. . .

Classes in Colorado Springs

by Lloyd Lim, 2 Aug 1994

My girlfriend (Evalynne) and I recently attended the ANA Summer Conference in Colorado Springs. Here's a report on the trip. (It was supposed to be brief, but I just kept going.) Any opinions, good and bad, are my own.

The conference was from July 9-15. We drove from California so we could sightsee to and from. The ANA is right next to Colorado College, and everyone stayed there in the dorms. The college is not very big--you could walk from one end to the other in 5 minutes. Meals were in the cafeteria and most of the conference classes were in the classrooms.

The ANA museum is the best I've seen numismatically, but I haven't been to the Smithsonian. It's moderate in size, not huge. It took us 3 trips to look through it all, mostly because we had to pop in during gaps in the conference schedule. When we first walked in, I passed right by the 1804 dollar without noticing it. It wasn't until I got to the 1913 nickel that I realized I missed something. I thought they would be in a special location, on a pedestal or something, but they are just in normal display cases. I was disappointed to notice many replicas in the currency displays upstairs, but I can understand that the ANA can't afford specimens of everything. Downstairs, I was particulary impressed by a collection of presidential signatures and related coins on display.

The library was great. Physically it's not very big, but it has almost anything you'd want. I was surprised to see that there are often many duplicate copies available for lending. I don't know if Lynn Chen collects or not, but she sure knows the library and numismatic topics. We checked out a bunch of books before we left and will mail them back. I definitely will be making regular use of the checkout by mail program.

The conference kicked off on Saturday with Q. David Bowers. Evalynne reads the Rare Coin Review and The Coin Collector and she spotted him before I did. His speech was rather unfocused and we agreed that he's better when he writes. We met James Taylor with his trademark white cap. Sitting in front of us, I noticed David Vagi and Kerry Wetterstrom by their nametags--two frequent Money Talks authors.

Classes started on Sunday and ran till Thursday. We took the U.S. Coin Grading class taught by Bill Fivaz, Mary Sauvain, Don Bonser, and Tom Hallenbeck. The classes are no joke. Sunday was a half day, but all the other days were full days. Outside of class the schedule was also full. In the evenings you had a choice between an organized outing (Pikes Peak, Cripple Creek, Denver Mint, and some dude ranch) or a numismatic bull session (cherrypicking, Hobo nickels, coin photography, strike doubling vs. die doubling, authentication, errors, etc.). We didn't go on any outings, opting for the bull sessions instead. I thought Gail Kraljevich's session on Hobo nickels was the best. We missed one or two sessions, but all the ones we saw were interesting. In a way, it was numismatic heaven. I mean, when the subject is cherrypicking and J.T. Stanton and Bill Fivaz are talking, how can you get any better than that?!

Getting to the grading class, it was great. People of all levels were there from dealers to non-collectors. But the atmosphere was very open and no one was afraid to ask questions. One non-collecting wife wasn't afraid to ask questions like "What do you call that coin?". At the end, everyone noticed she had developed a strong interest and Don Bonser thought she would be a strong collector. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see a decent percentage of women (serious dealers and collectors) at the conference, more than you'd see at a typical coin show.

The class covered a lot of ground. The first slide set and discussion was primarily on mint-made imperfections (weak strike, adjustment marks, struck-throughs, die polishing, etc.), how to recognize them, and how they affected grading. The next two slide sets were examples that the instructors discussed and graded in front of us. Then we looked at coins. Wow! The first set was a bunch of reference sets illustrating grading, toning, strike, etc. Amazingly, most of these coins belonged to Bill Fivaz. There was a bunch of ungraded sets that we could grade by ourselves and see how we did. Then they had ANACS reference sets for what seemed like every coin type. It was great to look at the fabulous coins, some running up to MS-67 and MS-68, even though most of us could never own them.

We also split into 4-person teams and graded some coins in slabs (grade covered up). Each person would write down an individual grade, then the team would discuss it and come to a consensus. At the end, the class went over how the teams graded each coin. The results were surprisingly accurate. Nevertheless, grading is difficult. One thing we all noticed was how tired we would get towards the end of a day looking at coins. Some of us had fantasies of working at grading services, but we found out that none of us would cut it. Don Bonser and Mary Sauvain used to work at ANACS, grading an average of 400 coins per day. Don said he once graded 1500 in one day. And since there are certain quality-control checks, if they weren't accurate, they'd be out of a job.

