Here is my fourth update of my experiences as an ANA Summer Intern. The past few weeks were particularly interesting with the elections and I wish I could share everything that I have experienced. I hope you guys enjoy this. My 5th and last update will come following ANA Milwaukee, where my internship comes Monday, July 09: This morning, I was supposed to work in the editorial section. However, upon arriving at ANA Headquarters, they were not ready for me. So I went down to the museum, where they always have some work for me. I went into the main vault with the Collections Manager and helped him to organize parts of the world coin collection. It’s truly amazing to see just how extensive the ANA’s numismatic collection is in all aspects, from ultra rarities to complete date runs of common world coins. After eating an interesting hot dog sandwich on a hamburger bun at Red Top for lunch, I returned to the ANA and spent the afternoon in the editorial department. The first task was to go through Summer Seminar photos and puts names to the faces of people so that they are correctly identified when the pictures go into the Numismatist. After that task was over, the other intern and myself began going through the submissions of newsletters and journals from coin clubs throughout the country for the ANA’s Publication Contest. Just sorting the submissions and getting the scoring sheets ready took up the remainder of the day. My evening consisted of a nice run, followed by working on getting my ANA election ballot and EAC application ready to mail tomorrow. Tuesday, July 11: I arrived at the ANA this morning prepared to read through and judge newsletters for awhile. There were four main categories: Local, Regional, Specialty, and Electronic. Some of the publications were spectacular and professional looking, while others were much more amateurish. Three publications in particular that stood out were Errorscope from CONECA, the JRCS Journal from the John Reich Collectors Society, and the newsletter from the California State Numismatic Association. All three had great articles with professional-looking design and layout. It took until the early afternoon to evaluate all of submissions. However, upon completion of that task, editorial was finished with me, so I went back to the museum to look for work. I spent the afternoon sorting paperwork about medal descriptions for the upcoming FIDEM Art Medial World Congress XXX being held in September at the ANA. After work, I got a workout in, barely beating out a thunderstorm, then spent the rest of the evening attributing some large cents and some bust dimes. Wednesday, July 11: This morning started off badly, as I had to wait in a long line for breakfast. Some of the summer camps at Colorado College were overlapping, so things were very busy. After arriving at ANA this morning, I finished gathering all of the descriptions for the FIDEM medals that I could find. Then, it was time to do some editing of the FIDEM catalog draft. I was making sure that the correct artists were attributed to the proper medals, and that everything was labeled and spelled correctly. I also had to make sure that the medals were pictured properly in the catalog, as some were actually pictured upside down!! Lunch was interesting, as the Wednesday group came in and we all went to Red Top for burgers. Ed Rochette told some great stories about John Pittman and the way that he assembled his famous collection. After lunch, I started going through a donation with the collections manager. The donations were from one collection and were about two years old, but had never been opened! There were about 4,000 coins in the collection, and the collector seemed to have some knowledge, as most of the coins were date set runs with multiples of some key dates. After sorting, we were knocked off of our feet to find a total of 52 1877 Indian cents. That’s a huge quantity for a key date. We also found an 1801 3 errors variety large cent (S-219), a 50s run of unopened Proof Sets, and a number 1909-S VDB and 1914-D Lincolns. Upon closer inspection, all of the Lincolns appeared to be genuine. This evening, I worked out and then made a necessary 7-11 trip. Then I began some ANA work on a grading exhibit for Milwaukee, as well as a YN Auction Catalog for the show. Thursday, July 12: Thursday morning began with some extensive editing for the FIDEM catalog. The proofreading took up a good portion of the day. For lunch, we ate at a small diner called Sheldon’s. The special was open faced turkey with mashed potatoes, and this was the closest I had felt to being in West Virginia since I had left at the beginning of June. This was definitely a country style, home cooking diner! After lunch, I finished up a little more editing, then began some work with the Collections Manager. I organized the ANA Slab Grading Set, by denomination and year, something that needed done badly after Summer Seminar. I checked off the MPC list that was used during Seminar to ensure that all of the notes had indeed been returned to the ANA. I then graded and attributed some raw Large Cents that were residing in the collection. I also did some authentication work on a group of 1914-D Lincolns. Thursday evening was another uneventful evening, as I basically was an internet bum, with the exception of an evening run. