Thanks for your incredible work on keeping The E-Sylum a numismatic highlight for me week after week after week.

There was a minor glitch in the system this week with articles starting with The Colonial Newsletter article to just before The Baroon Dollar article all had right-sided justification instead of the normal left-sided margin justification.

For the first time ever, The E-Sylum ended up in my junk mail box. Did you send it differently?

A number of different acquisitions are offered in the list, some of which were still intact; others are remnants of important libraries (the Western, i.e., Whitman Publishing library, for example). Many, many boxes remain.

After the 2007 move, George Frederick Kolbe/Fine Numismatic Books discovered thousands of excess numismatic publications put aside over the past quarter century. Some are offered for sale here. Orders must total at least $50.00 and prices are net to all. A packing fee of $1.00 per item will be added to all invoices. Most listings are one-of-a-kind. Prices are given in even dollar amounts and are good until December 31, 2009. All items are in acceptable condition for their age unless noted otherwise. Items are listed as they were encountered; there is no index. Happy hunting. This list will be updated periodically on our web site.

This is another way we are attempting to make our content available in whatever way coin collectors prefer to consume it. We are always looking for ways to expand our offerings in ShopNumisMaster — suggestions welcome!

One of the strangest issuers of Depression-Era scrip was the Davidian Center at Mount Carmel, now part of Waco, Texas. They issued tokens as well as two kinds of bills, and, while expecting their Lord to arrive any day and bring them to the Holy Land, survived for two decades intact.

You may want to note that I exhibited this scrip at the Portland ANA spring show and plan on exhibiting them in Los Angeles at the summer show.

First & foremost, each any every issue of The E-Sylum is a real gift to all of our members. Thank you!

I have a question: Some older references (i.e Betts & Baker) use a numbering system to state the size of a medal (such as size 22). Is there a standard chart for conversion, to millimeters, for each size number? My own conversion chart, created just from medals I have researched, is surely not totally accurate and has gaps. Again, thanks.

I think he is also known as Jonas D. Foskett. If you Google that name, you will find he was born May 23, 1830 in Boston per the Foskett family genealogist.

Youngest son of Ezra Foskett (1787, MA - Feb. 11, 1863, Boston) and Mahala Osborn Foskett (1789, MA - Feb. 12, 1861, NYC) - with whom he is enumerated in NYC 1850 census.

James Foskett,age 30, born MA, hotel keeper, personal estate $350, is enumerated with Ezra and Mahalah Foskett in the 1860 New York City census ( Foskett name is mangled by Ancestry.com as Fsdett).

James D. Foskett (without occupation) is enumerated in the Boston 1870 census living with Lydia, the widow of his brother, Ebenezer Foskett. Ebenezer Foskett was a piano-forte maker (work for Chickering pianos Boston?) who dies in Roxbury,MA, April 19, 1867. The father, Ezra Foskett, is mentioned as dying "at Chickering, Tremont St., Boston" which was site of piano factory). Ebenezer Foskett's sons were also in music business.

Jonas D. Foskett dies in Boston September 23, 1870 - he is not married. Mass. State Archives vital records index online lists Jonas D. Foskett death as Boston 1870, vol. 231, p. 163.

Death records can be ordered easily by mail. Boston wills and administrations could be checked. Newspaper obituaries? A project for someone in Boston.

If you examine the family death dates, it explains living arrangements and moves from New York City to Boston. I could be wrong - but this seems right and possibly explains why Foskett has been so hard to find.

I recently found a reference to another numismatist filming the S-48 around 1922. Can any E-Sylum reader identify the numismatist or relate the story?

You asked for earthquake medals, and I have one to add. This commemorates the October 1989 California quake that struck just as the first game of the baseball World Series was about to get underway between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics.

I designed it for the 1990 medal issue of Liberty Numismatic Society, and my initials are nearly concealed in place of columns above the oblique clock image facing left.

One bit of trivia: at the time of the jolt the flag on San Francisco's ferry building had already been lowered for the day, and that is how I drew the image seen on the medal. Another society member convinced me that it would sell better with the flag flying gloriously, so that's how it came to be added at the engraving stage.

When the quake struck I had just emerged from a BART train station and was walking up some steps. A young couple in front of me lost their balance and started to fall back into me. I saw them coming and was just able to lean forward a bit to prevent them from sending us all down the stairs. There were only about five steps, but it would have smarted just the same. The only damage at home was one broken coin exhibiting trophy.

Here are photos of another 1964 Alaska earthquake medal, from one of my recent eBay sales (it sold for $27.60).

I've seen the report on Austria's silver bullion coin as well, but I have to say that this is a badly researched piece of journalism.

In order to transport the face value of EUR10,000, you have to carry 6,666 one ounce coins of a face value of EUR1.50 each, that is more than 200 kg of silver! The bid offer spread of one-ounce silver coins is at least 10%, and this is a very optimistic assumption. So all in all, that's a hefty price and effort for the repatriation of your tax evasion savings! Remember, we are talking about a border where there usually are no controls any more.

So, this article sounds more like a modern urban legend than a matter of fact. The silver disks are in demand, no doubt, but there have to be other explanations for that.

These things have been out ever since, but their use is very limited. My employer uses one, and you can pay at the cafeteria or the inhouse vending machines with it. My university had one for the copy machines. I guess, after years of use, I left my alma mater leaving some pfennigs on it, maybe even a deutschmark, but I doubt it wrecked the economy.

