My wife Phung and I staffed a club table at the International Paper Money Show in Memphis. The primary organization we supported was the International Bank Note Society but we also told collectors about the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.

After the show, we drove to Colorado Springs to visit some old friends from our assignment in Germany.

One morning, I also went to the ANA Library to do some research for the 3rd edition of my French Southeast Asia Coins &Currencycatalog. I parked and walked around to the front of the building to look at the ANA seal on the wall just a few feet from the sidewalk. A few yearsago, I wrote about it needing to be replaced because the old one was in bad shape. It was replaced and the new one looks great.

After signing in and being given a visitor's badge, I walked into the library. The library's reception desk was now staffed! Kitty Muller greeted me and offered her assistance. While I was talking with her I heard some derogatory remarks and turned around to see David Sklow, the librarian. We greeted each other and he also offered his assistance, then ran off to do some work.

I went to the aisle with my books in it and did not find them! The books have been reshelved! I also saw that David had a college student dusting the shelves. Changes are happening in the ANA Library! Kitty assisted me in finding my books. When I mentioned to her that I was looking for some San Francisco Mint reports, David was nearby and said he knew where they were. He ran down the stairs to the catalog room and I walked down! He showed me the reports and I picked out eight of them. They covered exactly what I needed and they did show some different mintages than are in the popular catalogs for some post-WWI and pre-WWII Indochina coins.

A volunteer, Keith Grove, was also in the library. He is researching polymer bank notes. He did not know one of my books has some in it so I showed it to him. I also said I would contact him about other sources for him. If you know of some sources, please send them to David at dsklow@money.org and he will give them to Keith. Keith does not have an email address!

After about five hours, I had gone from A to Z in the library and found a couple more references that I scanned into my laptop (I bring my scanner with me when visiting libraries) along with the mint reports. It was a very successful visit and I highly recommend visiting it. Please say hello to David, Kitty and Keith for me!

For more information on the ANA's Dwight N. Manley Numismatic library, see:
DWIGHT N. MANLEY NUMISMATIC LIBRARY (www.money.org/library)