The Franklin Mint also operated in Canada.

When I took over the chairmanship of the Coin Exhibit at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in 1976, I had the CNE carpenters build new show cases and displays as is shown in the center of the photo. I also asked The Franklin Mint's Canadian operation to set up an exhibit, which they readily agreed to because of the promotional value.

From my point of view, it filled up space and displayed some wonderful looking "numismatic" items... even though I had hesitations at the time in exposing the down side of numismatics to the general public that came to the Arts Crafts Hobbies building to view the Coin Exhibit. I was given the second largest square footage (square meters in Canada, square metres in England). Understandably, only the model train exhibit had more space to show off their locomotives and trains running around hundreds of feet of railway tracks through the mock hilly countryside complete with trees, bridges, railway stations and little people.

The Franklin Mint display is at the right in the old black & white photo. The actually display looked a lot better than the photo shows.

In the last E-Sylum there was mention of a couple who were caught leaving the country with $19,651 in cash. I did not see how they violated any laws, other than not declaring the full amount (which they could have done). Since there were two of them and each person is allowed a $10,000 limit, they did not exceed $20,000.

Anyway, I went to the appropriate gov't website & it stated "Please be aware, if persons/family members traveling together have more than $10,000, they cannot divide the currency between each other to avoid declaring the currency." So, if you are traveling together and use one custom declaration form, the $10K includes everybody. I didn't know that, did you?

However, it doesn't say what happens if each person fills out their own declaration form.

The article on a new book, The Coin-Weights of Ireland, by Paul & Bente Withers jarred my memory of an exhibit I saw at the Corning Glass Museum last year. Evidently coin-weights were also made from glass since this was an ideal material due to being inexpensive to make, non-deteriorating with exposure to the elements, and hard to tamper with without such tampering being obvious to anyone critically examining them. I have attached a photo from the exhibit of six coin-weights that were used in the 8th to 10th century. When I saw the exhibit I was startled to learn that glass was used but on further thought I can see how this was a logical material.

I have a different take on the piece about currency being washed in a S. American bank. Sometime in the 60s I heard that the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco machine washed all of the coins used by the hotel, and I believe that the tale came from a Dennis the Menace comic book. To test my memory, I contacted the Mark Hopkins by email. I had a reply from the Chief Concierge. He related that the Westin St. Francis was known for washing their coins, although he didn't discount the idea that it may have happened at the Mark Hopkins too. The Westin St. Francis said that the washing continued until the last decade.

My correspondent says that the practice stemmed, in part, from a desire to help keep the white gloves of female guests clean. I wonder if other hotels of the era also washed their coins.

After typing this I had the thought that when I had originally searched for possible confirmation, I had typed in Mark Hopkins. Searching without the hotel name gave up a number of stories about the St. Francis.