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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 Workman's Books November 1, 2026 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 AUGUST 16, 2026

New subscribers this week include: Al Flyr of the DesMoines Iowa coin club, courtesy Terry Freed, Thomas Tozser, and former subscriber George P. Welcome aboard (and back)! We now have 6,402 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.

This week we open with the 2026 NBS Charity Auction and other numismatic literature at the Pittsburgh ANA, one new book, a periodical, an update from the Newman Numismatic Portal, and more.

Other topics this week include the Colonel Green collection, Jim Halperin and Steve Ivy, the mystery 1933 double eagle, AI coin sorting, Adrian Perez, Silvano DiGenova, auction previews, Indian Peace Medals, and the 1936 double die cent.

To learn more about Woodward's Twining sale, the "Witch of Wall Street," Republic of Texas paper money, Richard Falkiner, straight edge clips, engraver Peter F. Cross, Territorial Gold, the Al Merito medal, the Loudoun National Bank and the Belgian sewer worker who struck gold, read on. Have a great week, everyone!

Wayne Homren
Editor, The E-Sylum

 

 

2026 NBS CHARITY AUCTION AT ANA

NBS Charity Auction at ANA

The NBS Charity Auction at the ANA Convention will take place as part of the NBS General Meeting, Friday, August 28, at 11:30AM in room 325 of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Sale highlights include a plated copy of Woodward's Twining sale, held April 27-29, 1886, donated by Tom Harrison. Any early plated American sale is desirable, and this example is rated A by Adams for colonials and tokens. Joel Orosz donated a copy of Anburey's Travels Through the Interior Parts of America (1791), one of the earliest works to depict Continental Currency. Joel is well-known for his affinity for association copies, and one can only assume he has acquired Anburey's original copy and is donating this example as a duplicate.

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CHARLES DAVIS OFFERS LITERATURE AT PITTSBURGH ANA

Numismatic literature dealer Charlie Davis writes:

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BOYD'S E.H.R. GREEN COLLECTION APPRAISAL

F.C.C. Boyd's Extensive Original Appraisal of the Legendary "Colonel" E.H.R. Green Collection

A Contemporary Record of one of the Greatest American Collections

[Green, "Colonel" Edward Howland Robinson]. Boyd, F.C.C. Appraisal of the "Colonel" E.H.R. Green Estate Collection of Coins, Medals & Tokens, and Paper Money. New York City. F.C.C Boyd, Appraiser, (1937).

Original red cloth-backed stiff brown card covers. 35.5 cm x 45.5 cm. (2), 442 leaves of original carbon typescript on pre-printed sheets, ruled in blue, with pencil computations. Front and back covers neatly detached, otherwise Fine with all interior pages intact. Of the highest importance as a contemporary record of one of the greatest American collections, accomplished by another of the greatest collectors of the early 20th century.

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NEW BOOK: THE PAPER REPUBLIC, 3RD EDITION

The Paper Republic is back in print – Now in its Third Edition! I took delivery of these copies on August 4, 2026 after months of turning down requests for purchase because I had sold them all. This first book focused on the economic, financial, and political challenges of Texas from the colonial period through annexation and is richly illustrated in full color on high-quality paper. All copies are hardback with a high-resolution book jacket. It is a must for collectors of Republic of Texas paper money. Aside from its contribution to Texas numismatics, it was the winner of four literary awards:

"Summerfield G. Roberts award, 2009" The award is given for the entry which "best portrays the spirit, character, strength, and deeds of those who lived in the Republic of Texas."

"Best Specialized Book on U.S. Paper Money" by the Numismatic Literary Guild at the ANA World's Fair of Money in Boston, August 2010.

San Antonio Conservation Society citation for an outstanding contribution towards "the preservation of historic buildings, objects, places and customs relating to the history of Texas. March 25, 2011.

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PERIODICAL: ERRORSCOPE JULY-AUGUST 2026

CONECA (Combined Organization Of Numismatic Error Collectors Of America) has been putting out its excellent official club magazine ErrorScope for decades. The magazine comes out every two months for club members who receive six issues over the course of the year. The magazine includes outstanding articles on error and variety coins, along with photos and advertisements for current error dealers.

In the current issue of the magazine, writers explore articles on topics such as a 1921 Morgan Dollar with a raised lamination flaw across the reverse, a review of the CONECA table at the spring PAN (Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists) convention, and an in-depth description of the incredible nickel errors of numismatist Ken Hill. The Ken Hill article is the first of three or more installments of the subject, exploring what is a magnificent and otherwise unpublished collection.

