Here's another penny rounding situation I ran into on Monday. I stopped at our pharmacy to pick up a couple prescriptions. I'd forgotten to bring along any change and proffered a $20 bill. They rounded my change down from 47 cents to 45 - two dimes and a quarter, no pennies. I would have complained, but I'd already given them my two cents worth.

The quarter was a beat-up bicentennial, still bouncing around 50 years later. I'm still waiting to see a semiquincentennial coin in circulation.

Tuesday morning I participated in a Zoom meeting with the Newman Numismatic Portal, and in the afternoon I met with our financial consultant. It was a beautiful fall day, so afterwards I took a stroll around the plaza. Fall was in the air and on display everywhere. I took a photo of this colorful scene.

On the way back to my car I passed a male grooming storefront. I'd never heard of this place, but "Hammer and Nails" offers not just a haircut and shave, but manly versions of manicures, pedicures, face & scalp treatments, even eyebrow, ear and nose waxing, whatever that is. Did I mention that beer and wine are included? This was not my Dad's barbershop from the old neighborhood in Pittsburgh. The sign said "Walk-ins accepted". So I walked in and asked, "WTF is this place?" And no, you pervs, I didn't ask about Happy Endings. This is an upscale place.

They tried to sell me on the manly mani-pedi, but I have no fingernails to speak of and was just curious to try a pedicure and get my nasty toenails trimmed. They give first-timers an upgrade, so I got the Signature Pedicure with a "warm soak, nail care, massage, callus resurfacing, sugar scrub, paraffin, and hot towel treatments." Now my feet are smooth as a baby's bottom and I feel like a million bucks. An impressive amount of work went into all that and I was very happy to get it done. It wasn't cheap, but with the upgrade I got my money's worth even though I turned down the booze before learning it was included.

My podiatrist says I've got healthy feet and the pedicurist concurred - she said they were in good shape. So basically, now I'm Homer Simpson with the feet of Adonis. Where are those nice sandals I bought three vacations ago?

I have a PayPal account and sometimes our advertisers use that to pay their invoices. This week I got an email from PayPal saying "Good news! We noticed that you've maintained a consistent sales history and developed great relationships with your customers. That's why we're giving you instant access to $160,400.00 USD in sales per month." Maybe we should raise our prices...

I preordered a medal for the 2026 Pittsburgh ANA and it arrived this week. Very nice. I'll bring it to my Nummis Nova dinner this month.

Part 6 of my ANA Diary last week highlighted my Saturday lodging at Pittsburgh's Mansions on Fifth. This week I found more information about the building in a Facebook post (or did that post find me? You never know how these things work anymore). "Built in 1906–1907 for attorney Willis F. McCook, his wife Mary, and their ten children, the McCook House is one of the great survivors of Pittsburgh's Fifth Avenue "Millionaires' Row." Learn more and check out the photo gallery here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pittsburghphotos/
permalink/1411237440503597/

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: 2026 ANA, PART 5 .

Found online:

• I do not want to turn on notifications. Stop asking.
• I miss the days when spelling potato wrong was career-ending for politicians.

And here are some non-numismatic articles I came across this week. The first has interesting history of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, my choice this past Thursday while waiting around for a repairman to show up.

How PB&J Became America's Favorite Lunch (https://historyfacts.com/us-history/article/how-peanut-butter-and-jelly-became-popular/)

The Oldest Soda Shop in St. Louis (https://opensince.substack.com/p/the-oldest-soda-shop-in-st-louis)

1 big thing: Tiny hobby boom (https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-finish-line-fcd261d5-f3f0-4070-aa5a-5afbd9ca9e62.html)

This Photo Is an A.I. Fake. Can You Tell? (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/10/08/technology/ai-generated-image-look-close.html)

The ghetto on the lagoon (https://aeon.co/essays/the-making-of-the-ghetto-on-a-venetian-island-in-1516)

Manhattan's evolution over centuries captured via meticulous animation (https://aeon.co/videos/manhattans-evolution-over-centuries-captured-via-meticulous-animation)

The Start-Up That Wants to Build ‘Microrobots' With A.I. (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/science/atomic-machines-ai-micro-robots.html)

Why Did Old Airplanes Have Black Noses? (https://historyfacts.com/science-industry/article/why-did-airplanes-have-black-noses/)

Margaret Hamilton, Who Developed Software for First Moon Landing, Dies at 90 (https://www.wsj.com/science/space-astronomy/margaret-hamilton-who-developed-software-for-first-moon-landing-dies-at-90-07b982a1?st=z6FkYJ)

Club Med, a Disney Cruise and an Exploding Starship: SpaceX Used Bystander Videos to Track Falling Debris (https://www.propublica.org/article/spacex-starship-caribbean-explosion-report)

-Editor