Wow, what a start to the numismatic year! First there was the FUN show in January. Great attendance, great auctions, and the largest number of listed dealers ever in attendance with over 630 companies represented. FUN was huge! A number of people from the club were there working a club table for GNA/MCCA. My thanks to them for their work in covering the table. Ralph, Shep, Tom, Greg, and Mike – many thanks.
The Atlanta ANA show was this past weekend. MCCA poured out the help, with over 20 volunteers from the club helping out during the 3 days of the show. My 6 committee chairman were: Dennis Shafluetzel – Assistant Host General Chairman; Greg Ison – Ambassador Chairman; Norman Thomas – Money Talks Chairman; Mack Martin – Exhibit Chairman; Bob Hartje – YN Page Chairman: and Tom Youngblood Scouting Chairman. We had a great show with the just announced Saddle Ridge Horde of discovered gold coins on display, US Treasurer Rosie Rios present Thursday for courtesy signing her notes, a great Heritage Auction, the wildly successful ANA appraisal corner, and an unexpectedly high number of attendees. ANA considers the Atlanta show a rousing success, and it is in part due to the excellent assistance provided by members of our club. My sincere thanks to all of you that volunteered your time to the endeavor. I’m sorry we could not use all of the members that volunteered, which says something about the club in general and their willingness to help out. The show was such a success that ANA says they could be back in Atlanta as early as 2018. I certainly hope so.
At the ANA show we saw a couple of firsts: the BEP released sheets of $100 bills, which has never been done before. February 27, 2014 was their official release date. The sheets were of 4, 8, or 16 notes, costing $480, $920, or $1776 respectively. They were all from the Atlanta Federal Reserve. Club members present bought them and had the Treasurer of the United States autograph them. what a collectable! Also, the new Baseball coins were on display. We got to see the gold $5, silver $1 and clad half in both Proof and BU. All of the coins are noticeably concave in
design. The proof coins are especially nice! The official release day for the coins and sets is March 27. I strongly recommend that members who can, try to pick up a few. The concave design will be a first (can they be slabbed?) and baseball appeals to potentially the largest group of Americans that has ever been targeted by a commemorative coin program. I would not be surprised to see this coin sell out, even with large mintages. Keep an eye open for the opportunity to add a few to your collection.
Keep in mind that Norman Thomas and Mark Arneson have volunteered to co-manage the YN program for 2014. If you have any ideas for our YN program, or want to help out, see Mark or Norman for details. YN programs will continue to be at the first meeting of the month in room #5 at 6:30.
As always, Norman is looking for volunteers to bring refreshments and provide the educational talks at each meeting. We’re off to a great start for 2014. Please see him to volunteer for a spot. The club will reimburse up to $35 towards refreshments if you turn in your receipts. Hopefully everyone can volunteer once a year to keep the food and programs fresh.
Our 50th anniversary dinner is Saturday night March 29th – right around the corner a week away! We’re raffling off a banquet ticket one more time at the March 15 meeting, which is the last time you can buy a ticket in person from John Phipps. We also have a limited number of the anniversary silver rounds for sale at $35. The encased nickels are in too. Each member of the club will receive one free, as well as each banquet goer. Additional pieces will be advertised for sale until they are gone. We’re also placing an additional order of club logo shirts. Ron needs a
minimum of 12 requests to place the order. I believe he has 8 already requested. So, if you want a shirt, get your request into Ron so that we can reach the dozen needed for a reorder.
As most of you know, I plan to step down as president of the club at the end of 2014. I’m recruiting any interested parties to step in with some new blood and carry the club forward starting in 2015. If interested, please speak to a board member and let them know of your interest.