A short article notes that major error dealer Mike is offering free digital copies of his award- winning book World's Greatest Mint Errors online. The book can be downloaded for everyone, including readers of the E-Sylum at https://tinyurl.com/byersbook

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VIDEO: JIM HALPERIN AND STEVE IVY

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U.S. MINT SESSIONS AT THE 2026 ANA

The United States Mint (Mint) will bring together leading experts on the legendary 1933 Double Eagle $20 Gold Coins for two presentations and an artist Q&A session at its booth (#830) during the American Numismatic Association's (ANA) World's Fair of Money®, which takes place Aug. 25-29, 2026, in Pittsburgh.

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NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: AUGUST 16, 2026

More on Richard Falkiner
Richard Lobel of Coincraft writes:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
RICHARD FALKINER (1936-2026) (https://www.coinbooks.org/v29/esylum_v29n32a09.html)

NUMI V4: AUTONOMOUS AI COIN SORTING

After gathering feedback from dealers and collectors at seminars last summer, I've spent the past twelve months rebuilding my automated coin-sorting robot from the ground up. Here's a walkthrough of the new system, from dumping a handful of coins to full AI analysis and automated sorting.

While v4 isn't perfect, it's a massive leap forward. Numi v3 was a bulky Raspberry Pi rig on a flex-prone LEGO chassis with two cameras.

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VOCABULARY TERM: STRAIGHT EDGE CLIP

Straight Edge Clip. A type of clipped planchet in which the punch was not positioned properly over the metal strip but instead punched a blank off the edge or off the end of the strip. The blank is not a perfect circle but is missing a portion which looks cut off with a fairly straight edge. If the edge or end was not machined smooth on the strip and had a ragged edge, this may cause a ragged edge clip. See clipped planchet.

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ENGRAVER PETER F. CROSS

Wayne Homren innocently suggested I write an article about 'Peter Filatreu Cross'. Some articles send me down a rabbit hole. This one sent me down a rat hole. This comic strip appeared in The E-Sylum issue of March 24, 2013.

My 1991 listing in American Numismatic Biographies relied heavily on the listing in New-York Historical Society Dictionary. At the time, I questioned the reliability. It is time to revisit the sources.

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ADRIAN PEREZ INTERVIEW, PART THREE

Greg Bennick
Great — and people don't have to search "coin" to find them anymore, because of you. So with that said: is this the kind of work you'd want to do more of in the future? Would you be fascinated to do this for other hidden collections — or other prominent collections, for that matter?

Adrian Perez
Absolutely — not a shadow of a doubt. This whole project was honestly just fun. I loved it; it was the highlight; I loved doing it. There are a lot of numismatic collections out there — many universities have them. Some are very well digitized; Yale's collection is famously digitized. But others have these collections that aren't visible to the public or aren't on a website, and I really think all these coins should be free for the public to use — for numismatists, for researchers. That freedom to use them, for the benefit of the community, is an amazing thing.

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ARTICLE PROFILES SILVANO DEGENOVA

DiGenova's interest in the coin industry started at a young age, and by the time he started college at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he was running a nearly full-time business.

By 1983, which was his junior year, the business had taken off. He decided to take a leave of absence from school to "play it by ear."

"The first full year, I think we did like $8 million in sales, and the very next year, 1985, we did something like $20 million, which in terms of today's dollars would be considerably more."

In the early 1990s, DiGenova moved to California, establishing his locations first in Laguna Beach and soon after in Newport Beach. Now, Tangible Investments offers a variety of fine collectibles, including high-end fashion, jewelry, art and furniture.

In 1986, DiGenova was involved in starting the Professional Coin Grading Service, or PCGS. The premier third-party authentication and grading company evaluates the condition and authenticity of rare coins, assigning a standardized grade based on the 70-point Sheldon scale.

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HERITAGE: TERRITORIAL GOLD RARITIES

1851 Humbert Fifty Dollar, Lettered Edge, 887 Thous., 50 Reverse, AU58 PCGS. CAC. K-4, R.5: In its early days, the United States Assay Office combined the coinage operations of Moffat & Co. and the powers vested in New York watch-case maker Augustus Humbert, who was recently appointed as United States Assayer of Gold for California. The Assay Office was a precursor to the San Francisco Mint. Its fifty dollar octagonal "slugs" were produced in quantity and provided a semblance of official imprimatur to the new made-in-California money. This pleasing example was once certified as MS60 by NGC and now resides in an AU58 PCGS holder with CAC endorsement.

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ANTIQUE WOODEN COIN CABINET

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SKYLER LIECHTY INDIAN PEACE MEDALS

Skyler Liechty has been here before. He's picked a challenging numismatic topic, investigated it deeply, made connections with those who knew the material (and those who marketed it to collectors), became an expert on the subject, published on the subject, and formed a collection whose importance ensures collectors in a century will cite it in their own research.

