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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 Kolbe &: Fanning September 26, 2026 Workman's Books November 1, 2026

 

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 SEPTEMBER 6, 2026

New subscribers this week include: Robert Visty. Welcome aboard! We now have 6,370 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.

Many items didn't make the cut for this week (including the continuation of my ANA Diary), but I hope to catch up a bit next week. Hold tight if you send me something recently.

This week we open with an E-Sylum anniversary, two numismatic literature sales, updates from the Newman Numismatic Portal, NLG and ANA literary awards, and more.

Other topics this week include Lewis & Clark Expedition Indian Peace Medals, the Dubai Coin Museum, fixed price and auction selections, and Australia's new holey dollars.

To learn more about starting The E-Sylum, the Robert A. Schuman, M.D. library, the plated J.M. Henderson sale catalogue, David Sundman and the Littleton Coin Company, Greek Coin Art, the British Trade Dollar, The Redfield Hoard, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Archivegrid, the Western Pennsylvania Numismatic Society, the Halley's Comet medal, the Albany Church Penny, the 1644 Triple Unite, read on. Have a great week, everyone!

Wayne Homren
Editor, The E-Sylum

 

THE E-SYLUM TURNS TWENTY-EIGHT

The E-Sylum is twenty-eight years old this week. On September 4, 1998 the first issue of what we now call The E-Sylum was emailed to a list of members and friends of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Now archived on our web site as Volume 1, Number 1, that first message started the ball rolling. That email went to 49 people. As the word spread, subscription requests arrived from around the world and by September 15 there were 90 subscribers.

WHAT'S WITH THE FUNNY NAME? Well, our organization is the Numismatic Bibliomania Society, a group for people who love coin books and are crazy for any and all information about numismatics. Our print journal is The Asylum, so our electronic publication naturally became The E-Sylum. While The E-Sylum is free to all, only paid members of NBS receive The Asylum.

An excerpt from the September 4, 1998 message:

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KOLBE & FANNING SALE 178 ANNOUNCED

Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers are proud to announce that we will be offering the outstanding numismatic library assembled by Robert A. Schuman, M.D., on Saturday, September 26, 2026. The Schuman Library focuses on numismatics of the United States, and includes exceptional photographically illustrated classic auction catalogues (including every plated Chapman catalogue and nearly every plated Elder catalogue), rare periodicals, special editions, association copies, and much else.

Some highlights of the sale include:

 

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LANG NUMISMATIC LITERATURE AUCTION 13

Dear friends of numismatic literature,

This time it's going to be big—no, even bigger! On September 29 and 30, 2026, our 13th auction of numismatic literature will take place, as usual, on the Auex platform. You read that right: two days with approximately 2,000 lots. There's sure to be something for you!

In addition to the third part of Duplicates from the Library of Neu Numismatik AG, you can look forward to a wide selection of numismatic literature covering various fields, including items from the library of a former coin dealer.

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MYSTERY METAL RODS FOUND IN BOOK

Mystery Metal Rods Found in Book on Ancient Art

Recently I ordered a copy of Ancient Art in Bowdoin College, by Kevin Herbert. The book was duly received from an online bookseller. Upon examining the book, a group of metal rods fell out of the spine. Their purpose is unclear to me. Was this book smuggled into a correctional facility? As for the book itself, its numismatic content is a catalog of 51 Roman Imperial bronzes donated by John Max Wulfing to Bowdoin in 1926.

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VIDEO: ANA LEGACY SERIES: DAVID SUNDMAN

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2026 NUMISMATIC LITERARY GUILD AWARDS

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2026 ANA LITERARY AWARD WINNERS

The American Numismatic Association's (ANA) 2026 literary awards – recognizing articles published in the 2025 volume of its official magazine, The Numismatist – were presented during the Member Awards and Donor Celebration at the Pittsburgh World's Fair of Money® on August 27. The Numismatist was launched by ANA founder and first editor Dr. George F. Heath in 1888. This year marks its 139th volume.

