"I always so enjoy The E-Sylum. Being cooped up for likely a number of months now I’ll be able to have the time to read more of the links that you include in so many of the articles. "

"Not long after Isaac Newton earned his bachelor’s degree from Cambridge University, the entire school closed down due to the plague. (Sound familiar?) Young Newton must have been frustrated to find himself back home in gloomy Woolsthorpe, stuck in the house with nothing to do after experiencing the excitement and discovery of university life. He spent more than a year mostly in his room and, with nothing better to do than play with prisms and apples, worked out optics, gravity, and calculus. To this day, we refer to 1666 as Newton's Annus Mirabilis, or "Miracle Year."

"Sharing our collecting passion with others is part of what makes the hobby so enjoyable, and the ANA offers an abundance of online programs that can keep you connected to the ANA community. As a matter of fact, we recently launched a members-only Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/anamembers/ where members can share in a safe environment all things numismatic (no trading or advertising allowed). And we’ll be creating more online content in the weeks ahead to keep you entertained, educated and engaged.

"I also want to remind you that your membership includes access to The Numismatist archives from 1888 to the present via Exact Editions at money.org/thenumismatist/digitalarchives. (Call us at 800-514-2646 if you need assistance logging in.) And Money Museum virtual exhibits are available at money.org/money-museum/virtual-exhibits. Young collectors in your household can find all kinds of ways to get involved with games, quizzes and coin projects at money.org/young-numismatists.

"ANA President Steve Ellsworth, your Board of Governors and I also are working on contingency plans for Summer Seminar and the Pittsburgh World’s Fair of Money, should it be necessary to cancel these events to keep our members and community safe. Information will be posted on money.org as updates become available.

"Because Colorado’s Governor has issued a "stay at home" directive, the ANA team is working remotely to serve you. Rest assured that our phone lines and email are open and staff is prepared to be responsive to your inquiries, (although it may take a tad longer than usual); your patience is appreciated."

"We’re doing fine here in Ohio, and George is ok in California. The only people in our office are Maria and me, so we’re able to go in when we want (though I’ve been working at home about half the time and Maria has been staying put). As I write, I’m participating in the Birmingham Assay Office Library sale online, so life goes on. Our retail sales from the website have been ok. Our main question is whether or not our next sale catalogue will be printed or purely digital—if the printer is closed, then we may have to experiment. We’ll see."

"I've been going to Bonanza everyday and getting work done. eBay orders are every day. Just a few customers at the store in recent days, although 90% of the calls are about gold and silver. Pretty much sold out of bullion items, even at very high premiums. Eating breakfast at home, lunch delivered to the store and pick up takeout for dinner. Strange is an understatement."

"Due to my concern for my staff we are going to an as needed basis for being in the office. It’s a partial shutdown that I hope will be reasonably short lived as the curve flattens. I suspect 2-6 weeks. We will continue to do a biz but I can’t really try too hard right now.

"That said we have been evolving our business model and putting more coins onto our site, and at lower price points. Business was pretty decent as we were getting it rolling. We have tripled what we had. More listings are coming but there will be some delays in getting packages mailed out. Auction business is the beneficiary of shows closing down and we have gotten decent to pretty good results on our consignments that were already in the pipeline.

"At present the coin market is proving to be incredibly resilient, in the face of an international pandemic and what will surely be a severe recession. Overall I don’t think the hobby will be affected in the long run except that coin shows will suffer and online trading platforms and Auctions will grow stronger, a trend that was already playing out before the pandemic.

"It’s not dissimilar from the Amazon effect on shopping malls. Shows may very well become too costly and now too dangerous for anything but more decline. Could even be the end of an era for me. I have been traveling to shows for forty years. I’m going to have to learn some new moves on the computer. Check out my site - it will continue to grow. "

"As most events (including coin shows) have been shut down due to the coronavirus (covid-19) and many of us are stuck at home (or will be shortly) due to self quarantining and social distancing---this might be a good time to try and do some business via email or telephone--working on our hobbies from home--checking out various websites on the internet, etc---

":Our firm--like many others--are still trying to earn a living buying and selling rare coins---our firm specializes in gold coins of the world---if you are thinking about selling some or all of your holdings--please consider offering us anything scarce or rare in world gold--especially high grade older numismatic material. It can be "raw" (uncertified) or certified graded by NGC, PCGS, ANACS, ICG, etc.

"On the other hand--if you are still actively collecting or dealing in world gold please take a few minutes to check out our current inventory on our website: www.steinbergs.com We post our new purchases on a weekly basis--and all of our most recent "newps" from the Atlanta ANA show from a few weeks ago are now up on our website!

"Who knows when the next major coin show will actually take place? Maybe it will be the Pittsburgh ANA in August? Nobody knows---but in the meantime let's all try and do some business together--buying or selling--since we are all in the same situation!"

"Irma and I are well. We began self-quarantine nearly three weeks ago. I’m still going out three or four times per day for walks. I’d say the two things I miss most right now are restaurants and sports.

"I’m trying to adapt my business to the new normal. It’s a challenge with no shows and, of course, the general uncertainty in the world. Coins still seem to be selling but right now much of the day to day business is bullion related."

"We are in our office in Encino for about two hours today, same as Tuesday, just to catch up on things here. (mail, packages, etc.)

"We have stopped putting up errors on eBay for at least a few more weeks - getting a few, but very few, orders off our website.

"People don’t want to spend money they might need in the next 4-12 months, so I anticipate a very ’slow’ market for most of the rest of the year.

