ABOUT THIS ISSUE: AUGUST 3, 2025

Nothing numismatic to report from my family vacation to Walt Disney World in Florida this week, except that I used cash only once - to pay for a beverage. Everything else was done through a Disney Magic Band or credit card. There were still elongated cent rolling machines scattered about, along with a few machines for striking souvenir medals. The only thing that seemed new numismatically was an elongated cent machine seen at a Buc-ee's rest stop off I-95.

Two new-to-me lunch roadstops were Culver's and Bojangles. The former is a burger chain originally from Wisconsin, and the food quality was impressive. Bojangles is a southern-inspired fast food chain. We do have one in our area, but I'd never been in. The dirty rice side dish was a nice treat.

We had fun and ate well, yet somehow I managed to only gain a few pounds. I'll credit the nonstop walking during our days at the parks and resort. Since the beginning of this year I've carried a digital pedometer in my pocket, aiming for 10,000 steps a day. I don't always reach the target, but usually get there. I set new daily records of 17,665, 17,159 and 20,291 steps. On that third day I'd hit 10,000 steps before lunch. My daughter and I rode the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios twice in a row. Catchphrase: "Rock on Hannah!" "Rock on, Dad!" (accompanied by an "another Dad joke" eyeroll).

I kept up with email and managed to start this issue and add a couple articles on our rest day between park visits. Garrett provided ten articles for this week (thanks!) and I resumed work on the issue yesterday (we arrived home late Friday afternoon). Fun trip, but it's nice to be back home, too. Hope you enjoyed this issue. -Editor

Wayne Homren
Wayne Homren is the founding editor of The E-Sylum and a consultant for the Newman Numismatic Portal. His collecting interests at various times included U.S. Encased Postage Stamps, merchant counterstamps, Pittsburgh Obsolete paper money, Civil War tokens and scrip, Carnegie Hero Medals, charge coins and numismatic literature. He also collects and has given presentations on the work of Money Artist J.S.G. Boggs. In the non-numismatic world he's worked in artificial intelligence, data science, and as a Program Manager for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Garrett Ziss
Garrett Ziss is a numismatic collector and researcher, with a focus on American paper money and early U.S. silver and copper coins. He is also a part-time U.S. coin cataloger for Heritage Auctions. Garrett assists Editor Wayne Homren by editing and formatting a selection of articles and images each week. When he's not engaged in numismatics, Garrett is pursuing a Master's Degree in Quantitative Economics at the University of Pittsburgh.

Pete Smith
Numismatic researcher and author Pete Smith of Minnesota has written about early American coppers, Vermont coinage, numismatic literature, tokens and medals, the history of the U.S. Mint and much more. Author of American Numismatic Biographies, he contributes original articles to The E-Sylum often highlighting interesting figures in American numismatic history.

Greg Bennick
Greg Bennick (www.gregbennick.com) is a keynote speaker and long time coin collector with a focus on major mint error coins and US counterstamps. He is on the board of both CONECA and TAMS and enjoys having in-depth conversations with prominent numismatists from all areas of the hobby. Have ideas for other interviewees? Contact him anytime on the web or via instagram @minterrors.

John Nebel
Numismatist, photographer, and ANS Board member and Fellow John Nebel of Boulder, CO helped the ANA and other clubs like NBS get online in the early days of the internet, hosting websites gratis through his Computer Systems Design Co. To this day he hosts some 50 ANA member club sites along with our coinbooks.org site, making the club and our E-Sylum archive available to collectors and researchers worldwide.

Bruce Perdue
Encased coinage collector (encasedcoins.info) Bruce Perdue of Aurora, Illinois has been the volunteer NBS webmaster from its early days and works each week to add the latest E-Sylum issue to our archive and send out the email announcement.