"Wow!! I have been tracing that Van Wart Andre Captured medal for months! I'm so happy it is going to the NYS Museum where I will try to see it. I found the woman who had it and wrote to one of her family members but I never heard back."

Julia provided the above newspaper article from February 20, 1990 where donor Rae Faith Robinson is shown with her great-great-great-grandfather's medal. Thanks! Below is the medal, now at the New York State museum. -Editor

"Regarding "The Ancient Coins of Pompey the Great," great article, but I'm waiting for "The Modern Coins of Pompey the Great."

Don't hold your breath! -Editor

"I had attempted myself to study the question of Tassie & coins a few months ago: well done for finding so much, including pictures.

"My interest had been awakened by the reading of John Gray, James and William Tassie : a biographical and critical sketch with a catalogue of their portrait medallions of modern personages, Edinburgh 1894, pp. 29-30 (264 impressions of Cufic coins) and p. 51 (« William Tassie added largely to his uncle's collection of reproductions of gems and medals »). I got in touch with a curator of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, but unfortunately she was unable to provide any help, though Tassie's collection is likely kept at the National Galleries Scotland. Maybe you'll have more success than me if you try again ?

"Scans of Tassie's casts would be a precious element for provenance-research and the history of collecting !"

"The Beasley archives have posted photographs of the collection of plaster impressions of Tassie seals and copies of ancient gems, etc., They are laid out an numbered according to Raspe's catalogue "A Descriptive Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Engraved Gems Cameos as well as Intaglios, published in London by J. Murray in 1791. Rudolf Erich Raspe was also the author of - and better remembered for - Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia.

Anyway the website link is:
https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/XDB/ASP/browseGemsPlates.asp.

This will give Don access to some 14,000 images on 477 plates. And, better still, if he can find what he wants in the plates he can go to Antiquarian Books - Tassie and search for the item number and get Raspe's text.

If, after all that, Don has some spare time, an up-date on the works of James and William Tassie is long overdue!"

Interesting - thanks, everyone. Don's E-Sylum submission linked to his full article on the topic - the direct link is included below. He was aware of the Beasley archives and publications in 1791, 1830 and 1894, and that many of the Tassie coin impressions were of specimens now at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow and was already planning a visit there in the fall. -Editor

"I would appreciate help from our group. I believe this was struck at the Prussian mint, 188?. The obverse was engraved by Kullrich, father and son were both engravers at this mint. The reverse by E. Weigand, also an engraver there. What was it used for and date?

"On something different - someone was doing a book/pamphlet on tokens used at adult movie houses. Was this ever done? Anyone have a copy they would like to sell?"

Hmmm. I'd remember such a book, so I don't believe one was published. But sometimes I'm the last to know such things. Can anyone help with the book or Prussian mint piece? Thanks. -Editor

"As a dealer in Colonial/Continental currency I've often thought of the contribution of African American slaves to the production of money in these times (such as cotton in the high rag content base on which these bills of credit, bonds etc were printed). In the Benjamin Franklin article it was mentioned that "The blue threads in their bills were dyed with indigo, a plant-based pigment". In visiting the Kingsley plantation in Jacksonville, FL (where the plant grows wild) one is immediately struck by the fact if it were not for slaves, American indigo could never have been produced, due to the brutal conditions of the process (the overwhelming stench & hordes of bugs attracted to the rotting plants etc)."

Indeed. Thanks. -Editor

"The Bureau of Engraving and Printing did not say so, but Mike Beck, a BEP plate printer who staffed BEP's exhibit at the 2012 ANA convention in Philadelphia, told me that this official portrait of President Obama was computer generated."

A reader alerted me to the creation of an interest group on the new MyCollect site focused on coin flip inserts. Since I'm into all versions of numismatic ephemera, I'm glad to hear that. Check it out. Here are some contributed images. -Editor

QUICK QUIZ: Where is this coin-themed restaurant? Image submitted by a reader. -Editor