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V11 2008 INDEX
E-SYLUM ARCHIVE
THE E-SYLUM FEATURED IN JUNE 2008 BANK NOTE REPORTER
Kerry Rodgers of New Zealand published a nice article on
The E-Sylum in the June 2008 issue of the Bank Note Reporter (starting on
page 28). A version of the article appeared earlier in the Australasian
Coin and Banknote magazine. Many thanks! Here are a few excerpts. -Editor.
The World-Wide Web has become a reality for collectors, dealers and
world mints alike. E-commerce is part and- parcel of numismatics today.
The mighty web is also proving an important tool for numismatic research,
aided by e-mail and e-newsletters proliferating across the many strands of
cyberspace. One of the front runners in the e-newsletter stakes has long
been that labour of- love posted each Sunday night by Wayne Homren,
numismatic bibliophile extraordinaire.Then in the mid 1990s Wayne had the notion of starting an e-mail newsletter for members of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. This group had been founded in 1979 to promote the study and collecting of numismatic literature. At each of the societys annual meetings Wayne would patiently ask for a show of hands to see who else had an email account. At his first call, cataloguer Michael Hodder was the only other person to own-up. When the two exchanged their email addresses, other members looked on in awe, convinced they were witnessing some secret ritual. Each subsequent year a few more hands would be raised until, at the 1998 meeting in Portland, nearly every hand shot up. Wayne grabbed a tablet of paper and passed it around and on 4 September 1998 the first issue of what is now called The E-Sylum was published as an e-mail message to 49 people.
Today Wayne finds he has a tiger by the tail. The E-Sylum has evolved into a weekly forum where, numismatic bibliophiles, researchers and just plain collectors congregate to exchange information and ideas about numismatics and numismatic research. Each issue is now read by over 1,100 subscribers in the USA, Canada, Mexico, England, Ireland, Wales, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. These are the vital aficionados of world numismatics. They include top authors, curators and collectors from around the USA and across the globe. Waynes newsletter has been succinctly described as, a weekly cocktail party of the worlds top numismatic minds.
Topics come from all over the numismatic map - anything interesting is fair game. Obscure topics are welcomed. Over the years subjects have included contemporary newspaper accounts of new coinage, biographies of numismatic authors and personalities, celebrity numismatists, numismatic neer-do-wells, the largest numismatics books, counterfeiters, alternate currencies, rare medals, sunken treasure, archaeological finds, and coins placed under a ships mast or on a cadavers eyes.
Wayne Homren, Editor
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.
To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com
To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum
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