The Heath Literary Award, introduced in 1949, acknowledges outstanding articles published in the preceding 12 months.

• First place goes to William Eckberg for "Pattern Enigma" (November 2025). The author will receive $250, an engraved nickel-silver medal, and a certificate.
• Russ Bega earned second place ($100, an engraved bronze medal, and a certificate) for "Counterfeit, He Wrote" (August 2025).
• In third place (engraved bronze medal and a certificate) is David Schenkman for "The Greenduck Story" (February 2025).

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AIM AFFIRMS PUBLISHING COMMITMENT

For more than six decades, Krause Publications, F+W Media, and now Active Interest Media have had the privilege of serving collectors through Numismatic News, World Coin News, Bank Note Reporter, and the NumisMaster database. Throughout that time, our mission has remained the same: to provide collectors with trusted information, reliable market pricing, and engaging editorial coverage that helps them enjoy and grow in the hobby.

As part of our ongoing commitment to that mission, we have sold the NumisMaster pricing database to NGC and PMG, two organizations recognized worldwide for their leadership in coin and paper money authentication, grading, and research. We believe this transition places the database in excellent hands and will allow it to continue to grow and serve collectors for years to come.

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NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: SEPTEMBER 6, 2026

Sale of UK Merchant Countermarked Dollars
Eric Hodge writes:

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LIKELY LEWIS & CLARK INDIAN PEACE MEDALS

Following a thorough course of testing and analysis carried out earlier this year, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West has definitively authenticated a trove of rare and historically significant medals tied to key periods and events in the history of the American West spanning more than 100 years.

Some items in the collections have been hailed by experts as profoundly consequential, and are on view now at the Center in Cody, Wyoming.

Four of the medals, each a different Indian peace medals, are of the type that were handed out to Tribal members as part of treaty negotiations or other contact with U.S. Government representatives. One exceptionally rare such medal is one of only three of its kind taken by Lewis & Clark on their Corps of Discovery Expedition from 1804-1806.

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ARCHIVEGRID

Andrew Pollock writes:

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THE DUBAI COINS MUSEUM

The Dubai Coins Museum sits within the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, the city's oldest surviving residential quarter, where wind-tower architecture and narrow lanes give you a sense of history, culture and place. The museum itself is compact, but the collection is outstanding.

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VOCABULARY TERM: STRUCK

Struck. A numismatic or medallic item made by striking with dies in a press for that purpose. The struck piece can have one or two sides; when one-sided it is called uniface. Even uniface pieces are struck with two dies however (just one is blank, called a jack die). Struck pieces are in contrast to other forms of manufacture: cast, repoussé, niello, forged. While ancient coins were diestruck, with hammer and anvil, coins of the middle ages were considered hammered. With the invention of the screw press in 1506, and it's commercial development in 1550, coins and medals were considered truly struck. All coined pieces – those manufactured in a coining press – are struck.

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EDITOR PROFILE: WAYNE HOMREN

WITH DEGREES IN DISCIPLINES including math, computer science, and business administration, coupled with a career that started in computer science and artificial intelligence and ended at the U.S. Department of Defense, numismatics might seem like a disconnected interest for Wayne Homren. But curiosity is what drives the E-Sylum editor. He is fascinated with how the study of money intersects with fields like geography, history, economics, and metallurgy, and he's learned more about those subjects through the hobby than he did during his many years of education. His work editing The E-Sylum, the digital newsletter of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS), might be demanding, but for a man thrilled by discovery and new perspectives, it's fulfilling.

Sydney Stewart: What motivated you to create The E-Sylum?

Wayne Homren: Initially, the goal was simply to drive visitors to the new website I had created for the NBS and hopefully attract some new members. I also wanted to promote numismatic literature and education in general, which is why the newsletter was free to all and archived on the website from the start.

