I spent some time today searching for information about The Westerner newsletter to answer to David Lange’s query. It was indeed an in-house publication intended solely for employee communication. I am familiar with the earlier editions that I eagerly read each month while I worked at Western Printing and Lithographing Company from 1959-1981. The one that Lange has is apparently that of a new iteration begun in 1995, and dated Volume 1, Issue 4, 1995. It appears to be a bit reduced in quality and content from the earlier version with the same name, and was likely discontinued late in 1995.

The original version of The Westerner was 24 pages, printed on high-quality glossy paper, in black with colored highlights. I seem to have saved only Issues number 184 (March 1965) and 197 (April 1966) and could not locate any of the others. In checking with members of R.S. Yeoman’s family I found that they too never saved any. We all seem to have read them with interest to learn about fellow workers, but never thought of them as collectibles. There was rarely anything in them of numismatic importance, except an occasional mentions of what was going on in the coin department, or something that Dick and I were doing. By my calculations, the original publication must have been started sometime around 1950.

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society's E-Sylum recently published an entry featuring the banknote concept designs that we created for QuickQuid - thank you for that! Would it be possible for you to credit the image back to the original source?

"It means Newfoundland. Remember Newfoundland was not part of Canada until 1949. In fact, before joining Canada, there was some talk of Newfoundland joining the U.S."

Newfoundland enjoyed self-government from 1855 to 1934 and held Dominion status from 1907 to 1949 before joining Canada as the country's youngest province. They minted their own coinage during these periods.

" 'NFLD' stands for 'Newfoundland' - which had its own coins from 1867 to 1947. Between 1907 & 1949,Newfoundland was the Dominion of Newfoundland. Newfoundland became part of Canada in March 1949."

"NFLD is Newfoundland, a separate British colony until 1949 when it joined the confederation of Canada. The island off the eastern coast of the Canadian mainland is a wonderfully wild and unfortunately still poor province. You can get there by a long ferry ride from Nova Scotia and, if you're adventurous by car (with a short ferry ride) on the Trans-Labrador Highway from Quebec. Fred Schwan and Brett Irick made the drive a few years ago."

"That's not a Canadian coin, it's from the Dominion of Newfoundland. Newfoundland didn't become part of Canada until 1949.

For some reason Krause lists Newfoundland coins under the heading of Canada, and the Kingdom of Hawaii under the United States, but Puerto Rico gets a separate country heading."

"I'm sure you've smacked your forehead a few times already on this, and I'll probably be about the hundredth reader to mention that NFLD is an abbreviation for NewFoundLanD ... leave it to them Canadians, eh?"

I read the piece about a world without hard cash. This brought back a memory of a book that I read. In my teens, I read a lot of science fiction. One was a series by Harry Harrison on the Stainless Steel Rat, a professional space-faring thief. He justified what he did because it gave the police a job.

In the same vein, in a world without hard cash, only those intelligent enough to steal electronically will be able to make living. Those poor, computer-skill lacking Neanderthals would have nothing to steal, or nothing to get paid in when they steal something to sell. I suppose they could get a job working for the person that designs the phone call scams. They could man the phones.

It is just another reason (although a poor one) to not go cashless besides the obvious: lack of privacy, and the big one to me, giving the banks a percentage of every transaction on the face of the earth (where do I sign up to be a bank?). We all love Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc., don't we?

I was pleased to hear the good news about Paul Nugget. Paul had kindly helped me a few years ago at Manhattan’s Stack’s-Bowers, when one day he patiently took the time from his busy work schedule there (I had made no appointment to see him) to answer a series of my detailed questions about what I thought might be ambiguous features of a very rare United States circulated gold coin of uncertain mintage which I had bought in an online auction. It is good to hear that he is doing well, as he joins the excellent team at David Lawrence Rare Coins.

"I haven’t seen mention in The E-Sylum about Christian Blom passing away a few weeks ago. Lucien Birkler told me; he was taking care of Christian in his decline. Christian was 83. He was quite a prominent dealer in world and ancient coins decades ago."

"After 17 years as a coin dealer, specializing in Ancient coins, I have taken up collecting obsolete US currency, and have assembled about 5000 different notes. My special interest is in very early notes, but not Colonial, and most of my notes are northern, as the Southerners seem to have bought up almost all the decent southern notes."

Thanks for running my query on the Columbia & Washington medal. Special thanks to Anne Bentley for sharing her knowledge on this subject.

Thanks for Lianna Spurrier's informative video. For collecting Canadian small cents, I highly recommend the Warman's editions because they hold a complete set from 1920-2012 in one 4-page folder. The French language version is ISBN 9781440237980, the English version is ISBN 9781440232619.

I got this at an American Legion post in Pennsylvania. I didn't know what the mark was until I read your article. Obviously a chop mark.

"Can E-Sylum readers identify what this note is? It is uniface. It measures 8 3/8 inches x 3 1/2 inches. It is Victory Series No. 66. It is signed S. Osmena as President. Along the top, it says "(By) Authority of an Act of the Philippine Legislature, Approved by the President of the United States June 13, 192(9)"

"The note is as colored. The printing is not engraved. The paper has no watermark. It appears to be a light-weight bond paper. Ray Czahor has never seen this note. Jimmy Steelman thinks it is a fantasy note."

I read your article about George Rode and wanted to send you a scan of a post card I found written by Mr. Rode and addressed to the Chapmans in Philadelphia. Finding the medal referred to in the note would be a fun project, no?