RON GUTH WRITES UP THE E-SYLUM

Wayne’s World was a zany 1992 movie starring Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey) as two “dudes” who broadcast a public access TV show from Wayne’s parents’ basement. The film was based on Saturday Night Live skits in which Wayne and Garth expounded on rock-and-roll music and girls. The film cost approximately $20 million to produce and went on to gross more than $183 million.

However, this is the story of a different Wayne’s World, a numismatic one that started several years later – on September 4, 1998 to be exact. On that fateful day, Wayne Homren, a member of the Numismatic Bilbiomania Society, started a weekly email publication directed at members of the organization. His stated purpose was as follows: “This is intended to be a moderated, low-volume mailing list, with no more than one message every week or so. Its purpose and use will evolve over time – please send us your comments and suggestions.” The second edition, sent to the eighty-eight members who had signed up by then, included two notices: 1) that the official club publication had gone to the printers and 2) that a member was seeking information about known copies of the Howard Rounds Newcomb book on the U.S. Large Cents of 1801-1803.

In the eighteen years since then, Wayne’s publication has become known as the E-Sylum (a play on Asylum, the name of the club’s print publication), it has grown in terms of scope and size, and it now goes to over 2,000 subscribers. The E-Sylum has become one of the most important, weekly sources for numismatic news and information. From its text-only, single-notice, initial publication, the E-Sylum has morphed into a sophisticated HTML-based presentation. The most recent issue (January 2, 2017) includes thirty-seven items in the table of contents, on a variety of subjects ranging from new numismatic publications, a coin treasure hunt, an obituary, a biography, bridges on ancient coins, 2017 coins from the Royal Mint, paper money, Victoria Crosses, and much more. The amount of work that Wayne puts into each issue is tremendous — and he has done it every week for eighteen years. Like Wayne and Garth of Wayne’s World, Mr. Homren is just as passionate as his favorite subject – numismatics. And, like Wayne’s World, the E-Sylum is public access – it is completely free of charge.

I look forward to each weekly installment of the E-Sylum and Wayne’s Words (Homren’s self-styled introduction – was this a deliberate nod to Wayne’s World?). Like clockwork, the E-Sylum appears in my inbox each Sunday night, a perfect time to relax and enjoy the fruits of Wayne’s work. Always, I learn something new and useful.

I invite you to become a part of the E-Sylum and Wayne’s “world” by subscribing here. Tell him PCGS sent you. To view all eighteen years of the E-Sylum, check out the E-Sylum Archives.

To read the complete article, see:
WAYNE’S WORLD, WAYNE’S WORDS (www.pcgsblog.com/ron-guth/news/waynes-world-waynes-words-waynes-work)

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