FRIDAY, AUGUST 4TH
On Friday I again spent the morning at the Sheraton working on email and The E-Sylum. The Pinot Noir was clogging my head, and I dragged all day long.

NBS General Meeting
My first stop was the annual General Meeting of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society at 11:30. When I arrived David Fanning and new President Tom Harrison were busily setting up the room and auctionlots.

Tom called the meeting to order and the audience took turns standing to introduce themselves and discuss their literature collecting interests. Next, Tom presented some awards, including the JackCollins Award for Best New Author in The Asylum, which went to Shanna Schmidt.

Left: Tom Harrison with his dapper NBS-logo tie
Right: Tom Harrison presents Jack Collins award to Shanna Schmidt

After the awards I gave about an 18-minute overview of the process of creating The E-Sylum each week - not the buttonology so much as the decision and workflow process. I begin each weekwith a skeleton template and gradually fill it in as articles and emails come my way. I discussed the priority and ordering of articles, with NBS news first, followed by literature sales, new booksand book reviews.

Next up was the auction. Tom had prepared bidder paddles. Since I was sitting right up front, I was able to secure bidder #1. I really wanted to bid on the deluxe version of Neil Musante'sbook, but all of us in the room got skunked by an absentee bidder. I took home two lots, the ANA Centennial volume and the Douglas book on New Jersey Coppers. I didn't have the latter, and theformer was going to cheap to let pass.

Not even Tom's tie was safe - that too was auctioned off to the highest bidder. Over $3,500 was raised for the NBS Treasury.

1792 Presentation
After the NBS meeting I went back to the bourse for a bit. I ended up across the street at Stout Street Social for a very quick lunch of grilled chicken salad. Next it was back to the conventionmeeting rooms for the Money Talks presentation by the team behind 1792: Birth of a Nation's Coinage.

Whitman Booth
My next stop was the Whitman Publications booth, where the star of the show was Dennis Tucker's alternately chirpy and shy daughter. At left are Ken Bressett and Whitman's Mary Burleson.

Proud Papa Dennis forwarded these two additional photos.

Exhibits
The clock was ticking and I made a sprint through the exhibit area. There were some great exhibits, some of which I'd seen earlier in the year at Central States. Here are a few that caught my eyethis time around.

I was especially wowed by the Horsecar token exhibit, and gave it my vote for People's Choice. Some of these are extremely rare, and I'd never seen so many at once in my life.

Siege Money
My friend Dr, Lawrence Korchnak presented a talk on paper siege currency at 4pm. He had some of these rare pieces on display.

Larry's working on a book based on his many years of collecting and studying siege money, both coins and paper. If anyone is interested in or can contribute to the work, let me know andI'll put you in touch.

Lesher Dollar Exhibit
I couldn't leave the show without checking out the Lesher dollar exhibit.

An amazing grouping. I enjoyed seeing the literature of Lesher Dollars, including the new book by Bob Leonard.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: LESHER DOLLAR COLLECTION EXHIBIT (http://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n31a18.html)

NGC Continental Dollar Display

I arrived a little too late to see the Continental Dollar exhibit at the NGC Booth. I got a nice consolation prize when Dave Lange gave me a slabbed 2017-D Kennedy Half. A number of these wereprepared for the evening's ANA Awards Banquet,where Dave received the Numismatist of the Year honor.

Dinner With Kellen
After a jaunt back to the hotel to change I set out again for the Bistro Vendome restaurant, where me, Joel, Len Augsburger and his wife Deb Kurtz were having dinner with Kellen Hoard and his MomCathy. I said hello as I passed Julian Leidman on the street and hopped on the 16th Street Mall bus to Larimore Street.

The restaurant was tucked away in a courtyard, New Orleans style. The rest of our party was already seated. We had great conversation about the events of the convention, Kellen's recent tripto the ANA Summer Seminar, numismatic luminaries, and the future of the hobby. Here's a group shot taken afterwards by Kellen's Mom.