"Quoting from the earlier E-Sylum article, "The Washington-Coolidge half-dollar is the only American coin to feature a sitting president." This statement is inaccurate. Ten years after appearance of the Washington-Coolidge pieces, in 1936, the United States branch mint in Manila issued one peso circulation coins bearing portraits of two sitting presidents, Manuel L. Quezon of the Philippines and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

"These pesos, legal tender convertible to 50 cents in US dollars, were issued by a mint operated by the United States, in a United States territory, and bearing the legend, United States of America. The so-called "Trump coin," if it reaches fruition while he is still in the White House, would be at least the third American coin bearing a likeness of a sitting US president. "

Good point - thanks for the images, too. -Editor

Joseph Zaffern asks whether there are records of coins found beneath the HMS Victory masts during earlier restorations... and where those coins are today. Can anyone help? -Editor

While preparing the second edition of my book on the general issue ten cash coins of the Republic of China, "The Ten Cash Commentary," I realized that May 2026 is the 100th anniversary of A.M. Tracey Woodward's first article in "The China Journal" on the imperial and republican ten cash coins of China. That article and the later 16 articles were eventually compiled into Woodward's 1936 book, "The Minted Ten-Cash Coins of China," which remains the most complete English-language guide on those coins (my book is limited to general issue coins of the Republic, while Woodward also covered nearly all imperial and republican-era provincial ten cash coins). I thought Woodward's biography might be of interest to some of your readers. The following information was gathered from internet sources, which I hope is mostly accurate.

Woodward was born on Reunion Island in 1876. In 1879, his family moved to Japan where he began collecting stamps as a teenager. In 1916, he moved to China, where he lived until 1930. A letter from Woodward to the American Numismatic Society, dated March 5, 1931 and found at archive.org, states that he was "leaving China permanently," but does not specify when he left. Woodward collected many types of Chinese coins, but is best known for his massive collection of minted 10 cash coins. A 2008 Baldwin's auction catalog states that he hired a vast number of workers to sort through copper coins to find all the types and die-varieties that existed, and that he ultimately assembled a collection of 20,000 or more different pieces.

His "China Journal" articles were published between May 1926 and December 1935, and covered all then-known ten cash varieties from all provinces except Kirin and all then-known general issue varieties (which my book updates). In 1936, the articles were printed together in book form, which is considered the first systematic catalog of these coins in a single volume in either English or Chinese. The book was reprinted in 1971 in soft-cover form (and I think Chinese-language versions now exist).

Woodward died in France in 1938. After the Second World War, Woodward's widow brought his collection to New York, where it was acquired jointly by Hans Schulman and Capitol Coins. Some time in the early 1950's, Norman Jacobs, then working for Bob Friedberg of Capitol Coins, bought (for 10 cents a piece) approximately 750 coins, which became the core of his Chinese copper collection. He later bought back other coins that Hans Schulman had sold, resulting in the collection of approximately 900 copper and brass pieces sold by Baldwin's in the 2008 auction. I was lucky enough to pick up a few coins in that auction.

Woodward also is known (perhaps better known) for his expertise in the area of Japanese stamps. He won several prestigious awards for his books on that subject (which are noted on Wikipedia and the website, japanstamps.org).

The 1971 edition of Woodward's book can be found online; I often consult my copy for provincial varieties. Although Chinese-language guides describe varieties that do not appear in Woodward's book, his book remains more complete in various respects, and is helpful for understanding some of the Chinese-language listings when online translation tools provide bizarre results.

Woodward's book has some weaknesses; the photographs are sometimes unhelpful, some of his variety descriptions are inscrutable, and many new varieties have been discovered in the intervening years. These problems were the main reasons I wrote my book.

Thank you! I added the photo of Woodward. -Editor

"Registration for the online course on medieval Mediterranean coinage has just been extended until June 17."

"I saw this posted on Reddit and thought I would pass it along so that it is documented in the numismatic world. This appears to be a circular cut-out section of an engraved silver 1789 George Washington Indian Peace Medal. It retains the silversmith's marks. I don't know if any others are known with the maker's marks. The poster on Reddit indicated that the silversmith is John Butler. I wasn't able to confirm that, and noticed several "I B" marks associated with colonial-era silversmiths. Maybe a reader can confirm the maker's mark?

"I made a photo comparison with the example held at the ANS (1916.999.197) of the same design, though it appears to be by a different engraver's hand."

Very interesting - thank you. Can anyone help with this? -Editor

"I don't think much about cryptocurrency. I don't understand it at all.

"However, a recent Wall Street Journal article provided a new (to me) way to look at it. It's the 21st century equivalent of obsolete currency.

"The Journal draws the parallel: "During the free banking era from 1837 to 1863, banks could issue their own currency. But the system was inefficient, with currency values that fluctuated against each other."

"If anything, that gives me less confidence in crypto, but at least it gives me a framework to understand it."