In late July I took a sweltering day off to drive my Ford Ranger to Virginia to pack all the back-issues of the Ledgers that John Smith had taken care of as secretary. His wife and son were there to help wedge all the boxes in the back and after a nice glass of ice water I headed off to Baltimore to drop them off at Sheldon Freed’s residence. On the way there I made a stop in Chancellorsville,VA to visit a Civil War battleground and stood on the spot where Stonewall Jackson was shot. I believe his words were “You’ve shot the wrong man!”.

The following week was the ANA Show in New York City. This year’s ANA was really a long affair as the pre-ANA and ANA spanned nine days, with auctions seemingly going on all the time. Being just 130 miles away I actually made two trips of it and was able go back to work in the middle of the week. Although a stretch, I was able to purchase two nice error coins at auction for my collection but other than that strong prices realized precluded any other significant additions to my collection. It seemed like I met three or four collectors claiming to be the underbidder on the 1933 St. Gauden’s $20 Gold piece… must have been the joke of the week.

The Show and auctions were scattered over several different floors and being in mid-town Manhattan everything was congested and “hustle-bustle” and not as smoothly organized as other ANA’s—I doubt they will return there. Besides a pastrami sandwich and a small Coke was $13. Ten people attended the Fly-In Club meeting on Friday, August 2nd at the Marriott Marquis Convention Center. In Vern Sebby’s absence I updated the gathering on Club news. We currently have 371 members amongst our ranks. Last year’s renewal rate was very high (perhaps the highest of all time) and in addition this year through August we have taken in nearly 50 new members, which is about a normal 12-month period. We will keep the membership dues the same for 2003, $20 for one year and $35 for two years. We decided to declare certain numismatic organizations pro bono recipients of the Ledger, including the ANA, Coin World, and Numismatic News. Interested parties will now be able to receive a complimentary back issue as a trial when contacting Sheldon Freed. The Best Article Award for 2001 and 2002 will be presented at next year’s ANA in Baltimore. The winner for each year will receive $100.

Although no formal presentation was made, a group discussion on Indian cent counterfeits was held. Many examples were passed around with at least two very deceiving pieces. In fact one high-grade 1869 example had many perplexed and no consensus was reached. I have performed some metallurgical analysis on the piece and hopefully an article will be forthcoming.