Welcome to the latest edition of my Notes. I had a very enjoyable event the other day: In our conference room, two tables were piled high with copies of the just-arrived Whitman Encyclopedia of Colonial and Early American Coins. These were copies for which autographs were requested. About two hours later, I had signed them all, and as these words are being written, they are on their way to those who ordered. The book was a great project last year and the year before, with the help of collectors, dealers, researchers, and others in the Colonial field. Over 60 people contributed information and other help, ranging from photographs to technical ideas, suggestions, and corrections. It was a very nice "community" and an experience I will always remember.

If colonial coins are of interest to you, I hope you will order a copy of this book, available from us at a discount price. Just request an autograph and I can take care of that. If colonial coins are not an interest, might I suggest that you order a copy anyway(!), with my guarantee that if upon receiving it, and you do not find it to be a great book, filled with information and interesting reading, a refund awaits you.

The very best expenditure in numismatics-today, last year, and probably next year-is for information in the form of a good book. With this in mind, I hope you will review other books we offer. The Treasure Ship S.S. New York book is still selling like hotcakes, and has brought in a lot of nice comments and reviews. One of America's leading numismatic personalities wrote to me two weeks ago, stating that he read it once, liked it so much that he was going to read it through again! This might be easy enough to do with the S.S. New York book, but the Encyclopedia of Colonial and Early American Coins is of sufficient size that this would not be practical. In any event, think about adding to your library.

Gold is very much in the fore, and at our New York office we are doing an unprecedented amount of business in selling coins and bullion to those who would like to diversify their funds into some "hard" assets. The front-page (of the Money section) splash Stack's had in USA Today last week still echoes! If I were buying gold, I would opt to buy some numismatically interesting gold, rather than a modern ingot. However, everyone has preferences.

Just about all with whom I have talked feel that the new National Parks quarters will do a lot for the hobby. Although no one is immune from the current economy, and we hope that everyone will soon do better, numismatics has been a nice refuge for all of us involved. The people are still as nice as can be, and the coins, tokens, medals, and paper money are as interesting as ever!

A very nice auction is in the works for Baltimore in the last week of March. Each time we have a sale I marvel on how diverse the contents are. This auction will be no different. I hope you can participate.

What else to mention? Well, this is very important if you are thinking of selling some choice duplicates, or a series you no longer add to, or your entire collection. Right now we are gathering consignments for our rarity-spangled series of auctions for the balance of 2009 and into 2010. We plan far ahead. Space in our sales is often "rare," so if you will contact us today, we'll find the right sale at the right time and location for what you have. This promises to be a win-win situation for you!

Stack's record of auction success has no counterpart anywhere else in numismatics: Sales since 1933. Record of selling the world's most valuable coin (1933 double eagle at $7.59 million in partnership with Sotheby's). Record of selling the world's most valuable collection, our recent auction of the John J. Ford, Jr., Collection at close to $60 million. And this is just a short list!

Thinking of selling? Think of Stack's. Thinking of buying coins, tokens, medals, paper money, or reference books? Think of Stack's too!

My best wishes to you.

Sincerely,