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, June 13-15: There were only a few additional items to edit for the FIDEM catalog. Then it was off to the main vault to continue organizing the world coin collection. This took most of the morning, and their was nothing particularly worthy of note to see, other than a beautiful Battle of Lake Erie bronze medal from the War of 1812. That piece was stunning. After eating Persian food for lunch, a good portion of the afternoon was spent back in the vault, sorting through proof sets that needed repackaged due to their original packaging containing PVC. I spent some time repackaging some late 1930 and early 1940s US Proof Sets that were in old Wayte Raymond cardboard holders (no PVC in these, but plenty of sulfur). I also did some authentication work on some 1909-S VDB Lincolns that had shown up in donations over the past few months: most were unfortunately fake. To end the day, I worked with Doug Mudd (the museum curator) to organize and plan how the FIDEM medals will fit into individual cases for the upcoming exhibition. Friday evening, three of us made a trip out to the mall for some Chick-Fila. Little did we know, they were giving away FREE sandwiches for their 40th anniversary. Obvious to say, that made my evening. After the mall, we made trips to Barnes and Noble and Wal-Mart in order to pass some time. Saturday morning consisted of a trip to a local sandwich shop for brunch, followed by a trip to the flea market to bargain hunt. The flea market was an enormous place, covering acres after acres, but most of the items were pure junk. I only purchased a pair of salt and pepper shakers and a few pieces of cheap foreign silver in a junk box. The highlight of the entire event was that I had my first Deep Fried Twinkie!! It was certainly a delightful treat. After a quick stop a Hallenbeck’s, I returned to the dorm to find that the TV and the beanbag chairs in the recreation room had been removed. After speaking with an RA, I was told that they would not be back all summer due to the actions of some 10 year olds in a math camp. I basically blew my lid, complaining that there were adults staying here all summer and that they cannot just remove amenities that residents are entitled too, especially when their room and board is being paid for. So, hopefully that is in the process of being straightened out. Sunday was a pretty boring day. It was hot outside, and my dorm room was incredibly hot and stagnant, as I have no air conditioning. The recreation room, the only room in Loomis with AC, was not an option, as there is no place to sit. I attempted to watch NASCAR in another dorm building, only to be run out because I was not a resident in that particular building. I then tried watching the race in the Worner Center (which is basically the student union), only to be run out by a group of Brazilians who apparently wanted to watch soccer and were not interested in waiting their turn for the TV, as I was their first. So I gave up on that and decided that I would get some laundry finished and some much needed ironing finished. It’s now midnight, and I am still hot and miserable in here, so it will likely not be a good sleeping night. Monday, July 16: This week is going to be a busy one, as I am responsible for organizing the YN Live and Internet Auctions for the Milwaukee show. The first thing I did this morning was to talk to Jane about the problems in the dorm. She said that she had sent a few emails, and hopefully things would be straightened out soon. At 8:30 everyone had to gather for a Monday morning staff meeting…..purely joyous (hence the sarcasm). Some elements of the meeting bothered me, but I will not discuss those here. All of the staff members were reminded to vote if they had not done so. After the meeting, I went to begin getting materials out for the auction lots. I basically I gathered an entire pull cart full of five full boxes of coins and other numismatic items, and had to create these auction lots from complete scratch. I have to admit, creating the auction lots was a lot of fun, as I had complete control over it. I had mostly inexpensive items, like Indian Cents, Buffalo Nickels, and coin sets. I did sprinkle