JR Newsletter: 14 April 2013 (136)

Sheridan Downey wrote to us to convey a huge loss for the numismatic community:

Dear friends and colleagues,

Over the past quarter century my dear friend Henry Hilgard accompanied me to coin shows throughout the country.  If you visited my bourse table you had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Henry; and I expect that you found him to be the most gracious, knowledgeable and enthusiastic collector in the room.

This past Wednesday Henry was working in his garden.  He was suddenly overcome by an episode of ventricular fibrillation.  His wife Galen found him shortly thereafter and summoned emergency medical assistance.  He was taken to a nearby hospital where he was placed on life support under expert medical supervision.  Chuck Link, a noted collector of early American coins and a wonderful friend of Henry's, immediately booked a flight to San Francisco from his home in Iowa.  Yesterday Chuck and I visited with Henry's family at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz.  We also visited Henry's bedside in the ICU.  By this morning it was clear that Henry could not recover.  His brain had been without blood and oxygen for too long.  This afternoon he quietly and peacefully slipped away in the company of his wife and three daughters.  Henry was 76.

The sadness that comes with Henry's passing is beyond any words I can muster.  The loss to his family, friends and the numismatic community is immeasurable.

If you are able to attend the Central States Numismatic Society Convention this month, April 25-27, please come by my table.  Chuck Link and I will be there, anxious to join you in celebrating Henry's life and his legacy to our hobby.

With love and warmest wishes to all,

  Sheridan

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Two contributions from Brad Karoleff:

 The EAC/JRCS convention is coming SOON!  May 2-5 the show will be held in Newark (Columbus), Ohio.  Thursday night the 2nd will feature the "Happenings" where we get together and study specific die marriages of the different series of coins.  We have decided to study the following coins this year;

Half dime 1836 LM-1
Dime 1820 JR-2
Quarter 1836 B-3
Half dollars 1807 O-111 and 1823 O109

Bring your coins to the show and share in the excitement of displaying your treasures next to those brought by other members.  We look forward to seeing many of you there.

We also still need volunteers to help with the silver happening room on Thursday evening.  If you are interested in helping please contact Brad at bkaroleff (at) yahoo.com

See you in Columbus!

and

In response to the comments of Glenn Marx:

The JRCS does not vote on the best/most popular coin in each happening as do the copper guys. We are not doing this to reinforce the condition census. We are merely having a good time looking at each others coins. No competition is involved. 

We also are usually short on volunteers to man the tables. Adding another duty or two to those present is just not possible. Until the silver guys show up in greater numbers and accept some of the responsibilities things are unlikely to change much.

That being said, I too feel that additional reporting would be very helpful. Maybe a JRCS 

Member  would volunteer to be our silver reporter for the show and conduct interviews and write up a story for the journal. Any volunteers?

EAC also has a elist of those attending the show. Who here is planning on being at the convention?  I will be setup at the show as well as conducting the happening night. Who else?

Brad Karoleff

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 Glenn Peterson also wrote in response to Glenn Marx:

  I appreciate Glenn Marx's comments about the Happenings meeting at EAC. He has a great idea about recording the coins shown of each die marriage and comments about their die states. I am going to EAC happenings and am willing to compose an article about the happenings event what was displayed and comments for this year's meeting for either the JR Journal and/or this newsletter. I agree with Glenn that we need to share both the information and the enthusiasm for the happenings event. Where should it be published 1. JR journal only 2. JR newsletter only or 3. both. Your opinions? 

Glenn Peterson 

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Paul Hybert wrote about the upcoming Summer ANA Show:

  Exhibiting and Speaking at the 2013 ANA Summer Convention

The ANA's 2013 Anniversary convention will be held in suburban Chicago on August 13-17, Tuesday through Saturday -- near O'Hare airport, at the same venue as in 1991, 1999, and 2011.  At this early date, the ANA web site has some planning information available, and is taking various applications; details on the actual events will appear later, once they are finalized.  See
  http://www.worldsfairofmoney.com/

It takes time and effort to create an exhibit; the Exhibiting page at
  http://www.worldsfairofmoney.com/collector-exhibits.aspx
has links to the rules, application, and an essay on preparing an exhibit.  The application must be received at ANA by June 21.  Exhibits can vary in size and scope, and an exhibitor can place up to four different exhibits.  See the rules for the fine print.

Exhibiting does take a commitment of time -- the exhibits must be in place by the Tuesday morning opening of the convention, and the exhibits cannot be removed until very late on Saturday afternoon (when the convention closes).

The Numismatic Theatre of years past has been renamed as Money Talks; the page at
  http://www.worldsfairofmoney.com/numismatic-events/money-talks.aspx
has links for proposing a talk at the summer convention.  The speaker's proposal must be received at ANA by June 5; in some years, the schedule filled up before the posted deadline, so do not procrastinate.  I heard some of the authors of the new book about the US Mint will give a talk, but have not heard about the program at the JRCS meeting.

Last year in Philadelphia, the Kickoff event was at the National Constitution Center, near the Philadelphia Mint.  This year, the Kickoff event on Tuesday is a roof-top party overlooking Wrigley Field, with the Cubs hosting the Cincinnati Reds in a night game -- how did Brad arrange for ANA to do that?  For any speaker and exhibiting questions, send them to the local committee at
    ANA2011Exhibits@ChicagoCoinClub.org
(that is not a typo -- it means we have a little experience!)

Paul Hybert