Hey Jim,

I'm sorry if I didn't write my earlier post clearly enough... I've been working way too many hours, and need a vacation...

What I was trying to say is, that the idea of copy write protection of a numbering system is a good idea.
An attempt at coming up with such a numbering system was made a couple of years ago, and when was discussed at the convention (over at the Orleans). This was a lively discussion. Yet one of the main reasons it was not adopted was it that it was recognized as being a very hard thing to have all the authors of all the different price guides to adopt it. Another was coming up with a number system that is "easy" for all the collectors to 'learn'; a third was how/or who makes (and when are) the updates for new issues made and controlled...

One other comment, Robert Cox (WILCOX), a few others and myself had also worked on a numbering system a while prior to the above work - we also ran in to the same barriers...

Then as now, I think that more discussion is required, and I'm still willing to help out (yet a third time!!!)...

I hope this clears up that I agree a unique numbering system could be copy write protected - yet I'm not sure how we place adequate configuration controls on it, and how well it will be received by the authors of price guides (and or web sites) with respect to updating (or providing a cross-reference) would be...

Regards,

Dick