Neighbors: Bob Dole, when he was running for president, was Monica Lewinsky's next door neighbor at the Watergate complex in Washington. (Newsweek)

Makes Sense to Us: "When History Calls, History Calls." Recent headline at the top of page one in the USA Today.

The American Numismatic Association has recently passed a balanced budget. Remarkably, more than half of the Association's revenue comes from bourse and auction fees for conventions.

One of our fine clients, Richard Z, desired to get some new Lincoln cents-they did not have to be dated 2009-to run through his penny-rolling machine to create souvenirs. In his home town in upstate New York there were none to be had, not a single roll at any bank, and ditto for surrounding towns! Finally, he contacted a coin dealer and bought some older rolls, at a premium. Sort of strange that current coinage cannot be obtained at face value. Earlier this year when your editor was seeking current $1 to $100 notes to illustrate in The Whitman Encyclopedia of U.S. Paper Money, none of the four banks in Wolfeboro, NH, had any new notes-and couldn't get them! Similarly strange.

Interesting geographical facts:

• Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.
• Canada is an Indian word meaning Big Village
• Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.
• There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio, every one is man made.

View of Boston, Massachusetts, location of the 2010 ANA Convention

Next year's ANA convention will be in Boston in August. Nice venue. Visits to the Massachusetts Historical Society will be on the program-a great place, with numismatic items under the curatorship of our fine friend Anne Bentley. A couple years ago when we went there we were given "work space" on Daniel Webster's desk!

Vini, vidi, visa: I came, I saw, I shopped.

"68 of the 72 'supercentenarians' (people 110 and older) are female, even though there are more boys than girls born each year," according to Newsweek, which went on to say that men are many times more likely to die in accidents, to be murdered, to die by firearms, and to have cancer and heart disease. After all this, and more, the women remain, not as subject to these unfortunate situations.

At the Smithsonian Institution the gallery of numismatic treasures on the main floor (a bit ahead, then to the left as you come in the door) is a "must see" if you are in the nation's capital. In recent years, Curator Dr. Richard Doty and his staff have expanded the outreach of the National Numismatic Collection more than has ever been done before.

Clever title for a display: "The Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia is hosting an exhibit "Friend or Faux: Imitation and Invention from the Innocent to Fraudulent" from Nov. 11 to July 11, 2010. As they say: "explore the notion of authenticity across a range of periods and media in the museum's collections. From innocent copies of artwork made as family mementos, to illegal forgeries intended to fool even the most seasoned scholar, there are stories to be told." Next perhaps: Fee, fie, faux, fum?

Doesn't make much sense: "The Airbus A-320, the model flown by pilots of Northwest Flight 188, provides only visual warnings if the pilots fail to execute tasks to show they are awake." (The Wall Street Journal)

No surprise: "Industry funded studies have a clear tendency to produce results that please their sponsors." (The Economist)

Changing times: In the past year the Los Angeles Times has lost 11% of its readership as paying readers, the Boston Globe 18%, the San Francisco Chronicle 26%. In the meantime, post offices all over the world are facing deficits as people use the Internet to communicate, not letters. (The Economist) Question: If stamps disappear, will collectors still collect them?