Entrance to ANA World's Fair of Money at the Los Angeles Convention Center

During the first week of August, our staff and I attended the American Numismatic Association's World's Fair of Money at the Los Angeles Convention Center. We were busy all week buying coins and paper currency from nationwide sources at the show, and all acquired merchandise was promptly shipped back to Littleton for our waiting customers. At such events, I always enjoy meeting up with old friends and

	Smithsonian exhibit of gold Double Eagles

A very popular display with collectors, dealers and the public is the Smithsonian's Good as Gold – America's Double Eagles exhibit shown here. The display features many rarities, including the famed 1933 gold double eagle. Karen Lee and curators Dick Doty and Jim Hughes provided expertise and answered questions throughout the week.

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	With Clifford Mishler, newly elected ANA president

At the ANA World's Fair of Money, I was happy to congratulate Cliff Mishler as the newly elected 56th president of the American Numismatic Association Board of Governors. Both Cliff and his good friend and former boss Chester Krause, who was re-elected to the board, hail from the small town of Iola, Wisconsin. Beginning in 1952 in Iola, Chet Krause, joined later by Cliff Mishler, built the collectibles

Chet Krause, founder of collectibles publishing giant Krause Publications

The ANA numbers more than 30,000 members around the U.S. and the world, and I highly recommend membership to all. The cost is only $28 a year for a Basic-Regular membership (with online delivery of the award-winning magazine The Numismatist), or $46 a year for a Regular-Regular membership, with a hard copy of the magazine mailed to you monthly. For more information about joining this excellent organization, including specially discounted memberships for junior members, spouses, and seniors, please visit the American Numismatic Association website.

	My "1652" room number plate at the ANA
	My 1652 Massachusetts Pine Tree Shilling

With "1652" I probably received the most numismatically significant room number assigned to guests in my hotel for the ANA convention (there were only 16 floors, so no room "1793" or "1804" etc.). I took 1652 as a good "sign" of impending success at the show event, and it was a good show. The number 1652 is important to American collectors as a coin date, and I have a few examples of Massachusetts silver coins in my personal collection [including the 1652 Pine Tree Shilling]. Continuing with more 1652 topics, at their ANA table in Los Angeles, the grading and coin encapsulating service PCGS [Professional Coin Grading Service] was featuring a set of four Massachusetts silver coins owned by noted rare coin expert and collector Dwight N. Manley. Mr. Manley is president of the United Sports Agency, representing such athletes as Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz basketball team, and many other top athletes.

I paid particular attention to the Manley set of coins, as I have my own set of four Massachusetts shillings which I hope to display at next year's ANA World's Fair of Money in Boston, Massachusetts. If you are planning to attend the ANA convention next year, come up north and see us too. Littleton Coin Company is only a 2½-hour drive north from Boston on Interstate-93, in the very scenic White Mountains.

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	1860 Lincoln campaign token

February 12, 2009 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln – one of the most celebrated U.S. presidents on coins, paper currency and stamps. Those who seriously collect Lincoln memorabilia have the 1860 and 1864 campaign tokens, photos and other ephemera to draw upon. Here's an early 1860 campaign medal with a ferrotype photo of a beardless Lincoln from our Littleton Coin Company collection. The circa 1858 ferrotype by Roderick M. Cole is encased directly on the token, protected by a mica case. The reverse of the medal features a similar ferrotype photo of Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, Lincoln's vice-presidential running mate in 1860. By the end of 2009, coin collectors will have four new Lincoln cent reverse designs to search for. Present indications are they are going to be surprisingly hard to locate, due to large Federal Reserve inventories of previously produced cents requiring relatively few of the new 2009 cents to be struck by the Philadelphia Mint and Denver Mint. A non-circulating U.S. commemorative silver dollar honoring Lincoln has also been struck in Proof and Uncirculated versions. The popularity of Abraham Lincoln continues to grow, especially during this year's 200th anniversary of his birth and 100th anniversary of the Lincoln cent series. These numismatic tributes will be a stimulus to many to explore our 16th president's remarkable life story, and to discover how he influenced and continues to influence American history and political thought.

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With Red Book editor Ken Bressett (left) at the recent ANA World's Fair of Money show. Numismatic scholar Q. David Bowers is seated beyond at the Whitman booth.

