NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: JULY 8, 2012

Dave Hirt on the Shorthouse Collection
On July 4th Dave Hirt wrote (from Budapest):

I really enjoyed this week's post. Many things of interest to me. I noticed that in the recent Kolbe-Fanning sale, a copy of Chapman's sale of the Shorthouse collection sold for $275 on a $75 estimate. It looks like the E-Sylum discussion of Shorthouse and his coins must have created some interest in that sale.

I also enjoyed the WSJ article and photos on home libraries. Perhaps some of our readers would submit photos of their libraries. I am far away, but thinking of all my numismatic friends on the 4th.

Another excellent issue as usual. The stories by Harvey Stack about where collectors keep their collections reminded me of a couple that would stop by my office in Denver in the mid-1970's every month or so to buy a gold coin. The wife wrote a column on Pets for one of the two Denver daily papers at the time either the Denver Post or the Rocky Mountain News. I can't remember what the husband did for a living but he was most likely retired or at least semi-retired as the couple was probably in their 70's at the time.

After one purchase we got to talking as people are apt to do and as they left one of them said, well let's go put the coin away. I asked if they kept their collection in a bank vault or if they had a safe at home with an alarm system. They said they had a better system, - they had a very large and protective German Shepherd and they kept their coins in the bottom of the kibble bag. Nobody would get past him they said.

I'm not sure what ever happened to their coins after they died but I do remember when we moved our home and office six years ago and the guy who installed our security system told me that "he shouldn't be telling me this but the biggest deterrent against burglars and home invasions were large and mean sounding dogs." At least according to a survey of people who had got caught and were serving time in California prisons!

The term "Obamacare" is a slur and has no place in The E-Sylum. Phooey on Mr. Johnson for using the term and on you for repeating it unedited.

Well, "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, and neither does the abbreviation PPACA. The term is seen frequently in print and if it's good enough for both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal it's good enough for me. It's a common enough term that everyone reading it knows what it is, even if they have their own political slant on its meaning. I didn't bother using the term in my piece on the Stolen Valor Act, but I was OK with Dick's use. It was the "main event" that overshadowed the ruling on Stolen Valor, and the term was only used in that context. -Editor

"In Good Nick" - Origin Not Coin-Related
Kerry Rodgers of New Zealand writes:

Some of those Jersey coins look in quite good nick. And the term has nothing to do with coins being clipped or mutilated in any way. I find too too many definitions given on-line are garbage.

Omissions from the 2013 SCWC 1901-2000
George Cuhaj of Krause Publications writes:

As to the 40th edition of the Standard Catalog of World Coins 1901-2000, yes, we certainly did leave out some listings. However, as a fix we have several alternatives. PDFs can be downloaded from the Numismaster site, a DVD of the missing sections will be tipped into the books not yet distributed, and the separate DVD product will have the full book, including the missing sections. The problem affected about 60 pages of listings, in various sections.