy.

I read your comments on the Pliny Chase catalog. Yours is probably the one from Katen's 77th sale, lot 893. I was in the auction room when it was sold. Frank did not value it highly, only estimating it at $5. It went for $60 to Ken Lowe. I was napping on that lot, but doubt if I could have outbid Ken. He told me at intermission that he knew it was a rare item.

If you are a collector of Transportation Tokens, you have come to the right place. Founded in 1948, the AVA is the oldest American organization of token collectors.