I have come down with pneumonia, and as a result will be unable to attend this week’s ANA Convention. I had really been looking forward to this year’s show, and it’s a big disappointment to have to miss it. I had been planning on bringing a small, but select, group of material with me to sell out of my briefcase.

A 6-page mini-catalogue ("The Briefcase") had been written, describing those items I’d have with me. That catalogue is now posted in Word and PDF format on the David F. Fanning Numismatic Literature Web site at www.fanningbooks.com, and the items are available for sale on a first-come, first-served basis.

Highlights include some very rare early Mint Reports in folio, Dr. Benjamin Rush’s eulogy of David Rittenhouse, and some British government documents relating to counterfeit coppers. Don’t delay in ordering — though please understand that there will be some delay in mailing. Thanks!

Our NBS Symposium is at 11:30 am on August 6th. Our speaker, Dave Bowers, will be talking on his latest book, the Whitman Encyclopedia of Colonial and Early American Coins.

He will be telling us how he researched the book and brought it to such a successful fruition. The field of colonials has been so heavily researched that adding value to the subject was a special challenge. Dave will be assisted by Dennis Tucker of Whitman.

People from all over the world came to California and Nevada to seek their fortunes, find stable and better paying jobs and improve their way of life. With people came the need for money. Without it, people traded in the local commodity - gold. Coinage of all denominations was needed, but not provided. So the merchants had their own made.

This book tells part of the story about the west's need for pocket change, and how people, merchants and the Federal Government adapted to meet those needs. The chapters on Virginia City merchants who used pioneer minor coinage help bring to life the companies and people of the period.

The terms "coin" and token can be used interchangeably. Some purists consider a coin an item of government issue. This is a new age definition. In a review of five major dictionaries, including Oxford, Webster and Encyclopedia Britannica, only two of these references include the government tie to the word.

Those not members of TAMS might consider joining now to take advantage of the members’ discount. For additional information or to get a membership brochure, contact me at dave@turtlehillbanjo.com .

Thanks for your comments on the new PCGS CoinFacts website. The differences between the old and the new CoinFacts are significant. The new PCGS CoinFacts includes the PCGS Price Guide and the PCGS Population Report, both of which are updated frequently (anywhere from once a day to once a week). We include images of some of the best coins in the world, some of which have never been seen and some of which may never appear on the market.

We also include Survival Estimates for all U.S. coins in all grades, MS-60 and better, and MS-65 and better. These are converted into Rarity Ratings which are then used to give Relative Rarity Rankings by Type and Series. We list a Condition Census for all U.S. Coins, including raw and certified examples (this is a favorite project of mine because the results are often surprising and unexpected).

The Auction Prices Realized is a big feature...we aggregate information from the major (and some minor) auction houses and update it as often as monthly. We include commentaries from experts, including personal insights, anecdotes, and special knowledge...basically a brain dump from some of the biggest names in the business.

To view these features, I invite everyone to take the free tour that we offer on our homepage at www.PCGSCoinFacts.com, where we present information on the 1909-S VDB Cent, the 1893-S Morgan Dollar, and the 1875 $10.

However, the biggest difference is this... whereas the old CoinFacts sat idle for nearly five years, the new PCGS CoinFacts benefits from my full-time attention, the support of Collector Universe's phenomenal IT staff, plus the continuing input of many individuals and organizations who have been so generous with their time and knowledge. PCGS CoinFacts is a work-in-progress. Unlike a book, the PCGS CoinFacts website is improved, expanded, updated, and (yes) corrected quickly and easily.

The old CoinFacts will remain available for an indefinite time, where we'll have some annoying ads promoting the new PCGS CoinFacts (understandably, we'd like to recoup some of the significant investment we have made, and will continue to make, in the new site).

Thanks for the opportunity to add to your comments. My hope is that everyone will "Buy the PCGS CoinFacts website before the coin." It's a tremendous value.

When there is no money, it really threatens family connections and puts pressure on them in ways that people who grow up middle-class or upper-class cannot even conceive. Williams' first crime was robbing parking meters to get food. Anytime someone had money in his family there were people asking about it. It's almost a reductive quote, but without money people become animalistic. And once Williams perfected his counterfeit bill, it changed his relationship with all his family and friends. Suddenly they're vying to see who can go on a spending spree with him.

Now it's mostly kids with ink-jet scanners trying to pass bills off at McDonald's, with a lot of these cases tried in local courts. Guys like Art [Williams], who could defeat all the security measures are increasingly rare.

