I enjoyed, even more than usual, your latest E-Sylum (Volume 18, Number 33, August 16, 2015). You make the reader feel as if he were alongside you in Chicago.

FYI, I was able to purchase a few books from the John Huffman Library sold by Second Story Books, thanks to the ad posted in The E-Sylum. The book selections from the Huffman library are superb, and a pleasure to peruse.

I also always enjoy poring through the Kolbe & Fanning site as well, and have made several selections from their offerings. The E-Sylum makes it easy to locate them.

The article on the new and improved proof set packaging machine mentions that it replaces a system installed in 1999. FWIW, back in 1999 I was working at Harlan J. Berk's in Chicago, and we ordered a lot of the sets because of the interest in the Statehood quarters which debuted that year.

When we checked our first order, we discovered that most of the cents had a ring-shaped discoloration on the center of the reverse. I surmised that some sort of suction device was being used to pick up the coins to place them in holders, and that the tube or whatever was leaving a residue on the coins which discolored them after they had passed inspection. I tried to ask the Mint about it, but as usual received no response to my inquiries. Eventually the problem went away.

Some time after I started working at ANACS in 1978, John Hunter there told me a story about a VIP tour of the San Francisco Mint he had taken not long before. He and his guide had gone into the proof set packaging area, where sets were still being assembled by hand. The guide had pointed out how all the workers were gowned, with hair caps and gloves to protect the coins, when suddenly they came upon a worker who was, between sets, sticking her gloved hand into a bag of potato chips and shoving them into her mouth! She then used the same hand to assemble the next set before her. John said that the guide almost exploded before they quickly left the area.

Kudos to Bob Leonard for his exploration of "Leopold the Hogmouth." This is undoubtedly one of the dumbest and most disrespectful soubriquets ever dreamed up for any ruler of the illustrious House of Habsburg. When I was a much younger collector I read somewhere that the nickname was concocted by Edouard Frossard to spice up the innumerable billon 20 kreuzer coins and silver thalers of this ruler. Use of such a term during Leopold's reign would have brought dire consequences! After all, as recently as the 1890's a German citizen was jailed for publicly referring to Kaiser Wilhelm II as "Windbeutel," Windbag!

Now that George Cuhaj is no longer at Krause, who is now the editor of the SCWMP?

I just bought an auction catalog of the Collection de Feu M.H. Montagu Monnaies D'Or Romaines and Byzantine, April 20-28,1896 ( this is an original copy). The problem that I have with this catalog is that it is missing three of its plates, #1, 3 and 4. I was able to get plate #1 from a Google digitized copy of the catalog the other two plates have black circles for some of the coins. I am hoping that someone in the E-Sylum readership may be able to help me obtain copies of these other 2 plates or tell me where I can obtain them from an original copy. I would then be able to get this catalog rebound as the spine and covers are falling apart.

This is the list of coins recovered from mixed (i.e. not tightly sealed and dateable) contexts of the Jamestown Rediscovery Project as of January 2015. My dissertation has listings of all the coins from sealed 1607-24 contexts as of January 2015. my dissertation will be summarized in a chapter in The Archaeology of Money to be published by the University of Leicester and coming out early 2016.

I am looking forward to the summary and was aware of about half the coins and coin types as they were talked about outside her dissertation. Posthumous Elizabeth I Irish coppers of 1601 and 1602 are scarce but found in quantity in Jamestown as are jetons of Hans Krauwinckel II. The real surprise are the quantity of debased King’s scrofula tokens. Perhaps they qualify as medical supplies against unknown new world ailments, as do the jetons as office supplies, not so much as money.

My question for the E-Sylum readership: How do you readers place value on common Virginia Halfpennies by grade, that were dug from the ground and have environmental damage? At what point do Very Fine, Extra Fine, or Almost Uncirculated “details” begin to assert a numismatic value over the historic “relic” value of these coins. A large quantity ranging from very high grade down to the more circulated grades has been unearthed and needs to be appraised. Does the old formula of knocking them down three full grades for corrosion still apply?

Here's a puzzler for your readers. Which US coin(s) prior to 1922 featured cotton (the plant) in their design? That's an easy one. Which French coin(s) prior to 1922 featured cotton (the plant) in their design? Not so easy, huh?

I can report that the American Art Museum medal collection is still standing as described by George Cuhaj. I stood in front of the collection August 8th, 2015. The drawers are pneumatic and Drawer 2 was marked “Out of Order.” As George mentioned, the Manship pieces tracing his different designs for the Navy Distinguished Service Medal are truly outstanding. You have to connect your own dots, a task not without its own rewards.

Steve Ruddell, former DC coin dealer, specializing in silver dollars and patterns, was a chess enthusiast as well. I don’t know how high his rankings were, but I remember going to a chess tournament with him.