Smithsonian visit

DrPete

Just visited the National Numismatic Collection in Washington, DC. My wife surprised me with a solo trip to go see the current exhibits before they close and to spend yesterday, May 24th, with Dick Doty, curator, looking at whatever coins I wanted to see in private viewing. What a great trip. I looked at all the barber halves and quite a few interesting pattern and early coins. Really a neat trip. I will write this up in a future article for the Barber Collector's Society Journal. Dr. Doty considers the numismatic collection (over 600, 000 items) to belong to Americans and we can visit and personally examine the coins with proper arrangements ahead of time. Anyone else out there ever do this? Very nice of my wife to do this.

Placid

Hoot

That's the most encouraging thing I've heard so far about this maneuver. Thanks for the news!

Hoot

Gemini

I didn't know you could do that...most neat and I agree that was very nice of your wife to arrange that for you.

Robgetty

Hmmm. I'm only 3 hours away from DC; maybe I ought to try that some day. I want to see
the new Air and Space annex at Dulles anyway.

DrPete

One caveat about visiting the National Numismatic Collection. Dr. Doty soon leaves for several months to be in Europe doing research Make sure you contact him ahead of time for a visit to be sure he won't be out of the nest when you are there. Meeting Dick and talking with him was a highlight of my trip. Not bad that I got to see a 1913 V nickel and many unique or two of a kind patterns. The 1822 $5 gold wasn't too bad, either.

Tootawl

<< <i>Hmmm. I'm only 3 hours away from DC; maybe I ought to try that some day. I want to see
the new Air and Space annex at Dulles anyway. >>


Give me a shout when you go to the Air & Space annex in Dulles. If you want, I'll meet you over there.

Steve27

Wow, that sounds great, who knew you could get up close and personal with the coins.

northcoin

Any chance you could get Mr. Doty to agree to having the collection digitally photographed and put onto its own website to create a virtual tour before the exhibit gets locked away? Hopefully they already have some funds that could be used for such a purpose. If I recall correctly, Airplanenut advertises he is available to photograph coins - maybe he can submit a bid, could be an interesting summer job for a student. Another alternative would be to have the collection photographed with the "coin scope" described on another thread.

Coin Scope thread

merz2

NC
That is a great idea !! I second that motion.

DrPete

An article about my trip to see the barber halves at the Smithsonian has just been submitted to the Barber Collector's Society Journal. The journal is published four times a year so it may be a while before it sees publication.

The only regular issue coin missing from the collection is the 1906-O and I recently purchased a nice XF example to donate to the collection. No 1892-O micro O or 1898-O micro O halves there.

MFH

Peter,

Thanks for sharing your experience with the US Coin Forum. Your pictures should be posted as your schedule permits. We'd all love to see them !

MrEureka

Any chance you could get Mr. Doty to agree to having the collection digitally photographed and put onto its own website to create a virtual tour before the exhibit gets locked away?

600,000 coins? 1.2 million images??? They would obvioulsy need a whole lot of help.

DrPete

Bringing back this old thread, at the request of MFH, and given the recent posts about the Smithsonian.