I just enjoyed another great issue of The E-Sylum - thanks for all you do with it!

The article about the book vending machine reminded me that in 1997 a coffee shop here in Boise, Idaho installed an Art-o-Mat machine - see their web page at http://flyingmcoffee.com/art/artomat for some history on the concept in the USA. I just followed the links on that page to find that there is a whole series of Art-o-Mat YouTube videos on them.

It seems to me that there was some sort of token connection with this set up whereby they used a token rather than coins, but I can't bring that memory back.

There are a couple of problems with archaeologist Lou Farrell's account of the discovery of a 1773 Virginia halfpenny in Trappe, PA. First, in one breath he says that the coin "was heavily used," but in the next that Virginia halfpence were hoarded and not spent!

More important, the 1773 Virginia halfpence were not released into circulation until February 27, 1775 (Newman, Coinage for Colonial Virginia, pp. 21-23), while the kitchen find spot where Farrell's coin was found burned down in 1779. This doesn't leave a lot of time for the coin to cross the Mason-Dixon Line and become "heavily used."

Perhaps what Farrell took to be wear really was pitting from burial (the coin is not illustrated), or perhaps he is mistaken as to the terminus ante quem for his excavation.

Dick Johnson talks about an "impending tax on gold coin purchases." There is no such tax. The 1099 requirement just makes cash flows more visible to the IRS - everyone who profits from a sale is already required to disclose and pay taxes (as applicable) on that profit. Nothing will change with the new 1099s except that some people who were hiding their gains will have a harder time doing so (which is the object of the filing requirement). I don't support the new requirement - it's an ungodly burden on both buyers and sellers (I keep reading that sellers will also have to file the forms - what a crock). But there is no new tax on gold.