This time of year, the European Central Bank issues their semi-annual report on counterfeit Euros found.

The stats are all on my associate David Kranz's Digital Watermark blog.

The numbers are interesting. It shows that the 50 Euro note is more counterfeited than the 100 Euro note.

What is more interesting is the amount of information presented on the ECB's site. They are very forthcoming about news - both good and bad. They may not tell us how to identify the counterfeits, but the news that they are out there is a lot more informaiton than we in the United States get from the Federal Reserve Bank site. Not even hard numbers from the Fed.

So we in the states need to be vigilant.

George

Today is the start of the public participation for the Iola Car Show. It is not your ordinary four day car show - 4000 vendor swap meet spots, 3500 collector cars on display, and about 135,000 visitors.

The effort is a year-round activitiy for several folks, and about 70 service organizations - Lions, Rotary, VFW, American Legion Posts, Scout troops and many others from town and neighboring communities. The funds generated from admissions, food consessions and hours of refuse removal fund these community events for most of the year, and in turn the organizations can flow back funds into the various community in way of school scholarships, support of Lions' and Scout camps and other quality-of-life issues.

I have a car in the show too! My 1982 Checker Marathon A-12. A civilian model of the historic big-city cab.

My mom, who visits during this time of year, gets into the action too, organizing my garage sale. 

George

This originally appeared in Numismatic News as a viewpoint.

What interesting news from two major U.S. museums. The American Numismatic Association launches a plan to expand and go bi-costal while the American Numismatic Society’s goal is to crawl under a rock.

The American Numismatic Association recently announced a 40 million dollar expansion program and plans for public museum satellite locations in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, Calif. Many of you may know that the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution is generally not on public view, with a few select items on display integrated with other exhibits at any one time. A current exception is the notable rarities that are featured at an ongoing exhibit at the Castle building. The ANA’s selection of the San Francisco venue at the old mint is a wonderful location, as one of the few remaining buildings to have survived the 1906 earthquake and fire. This historic structure should be a great tourist draw, and a secure location. Central Washington, D.C., sees influxes of tourists and school groups by the busload. The Spy museum, which is one of the few museums that charge admission in the DC area, is a huge success. There are even some old bank building sites currently available.

This move for the ANA to take coin collecting to the public on a pro-active scale is commendable. Along with it comes a sizeable fundraising campaign proposal. But the return in exposure to the public could be enormous.

On the other hand, the American Numismatic Society in New York City, nearing its 150^th anniversary, is adopting a long-range plan that is tantamount to cold storage. About three years ago, the ANS moved from its 1906 museum building located at 155^th Street and Broadway in Washington Heights to a former bank building located downtown at the corner of Fulton and William streets, near the financial district and South Street Seaport. The reason put forward for the move at that time was that the out-of- town membership felt the uptown location was difficult and unsafe to visit.

So, with the previous move pending, the ANS effectively closed for a year, to renovate the new building, pack, move and unpack. Now a library and collection is presented over three floors at their Fulton Street Building, with a main floor set up for public meetings and an additional floor of storage in the six-story building. They do not even have a certificate of occupancy for the first floor of the building - a building code technical point for public spaces. I really do not think that such a facility has welcomed visitors even with nearby access to nearly 10 subway lines. The street scene is somewhat disturbing, too, with about three years of further subway station construction to further deter visitors.

To open any sort of public museum exhibition at the Fulton Street location is said to cost some seven million dollars more. (Yes, the ANS has a continuing four-year exhibition relationship with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; however, that building is very inconvenient to visit - can you say excessive homeland security checks?). So, what is the ANS about to do? Sell the newly acquired Fulton Street property, and accept a 20-year lease and move into part of the 11^th floor of a recent factory conversion on the far west side of Manhattan (intersection of Varick and Canal Street - 1 Hudson Square, aka 75 Varick St.). The plan is to have the library on closed shelves, and very limited access to the collection material. Therefore, the collection will for all intents and purposes be in storage for 20 years!

What really could be behind this? Yes, the driving motivation for the governing body is that the investment of monies from the sale of the Fulton Street building and the sale of the orders and decorations collection will do well during that time (we all know that past performance is no guarantee of future results – which was announced as 18% per annum in the last 10 years).

But what will happen to the staff positions (which in many cases are endowed)? How will numismatics be served better? How will this non-access grow membership? (Some officers of the ANS have even gone on record saying that members are expensive to service!) The Life Membership dues were recently raised to a staggering $7,000! Talk about causing feelings of disenfranchisement!

The continuing story of two numismatic museums with two very different directions.

George Čuhaj

The 39th Annual Americn Numismatic Assocaiation Summer Seminar is in full force. Week one participants have enjoyed a week of learning on a variety of numismatic topics as diverse as Roman Republican coins, Hammered coins of England, and the clas I was involved with - Coins of World, 1500-present, to those of US Currency, Counterfeit banknotes, and intaglio engraving.

Chris Madden of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was the teacher of the intaglio class. It is offered as a two year scholarship program, and this was the second year in the cycle. His six students displayed their work before the closing banquet.

Two favorite events during the week are a duplicate sale from the library, which for the first week raised over $2,500 dollars, and the donation auction for the YN scholarship fund which took in over $13,000 on 250 or so lots. (The YN's learn the auction business, but accepting, inventoring the material, then writing the descriptions, printing and distributing the catalog, all on a very tight schedule.)

As week two starts off, Friday - Sunday is a 100+ dealer coin show which many of the participants take an extra day in their travel schedule to attend.

Classes this week include Building an award winning educational display, US Paper Money, the milled coins of England, coin photography, and of course the ever popular coin grading classes. I am here this second week as a first year participant in the two-year Gilroy Roberts Fellowship program for engraving. It starts off with a gallery art show  of items from the six participants on Sunday Night with a wine and cheese reception.

It is truely a who's who of the hobby, with a bunch of past and current ANA officials in attendance, and access to many of the Association's staff.

Yes, there is plenty of after hours discussions about the ANA election and the recommended changes to the by laws, and how that will affect the "membership" participation in their organization. Much of that is discussed at a social gathering not to be found on any schedule, but open to all, with the outdoor after dinner and evening classes meeting of the Luna Cafe society in the commons area overlooking the soccer field, with a fine vew of sunsets (or impending thunder clouds) over Pike Peak.

More as the week progresses.

George