The Whitman Vault Books have been around for a few years. The first Vault Book was for the University of Tennessee, because someone high up in Whitman is a Tennessee graduate. The second was for the University of Georgia--which I own as an alumnus of Georgia. The Vault Books are very interesting in that they use replica souvenirs to help tell the story. Depending on the subject of the book, the type of replica souvenirs can be anything, including numismatic items.

For the UGA book, Whitman hired Loran Smith, a legendary broadcaster for Georgia (the sideline reporter to the play-by-play man, the legendary Larry Munson), who has written other books about Georgia Football. The execution is very entertaining and really is like looking into the past. I was very impressed as to how the book was done and would love to see them do vault books for more than just college football and basketball.

If you did not notice, Whitman is expanding their offerings from coins and stamps with books on other types of collectibles. I know many of your readers like paper, but Whitman is going to have to find a way to enter the digital age. Maybe they can look to their competition at Krause for one way to do this.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:NUMISMATIC CONTENT IN WHITMAN'S PALIN �COLLECTOR'S VAULT� BOOK(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n47a03.html)