Is there a shortage of torch-bearers to carry this hobby into the future? Opinions differ, but most agree that with encouragement, outreach and a culture of community, today’s Young Numismatists will continue to build on the legacies of whose who came before. Read the entire story here.

“Once again, the PNG is happy to provide a scholarship that will cover airfare, tuition for one of the two week-long Summer Seminar sessions in June or July, meals and six nights of dormitory accommodations on the campus of Colorado College, site of the ANA headquarters,” said PNG Executive Director Robert Brueggeman.

“All young numismatists between the ages of 13 and 22 are eligible to enter and are cordially invited to apply for the scholarship. Entrants must submit a short essay outlining why they should be chosen as the 2013 scholarship recipient. The deadline for receipt of the entries is March 29, 2013,” explained Brueggeman.

Entries must include the applicant’s name and contact information. The essays can be sent by email to info@PNGdealers.com or by mail to the PNG Executive Director, 28441 Rancho California Road, Suite 106, Temecula, CA 92590.

The two separate 2013 ANA Summer Seminar week-long sessions will be held Saturday, June 22, to Friday June 28, and from Saturday, June 29, to Friday, July 5. Participants ranging from teenagers to senior citizens take 25 hours of class instruction on specific coin and paper money collecting topics or the hobby’s technical and business aspects.

Additional information about the 45th annual ANA Summer Seminar sessions can be found on the ANA website at www.money.org/numismatic-events/summer-seminar.aspx or by contacting ANA Education Project Manager Susan McMillan at (719) 482-9850.

“We appreciate that PNG sees educating youth as a priority and value their continued support of the ANA’s Summer Seminar,” said McMillan.

The money to pay for the annual PNG YN Scholarship is administered from PNG’s Gerald Bauman Memorial Fund. Bauman, who died in 2001, served for many years as a prominent coin dealer with Manfra, Tordella & Brookes in New York City.

The PNG is a nonprofit organization composed of many of the top rare coin and paper money dealers in the United States and seven other countries. PNG member-dealers must adhere to a strict Code of Ethics in the buying and selling of numismatic merchandise. For additional information, visit online at www.PNGdealers.com or call (951) 587-8300.

Submissions due to the ANA by April 5, 2013.

The American Numismatic Association is accepting papers on “Numismatics in its Relationship to World’s Fairs and Expositions” from authors and researchers who would like to be a part of the Maynard Sundman Littleton Coin Company Lecture Series.

Selected authors will be asked to deliver presentations in the Aug. 14 symposium at the ANA World’s Fair of Money^SM in Chicago. This year marks the 120^th anniversary of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and the 70^th anniversary of the Century of Progress International Exposition, both held in Chicago.

Selected presenters will receive a $250 honorarium. Submissions, which are due April 5, should consist of a lecture summary that is 500 words or less. Each summary should contain an introduction, a brief discussion of the subject, sources and research method.

Priority is given to papers that emphasize areas of new research and scholarship.

Submit applications by mail to: Susan McMillan, Education Project Manager, American Numismatic Association, 818 N. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80903; or by email to mcmillan@money.org. Electronic submissions are preferred but not required.

A panel will review submissions and choose talks based on originality, persuasiveness and relevance to the symposium topic.  Presenters will be notified by April 26, 2013.

Proceedings from the symposium will be published on the American Numismatic Association website (www.money.org). Presenters must provide an electronic copy and printout of their papers prior to the symposium.

For more information, contact McMillan at 719-482-9850 or mcmillan@money.org.

Symposium admission is free and open to all attendees of the ANA World’s Fair of Money.  For more information on the World’s Fair of Money, go to www.worldsfairofmoney.com/Sundman.

Registration begins at 9 a.m. The program includes four speakers plus access to the CSNA library from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more detailed information and any changes to the schedule, visit http://www.calcoin.org/symposia.html.

Prize medal of the International Exposition, Athens, 1903, gilt bronze, by Hond, Paris.

The folks at the Princeton Numismatic Library Collection have been busy.

Many institutions are taking their coins off display, or worse yet, deaccessioning them, but Princeton continues to make new numismatic acquisitions. Here’s their latest press release.