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NUMISMAGRAM MEDAL SELECTIONS: SEPTEMBER 6, 2026

103700 | FRANCE & EGYPT. Napoléon Bonaparte/Conquest of Egypt bronze Medal. Dated 1798 (but issued 1808) for his role as General of the Army of the Orient (40mm, 29.86 g, 12h). By Julien-Marie Jouannin, Nicolas-Guy-Antoine Brenet & Dominique-Vivant Denon at the Paris mint.

Bust facing slightly left, with crown of lotus flowers above in a halo-like fashion // Napoléon, dressed as a Roman emperor, driving biga left pulled by two dromedaries; to left, the column of Pompey and the obelisk of Cleopatra; above, Victory flying right; in two lines in exergue, L'EGYPTE CONQUISE / MDCCXCVIII. Edge: Plain, though an old collector's number 96/34 is noted in black ink.

Hennin 879; Ionnikoff 4; Julius 661-2; d'Essling 766; Zeitz 10; Alexander 16; Fonrobert 5078; Ruedas, Moyen Orient, 11. Choice Mint State. Glossy chocolate brown surfaces, with alluring brilliance among the fields. A rarer type that serves as one of the initial medals (though attributed to 1808 by Alexander) in what would be a rather expansive series propagandizing the exploits of Napoléon. Here, he is rather uncharacteristically presented in a nearly-facing manner, rather than the typical right-facing profile head that graces most of the medals in the series. Compare to a similar example, graded PCGS SP-64—though seemingly slightly inferior to the present piece, which realized a total of $561.20 in Heritage 61614 (28 April 2026), lot 21037.

An intriguing type that features a unique portrait style within the series of Napoleonic medals, the medal features a date (1798) that foreshadows Egypt's conquest, as upper Egypt would not be fully conquered until the following year. While references such as Hennin and Ionnikoff cite the listed year as the year of its manufacture, a later date, such as the 1808 date proposed by Alexander, must be the case, as Denon himself was with Napoléon during the Egypt campaign, and was only appointed director of the Louvre upon the campaign's conclusion. This medal would serve as the first, at least with respect to listed date, which would bear the DENON D (Denon, director) stamp that would grace many others within the series. Alexander also notes that most known examples all feature the same die rust pattern filling a portion of space between the top of Napoléon's head and the central area of the "floating" lotus wreath above—an aspect that can be seen on this piece.

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STACK'S BOWERS: LITMAN COLLECTION U.S. COINS

Historic Lord Baltimore Shilling Undated (1659) Lord Baltimore Shilling. Hodder 1-A, W-1080. Rarity-6. Large Bust, MARIÆ. AU-50 (PCGS). A very nice survivor of this important issue, the first silver coin produced abroad exclusively for American circulation. Well struck in general, although we do note typical softness to the detail on Calvert's head and in the opposing area on the reverse, within the shield. Both sides are uncommonly well centered for the type and, although some of the border denticulation is beyond the flan, all peripheral motifs are complete. Overall detail is suitably bold for the assigned grade, in fact, and there are no sizeable marks to distract during in-hand viewing. The surfaces are a bit muted beneath blended russet and mauve-gray color, the combination of these two attributes suggesting retoning over an old, light cleaning. Close inspection with a loupe reveals faint pin scratches over and around Calvert's portrait and along the right obverse border that are also mentioned for accuracy. With PCGS having certified only one Mint State coin, and AU examples elusive regardless of overall quality, this piece is uncommonly strong both technically and aesthetically for this challenging colonial era type.

The terms of Calvert's grant called for him to be guaranteed all rights enjoyed by the Bishop of Durham, who had issued coins in his own name during the Middle Ages. Thus, Calvert had shillings, sixpences, groats (four pence), and copper pennies (or denariums) coined bearing his bust and Arms, and passed local ordinances in Maryland calling for their mandatory circulation. He ran afoul of British authorities, who frowned on him exporting silver from the mother country no matter what the terms of his claim may have been. Despite his legal troubles, coins of every denomination reached Maryland and began circulating there in the early 1660s. Today, most survivors of this denomination are in poor condition, often holed and plugged after use in jewelry, badly polished, well-worn, or a combination of the above. While sixpence often survive in decent grade, thanks in part to a hoard of about 20 pieces located in England two decades ago, the shillings rarely fared so well. While a few high grade pieces exist, more than one of them shows what may be charitably called negative eye appeal. This pleasing PCGS AU-50 is an exception, ranking among the nicer-looking examples from the Hodder 1-A dies that we have ever had the privilege of bringing to auction.

