Greg Ruby edits The Fourth Garrideb, a newsletter devoted to the numismatics of the Sherlock Holmes canon. He's published a new book on another literary topic, the numismatics of Edgar Allan Poe. Congratulations! Here's the announcement. -Editor

E-Sylum readers are awesome, and this isn't the first time their contributions have inspired an author - for example, Fred Reed's book Show Me the Money about stage currency and movie money came about after discussions of the topic. I'm glad we could help.

The book opens with five interesting chapters laying out the arc of Poe's life and work, as well as the history of his gravesite and markers funded by fans of the father of the detective novel genre. The Introduction to the Catalog lays out the book's identification scheme noting that gaps have been left for anticipated future discoveries. Books such as these are always works in progress that may never be fully done, but discovery is all part of what we enjoy about numismatics.

While price guides can also become quickly obsolete, they are at the top of the list of desired features in a catalog for many collectors and dealers. The book provides a price estimate range for each piece described, on a scale of ten levels ranging from under $10 to over $1,000.

Bibliophiles will appreciate the entries for the Grolier Club Poe medallions and the University of Virginia Poe Centenary medal, which came housed in an accompanying book. Coin dealer Thomas Elder also produced a nice medal in his "Medallions of the Immortals" series.

The range of Poe material is wide, spanning not just tokens and medals but also coins, badges, ingots and wooden money. I particularly liked the medals and commemorative and fantasy banknotes, many of which were quite well designed and executed. The book illustrates nearly every piece. Most are described in great detail and included are interesting diversions into related numismatic topics such as the under-construction second Mint of the United States and Poe's criticism of the 1849 gold dollar.

Contributors include NBS Historian Joel J. Orosz and Dr. Heinz Tschachler, author of the book The Monetary Imagination of Edgar Allan Poe - Banking, Currency and Politics in the Writings.

The Numismatic Edgar Allan Poe is far more than a straightforward catalog of items - it is quite readable and entertaining, holding quite a few tidbits of interesting numismatic information - ideal for the typical E-Sylum reader.

-Editor