My younger brother ordered the new book on Islamic coins from Spink's as well as two others and they arrived TWO days later!!!!! He is thrilled with them. Without The E-Sylum, he likely would have missed them. I will likely order them also.

I recounted this story to James Baker, new Secretary of Treasury, shortly after his appointment (1985), when he visited the Bureau of Engraving and Printing—possibly when he provided his signature for US currency. The story was meant to show the Secretary different ways currency was used. Sec. Baker, an obvious student, asked a series of questions afterwards to learn more about currency.

A number of years prior to my government service, I was arranging a loan to build a printing factory in a South American country. Casting about for a loan, I flew to a Pacific coast So. American country to possibly secure either the loan or part thereof. In the capital of the country I met with a bank official. After the meeting, he suggested lunch. Over lunch he launched into a discussion of how the bank stored and used US currency. He used the word "lavar," as "We wash US currency." Being part Italian and from Chicago I interpreted the word and phrase as "We launder US currency."

After my astonishment, he explained in Spanish what he meant. He then took me back to a sub-basement of the bank. There were five washing machines. He explained the bank washed US currency to remove the "mugre," the dirt, oil and grit. There were stacks of US currency, mostly high denomination. He explained, "US currency is more stable, easier to obtain and better negotiable than gold."

Now, with a better numismatic knowledge, I wonder if some precious notes might reside in bank vaults around the world.

Thanks Bob. I'm sure you are aware that Treasury did the same thing - just more than a century ago.

The world loves the US dollar. No one knows how many $100s are being held abroad, but the are more $100 notes in circulation today (over 12 billion) that there are $1 notes. As we have redesigned the $100 a few times, we have noticed that older design $100s are worth less in many countries than new design $100s. In some countries, they won't even accept old design notes.

Attached is a photo of one of the steel cent webbing pieces offered in The Numismatist for $5.00 postpaid with the original mailing envelope. If you notice the 3 cent postage then from Oakland CA. to Omaha NE.

However, this is not how I used fillet. The quote as it appears on p. 223 in Money is: "the reworked scissel, i.e. the remains of the copper fillet after the planchets had been cut or stamped from it."

Phil is 100% right, as usual. I was going too fast.

There is a well-known Confederate stamp made to the order of Postmaster John Leonard Riddell. It has an extraneous 8 on it. I've not seen a good reason why. Perhaps it's related to the sign of the eight. I show below the two cent New Orleans Provisional stamp of 1861--no 8 and the five cent New Orleans Provisional stamp of 1861 with the enigmatic 8 in the five! The New Orleans above the stamp is an imprint on the sheet itself.

John Hull, the mintmaster, is buried in a grave of several people in Boston's Granary Burying Ground located on Tremont Street. Also, the following famous individuals are there: Peter Faneuil, Sam Adams, Crispus Attucks, John Hancock and Paul Revere among many well-known people. It takes some effort to find John Hull there but he is there!

For some reason I looked again at this, and found that the source I referenced now has the CORRECT spelling !!!!

I wouldn't have thought it worth jogging people's memory, but it goes to show that ... things change!

A Google search will offer over 37000 hits, nearly all in "books"; but I believe that over 97% of these are instances of the OCR (optical character recognition) being fooled. So you can't take anything for granted! "It ain't necessarily so" that the source actually says what it is said to say.

In 1902 the cornerstone for the new Custom House in New York City was laid. Included in it was a complete set of 1902 coinage in all metals. Wonder if it is still there?