ABOUT THIS ISSUE: DECEMBER 22, 2024

You may have noticed we tried something new last week - the YouTube videos described in the Red Book Podcast Series article were embedded directly in the issue. This is possible now that the complete issue is published only online and not in the weekly email (which doesn't handle that format well). Many thanks to Garrett Ziss for making this leap happen.

Friday night we hosted a holiday gathering with neighbors and their kids. One of our son Tyler's friends joined us too, as did a former neighbor on Facetime from Florida. One gift for me was a nice bottle of rum, giving me the opportunity to break out a White Elephant gift exchange prize I brought home from work the week before - two urinal-shaped white porcelain shot glasses. Great fun. Another gift has a coin connection - a mug with the saying "Numismatists Aren't Afraid of Change."

On Saturday afternoon as I worked on this issue, I glanced out the window and saw a retired neighbor coming out of his house without a hat or coat, unusual for the windy 34-degree day. His beagle dog was far ahead of him. When I realized there was no leash, I finally understood what was going on - the dog got out and his owner was trying to catch him. The gap between the two was getting wider, and I grabbed my coat and shoes and ran after them. They were around the corner on the path along the main road when I passed the owner, who wasn't even wearing shoes. The dog was about to enter the busy four-lane road, but as I approached, he turned and walked toward me. I grabbed his collar. Without a leash, we took turns carrying the dog back to their house. That was close, but all's well that ends well. I needed some exercise anyway.

Later in the day I sent Pete Smith a draft of the Nellie Tayloe Ross article and got back this comment: "David Rittenhouse, the first Director of the United States Mint, is rolling over in his grave upon hearing Nellie Tayloe Ross described as the first director of the United States Mint. In fact, there were twenty-seven men who held that title before her." The problem was in the third paragraph, where I inserted the missing modifier: "the first [woman] director of the United States Mint in 1933."

Happy holidays, everyone. And remember - due to holiday travel, next week's issue may be a day or so late. -Editor

Wayne Homren
Wayne Homren is the founding editor of The E-Sylum and a consultant for the Newman Numismatic Portal. His collecting interests at various times included U.S. Encased Postage Stamps, merchant counterstamps, Pittsburgh Obsolete paper money, Civil War tokens and scrip, Carnegie Hero Medals, charge coins and numismatic literature. He also collects and has given presentations on the work of Money Artist J.S.G. Boggs. In the non-numismatic world he's worked in artificial intelligence, data science, and as a Program Manager for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Garrett Ziss
Garrett Ziss is a numismatic collector and researcher, with a focus on American paper money and early U.S. silver and copper coins. He is also a part-time U.S. coin cataloger for Heritage Auctions. Garrett assists Editor Wayne Homren by editing and formatting a selection of articles and images each week. When he's not engaged in numismatics, Garrett is a Senior Honors student at the University of Pittsburgh.

Pete Smith
Numismatic researcher and author Pete Smith of Minnesota has written about early American coppers, Vermont coinage, numismatic literature, tokens and medals, the history of the U.S. Mint and much more. Author of American Numismatic Biographies, he contributes original articles to The E-Sylum often highlighting interesting figures in American numismatic history.

Greg Bennick
Greg Bennick (www.gregbennick.com) is a keynote speaker and long time coin collector with a focus on major mint error coins and US counterstamps. He is on the board of both CONECA and TAMS and enjoys having in-depth conversations with prominent numismatists from all areas of the hobby. Have ideas for other interviewees? Contact him anytime on the web or via instagram @minterrors.

John Nebel
Numismatist, photographer, and ANS Board member and Fellow John Nebel of Boulder, CO helped the ANA and other clubs like NBS get online in the early days of the internet, hosting websites gratis through his Computer Systems Design Co. To this day he hosts some 50 ANA member club sites along with our coinbooks.org site, making the club and our E-Sylum archive available to collectors and researchers worldwide.

Bruce Perdue
Encased coinage collector (encasedcoins.info) Bruce Perdue of Aurora, Illinois has been the volunteer NBS webmaster from its early days and works each week to add the latest E-Sylum issue to our archive and send out the email announcement.