A guy like Bernie Madoff doesn't interest me. He's just a sort of raw, unbridled greed, and a mirror for greed in others. Guys like him are a dime a dozen. Art was never trying to get rich off his enterprise. He did it for his own sake, and was always aware that he wanted to get off of it. He had a code. He did not spend his money at mom-and-pop stores, he spent it at large chain stores and tried to keep it all [as] benign as possible.

Big E readers may be interesting in knowing that both gray and crimson leatherette (not leather) sets of the 21 John J. Ford, Jr. Collection sale catalogues will be offered in the January 9, 2010 public auction sale of the Stack's Family Library.

In my opinion, the price for complete softbound Ford sets is likely to drop over time as more and more sets enter the secondary market. Initially, four part sets of Bowers' Garrett Collection easily brought $75 or more; hardbound sets $150 or more.

I do not think, however, that the analogy will hold true for hardbound Ford sets since the special edition Garrett catalogues were bargain-priced and aggressively marketed while their Ford Collection counterparts were higher priced and less actively promoted.

I have no idea of edition runs of either hardbound version but "4-5 sets bound in grey leather (sic)" appears to be too low.

When I was at Stack's from 1990-1994, we did hardbacks of a few special sales such as the Lovejoy Dimes, Floyd Starr, Herman Halpern US Paper Money and Reed Hawn sales (when the 1913 Nickel and 1804 dollar were in the same sale).

For some of the sales, like Lovejoy, I only remember ordering 5-6 white leather for Lovejoy family members and the company library. For other sales, like Halpern and Hawn, there were regular soft back catalogs, Hard Back Catalogs with the Prices Realized added in a hand tipped in envelope (distributed to bidders after the sale, with a numbered bookplate); and then Cloth Hard back (usually under 30), and leather hard back (usually under 10). I am sure collectors will see plenty of interesting stuff in the forthcoming sales of the (Company/Family) Library.

The illustrations of the Adams editions gives the incorrect impression that both are the same size.

At an early age, Mr. Christian Gobrecht exhibited great mechanical ability, and evinced a taste for drawing and design; he was consequently apprenticed to a clockmaker living at Manheira, Lancaster County. His master, however, dying a short time after, he was released from his indenture, and, removing to Baltimore, pursued the course evidently marked out for him, guided by no other teacher but himself.

About the year 1811, Mr. Gobrecht removed permanently to Philadelphia, where his principal pursuit was that of a bank note writing engraver; he, however, as opportunities offered, engraved seals, calico printers' rolls, bookbinders' dies for embossing morocco, dies for striking brass ornaments for military equipments, and also executed several medals. In 1836, in consequence of the contemplated change in the devices on the American coin, he was appointed Die-sinker in the United States Mint, which office he filled until his death...

In addition to his skill as engraver, Mr. Gobrecht was no less ingenious in other branches. Although no performer on any instrument he was a scientific musician, and constructed two musical instruments on the principle of the melodeon, but long before that instrument was thought of. He also devised a speaking doll, about the time Maelze's puppets were exciting attention. A camera-lucida with steel mirrors, by which one part of the eye received, by reflection, the impression of the object, and another part the direct impression of the pencil and paper beneath, without the interposition of any foreign medium, was constructed by him, and is a neat and useful instrument.

Regarding Coin World back issues, I saved them for a quite a few years and finally gave up. Today I tear the articles out as soon as I get them and file them into books and/or research folders. Of course, that presents a whole new set of problems - do I file Roger Burdette's latest article on the 1933 $20 in the Stack's/Sotheby's 1933 catalog, Alison Frankel's book, David Tripp's book, Michael Moran's book, my personal file on Secret Service activities related to the gold recall, the Redbook of Double Eagles, Akers' book on double eagle auction records, or Roger's Renaissance of American Coinage series? One thing is for sure - I will save it......somewhere!

I am sure many sets of Coin World, complete or incomplete, have been destroyed over the years. I had a partial set, about 90% complete from 1962 forward, when I lived in New Hampshire. The cost to move it to Louisiana in 2003 was prohibitive. In fact, the moving company wouldn’t take it!

Local auctioneer Steve Scofield of Centennial Auctions listed them by year in one of his sales, and received bids for some of the earlier years that were sent out to the successful bidders. The balance went to the recycling plant.

On an early visit to Jack Collins at his home in South Gate, California, a Los Angeles suburb in the heart of earthquake country, I was reminded upon entering his library (which doubled as his bedroom) of a scene from an Indiana Jones movie. Stacked on either side of of the doorway were seven foot stacks of huge thick volumes bound in black cloth. Yes, you guessed it - Jack had bought a bound set of Coin World at a local public library sale.

