The initials that appear after the names of many of the authors of numismatic articles or columns are those of the Numismatic Literary Guild (N.L.G.).

My first contact with the organization came about when a letter was received dated March 2, 1968.

My application was completed and sent back within a couple of days with the following memo:

Within a couple of months of organization, one of the early Newsletters mentioned something about my activities and this letter was received from the Guild office.

That fall in San Diego at the American Numismatic Association annual convention, the N.L.G. had their first organizational meeting. At the end of the meeting, a forty pound ancient typewriter painted with gold was given to me as the first annual award. It was promptly dubbed "The Clemmy Award" by James Miller, the publisher of COINage Magazine, and the name has stuck.

The ancient typewriter was dug out of a California junk yard after several weeks of search by Gordon Greene, the current treasurer of the Guild. He also claims that it took several cans of gold paint to make the ugly duckling a beautiful swan (?). The long grind of going across country from convention to convention caused it to be retired after Maury Gould received it in 1973. The typewriter is now resting at the American Numismatic Association Museum in Colorado Springs.

A plastic award is now given to the new "Clemmy" winners at the annual N.L.G. meeting. Since 1969 the typewriter has been awarded to EdRochette, Lee Martin, Margo Russell, Virginia Culver, Maurice Gould, Eva Adams and Ray Byrne in that order.

On November 29, 1975, the first member of the award winning group died in Los Angeles - Maurice M. Gould. Maury was a collector, professional numismatist, author and lecturer for 57 of his 66 years. He was starting his second term as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Numismatic Association.

Maury Gould left a lot of marks in this world, but none will be more important than the mark of a numismatic writer - N.L.G. - after an authors name. Maury was a founder of the Numismatic Literary Guild and sponsored my charter-life membership in the organization.

It may be important to say that I was a friend to him, but it is probably more important to say that he was a friend to me.

To read the complete article, see:
https://archive.org/stream/centinel23n3cent#page/16/mode/2up