Longtime numismatist Gene Hessler will
be honored with the American Numismatic Association’s 2014 Lifetime Achievement
Award at the Chicago World’s Fair of MoneySM Awards Banquet on Aug.
8 in Rosemont, Illinois.
Hessler’s many numismatic
accomplishments include Curator of the Chase Manhattan Bank Money Museum,
1967-1977 and Curator of the Mercantile Bank Money Museum (Eric Newman
Collection), 1986-1989. He discovered and published several previously unknown
designs for U.S. currency through research at the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing and the Smithsonian Institution. Hessler also won the Howland Wood
Award at the ANA’s Centennial Convention in 1991, for his exhibit of the
complete works of Czech banknote designer Max Svabinsky.
Hessler has been a member of the ANA
since 1967. He also has held memberships with the American Numismatic Society
(elected Fellow c.1973); Cincinnati Numismatic Association, board member
2005-present; Essay Proof Society (defunct), vice president 1987-1993, director
1987-93; International Bank Note Society, director in the 1980s; and Society of
Paper Money Collectors, board member 1980s-90s.
Hessler taught at the ANA Summer
Seminar from 2000-04. As part of the “Money Talks” series on National
Public Radio, one of his scripts was selected to represent the ANA’s nomination
for a Peabody Broadcasting Award in 1993.
Throughout his numismatic career
Hessler has won numerous ANA awards including the Heath Literary Award (1983),
Glen Smedley Memorial Award (1993), Medal of Merit (1995), Presidential Award
(1998), ANA Honorary Life Member (1990). Other awards include Professional
Numismatists Guild Outstanding Achievement Award (1994), International Bank
Note Society Silver Medal for Service (2001), Middle Atlantic Numismatic
Association Numismatist of the Year (2001), and Numismatic Literary Guild Clemy
(2007).
More about Hessler’s remarkable career
can be read in the August issue of The
Numismatist.
The American Numismatic Association is a congressionally chartered
nonprofit educational organization dedicated to encouraging people to study and
collect money and related items. The ANA helps its 25,500 members and the
public discover and explore the world of money through its vast array of
education and outreach programs, as well as its museum, library, publications,
conventions and seminars. For more information, call 719-632-2646 or go to www.money.org.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, July 28, 2014
CONTACT: Lauren Springli
Telephone: 719-482-9864
Email: pr@money.org
