Following up on the link to the International Numismatic Congress 2003 Proceedings in this week's E-Sylum, here is the link to the complete Survey of Numismatic Research 2002-2007 published for the Congress in 2009 in Glasgow: www.muenzgeschichte.ch/inc/21001/index.html

Of course, a political spin has been put on the Herod's Wall/coins story from the past couple of weeks.

Palestinian archaeologist Jamal Amro declared he made a discovery of 17 ancient coins that vindicated further the false story and belief of Jews about their alleged temple in occupied Jerusalem.

The coins date back to 16 AD, which means they were minted 20 years after the death of Herod the Great whom the Jews allege he built the second temple, Amro added.

He demonstrated his finding on Monday in a news conference held by the Islamic-Christian commission for the support of Jerusalem and the popular national congress of Jerusalem in Ramallah city.

The archaeologist told the attendees that these coins were found under Al-Buraq wall (wailing wall) which is claimed to be the western wall of the alleged Jewish temple.

He added this discovery confirmed that the building of the wall happened after Herod in the era of Roman ruler Valerius Gratus.

He also stated this discovery left the Jewish archaeologists in a state of shock and frustration because it just proved further their false claims and beliefs about the legend of the temple.

Regarding fugitive ink on Canadian polymer currency, readers might be interested in the following video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayJPxo8IgCY

It hardly constitutes 'fair wear and tear' but does give some an indication of the ephemeral foundation of plastic currency. The solvent was common nail-polish remover, I believe.

I remember when the polymer notes were introduced in Australia, how such a big deal was made of the transparent 'window' as a security device - as if the window had been magically inserted into the note. Good to see that with a little effort, so much more can be revealed about this kind of technology.

Regarding the Romanian miniature 10 bani note, and its claim to be the "smallest paper money," stamps have been used as circulating money as well, and small cardboard notes were issued in Morocco during WWII.

I don't have any at hand to compare with the dimensions of the Romanian piece, but I also have military scrip that is 1/2 the size of the Romanian note - so it depends on what you want to call paper money. I'd say the Romanian piece won't hold the title long.

Regarding the claim of the Romania note being the world's smallest, there are a series of Russian stamp notes issued in the teens (eg. P17) which are smaller.

Does anybody know if the law, allowing postage and other stamps (presumably meaning revenue stamps) to be received for dues to the US not exceeding $5, has ever been repealed?

The article about the Camero covered with UAE coins made me recall a similar, but I thought a more significant vehicle. My recall was that it was a Rolls Royce covered in large British pennies but I may be wrong. In any case, a quick Google search of choice words could not locate the Rolls, but did locate a 1976 Bicentennial Money Car. It is listed on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_Auto_Attractions) and illustrated in the link "Historic Auto Attractions" (http://www.historicautoattractions.com/Pages/moneycar.html).

Historic Auto Attractions is a museum located at Roscoe, Illinois, and where the vehicle currently resides along with other automobiles and memorabilia.

It appears the 1976 Cadillac Limousine is covered with 120,000 coins and is the largest bicentennial project ever undertaken by an individual, Hal Wood. A plaque on the vehicle indicates that it took four people two years to complete. The car is reported to weigh 3.5 tons - 1 ton in coins alone.

Last Friday's New York Times (p. B-18) had a full-page ad from Bonhams promoting their Coins & Medals auction, 12/16, and their Meyer & Ebe ancient coin auction, 1/6. My particular question is 2-fold: does anyone have interest in the physical object of the ad? Does anyone have interest in the fact that they advertised that, in that medium?

The "Spirit of Detroit" statue on the medal you showed is deliberately oxidized to a bright green, and when I lived there was sometimes referred to as the "Jolly Green Giant."

Across the foot of Woodward Avenue, in front of the Michigan Consolidated Gas Building, was the tastefully nude statue of a female entitled "Spirit of the Dance."

One morning circa 1970, the city awoke to find a set of bright green footprints painted on the pavement from him to her. To the best of my knowledge, the perpetrator of the prank was never discovered.