Last week Phil Iversen added the name of Beate Rauch to our discussion of U.S. women coin dealers. "Beate was a well-known dealer in foreign currency and traveled to many shows and was involved with many numismatic organizations including the International Bank Note Society, the Society for International Numismatics, the Convention of International Numismatics, and the Society for Ancient Numismatics."

He also noted that she "... lived in Los Angeles before moving to Las Vegas where she lived with her husband, Hans, and have since both passed." -Editor

"I asked a friend about Beate Rauch, who said that he had talked with her a week or so ago."

"It was my mistake in writing what I did. It was only Hans who passed away. My bad."

Sorry for the confusion. We're glad to hear that Beate is still with us. -Editor

"It is with great sadness that my friend and former colleague on the ANA board, Greg Lyon, passed away on July 3rd. Greg was witty and smart as a whip. He might be the only person I know that actually was on the show Jeopardy with Alex Trebek. Not many people can put that on their resume! In addition to being a smartypants, Greg was dedicated like no other to the ANA. He was interested in coins from an early age and was extremely active in the YN program at the ANA.

He also was Young Numismatist of the Year in 1989. He worked as a YN chaperone at the ANA summer seminar in Colorado Springs. Finally Greg served the maximum allowable terms as board governor and since we didn't want to lose him he accepted to be our parliamentarian when Mark Lighterman decided to run for the board. The ANA has set up a fund in Greg's honor for the YN program. Think about donating if you would like to donate to a cause that was dear to Greg's heart and also helps young people get involved in numismatics. Here is a link. Greg's fund is on the pull down menu under fund selection."

"I used to live in Iowa, and helped a bit with the token book. There are some tokens known from Coin, Iowa - here's one."

Cool - thanks! -Editor

"Regarding the Parents' Magazine Medal, the Maco Specimen Archive at the American Numismatic Society attributes the medal to Jessie Willing with a date of 1928, and MACO number 1928-012. She was primarily an illustrator."

Thank you. -Editor

Pete Smith was the first to identify the building in the mystery photo submitted by Shanna Schmidt and Len Augsburger. -Editor

"The mystery building in The E-Sylum last week is the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University. Sorry, I cannot identify the women in the foreground."

"A Google image search for the mystery photo reveals the location.

"John Carroll, Founder" statue before Healy Hall, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
https://d279m997dpfwgl.cloudfront.net/wp/2016/05/0502_georgetown-founder-1000x667.jpg

"Healy Building
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healy_Hall"

"The building is Healy Hall (Georgetown University). Appears to be a graduation day image with graduate, mother, and grandmother."

"The answer to this week's "Mystery Photo Assistance Sought" is Healy Hall, the main administration building at Georgetown University. The statue behind the three women in the photo is of John Carroll, the university's founder. I taught there for forty years."

"The only person I can identify is Bishop John Carroll who sat very still for the picture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_John_Carroll"

So we still don't know the identities of the humans in the photo, but this is a start. Thanks also to Rob Luton, John Phipps, Sarah Miller of Heritage, David Sundman and Thomas Lovelace who all identified the building as well. -Editor

"I just re-discovered an item that has been here for years - sheet music in some form of Professional Copy from 1902.

"I'm the man who makes the money at the mint"
by Cobb and Edwards.
Copyright by F. A. Mills, NYC

I'd like to donate it to the NBS charity auction at the Pittsburgh ANA meeting. There must be a piano in the convention hall, and someone could play the music and sing the words, which are of quaint 1902 vintage."

Good times. Unfortunately, this missed the deadline for the 2023 auction, but cataloguer David Fanning will accept it for next year's sale. I looked online and couldn't find the lyrics or an image of the sheet, but did learn that Cobb and Edwards were big players in the music industry. Together they also wrote "The Medal and the Maid," perhaps another numismatic connection.

Gus Edwards was a vaudeville performer, wrote "By the Light of the Silvery Moon", was a founding member of ASCAP and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. Bing Crosby played a fictionalized version of him in the 1939 film The Star Maker. -Editor

"Having a terrific time in Den Haag/The Netherlands. Went to Antwerp with my son and daughter on Wednesday. Visited the Museum Plantin-Moretus. A very impressive museum about publishing. I was especially impressed with the printing presses and the type foundry. They owned and caused to be created a huge variety of fonts, some of which are still in use today. I highly recommend it. I was offered an opportunity to print a document using a replica of the presses that are on display and found that quite interesting.

"The pressroom has the two oldest presses still in existence. The library is the personal library of the Moretus family.

"In a locked bookcase I noticed a small note that a book had been removed. I was surprised to see that it had been removed to be scanned by Google! All in all an impressive display of printing in the 1600-1800s and beyond."

Thank you - looks like a great museum. I've never been to the Netherlands, but we're starting to plan a European trip for next summer. This week our daughter and her friend managed to score floor tickets to the Taylor Swift concert - in Zurich. My wife and her friend's Mom (a neighbor of ours) are all going to the concert, with Dads and brothers in tow for the trip. I'm all ears for suggestions on things to see or places to stay in Zurich and nearby towns. -Editor

I wasn't at this week's FUN show, but here are a couple photos that came my way. -Editor

"Coin show security these days! R2-D2 style…"

The group had a good time with this - followup comments included

• "Can you order a cocktail through the thing? If not... what good is it?"
• "Our AI overlords are now here!"
• "Does it dispense cash?"
• "This isn't the droid I was looking for. (someone had to say it!)"
• "Reminds me of the cartoon showing two Daleks confronting a staircase - "This buggers up our plan for world domination!"

And the two handsome Men in Black were there for the whole show. That's my son Tyler on the left working for the mustachioed Wayne Herdon at Wayne's Wizard Coin Supply booth. -Editor

"I reading this morning's E-Sylum, the last article talks about hoarding, and provides a link to a photo index rating of various levels of hoarding. Anyone want to fess up what their "coin room" looks like?

"I'll go first.....using the Living Room set of images, I'm about a 1.5 (my wife vehemently disagrees!), in that while I do have stuff, mostly catalogs and papers, piled on the floor and a chair, there is no clothing or garbage on the floor."

Other reader comments included:

• "That is absolutely hilarious… There's no way my wife would allow me to go outside my desk top which is a solid 5, complete with empty coffee mugs, coins boxes and catalogs! Scary stuff."
• "Wow, I may need to hire a librarian... I won't even go into the clutter numbers until I move aside some of these books. "
• "The number before or after my wife tells me to go through it and organize it all, LOL?"
• "Is there a category where you can't get in the room to take the photo?"

NOTE: the image is a stock photo. No actual coin books are buried in there, that I know of, anyway. -Editor