"Amazing how revered Washington and Franklin were, in many mediums including Carved shell, ivory, etc. etc., from crude to very fine workmanship. It’s fun to try to see how many one can assemble."

"I would love to see anything your readers can dig up on Eilat Cohen & his Cohen Mint, 2004-2009, located in Brooklyn, NY (really fascinating how he learned how to mint Rhodium). While working on that, he produced some 1g gold pieces & copper "bricks." Shortly after reaching his goal in 2009, he died, but there the story ends, as far as I know. Try as I can, I can't learn anymore, but you probably know far more?"

"I only became familiar with the Cohen Mint from Sean Wells of the Rare World Metals Mint. Sean actually spoke to Eilat Cohen on the phone back in 2009 at which time he ordered a number of Mr. Cohen's 1g Rhodium tokens. Cohen was the first to perfect a process for minting Rhodium, but it took him 5 years to do so. In the meantime, he produced copper ingots/bricks & 1g gold tokens. Shortly after achieving his goal & producing a number of the Rhodium pieces in 2009, Cohen died. I've found photos of his mint in Brooklyn & it looks somewhat like a cement bunker!"

"I smiled when reading the bit on "private" mints. My interest in Chinese collecting has a different twist or meaning to this term. Regarding China "private mint" is a very polite way of saying "counterfeiter". Despite the illegal (and sometimes not quite illegal) minting, the fake Cash coins were used freely in commerce. They were made in, often far away mints. Far away from the Chinese perspective ie. along the "Silk Road" in the north, and in the south: Yunnan / Annam area. These apparently were preceded by an international trade "Maritime Silk Road" coinage made in Annam, Japan, and Indonesia mimicking the Chinese coinage. These "private" mints were productive and the coinage was diverse in the variations on the original Chinese coinage. "Private mints" also copied the Japanese and Korean coinage, but less often."

"I saw your articles on the ISIS coins. Some are still up on eBay, but I think they're fake and from China based on their availability in a significant quantity on the Chinese website AliExpress."

"Here's one for the experts ! I already have a Hajj "dinar" token similar to some sold at St James London 2016. The piece here reminds me of it, so I wonder if anyone can hazard a guess as to origin. It's brass, 45mm, and may be cast - the people side is much clearer than the other, which is full of unexplained imagery."

"Here is a certificate I earned in the penny shortage days of the early 1970s. I took about 30 dollars of cents to the NY Federal Reserve Branch in Lower Manhattan, got escorted to their lower cash room, and got the coins counted and filled out a form. A few weeks later the offset printed certificate arrived in the mails."

"Simon served starting in May 1974-77, and that overlapped with Mary Brooks who served longer. The New York Times has several cent shortage articles starting in Spring 1974 thru the summer. So I am thinking this is from that earlier date."

"I hope that they circulate for a very long time. Pennies circulate for like 40 years generally, so they become a kind of mark of this moment." — Brooklyn artist Jill Magid, who had 120,000 brand new 2020 pennies engraved with the words, "The body was already so fragile." She’s distributing the pennies as a “dispersed monument,” composed of small pieces that spread."