He did it with the Admiral Rodney medals, inspiring his book Medallic Memorials of George Brydges Rodney, Admiral of the White. We sold that collection in January 2025. He did it with John Law medals; we sold that collection in August 2023. He did it with portraits of Benjamin Franklin, a collection he sold through Freeman's in Philadelphia in 2021.

And now he's done it with one of the most avidly researched and difficult collecting specialties in the American numismatic firmament: the medals awarded to native leaders by colonizing powers between the era of contact and the conquest of the American frontier.

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EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY AUGUST 2026 SALE

JOHN DEVOTION (1730-1802). Congregational Pastor of the Third Church in Saybrook, Connecticut, also called the West Parish of Saybrook, which later became the separate town of Westbrook, where he was settled by 1769. He taught David Bushnell, the West Saybrook-born Inventor of the "TURTLE", the world's First Submarine used in combat, preparing him locally before Bushnell went on to Yale College. Devotion's role as David Bushnell's early instructor places him directly in the intellectual formation of one of the American Revolution's most inventive figures.

May 12, 1779-Dated Rare Type of Revolutionary War Partly-Printed Continental Loan Office Receipt and with a Historically Important Connection, Signed, "JOHN DEVOTION" and completed in bold brown ink manuscript at Hartford, Connecticut, Choice Crisp About Uncirculated. This vivid near mint typeset form recording receipt from John Lawrence, Commissioner of the Loan Office for the State of Connecticut, of two bills of exchange totaling forty two dollars. That amount representing a full year's interest on two Continental Loan Certificates held jointly by "Myself" John Devotion and Major John Murdock, one being for $400 and one for $300, dated January 1778 and running to January 1779. Major John Murdock was John Devotion's father-in-law.

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THE 1936 DOUBLE DIE CENT

For years I have been fascinated by 1936 Lincoln cent doubled dies, as they have provided some of the most beautiful and fascinating doubles.

I have had several of the varieties in circulated condition, but paid very little attention to the actual doubling on them because the detail was always worn off. I would just look in the book without really paying much attention to the photographs except for the major areas of identification. However, I had noticed over the past 20 years of searching circulated rolls of 1936 cents (couldn't afford BU rolls) that 3-0-V was just as scarce in circulated condition as 1-0-IV and 2-0-V, and yet the value was considerably lower. Many times I made comparisons between the three circulated varieties, and 3-0-V was basically just as strong (if not stronger) in most areas as the other two. Upon questioning this on numerous occasions, I normally got the same answers: "1-O-V is a Class IV and the rarest of doubles, and 2-0-V has doubling on the date."

GUESS WHAT! 3-0-V is NOT 3-0-V, but in fact is 3-0-IV, and it is doubled on the date! I was finally. (after so many years) able to get my hands on a BU copy. and there is absolutely no doubt, it is CLASS IV!

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BELGIAN SEWER WORKER STRIKES GOLD

For a student with a summer job working on a Belgian building site, “money down the drain” has taken on a whole new meaning: excavating the trenches for a sewage system, he stumbled across a hidden trove of gold worth an estimated €9m (£8m).

“We suddenly saw something lying there,” 18-year-old Kobe told the Belgian news network VTM. “At first I thought it was €1 coins. So we started digging them up. Then we saw a gold bar. It turned out to be a bit more than we thought.”

The student, who has not been further identified, was working with colleagues on the site of a former brewery on Van Langenhovestraat in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde, about 19 miles (30km) north-west of Brussels, when they made the discovery on Tuesday.

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AI IS STILL HOOVERING UP BOOKS

Anthropic can finally start cutting checks to a group of authors and book publishers that sued the AI lab over copyright infringement. A federal judge gave final approval ... of Anthropic's landmark $1.5 billion settlement of a class action copyright lawsuit, Reuters reported.

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LOOSE CHANGE: AUGUST 16, 2026

Stolen Art Recovered in Italy and Brazil

If 2025 was the year of the museum robbery, perhaps 2026 will be the year of the recovery. On Friday, Italian police announced that they had recovered three artworks stolen in March from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca near Parma in Northern Italy, according to Reuters.

The recovered paintings are Paul Cezanne's Still Life with Cherries (1890), Pierre-Auguste Renoir's late-career Les Poissons (1917), and Henri Matisse's Odalisque on the Terrace (1922).

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FEATURED WEBSITE: THE LAST MUSEUM

This week's Featured Website is The Last Museum, an online search engine images of some 6.3 million artworks held in museum collections around the world, searchable by "theme, style, subject, vibes, or any description you can imagine."

https://lastmuseum.com/

ABOUT THIS ISSUE: AUGUST 16, 2026

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