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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 18, 2025, Article 26

Here are some additional items in the media this week that may be of interest. -Editor

The recent power outage in Spain gave people a new appreciation for cold, hard cash. -Editor

Paying with phone and card has become the norm, but in cities across Spain and Portugal, queues formed at cash machines - at least the ones that were still working - as shops switched away from card payments.

"We managed to pay for our coffees with card when the outage first started, [but later] we didn't have any cash so we couldn't buy a thing," Ed Rowe, 26, in Madrid told the BBC.

Grace O'Leary, 32, who also lives in Spain's capital, said she and her mum were counting coins to see if she had enough money to buy wine from a corner shop.

Jaime Gorgojo, 28, was lucky enough to have some cash on him, which allowed him to buy food and other essentials.

Last week we discussed the new book The Power of Cash. The Spanish experience confirms the utility of holding cash for emergencies, but I'll stick with my prediction that people will find or create workable substitutes for cash in response to longer-term shortages. Always have, always will. -Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW BOOK: THE POWER OF CASH (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n17a06.html)

Mel Wacks passed along this information from the American Israel Numismatic Association about new coins for Israel's anniversary commemorating Artificial Intelligence. Here's an excerpt - see the complete listing online. -Editor

"ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)"
ISRAEL 77TH ANNIVERSARY COIN
Legal Tender issued by the Bank of Israel

ISRAEL, a small land with great impact, stands at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI), contributing to the advancement of various fields of life. One of the leading countries with creative solutions that reshape the reality of our lives, Israel has come to be known as the "Start-Up Nation". With scores of research and development centers, it has become fertile ground for thousands of companies and entrepreneurs involved in the development of groundbreaking technology, including AI.

In recent years, AI has attained a place of honor in the global Hi-Tech industry, and in Israel in particular, AI has come to be of significant use in a variety of fields: healthcare, transportation, agriculture, defense and more.

Obverse: The Israel State Emblem, "Israel" in English, Hebrew and Arabic, "Independence Day 2025" in English and Hebrew, face value and mint mark. To the right, circular and linear shapes symbolize Artificial Intelligence.

Reverse: The shape of a human head and within it, an AI chip at the location of the brain, with a Star of David in its center. Around the head, circular and linear shapes represent the forms of data processing in AI. The inscription "Artificial Intelligence" appears in the upper border in Hebrew, English and Arabic.

Collectors love the thrill of discovery. Here's the story of a long-lost painting rediscovered at a Goodwill auction. And yes, a library book plays a part. -Editor

One afternoon last fall, 55-year-old Kara Spellman was working from her Upper East Side apartment when her phone pinged. Her big brother Glenn, 58, a longtime licensed appraiser and self-described "picker" who lives in the same building, had texted a photo and a short message: "Take a look at this."

The image was of a small abstract painting — 30 by 24 inches — titled "Landscape Forms" and newly listed on ShopGoodwill.com, the online auction wing of the national thrift store chain. The brushwork was gestural, the color palette felt just right, and in the lower-right corner, a signature: E.H.

Kara emailed the Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and begged them to pull the volume by the end of the day. Miraculously, someone she knew replied right away: They'd do it. She jumped in a cab.

"There it was," she said. "Landscape Forms" (1959). Signed. Documented. And officially marked: "Whereabouts Unknown."

The Jewish artist Eva Hesse, born in Hamburg in 1936, escaped the Nazis as a child via the Kindertransport to London with her sister. Their desperate parents followed soon after, and the family eventually resettled in New York. Hesse would go on to become one of the most influential figures of the postwar American avant-garde. Best known for her radical, impermanent sculptural work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and cheesecloth, she died in 1970, at just 34. Fragile and emotionally charged, her most important pieces helped define Post-Minimalism and, though rarely offered at auction, have sold for millions. Most are held in the collections of major museums.

But before all that, Hesse painted. "Landscape Forms," made while she was an MFA student at Yale under Josef Albers — who affectionately called her "my little colorist"— is part of that rare early body of work.