"Richard August was a contributor to the Red Book when I started getting serious about collecting coins, in the early 1980s. Decades later he was still a contributor. He submitted pricing and information to the first Red Book that I worked on as Whitman's publisher (the 59th, 2006-dated, edition). And he was a contributor to the last I worked on, twenty editions later (the 78th, 2025-dated, which rolled out this year). Everyone at Whitman was grateful for his work over the course of nearly fifty years --- a remarkable service to the hobby community."

"The early Edison cylinder phonographs had a belt-driven axle that turned inside a brass bushing which is held captive by a setscrew inside a steel carrier.

"Unfortunately, as time went on, Edison cheapened the materials to the point where the brass bushings were replaced by pot metal bushings. Pot metal has a tendency to swell up, as Dick mentioned. The steel carrier frame could not expand, nor could the axle contract, so as the pot metal bushing aged, it swelled up and made the axle captive.

"Our local historical society has a late-model Edison Home phonograph with that problem, and even the most muscular among us cannot turn the axle, so now a $200.00 machine is essentially worth $0.00."

Great story. Thanks. -Editor

"Concerning the Wales hoard of Roman coins, I hope their security system is a GOOD one. Several minor museums have been robbed lately and the stolen goods that couldn't be sold immediately were melted for their precious metal."

Always a concern - not even the biggest institutions are immune. See an article elsewhere in this issue for an example from the 2022 Celtic coin heist in Germany. -Editor

"Just finished reading another great issue of The E-Sylum, including the article about Kyle Knapp receiving his well deserved Honorary Doctor of Numismatics Award at the recent Summer Seminar. This article piqued my interest on who else has received this award over the years. I seem to recall that J.P. Martin of ANACS was one of the first, but when I went to the ANA website and found the list of Award recipients, I don't find any mention of their Honorary Doctor of Numismatics Award.

"Do you know of any such list? I think this award has existed for a while now, hence my curiosity."

I'm afraid I don't. The ANA website would be my go-to place for information as well. Kerry received the award himself at the 2017 ANA Summer Seminar. Does anyone have a complete list of recipients? -Editor

"I found a video from the Yorkshire Museum in England where a curator shows and discusses coin molds from Roman Britain in their collection. She discusses how they were made and what they were used for (counterfeits)."

Very nice. Thanks! Check it out. -Editor

Bibliophiles may appreciate this Washington Post article passed along (with rubber gloves) by Michael Wehner. Thanks. -Editor

One more for the bibliophiles, from the Librarian Humor group on Facebook. -Editor

"A truck loaded with thousands of copies of Roget's Thesaurus crashed yesterday losing its entire load. Witnesses were stunned, startled, aghast, taken aback, stupefied, confused, shocked, rattled, paralyzed, dazed, bewildered, mixed up, surprised, awed, dumbfounded, nonplussed, flabbergasted, astounded, amazed, confounded, astonished, overwhelmed, horrified, numbed, speechless, and perplexed."