"Longacre's Diary for 1862 contains multiple mentions of Peter Cross. Researching Longacre's monument at The Woodlands and its missing medallion, brought me to the Library Company of Philadelphia in April. My notes list Cross's death in October of that year. But I recall reading Longacre visited Cross in hospital at least once, and I believe twice, in the prior weeks to the younger man's passing. It seemed to me they were true friends."

"Regarding 'Peter Filatreu Cross', there is also a listing for him in Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers by Mantle Fielding. Below is a scan of the listing. Nothing new to add except a typo."

Great typo - the adverse of the medal! That's a new one. -Editor

"I'd like to introduce WorldBanknotes.eu, a Lithuania-based project dedicated to world banknotes.

The site combines a collector-oriented world banknote catalogue with an online shop specialising in uncirculated banknotes. Individual catalogue entries bring together collector-relevant information including series, issuing authorities, printers, signatures, watermarks, and details of obverse and reverse designs.

WorldBanknotes.eu also includes reference guides and articles covering different aspects of banknote collecting and numismatic research."

Thank you. It's a commercial website with banknotes for sale, but nicely done with a number of well-written articles in English. -Editor

Leon Saryan passed along this video of a CBS segment on the recent gold hoard find in Belgium. Thanks. -Editor

In one of those episodes of finding unusual importance in something seemingly tangential, the referenced article about Carol Bastable's contribution was important to me. The primary point of the story was that there exists something called "pica" which is, by its short definition, false appetite.

Well, naturally, I made my little journal notes telling the difference between false appetite and font size, and the knowledge of the word explained a lot. I have wondered seriously about this word and lead-based paint poisoning concerns.

I just stumbled onto a word tonight while doomscrolling on Facebook, though, which could possibly explain the circumstance. The word was "paika" and throughout much of the earlier portions of the 20th century it was the word for the daily bread ration in the gulag. Surely regarded as unappetizing with the usual horror stories of sawdust fillers et cetera, but, on a 1200 calorie a day diet while under forced labor quotas... well,.. bon appetite!

Further still, the kind of power of the obsessively compulsive behavior around it was, surely, far beyond anything Dagwood Bumstead and Mr. Dithers ever exemplified. Progressive discipline included rifles.

If you have the foreign language experience to know the feeling of being clam-baked until you tell the people what you know, then you know how clearly the people can present that there is need. But just because you spent an entire academic year on the language doesn't mean you have the vocabulary to take it outside and talk it out loud.

Well in the 1980's I had just finished a year of Russian studies and moved to an apartment in the kind of neighborhood that probably had plenty of lead-based paint around, and in under a week or two, I could tell the new graffiti wasn't about just anyone, it was about me. I couldn't follow the logic because I lacked both the English vocabulary and the Russian vocabulary. I couldn't spill it then or appreciate how it mattered to anyone.

Until tonight.

Its been 40 years and deep inside I can still feel the need. I hope you can find room for this slow-motion unfolding of some strange and mysterious exonumia. Book lovers... word lovers.

Well, we do love words here at The E-Sylum, so I'll allow the digression. Thanks. -Editor