Hey! Black and white past is not dreary. The 750-page manuscript by me and co-author Dr. Kathryn Fuller, 1000 NIGHTS AT THE MOVIES, a comprehensive history of silent movies 1895-1915, is now in the hands of Whitman and will be published this year. All about black-and-white movies!!!

You have quoted me no less than three times in the last issue. I have absolutely no recollection of writing any of these three statements. Am I getting senile - or have you confused me with someone else?

"The Dalles had an almost-US branch mint - construction started, never finished, and authority withdrawn."

"I'll take a WAG and say that Twain and Harte were likely to be found in Calaveras County."

"In regard to Hank Spangenberger's 1876 wood medals, a substantial collection of them was exhibited at the ANA's National Money Show in Ft Worth..."

Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams.

I can't believe we missed this in The E-Sylum last week - the 1940 census is opening up this week. Census records are sealed for 72 years. It was notable when the 1930 one opened in 2002, but this one will be searched and analyzed even more quickly with the latest technology. Here's the link: www.archives.gov/research/census/1940/ .

We apologize for the problems you have encountered with the 1940 census web site and share your frustration. We have seen extraordinary demand for the 1940 census records, with over 37 million hits since 9:00 a.m. on 4/2/12.

We are making updates to the 1940 census website to better accommodate users and expect to see improved performance over the next several hours. While these changes take place, you can still use many of the useful features built into the website (search for enumeration districts, bookmark results, etc).

The Numisma website is on stand-by because Enrique Rubio Santos (Spanish citizen), the owner of the site, passed away in February 2012. It is really bad news for the numismatic community. We are working on a website of our own, but in the meantime you can view the two numbers of The Sitio in this website: www.numisnati.com/2012/04/el-sitio-boletin-numismatico-digital.html

I first met Hank in the late 1960s at the Penn Ohio show at the Webster Hall Hotel in Oakland (a section of Pittsburgh). This was the same hotel that hosted the 1935 ANA convention in Pittsburgh. Hank always had many interesting items on display in his cases and some were also available for sale. He always willing to share his knowledge in any medals or tokens he had of willing to help identify any that I had.

I remember buying from him a set of wooden medals from the 1876 Centennial, Encased medals from the 1893 Columbian Expo and much later on a very large collection of 1907 Hudson Fulton Celebration medals. He also sold me many of the early ANA Convention badges. If you were looking for interesting Exonumia, Hank was the person to go to. He also conducted several mail auctions. Fortunately I still have those catalogues. He was such an fine person and will be missed by all.

I believe the headline in Coin World's April 16th issue (next week) is incorrect. That Canada will stop production of the cents in the Fall. That is how I interpreted it when I first read the releases.

But deeper reading was the statement they would stop production in April, not the Fall. Makes sense, not to strike cents for four or five more months when they know the coins will not be used.

It is the Royal Canadian Mint's distribution of the cents that will probably run out by Fall. This is how I wrote my item for The E-Sylum last Sunday. I hope this is accurate and that Coin World got it wrong. Let's wait and see.