It dawned on us when we were trying to track down the history/origin (and, frankly, the authenticity..) of a 1960's-vintage "So-called dollar" issued by the now-essentially defunct medal division of Metal Arts Co. of Rochester, N.Y. that one slick way of getting a lot of official information about this particular "coin" quickly and easily would be to see if Metal Arts had filed for a copyright on the design.

Copyright applications should provide such things as the artist's name (by way of assignment to Metal Arts) as well as perhaps drawings or even photos. The trouble is, the older applications/records are not yet "on line" and I am living in Alaska, making the trip to D.C. a bit longer than a day's drive.

Being newly minted members of the American Numismatic Association, and new to just about every other coin club as well, we don't know yet what resources are out there. That said, it would be fantastic to have someone located physically in D.C. that could, perhaps for a fee, look up Copyrights filed by some of these older "Private Mints". Can anyone help?