"There's so much interesting and exciting (as usual) in the new E-Sylum: (1) the 1804 dollars and the rampant corruption at the United States Mint in the 1870s; (2) the missing 1709 Stradivarius violin; (3) the report from the Oklahoma City convention; (4) the coin hunt going on in the Chicago park (enjoyed the typo: "handmade dyes"!); (5) King Charles on Falklands Islands currency (Argentina must love that); (6) the Q. David Bowers video; and so much more. You're looking good for 27!

"I especially want to comment on (7) the ongoing saga at Coin World. After returning to coin collecting in a serious way in 2002, I have found Coin World the single most important educational tool in (a) understanding the revolutionary changes in American numismatics since ethical third-party grading was introduced at NGC and PCGS in the 1980s; (b) regularly staying abreast of important numismatic developments; and (c) learning so much about the history of American and international numismatics. The publication has helped me greatly in giving advice to that small army of "amateur" collectors out there who have inherited coins, but, not being members of coin clubs or of the American Numismatic Association, know nothing about how to value their possessions for estate-planning purposes."

Ted Puls had a changing experience as his interests developed from U.S. to world coinage. -Editor

"I have been a subscriber to Coin World since about the 1970's. The weekly reading was initially very educational then, during "higher education", it became a weekly respite from stress. As time went on my interest in world coins increased and Coin World's interest seemed to decrease. It became a sales sheet about prices of U.S. coins that sold and often included little history or story except how much it sold for before. I was going to stop resubscribing last year due to this but instead wrote a letter and asked for more world coin articles. My self centered evaluation was that they did improve the world coin article (yes singular word is intended) but did not increase in telling history, or even the "story", about the coin in the rest of the paper. This direction which excludes beginning collectors interest and mine, worries me for the future of the hobby."

Last week I noted how we all need to support our numismatic publications with our subscription and advertising dollars. As a public service, here are links to subscribe to the major U.S. commercial numismatic publications. -Editor

There, was that so hard? Enjoy your new subscriptions and let us know what you think of some of the articles you read. -Editor