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NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: JANUARY 18, 2026Thoughts on the Semiquincentennial Circulating Coin Designs 
"Thanks Wayne for the article and interview with CCAC member Donald Scarinci. It is truly sad that the committee's hard work was set aside and even sadder that the designs they selected, that represent the progress we have made as a nation were replaced by the banal, white-washed designs selected by the administration. "Thanks for all you do!" Although I like the new dime, I also think the CCAC choices were better designed than the other chosen ones, and more inspirational. It was just poor timing for the subject matter, but unused designs have a way of reappearing in future administrations. -Editor Wayne Pearson writes: "I thought this design looked familiar. It is very similar to the reverse (possibly common reverse) of the 1995 Olympic dollar(s)." 
To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
Better Artists, Better Coins "Mint director Paul Hollis DOES need to seek more infusion artists-but in the vein of St. Gaudens, Morgan, Gasparro and so on. People that know what a coin design is. To wit, this design (AML-02-O-02-c) looks like graffiti for a train car. In no way does it resemble a coin. Design (AML-O-02A-C) looks like a monster that lives under the sea. These two designs are artistically of atrocious hideousness, if I can paraphrase from Theodore Roosevelt. These two depictions of the Statue of Liberty underscore why better infusion artists are needed. People that know the true beauty of what a coin should look like. I have never been a fan of the choices made by CFA or the CCAC, of course they were only choosing designs presented to them from the mint. I guess when you have bad designs to choose from . . . you choose bad designs. "We can do better." 
Wayne adds:
"And no more front views of people. They resemble tokens from video arcades more than coins.
"MAKE OUR COINS BEAUTIFUL AGAIN!"
To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
More on the Augustus B. Sage Photo "What an amazing find! "The ANS does have one of the cartes de visite of Sage in uniform. Unfortunately, there is no identifying information on the back, except that someone has written his name on it. Otherwise it is blank. The photograph appears to have at one time been glued onto a page." 
The newly discovered photo The new photo's discoverer adds: "As Joel Orosz suggested in last week's E-Sylum, I have searched the New York City directories for the relevant period to pin down the date of the newly discovered CDV of Augustus B. Sage (courtesy of the complete set of digitized directories at New York City directories - NYPL Digital Collections. "George W. Loud, the photographer whose back-mark appears on the new Sage CDV, first appears as a "daguerrian" in the 1854-55 directory at 80 Bowery. He continued to appear as a daguerrean (with various spellings of that word) through the 1858-59 directory. His address varies, but beginning in 1856-57 he is shown at 132 Bowery, the address on the reverse of the Sage CDV. "In the 1859-60 directory, Loud is shown as "photographs," and appears either as "photographs" or "photographer" from that directory through the 1865-66 directory, all at 132 Bowery. Loud is entirely absent from the next two directories (1866-67, 1867-68). However, beginning with the 1868-69 directory, and continuing through the 1870-71 directory, George W. Loud appears as "liquors," at various addresses in the same area of lower Manhattan. Per the 1870 Federal census (at Ancestry.com), Loud held himself out as an "oil painter" as of that year, and the 1873 directory shows him as "artist" at 191 Grand Street. In the 1874-76 directories, he is once again a photographer at 191 Grand Street. I ended my search there, given Sage's death in 1874. "Therefore, the newly discovered photograph has to date from 1859 (introduction of CDVs in the U.S.) through 1866, when George W. Loud was at 132 Bowery. I agree with Dr. Orosz that the new CDV is the later in time of the two known photographs, based on Sage's more mature appearance and the fact that he is in a suit. It undoubtedly post-dates his Civil War military service, which was confined to 1862-63 (Bowers, pp. 328-30). Since Sage began practicing law in about 1866 (Bowers, p. 332), the "lawyerly" pose and suit in the new CDV are appropriate. "One additional tidbit I discovered: The University of Washington (Seattle) has a CDV of a photograph of an oil painting of one "John R. Scott," with G. W. Loud's back-stamp and 132 Bowery address. The remarkable handwritten inscription on that CDV states: "John R. Scott from the original painting. To James Brown Esq. with compliments of Aug. B. Luge. N.Y. Aug. 22. 1861." That is undoubtedly a curator's misreading of "Sage" as "Luge." (There is not an on-line image of the reverse of the CDV to confirm this.) https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/social/id/3282/rec/1. If I am correct in my supposition, this shows a relationship between photographer Loud and A. B. Sage as far back as 1861. "I couldn't resist adding this about the CDV of "John R. Scott" with A. B. Sage's 1861 inscription. Per Google AI: "John R. Scott (1808-1856) was a prominent 19th-century American Shakespearean actor, known for his powerful physique and emotive performances, especially in tragic roles like Macbeth and Coriolanus, often compared favorably to Edwin Forrest for his magnetism and voice, a significant figure in American theater's Bowery district. "[Bold emphasis added.] "Connecting the dots, young "Gus" Sage was undoubtedly a fan of actor John R. Scott, who appeared frequently in the Bowery theatre district, near Sage's residence, and near photographer George W. Loud! [Even though actor Scott died in 1856, Sage was a boy and teenager in New York in the period 1850-56 (see Bowers pp. 63-66), and it is more than conceivable that he went to some of Scott's performances.] " Thanks. everyone. Great information about a seminal figure in American numismatics. -Editor
To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
"Tax Collectors" Painting Offered Steve Roach passed along this Sotheby's lot, which had been on a long-term loan to the ANA Edward C. Rochette Money Museum 2014 - 2023. -Editor 
Marinus van Reymerswaele's Tax Collectors belongs to a celebrated group of satirical compositions that secured the artist's reputation as one of the most incisive commentators on civic vice in sixteenth-century Netherlandish painting. Set within a wood-paneled interior, two deliberately unflattering figures, lavishly dressed yet morally compromised, are absorbed in the mechanics of financial record-keeping. One bends over a ledger, pen poised mid-entry, while his companion rakes a heap of coins toward himself. Their exaggerated physiognomies, coupled with the compressed space and conspicuous materialistic clutter transform an ostensibly mundane bureaucratic task into a pointed allegory of avarice. The composition is known in numerous versions, attesting to its enduring popularity. Reymerswaele and his workshop appear to have produced multiple replicas of the successful composition, with the prime version generally identified as the panel in the Musée du Louvre (inv. no. RF 1973 34), distinguished by its freehand underdrawing. Such repetition underscores the market demand for these pointed moralizing images. Often mischaracterized as money changers, the figures instead represent tax collectors, officials remunerated by a percentage of the revenues they extracted, making them emblematic targets for critiques of bureaucratic and legalistic greed. In Reymerswaele's hands, the apparatus of accounting becomes a vehicle for social satire, exposing the corrosive effects of corruption beneath the veneer of civic order.
To read the complete lot description, see:
Arce's Doubloons Book Launch
Thank you - sorry I couldn't be there. -Editor
To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: Subscribe All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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