Their use is limited to what I would call a "close circle", exactly for the reason that you can't use it elsewhere. And "elswehere" always will be a much bigger part of the economy than your local laundomat.

The world in a coin. This is our vision, our hope. It is a necessity and a challenge. What seems an impossible dream becomes an inevitable historic, economic and social process. It is an event which is intertwined with the fate of human evolution.

A single currency becomes the premise for an increasingly global planet. A virtual currency capable of speaking a single, comprehensible language to foster humankind's innate desire to go farther, to surpass boundaries, and move towards true principles of peace, freedom, brotherhood and understanding beyond issues of race, political and religious beliefs and party interests.

We are presenting the peoples of nations, governments, institutions, intellectuals, ordinary people, pragmatists and idealists, scholars and, above all, young people - the real protagonists of the future - with a simple, ingenuous yet determined long-term vision for building an ideal bridge with tomorrow and interpreting a dream to transform into reality.

As Head of Special Projects for the Italian State Mint and Printing Bureau, in 1997-98 Dr. Sassoli came up with the idea of a new project for 2000, entitled “Gold for the Third Millennium – The world united by the wings of peace”. The project involved the joint efforts of the Italian State Mint, the Royal Canadian Mint, the Cape Mint of South Africa, the Casa de Moneda (Mexico), and the Perth Mint Australia. This would later be considered as a prelude to the UFWC (United Future World Currency) project.

A number of Eurodollar samples were created. In 2000, Dr. Sassoli registered the Eurodollar trademark and embarked upon a project for the coin. The coin design featured the DNA helix, mixing the symbols of the US Dollar and Euro. This was followed by other samples and projects over the years…

This year, Dr. Sassoli asked Luc Luycx (creator of the uniform side of the Euro coin, from the Royal Belgium Mint) and Laura Cretara, chief engraver of Italian State Mint who created the “500 Lire” dual-metallic coins and the Italian side of the 1 Euro coin (Leonardo’s Vitruvian man), to begin work on a new design for an international currency program. In addition, Dr. Sassoli asked Rome University’s Engineering Dept. to study the potential for a new coin with a high level of protection against counterfeits. In short, an “intelligent coin” that can communicate with mobile phones, give and receive inputs and be recognized as fake or authentic.

A 38-year-old man says he has received offers of up to $815 for a rare coin he was given as his change for a drink purchase at a British pub.

Lloyd Hefferman told The Sunday Telegraph he discovered he was given a 20-pence coin missing a date when he recently purchased a pint at The Botolph Arms pub in Peterborough.

"I had heard about the rare 20-pence pieces on the news that day, and was talking with my mates about how brilliant it would be to find one," Hefferman said.

A BIRMINGHAM mum is hoping to fetch thousands of pounds for a rare 20p coin she got from raiding her son’s moneybank.

Annamarie Byrne, from Kingstanding, went on the hunt for one of the coins minted without a date after she was told by neighbours she might get £50 for it.

But the 28-year-old single mum of four is hoping to hit the jackpot after hearing that one seller on eBay had sold theirs for thousands.

She said: “I was really surprised to find it because I’m not normally very lucky. I go to bingo with a friend and we never win anything.

“I’m a single mum so this money would come in very handy. If I got quite a bit I would take the kids on holiday to Disneyland.”

Her four-year-old son Eugene said he was pleased to have the rare coin among his own collection that he keeps in a silver whale moneybox.

“I’m excited because if we got some money we might go on holiday and I’d like to see a big dinosaur,” he said.

A LUCKY Grimsby man is set to cash in on a national mistake – by coining in an undated 20p piece.

Duncan Young was stunned when he was given one of the dateless coins in change at a local supermarket.

Freelance photographer Duncan Young, of Grimsby, found his coin in change from Sainsbury's Local in St Peter's Avenue, Cleethorpes, on Tuesday.

He said: "Obviously the shops are not checking the coins as I got mine in change.

"I didn't think anything of it, but later I looked more carefully and saw that one was a rare unmarked coin.

I like this. Is it legal?

Ironically, we did penny tile in both of our bathrooms. As to the “how” of this project, you can get mesh backing that’s adhesive on one side. Stick all the pennies to that, in 8” or 12” squares, then lay it down in grids like any other tile that’s similar. Grout it & voila! Pretty cool effect, but the anal retentive in me badly wants of them heads-up & facing the same direction!

This reminds me of a story… In colonial Venezuela, a very wealthy and eccentric nobleman, whose name I can’t recall, in order to effectively display his wealth and eccentricity did the exact same thing: he paved the whole floor of his manor’s ballroom in doubloons. It was so impressive that it became known all across the Spanish empire, and eventually even the King of Spain himself learned about it. He immediately gave orders to undo such thing, and the nobleman had no choice but to comply. The King didn’t want his face, depicted in the coins, to be stepped on in such manner.

A project to gather together into a single database all of the single finds of coins minted 410-1180 found in the British Isles. There are several thousand such coins, mostly Anglo-Saxon and Norman, but with a smattering of Frankish, Byzantine, even Arabic, and hundreds more are found every year. The EMC is the first attempt to collect all of the coins from the whole period (many of them previously unpublished) and present them in an easily accessible and searchable form. It is based at the Fitzwilliam Museum, and funded by the Leverhulme Trust.