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STACK'S BOWERS: LITMAN COLLECTION BRITISH COINS

Exalted Rose Noble from the First Reign of Edward IV GREAT BRITAIN. Ryal (Rose Noble), ND (1466-68). London Mint; mm: -/Crown. Edward IV. PCGS MS-63. S-1951; Fr-132; N-1549. Light coinage. Weight: 7.74 gms. Presenting an astounding degree of luster and a strike that is rather well executed, this Choice offering glistens with beauty and flair. Not surprisingly the finest of three observed in the PCGS census, and one of just two at the Mint State level, this example provides an immense opportunity for the advanced collectors of British hammered, or medieval gold more broadly.

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SOVEREIGN RARITIES AUCTION XXIII: KILMARNOCK COLLECTION

Bruttium, Kroton, Bruttium, Kroton, Silver 1/3-Stater, c. 300 BC, ??S??[OS], head of the river god Aisaros right, rev. KPO, Pegasus flying right, 1.92g, 12h, 14mm (HN III 2196; SNG ANS 423). Die flaw under truncation, well-centred, good very fine with cabinet tone, very rare.

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MORE FROM KUENKER AUCTION SALE 445-446

Once again, collectors can look forward to an interesting and diverse auction week. From 22 to 25 September 2026, Künker will auction a colorful selection of coins and medals from medieval to modern times in auctions 445 to 446, featuring many special collections. Catalogs 445 and 446 comprise a total of nearly 2,600 lots with a total estimate of around 5 million euros.

Of particular note are:

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GADOURY BLUE OCTOBER 2026

Every collection is as individual as its collector. The coins reflect the interests and personality of the person who assembled them, and so it is always exciting to look at collections that have grown over many years. You can do this by browsing through the catalog of auction Gadoury bleu, in which nine collections are presented as ensembles. Gadoury has established two different lines in the past: Gadoury noir offers exquisite individual pieces; Gadoury bleu includes collections. Please note that Gadoury noir has its own preview.

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ROYAL AUSTRALIAN MINT'S NEW 'HOLEY DOLLAR'

The Royal Australian Mint is rolling out a unique new coin that stands out for what's missing: a hole right in the middle.

The new Holey Dollar, to be released to the public on Tuesday (7 September), is a silver coin that honours the unique design and history of Australia's first minted coins in 1812.

The Royal Australian Mint marked the minting of the non-circulating coin by inviting the Mexican Ambassador to Australia, Ernesto Céspedes-Oropeza, to press some of the coins to honour the 60-year diplomatic history between Australia and Mexico.

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LOOSE CHANGE: SEPTEMBER 6, 2026

Stories Create Numismatic Legends

Rarity and condition can make a coin valuable. However, history, beauty, pedigree, and a remarkable story can turn a coin into a numismatic legend.

That distinction helps explain why some coins attract extraordinary demand while others, despite greater rarity, remain far less famous.

Collectors often focus on mintage, grade, and population reports. Those numbers matter. Still, they do not tell the whole story.

Some of the most desirable coins in American numismatics became famous because they connect directly to presidents, kings, shipwrecks, treasure hunters, courtroom battles, and turning points in American history.

In many cases, the story becomes as important as the coin itself.

To read the complete article, see:
Why Great Coins Need More Than Rarity: The Stories That Create Numismatic Legends (https://coinweek.com/why-great-coins-need-more-than-rarity-the-stories-that-create-numismatic-legends/)

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ABOUT THIS ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 6, 2026

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