Although everyone learns a lot, I think you miss out on a lot without some basic background. At the minimum, I would suggest that beginners go through the Red Book, the ANA Grading Standards, Photograde, and perhaps the ANA grading video before attending. You should also have a loupe (7x Bausch & Lomb Hastings Triplet, ideally) and be comfortable using it, since you'll be looking at lots of coins. There are so many coins, it's impossible to see them all.

One interesting sidebar was the fate of the Minting Process class. This class normally gets a special tour of the Denver Mint. James Taylor acknowledged that last year's class had exceptional access to the mint floor. Unfortunately, the class got out of hand. I don't know exactly what happened--stories floating around ranged from people getting the operators to strike off-centers, to people mixing different-sized planchets together, etc. The result was that this year's class suffered and didn't even get on the floor. They got the same tour as the normal public.

One big attraction was the annual ANA book sale. A lot of unneeded library items are sold off at bargain prices. In the morning, the line stretched upstairs and into the lobby. I didn't find anything I wanted, but some people bought boxes of stuff. Some people complained the prices were too cheap. However, Lynn Chen said there was too much stuff she needed to unload. There was a lot of stuff left, so I think she was right.

Another interesting event was the YN auction. You can consign or donate items to the YNs and the proceeds go to YN scholarships for next year. The prices realized are outrageous, mostly because the old folks feel it's a good cause. Underwear stolen from Bill Fivaz fetched an astonishing amount!! There were a record number of YNs this year. Quite frankly, without naming any particular YNs, we felt that the ANA is starting to scrape the bottom of the YN barrel. In the future, the ANA may want to consider allocating the money differently, possibly searching harder for applicants or sending some college students.

The conference closed with a "graduation ceremony". This usually takes place in the cafeteria. As you may know, Juan Antonio Samaranch, the president of the International Olympic Committee, started a museum for Olympic memorabilia and has a personal interest in stamps and coins. Somehow or other, this got linked together with the U.S. Olympic Center (also in Colorado Springs), the ANA, and the Summer Conference. So our graduation ceremony suddenly became a big event hosted by the USOC.

We were given a brief tour of the USOC's two new facilities, which were funded by commemorative coins. They seemed nice except that the power in both buildings had failed, which the guide said happens fairly often. Then we were shown two "feel good" films about the U.S. Olympic team. Mr. Samaranch and other dignitaries arrived, including U.S. Mint Director Philip Diehl himself, and we listened to a bunch of speeches about "the Olympic movement". Then we had a festive dinner that featured rattlesnake chili (quite good, but not hot enough IMHO).

Adna Wilde, Evalynne, and me; by Susan Nulty

It was all quite amusing. Several people speculated why the USOC would want to spend so much money on us and the sarcastic answers involved selling Olympic commems. But hey, if they wanted to give us a party, who cares? :) We happened to sit next to Adna Wilde, the ANA treasurer, and Evalynne had a pleasant conversation with him. Philip Diehl sat at the next table, about 3 feet away from me. Since he had previously said in his speech that people should feel free to talk with him, people did exactly that. Many collectors asked for autographs, and many gave him an earful about whatever they thought the Mint should be doing. I give him a lot of credit because he patiently listened to all of them and sometimes discussed various points.

All in all, the conference was great. More than anything else, the people made it great. The staff was helpful, friendly, and (yes) professional. In my mind, the ANA leadership and staff are two distinct entities. Everyone attending was very friendly, in part because everyone had something in common. The Colorado Springs area was also very nice, much more so than Denver. Anyway, we loved it. Many of the attendees were repeats, and the first-timers (like us) we talked to all said they wanted to come again next year.

How much is it? $375 if you share a room. When I was in college, I thought this was a lot. Now, I think it's a good deal, especially when you consider that it includes room and board for a week. And now that I've been there, I'm not even sure how they cover all of the conference expenses. Many thanks to James Taylor and staff for a well-run operation.

A comment from Evalynne:

I had a great time at the ANA summer conference. I learned a great deal from the instructors in the grading course. Thanks to them, the result is that I can grade just as well (or even better, IMHO) than Lloyd. :) I strongly recommend the conference to anyone who is interested in coins. At the conference I found out that architectural medals existed. I was so thrilled because I am an architecture student. Now I am reading up on architectural medals. Very fascinating indeed. All in all everything and everyone was great, except when we encountered the rock . . .

(We ran over a pretty big rock in the middle of a curvy mountain road.)

Lloyd Lim
<ltleelim@mail.limunltd.com>

. . .