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For those of you who will be attending FUN (the Florida United Numismatists) show in Orlando from January 10-13, 2019, I will be there at Jeff Shevlin's table (The So-Called Guy). Stop by and check out our new book, So-Called Dollars from the Pacific Coast Expositions. We will be signing copies. If you don't want to buy a copy, you can still browse through it. We offer good conversations and a few laughs for free, plus you can view the finest so-called dollar inventory you will find on the bourse floor. Hint for those of you who have never met me, Jeff is the So-Called Guy. I am the handsome Normal Guy with the full beard.

It has been some time since I have been active here. Too many other actvities and a mild stroke at the end of 2017 slowed me down. One of the activities I did to help regain motor control on my left side was write several articles and a monograph. One article was written with my friend, Michael Wehner. His research corrected the misidentificationj of the G in V&G. Thomas Gihon was initially identified as the G and Gihon did engrave the San Francisco alderman medal. Marc Giron is the correct identification in the V&G as noted above. Our article on another rare San Francisco medal appeared in the December 2018 issue of The Numismatist and that article includesa picture of another example of the medal. Check out "Resurrecting a Symbol of Vigilance: The 1861 California Union Medal" for a look into early San Francisco. The following link might work if you are not an ANA member: http://onlinedigitalpublishing.com/publication/?i=542999&ver=html5&p=33&fbclid=IwAR3CPE9GUCUPSN3BobksD_4oQ8N7HJbVdRigg1y-z-5AwXaE6gXCUoxiQxw#{"page":32,"issue_id":542999} If you are not a member, you should be!

I love the pieces you manage to find. Great collection.

Yes, I am currently president of that club. We celebrated our 199th anniversary two years ago and our hundredth anniversary of ANA membership last year. (I celebrated my 50th anniversary of ANA membership this year.)

I have been away for some time. I am busy editing the TAMS Journal and working on book projects. If the medal you pictured was your Constanius, you must have sold it as I just purchased it from John Kraljevich. The letters V&G stand for Vachon and Giron, the engravers who did the San Francisco Vigilante medals and city alderman medals among others.

No, I am not aware of a specific site. We do have discussions of Bryan money that is listed in the So-Called Dollar catalog. The site is so-calleddollar.com. But, I am not aware of anything else. I co-edit the TAMS Journal. I would be happy to publish something about your unlisted pieces.

I have. It is well worth the visit.

I meant not enough info on the token itself to begin. Since everything is generic and provides no clue to the business or location, someone would have to recognize it to determine where it is from.

Not enough info on the piece to even begin research.

1894 California National Guard: Silver

The D looks like others when I compare pictures with your picture.

Yes, it is a fantasy piece.

I don't know anything about them, but they are interesting.

http://tokencatalog.com Is a good place to start if you do not have an extensive library. The site is populated by token collectors to build an online catalog. It will likely never be complete, but when it doubt you might just find what you are looking for. I did a search for your token, but did not find a match. There are a couple of G.J. Lusch tokens, but no way to know if he was related J. Lusch Jr.

Why do you want to collect coins? For their art, history, investment, curiousity, etc? Do you collect art randomly or do you have a strategy. You might want to start someplace like the American Numismatic Association (ANA) and their getting started pages such as: https://www.money.org/ten-rules Maybe you are more interested in medals, art medals, or tokens.