THE E-SYLUM TURNS TWENTY-SIX

PREV ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE FULL ISSUE PREV FULL ISSUE

V27 2024 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 27, Number 35, September 1 2024, Article 2

ANA 2024 Electronic Publication 2nd Place E-Sylum certificate

The E-Sylum is twenty-six years old this week. On September 4, 1998 the first issue of what we now call The E-Sylum was emailed to a list of members and friends of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Now archived on our web site as Volume 1, Number 1, that first message started the ball rolling. That email went to 49 people. As the word spread, subscription requests arrived from around the world and by September 15 there were 90 subscribers.

WHAT'S WITH THE FUNNY NAME? Well, our organization is the Numismatic Bibliomania Society, a group for people who love coin books and are crazy for any and all information about numismatics. Our print journal is The Asylum, so our electronic publication naturally became The E-Sylum. While The E-Sylum is free to all, only paid members of NBS receive The Asylum.

"A number of folks signed up at the meeting in Portland. To that initial group we've added the addresses of other current and former members that the Board is aware of, plus a few numismatic pen pals we thought might be interested.

This is intended to be a moderated, low-volume mailing list, with no more than one message every week or so. Its purpose and use will evolve over time - please send us your comments and suggestions.

In the meantime, please visit our web site, and forward this note to any other email pen-pal you think might have an interest. Remember, the list isn't limited to only NBS members. Don't assume they're already on the list; we're starting small, but with your help we can grow."

And grow and evolve we did. Each issue now contains 25 to 30 (and sometimes more) articles, and our subscription list includes 7,250 email addresses. Rather than just a vehicle for announcements about the Numismatic Bibliomania Society, we've become a weekly forum where "numismatic bibliophiles, researchers and just plain collectors" congregate to exchange information and ideas about numismatics and numismatic research. Most of the top numismatic authors, curators and collectors around the U.S. and the world are subscribers and contributors.

Along the way we've won multiple awards including the Burnett Anderson Memorial Award for Excellence in Numismatic Writing, back-to-back-to-back First Place awards in the electronic category of the American Numismatic Association's Barbara J. Gregory Outstanding Club Publications competition in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and second place in 2024.

Despite the work that goes into each issue, it's always fun to put together. Our readers and fine advertisers are what keep me going - you folks are the best any editor could dream for, and we're not done growing and evolving.

So what's new? While our steadfast webmaster Bruce Perdue keeps everything online for numismatists around the world, in May our sponsor the Numismatic Bibliomania Society brought on Garrett Ziss to assist me for a few hours per issue. He's been doing a great job pulling together and formatting articles. It's nice to have a helper and backup. He made sure the issue got finished in July when I was off vacationing in Switzerland with my wife and daughter, and he'll do the same next week while I'm on another trip with my wife and one of our sons.

What else? As mentioned a few weeks back, we're experimenting with MailChimp as our new emailing service. If you'd like to try out this alternate version, please go to this page and enter your name and email address: http://eepurl.com/iAHJaA . We're still working out some details, and I'll occasionally send out a mailing to people on this new list.

Thanks again to all our readers, helpers, contributors and advertisers - we couldn't keep the train on the tracks all these years without your kindness and support. Onward!

For other reader comments, or to read our online archive, see:
http://e-sylum.org/