some better date Buffalos into some of the lots. I also found some nice Jefferson Nickel slabs, including a PCGS MS-66 FS 1950-D that was a gorgeous coin. With the exception of lunch at a Chinese buffet (after which we were rear ended in a minor fender bender), this took up the rest of my day. I even stayed until 6, and completed 90 lots for each of the two auctions. I did get to hold an authentic US Bar Cent from the ANA collection, something that makes any day unique. The evening was completely uneventful, as I ran, cut my hair, and then was a computer bum once again. Tuesday, July 17: Today started out with a nearly two-hour meeting meant to follow up and reflect on Summer Seminar. This was definitely a “large cup of coffee” meeting. We discussed the things that went well with Summer Seminar, and the things that did not go so well. After the meeting, I went back to creating lots for the YN Auctions. This took me to lunch, where I had to quickly hustle downtown to mail off two eBay packages. After lunch, I put the extra coins away that I didn’t use for the YN Auctions and sat down to begin the tedious process of cataloging them into listings. I spent the rest of the afternoon with this process, and even worked an hour late. The evening was pretty uneventful, except that the Television was suddenly placed back into the recreation room. I guess my emails worked! Wednesday, July 18: I went into the ANA this morning determined to finish the auction lot listings. However, my plans were derailed when I was told that I was needed in Meeting Services to help assemble mailings for Milwaukee. After three hours of assembling information packets, I was finally back to working on the listings. The typical Wednesday group met for lunch at La Casita for some Mexican food. Of course the topic of conversation was the upcoming ANA Elections, but I will not comment further on that at this point. I spent the afternoon working on the listings and helping the museum staff to plan the organization of the medals for the September FIDEM Exhibition. Finally, after staying two hours late, I finished the auction listings for both Milwaukee YN Auctions. Kindly, Tiffanie (museum director) bought me dinner, as I had missed the cafeteria dinner hours while working late. After a nice run, I spent the rest of the evening working on some articles for the auction catalogs. Thursday July 19: This morning, I was back to work trying to put the auction catalog together. Things went fairly smoothly, as I received the green light on changing the articles in the catalog. Additionally, I quickly gained permission from several numismatic authors to use their writings in the catalog. We ate lunch with David Schlow back at Red Top, and the hot dog sandwich and a large cherry milkshake really hit the spot. The topic of discussion was primarily the ANA elections and the voting process, which ended today. I spent the rest of the day writing articles on about safely purchasing coins online from sites like eBay. I went for a late run in the evening, as I waited for some rain to end. The run was really enjoyable, as I ran during a great lightning show as the storm was moving out. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday July 20-22: Friday morning, I arrived early and began working to finish up the catalog. I wrote articles about ANA grading standards and proper coin handling. I also spent some time organizing the general layout of the catalog. I had an interesting individual come into the ANA to discuss some varieties that he had discovered through much roll searching and cherrypicking. He had a 1917 Lincoln Doubled Die Obverse and some doubled Buffalo Nickels, among other things. For lunch, a group of us went to a pizza place called Fargos. Interestingly, it was laid out like a Western saloon and was a lot of fun.During the afternoon, I put the finishing touches on the catalog, with only a few minor revisions needed over the weekend. After work, Doug picked a few of us up and took us to his home for dinner. He lived in a beautiful place on top of a small plateau, which made for a wonderful view of the surrounding area.It was an enjoyable evening overall with some great food. On Saturday, I went to lunch and then over to Hallenbeck’s after sleeping in a considerable part of the morning. I needed to find Dad a nice coin for his birthday. I ended up finding him a nice 1882 O/S Morgan that would fit nicely into his set. I dug through the ½ bin at Hallenbeck’s and found a nice 1855 slanted 5s large cent that appeared to have no problems. When I went to buy it, I was told that it had no problems and was put in there by mistake. Excellent news for me, as it was a solid XF coin for $24. Better yet, it was a “knob on ear” variety and normally sells for a