A variety of holders available from Whitman Publishing
for collecting National Park quarters.

National Park quarters continue to be exciting, or, more properly, the news about them does. Everyone looks forward to the launch. Albums, booklets, articles, and more are being made. And, along the way, some of us are learning about such obscure parks and historical sites as the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Oklahoma (for Chickasaw Indians and their friends only, or can anyone visit?), Homestead National Monument in Nebraska (obscure to us, but we can bet attendance will increase in 2015 when their quarter comes out), the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin (ideal for a religious retreat, perhaps?), and in Idaho the Frank Church River of No Return (sounds dangerous if one visits, so we'll stay away).

"Virgin America was named as the best United States domestic airline for the second year in a row with JetBlue airways as number two and Midwest in third place." This is according to a poll by Conde Nast. What happened to Southwest? How easy is it to catch a flight on Virgin America?

Sub-prime problems all over again? "Builders are jumping on a no-money-down program to bolster sales in depressed markets. Sounds familiar." (Business Week)

We keep looking, but the year is ending and we have yet to see a 2009 Lincoln cent in pocket change. We have never received a Sacagawea or presidential dollar in change either.

More bull: "Bank of America will spend as much as $20 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 to relaunch Merrill Lynch's name in the longtime bull logo." (Reuters)

His Memory Goes Marching On: Paul M. Green, a contributor to Numismatic News, a fine fellow who died a few years ago, continues to have his byline appear in Numismatic News almost in every issue, as his old articles continued to be recycled. Paul was an excellent writer, with a wide-range interest that encompassed nearly all aspects of United States coinage. As is true of the output of other certain authors, much of his work is timeless, so the reprinting in Numismatic News makes good sense. After all, now there is a new generation of readers.

The ideal length of a coin show is two days, perhaps three, but no more, writes Sally M. in an e-mail letter, asking our opinion. We agree completely, but add that if there is an important auction in conjunction, anyone attending a convention should stay to attend the sessions of interest.

No Recession Here: "United States sales of board games rose 8% from August 2008 to August 2009," comprising such games as Monopoly, Scrabble and the like, according to NPD group as quoted in the Wall Street Journal.

This summer at the American Numismatic Association Convention in Los Angeles there were several tables filled with nice exhibits. However, the cost of insuring and bringing an exhibit to this or any other show, plus the need to be at the show early to set it up and stay late to take it down, has curtailed the enthusiasm of many owners of interesting things. The result is that for some categories the ANA has more awards that it does entries! A new type of "award" that is much more sought after is Registry Set recognition by PCGS and NGC, which can be entered on the Internet-no travel, no security problems, no hassle.

Surprise: Ice cover in the Arctic actually rose slightly this past year. (The Economist) Wonder if Al Gore will add this to his slide show?