"The poster promotes a referendum (Volksbegehren) that opposed remilitarization during the Weimar Republic. The Treaty of Versailles, imposed on Germany following World War I, severely restricted the size of Germany's army and its war machine. The Germans chafed under the restrictions and began to secretly rearm. The illustration of the front of a battleship and the printing date of 1928 most likely relates to the construction (beginning in 1929) of three battleships: Deutschland, Admiral Scheer, and Admiral Graff Spree. Though the Treaty of Versailles permitted construction of these ships, the Germans violated the specifications and made the ships heavier and larger than allowed. Any referendum to prevent their production failed, as all three ships were completed and all three went on to see service in World War II.

"The German Pfennig illustrated is of the type issued between 1923 and 1936, which spanned the period from the early years of the Weimar Republic to the third year of the Nazi government. This fits in with the reported printing date of 1928."

Thank you! E-Sylum readers are a smart bunch. -Editor

"As I enter my 80th year I reflect again on the unfairness in life. The death of Philip has come as a profound shock.

"I have known Philip for many years though I only met him about half a dozen times. Each time our meetings ended I remember thinking how much I was looking forward to seeing him again. My first contact was when Philip was managing the Spink Numismatic Circular. Philip convinced me to write an article and more importantly he gave me the confidence to put pen to paper. Without that initial support I doubt all my other articles would have followed.

"I have read the other contributions to his memory in your blog and fully support them. He was a pleasant, helpful, friendly and supportive man and will be sorely missed by me and I am sure many others in the numismatic community."

It's always especially sad to lose someone young. Phil Skingley was just 54, born January 12, 1972. -Editor

"Rich Burdick shared the Foxfire catalog with us a few years ago."

Thank you! -Editor

"I'd like to wish you and your entire readership all the best in the year of the Fire Horse!"

NOTE: That's not the "Year of the Firehose", although we feel we're drinking our news from one. It's the Chinese New Year. Thanks! -Editor

"One of the best ways to get early access to our product launch is to follow us from the Indiegogo web site. The campaign will be launching soon within the next 7 days. People can preview our campaign by going to the Indiegogo site and typing in 'QCG Coin Gradr'. If you follow us from the preview page, you will be notified when the campaign goes live so you can support with a pledge to help bring this amazing technology to the wonderful hobby of coin collecting. An early pledge will get you an amazing deal for this technology and put in your hands a quantitative approach to coin grading."

"If you haven't seen the movie Sinners yet, you should.

"Also, props to the propmaster. Someone gave them good advice on what kind of currency might be in someone's pocket in 1932 and what kind of condition that currency would be in. The character who handled this had just arrived in Mississippi from Chicago, though, and it sure would have been cool if they had had a Douglass NB note instead!"

While films and the popular press get a lot wrong about numismatics, it's nice to see someone get it right. -Editor

"The Douglass NB was a bank on the South Side of Chicago that happened to be one of two Black owned National Banks (Dunbar NB in Harlem was the other)."

Tony Terranova passed along this image of a unique work by Franklin Peale of the U.S. Mint - it's an electrotype galvano of one of his terracotta medallions of Franklin, modelled after Nini. Wow - thanks! -Editor

"See the Margolis book on Nini. Margolis 24 is the closest source for the hair. Also Margolis 19 for the chin and Margolis 26 for a combination thereof."