To showcase its recent acquisition of a collection of more than 120 medals of modern Greece, the Princeton University Numismatic Collection has installed an exhibition of a selection of historically important pieces in the Boyd Room of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections in Firestone Library. The exhibition has been curated by Mary Thierry, Princeton Class of 2012, who has been working in the Numismatic Collection for the past three years and has taken the University’s graduate seminar in numismatics. The medals will be on display for an indefinite period during hours when the department is open to the public.

The collection was put together by a private collector in Athens and purchased by Princeton with funds from the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund and the Townsend-Vermeule Fund. It is believed to be the largest collection of modern Greek commemorative medals in an American public collection. Among the highlights of the collection and the current exhibition are a set of medals from1836 by the Austrian engraver Konrad Lange, who also engraved early coin dies for the newly established Greek Republic, and participation medals of the early Olympics, including the national Greek games that preceded the establishment of the International Olympic Games in 1896.

The public is invited to attend a celebration of the opening of the exhibition, and the graduation of its guest curator, on Thursday, May 31, at 4 p.m. in the Boyd Room. The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections is open to the public Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed holidays. Further information can be obtained from Alan Stahl, Curator of Numismatics, at astahl@princeton.edu or (609) 258-9127.

Continental Currency, 1776, tin pattern, obverse, Princeton University Numismatic Collection.

Continental Currency, 1776, tin pattern, reverse, Princeton University Numismatic Collection.

Press release: On Sunday, May 6, the Friends of Princeton University Library will sponsor a public lecture by the noted scholar of early American coinage, Louis Jordan, entitled “Transformations in Numismatic Iconography during the American Revolution.” The talk will take place at 4 p.m. in 101 McCormick Hall on the Princeton campus. The lecture will be preceded at 2:30 by a curatorial tour of the exhibition “Capping Liberty: The Invention of a Numismatic Iconography for the New American Republic” by Alan M. Stahl, Princeton’s Curator of Numismatics, in the Leonard L. Milberg Gallery of Firestone Library, Princeton University.

Louis Jordan is one of the pre-eminent experts on the coinage of the early AmericanRepublic. In addition to his many public lectures and publications on the topic, he maintains an extensive scholarly website: “The Coins of Colonial and Early America” (http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/index.html/). Dr. Jordan is Librarian and Director of Special Collections, University of Notre Dame Libraries, the institution from which he received his Ph.D. in Medieval Studies in 1980. He is co-editor of and a frequent contributor to The Colonial Newsletter: A Research Journal in Early American Numismatics, and author of John Hull: The Mint and the Economics of Massachusetts Coinage (2002) and Lord Baltimore Coinage and Daily Exchange in Early Maryland, currently in preparation.

Louis Jordan

In his talk at Princeton, Jordan will trace the various attempts by the Continental Congress to devise a symbol for the new Republic, including the devices of a linked chain and a sundial invented by Benjamin Franklin, which were adopted on the 1776 Continental Currency patterns and on the 1787 Fugio coppers. Another common motif, the circle of stars representing the colonies and then states, appeared on the Nova Constellatio coppers and became the basis of the firstUnited States flag.

The lecture is being held in conjunction with the exhibition “Capping Liberty,” which is running through July 8, 2012, in the Leonard L. Milberg Gallery of Firestone Library,PrincetonUniversity. Hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., closed holidays. The exhibition and its associated events are free and open to the public. A website devoted to the exhibition, including high-resolution images of both sides of all coins on display and images from associated books, manuscripts, and graphic arts, is online at http://rbsc.princeton.edu/capping-liberty and will remain on the site after the close of the exhibition. Further information can be obtained from Alan Stahl, Curator of Numismatics, at astahl@princeton.edu or (609) 258-9127.

United States Mint Highlights Free Resources for Educators on World Teachers’ Day

WASHINGTON – Beginning in 1994, October 5 was set aside to commemorate the vital role that
teachers play in providing quality education. In recognition of World Teachers’ Day, the United States
Mint is highlighting the free resources for teachers at its online learning community, located at
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/teachers/.
With the new school year in full swing, teachers are looking for innovative and interesting resources to
help instruct students in history, language arts, social studies and mathematics. The United States Mint
H.I.P. Pocket Change™ Web site, created in response to a 1997 presidential mandate to “enrich the
Internet as a learning tool,” offers lesson plans and project ideas that incorporate the educational value of
coins and coin collecting into the learning process.

