ABOUT THIS ISSUE: FEBRUARY 15, 2026

It finally warmed up above freezing this week, melting some of the snow. All day today it rained, which melted even more and washed away some of the salt and dirt. I got out Friday night, taking my wife to a comedy show at a brewery, and Saturday we went out for a nice Valentine's dinner. Nothing numismatic to report other than the usual flood of E-Sylum email.

Here are some interesting non-numismatic articles I came across this week. A history of early photo manipulation shows that AI fakes are nothing new - just another outlet for human creativity and mischief.

And it's come to this: "28% of pupils were not able to use books correctly – for example, they were trying to swipe or tap pages like a phone or tablet." That reminds me of a line from Woody Allen's "Take the Money and Run," where his cello teacher recalled he had "no concept of the instrument...he was blowing into it."

One in four children in England start school without being toilet trained, say teachers (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/jan/22/children-england-start-school-without-being-toilet-trained-teachers)

Rijksmuseum unveils 'FAKE!' - A history of early photo manipulation (https://artdaily.cc/news/190870/Rijksmuseum-unveils--FAKE-----A-history-of-early-photo-manipulation)

The Internet Was Imagined Before World War I (https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2026/02/the-internet-was-imagined-before-world-war-i.html)

David J. Farber, ‘Grandfather of the Internet,' Dies at 91 (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/technology/david-farber-dead.html)

Phonographs, Player Pianos and Betamax: The Inventions That Transformed Entertainment (subscription required) (https://www.wsj.com/business/media/10-inventions-entertainment-phonograph-streaming-a7b97be6)

The oldest building in Virginia is set to undergo a restoration Bacon's Castle is the oldest brick dwelling in North America. (https://www.pilotonline.com/2026/02/11/bacons-castle-restoration/)

What separates a lake from a pond? What about creeks and rivers? (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/02/09/department-of-data-lake-vs-pond/)

And these words of wisdom: "When you're dead, you don't know you're dead. The pain is felt by others. The same thing happens when you're stupid."

-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.