The February 12, 2023, issue of The E-Sylum, published by Wayne Homren, included an article on In his comments following the article, Wayne wrote,

I agreed that it would be interesting to catalog these and learn more about what exists. And so I began. I wrote that was published the following week on February 19. Again, editor Homren had comments.

Wayne had just told me that I needed to gather photographs so I began to harvest what I could find on the Internet. A week into the project I realized that my list of bags and file of pictures needed to be integrated into a book format.

I discovered that eBay had hundreds of listings for Mint bags but most of the photos were, in my opinion, not good enough to illustrate a book. A recent Heritage sale had about fifty excellent images I could use. In addition, I set my camera on a tripod and began to photograph items from my collection.

I knew I could not list and harvest photos of all Mint bags. My efforts would be incomplete and would only include what I had seen. My goal was to publish what I could and encourage others to report what they have to fill in the blanks.

In 2004 I worked for Minneapolis Gold and Silver in the dealer-to-dealer bullion trading business. The company bought 90% silver coins from various local sources. The coins came in used canvas bags and were repackaged in new canvas bags imprinted with the name of our major client. I was allowed to rummage through the used bags to form a modest collection. I was generally looking for Mint and Federal Reserve bags. I avoided blank bags, bank bags, coin dealer bags and lead shot bags.

I attempted to avoid duplication and occasionally upgraded condition. I never bought or sold a bag. I collected for the joy of collecting without any commercial influence.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
COLLECTING AND CATALOGING U.S. MINT BAGS(https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n07a30.html)
AN ESSAY ON COIN BAGS(https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n08a14.html)