Peter van Alfen Appointed Chairperson of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee
New York, NY
January 17, 2024
For Immediate Release
Peter van Alfen, Chief Curator at the American Numismatic Society (ANS), has been appointed the next Chairperson of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) by the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. Dr. van Alfen has served as a specially qualified member (as a numismatic curator) of the committee since 2020, and will serve a one-year term as chair effective January 30, 2024.
The CCAC was established in 2003 by Congress to represent the interests of American citizens and coin collectors to the Secretary of the Treasury. The committee advises the Secretary on theme or design proposals related to circulating coinage, bullion coinage, and medals produced by the United States Mint, including Congressional Gold Medals. As Chairperson, Dr. van Alfen succeeds Dr. Lawrence S. Brown, a life member of the ANS.
On his nomination, Dr. van Alfen noted, “I’m very much looking forward to working with my colleagues on the CCAC over the course of this next year selecting the best possible designs for our nation’s coinage and medals. It truly is a privilege to serve on the CCAC and to do the work that we do.”
Dr. Peter van Alfen holds his Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Texas at Austin, with an M.A. in Anthropology (Nautical Archaeology) from Texas A&M University, and a B.A. in Classics from the University of Utah. He is an Affiliated Scholar with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. He was the President of the New York Numismatic Club from 2017-2018 and received the 2019 Burnett Anderson Memorial Award for Excellence in Numismatic Writing. At the ANS, Dr. van Alfen has served for more than twenty years as a curator specializing in ancient Greek coinage and medallic art, as a past editor of the American Journal of Numismatics (2005-2008), and previously the (co-)Director of the Eric P. Newman Graduate Summer Seminar in Numismatics (2002-2023). He is the current editor of the ANS Magazine (2004-present), Secretary of the committee for the Collier Prize in Ancient Numismatics, and serves on the committee for the J. Sanford Saltus Award for Signal Achievement in the Art of the Medal.
For more information, see the full press release from the United States Mint.
The American Numismatic Society, organized in 1858 and incorporated in 1865 in New York State, operates as a research museum under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is recognized as a publicly supported organization under section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) as confirmed on November 1, 1970.
