ABOUT THIS ISSUE: JANUARY 5, 2025

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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 1, , Article 28

Monday morning I saw a nice note from Nick Graver. who wrote, "Wayne, you have done a wonderful thing with your publication! It is in a class by itself. Nothing else like it." That really capped my year. It's really great to know the work is appreciated.

It was an uneventful week. I was back at my office Thursday and Friday facing thankfully short commute times with many other drivers still off the road for the holiday. Friday night brought the first snow I'd seen all year. It started heavy but thankfully turned to just rain as I got closer to home. But another storm is on the way to Virginia overnight with heavy accumulation expected. I'll be slinging a snow shovel tomorrow. -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.

"At about 8:00 Saturday morning, my smoke detector started screaming at me. My condo has ten-foot ceilings so it is not easy to reach. I got a six foot step ladder from the garage and attempted to change the battery without success.

With the help of a neighbor and a borrowed eight-foot ladder, we tried three other batteries, thought to be new, and we couldn't get it to stop screaming. Willing to try anything, I tripped the circuit breaker and the noise stopped. Now I just have a ringing in my ears."

Despite those travails, Pete submitted his wonderful article on the long history of the Osborne Coinage Company. I'll look forward to the next installment in his new series on private mints. -Editor

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.