ABOUT THIS ISSUE: JANUARY 26, 2025

When people subscribe to The E-Sylum we get a notification, and I always write to them to learn how they discovered us, and whether we can publish their name. On Saturday Blaine Morin responded. "I was just poking around NNP looking for provenance info on some Bust Halves I have and at some point clicked on a link that sent me to E-Sylum. Browsed around your site a bit and found the broad range of numismatic content quite impressive so I decided to subscribe."

Welcome aboard!

Earlier this week I heard from Kyle Knapp of Auditorium Books in Los Angeles. He wrote: "My store and apartment are both smack in the middle of downtown and surrounded by miles of concrete, so not at any real risk of fire.

Unfortunately, however, I was in Florida for the coin show when it started and had left all my windows open...had one heck of a mess of soot and ash to clean up when I got back. I'm staying down in Newport Beach for a few weeks while the air clears. Very tough time for our city."

Not fun, but better than the alternative.

I've known Pat McBride since my early days with the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists in the mid-1980s. He's known across the country for his work with PAN and his more recent role as Ben Franklin at countless coin shows. On Christmas day Pat was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. He has a long road ahead but is keeping a positive outlook. He's under the care of the top specialist at Pittsburgh's top cancer center, and under the watchful eye of his wife Dawn, a nurse, who shares the following update. -Editor

"We're at the cusp of finishing month one / cycle one of this new (unexpected/ unwelcomed/ unpredictable) journey.

In addition to the regular blood work/ study information, he received two units of blood plus IV potassium and magnesium.

He has apparently lost 12 pounds in one week, and he was so pale this morning, he could have scared Casper.

BUT, and here is the important part of this post, this is not unexpected for where he is in the journey.

I think with two units of blood and an electrolyte boost, he may feel a bit better by Sunday.

He is “off chemo” next week, and that too should give him some relief.

He does have a bone marrow biopsy on Tuesday (no fun), and low expectations, but this our path.

He is currently sleeping, hopefully dreaming of the promised milkshake tomorrow.

Me? I need a spa, a couple of million bucks, maybe one or two G&T's, and to be soundly asleep by about 8:00 pm."

To read an earlier E-Sylum article on Pat McBride, see:
PAT MCBRIDE AKA BEN FRANKLIN (https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n40a17.html)

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.