RWB

The first EM signal strong enough to get very far were TV and radio from the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. See the film "Contact" [1997].

They still have bullion accounts but they are limited to purchases, sales, wastage, etc. Without the refining and alloying parts, it's all very direct. I checked some guide book quantities and some agree with the above and some do not.

Hope you enjoy it. It's designed as a roughly chronological resource, not a long narrative, so just use the CD to find subjects or phrases, and have fun with it. The 2nd volume won;t be out for quite a while.

Well, in a way we can. All the physical processes present at the beginning are still there and working according to their rules. If we can understand the rules of the universe we can then predict, and envision the future - at lease on some utilitarian level. Many pieces already fall into place, but there's also much we don't understand or possibly even are aware of. Talk about "dark matter" or "dark energy" 50 years ago, and the best physicists would have shaken their heads in disbelief.

Yes. Electromagnetic radiation produced about 13.7 billion years ago -- that's older than George Burns or his cigar!

See From Mine to Mint for explanations about how the reeding was made. (PS: No, reeds were not made individually by Keebler cookie elves during their lunch break...)

This interesting letter about Trade Dollar mintage discrepancies popped up today. An important side-note is the importance of pocket notebooks kept by the Coiner and other employees. Coiner’s Department Mint of the United States at Philadelphia September 24, 1880 Hon. A. Loudon Snowden, Superintendent Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Director’s letter of 23rd inst., calling attention to a discrepancy of $296,800, in the figures, between the amount of Trade Dollars manufactured at this Mint, as reported by Fiscal Years, and the recent report transmitted by you on 21st ultimo., showing coinage by calendar years. The total coinage of Trade Dollars at this Mint should be $5,100,960, and the error of $296,800 occurs as follows: During the year 1873, after the abolition of the old 412-1/2 grains dollars [Ed: “Standard Dollar”), the book I keep for handy reference, of the monthly coinage, the Trade Dollars manufacturer, were entered under the head of “Dollars,” without the prefix “Trade,” and so in the report for the year 1873, there should be $297,000 Trade Dollars added to the $100,500, making $397,500 as the amount of Trades manufacturer during that year; and the same amount deducted from the $590,600 [Standard] Dollars, leaving but $293,600 as the [Standard}] Dollars for the same year. I find on further search, that there are $200 of Trade Dollars too much reported, as manufactured in 1875. The correct figures for that year should be $218,900. With these corrections the total Trades manufactured will fwt up $5,100,960. This will necessitate the following corrections in the footings of the report, viz., Total Trade Dollars $ 5,100,960.00 Total [Standard] Dollars $ 29,748,260.00 Total Silver for year 1875 $ 5,349,035.00 Total Coinage for year 1875 $ 11,514,635.00 Grand Total Silver $ 80,151,507.20 Grand Total Coinage $332,657,769.66 Trusting that this explanation may be satisfactory, and congratulating myself, if these may be found to be the only errors in so troublesome a statement, I am, Very Respectfully, Your Obedient Servant, Oliver C. Bosbyshell, Coiner I herewith return the letter of the Director referred to.

Which private mint made these?

PS: The lander antennas have no engines or rocket motors.

Great info --- one of those obscure details that add bits to our knowledge. Clearly, my "self evident" remark was not self evident except that it is resin, and not how it was used.

Here is a photo of the original Clark, Gruber & Co. building. After renovation it became the right side of the 1865 building. (It is not known if the men standing outside were also renovated.)

There is nonpublic information that would be used to authenticate any alleged 1964-D dollar. The US Mint at Philadelphia holds some, I have other pieces gathered from research.

Photo of the Denver Assay Office in 1865. Notice the excellent landscaping and ornamental fountain....

Here's a composite of several pages from Sinnock's Washington quarter notebook, as examples of what we ordinary folk cannot see.

Yep. That ought to be self-evident.

Those octopuses can be nasty critters when cornered -- 'specially the blue ring types.

This will be a quick and painless vaccination against numismatic bologna. The Philadelphia Mint had a large screw-type (“lever”) press used to strike medals and proof coins. “We use a screw press which strikes medals from 10/16-inch to 4-inch in diameter, which has 3 threads with a pitch of 1-5/16-inch; 6-1/2 inch diameter of screw, and length of lever 15 feet with 300 lb balls on each end [1886].” No other mint had screw presses and no branch mint had ever had them. This press was used to make Master coins and proofs from the 1840s to 1893. The press took three men to operate. One placed the planchet on the lower (fixed) die and the other two swung the 15-foot lever, attempting to use the same strength each time. Striking pressure was varied by reducing the weights, or positioning them further toward the central screw, or adding/removing a spacer below the lower die to change the distance the upper die moved. After each strike, the operator who placed the planchet removed the coin and added it to a flat tray lined with paper or sometimes cotton-lined paper. This was periodically collected by the Medal Clerk or an assistant, for inspection and sorting. Coins which were deficient in polish or included minor blemishes were put aside and later mixed with normal toggle press pieces. Defective coins, i.e., ones that would be rejected during normal circulation coinage, were delivered back to the M&R. Good proofs were placed on trays and packaged just before delivery. Packaging was similar to medals: cotton-lined envelopes, when available. Most proofs were sold at the Philadelphia Mint by the Treasurer or later the Cashier, who received them from the Chief Coiner or Medal Clerk. Finis.

Yes. Common coin counters can be almost as bad. I recall seeing nearly flawless halves come from a bag, through a hand cranked counter, and come out looking like they were run over by a heard of steel-suckered octopuses.

The "proposal" is actually a pair of proposals --- one has fixed lunar far side antennas of about 200 km span, and the other has an orbiting interferometric array with a maximum baseline of about 4,156 km. The first requires development of new but very simple antenna landers -- not expensive rovers to gum up with lunar dust. The second uses Hall effect cubesats (0.5 m) for station keeping. Nearly everything is current, tested, off-the-shelf -- and inexpensive as space hardware goes.

Your are absolutely right.

If you turn down the volume on the rap "music" those marks won't happen! Especially with "machine rap!"

Overall coin appearance with your microscope is fine. Few microscopes have any sort of exposure control, so work with your camera's manual settings to get results you like.

OK. Your second pair of photos is almost exactly on a neutral white balance and density (that's what BKurtV was talking about). In your first photos the image density in the camera needs to be lightened, and the color balance adjusted to match your full-coin results. That is: change the camera settings for microscope to match those for the full-coin photos. If you are using everything on "automatic," find the manual settings (lens opening and shutter speed) at will match the full-coin image, then keep those for your microscope photos. Set the ISO for 400 - it is not for exposure, but for pixel binning, signal-to-noise, and other things affecting your photos that you can learn about later. I suspect we all would like to see more of your macro photos.

Do you want something more like this, or like the 2nd pair of photos?