ANS at EAC

Earlier this month, deputy director Gilles Bransbourg and I had the honor of representing the ANS at the Early American Coppers Convention in Dayton, Ohio. The EAC, now with over 1,000 members, was formed in 1967 and currently focuses its attention on U.S. colonial and early state coins, cents and half cents (1793-1857), and Hard Times tokens.

The convention took place over the course of four days and featured a number of educational presentations, including an airing of the ANS’s 2018 Silvia Mani Hurter Memorial Lecture, by Huntington Award recipient Dr. John Kleeberg, entitled “Dr. William H. Sheldon, Ted Naftzger and the Large Cent Thefts” (video available here).

The ANS was particularly pleased to be able to cohost an event at the convention honoring legendary large cent collector and researcher Del Bland, who passed away last year at the age of 84. Del was a meticulous researcher with a keen eye for grading, and he made a massive contribution to our knowledge of United States numismatics. He began his research about fifty years ago, and his findings were published in 2000 as the condition census in the Encyclopedia of Early American Cents, which documented over 4,000 coins and included more than 25,000 individual entries. He continued his research well into the 2010s. In 2018, thanks to the contributions of generous donors, the ANS acquired Del’s vast large-cent research archive, nearly 300 ring-binders of material now available for researchers to use at the ANS Library and Archives.

The event honoring Del  was a great success and featured reminiscences by Del’s long-time friend and early American copper specialist Denis Loring as well as Del’s sons, Larry and Gary (video available here).

None of it would have been possible without the help of convention co-chairs Ray Williams and Jack Young, and Jack’s wife, Laura, who was in charge of events. We would also particularly like to thank EAC president Bill Eckberg for arranging the event.