ABOUT THIS ISSUE: MARCH 22, 2026

My Numismatic Diary elsewhere in this issue covers Tuesday's dinner meeting of my local numismatic social group. Friday night after work I met up with our daughter and oldest son for a movie night - we saw the new Ryan Gosling film "Hail Mary" based on the book by Andy Weir. Said son had given me a copy of the 2021 book and I'd enjoyed it a lot. Like Weir's "The Martian", the story is driven by science and experimentation, which the film, by necessity, skips or fast-forwards through. Critics describe it as an "upbeat science-fiction fantasy" mixing elements of "The Martian," "E.T." and "Interstellar." Having read the book I was eager to see the film and I liked it, but it came off as more of a sappy buddy comedy in space despite the gravity of the premise - a clock ticking down to the end of the universe.

Spring arrived here this weekend - I took walks outside without a jacket for the first time this season. And short sleeves today!

Finally, here are some interesting non-numismatic articles I came across this week.

The tradition of using three names dates back to ancient Rome. (https://historyfacts.com/world-history/fact/the-tradition-of-using-three-names-dates-back-to-ancient-rome/)

A ‘Hail Mary' for Earth, Built on Solid Science (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/science/hail-mary-andy-weir.html)

Why Do Some Words Defy Standard Phonetics? (https://wordsmarts.com/spelling-against-phonetics/)

A man let ChatGPT sell his home. It beat every agent's estimate by $100K—and closed in 5 days (https://fortune.com/2026/03/21/florida-man-chatgpt-sells-house-ai-jobs-marketing-pricing/)

Trucks and tractors reflect a bubbling frustration in rural America: The right-to-repair movement (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/03/18/right-to-repair-movement-pickups-tractors/)

Woodstock survivors: What musicians remain from the 1969 festival (https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/music/2026/03/16/woodstock-surviving-musicians/stories/202603110020)

-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.