"In view of the recent postings regarding Alvin Sharpe and the Mardi Gras Doubloons which he seemingly invented, I offer photos of a unique piece which he struck. The piece depicts his own image on the date side, with his initials on the truncation.

"A few years back, I acquired this piece raw from a dealer and sent it to NGC for authentication and slabbing.

"With a little assistance/prompting from yours truly, I was able to get NGC to put all the relevant information on the label including the weight of 77.13 g.

"All the information on the fifth line of the label is taken precisely from the incused edge inscriptions.

"Unique pattern - 24k -For E. V. Catoe Jr."

"I'm fairly certain Sharp didn't produce any other doubloon designs in gold to be thrown off floats :)

"I no longer own this piece."

Wow, great item! Thanks. -Editor

"Before I saw the description I read the ruler's name on this coin as Amir Amanullah, whose rule began in AH1337/AD1919. The item description, however, says Amir Habibullah (rule ended AH1337/1919). Was there an error in the catalogue listing?

Even if the script is unfamiliar, there's a clear difference in the name compared to the top two lines on an actual Habibullah coin, lot 1449, for example. Any of the standard circulating coins of Amanullah's first coinage in the Krause/Yeoman catalogues can also be compared for good measure.

PS - AH1337 spanned late 1918 and much of 1919, which may account for the 1918/1919 dating discrepancy in various listings for these and related coins."

I forwarded Martin's question to Joe Lang at SARC, and he indicated they were already in the process of loading a new attribution for this listing. Here it is. -Editor

"They've still misunderstood the date, though: sure, the AH date began in 1918 but continued well into 1919, so it doesn't have to be a 1918 issue at all, unless there's something in the mint records that says it was struck early enough in the AH year for it still to have been 1918 by our reckoning."

Thanks, everyone. The lot hammered at $28,000. -Editor

"Enjoyed reading about Daniel Webster, graduate of Dartmouth College. His earlier, more famous namesake was also a Dartmouth graduate, class of 1801. He argued the Dartmouth College Case before the Supreme Court in 1819. Webster Hall is a prominent building on the Dartmouth Green. I am certain that the latter-day Daniel Webster knew all about it."

"In the town of Pesaro, in the Marche region of Italy, I stumbled on this outdoor wall of books - impervious to the pouring rain, as it was actually a recycled stage set from an opera, made of painted foam board. If any bibliomanics have an entire side of a building they want to decorate… I'm sure such a subtle renovation won't cause divorce!"

Very cool - I like it! How about a wall of numismatic books as a backdrop for coin shows? -Editor

Wayne Pearson passed along these interesting fantasy banknotes with a vertical design format. Thanks. -Editor

Jim Haas passed along this article on the microbes carried on circulating paper currency. An evergreen topic even today, it was published in numerous newspapers circa 1900-1902. Thanks. See links below for more recent stories. -Editor