"Thank you for featuring the Conder Token Collector's Club and its journals (on the NNP) in last week's edition of The E-Sylum. Unfortunately the club's own website, https://ctcc.info/, was in transition to a new WordPress format last Sunday, and most content was temporarily unavailable. Readers are invited to try again to view the new website, send me any comments, and submit material for possible use in the journal or on the website."

The new site looks great - check it out. -Editor

"Further to the stories about the "Give Nothing / Get Nothing" tokens, I have seen a few different vintage wooden nickels with a similar illustration and text. Here is one design I recently acquired."

Thanks - always something new to discover in numismatics. I'm still curious to learn more about Roy Morser, who produced the Zero Cents tokens in the 1960s. -Editor

"Are there any books, documents, or any other written record about the U.S. Branch Mint in Manila, Philippines? A lot of the documentation I found is about the coins they struck but not the back story or other details."

Well, there are the Philippine Numismatic Monographs published by the Philippine Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, and the journal Barilla from the Central Bank of the Philippines Money Museum. We've been unsuccessful so far in adding these to the Newman Numismatic Portal. Does anyone have access to these, or a contact in the Philippines we can reach out to for permission?

I'm having trouble locating it in the E-Sylum archives, but I remember mentioning a great exhibit someone put together on the Manilla Mint. There is also the 2021 (74th ed.) Philippine Collectors Forum / 100th Anniversary Manila Mint edition of the Red Book which has a couple pages of information. Below are a couple editions of Lyman Allen's book mentioned in earlier issues. I would also reach out to the Philippine Collectors Forum itself. -Editor

"Over the years, purchases from Joe Levine contributed mightily to my collections and exhibits. Back in the day, spending time with him at his table was the highlight of an ANA convention for me. His expertise in the area of medals put him at the top. His ready willingness to share that expertise put him over the top."

"The mention of Joe's inscription in a book sent to Ford, reminded me that when his book on inaugural medals was published he gave me a hardback copy inscribed "For Dave Schenkman whose previous literary efforts did not inspire this one."

Thanks! -Editor

"Regarding the mention of Pietro Giampaoli last week, you might be interested in knowing there is a catalogue of coins and medals by Giampaoli, published in 1986. "

Thanks! -Editor

Len Augsburger of the Newman Numismatic Portal passed along this image of F.C.C. Boyd from the Eric P. Newman papers. Thanks! -Editor

"One of my friends is trying to figure out what this is and where it's from. He, I, and ten other people tried and nobody knows (Google doesn't seem to know either). Would any E-Sylum reader know what it is?"

Interesting. It has the look of a token. A marriage piece, perhaps? Can anyone help? -Editor

"The above is substantively true according to Wikipedia. The picture to the left is FDR with Basil O'Connor, the president of FDR's foundation. The inference is that it is Eddie Cantor but not so. The woman on the right is Missy LeHand, FDR's personal secretary.

"BTW, The March of Dimes was an Eddie Cantor word play. There was a well-known newsreel series that played in movie houses in the 1930s called The March of Time.

"History Hustle has done a nice job packaging the facts attractively. It bothers me that maybe it is just too homogenized. Am I being too picky?

"One does wonder what coin will be struck to commemorate the Covid-19 vaccine."

"Carnival Tuesday reminded me of a book that somehow found its way into my library a while ago: Jay Guren and Richard Uran: Carnival Panorama - New Orleans Mardi Gras Medals and Krewes, 1884 - 1965. New Orleans, 1966, 201 pp., index, estimated values.

"I have never been to a Mardi Gras parade (or even to New Orleans), nor am I a collector of these medals, but the book is now 55 years old, and I understand that the custom of producing Carnival medals has evolved into a tradition of throwing so-called doubloons into the crowd during the parades. I guess this means a lot more designs have been made in the meantime.

"Just out of curiosity: might there be somebody out there who could tell us a little bit about these "doubloons"? Are they still popular? How many are made? What are the designs?"

Can any of our readers help? I haven't been there for years either. With the pandemic the parades have disappeared and many people are decorating their houses as stationary parade floats, inviting people to safely drive by to see them. I doubt there's any doubloon-tossing happening, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Krewes made and distributed 2021 doubloons anyway, either as a fundraiser or just to commemorate the historic non-event.

Here's a little friendly advice for when the event resumes. -Editor

Howard Daniel passed along this notice of a Siam Society lecture next month. Unfortunately, it's only an in-person event. -Editor