In addition to collecting coins and paper money, I also collect books and ephemera related to coin collecting. Here I am with Kenneth Bressett at the ANA World's Fair of Money show in Los Angeles, holding a brochure of B. Max Mehl that I picked up for my collection of coin dealer literature. Ken is the long-time editor of the Guide Book of United States Coins [popularly known as the "Red Book®"], published by Whitman Publishing, LLC. Ken worked for Whitman for many years, and since 1970, has been editor of the Red Book®. Max Mehl was a legendary early coin dealer, auctioneer and coin booster from 1903 to 1957, based in Fort Worth, Texas. This particular Mehl brochure was published in 1933 at the depths of the Great Depression, when coin collecting boomed. After sharing this latest addition to my collection with Ken, he related how he used a copy of this particular brochure of Mehl's in one of his grade school reports – cutting out the coin illustrations around the border for his presentation on coin collecting. Ken recalled, "I got an 'A' from my teacher for my report." From such small beginnings a great publishing career was launched. Just over my right shoulder in the photo you can spot Q. David Bowers, research editor for the Red Book, and chairman of Stack's. He is seated at the Whitman Publishing booth for a book signing, autographing one of his many award-winning numismatic reference works. I was privileged to co-author with Q. David Bowers the popular paper money book 100 Greatest American Currency Notes, published by Whitman in 2006. top caption: With Red Book editor Ken Bressett (left) at the recent ANA World's Fair of Money show. Numismatic scholar Q. David Bowers is seated beyond at the Whitman booth.

My father Maynard Sundman, who founded LCC with my mother

Several years ago, while my father and our company founder Maynard Sundman was alive and working here at Littleton, I wanted to honor his lifetime achievement in helping build the popularity of coin and paper money collecting in the United States. My family decided it would be fitting to propose to my father that we donate money to the American Numismatic Association for sponsorship of The Maynard Sundman Lecture Series. Although very shy by nature, we were able to convince him that this would serve a real need, as these talks would be themed and published. For 2009, the theme was "Instruments of Banking and Commerce." The lead-off speaker was Peter Huntoon – one of the finest researchers in paper currency, a volunteer for the Smithsonian's National Numismatic Collection, and a personal friend of mine. Peter's topic was "Emergency Currency of the Great Depression." He presented to the audience a fascinating progressive study of the different currency acts since 1861,

	2009 ANA room schedule for the Maynard Sundman Lecture Series

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	Obverse and reverse of 1776 NH copper

Here is a rarely seen photo of a rare 1776 New Hampshire copper. With only 8 or 9 coins known to exist, few collectors will ever see an example of this issue, let alone own one. To illustrate the rarity, this specimen has only traded hands four times in a little more than a century. New Hampshire was the first of the rebellious colonies to consider its own coinage. In March 1776, a few months before the Declaration of Independence, the New Hampshire House authorized a committee to consider the production of copper coinage (copies of this resolution survive today). The design depicts a famed New Hampshire pine tree, which was a symbol of the colony. New Hampshire pine trees were provided for years to the British Crown for Royal Navy shipmasts, and the Pine Tree motif had appeared on various denominations of early NH paper money since 1794. The obverse legend selected for the proposed 1776 coins was AMERICAN LIBERTY inscribed to the left and right of the pine tree. The reverse bears the date 1776 and features a harp – whose harmonious large and small strings symbolized agreeable union between large and small colonies. A noted silversmith, William Moulton, was recommended to produce up to 100 pounds weight of the copper coins for submission to the General Assembly for approval. The mystery is that although the vote of the House is recorded, no records of the coinage have ever been found. These coins were cast by hand, not struck from dies. This example is the 1875 Sylvester S. Crosby plate coin as depicted in plate VI in his still valued book, The Early Coins of America; and the Laws Governing their Issue, published in 1875 by Crosby in Boston. It was originally contained in the Matthew A. Stickney Collection (auctioned in 1907), and later in the James Ellsworth Collection, which was sold in March 1923 to famed New York coin dealer Wayte Raymond for the sum of $100,000. One of Raymond's clients, John Work Garrett of Baltimore, provided 50% of the funds for this purchase. For his $50,000 investment, Garrett selected coins he needed that were missing from his own extensive collection – including a Brasher Doubloon, as well as many other scarce and rare U.S. and colonial coins – along with this New Hampshire copper. This pedigreed Garrett-Ellsworth-Stickney specimen is one of the best known examples, and was last sold at public auction in the October 1980 Garrett III Sale by Bowers & Ruddy for $13,000. It is the plate coin in the newly released Whitman Encylopedia of Colonial and Early American Coins, catalog #W08395 – and is currently in the collection of a New England collector who allowed Littleton to reproduce this image.