premium. After doing some work in the afternoon, two of us went to Chick-Fila for dinner, then to the mall for awhile. We decided to see the new Die Hard movie, which had enough excitement not to disappoint. Sunday, I sat around the dorm for a good portion of the day and finished up some small edits to the YN Auction Catalog. A group of use took the early evening and drove up the “Garden of the Gods.” I had a great time hiking around the park and getting some pictures of some stunning rock formations that seem to stick straight up out of the earth. The park was absolutely gorgeous at sundown……I just wish that someone special I was thinking about at the time was around to share it with. After leaving the park, we drove to Manitou Springs and walked around the downtown area. There were some interesting shops, including a really cool toy store….lol!! We ate a late dinner at a great restaurant called the Stagecoach, during which I was playfully confronted by a Virginia Tech fan who took exception to my West Virginia hat (College Football Rivalry). After dinner and a quick Wal-Mart stop, I came back to the dorm and got a late night run in. I can’t believe I will be home in three weeks….this summer has flown by!! Monday, July 23: This morning was somewhat of a drag for me, as any Monday morning can be. I began the morning by merging the elements of the YN auction catalog into one large document and doing an entire edit of it. I then helped Tiffanie (the museum director) with some editing work for a catalog. The entire afternoon was spent organizing and numbering the YN auction lots to ensure that they match the catalog. On an interesting note, we saw an interesting 1914-D counterfeit Lincoln Cent, the one directly out of the ANA Counterfeit Detection publication with the raised lines on the shoulder. The coin showed the raised marks on the shoulder that are the diagnostic of the well-known counterfeit. Tiffanie gave me a copy of the catalog draft for the Cromwell exhibit to look at tonight. During the evening, I did little else other than look through the catalog making edits. I did get a very nice run in however. Tuesday, July 24: This morning, I arrived at work and finished editing the Cromwell catalog. This procedure took up the greater part of the morning. During this time, a gentleman came into the ANA with a Morgan for me to examine. Interestingly enough, it was a very nice, original 1891 Philly. These are common in low grade, but very tough in gem. The coin was in an older Capital holder, but had an old ANACS certification certificate with a grade of 65/65 on it. I explained that I felt it was a 64/65 liner coin, and that he should work to get it in a 65 holder, as it would be a 5-6k coin if this happened. I recommended that he have Hallenbeck’s examine it for further advice on the salability of the piece. In the afternoon, I helped with an eBay claim made against a fraudulent seller. The seller was selling “investment lots” of coins in ANI certification holders. The seller was an individual with past problems on eBay, and should be booted from the site soon. I also saw the new edition of the Numismatist, complete with an article about us interns. That was pretty neat to see. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing a final edit for the YN auction after a few revisions were brought to my attention. After work, four of us stopped at Chick-Fila to eat, which was great because I had skipped lunch to get my daily workout finished. Then we were off to see the Colorado Springs Sky Sox play a minor league baseball game. With a special offering $2 tickets and $2 beer, I couldn’t go wrong. It was a beautiful evening for a ballgame and a great location to watch it. Wednesday, July 25: Today was a day full of excitement and anticipation as everyone awaited the results of the ANA elections. It seemed that little work was accomplished throughout the day. The morning began with a staff meeting to discuss the plans for the upcoming show in Milwaukee. I cannot believe that I am set to leave Colorado Springs in less than two weeks. I spent the rest of the morning doing the absolute finalization of the YN auction catalog. It is now finished for good! Lunch involved an interesting trip to the Chinese buffet, where the elections were the dominant topic of conversation. One individual (who shall remain nameless) even wore a small broom pin on his shirt to signify the “clean sweep” in the elections for the pro-reform group….and wow was this a good premonition. The afternoon began with efforts to gather grading information and definitions for used in a future exhibit. This lasted until 2:00, when the election results began leaking out. The members spoke with their vote and put pro-reform candidates into all seven board