Society of Paper Money Collectors honors achievements
- Published: Jan 28, 2025, 9 AM

The Society of Paper Money Collectors gathered for its annual breakfast and awards presentation at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, held on Saturday morning, before the FUN show opened for the third day.
SPMC president Robert Vandevender II presided over the awards, leading off with the Nathan Gold Award for Outstanding Achievement and long-term service to the organization. This year’s recipient is currency dealer Lyn Knight, who was unable to attend the event. A longtime paper money dealer, Knight was inducted into the SPMC Hall of Fame in 2019.
The Founders Award for outstanding achievement during the past year was jointly presented to Shawn Hewitt and Mark Drengson. It marked the third Founders Award for Drengson, a recipient in 2022 and 2020. Hewitt was the 2022 winner of the Nathan Gold Award. The duo also each won Education, Research and Outreach Awards in 2021.
Derek Higgins was presented with the President’s Award, which honors the person or persons deemed to have provided service to the SPMC in the year worthy of recognition. Higgins has been responsible for posting interesting notes on social media channels to encourage paper money collecting. He presented a program at the organization’s general membership meeting on “The Joy of Collecting Small-Size Silver Certificates.”
Georgia paper money dealer Robert Calderman was a repeat winner of the Nathan Goldstein Award for recruiting new members to the SPMC. Lee Lofthus was presented the Forrest Daniel Literary Award. Benny Bolin, editor of the organization’s Paper Money magazine, presented literary awards that were voted on by the membership.
Joining the SPMC Hall of Fame are John and Nancy Wilson, recognized for their support to the organization and numismatics. The Florida couple work tirelessly to support growth in the hobby in many ways and have won numerous awards for their achievements during many years of service.
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