I particularly enjoyed the Nummis Noval report. Gadsby's has long been a favorite. Susan and I had our wedding reception there, though the minstrel didn't come by that night. Did he speak only of 1819? Back in the day, he only knew of current events from exactly 200 years ago. I once attended the Old Presbyterian Meeting House and saw him there in current attire.

I must take exception to the report by Ferran Fezziwig. My proof 1895 dollar was NOT returned, and I suspect that he was the true culprit. Please have him pilloried.

I believe that Mike Kliman, Abe Kosoff's son-in-law and professional numismatist was at the Farouk sale and is still alive, to the best of my knowledge. I do not know if Mike purchased anything at the sale, as did Storck and the other dealers in attendance at the sale.

I liked your stories on medals of honor. I have understood that the Medal of Honor cannot be bought or sold. I do not know if this is true also for Great Britain's Victoria Cross. In my opinion, all medals, where the recipient places his life in danger, should never be bought or sold, but should remain in the recipent's family, or returned to the issuer.

I read all of last week's E-Sylum and became intrigued by the story "Hand cut - Hand Engraving " I first learned about printing my early years at Stack's (1947) when we had to write catalogs, send manuscript to the printers, go to the shops that did the work, and thereby be sure that all we printed was mailed out.

I went to a printing plant in Federalsburg Maryland, J.W. Stowell Printers, and watch how lineotype machines produced copy from magazines filled with type, of different sizes, usually of one or two type styles per magazine.

I saw the "brass" letters drop on a line, forming words, and as each line was complete the lyneotype would slide over to a mold, hot lead would pour into mold, and a line of type was created. Then these lines would be assembled on a tray , spaces inserted between them, and galleys were then produced to be proof read.

Once this was done, blocks of wood, having the photos made in a metal photo shop introduced to the copy, and by hand one of the type setters would create pages for print. Though from above, with the techniques these workmen had, a 50 page catalog, with photos in place, were mounted on 8 page (sometimes larger) frames and were used on the flat-bed press to create a catalog. The whole proccess usually took less than 2 days.

Coincidentally with your story in this week's E-Sylum, is a very detailed article in the Double Issue "Economist" dated December 21. 2019, entitled "THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION AS A WORK OF ART " starting on page 22 of this issue.

It reviews the early history of die cut hand leadering from the early days from early ancient times to the 20th Century. The early use of wood-faced letters, than hand cut metal, and the use of thousands of different Fonts and Sizes is very instructive for those who like the study the advent and use of printing to record history, and tell stories., write scientific books as well as novels. History would have been lost if this science and art was not developed.