"Here's a picture of a New Orleans, Mobile & Texas Rail Road Co. 1872 $1,000 Bond complete with all 80 Coupons - Signed by John Griswold (steel mills owner and Mayor of Troy, NY), 1 of 4 partners responsible for building the USS Monitor used in first naval battle between ironclads in America during the Civil War in March of 1862 (Monitor vs Merrimack) at Hampton Roads."

Thanks. So, is it 'Merrimack' with a 'ck' or 'Merrimac' with a 'c' ? -Editor

"I grew up in Newburyport, Mass., on the Merrimac River. My family has owned property on Merrimac St. since the early 1900s. Upriver from Newburyport is Merrimac, Mass. The artifacts are from the U.S.S. Merrimac.

So where the "K" comes from, I am at a loss. Everytime I see it spelled with the "K", I cringe."

The relic items Dave Schenkman pictured were stamped 'Merrimac', but I do see references online (including a U.S. Navy site) calling it the 'Merrimack'. Is Dick correct? -Editor

"I'm about a week late with this because of the ANA convention, but wanted to clarify an item in the Notes From E-Sylum Readers section of August 4.

"Ted Puls wrote: "I also don't have any reference to a 5000 year old money shekel as mentioned in the same article. To state it in a "clickbait" manner- no such money item exists. That might start some emails, but I really would just like to learn and have a reference."

"The article itself says "The Mesopotamian shekel – the first known form of currency – emerged nearly 5,000 years ago. The earliest known mints date to 650 and 600 B.C. in Asia Minor, where the elites of Lydia and Ionia used stamped silver and gold coins to pay armies." What the author means here is that the shekel--AS A UNIT OF WEIGHT--appeared in the early Third Millennium B.C. It was certainly used for weighing silver in the Second Millennium, and silver passed by weight as money in the Third, though maybe not using the shekel standard. Actual coins (on a different weight standard) were not minted until circa 650 B.C.

"So these two sentences are overcondensed at best, with no citations. I haven't written on this subject since the 1980s and cannot provide any recent references, but perhaps shekel weights from the early Third Millennium are now known."

"Looking through my library I came across an interesting item. It is a fixed price list of Fractional currency. This list was issued by two different dealers! Probably around 1885.

"The title page has two different dealers' names. At the top of the page, and also at the bottom, in blue ink is "N.Y. Coin & Stamp Co. Room 5 853 B'Way. Cor 14th St NY. David Proskey Manager".

"The other issuer whose name is in the middle of the title page in black ink is Lyman H. Low. Low's address "838 Broadway". However, under that is a stamped address "Removed to 853 Broadway", which is the same address as NY Coin.

"This item is rarely offered, every time I have seen it for sale, it is offered as a Lyman Low emission. Are any of our readers familiar with this item?"

Can anyone help?

Could they have had separate offices in the same building at 853 Broadway? Google Street View shows a modern multistory building at the site today, but next door is a much older six-story building with an elaborate stone facade. What stood at the 853 address circa 1885?

It's also possible that they could have shared an office (or building) for a time. Such arrangements are not uncommon in numismatics - look no farther than a major coin show, where two or three independent dealers could share a single table. -Editor