Congratulations upon reaching the 6,000-subscriber milestone! You do a marvelous job and I wish you (and all the readers of The E-Sylum) that you will be able to continue to do so for many years to come!

Congratulations, Wayne, on E-Sylum's hitting the mark of 6,000 subscribers. A major achievement, and clear recognition of your hard work and consistency over many years. Bravo.

Craig Sholley's piece about the electrotype Neo-Eboracenesis, plus Jack Young's look at some counterfeit large cents, prompts me to write about something interesting that came across my desk recently at NGC. It is a copper electrotype of the 1804 restrike cent, in other words, a fake of a fake.

I suppose the restrike cents were popular enough at some point to boost their population with an electrotype, but I haven't found anything about it in cent literature. I wrote to Denis Loring about this coin, and it is new to him, too. We sent it back unholdered as Not Genuine, but I suppose there are large cent collectors who would desire it even uncertified.

I saw your 2011 piece about a 1794 Starred Reverse being found.

I found one in a Seattle collection and showed it to Doug Bird and Del Bland. Bland bought it from me at a McDonald's in LA for $3500 in 1988 and I heard he sold it for $8000 a few years later to another collector. It was G-VG based on the Sheldon book and I bought a 1794 book from some guy in Michigan who said mine would be called the 'Owen Discovery‘ !

Wish I had kept it, but needed the money at the time .. wanted to ‘go to Europe on a penny' with new wife- - and did !!!

I really enjoy reading The E-Sylum. In the last issue when I was reading about the paperboy who received a 1916 dime from an elderly woman and was using it as a ball marker. I believe that the dime pictured is a rare pattern and is one of the four types made that year. There were actually six different patterns but the first two had a motto that was more closely spaced. The dime pictured didn't have the designer's initials and the B is much farther from Liberty's brow. There were some differences on the reverse which would narrow it down to a specific pattern.

I can't identify the "Floating Trophy" shown in The E-Sylum last week. I believe I can identify some of the elements that make up the design.

The shield is a Zulu shield or at least has similarities to a Zulu shield. I first made the mistake of assuming the figure on the right was a native American. However, I now believe this is intended to represent a Zulu warrior.

The staff with a globe on top is a Knobkerrie battle club. Usually this is shown on one side of the shield with a spear on the other side.

The W. NLA Ltd stands for Witwatersrand Native Labor Association Ltd. They recruited native workers to work in the mines of South Africa.

I believe the WNLA Ltd presented a floating trophy for various athletic events. I can't confirm that the medal relates to a specific event.

While this is hardly something I specialize in, I believe that the WNLA Ltd in this case refers to the "Witwatersrand Native Labour Association". An employment agency or labour broker for a lack of a more appropriate description that was incorporated around 1901, following the end of the Anglo-Boer war in South Africa.

Their primary function was, as I understand it, to organise and engage unskilled migrant labour primarily amongst the indigenous African population (hence the "Native" part of the name) for the booming gold mines in the region. Although presumably other mining operations would make use of them as well.

The design of the piece also aligns with this as the central shield is evocative of the hide shield used by Zulu warriors and the two implements flanking it appear to be a traditional weapon known as a Knopkierie. The structures in the background to the bottom appear to be a gold mine(although the photo is not very clear).

As this is not actually a token it does not appear to be listed in Hern's guidebook. And as to why this "trophy" was awarded or to whom – your guess is as good as mine. Hope this helps.

Thanks to Pete and Dawid for this information. Looking at the medal again I think there are mine buildings at the bottom of the design. An interesting piece of history.

I just reviewed the Sept. 8th issue of The E-Sylum and noticed the royalty check issued to Kurt Cobain. After digging around for a while I finally found a check I have that was issued to rock legend Jerry Garcia of the San Francisco Bay Area band The Grateful Dead. This item and others were featured in an article I wrote and published in the January 2011 issue of The Numismatist. It was issued at the beginning of their career so the amount each band member earned from each event was not all that much.