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About Us The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit association devoted to the study and enjoyment of numismatic literature. For more information please see our web site at coinbooks.org Subscriptions Those wishing to become new E-Sylum subscribers can go to the following web page Subscribe You may Unsubscribe Here Membership There is a membership application available on the web site Membership Application To join, print the application and return it with your check to the address printed on the application. Print/Digital membership is $40 to addresses in the U.S., and $60 elsewhere. A digital-only membership is available for $25. For those without web access, write to: Jeff Dickerson, Treasurer Numismatic Bibliomania Society P. O. Box 578, Weatherford, TX 76086 Asylum For Asylum mailing address changes and other membership questions, contact Jeff at this email address: treasurer@coinbooks.org Submissions To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com BUY THE BOOK BEFORE THE COIN Sale Calendar Watch here for updates!

 

Content presented in The E-Sylum is not necessarily researched or independently fact-checked, and views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.

WAYNE'S WORDS: THE E-SYLUM MAY 10, 2026

New subscribers this week include: Bradley Hopper, courtesy Eric Hodge; and Tim Baker. Welcome aboard! We now have 6,529 subscribers.

Thank you for reading The E-Sylum. If you enjoy it, please send me the email addresses of friends you think may enjoy it as well and I'll send them a subscription. Contact me at whomren@gmail.com anytime regarding your subscription, or questions, comments or suggestions about our content.

Thanks to David Menchell for promoting The E-Sylum on the Google Colonial Coins group!

This week we open with three new books, a periodical, updates from the Newman Numismatic Portal, notes from readers, and more.

Other topics this week include U.S. Large Cent varieties, travellers' money, Liberty Seated half dollars, the Central States show, exhibiting at the upcoming ANA show, numismatic bibliomania, U.S. Mint road shows, Cal Wilson, David Gee, the hunt for Harvard's stolen coins, auction lots, the SS Republic, and the Trial of the Pyx.

To learn more about the coinage of ancient Thasos, the Medal Collectors of America, the old New Orleans Mint, single-sided medals, Bank Of China notes, the Timber Cutter's Bank, the 1817 Pattern 'Incorrupta' Crown, the 1837 Pattern 'Bonomi' Crown, a new combination of 1840 Rupee, declustered half dollars and hackbronze, read on. Have a great week, everyone!

Wayne Homren
Editor, The E-Sylum

 

NEW BOOK: THE COINAGE OF ANCIENT THASOS

Classical Numismatic Group is proud to announce the publication of an important new reference work for the study of ancient Greek numismatics: The Coinage of Ancient Thasos: A Guide for Collectors Featuring "The Titan Collection" by William E. Daehn, with a Foreword by Nina Hadzhieva, PhD.

This comprehensive new volume offers the most detailed collector-focused study to date of the coinage of the Aegean island of Thasos, tracing its numismatic history from the island's early colonization in the seventh century BCE through its incorporation into the Roman Empire.

Drawing on both decades of personal experience and the latest scholarship—including the work of Georges Le Rider, Olivier Picard, François de Callataÿ, Ilya Prokopov, and others—Daehn provides a major synthesis of research, including important studies previously published only in French or in difficult-to-access journals.

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NEW BOOK: U.S. LARGE CENTS 1840–1857 VARIETY GUIDE

Dave Kahn writes:

U.S. Large Cents, 1840 – 1857, Variety Identification Guide, R5 to R8, Top 60 Die Marriages
by Robert Powers

$89.00

Attributing Late Date Large Cents (1840–1857) presents a unique set of challenges largely absent in the study of Early Date and, to a large extent, Middle Date Cents. In the Sheldon era (1793–1814), the primitive, hand-cut nature of the dies resulted in unmistakable variations—errant leaf counts, distinct lettering positions, and dramatic date offsets that remain visible even on heavily circulated examples.

By contrast, the Late Dates reflect a period of increasing mechanical sophistication and the mastery of the portrait hub. As production became more uniform, the obvious "low-hanging fruit" of die identification nearly vanished, replaced by a landscape of frustratingly similar dies. The specialist no longer searches for varying berry counts or leaf positions, but must instead hunt for "whisper" diagnostics: a microscopic die dot near a star, a razor-thin polishing line through the field, or—if one is lucky—the occasional, though often subtle, die crack. Consequently, Late Date attribution is less about recognizing major design differences and more about the disciplined observation of minute, often ephemeral, die fingerprints.

