Mention in this week's issue of the Audubon elephant folio prompted an amusing thought: I wonder whether anyone has ever examined an elephant folio and been disappointed to not find the elephant?

Radio programs, TV programs, and e-books (mentioned by you) are ephemeral-but the printed word seems to live forever. No one knows the script of B. Max Mehl's countless radio programs (he had his own) in the late 1920s and early 1930s, but the slimmest Mehl printed pamphlet endures and is collectible. Sort of interesting to contemplate. Congratulations on the excellent work you do.

Regarding ANOTHER coin with an owl on it, one can look to the U.S. "slugs" from 1915. The 1915 Panama-Pacific commemorative coinage has a large prominent owl on the reverse of both the round and the octagonal $50 gold pieces. The coins have a Greco-classical revival theme to them reminiscent of ancient Corinthian and Athenian coinage.

Additionally, the remainder of the denominations from the Pan-Pac series also have some unique animals depicted on the coins. The 50 cent has the obligatory Eagle on the reverse, but the $1 gold has two dolphins in a circular "swimming" style paying homage to ancient Sicilian Dekadrachms of Syracuse and the $2 1/2 gold has a Hippocampus or "Sea-Horse" depicted from Greek mythology combined with a Caduceus displaying 2 snakes. This commemorative themed coinage is quite different from the traditional symbols that had been shown previously on U.S. coinage.

The latest E-Sylum includes the following: "As a side topic I met a fellow at the well attended Alexandria Coin Show who asserts he can find no books that were printed in New Amsterdam, (Dutch) New York. The question posed is whether none were printed, or did none survive? Dutch printing press technology was later discouraged from export to the English, circa 1680, but does any E-Sylum reader know of any book published in New Amsterdam?"

The first printer in what is now New York was William Bradford, and while the identity of the first book printed in New York is somewhat debatable, it was one of a few books printed in 1693, nearly 20 years after the 1674 British takeover of what had been New Amsterdam.