Recent story about in the NY Times. I agree ANS needed to move from Manhattan. They are paying almost $2 million per year in rent, and visits are surprisingly low. Apparently, the Toledo Museum of Art has offered the ANS rent-free use of one of their buildings although it will need about $20 million in renovations. In the new quarters, much of their vast collection can be put on display rather than sit in a vault. But Toledo? Nothing against it in general, but a move to major metro area would make more sense. Chicago, Dallas, Denver, LA, Washington, Orlando and a few others would make more sense. These cities have excellent travel connections, are tourist attractions with lots of activities, and have numismatic connections. But free rent is hard to turn down … I guess. Mike
I read that article and it sounds like the best choice they had. What did the article say? Something like they predict they'll have more visitors in a week than they had in NY in five years.
ANS is very different from ANA. ANA is primarily oriented toward collectors while ANS is primarily oriented toward numismatic research. Much of what we know about coins worldwide, past and present, has come from their efforts. ANS may have the largest coin collection in the world. Because of the expense of NYC real estate, the collection spends most of the time in a vault because space to display it adequately and securely would cost too much. Much of the collection can be viewed via their website, numismatics.org. Mike Added note: When Medallic Art Co. (America’s largest and oldest medal company) went broke in 2018, ANS was able to acquire its dies and models … many thousands of them. The company went broke because of mismanagement and in-fighting among owners and executives. Medallic Art produced medals for presidential inaugurations, the Pulitzer prize, Peabody awards and many other purposes. Most of the collection is stored in boxes in a warehouse in Brooklyn. The pic below shows part of the collection in the warehouse. This CoinWeek article has more info and pics: https://coinweek.com/the-last-of-the-medallic-arts-co-archives-return-to-new-york/
An endless font of fascination.......If only the permission to pick through that lot, what an honor indeed.
For those who can't access the New York Times behind their paywall... here is an article from Numismatic News: https://www.numismaticnews.net/ana-relocates-to-toledo-museum-of-art-campus I think this is a great move. I hate New York City, and the extra (free) space will allow them to turn this into a numismatic destination. I've always hated the thought of their enormous collection just sitting in a warehouse. Same with the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian.
Why not move everything to Toledo...sounds like a good opportunity to expand and make their collections more available for display. No reason anymore to stay in NYC. Bruce
