I ran out of time to write my diary last week, so I'm picking up where I left off. My meeting of Nummis Nova was a hoot - we have a great time telling jokes, talking trash, and passing around some really interesting numismatic items.

Wayne Herndon had just been at the Early American Coppers show, and told me that two different people had come up to his table saying they were excited to finally meet him in person - then he found out they thought he was me. I guess there are too many Wayne H's from Virginia in numismatics. He's the one with the cool mustache. NOTE TO READERS: my stock head shot is getting a little dated, but it has no mustache and I haven't grown one.

Speaking of mustaches, our old pal Bill Eckberg attended the meeting for the first time WITHOUT his mustache. I hadn't seen him for a while - he retired and he and his wife Susan sold their house and headed south to Florida, where they've been waiting to close on a new place. He was back in town for a visit, looking tanned and rested. I knew he looked different, but it took me a few minutes to realize the 'stach was gone. It was great to have him back.

Another person we hadn't seen for a while was Dick Doty, Curator of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian. He brought with him a very interesting coin from his personal collection, a junk box purchase from a coin show.

Dick writes:

QUICK QUIZ: Eric Schena brought along two obsolete banknotes, one genuine and one a contemporary counterfeit. He challenged us to pick the fake. I got it right. Is it the one on top or the bottom? Why - what are the telltale signs? To see larger images, click on the photos to go to our Flickr archive.

Eric adds:

Dave Schenkman's error show-and-tell item was a double denomination coal scrip token - $5.00 on one side, $1.00 on the other. I joked that the company showed the $5.00 side on payday, and the $1.00 side at the company store.

Dave writes:

Dave brought some token dies as well as a rare token struck from one of them. Thanks for the images!

Dave writes:

Later this week I received in the mail a copy of a new monograph by David Stone and Mark Van Winkle about the 1838-O half dollar. I hope to have more information about this title next week.