Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States was born on February 12, 1809 in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County. He was the second child of Nancy and Thomas Lincoln. In 1830, his family moved to Macon County, Illinois. Lincoln had two love interests before meeting his future wife Mary Todd. His first, Ann Rutledge died of typhoid fever in 1835. He next courted Mary Owens of Kentucky but did not marry her. He met Mary Todd in December 1839 in Springfield, Missouri and they married on November 4, 1842.

I attended the William H. Kelly Confederate paper money sale held in conjunction with the FUN show in Orlando. Heritage auctions conducted the sale on Thursday night, January 5, 2012. We (my wife and I) arrived in Orlando Sunday, New Year’s Day to stay with a long time friend and get a jump on viewing many lots in this sale. Heading to Florida during the winter is always a well anticipated event, especially to see these friends and visit this FUN show.

January 15, 2012, a date soon to be upon us is actually a very important date. It is the 150th anniversary of the date that President Abraham Lincoln appointed Edwin McMasters Stanton to be his Secretary of war. Stanton replaced Simon Cameron who was dismissed by Lincoln for including in his yearly report the call of freed slaves to be armed and used against the Confederate Army. Stanton was Lincoln's closest adviser during the Civil War. Lincoln described Stanton as “the rock on the beach of our national ocean against which the breakers dash and roar, dash and roar without ceasing.

I never claimed to be a writer, and I still don’t even though and I co-wrote with John Schwartz the “Standard Guide to Small Size U.S. Currency, 1928 to Date”. My writing ‘education’ consists of one course in “Free Writing” taught by Professor Nelson at the illustrious Minot State University, where I earned a four year business degree after dropping out of the geology program because my brain was impermeable to higher math. Prof.

The recent Stack’s Bowers Galleries official auction of the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Baltimore Expo on November 15 to 19, 2011 netted $15.6 million in total sales. Among the paper money highlights were a cache of 19 obsolete bank notes from Minnesota, four of which are unique and six more that are semi-unique. Practically all the notes are at the top of their census for condition. Described by cataloger Bruce R.