HOWARD DANIEL'S LETTER FROM HO CHI MINH CITY

I am over here in my townhouse home office in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and reading your Wayne's Numismatic Diary for November 10, 2009 where you describe Clyde's Restaurant being "perched atop one of the few hills in the area." As a numismatic researcher, it is also difficult for me to not research anywhere I am living to learn about its past and also the plans for the future. The "hill" you described is named Gantt Hill and is "the" highest peak in Fairfax County, and is sometimes called "The Mountain of Fairfax." It is 512 feet above sea level and the peak is on the grounds of The Rotonda Condominium, just behind my unit. For those who use or remember Gantt Charts, the hill's namesake is related to the man who invented the charts.

You also mentioned that the November Nummis Nova dinner was Traci Poole's last because she was moving back home to Idaho. I sent an email to her employer, Wizard Coin Supplies, to say goodbye and discovered she will be working the January 2010 FUN Show in Orlando, FL as her last work for them. I will have a club table there for NBS and some other numismatic organizations and can personally say goodbye to her with a hug. Unlike your wife, I have no restrictions from my wife because she says I am so old I cannot follow up on anything after the hug anyway!

For those readers who want books about Vietnamese numismatics, there is a new one over here besides mine. It is titled Tiến Giấy Việt Nam Qua Các Thò'i Kỳ (Tù' 1875 - 2006). The author's name is Nguyễn Hoàng Xuân Vinh. He self-publishes it and his printings are about 5 each, and each one is different as he finds new images and/or information on the internet. I have had a message sent to him that I will pay for his travel and put him up in a nearby hotel for a couple of days to assist him in creating a better reference. I hope he takes me up on it......we shall see.

I also have some good news from over here. My latest catalog; Socialist Republic of Viet Nam Coins & Currency, was bought by HASABA and FAHASA, the two national bookstore chains here in Viet Nam. Besides preserving the history of Vietnamese financial instruments with my catalogs, I also want to generate more collectors here in Viet Nam and hopefully, the bookstore sales will do it. My supply here is now down to about 20+ copies and I am looking for a new printer for a second printing at a possible lower cost. My supply in the USA arrived just before my trip here so I still have 100+ there but expect it to sell out too within a few months.

I hope everyone will have a great Thanksgiving back in "the real world" or "the land of the Big PX" as we used to call it during the Vietnam War.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY FOR NOVEMBER 10, 2009 (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v12n46a19.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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