"I saw John Madlon's article about Bucknill's Coins of the Dutch East Indies and thought it looked like an offprint. The book turns out to be a compilation of articles that ran in the Numismatic Circular in the late twenties. I've attached a photo of the announcement for the offprint in the Aug/Sep 1931 Circular.

"People who need a copy of the book have another source for the content."

Thanks. -Editor

"I enjoyed reading the interview with Fred Weinberg, who is one of the great guys in the coin business. Several times he mentioned Arnold Margolis and Mort Goodman. I knew the former but never met Goodman.

"I do, however, have something they produced back in 1965 which fits right in with Fred's recounting of their efforts to promote error coin collecting. It shows an educational coin board for error cents that was published by MARGOOD and offered for several years. Also attached is an ad for this item from the September 1967 issue of COINage. I love the old magazines from the 1960s-70s, because they're often the only source of such information. As yet they're not available at the NNP, so I have about a dozen linear feet of shelf space tied up with scarce hard copies. I know I'll never recover what it cost to obtain these, but they're priceless to me.

"The MARGOOD board is quite rare, and I've seen only three examples over the years."

Indeed - I've never seen one of these. Great hobby history. Thanks! I knew Arnie Margolis, but never met him in person. I built a website for him and helped maintain it for a number of years. -Editor

"I agree that the Zerbe issue seems to be an example of what my generation called "railroading", and in this case, with someone not current to defend their name."

"The attached painting image is Heart of the Matter painted by Otis Kaye in 1963."

Thanks. I figured it was from the American school of trompe l'oeil "fool the eye" artists such as William Harnett and Otis Kaye. What I hadn't figured on was that I'd actually seen the painting itself and should have known the answer! -Editor

"You should remember, you saw the painting at the Art Institute of Chicago in April 2018.

"Many years ago I walked through the Art Institute of Chicago and ended at the gift shop. I saw a post card for American Gothic. I asked for directions and dashed back into the museum to see it."

Well yeah, I didn't remember. I published a photo I'd taken of the painting in my Numismatic Diary for that week (linked below). In my defense I could say I was snow-blind from the relentless parade of world-class masterworks I'd seen on that museum visit.

There were no guesses from other readers, so Pete has won a Smarty-Pants award of his own. Great work! -Editor

"I was pleased to see the article on Donald Partrick in the most recent E-Sylum. I would like to add one minor correction. The statement that Partrick is not named on the ANS medal is only partly true. While his full name was not listed, his initials DPG can be seen to the left of the truncation of his bust."

Thanks. -Editor

"I acquired another numismatic photo that depicts Mint Director Eva Adams raining down newly minted half dollars. The only date given is February 13, but the action takes place during the annual gathering of the assay commission. Adams was director 1961-69, and the only year during that period when the commission met on the 13th was 1963, so the coins bore that date.

"She's accompanied by Philadelphia Mint Superintendent Michael Sauer (left) and Matt Rothert (right), ANA First Vice-President 1963-64 and President 1965-66. Rothert is identified in the photo as Commission Chairman, but the book by Francis Pessolana-Filos assigns that role to J. Madison Hunnicutt, Jr.

"The bright streaks emanating from Adams' hair are wrinkles in the print, and she did not have a Bride of Frankenstein hairstyle."

"Another new arrival shows President Lyndon Johnson receiving an acrylic block holding obverse and reverse examples of the new 1965-dated coins. It was taken as he signed the Coinage Act of July 23, 1965. Of course, this legislation gave us our current copper-nickel-clad dimes and quarters, as well as the silver-clad halves issued until 1971. Handing him the block is Senator John Sparkman (D-AL, left) and Representative Wright Patman (D-TX, right).

"The print was made from an Associated Press wire photo, which means that it was printed out from an electronic transmission. The quality of such prints is not great, as I learned four years ago when I was one of several NGC people drafted to catalog material from the Armstrong Family Collection certified by NGC's companion company, CAG. I wrote descriptions for hundreds of such photos that had been sent to Neil Armstrong during his time as an astronaut, and all were just a bit indistinct."

Thanks for collecting and sharing these. Very cool! -Editor

"There is a Nobel Prize medal displayed in the Hunt Library on the CMU campus."

Thanks for the photos! I've been to the Carnegie Mellon University campus many times, but I should be ashamed to say I never darkened the door of the Hunt Library. From another photo of the exhibit, "Dr. Pople won the Nobel Prize for developing first principles computational techniques to understand and predict the chemical structure and details of matter, simplifying the mathematical description of the bonding between atoms that make up molecules." -Editor

"I came across an amusing article published in The Hanford Sentinel for April 1, 1971. I don't have the patience to hold this for the next April 1 issue of The E-Sylum. This illustrated the Victor Buono method of examining a coin.

"Smarty-Pants question of the week. Who can explain the Victor Buono method?"

What say you, readers? -Editor