January 6. My students are all away on vacation and I had difficulty lining up assistance for this issue, which is why it's a bit tardy. Meanwhile, a final word about dues payment. Most of our members have paid their $20 annual dues for year 2001 by now ($23 Canada, $30 overseas). If you are one of the few who have not, please do so now. This is the last issue you will receive if your dues are not paid up in the next couple of weeks. Send dues to Treasurer Joel Reznick at P.O. Box 116 - Wheeling, IL 60090-0116.

To those of you who ordered ME 1000 E from me, I still haven't received a new supply. But they've confirmed my order, and I am hoping the tokens will be here presently and I shall then send your token to you. Patience.

Under Broad Ford, PA, old catalogues listed 4 black vulcanites: one had a blank reverse, the other 3 were 3¢, 5¢, and 15¢. As no one we could find had ever seen the blank one, or the SC ones, we removed these from the catalogue. Just last month the long missing SC denomination turned up on e-bay, and sold for something over $600 I am told. If the buyer will send a rubbing, we'll list it. But it is ironic that these tokens are almost certainly not from Broad Ford. Roland Atwood got the 3C and 15¢ ones from a Philadelphia coin dealer. The two of them brought out a map, found a town with the initials B.F., and guessed the tokens were from there. Today this would hardly constitute sufficient reason to list them, especially as no one can tell me what the P.C. part of the name stands for.

Joe Studebaker reports two woodniks being used in Sumter, SC. Both have TUIT on reverse. On obverse they have "One Free Ride RTA 775-9347 City or Shaw Routes Only". One has all black printing, one has RTA in purple. We're trying to get supplies for our N.I.S.

Last month Bill Sowell reported a 31mm green plastic token inscribed "Tacoma Suburban Lines Inc. Tacoma - Dupont". I remember seeing their buses some years back. Inquiry has been made, and we have a report the token was used in the late1960's or early 1970's. The firm is now out of business.

Nice article in this issue on the Monongahela Bridge tokens by Bill Adams. In the letter accompanying the article he wrote "The man I got these tokens from told me they were his grandfather's, who worked for the P&LE RR, and used these tokens to cross over the Monongahela Bridge (now known as the Smithfield Street Bridge)."