The American Numismatic Society, founded in March 1858, was dynamic through 1859, when it simply disappeared — for reasons unknown - but it thrives today.

A second edition of a Q. David Bowers' Guidebook of Civil War Tokens is scheduled to be published in December by Whitman Publishing.

In 1961 numismatics was a hobby, the art and science of collecting coins, tokens, medals and paper money, back then. Today, it is an industry.

Last week I posed some questions. Here are the answers.

Civil War monetary and financial history is one specialty and general American history is another.

In terms of quantity and diversity, money of the Civil War has no equal in American numismatics. Encased postage stamps are a good example of the diversity.

Countless opportunities await to acquire rarities for nominal prices in the realm of patriotic Civil War tokens.

From the viewpoint of federal, Confederate, and temporary money produced during the Civil War, America has seen nothing like it before or since.

Engraver Benjamin True engraved dies to make tokens in 1860 reflecting the feelings of Southerns and later for the presidential election that year.

Collectibles relating to George Washington were highly popular in 1860.