Walton & Bebee Nickels, Neil/Carter Dollar, and BEP’s “Billion Dollar Display” highlight ANA National Money Show
Two of the five known 1913 Liberty Head nickels – the Bebee and recently located Walton specimens – and the unique Neil/Carter specimen 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar will be prominently displayed during the American Numismatic Association’s (www.money.org) National Money Show in the Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon, March 26 – 28.
Representatives of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing will attend the show with their colorful “Billion Dollar Exhibit” and a specially-produced Lewis & Clark themed souvenir card. This will be the first time in a decade the BEP has participated in the ANA’s annual early spring convention.
Representatives of the United States Mint also will have a bourse floor booth.
Admission to the show is free, and open to the public.
“This will be the first time the Walton specimen has been displayed in the Pacific Northwest, and it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many collectors to see the two coins in person,” said Christopher Cipoletti, ANA Executive Director.
The Bebee specimen is named after the late Aubrey and Adeline Bebee of Omaha, Nebraska who donated the coin to the ANA Money Museum in 1989. The Walton specimen is named after George O. Walton of Roanoke, Virginia who was killed in a 1962 car crash. His heirs kept the coin in a closet for 41 years after being mistakenly told it was not genuine.
The Walton coin was authenticated at the ANA World’s Fair of Money. convention in Baltimore last summer, solving a decades-old mystery over its whereabouts, and Walton’s heirs have loaned the coin to the ANA Money Museum.
“We are grateful to the Walton Family for graciously allowing the ANA to exhibit this historic coin and to share their numismatic treasure with the public,” said Gary Lewis, ANA President.Five 1913 Liberty Head nickels were produced 91 years ago under mysterious circumstances when the United States Mint was changing from the Liberty Head to the Native American Indian/Buffalo design. First shown at the 1920 ANA convention in Chicago, the five coins remained together as a set until the 1940s, when they were separated and sold.
Two are now permanently part of museum collections; one (Bebee specimen) at the ANA with the Walton’s loaned coin, the other (Norweb specimen) is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s collection. The other two rare nickels (Eliasberg/Manley and Legend specimens) remain in private hands, both changing ownership several times in the last 10 years, and one of them (Eliasberg/Manley) selling just before the ANA Baltimore convention for about $3 million.The Neil/Carter 1794 dollar will make its first-ever appearance in the Pacific Northwest at the Portland convention. Once part of the legendary Amon Carter Sr. Collection and now owned by Steve Contursi of California, it is the only known 1794 Flowing Hair dollar with a silver plug. Some researchers believe it may be the first silver dollar struck by the United States Mint.
A specially-built exhibit case for this historic coin, symbolic of the early Mint Cabinet, will make its debut in Portland.
A display from the ANA Money Museum’s current exhibition, “¡Viva la Revolución!: The Money of the Mexican Revolution,” also will be shown in Portland as part of the association’s numismatic education program.
“Visitors to the convention will be able to see a representative sample of the outstanding exhibits at the remodeled ANA Money Museum in Colorado Springs. We had about 35,000 visitors come to the museum last year – more than double the number in any previous year –and we’ll showcase in Portland some of the eye-catching exhibitions,” said Gail Baker, ANA Education Director.
The United States Mint booth is expected to display the new Louisiana Purchase commemorative nickels that are scheduled to enter circulation less than two weeks prior to the opening of the convention.
In addition to its popular display of high-denomination bank notes, including Series 1934 $100,000 Gold Certificates, the BEP will sell a Lewis & Clark souvenir card specially produced for the ANA show, according to Brenda Bishop, ANA Director of Conventions.The show is hosted by the Willamette Coin Club (www.pdxcoinclub.org). The official ANA auction will be conducted by Heritage Numismatic Auctions of Dallas, Texas (www.HeritageCoins.com).
With their generous financial contributions to support all aspects of the three-day event, Numismatic Guaranty Corporation and National Gold Exchange are the title sponsors of the show. Additional financial support comes from 12 secondary sponsors.
There will be 13 Numismatic Theatre educational programs and several club meetings, as well as dozens of exhibits of coins, paper money, tokens and medals, and a young numismatists “treasure trivia game.” The sold-out bourse area will have nearly 230 dealers’ tables and booths for buying and selling numismatic merchandise, according to the ANA.
The Numismatic Theatre program at 10 a.m., Saturday, March 27, features Douglas Mudd, Manager of The Smithsonian’s National Numismatic Collection discussing money and sovereignty. The 3 p.m. program that day presents ANA Executive Director Cipoletti looking at the future of the ANA.
The ANA Board of Governors will conduct two open session board meetings, 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 24, and 8:00 a.m., Thursday, March 25, in room C-124 of the Convention Center.
Public bourse hours will be Friday and Saturday, March 26 and 27, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 28, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
The show will be held in Hall C of the Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Portland.
Originally Release Date: March 4, 2004
ANA Contacts: Phone: 719-482-9872
Email: pr@money.org