I guess summer is truly over; it's snowing here in the White Mountains of Arizona and I've got a fire going in the wood-burning stove. Yes, here in the woods on top of this mountain, we still heat with wood.  You see, it's much more cost effective than propane, which is almost $2.00/gallon.  Why spend $75/week to heat with propane when hot-burning juniper is only $125/cord, and it only takes about 3 cords to keep our home warm all winter?  At any rate, it's good to see the seasons change and watch the aspens change color. It energizes the spirit and invigorates the soul.

As you can see, one of our two cats (Lulu-bell) favorite place to sit is on the raised hearth where it's nice and warm.  Winter is good, enjoy it.

ISP Blacklisting - I thought the Internet blacklisting days were behind us and ISPs had found ways to control their clients that were/are sending SPAM, but I see I'm mistaken.  For the past couple of weeks WINS List mail has been bouncing for seven different members off and on, and I've only recently found out why.  Apparently, one or more of their ISPs were blacklisted and the amount of bounced posts has been incredible - upwards toward 700 per day.  Yes, I know, it's not that hard to use the delete key, but after a couple of weeks, this kind of volume begins to get real old.  Luckily two of the members made new email address arrangements and a third discovered his mailbox was over quota. Once again this makes me give serious consideration to banning the free email addresses from the WINS Lists because it rarely happens to a dial-up account.  However, as of this morning I thankfully opened my mailbox to find not a single bounced List post.

WINS List Posting Rules - Recently the tone on the Talk List turned sour because of a political joke. The joke, while quite humorous to those of us who do not support the current administration, brought out the wrath in those who do.  It's sad when you can't joke about politicians because we all know deep down that they are in politics only for themselves. They aren't in it for you and they aren't your friend.  Be that as it may, as List Admin, I felt it necessary to announce a "Stop Thread" to maintain some semblance of civility among members.  Unfortunately, hours after my announcement one of our young members chose to ignore my "Stop Thread" and several others continued to use the post subject title in subsequent posts, well into the next day.  It took two email to the young member, one to him and one to a parent (who now probably thinks I'm the club ogre) to try and explain why you don't add one more post to a thread after a "Stop Thread" has been issued, regardless of what you have to say or how important you think it is.  Why three other members continued to use the subject title is beyond me, but it took several more email to put a stop to it - almost 24 hours after my "Stop Thread" announcement.  A half dozen email, several displeased members, an angry parent and 24 hours worth of effort; all because of a joke that was taken as a personal insult.  Sadly, if the displeased members would have contacted me, or any Board Member, instead of posting their anger to the List, it could have been stopped quicker without all of the hurt feelings.  Regardless, I still believe that the occasional off-topic post makes the WINS Talk List more family oriented (and interesting).  I just wish everyone would lighten up a bit and think before you post!

I started the WINS Lists within a week of the club's birth and I've played admin off and on since that time, but between the hundreds of bounced posts everyday (many from those who neglect to check their free mailboxes) and the little arguments that can take days to stop, this has absolutely got to be the worst task in the club!  Too few folks take the time to think what consequences their comments may have before hitting the "ENTER" key and that it can cause far too many heated replies. Wouldn't it be grand if folks would remember to use Netiquette and Etiquette, and observe common decency to others before posting?

Public Coin Forums - I know our Newsletter Editor, has mentioned several different coin forums before, but I thought I'd point out two that attempt to be "family oriented" and just happen to be owned and monitored by WINS members.  Both of these also have member sponsored and run - FREE - coin contests, which makes them more than worth checking out. The first forum site is owned by Peter T. Davis WINS#8 and it turns out that several WINS members provide monitoring.  The CoinTalk Forum can be found HERE.

The second forum site is owned by me, and is sponsored by Coin World.  Several WINS members besides myself provide monitoring (although a little more anonymously.  Of course, the contests aren't the only reason to visit these forum sites.  Many novice collectors searching for assistance post questions on these forums, but many more just read.  It's amazing that on both forums, the answers come mostly from active and inactive WINS members.  So in keeping with the WINS tradition (or goals if you will) please consider assisting by helping to provide answers and guidance to other collectors. These forums are also quite similar to the WINS Talk List, both having many more readers than postings members.

Auction Update - Auction 24's 75 Lots closed with a total of $94 being donated to the WINS Treasury and Joe Garbarini also gave away another seven items from his vast collection in his "Hat" Drawing.

Auction 25 the "Christmas Auction", is scheduled to start at 7:00 PM USA (Mountain Standard Time (MST) Saturday, November 27, 2004 and will run for 2 weeks to give everyone an opportunity to join in the fun.  I'm also going to do something a little different for this auction and those of you reading this are the first to know about it.  I'm going to open the auction up to something more than just coins.  Not only can each seller submit 15 items each for this auction, they may also submit other "collectables" as well.  These "collectables" may be in the form of handcrafted items made by the seller, items made of the same metals as the coins we collect (gold, silver, copper), stamps, gems and such.  However, each lot must include a coin as part of that Lot and only one-half of the total number of Lots submitted by any seller may be "other collectables".  Here's a SAMPLE of something I plan to offer.

If you have any questions (or comments) about an item and whether or not it can be included, please contact me.  As auctioneer, I will have final Lot approval, but if it goes well we might see something like this several times a year.  See ya at the auction.

Just A Little Horn Blowing - I had a very pleasant email request early last month.  Mr. Enrico Schou, Secretary, Editor and Webmaster of the "Coins & Medaille Society in Aarhus County, Denmark", emailed me indicating that many of their members were very interested in my online article about the Maria Theresa Thalers, but most of their members didn't speak English.  He wanted permission to place the article in their nationwide Danish monthly magazine and he was wiling to provide the translation if I would allow it.  It may not be as prestigious as the honor bestowed on John Baumgart or as well circulated a magazine as Howard Spindel's articles often appear in, but hot ziggity dog, I've got an article published. [GBG]  Mr Schou not only provided me with several copies of the magazine and the translated file to use online if I desired, but he also sent a couple of very nice coins from Denmark as thanks.  Now my online article appears in two languages (with a little extra help from our own Martin Purdy) English and Danish.  If you'd care to look, they can be found HERE.  And here are the two BU Danish coins:

Thank you kindly,
JD White, WINS#7