Michael Sullivan writes:

Just back from Baltimore and a few hours of getting reacquainted with my recliner. I had a blast! Where to start... I guess at the beginning. I drove to Baltimore Thursday AM and entered the convention early with the dealers, to set up the C4 Area. Jim Rosen and Jack Howes had beaten me there! We had a very nice area with 4 tables to congregate, 5 exhibit cases and located right next to the auction lot viewing areas - a perfect location There was always a small crowd in the C4 area.

Will Nipper was in charge of C4 Exhibits this year and we had three on display. David M had a beautiful two case exhibit of Franklin Material. I've always loved the Nini portraits - someday I'll need to get me one! Will N had a two case exhibit of Nova Constellatio with all the varieties on display. Both of these exhibits looked like they were professionally done.

The third exhibit was a one case display of colonial bills. It had a Continental Currency piece and a bill from each of the 13 colonies. It was simple and the material told the story.

Jeff Lipsky was in charge of C4 Education and had a wonderful program lined up. As always, there is something that doesn't go according to plan.. A couple days before the convention we discovered our featured speaker, Harvey Stack, was unable to attend due to family issues. But in his place, Jim Rosen gave a presentation on the Continental Dollar and Jack Howes gave a presentation on the "Ryder 40" Vermont. Both were well received.

These presentations were followed by the scheduled talks. Jack Howes & Buell Ish talked on the long awaited NJ Copper Magnum Opus. Their PowerPoint presentation was very informative and I can't wait for the book! Jim Jones was to give a presentation at a past C4 Convention but had passed away a month or so before. His family had the presentation in PowerPoint and in his memory, John Kraljevich presented it to the members as our final talk. Now, those that know John also know he can make a Lincoln cent sound interesting! Just imagine what he did with this Comitia Americana talk!

Being that we had just one night (instead of the two we had in the past) for both the C4 Reception and our Educational Forum, both events were held in the same room in the Sheraton Hotel. It was just the right size and I personally thought the food was better than Boston. There was also a C4 member who anonymously (and secretly) purchased another jumbo shrimp platter for the evening. Thank You!!!

Dennis Wierzba has been our Convention Chairman for 18 years, and did an outstanding job organizing this event in a totally new venue. Everything seemed to run like clockwork! The C4 Auction was a part of the Friday night Stack's Bowers Auction. It started at 6:00 PM and lasted until about 3:00 AM Eastern Time! I didn't last that long! I stayed through the end of the Rob Retz Fugios and left with Craig McDonald to walk back to the Hotel about 1:45 AM. I did get a couple of Rob's Fugios for my collection. Our thanks to Jim Rosen and the Stack's Bowers people for making this happen. The people at Stack's Bowers, and at Whitman, were just the nicest people to work with. Jim and Dennis can tell you.

Being that we were at a convention where there were thousands of collectors attending, C4 arranged to have three educational presentations at the convention for the general public (and C4 people too). The first one was supposed to be Roger Siboni talking on "The History of Colonial America Told Through Its Coinage". As many know, Roger was affected by Hurricane Sandy and was very disappointed to not be able to attend. Will Nipper stepped to the plate and gave a presentation using the same title. Will's talk was very well done and well attended too. It was videotaped and hopefully a copy will be in the C4 Library in a month or two.

I gave two talks geared for the general public, one on collecting colonial paper money and the other on collecting the state copper coinages. I hope that both talks were as fun for the attendees as they were for me.

Both Buell's wife (Angie) and my wife (Diane) arrived on Friday. The four of us had a very nice time having dinner at Bubba Gump's on Saturday night. Jack Howes joined us and we had so much fun talking that we didn't even notice how slow the service was. The four of us again met for breakfast this morning, where we parted company until... I'm so glad Diane has found a good friend in Angie.

I can't say enough about Jim Rosen and his part in moving C4 to the Whitman Expo in Baltimore. The membership doesn't see what goes on behind the scenes, and I only see a little. Jack Howes was with Jim every step of the way, and was also responsible for providing the C4 Program for this convention. Working with them was Dennis Wierzba and all of our C4 Board. You all have some good people placed in office, and I can say that from knowing them all personally and having worked with them in the past.

Lastly, it was fun to see some people that I haven't seen for some time (Mitch M among others), finally meeting the ex-Canadian Paul Cartmill, spending a little time with the Retz family too. The Retz women are just the nicest people. I said good bye to them, knowing that we may never meet again.