About Arthur Shippee's article of coin seizures in Egypt: The coin pictured appears to be a common Ptolemaic bronze coin, I only see one eagle, but they come with two as well. And I guess it is unique, as are all ancient coins, since they were not made with the precision of modern coins. But gilded? How about patinated? I don't see any gold. Value, maybe a couple hundred dollars, not the kind of money for which you want to do time. There are Ptolemaic gold coins, made of gold, not just gilded, worth much more. The other part of the story--bringing in some Ottoman coins is a crime in Egypt? Maybe not declaring them? It sounds as if the story has been translated to English and may have lost some content in translation.

I have to respond to Cliff Mishler’s story about the Zanzibar coin beginning his interest in collecting. In 1955 when I began collecting it was an entirely different 1900 quarter I got on my paper route that sparked my beginning interest collecting.

But a short time later I acquired a 1330 Moroccan 5 maumas) from a source long lost to my memory. It was an Arabian date, like Cliff’s. I was totally intrigued. I was hooked. I had a coin that was 700 years old! It was a while before I discovered the Arabic dating meant that it was “only” 1912. But you know, I can still feel that feeling of that ‘old’ coin almost 60 years ago. I really can. It hooked me on foreign collecting as the 1900 did on American collecting.

And now almost 60 years later, I am selling the stash of many years of gathering back to real collectors on eBay and re-living the joy of every coin as I photograph and write it up. It is time to pass my stewardship on to other collectors. What a hobby!

In the last E-Sylum in the article on Chubbuck there was a reference to a token size 20. I know I have seen a listing somewhere that listed all of the various sizes in that system and converted it to either inches or millimeters. Can you or one of the E-Sylum readers help out here?

Vincent Van Rottkamp was Peter Max's agent.