Lesson plans are based on United States Mint initiatives like the America the Beautiful Quarters
® Program, the 12-year initiative launched in 2010 to honor 56 national parks and sites. The America the
Beautiful Quarters Program lesson plans are designed for grades K-12 and feature an interactive format
customized for students. The flexible lesson plan format may be applied to a variety of learning
environments – one computer to a classroom, one computer per student, or the traditional “pen and paper”
offline approach. The plans also integrate technology into the core curriculum and support national
education technology standards – models for 21st century learning. United States Mint lesson plans are free and available online at http://www.usmint.gov/kids/teachers/.

Created and reviewed by teachers to meet national curricular standards, the plans draw on the new quarter
reverse designs to inspire students to learn about the culture, geography, unique heritage and natural
beauty of our national parks and sites. Native American $1 Coin and other lesson plans are also available.

The H.I.P. Pocket Change™ Web site also includes redesigned “educators” pages that include such
features as:
• a central information section that provides updates on coin programs and education news
• specialized sections that target specific areas of interest (e.g., classroom, community, coins, kids)
• a reorganized navigation menu that provides easier access to available resources, including more
than 500 lesson plans and projects
• Classroom Gadgets, which include useful multiple classroom activities, such as a timer, bingo
game and card generator
• Trivia Treasures, a database of facts designed to spark ideas for lessons, including fun facts,
coin chronicles, coin specifications and minting statistics
• the re-formatted e-newsletter, “What’s New for You,” a tool to help the more than 13,000
members of the Teachers’ Network stay informed of the latest educational resources from the
United States Mint

The United States Mint, created by Congress in 1792, is the Nation’s sole manufacturer of legal tender
coinage and is responsible for producing circulating coinage for the Nation to conduct its trade and
commerce. The United States Mint also produces proof, uncirculated and commemorative coins;
Congressional Gold Medals; and silver, gold and platinum bullion coins.

PNG Forms Coin Doctoring Definition Committee

(Temecula,California) — The Professional Numismatists Guild (www.PNGdealers.com) has formed a committee composed of PNG members and non-members to research and draft an industry-acceptable definition of “coin doctoring.” 

“They will draft an exhaustive but concise definition.  Coin doctoring is a crucial, perplexing issue that needs to be addressed for the benefit of collectors and dealers,” said Jeffrey Bernberg, PNG President.  “We’re determined to get this done.”

The committee is headed by John Albanese, President of Certified Acceptance Corporation (CAC) and the National Consumer Alliance (www.StopCoinFraud.com), a non-profit numismatic organization involved in consumer education and protection.  Albanese was also a co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) in 1986 and the founder of Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) in 1987, the two largest, independent third-party rare coin authentication and grading companies.

Also serving on the committee are former PNG Vice President John Feigenbaum of David Lawrence Rare Coins; Frank Greenberg of Delaware Valley Rare Coins; PNG Immediate Past President Paul Montgomery of American Precious Metals Exchange; Laura Sperber of Legend Numismatics; and Scott Travers, author of The Coin Collector’s Survival Manual.

“The committee consists of a varied group of respected numismatists who have a wide range of expertise. Our job is to specifically define coin doctoring so we can better protect consumers from buying coins that have been tampered with in a manner meant to deceptively alter a coin, and thus, affect the long-term value of their investment,” said Albanese.

“The doctoring problem plagues the industry as a whole and has the potential to affect the credibility of all rare coins, certified or otherwise. The PNG is the ideal organization to lead an unbiased charge against the unsavory tactics of coin doctors because the PNG stands at the forefront of numismatic integrity and leadership in the professional coin community.”

In July 2010, the PNG Board of Directors in partnership with NGC and PCGS adopted a definition of coin doctoring “to help combat the deliberative and unacceptable alteration of coins in an effort to deceive.”  However, that definition subsequently was rejected by PNG members in January of this year. 

“The PNG By-Laws provide the general membership with the opportunity to override decisions made by the Board.  In this case, the membership voted overwhelmingly to keep the previous PNG Code of Ethics definition in place and not adopt a more-substantive new wording specifically about coin doctoring until the issue could be more clearly defined,” said PNG Executive Director Robert Brueggeman. 

 ”We’re now working to get that clear definition and the consensus of the membership.”