The stacks moved ever so slightly as I entered the room, or perhaps I imagined that. Two walls of the bedroom were lined with overflowing bookcases and a number of cardboard cartons of books and catalogues were on the bed (Jack stacked these at night on the floor before going to sleep).

Shrouded in plastic in a small clothes closet was the toreador outfit worn by Cantinflas in Around the World in Eighty Days. A relative of Jack's was in the movie business and gave it to Jack. For several years, Jack was an assistant Hollywood producer, involved in Sonny & Cher specials, Laugh-In episodes, etc. In earlier years he owned a beer bar and also owned an upscale coin shop in the early 70s.

On a later visit, the Coin Worlds were gone; I do not recall what he did with them.

By the early 1980's I was subscribing to about 30 numismatic publications, and knew I couldn't maintain files of all of them. I decided early on not to keep Coin World because of its size, but have clipped items of interest since the 1970's.

I do want to make two points. First, about 1975 Coin World became available on microfilm. You could buy the set on microfilm, but in order to do so, you had to have current subscription. I decided at that time that I would eventually but the set on microfilm. Unfortunately, I never did and I don't know whether it is still available for sale.

Second, there is an index to Coin World -- or at least, there was. In the 1980's I wrote to Coin World asking if they could list any articles on Missouri tokens which had appeared in their publication. To my surprise, they sent pages and pages, xeroxed from some master list they were keeping internally. So, it is possible that Coin World still has an internal index, and perhaps someone could persuade them to make it available --- perhaps by donating a copy to the ANA Library.

I do, however, maintain files of World Coin News and Bank Note Reporter, both of which began as tabloid size newspapers. I worked for World Coin News during 1975-1977, and have a complete set from Volume 1 #0 (which came before Vol. 1 #1). The first few years I had hardbound -- back when it was affordable to do so. I also have nearly a full set of Bank Note Reporter.

Because I moved several times (including a year in China), a few issues of BNR and perhaps WCN went astray. Last month I unpacked and sorted all the back issues of WCN and BNR. The current size of these periodicals fits nicely in the one foot square fold-up boxes sold by the OfficeMax chain. The Swedish department store chain, Ikea, sells a fold-up box which is just right for storing letter size magazines like Numismatist, TAMS Journal, and Paper Money magazine.

Unfortunately, I haven't found a box which holds tabloid-size publications efficiently. Currently I have my tabloids in fold-up boxes which are about 6 inches too long. There is probably some specialty company which makes boxes to hold tabloid-size publications, but I haven't found it yet. Any suggestions?

But there is another numismatic angle to The Big Nickel story. To raise money back in 1963-64, when Szilva was building the statue, he created and sold medals to underwrite the cost. If memory serves me right, it was that same 1951 nickel in a size, of course, larger than the coin. And I'll wager an E-Sylum reader will respond, "Hey, I have one of those!" Prove it. Send Wayne an image.

I do not have one to take an image of, but the Big Nickel medallion looks like the 1951 commemorative nickel enlarged to about 39 or 40 mm.

I visited the Big Nickel park back in 1978 while on vacation with my father. We were driving around Lake Huron, and I figured I might never be in Sudbury again. I was right. There was an affiliated attraction where for a few dollars you could ride a gondola down the shaft of a nickel mine. I don't know if it is still open.

Are Nobel medals cast or struck?

Irving Wallace wrote a book called The Prize in 1961 - a speed reader may well discover in it the answer to the cast/struck question. It's only 755 pages and seems to contain all other trivia related to the presentation!

Nobel prize medals, at least those for medicine or physiology, for chemistry, for physics, and for literature, are, or at least were, definitely struck from dies in the usual way. I've held one in my hands (that of Albert Szent Gyorgyi, for medicine or physiology, issue in 1930, which is housed at the Semmelweis Museum in Budapest). I also owned bronze offstrikes in bronze but, alas, these were stolen in transit.

I knew Bill (and his father) from many years ago. I last saw Bill at the last New York ANA convention. There are fewer and fewer numismatists from the period of the 1970's when I started - only a few of us left. I could only think of three people that I told about this. Others in the industry now would have no idea of who he was.

I did not know Bill Christensen well, but he was a good customer (as was his dad) early on and he loved his library. Later on, at IAPN assemblies, I met his mother; both of them seemed to attend every year and both were unfailingly polite, friendly, and charming.

I am disappointed that one of last week's correspondents, in a veiled tribute to Henry Christensen, took the opportunity to grind once more a very old axe.

