This week’s letters (10/04/11)

Sept. 11 National Medal from Mint looks stunning
Hallelujah, it has arrived, and quite painless too, I might add.
Yes, my 2011-W Sept. 11 National Medal showed up on my doorstep today, a lot sooner than stated. Having never ordered from the Mint before, the return address on the box, PBGS, Plainfield, Ind., threw me for a loop. When I looked it up, it comes up as the U.S. Mint Customer Service Center.
Contrary to the rumors of price gouging, poor service and long shipping times that we have all heard, I saw none of that. All I got was a stunning medal. I know it’s not worth what I paid for it, but I am a collector, not an investor, and I acquire what suits my fancy at the moment. All in all, a job well done by the Mint. It can expect future orders from me.
This being the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, if you watched any television at all, you were bombarded with a plethora of ads for junk coins and medals to commemorate Sept. 11 or a host of other popular events, paying upwards of $19.95. Good luck trying to make any money on those. They may look cool, but that’s about it.
Michael P. Schmeyer
Halsey Valley, N.Y.

Full story on Mint Deputy Director in Sept. 20 NN
I read the most recent issue and there is a story based on an interview with the acting Mint Deputy Director Dick Peterson. He says some provocative things and then the story is continued on page 16. However, on page 16, there is no such story as I read it, nor does it appear elsewhere in the issue.
Am I nuts or was the rest of the story missing?
Erik Jansen
Mercer Island, Wash.

Editor’s note: Apologies to all readers for the inconvenience. The full story was placed in the following issue dated Sept. 20.

ANA faced with another troubling personnel matter
The Larry Shepherd matter is very disappointing. My first reaction was that the ANA has just concluded one troubling matter and here comes another one.
Bill Carlisle
Address withheld

It is grammatically proper to use ‘award’ as a verb
I’m at least as much of a language crank as Eric von Klinger, but he’s wrong in saying “people are not ‘awarded’; they receive awards.”
When an organization “awards” someone, “award” is a verb. It started out as a noun, but has become perfectly acceptable as a verb. This happens all the time in the evolution of language. Just as we now “text” each other; “text” has become a verb.
Language mistakes are lamentably common, notably using “myself” instead of “me” (a word that seems to be disappearing), and rampant befuddlement about apostrophes and the letter “s.” But using “award” as a verb is fine.
Frank S. Robinson
Albany, N.Y.

Thanks to Harper for sharing hobby memories
Excellent “Class of ‘63” column in the Sept. 6 issue, “Value Your Experience as Hobbyist.” Thank you for sharing those memories.
Dennis Tucker
Atlanta, Ga.

Why not grade coin’s obverse and reverse?
Reading the letter to the editor from Roy Herbst in the July 19 issue concerning which side of a coin is more important made me start to think.
With 70 different grades for coins in our hobby, it shows we are very particular about how the coins are graded. So if the quality of the coin is this important, why are both sides of the coin not graded separately?
As an example, a coin could grade MS-60/MS-63 where the first number pertains to the obverse and the second number pertains to the reverse. That would give us a better idea of the overall worth of the coin.
T. Williams
Paola, Kan.