LOOSE CHANGE: MAY 25, 2025

You've probably noticed that of the four coins that are in wide circulation in the United States today, two, the dime and the quarter, have a series of ridges on the edge. According to the U.S. Mint, this is technically referred to as a reeded edge. But is the reeded edge purely decorative, or does it serve a purpose? The answer goes all the way back to the 17th century, before the U.S. was even founded.

To read the complete article, see:
Why Do Some Coins Have Ridged Edges? (https://historyfacts.com/us-history/article/why-do-some-coins-have-ridged-edges/)

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
VOCABULARY TERM: REEDED EDGE, REEDING (https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n05a16.html)
ON THE TYPES OF COIN EDGES (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n07a15.html)
ON COUNTING THE EDGE REEDS ON A COIN (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n35a10.html)

What is money? The answer may seem obvious at first: coins and paper bills.

But looking back in time, materials used as a standard payment for goods and services have included quahog-shell beads, cocoa beans, salt bricks, silk cloth, and bank receipts. And looking forward, there are ever more tap-to-pay apps and cryptocurrencies. Fortunately, several artworks from the Art Institute of Chicago's collections can shed light on the question of what exactly money is and is not.

 
Otis Kaye, Heart of the Matter, 1963

To read the complete article, see:
The Story of Money in Five Artworks (https://www.artic.edu/articles/1192/the-story-of-money-in-five-artworks)

 

In "Psychoanalysis as Therapy and Storytelling," Antonino Ferro suggests that psychoanalysis is a form of literature. The narratives constructed between analyst and patient are a medium to access deeper truths, which is healing. Owning and organizing possessions can be seen as a rare opportunity to have total control over those narratives.

While hoarding and collecting may look like cousins—each involving the accumulation of objects—the psychoanalytic stories they tell are fundamentally different. Hoarders often feel uncomfortable about revealing the degree of their compulsion and the state of their homes. On the other hand, collecting is an ego-syntonic activity: the collector feels at one with their act of collecting.

Artist, co-founder of the iconic Paper magazine and self-proclaimed "cultural anthropologist," Kim Hastreiter reigns over an eclectic collection, ranging from ceramic babies to Tauba Auerbach paintings. Her recent memoir, "Stuff: A New York Life of Cultural Chaos" (Damiani), paints an audacious narrative of her life through the objects she keeps in her Manhattan apartment.

To read the complete article, see:
Collector's Couch: How Does Collecting Differ Psychologically from Hoarding? (https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/collectors-couch-how-does-collecting-differ-psychologically-from-hoarding)

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