When I returned to the USA in January 1973 after being overseas for ten years (six of them in the Vietnam War), I was sent to Indianapolis, Indiana for some advanced training. After graduation, I was stationed in Reston, Virginia in April 1973 at a Defense Communications Agency laboratory where we used an IBM 370-155 to test future satellite communications needs of the military. In 1973, my monthly pay as a senior NCO was about $500 after taxes, deductions and allotments. My wife and I were very newly married and she quickly learned I was a numismatist. She did not like to owe anyone so were sleeping on the floor of our apartment and saving money to buy furniture one piece at a time. But she must have seen the desperation in my eyes and allowed me $50 per month as my first numismatic budget.

Over the years it went up with my pay until my last allowance was $200 per month and then we took off my limits when our savings and investments hit a particular point, but I was not supposed to break the bank. Right after my "no allowance" was started, I was offered many excellent items I needed in one group for $10,000, but I talked the seller down to $5,000 to my wife's great relief.

With my specialty covering Southeast Asia, Henry and William Christensen were one of my few sources in the 1970s. When I first wrote to the Christensens, I asked them to add me to their mailing list. When I saw they had many items of interest to me, I wrote to them again and asked if I could please pay them monthly for my purchases. I received an immediate "yes" and they really did not know me from Adam. My $15 per month to them went on for several years.

When I received something from them, I accessioned it into my logbook and printed "HC" and the cost on the 2x2 or note holder. Looking through my Sarawak, Borneo, Malaya, Brunei, Singapore and other pieces, there are many HC's on the holders. I am sure there are dealers today who will allow payments but likely only after a credit or background check. Within a few years after being back in the USA, there were many other dealers who also allowed me to pay them monthly, so my budget rarely had any "free" money. With such a tight budget, I had to carefully evaluate every piece purchased to make sure I got "good" stuff for my collection. Looking back over those purchases, those pieces are the most valuable in my collections based on current rarities and values. Budgeting was good for me!

I knew Henry Christensen a little. I knew Bill much better. They are both greatly missed. I have a cute story about Bill. It could sound critical, but that was not the tone at the time nor my intent in telling it now.

A friend and I were involved with some transactions will Bill. In spite of the passage of several years and great attempts, Bill did not resolve the matter nor communicate with us about it. The communication was the worst part.

Eventually, the friend and I stopped in Madison, NJ during a road trip that we were on. I do not know what we thought, but Bill was not easy to find. The business address had been a post office box for a very long time. Madison is a charming town. We started by having breakfast in a diner and studying the phone book. No luck there.

I went to the post office. In a casual chat, an employee told me that he did still come in once in awhile to empty his box. Good news, but not great unless I wanted to have a month long stake out. We tried the Internet (not nearly as useful then as now) and made cold inquiries in various establishments that I thought he might frequent.

Finally, we got a great break. A merchant mentioned that there was a coin shop in town. It had not been in the phone book that I had studied earlier. The coin shop was interesting. My associate and I bought a few things, and the proprietor told us where the Christensen offices were. Bing. By this time it was shortly before noon.

The building showed no sign of occupancy by the Christensen firm, but the fellow at the coin shop had said that the office was upstairs so up the stairs we went. Half way up the stairs, Bill came around the corner to go down the stairs. Momentarily he was surprised (shocked), but responded quickly and invited us to go to lunch with him.

He led us to a tavern just half a block away. The bartender and server obviously knew Bill. The three of us, actually the five of us spent the afternoon there. If there were any more customers, I do not remember it. Mostly we talked sports, but talked a little bit of numismatics. We did not discuss the errant deal.

When I returned to the table after a two minute necessity break, Bill and my friend had their coats on, were standing, and clearly ready to depart. One or the other said that they had worked out the details of our deal! Wow. This must say something about me, but it was good news.

We went back to the Christensen offices, and this is the very best part of the story. The office was a maze and a treasure warehouse. We spent the balance of the afternoon and early evening there. Bill showed us several of his collections and we looked at some old inventory and literature--lots of literature. He had a nice library of books, but what he had in great quantity were auction catalogs. Tons--literally.

Bill gave us the required documents and we continued on our trip. Well, it did not work out--again.

Fast forward a few years. My friend and I are in Madison again. The Christensen office seems to be closed. The tavern had the same bartender, but he stated that he did not know who Bill Christen was. We ordered lunch and waited. As anticipated, Bill came in shortly before noon. He had that same look of surprise and the same fast recovery. Again we talked sports for hours.

Eventually, we went to the office again. Bill told us that he was planning a move to smaller offices. One of the problems was the aforementioned auction catalogs. I put him in touch with a well-known literature dealer who wound up buying the catalogs. That dealer later told me a good story about buying the catalogs. It involves the same tavern. Hopefully, he will jump in and tell that story (hint, hint). Possibly he even still has some of the catalogs.

