I think I can say, without much fear of contradiction, that Iam the champion of "weird stuff" in numismatics.However, even I would not include manhole covers, round andmetallic as they are, as part of numismatics.

This does not justify a cavalier and patronising attitudetoward these useful objects, such as was exhibited in the April 6issue.

My friend Wolfgang Dressel, a conceptual artist from Berlin,proprietor of the gallery Kuprac, collected photographs ofmanhole covers in the early 1970s. Like high denomination YapIsland Stone money, it is impractical to collect the actualobjects, so one collects the documentation,

In the mid-'70s I read a magazine article about manholecovers, I think in London streets. Penny Lane, perhaps. Thearticle described what song melodies could be played by pingingsuccessive covers, while perambulating particular paths. With thepossible exception of Moby Dick and a Numismatistarticle on flush toilets, it was the most interesting thingI've ever read.

Latterly, my friend Wolfgang has been shown to have been avisionary. There is a Wikipedia entry for manhole covers, andhundreds of photographs of them on Google Images. A book,Manhole Covers, by Mimi Melnick, features an introductionby a distinguished critic/theorist/photographer, Cal Artsprofessor Allan Sekula (1951-2013). He writes: "Manholecovers are the secret cousins of coins..."

I have little idea what he means, although I may track downthe book and read the rest of that sentence. My point is,it's not always safe to assume something is ridiculous.

THAT SAID:

On the subject of grading manhole covers on a 70-point scale,the great surface area both justifies and cries for this degreeof precision --far more so than their dimunitive numismatic"cousins". Now, how one takes into account thereverses, which, presumably, are never to be seen, is probably aquestion for philosophers, like chickens, eggs, and falling treesin forests. One nice aspect of manhole-cover-grading is thatnothing should be body-bagged for "environmentaldamage".

The municipality with the #1 Registry Set would inarguablydeserve to host the ANA Convention. As long as it's not"Chicago".

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: THE E-SYLUM 2014APRIL FOOL'S ISSUE: SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM WHITMANPUBLISHING, LLC.(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n15a17.html)