The Rittenhouse Society
kranky
Posts: 8,709 ✭✭✭
The Rittenhouse Society is probably one of the smallest and most low-profile coin related clubs around, but most of its members' names would be instantly recognizable.
In 1952, a group of young numismatists met at the ANA convention for the first time - Ken Bressett, Dave Bowers, Walter Breen, George Fuld, Grover Criswell, Ken Rendell and Dick Johnson. The group became lifelong friends and went on to form the Rittenhouse Society, named after the first Director of the US Mint. The purpose of the group is to encourage young enthusiasts to become interested in numismatics enough to make a significant contribution to the field. Looking at just the original roster, it's probably impossible to enumerate how many books and articles they have authored. If you don't recognize Rendell's name, he's now a top autograph and historical document dealer, and figured prominently in the Mark Hofmann case (a noted forger and murderer, long story here)
The Rittenhouse Society accepts one new member a year.
It would be interesting to see the lineup of current members, but I'm not aware of any comprehensive list. Ron Guth (the guy behind the great coinfacts.com site and author of Coin Collecting for Dummies) is a member, as is Wayne Homren who authors the Numismatic Bibliomania Society's e-newsletter and is a fellow PAN member.
In 1952, a group of young numismatists met at the ANA convention for the first time - Ken Bressett, Dave Bowers, Walter Breen, George Fuld, Grover Criswell, Ken Rendell and Dick Johnson. The group became lifelong friends and went on to form the Rittenhouse Society, named after the first Director of the US Mint. The purpose of the group is to encourage young enthusiasts to become interested in numismatics enough to make a significant contribution to the field. Looking at just the original roster, it's probably impossible to enumerate how many books and articles they have authored. If you don't recognize Rendell's name, he's now a top autograph and historical document dealer, and figured prominently in the Mark Hofmann case (a noted forger and murderer, long story here)
The Rittenhouse Society accepts one new member a year.
It would be interesting to see the lineup of current members, but I'm not aware of any comprehensive list. Ron Guth (the guy behind the great coinfacts.com site and author of Coin Collecting for Dummies) is a member, as is Wayne Homren who authors the Numismatic Bibliomania Society's e-newsletter and is a fellow PAN member.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
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Comments
Cameron Kiefer
That's an interesting bit of information. I did not know that. Thanks for taking the time to write and post about it.
Clankeye
Camelot
Groucho Marx
The Rittenhouse Society is an honorary society of numismatic researchers and authors. I believe kranky missed one of the founding members, my good friend and "godfather of US numismatic research" Eric Newman. Other notable members, of whom I'm sure you've heard, are R.W. Julian, Mark Borckardt, John Kraljevich, Denis Loring, and David Alexander. We meet each year at the ANA for breakfast.
Brian.
The Rittenhouse Society is an honorary society. You really can't "join" in the conventional sense. One is "elected" to the society by the other members based on contributions to numismatic research and literature. So, it's not really a "club" - we promote nothing & we really do nothing other than help each other with research, etc. It's like receiving an honorary degree from a college or acheivement award from an academy - simply an honor conferred to the recipient, nothing more.
(sorry, had a flashback to a simpsons episode -- the stonecutters!)
In any event, I noticed you guys have already cleared up that one is invited into the membership v. joining, though I didn't know the membership was limited to scholars and researchers. Guess there has to be some exclusivity, otherwise, it wouldn't be exclusive.
It's not really limited to"scholars", although they do predominate. For example, David Alexander was honored for his long contribution as editor of NLG newsletter. So, I wouldn't use the term "exclusive". It's simply an honor conferred on those who research and publish; nothing more. Kinda like the yearly NLG awards, except this could be called the "body of work version".