positions, ousting every incumbent who was running. This quickly became the quiet talk around the ANA, with individuals wondering what would happen next and what the repercussions would be. Needless to say, the level of excitement over the results ranged from ecstatic to stunned to extremely upset and despaired. I personally wanted to do a jig when I learned the results. The election results pretty much dominated the remainder of the day. I spent the evening primarily writing a rough draft for an article I hope to publish in the Numismatist. Thursday, July 26: This morning, I spent some time working on a grading exhibit to be displayed in the future. I worked on finding some useful information, as well as finding some nice photos for the backboards. There seemed to be a strange hush around the ANA today, as the staff seemed uneasy with the potential upheaval from the board election. A staff member took the other intern and I out to lunch at an Italian place called Panino’s. Here, we got into some lengthy discussion about the elections and what we felt may happen in the near future. After lunch, we worked in the museum to plan the layout of the FIDEM medals in the available exhibit cases. With dozens of countries participating, some with over 80 medals, this proved to be a daunting task. I ended up staying late again, working until after 6. I was fairly tired by evening, so I quickly got my run out of the way and relaxed for the rest of the night. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, July 27-29: This morning, I spent some time working on the text for my grading exhibit. I felt like the history section came along pretty well and should be pretty good with some minor editing. When Tiffanie arrived at work, we went back to planning the FIDEM exhibit, trying to get through the larger countries. After lunch, the other intern and I went back to working on the FIDEM medals. That pretty much took up the rest of the day, until about 4:50, when the display for the 12 Gold Sacs showed up at the ANA. I had the privilege of putting that together, which was kind of neat, considering what will be going into the display at Milwaukee. During the evening, Robin picked me up for a Wal-Mart trip. We then decided to see the new Simpson’s Movie, which was absolutely hysterical. On Saturday, I awoke at 6:15, as Robin was picking me up early so we could hit up some yard sales and bargain hunt. It was a fun morning, as I picked up a 1961-64 run of proof sets for $7 each and a nice Philippine 10 centavo. I also found a $5 lying on the ground at the flea market we were at….free money! Later, we went to a gun show, which proved interesting. Had I not been in Colorado, there were several guns I would have considered buying. After returning to the dorm, I walked over to Hallenbeck’s for something to do, not really expecting to purchase anything. However, they had some new large cents that they had just gotten. So, I ended up buying a low grade 1795 (for really cheap, as the guy working even noted), an 1807/6, and an 1853 that was struck from a misaligned die. Those purchases cut significantly into my Milwaukee funds, but I couldn’t pass them by. Sunday was one of my laziest days out here. I slept in, ate lunch (as I had certainly missed breakfast), watched NASCAR all day, ate again, and laid around some more while bidding on eBay and Teletrade auctions. I won a nice ANACS graded 1903 Philippine 5 Centavo and an 1835 Bust Quarter. I did work out in the evening in an attempt to make up for my slothfulness during the entire rest of the day. This summer is going so quickly, and I cannot believe that I only have two weeks left out here in Colorado!
It sounds like you are having a great time! And I agree with Doug, I suspect you will have a bright future in numismatics. Thanks for sharing your experience!
wow, i would LOVE to do this.... Do me a favor and ask how old you have to be to become an intern.... thanks
All that work and labor is necessary, but try and enjoy you'r short time you have remaining in Colorado. Your in God's country so enjoy!
Great report. Sounds like you're having a wonderful time. I cannot even image seeing that many 1877 IHCs in one place ---- WOW! That alone would make my day.
The 1877s were incredible. It was a huge collection that had been donated. It was kind of a mix between an accumulation and a collection, with some date runs of coins and others that just looked to be accumulated. I haven't even looked closely at all the 1877s, but the 8 or so I examined were all genuine.
display for the 12 Gold Sacs showed up at the ANA. I had the privilege of putting that together, which was kind of neat, considering what will be going into the display at Milwaukee. Robbie, are these the one's that went into space?????????????
