Collector exhibits at the 2024 ANA World's Fair of Money

The American Numismatic Association gave out a number of awards to those who put quality education displays together for the 2024 World's Fair of Money, including this Best-of-Show exhibit by Michael Kodysz, and another of his about Zeppelins.

Images courtesy of Steve Roach

Michael Kodysz received the Howland Wood Memorial Award for Best-of-Show for his exhibit Lands Across the Sea: Connections to the African Continent on Coinage of the Later Roman World as the American Numismatic Association presented 54 competitive exhibit awards at the 2024 World’s Fair of Money in Rosemont, Illinois.

His introduction stated, “This exhibit presents a carefully selected collection of coins, each one tangible evidence of the rich history and cultural exchange between Rome and its provinces in North Africa,” taking viewers on a journey that begins in 193 A.D. with the rise of Septimius Severus, the first African emperor, and concludes in the fifth century A.D. as the empire ceded control of its African territories beyond Egypt.

Kodysz’s exhibit also captured the Numismatics of Africa and the Middle East, Menachem Chaim and Simcha Tova Mizel Memorial Award, while his display Boar Hunt won the Single Case, ANA Award for numismatic material that can be treated in a single ANA exhibit case.

His exhibit Zeppelins and the Great War: A Medallic History of German Military Airships in World War I won the Medals, Orders, Decorations and Badges: Burton Saxton/George Bauer Memorial Award. The display showed the many medals between the 1913 and 1918 celebrating the aerial achievements of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin and his lighter-than-air rigid airships. 

The Radford Stearns Memorial Award for Excellence in Exhibiting is presented to the and second runners-up. The first runners-up award went to Michael Shutterly, for Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Bracteates (but were afraid to ask) which won the John S. Davenport Memorial Award for Numismatics of Europe. For those curious (but timid), the coin known today as the “bracteate” was created to deal with a 12th century monetary crisis; it is not a denomination but a type of thin, uniface coin struck with one die, leaving a bold image on one side and an incuse mirror image on the other side, according to the exhibitor.

 Shutterly’s It’s Elementary! was the overall second-runner-up as well, and it  also received the General, Specialized, and Topical, Robert Hendershott Memorial/Robert J. Leuver Award. The exhibit explored various metals used for coins, including some rarely seen, like ruthenium, a silvery-white transition metal that is typically used for electrical contracts and resistors and is employed on a 2017 $2 coin from Niue featuring ruthenium and gold plating on a .999 silver planchet. Shutterly’s display included 24 different metallic elements used in coins.

His display Heavenly Gold won the Gaston DiBello/Melvin and Leona Kohl Memorial Award for gold coins and included an 1899 Russian 10-ruble coin that had descended in the exhibitor’s family, where it had been stored for use in emergencies while living in Eastern Europe prior to World War II.

Shutterly received the Ira and Larry Goldberg Award for Best Exhibit of Coins that Made History and he was also awarded the Joseph E. Boling Award for Judging Excellence.

Category winners

Floyd April won the United States Coins, Lelan G. Rogers Memorial Award for U.S. Philippines Proof Sets (1903-1906 & 1908) which included a 7-coin 1903 U.S. Philippine Proof presentation set gifted to Major General Elwell Stephen Otis, Military Governor of the Philippines, by Elihu Root, Secretary of War. It was one of a few sets purchased to give to each of the five General Officers that served as Military Governors of the Philippines, and they were accompanied by a typed letter of transmission, hand signed by Secretary Root. 

April also won the Numismatics of Asia and the Pacific, the William B. Warden Jr. Memorial Award, for The Commonwealth of the Philippines (November 15, 1935 - July 3, 1946).

Placing second in U.S. Coins was Michael Bourne’s popular display Three Cent Patterns: The Largest Exhibit Ever, which won the Rodger E. Hershey Memorial People’s Choice Award, selected by convention attendees.

Dave Gelwicks’ display A Brown Back Journey Through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula received the United States Fiscal Paper, Sidney W. Smith/William Donlon Memorial Award. Placing second in that category was Steve Shupe for Postage & Fractional Currency Design Type Set which won the Thos. H. Law Award for the best exhibit by a first-time exhibitor

The Elongated Coins, Dottie Dow Memorial Award went to Cindy Calhoun for Fighting Fire with…EDUCATION, and Simcha Laib Kuritzky’s exhibit The Heh Amulet won the Engraved Coins, Love Token Society Award.

Emilio Cortes’ display The 1893 Puerto Rico Exposition Medal won the Numismatics of the Americas, Henry Christensen/John Jay Pittman Sr. Memorial Award. Jeffrey Rosinia won the Regional U.S. Numismatics, William C. Henderson/Fred Cihon Memorial Award for Get Your Kicks — A Numismatic Cruise on the Mother Road, U.S. Highway Route 66.

Mark Wieclaw’s A Selection of Ancient Minting Errors took home the Coins Issued Prior to 1500 A.D., Dr. Charles W. Crowe Memorial Award.

Erwin Brauer’s display Two Significant Numismatic Entrepreneurs: Their Selected Unique, Rare and Related Literature won the Numismatic Literature, Aaron Feldman Memorial Award and explored Waterman Lily Ormsby and Leban Heath, two well-known figures in the era of private bank note engraving who led a fight against counterfeiting through published literature.

Young Numismatist awards

Among Young Numismatists aged 17 and younger, the Charles H. Wolfe Sr. Memorial Award for the YN Best-of-Show Exhibit was presented to Hayden Howard for Walking the National Mall: A Selection of Washington D.C. Commemorative Coins, which also took home the YN J.J. Van Grover Memorial Award and captured Class 20: U.S. Commemorative Coinage, Society for U.S. Commemorative Coins Award. His display looked at commemoratives he collected over a six-year period depicting historical sites in the nation’s capital from 1989 to 2024, including the Smithsonian Institution 150th Anniversary commemorative silver dollar from 1996. He also won the YN United States Coins, Edgerton-Lenker Memorial Award for One Hundred Years of Ike: The History of the 1990 Eisenhower Centennial Dollar.

Ellen Tate’s exhibit Royal Mint Beatrix Potter Commemoratives won the YN World Coins, James L. Betton Memorial Award and also received the Women in Numismatics Award, for the best exhibit exemplifying the roles of women in numismatics, along with the Modern Coins and Medals, John R. Eshbach Memorial Award. Finally, the exhibit received The Derek Pobjoy Award for Best Exhibit of Modern Circulating Commemorative Coins.

The YN Errors and Varieties, Alan Herbert Memorial Award went to Ariana Csaszar for Grizzly Bear Coins and Medallions.

Winners were announced at the Exhibit Awards Presentation & Reception and at the 133rd Anniversary Awards Banquet, both on Aug. 9. Of the 32 exhibitors who participated, 10 were first-time entrants.

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