I had a pleasant surprise in my mail on Friday. It was a short note from Q. David Bowers and a section of the June 16 Union Leader newspaper located in Manchester, N.H., was enclosed with it.

Mail from Dave is always welcome. His Coins and Collectors published in 1964 was one of the earliest books I ever read about numismatics and it taught me that numismatics was more than just dates, mintages, grades and values.

Every coin has a story to tell and Dave Bowers is the consummate storyteller. His urge to share these stories has made his career as a coin dealer and lately as the most prolific book author in our business.

The story he wanted me to see was of an 81-year-old friend of his named Murray Clark who made a purchase at a newly reopened Fadden’s General Store in North Woodstock, N.H.

In the story Clark told of having been sent by dogsled to make purchases for his father in 1933. His purchase at the general store was a milestone in that he has done business with five generations of Faddens. To mark the occasion, he gave Jim Fadden a large-size 1923 $1 Silver Certificate. It is now considered the first dollar earned at the reopening.

What Dave didn’t tell me in his letter was where Murray Clark got the Silver Certificate. They are not particularly scarce, but even 81-year-olds don’t routinely have them lying around the house for special occasions.

Perhaps Dave Bowers helped his friend out. Perhaps he didn’t, but knowing Dave has an eye on things like this is perfectly in character for the man I truly respect.

Thanks, Dave.

The job of education is never finished. I had another example of the truth of this statement yesterday from a phone call.

Now, when I receive a phone call, I do not know whether the caller has some numismatic knowledge or no numismatic knowledge. I don’t know if he asked for me by name or just somehow got to me because an operator decided I was close enough.

Yesterday’s call started out with a fellow talking about Jefferson nickels and wondering if he could find “FS” on “65” nickels.

OK, my brain kicks in. This guy is a collector who has some knowledge and he just misspoke. The designer initials for Felix Schlag were first put on a the Jefferson nickel in 1966 and you could indeed find “FS” at the base of the bust.

I replied that yes indeed you could find “FS” below the bust on nickels from 1966 going forward. Wrong answer.

That wasn’t his question. We had begun an Abbott and Costello “Who’s on first?” routine.

He continued to seem puzzled and continued to speak.

I asked him what book he was using and what edition. He was using the 2008 Coin Digest. He was on Page 83.

So I went there. It came to be that the “FS” he was referring to was part of the grade head “-65FS.” So then we get into a discussion that it stands for Full Steps.

He didn’t know Monticello had six steps. But still we conversed in puzzlement. He saw all the high prices that “-65FS” coins commanded and he asked how you could tell if the coins were “-65FS” or not.

That got into a grading discussion. I began speaking of the 70-point scale and MS-65 coins.

He asked if “MS” appeared on the coins anywhere. He also wondered why nickels from 1959 and later had no prices below MS-65 listed in the book.

I replied that they basically do not trade for more than face value and so are not priced.

He responded that the earlier listings had more prices. I said that was true but the prices were for the scarcer dates. He wondered why some dates had prices and others simply had dashes.

The coins with dashes don’t have collector values in those grades.

We never reached a satisfactory meeting of the minds. He was trying to determine the value of 20 sets that he said his neighbor, who is now ill, had put together.

I suggested that it might help if he read Chapter 4 on Page 37, which explains how grading works. He said he would take a look at it.

I hope he does, but I came away from the conversation knowing that we had not reached any common reference points in the conversation let alone any understanding.

There is definitely more work ahead for me and for the hobby.

As I drove the mile to work this morning, I noticed that the price of gasoline at the two stations I pass at the center of town were posting a price for regular unleaded of $3.949. That is down three cents from the peak price.

We did not reach $4 a gallon here. Is this just a pause on the way to more painful heights, or is the fact that Americans are driving less and buying smaller cars at last starting to have an impact?

I don’t know. It would be nice to think so.

But what I do know is to continue to keep an eagle eye on the price of gold. I have been reading recently that gold is following oil. I don’t think so. I think it is the reverse. Oil follows gold.

This certainly was the case in 1980. Gold peaked a year ahead of oil and its decline was followed by oil to a remarkably similar degree.

If, hypothetically, there is something in this observation, we won’t really know for sure for quite a while yet. Gold’s current peak of about $1,033 occurred in the middle of March, some two and a half months ago.

Is that it? Certainly gold’s fall off the 1980 peak was far sharper than the current decline. It went from $850 Jan. 21 to $463 on March 27. So far the smart money is simply calling gold’s present decline a correction in a larger uptrend. I will watch the experts argue it out for sure, but my undivided attention will be on the actual price of the precious metal.

It can foretell a lot.