Just finished reading this very long thread! Haven't been to the forum for a while. I believe that HL raised their edition #'s because several collectors and secondary market dealers told them they should - e.g. Jim Rutherford did in one of his newsletters. Everyone got spooked when Thomas Point retired so quickly. I'm all for a lower size. I don't think the Society #s reflect how many "serious" collections are out there. By "serious" I'm referring to those that get all HLs or are trying to get them all.