It has been a very busy summer for me, and let me start by saying I hope all of you have had a safe and enjoyable warm season.

The 2000 ANA Show has come and gone. I believe it is my 10th one since Cincinnati in 1988. For several reasons this was by far my favorite ANA ever. In the morning I enjoyed a nice one-hour drive along the Schuykill River from Reading to downtown Philadelphia. On Friday we passed Al Gore’s limo parade. Once there, I parked on the eastern edge of Chinatown district, within a couple of blocks of the Mint. This was still within walking distance to the convention. There is a special feeling about walking to an ANA Convention while passing by the country’s Mother Mint.

A few ANA 2000 highlights really come to mind. On Saturday I met and received autographs from Glenna Goodacre, designer of the Sacagewea obverse as well as Tom Rodgers who did the reverse of the dollar coin. I knew Tom from before and he expressed fatigue over his work schedule with the dollar and State Quarter programs (you can see his “TDR” on a number of great US coins and commemoratives). This was extra special since I regard the Sacagewea to be one of the best coin designs in our Mint’s history.

Also on Saturday I visited Sheridan Downey and Henry Hilgard at their bourse table. Both are leading Bust Half Dollar authorities as well as being simply two of the nicest guys you’d want to meet. While standing there idling away time, a gentleman walks up to his table, opens a briefcase and pulls out some old dies. One of them, by all accounts, ends up being a genuine 1809 Bust Half Dollar die! Any dies older than 1968 are considered ultra, and I mean ultra, rare. He also pulls out a Bust Half reverse die but it’s authenticity is questioned by the experts. The Bust Half Nutters quickly established that the obverse die was the Overton-106 variety by the die crack. After they pulled out a nice VF example I mated the coin and the die--- “Wow!”, I thought, “they meet again after 191 years!”.

Along this vein, Joe Rust and the fine men from the Gallery Mint set up the original steam press on the bourse floor. Joe gave me a personal tour by firing the press up on Tuesday. He converted the power to 220 volt 3-phase power supply. What an interesting piece of history. The unit was first commissioned by the Mint in 1836 and was not retired until 1875. It is quite possible it was used for the coining of Flying Eagle and Indian cents. It is now headed to the ANA museum in Colorado Springs.

Then there was the Central America exhibit, complete with gold ingots and salvaged coins from the wreck. This is truly a fascinating story and is a worthwhile numismatic adventure to learn about.