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NEW BOOK: TRAVELLERS' MONEY

Travellers' Money: An Illustrated History of Bank Orders, Letters of Credit, and Traveller's Checks
Dr. Ilkka Mäkitie:

Jerne Ltd., Lahti / Finland 2026.
Format 21 x 29.7 cm, hardcover,
188 pages, fully illustrated in color.
In English.
ISBN 978-952-88-1261-6 .
Price: 20 EUR plus postage

To order, contact the author: ilkka.makitie@saunalahti.fi

These days, people who travel usually rely on credit cards they have with them, electronic payment options, or their smartwatch for payments on site.

Just a few decades ago, the question of which means of payment to carry was [difficult].

In order to be able to pay for hotel costs, transport and restaurant visits while traveling – especially abroad – it is an important part of travel planning.

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BANKNOTE BOOK HANOVER, BRUNSWICK, NASSAU CHAPTERS

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PERIODICAL: ORIENTAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY SPRING 2026

Journal of the Oriental Numismatic Society
263 | Spring 2026

Editorial
Paula Turner

Punchmarked coins and politico-religious transformation in the post-Mauryan north-west of India

Some interesting copper coins of Je?hamitra and Je?habhuti of Kausambi
Devendra Handa

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DIANE WILLIAMS (1953-2026)

On the Google "Colonial Coins" group Tuesday, Ray Williams announced:

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NEWMAN PORTAL ADDS HALF CRAZY

Newman Portal Adds Half Crazy

Among the publications regularly archived by Newman Portal is the Seated Half Society (SHS) newsletter, Half Crazy, edited by Dennis Fortier. The SHS is akin to the Bust Half Nut Club, which requires members to build a significant collection of half dollar die marriages as a condition of membership. Half dollars of this era were struck in large quantities and remain eminently collectible today at many price points. The recent May issue of Half Crazy includes a feature on the 1846 Tall Date and Medium Date varieties, one of the most incorrectly attributed issues in the series, despite the clarifying images in the Guide Book and other sources.

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VIDEO: CREATING THE CSNS COIN CONVENTION

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LATIN AMERICA NUMISMATIC LITERATURE SURVEY

Dear esteemed brothers and sisters, fellow numismatists from across Latin America (South America, Central America, and the Greater Caribbean):

I hope you are all doing well at the time you receive this message. Today I write to you respectfully, as a volunteer collaborator of the International Numismatic Council (INC), on behalf of our colleague, numismatist and subeditor of The Survey, Dr. Jesse Kraft. The Survey is published every six years in collaboration with the International Numismatic Congress (INC). The last time the Congress met was in 2022 (postponed one year due to COVID-19) in Warsaw, Poland, and the next meeting will take place in 2027 in Frankfurt, Germany.

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NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: MAY 10, 2026

More on Herbert Kreindler
Paul Bosco writes:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
HERBERT LEWIS KREINDLER (1935-2026) (https://www.coinbooks.org/v29/esylum_v29n18a06.html)

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EXHIBIT AT THE 2026 ANA IN PITTSBURGH

We have three months until the ANA's World's Fair of Money is held in Pittsburgh on August 25-29, but members who would like to enter an exhibit at that show must submit an application form well before the show's start.

Please visit https://www.money.org/convention-exhibits/ for an overview of the Collector Exhibit Area -- this page has links to the WFM Exhibit Rules and to the WFM Exhibit Application (each exhibit requires its own application form).

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SYMPTOMS OF NUMISMATIC BIBLIOMANIA

1. Not only do you "buy the book before you buy the coin," you sometimes never even get around to buying the coin.

2. You have more books by Q. David Bowers than Q. David Bowers does.

3. All your Dansco Bookshelf Albums are empty and were only bought because they look good on the bookshelf.

4. You have nightmares that the latest edition of Krause Standard Catalog of World Coins will only be available on kindle.