Back to the office. Once again, Bill gave us material to resolve our problem. This time it worked out. Unfortunately, I never saw (or communicated with) Bill again.

John Ward Dunsmore served for a time as the President of the Society and also presented in their annual exhibitions. Dunsmore is of course known to numismatists as the painter of "Washington Inspecting the First Money Coined by the United States." The Society is still active and has a library in Manhattan - it's been on my to-do list and I will certainly keep a look out for the medals. I do not believe that the Society ever issued a medal to Dunsmore, as such a medal is unmentioned in his biographical papers, while other medals are.

I have heard reference to metal detector finds of Saint Patrick’s coinage in North Carolina. Does anyone have any details?

The rumored finds in North Carolina interest me from a genealogical standpoint. My seventh great-grandparents and their families relocated from Western New Jersey (Hopewell area) to central North Carolina (north of Charlotte) in the early 1700s.

You've been recording a number of references to souvenirs of the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. It happens that I wrote an article on one such, a plaque of unknown date. The article appeared in the American Numismatic Society Magazine for Winter 2006, Volume 5, Number 3, pp.26-33, under the title Ozymandias in San Francisco: A Medallic Memorial of the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906. It can also be found online at http://ansmagazine.com/Winter06/Ozymandias

Does anyone know what became of Robinson (Robbie) S. Brown's magnificent Conder tokens (the British Provincial Token-Coinage of the 18th Century)? Robbie's collection is said to be among the most extensive (not surprising) ever assembled of this classic series. I have seen no mention or public auction of this collection. Before this collection is dispersed it would be forever a tragedy not to catalog and or publish a book on this fantastic collection.

The London, England, auction house of Dix Noonan Webb will be selling the collection of Conder tokens formed by the late Robinson S. Brown Jr in four parts, beginning October 7th 2009 (Bedfordshire thru Lincolnshire). Subsequent auctions are scheduled for October 2010 (Middlesex), October 2011 (Norfolk thru Yorkshire) and October 2012 (Wales, Scotland, Ireland and an extensive run of duplicates). Catalogues may be had from Dix Noonan Webb, 16 Bolton Street, London W1J 8BQ, England, www.dixnoonanwebb.com or www.dnw.co.uk.

This is the age of crowdsourcing and social media. So the time is right for creative consultant Richard Smith’s notion that economic change can start at the grass roots. “The only realistic way for a swift economic recovery,” he proposes, “is through a thorough, in-depth rebranding scheme—starting with the redesign of the iconic U.S. dollar.” His Dollar ReDe$ign Project invites anyone to submit an idea at richardsmith.posterous.com, and to date, designers from all over the world have responded enthusiastically.

In a recent piece for The Atlantic, the designer Michael Bierut addressed the state of something on all of our minds these days. Money. Specifically, its design, which Bierut is none too happy about. On the back side of the U.S. dollar, we are faced, says Bierut, with the general effect of “a cake that has been decorated to within an inch of its life.” As for those enormous purple numbers added to deter counterfeiters a few years ago? “A denim patch on a satin dress,” says Bierut.

Charmed by the graphic perfection of Switzerland’s currency and the elephants and rhinos bursting forth from South Africa’s, Bierut thinks it’s time for a currency overhaul in this country. He points to the grassroots efforts of creative consultant Richard Smith, whose recent Dollar ReDe$ign project invited anyone to submit an idea. "The only realistic way for a swift economic recovery," Smith proposes, "is through a thorough, in-depth rebranding scheme — starting with the redesign of the iconic U.S. dollar."

Odessa Museum of Numismatics is the first Ukrainian historical museum of new type whose tasks became studying the history of coinage and money circulation of the Ukrainian state and also preservation and demonstration the major historical relics belonging to ancient history and culture of the Northern Black Sea Region and Rus-Ukraine. In September 1994 when Odessa celebrated its 200 th anniversary in city was open the permanent numismatics exhibition. In January 1999 it has been reorganized in the Odessa Museum of Numismatics.

Museum collection includes over 2,5 thousand coins and other relics belonging to different historical epochs: Antique, Medieval, to new and newest time including the period of independent development of the Ukrainian state.

The results of Museum's research activity have been embodied in the regular periodical "Bulletin of the Odessa Museum of Numismatics ". In its issues are published unique and rare coins with analysis of their features (typology, semantics of images, chronology etc.) synthesized with historical events, condition of economy and worldview of that time when coins were minted.