ABOUT THIS ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 28, 2025

This was a normal week as The E-Sylum goes. On Wednesday I sent several articles to Garrett to work on, and he returned them to me ready to go on Saturday afternoon.

For me, Saturday was a special occasion. This time last year, you may recall, I ran for the first time in the "5K on the Runway" race at Dulles Airport, only to hear later from my foot doctor that I shouldn't run anymore. Having been looking forward to running again, I was very disappointed. But a couple months ago I went back to the doctor, asking if I could pretty please run just this one race. He said "well, give it a try and we'll see how it goes". In January I'll see him again for an evaluation, but I ran the 2025 race.

I tagged along with neighbors again, a family of four and myself. We left the cul-de-sac just after 6am. The race started at 7:30. and while we waited near the starting line one of us took this photo of the lovely sunrise.

Sunrise over the Portapotties 5K of the Runway 2025

Sunrise Over the Port-a-Pottys

Last year we arrived later and at the very crowded beginning, I didn't even know where the starting line was - I figured it out and started running long after I'd passed it. I was more on the ball this time, and more confident having done the course once before. 2,500 runners entered, and I finished 1,027 overall. For an old guy (67) who'd barely run all year, I think it was a success. Being older than all but 30 of the other runners, I'm very happy with the result. I came in 25th in my age group of 47 male runners, and only one runner in the group older than me beat my time.

I chowed down on a second breakfast when I got home and started working on The E-Sylum. By mid-afternoon I was ready for a nap and did end up laying down for 20 minutes before heading out to a nice steak dinner with my family. As you can see, I ended up getting the issue out on time.

It's been a great quarter. We've had some really super issues, and we added two new sponsors - Douglas Winter Numismatics and Heritage Auctions. Thank you for your support!

While working on the issue Sunday morning, my household was watching our Pittsburgh Steelers play the Minnesota Vikings in Dublin, Ireland. Great game.

On the way out, here's an interesting non-numismatic article I came across this week. Tim Berners-Lee created the world wide web atop the new internet, and made it free for all, the same principle that inspired The E-Sylum.

Why I gave the world wide web away for free (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/28/why-i-gave-the-world-wide-web-away-for-free)
-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.