"It’s expected to be bad here in Los Angeles in the next three weeks or so, and we will only come into our office building once or twice a week in the coming weeks, just for an hour or two as needed. Other than that, I’m a hermit!"

"Everyone here is healthy, though we're going a bit stir-crazy, as I suspect is happening all over the world. But, we're healthy, and that is the most important thing, by far.

"All things considered, I think the coin business is doing quite well. I've spoken with a few friends about their situations, and most of the guys without shops that are closed, seem to be doing well. Online sales continue apace, though I wonder if that will continue over an extended period. Sure, boredom and a relatively captive audience probably helps those with a strong online presence, but the longer term effect of those potential buyers not working and/or getting hit with big portfolio loses probably results in slowing sales at some point. With the markets, both equities and metals, currently showing some signs of life, or at least stabilization, perhaps there is hope.

"Personally, I have enough inventory to last a couple of months, but many dealers are not similarly positioned. With PCGS closed for a week now, and without a reopening date, the supply of nice, fresh coins may start to run out fairly soon. That is the next hurdle that needs to be dealt with. I pray that everyone at PCGS is ready to hit the ground running when they do reopen. Liquidity in the coin market depends upon it."

"Our Spring Auction Sales 333-336 took place in the middle of the height of the worldwide corona crisis and under constantly tightened security requirements. Our concerns were enormous: How would the collectors react? In brief: The mood was positive and participation was high overall. For the more than 6,500 lots, we realized over 10 million euros surpassing by far the estimate for the sales that had been set at around 6.7 million Euros. The result of our eLive Auction 59 also confirms our opinion.

"Stay healthy and get well through these uncertain times."

"We went to Budapest for Christmas and stayed for the winter, returning in early March. Just got back to America in time. I was glad for my weekly E-Sylum while I as there. Thanks! Still going through 3 months of mail and other things that piled up while we were gone.

Reading your report of the WSJ article on the Thomas Gresham book, I wondered why you did not mention the article on books, "Clutter or Comfort", the front page article in the Off Duty section of the same paper. I thought it was an interesting article, with a large color picture of the library.

One thing is that the books all are about the same size, much different than my numismatic library. I would LIKE to arrange my books by subject, but that's impossible because of the different sized books. My books range from Von Bergen, Rare Coins (4" X 6 1/2"), A paper Ben Green early auction catalog is (3 1/2" X 6 1/4"), to Loubat on U.S. Medals (14 1/2" X 11"), with all sizes in between. Of course the champion is the Maris Coins of New Jersey (19" X 12"). I don't have bookshelf high enough for that one."

"Imagine this – five live internet bidding platforms in use for most auctions, all carefully picked. In fact, we work with several of these advanced forums to help make them, us, and the auction experience better for you. We bring new collectors to the table each and every auction, fostering new relationships with collectors who may not have been part of the mainstream of collectors at trade shows over the years.

"Buying on the internet is at an all-time high, and we understand how and why – that’s why we do so much with our internet bidding platform "partners."

"About trade shows - those shows held in your communities and larger regional or nationwide annual shows still, and always will be a big part of the collecting experience. Here you’ll find your friendly dealer who has amassed an inventory of goods for sale. Sometimes you have to root through boxes; sometimes what you want will be right in front of you. Regardless, these shows are still the perfect public forum for collectors. They are places where you can meet fellow collectors, dealers and offer a tremendous learning experience.

"In the advent of Covid-19, we’ve necessarily seen shows cancelled. We were scheduled to hold a token auction at the Western States Token Society (WESTS) show in Santa Rosa tonight or tomorrow night, hosted by Merle Avilla and a host of local volunteers.

"Out West, the next big coin show is at the Long Beach Convention Center. If it's still on for June, and you’ve got time, go! We’ve also got the Gold Rush Show at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley on May 8 and 9.

"There are many more shows. There’s probably one of some kind in every region of America every weekend. While many are suspended for Covid-19, we support their revival once we, as a country and society, have successfully conquered this pandemic. It may take a while, and the current plans appear good – social distancing, constant sanitizing, and staying home, particularly if you are sick. Along these lines, we are doing our part at our Reno headquarters, sanitizing twice a day, staying ten feet apart, and using the internet as much as possible. We also see great support from friends and clients in business here. Seven Troughs Distilling, named after the mining camp of the same name, and a company that has consulted with us in the past, has turned their production to WHO qualified sanitizer specifically for a local major hospital.

"While we work our way through the pandemic, it is important to realize we can assist. Our internet doors remain open, and we provide a huge platform from which to sell collections."

"As I sit here I am bidding in the Roma auction. Roma had to scramble to change their auction from a floor to online auction only. They have done a splendid job in my opinion. The auction was very intense and continues to be. There is spirited bidding and some very high hammers. The first portion of the sale (Stancomb) had record prices for Black Sea material. The Greek portion following afterwards was equally strong. A few pieces went under estimate but most coins did quite well. Roma also started opening coins at 60% of estimate versus the standard 80%. I believe this helped to entice bidders.

"The auctions moving forward from here will still take place but they will certainly all be online until the world has a breakthrough on the virus. "

"My book's virus had a 10% survival rate and was twice as contagious as measles, so that's different. The way it's playing out though is eerily the same - a government wary of taking bold action early and ignoring doctors, it escaping via airports, deciding isolation was the only option. Also food panics etc. It of course diverges after that pretty quickly."