"I am trying to track down two Renaissance era medals reported several decades ago to be in the collection of the Bargello National Museum of Florence, Italy. I am wondering if their extensive medal collection has ever been published.

If so, it would help to have the title and if possible where a copy might be located (such as the ANS or ANA libraries). Thanks in advance for any suggestions readers might be able to offer."

Can anyone help? -Editor

"At least a few crude 19th century India native states coins bore dates that never got changed presumably despite known subsequent strikings or castings over a period of years, and thusly were catalogued as bearing a "frozen date." I've only collected coins of Indian native states and independent kingdoms coinciding with the British Raj from the mid-century on (I have several hundred different), but possibly there were some earlier examples, too. Scanning my old KM, see India Princely States - Nawanagar KMs 1-14, and Porbandar C*30-38. (*C=Craig)

"Some coins had frozen regnal years, for some reason, but progressing (Muslim) calendar dates. Like, Awadh early 19th century. Maler Kotla state (part of CIS - Sutlej States) made coins with "frozen" regnal years, but no other date."

"The last E-Sylum carries a clip about a new Stack's Bowers service. "Hall and Roberts will assess each coin for its quality, eye appeal and grade. "

"The problem with this and most such services is that there is no guarantee the article is genuine. Correct me if I am wrong. You may own a "Certified" uncirculated coin, but it was made for collectors in a private lab last week.

"How can collectors "guarantee" the genuineness of any specific piece? Your comments or reader's comments would be appreciated."

The Collectible Market Qualified service is a fourth-party grader, reviewing and opining on the grade assigned by a third-party grading service on their slab. But TPGs won't grade and slab a piece not believed to be genuine. So CMQ is providing a grading opinion only. -Editor

"In the August 27th E-Sylum, the Vocabulary Term definition for Numbering System caught my eye, as the issue of how to properly update coin catalog numbers was, and remains, central to my two books on Chinese ten and twenty cash coins.

"In writing The Ten Cash Commentary and the Twenty Cash Commentary (covering the Chinese general issue varieties), one of my first major decisions was whether to use (or significantly alter) the Krause/Yeoman numbering system. Although the entirety of that system for Chinese ten and twenty cash coins could be reorganized in various ways that would be arguably superior to the current system (and more logically take into account the many new varieties that have come to the attention of English-language collectors in the past several decades), I decided against such a reorganization. Too many collectors, dealers, auction houses, and grading services have relied on the current system, and reorganization might wreak havoc, particularly with regard to coins that have been slabbed with the current Yeoman numbers. Thus, for coins that were already listed in Krause (or likely seen as covered by a particular listing), I used the existing Y-number followed by a list of varieties under that number. But any variety not found in Krause at all was assigned a new Yeoman number corresponding as closely as possible to the current system. Of course, there were a number of coins that could have been listed in either manner (as a variety of an existing Y-numbered coin or as a variety warranting its own new number); there were a lot of judgment calls (and I am still second guessing some of my decisions).

"I've noticed my numbering system being used with the prefix Z substituting for the 'Y in the Y-number (in Scott Semans's website, some of Stephen Album's auction catalog listings, and some of Bob Reis's website listings). I hadn't thought of suggesting that, but it makes sense (and, of course, I'm happy to see a reference to my books)."

I came across an article this week discussing photography pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot and his calotype process. -Editor

Curious, I reached out to numismatic biblio experts Kolbe & Fanning to see if they were aware of any calotypes in numismatic literature. -Editor

"No, I don't know of any. I think this article overstates the degree to which Talbot was forgotten. He's mentioned in my article draft three times, despite not doing anything numismatic as far as I know of. I have a reprint of his Pencil of Nature, which is a great book. Talbot produced the world's first photographic negative, so he's a major figure."

"Ditto, especially concerning the notoriety of Talbot, or lack thereof. Swann Galleries well-known pioneering series of photographica auctions celebrated Talbot and his famous works. I never found any numismatic images in their sales."