"The act of soldering/riveting them together also helps keep them from being spent. This way they can be carried in the pocket without fear of spending them. Centuries ago in England, "Benders" were similarly carried in a pocket. A coin of some significance to the owner was twice bent and the bends helped keep them from being spent accidentally."

I hadn't heard the term "Benders" before. Interesting concept - thanks. -Editor

"I think the 1814 Indian Chief Medal will prove to be an electrotype copy made in the middle-to-late 19th century. The image is not that good but the fact it is silvered and underweight says a lot. Also the loop looks well made, a forger wouldn't go to that trouble. The electrotypes were made in two halves, so the owner may care to look at the rim and the line where the join line may well be visible. If it were made by a member of the Ready family there could be the letter "R" stamped on the edge. If by Robert Ready it is often "RR". The medal doesn't have to be silver as you demonstrate each week with an illustration of a copper example in your tail-end photo. Over the years I've been in the business, I've seen a number of electrotypes of various Indian medals."

Good points. Thank you. -Editor

"One can try using the "Unsubscribe" option; but, it usually does not work as they usually ignore it.

"If one uses a program like Outlook, then they could build a rule or rules to simply block or totally delete it.

"Another option would be to mark it as "Spam". It then shows up in your ‘Junk' folder."

"The comparison, "The U.S. Mint estimates that there are 300 billion pennies in circulation—which, if true, means that the Milky Way galaxy contains about three times more American pennies than stars," (Nov. 23 E-Sylum) is interesting. The traditional estimate of 100 billion stars in the Milky Way is considered low-end. Most likely including dim red dwarf stars raises the estimate closer to 400 billion, which makes it closer to a one-to-one correspondence – one penny for every star!

But we don't know for sure. In a 2015 NASA article, https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2015/07/22/how-many-stars-in-the-milky-way/, counting stars in the galaxy is likened to counting coins in a bag, with a photo of a penny (and what appear to be grains of rice) being shown! Does this mean that astronomers and numismatists think alike in some ways?"

Cool - thanks. -Editor

Harry Waterson submitted this limerick of the times. Thank you! -Editor