5. You dream about the ANA publishing ANA Grading Standards for Numismatic Books.

6. No one understands why you must purchase a new edition of the Red Book every year, and neither do you.

7. You refuse to part with your decrepit hoard of The Numismatist even though you have access to every issue on the ANA Digital Archive.

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DIRECTOR PAUL HOLLIS AT NEW ORLEANS MINT MUSEUM

United States Mint (Mint) Director Paul Hollis will attend a special event at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, "the Old U.S. Mint" to celebrate the Nation's Semiquincentennial on May 8 from 4 to 6 p.m. CDT.

Hollis, the 41st director of the United States Mint and a Louisiana native, will share how the Mint is celebrating the Nation's 250th anniversary with special coins and medals. Brandon Beach, Treasurer of the United States, will also be in attendance.

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DECLARATION COIN LAUNCH AT MONTICELLO

Join Monticello and the United States Mint for a celebration of the new Declaration of Independence Semiquincentennial Coin, commemorating 250 years since the signing of Jefferson's Declaration in 1776.

There are few places more fitting to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence than Monticello — the home of the man who wrote the words that launched a nation.

The program includes remarks from the Director of the U.S. Mint and a special appearance by Thomas Jefferson, portrayed by Bill Barker, bringing the moment to life at the site where so much of America's history took shape.

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VOCABULARY TERM: SINGLE-SIDED

Single-sided. A uniface cast medallic item. The backside or reverse of a single-sided item may be smooth, rough, have depressed areas congruent with the high relief of the obverse (called cast hollow), or have a surface of ripples and rounded edges typical of an open mold casting. The back side may also have a backplate. The reverse often has a maker's mark, a foundry mark or hallmarking, or, the item can have a hanger for wall mounting. The term is applied only to cast pieces (a one-sided struck piece is called uniface). Cast medallic items with both obverse and reverse designs are said to be double-sided.

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CALVIN OTTO WILSON, JR. (1944-2018)

Cal Wilson helped guide the Numismatic Bibliomania Society through its formative years. He served as first president of the Society. He also helped many bibliomaniacs expand their libraries.

He was born in Pensacola, Florida, on August 18, 1944. His father, Calvin Otto Wilson, Sr. (1920-2001), was a veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor who served 27 years in the Navy. The father brought home coins from his foreign deployments that he gave to his three sons. His mother was Nevada Hall (1926-2005).

Wilson included an autobiography in the first issue of his newsletter, Wilson's Numismatic Repository. He mentioned a Boy Scout Merit Badge counselor who told him the importance of numismatic literature. His first coin book, acquired in 1957, was a thirteenth edition "Red Book."

Cal graduated from Pensacola High School in 1962, attended Pensacola Junior College and Florida State University where he was a member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.

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DAVID GEE, AUSTRALIA'S AUDACIOUS COIN FORGER

For a small but extremely focused slice of the human population, though, coins — rare ones, ancient ones — sing with a siren song inaudible to the rest of us. The itch to acquire such coins, to hoard them, to possess them at all costs, can in rare cases become so unscratchable that even the criminal codes offer scant deterrence.

Such is the case of David Gee, who in the late 1960s and early 1970s pulled off one of the most baroque and ambitious coin heists in Australian history, in which he nicked incredibly precious coins from the special collections of Australia's oldest library without anybody noticing.

The tale is featured in a new episode of ABC Listen's podcast, History Or Hoarding?.

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AI HUNTS FOR STOLEN HARVARD COINS

An AI model uses image matching and a deep learning function that translates an ancient coin's visual properties into numerical vectors

On a December night in 1973, thieves overpowered a security guard at Harvard's Fogg Museum, broke into the Coin Room, and made off with somewhere between 8,000 and 12,000 pieces of silver and bronze currency from ancient Greece and Rome—a haul worth $5 million or more (approximately $37 million today). Authorities caught the group of small-time local criminals responsible for the heist in late 1974; in the intervening years, most of the coins were recovered. But not all of them.

Now, museum staff hope to leverage artificial intelligence to track down some of the silver stolen in "the biggest art theft in the U.S. at that time," says Laure Marest, the Damarete associate curator of ancient coins at the Harvard Art Museums. In collaboration with computer scientist Yifei Bao, Marest is developing a program that works from digitized, archival photographs to scour millions of online auction records and identify pieces of the unaccounted loot that may pop up on the web for resale.

