ABOUT THIS ISSUE: JUNE 14, 2026

On Friday I stepped out of the office to have nice lunch with Jim Haas, author of Hermon Atkins MacNeil: American Sculptor in the Broad, Bright Daylight, about the creator of the Standing Liberty Quarter and multiple medals. We shared a small table for two at a place called The Hideaway, hidden away in a corner of Maryland. We discussed a number of topics, including my impending day-job retirement.

Here's the cover of his book, and the covers of three others in my current reading queue.

Seen on the interwebs:

"He's like a bowl in a china shop."
"Do not use your eyebrow trimmer if you've been drinking."

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

Historian John Steele Gordon on America's economic values (https://wng.org/articles/a-free-market-empire-1780040961)

Places disappear. Their stories don't have to. (https://www.lastseen.city/)

Love Language: The undying dream of Esperanto (https://harpers.org/archive/2026/06/love-language-katie-thornton-esperanto/)

Drink Like a Founder: 7 Bars That Are as Old as America (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/travel/american-revolution-bars-places-to-drink.html)

There's a Wave of Historic Landmarks Reopening Across the US—Here's Why (https://www.newsweek.com/theres-a-wave-of-historic-landmarks-reopening-across-the-usheres-why-12047483)

Cleve Moler, Who Unlocked the Power of Computing for Millions, Dies at 86 (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/science/cleve-moler-dead.html)

Collector Scours Flea Markets for Vintage Photos of Women in Trees (https://petapixel.com/2026/06/09/collector-scours-flea-markets-for-vintage-photos-of-women-in-trees/)

Man fleeing DWI stop attacked by alligator after jumping into swamp, state police say (https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/crime/man-fleeing-dwi-stop-attacked-by-alligator-after-jumping-into-swamp-state-police-say/289-fe3297f4-5996-4f8c-9be9-d159e0df8c3e)

-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 via instagram @minterrors. He can also be reached by email at minterrors@gmail.com.

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.