Chicago Coin Club Inducts J. Henri Ripstra into its Hall of Fame

The Chicago Coin Club announces that the first person to be inducted into its Hall of Fame is medalist and hobby leader J. Henry Ripstra, 1881-1961. His Hall of Fame citationhas been published on the club's Hall of Fame web page, www.chicagocoinclub.org/projects/hof.

Twelve Hall of Fame inductees have been selected. Each of the remaining eleven will be announced at the rate of one per month, February through December, during the ChicagoCoin Club's centennial year, 2019.

The Chicago Coin Club was organized in 1912 as American Numismatic Association Branch No. 1, and reorganized under its present name in 1919. All are invited to join. To becomea member you must attend a meeting and submit an application along with a membership fee of $20 ($10 for Junior membership). A first reading of your application will be held atthis meeting, and a second reading at the next monthly meeting, following publication of your name in the club newsletter. (You are not required to be present for the secondreading.) Upon membership approval, you will become a member.

The Chicago Coin Club holds monthly meetings in downtown Chicago, plus at major numismatic conventions such as Central States, with a speaker featured at every meeting exceptthe annual auction, held at the November meeting.

J. Henri Ripstra was present at the meeting held in February 1917 to reorganize A.N.A. Branch No. 1, which had been moribund since its President died in 1914. Sincemembership in this club was restricted to A.N.A. members, and there were other Chicago collectors who wished to join but were not A.N.A members, it was reorganized again two yearslater to form the Chicago Coin Club. Mr. Ripstra received Charter Member number 9 when membership numbers were awarded to those who joined in February and March 1919, and heremained a member the rest of his life. From 1933 to 1936 he served as President of the Club, and later as Director. He was a speaker at Club meetings many times.

Mr. Ripstra (Feb. 18, 1881 - May 4, 1961) was active in the American Numismatic Association also, serving on the Board of Governors for six years and then President, August 26,1937, to October 5, 1939. He was elected to the ANA Numismatic Hall of Fame in 1978. In January 1939, he was appointed Honorary Chairman of the first meeting of what became theCentral States Numismatic Society. While A.N.A. President, he was instrumental in the formation of the Iowa Numismatic Association.

A tool and die maker, Mr. Ripstra was also a highly talented medallic artist and die engraver. Before the Chicago Coin Club was formed he prepared the dies and struck medalsfor the Chicago Numismatic Society from 1908 through 1914, and produced dies for many other medals and numismatic badges. A collector of Lincolniana, he was the founder andExecutive Secretary of the Lincoln Group of Chicago, of which Illinois Governor Henry Horner was Chairman; Ripstra's Lincoln portrait die for medals for the Lincoln Group wasreused to strike medals for the 1965 Central States convention.

Many tributes poured in after his death. In the Numismatic Scrapbook for June 1961, Lee Hewitt (Hall of Fame No. 6) wrote, "With the passing of J. Henri Ripstra organizednumismatics has lost one of its most colorful personalities. It was our privilege to know Henri for thirty-five years and, with the possible exception of Doug Ferguson, he was thebest extemporaneous speaker and presiding officer that we have known in numismatic circles. He had an endless repertory of stories about the important numismatists of the earlytwentieth century such as Virgil Brand, Wm. F. Dunham, and Henry Chapman..." A.N.A. Past President V. Leon Belt wrote, "whatever honor I may have attained in both the American andIowa Numismatic Associations was largely due to his assistance, encouragement, and support." Wrote Harold R. Klein, A.N.A. Treasurer, "I have always enjoyed his warm personalityas well as his sound counseling."

(Image courtesy of ANA.)

To read the complete article, see:
Hall of Fame - Chicago Coin Club - Member 1 J. Henri Ripstra(http://www.chicagocoinclub.org/projects/hof/m01.html)