Central States Numismatic Society

Serving the Numismatic Community since 1939

From the Secretary - Jerry Lebo
(Summer '08)

Our 69th anniversary convention is now history. It was a busy time in Chicago for this event, which had its highs and lows.

Another high was the exhibit area. Under the guidance of Chairperson Fran Lockwood, there were 250 or so cases of mostly top-caliber exhibit material. As one exhibitor commented, the CSNS exhibit area is competitive … even more so than the ANA!

The Heritage Auctions were huge successes, highlighted by the sale of an 1804 dollar that brought $3.4 million. Wow!

The new board was installed during the Saturday awards breakfast. Patti Finner became only the second woman to serve as CSNS president. The first, Marjorie Owen-Hendershott, was on hand to present the President's Medal and gavel. Patti also was awarded the coveted Medal of Merit.

I mentioned there were some lows as well. I have to say I was a bit disappointed that we didn't have a larger bourse area. We had 275 dealer booths, which is about normal for a CSNS convention. However, based on dealer surveys that ranked Chicago their favorite site by a wide margin, we expected a greater dealer participation. Some dealers who didn't have booths said the Chicago venue is too expensive. I'll certainly agree that it is expensive, probably 25 to 30 percent more expensive than other cities we have visited. Although Chicago remains high on the dealer survey, our governing board will have to consider the various factors in determining future visits to the Windy City.

Another disappointment was a lack of participation in the "Coins in the Classroom" program for school teachers. Eventually we had to cancel that educational program, which is now being reviewed by the board.

I was a bit disappointed that more people didn't visit our CSNS booth as evidenced by the fact only 18 members entered our contest to guess the price of gold as of next March 3rd. The winner will have a choice of prizes: either a $10 gold piece or up to four free nights at our 2009 host hotel in Cincinnati.

For the record, here are the guesses, in order of dollar value: Rick King, 537; Bob Fritsch, 621; Susie Tileston, 851; Andrea Foley, 967; Kevin Foley, 1,004; Francis Hawks, 1,045; Jay King, 1,087; Rollie Finner, 1,107; Harry Tileston, 1,197; James Moores, 1,198; Rick Hartzog, 1,209; Jonathan Lipman, 1,250; Eugene Bruder, 1,312; Richard Lipman, 1,320; Mike Dennany, 1,350; Miriam Lipman, 1,384; Jesse Stokes, 1,446; and Donald Young, 1,802.

Postcards were mailed to about 1,800 individuals inviting them to the Chicago convention. Those who presented the postcards at registration were entered into a drawing for gold pieces and silver dollars. The winners were Bruce Bartelt, Vinton Dove, Jim Haver, David Hunsicker, Paul Hybert, Brett Irick, James R. Jackson, John A. Schroeder, Alan Simmons and Vincent Zaccardi.

Meanwhile, the May 10th paper money seminar at the Eric Newman Library in St. Louis was well received. Attendance was restricted to 25 people because of space limitations.

Our next one-day seminar will be Sept. 28th at Sharonville, a suburb of Cincinnati. More on this later, but you can contact Education Director Ray Lockwood (765-664-6520) for a registration form.

Our annual purge of the membership roster occurred April 30th. We had to drop 198 individuals from the roster for non-payment of dues. That might sound like a large number, but relatively speaking it's a bit below normal. In fact, this is the first time in my memory that the list has been below 200.

And, finally, our sympathy goes out to CSNS Exhibit Chairperson Fran Lockwood. Her mother, Rebah Schweitzer, passed away April 28th at a nursing home in northeast Indiana.

Jerry Lebo

Secretary-Treasurer

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