Back when I was working for Harlan Berk in Chicago, we had one itinerant coin dealer who used to drop by two or three times a year and buy stuff that he supplied to telemarketers. There were certain things he always needed, and as I broke down collections and/or sets I would save the things he wanted in large plastic bags. When he did come in we would run the contents of each bag through the coin counter and write up an invoice. He paid 8 cents each for pre-1960 nickels. I have no idea who he sold them to.

We've seen many times how the non-numismatic press can bungle coin-related stories, and I've found another one in the latest issue of American History.

In reporting the sale of the finest known Birch Set from the Partrick Collection the writer made the predictable mistake of calling this coin a "penny," as well as the less expected one of describing buyer Kevin Lipton as a "collector." The most worrisome error, however, is found in the revelation of the previous record-price holder in the cent category.

It's noted that $1.7 million had been paid a few years earlier for a "rare 1943-dated Lincoln cent." The omission of the fact that this coin was extremely rare by virtue of being the only known 1943-D bronze cent will send hundreds, if not thousands of readers to their phones. I'm alerting every coin shop owner, in fact every coin dealer, that they may be bombarded by excited questions from persons having one or more rusty steel cents...

Here's a photo of Mary Burleson holding the new 6.5 pound edition of the New Deluxe Edition of the Redbook.

I'm seeking a good (300 dpi) scan of the dust jacket from Robert Friedberg's book Coins of the British World (1962) that I can include in my book on coin albums of The Coin & Currency Institute. Though I have this book in my library, it lacks the colorful dust jacket, and my efforts to acquire a copy including this have been unsuccessful.

Here are photos of a token I bought this week. It is inscribed Professor Johnson’s ...... Starch Polish / 317 Bowery NY / Fountain Blacking / Brush French Bluing / United States

Any more information on it or value?

2015 April 8 Rare Books Signature Auction - New York by Heritage Auctions Platinum House April 8, 2015, 11:00 AM EST New York, NY

Lot 45452: Garth Williams (American 1912-1996).

Estimated Price: $800 - $1,200
Description: Garth Williams (American 1912-1996). Original Drawing for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award. [N.p., n.d., ca. 1960]. Original circular drawing featuring Laura Ingalls Wilder as a child, holding a doll, fashioned from three layers of paper, measuring 10 inches in diameter. Pencil on paper. Signed "Garth" on the front, and with Mr. Williams' full signature on the reverse with instructions to return the drawing to him in Aspen, Colorado. Drawing has a few shallow bends, a tiny nick to the edge (above the "G" in "Ingalls"), and a glue stain along the top of Laura's head. Else, in generally near fine condition. The Wilder Award is a bronze medal awarded to an author or artist by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, for excellence in children's literature.