The evening of Tuesday April 20, 2021 I was at the scene of a long-awaited event - the return of in-person dinners for my Northern Virginia numismatic social group, Nummis Nova. While a few of our regulars are still awaiting to be fully vaccinated, eight vaxxed members and a guest came out for our first meeting since the pandemic began just over a year ago.

Robert Hoppensteadt was our host and he'd made a reservation at Delia's Mediterranean Grill & Brick Oven Pizza in Alexandria. As it happened, this was the site of our last in-person event in February 2020.So we were picking up right where we'd been before we were so rudely interrupted.

I arrived early and waited outside where I could breathe easier without my mask. A masked young man approached me and asked if I was there for the coin meeting. I introduced myself and put on my mask. It was Garrett Prenda, Wayne Herndon's guest for the evening. We'd never met before, but he works weekends at Wayne's warehouse with my sons Chris and Tyler, picking and shipping orders from his Wizard Coin Supply website. We had a good conversation about coin collecting and how he ended up with the job. He'd gone to the Indeed website to check local job listings, and the first to pop up was an opening at Wayne's business. As a coin collector, Garrett jumped on it immediately. What are the odds of that?

Next to arrive was Wayne himself, loaded down with three boxes of supplies ordered by fellow members. We helped him carry them in.Dave Schenkman and Eric Schena were already seated at our table.Soon to arrive were Chris Neuzil, Julian Leidman, and Steve Bishop.Masks were required when entering and walking about the restaurant.I didn't get any masked photos but took some unmasked shots later.My back was to the rest of the restaurant, but it was nearly deserted except for our group.

Whitman Colonial Books
I had no numismatic exhibits, but did pass around a couple new Whitman books on U.S. colonial coins & currency.

Dave Schenkman had a book with him as well, a copy of the first edition of James Conder's token book rebound in modern leather. Wayne asked when it had been printed. "1798" Dave said, and like a battle-hardened numismatic book publisher he immediately joked, "Do you want to buy the remainders?"

Andrew Carnegie Pan-American Building Medal

Dave had an interesting Andrew Carnegie medal. He writes:

Dave adds:

So-Called Half Dollar Salesman's Sample Medals

Dave writes:

Fortuna Medal

In a total coincidence, Dave had recently purchased and was already planning to show this Fortuna medal - a topic discussed in last week's E-Sylum

Dave writes:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
THE MYSTERIOUS WHITEHEAD & HOAG TOKEN(https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n16a11.html)

Cardboard Scrip
Finally, Dave also passed around these neat cardboard scrip chits.

Dave writes:

Housatonic Bank Cash Book
Eric Schena displayed a marvelous bank ledger he'd found in a bookstore in Winchester, VA. It records transactions for the Housatonic Bank of Stockbridge, MA from September 18, 1862 to September 23, 1864.

Wow - it's a whopper. Amazing record of daily Civil War era financial transactions. I borrowed it from Eric and took photos back at home in my library.

What a wonderful night of numismatic fellowship. It was so great to see everyone after more than a year, but it felt like we'd never been away. And the food was top-notch. While I've crawled back into my socially distanced COVID hole, I'll look forward to next month, where I hope to see additional members of our great little group.