Another outstanding issue, and an amazing response to my query regarding the 1768 Royal Academy medal from Francois Velde. As it turns out, I also have one of the other Louis XV medals he mentioned (which is also listed and pictured in the 1724 book he references). All those years of French class finally paying off (well, sort of…)!

I enjoyed seeing the bit about 3D-printed book. I don't know much about the technical aspects of 3D printing, but I've seen video of the process. I find it fascinating and bought my wife a 3D printed sterling silver ring a couple of years ago. The ring was very intricate and probably would have been impossible to make any other way.

With this technology advancing rapidly, it seems to me that it is worth speculating that the time is coming very soon when someone will make a 3D printer that can perfectly reproduce a coin with the correct microscopic detail, metal composition and weight. They will also be able to "edit out" the tics and other marks that identify the best struck counterfeits of today - after removing the marks they will no doubt add some new ones to disguise the fake even better. All this without doing any tooling on a die!

This will have obvious and profound ramifications for the coin market. Authentication will become all but impossible, and therefore rare coins will have value only if their pedigrees predate the time at which these "perfect" counterfeits come in to existence.

We live in a scary world.

Rich Hartzog is correct in his assessment of the size of a book on encased coins if it were to attempt to list all know encased. There are several books currently available by state, which list the encased that are known for that state. Many collectors like Rich collect by state, city or type of business, e.g. car dealerships or banks. The variety of encased is limited only by the definition of encased coins.

I have an encased coin exhibit which illustrates the varieties by shape of the encasement, material of the encasement and the type of coins encased. It is seven cases and contains over sixty pieces and is by no means definitive. Any book on encased coins would have to be about collecting encased coins in general or about a specific type of encased as a catalog of that type. (e.g. state, car dealerships, banks, etc.)

Thanks to you and to Pabitra Sara in the last issue of The E-Sylum for the answer to my question, ie. that no KM number has been assigned to the Finish 2012 5 euro issued for Lapland.

I tried Mr. Saha’s suggestion and went to numismaster.com, advanced search, and entered Finland, 5 euro, CuNi-CuNiAl, and, separately, 2011 and 2012 but that just returned me to their search box. Oh well, not serious. Maybe one has to be a subscriber or something - or maybe they consider it NCLT and cover it, if at all, elsewhere.

Best wishes, and thank you for The E-Sylum. It is interesting reading even if it is seldom in my specialty.

The E-Sylum keeps getting better and better and I've become a hopeless addict. Earlier today I opened up my cigar box full of old silver coins and had some fun with them. Suddenly I was struck by the similarity between a Two Reales piece and our own Vermont State Quarter. Now I must look for others.