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KELLEHER & ROGERS: AUCTION 50

China, 1941 5 Yuan, Bank Of China, S/M#C294-262, PMG 64 Choice Uncirculated (Pick-93)

To read the complete item description, see:
China, 1941 5 Yuan (https://www.icollector.com/China-1941-5-Yuan-Bank-Of-China-S-M-C294-262-PMG-64-Choice-Uncirculated-Pick-93_i59874820)

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STACK'S BOWERS: COLLECTORS CHOICE U.S. CURRENCY

Savannah, Georgia. Timber Cutter's Bank. 1859 $50. PCGS Banknote Choice Uncirculated 64 PPQ. No. 657. Plate A. Offered here is a Choice Uncirculated example of a scarce denomination from this typically oft-encountered bank where smaller denominations are well-represented among surviving notes.

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NAC: AUCTIONS 166-168

Celtic.

Trinovantes and Catuvellauni, Tasciovanus, (Late 1st Century B.C./Early 1st Century A.D.). AV Stater. Crescents in wreath, rev. horseman right helmeted and with carnyx, TASC around. 5.38 g. ABC 2562; M.155; VA 1732-1; S.217.
Some light marks. Otherwise well centred and richly toned. Near EF. Rare.

Purchased from CNG, NYINC December 2000. Ex. J. Jordan; CNG Triton II, 1 December 1998 (lot 1217).

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FOOD ON ANCIENT COINS

Most ancient people lived close to hunger. One bad harvest could bring starvation. Therefore, food supply mattered to every ruler, city, and empire.

Ancient coins show this concern clearly. Grain, fruit, seafood, livestock, and food containers appear early and often on Greek and Roman coinage. These images also reveal the roots of the healthy "Mediterranean diet." That diet still depends on simple foods such as bread, olive oil, grapes, fish, and meat.

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THE CONTENTS OF A FIFTH-CENTURY PURSE

At first glance, it looked like little more than a compact lump of earth, corroded metal and mineralized textile. But inside a fifth-century grave at Oudenburg, Belgium, archaeologists found something far more revealing: a purse that may preserve the moment when Roman money stopped being enough.

The burial, known as Grave A-104, was discovered in the 1960s in one of the late Roman cemeteries linked to the coastal fort of Oudenburg. Now, a new reassessment of the assemblage suggests that the small objects once carried in the purse could help explain how people in northwestern Europe adapted after bronze coinage ceased arriving around A.D. 400.

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DECLUSTERED 1861-O SS REPUBLIC HALF DOLLARS

News Item: Finest Known Rare Coins has recently "declustered" a large mass of approximately 1,000 1861-O half dollars recovered from the SS Republic. These coins are available for individual purchase. The cluster was previously displayed in a traveling exhibit. All coins are now certified by NGC with the "Shipwreck Effect" qualifier. Contact Rich Teschler (rich.teschler@finest- known.com) for further information.

Joel's Remarks: For those of us who study and collect shipwreck Seated Liberty coins the news from Finest Known is extremely exciting! I touched base with my contact at Finest Known and he confirmed that these 1861-O coins are indeed the last group to be released by Odyssey Marine Exploration.

This is not surprising, as various date batches of 100 to 200 SS Republic coins have been released over the last three years through VaultBox and BullionPlus. In September of 2024 VaultBox released a batch of 1861-O coins in their "Series 8" group.

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THE DODGY U.S. MINT GOLD SUPPLY CHAIN

Every year, the United States Mint sells more than $1 billion of investment-grade gold coins. Each is stamped with an icon like the bald eagle, signifying the government's guarantee, required by law, that the gold is 100 percent American.

"To hold a coin or medal produced by the Mint is to connect to the founding principles of our nation," the Mint declares.

But a New York Times investigation has found that the government's program of gold sales is based on a lie. The Mint is actually the last link in a chain that launders foreign gold, much of it illegally mined, for an insatiable market.

The Mint buys gold that originates in a Colombian drug cartel mine. It makes Lady Liberty coins out of gold from Mexican and Peruvian pawn shops and from a Congolese mine that is part-owned by the Chinese government, records show. Some Mint gold has come from a company in Honduras that dug up an Indigenous graveyard for the ore underneath.

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THE 2026 VERDICT OF THE PYX

Earlier today, one of the City of London's more curious ceremonies reached its conclusion, as the King's Remembrancer formally announced that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, would not be sent to jail.

The chancellor faced that possibility, as her role includes serving as Master of the Mint and ensuring that the coins are good and trustworthy. Each year, batches of the previous year's coins are tested for purity at the Trial of the Pyx. The trial opened in February, during which batches of coins were weighed and measured to assess basic compliance with the rules.

Although modern coins no longer contain precious metals of any meaningful value, the trial still matters because money depends on trust. As the Goldsmiths' Prime Warden observed during the proceedings, "in the world of AI, digital trickery and deepfakes, the trial is still testing whether what is said to be gold, is gold" – or, more practically, whether the cupronickel in your pocket really is the cupronickel it claims to be.

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A NEW COMBINATION OF 1840 RUPEE

The study of British Indian (BI) coinage is a continuous journey, offering a wide and fertile field for researchers to explore and introduce fresh discoveries. Across the Indian subcontinent, this topic enjoys great popularity among coin collectors. The frequent emergence of new varieties keeps enthusiasts engaged, adding excitement and a sense of anticipation to the hobby. As new findings regularly surface, they deepen our understanding of the series and make the pursuit even more fascinating and rewarding.

Here, I present a previously unreported combination of obverse & reverse on the 1840 Rupees with a continuous legend, which, to the best of my knowledge, has not been documented in any books, catalogs, or auction records worldwide. As is well known, 1840 is a frozen date; therefore, before introducing this new combination, it is necessary to outline the already recognized varieties & combinations briefly.

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THE WALPOLE SILVER GILT SEAL SALVER

Anne Bentley of the Massachusetts Historical Society writes:

The Walpole Silver Gilt Seal Salver
William Lukin, London, circa 1717, engraving by Joseph Sympson

Of circular form, on a pedestal foot, the field engraved with the matrices of the first Seal of the Exchequer of George I, one roundel depicting George I seated on his throne surrounded by Britannia, Justice and the Lion and Unicorn; one roundel engraved with the Royal arms; the larger central roundel depicting Apollo driving his chariot with chained allegorical figures below, and signed I. Sympson sculp. The reverse struck four times with sponsor's mark, and scratched Geo I 1717-1724. Diameter 14 inches (35.5 cm), approximately 61 ounces.

Provenance:
Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745)
Horace Walpole (1717-1797)
Strawberry Hill sale of 1842, lot 115, (for £40 9s 3d)
Bought by 13th Earl of Derby, by descent
18th Earl of Derby, sold privately 1940s
A New York Private Collection

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LOOSE CHANGE: MAY 10, 2026

Coin Linking Vikings to Jesus?

A person searching for possible treasure with a metal detector in the UK's county of Norfolk recently found a small, incomplete gold coin which had been turned into a pendant.

An analysis revealed that the coin was from the late ninth century, likely between the 860s and 870s AD, a time when Vikings had just conquered the kingdom of East Anglia in eastern England and were establishing control over the region.

Strangely, this coin displayed the face of a bearded man with the Latin word 'IOAN,' which is short for John.

The other side had a partial Latin inscription that appeared to read 'Baptist and Evangelist' after being translated to English by experts.

Although Vikings of this time were thought to be mostly pagan during this era, worshipping the Norse Gods such as Odin and Thor, the strange coin has opened up a mystery, suggesting that Vikings actually turned to Christianity decades before historians currently believe.

Moreover, the image of John the Baptist, Jesus's cousin who often prepared the masses for his arrival in the Bible, was considered a shocking find.

Coins from this century in Western Europe typically displayed the portrait of kings or emperors, not religious figures.

To read the complete article, see:
Scientists baffled by mysterious 1,200-year-old coin linking Vikings to Jesus (https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/article-15736127/vikings-jesus-coin-norfolk-discovery.html)

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ABOUT THIS ISSUE: MAY 10, 2026

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