Tuesday, January 14, 2014 was the monthly meeting of my Northern Virginia numismatic social group, Nummis Nova. I'm behind the times in writing up my diary, but here's an abbreviated version.

Wayne Herndon was our host, and we held the event, fittingly, in Herndon, VA. We gathered at the Bertucci's restaurant. After a slight mixup we were seated in the party room, which had both ample space and lighting, perfect for a group like ours.

I had brought along some recent issues of ANS Magazine for Chris Neuzil to review. We were trying to locate a reference he'd seen earlier, but no such luck. Perhaps another time. I'd also brought along my numismatic postcard and stereo card collection. I'd pulled it out to show Tom Kays, and even though he couldn't attend this month, I brought it along anyway for fun. I'll bring them back next time.

I thanked Wayne Herndon for calling me from Florida with the news of John Burns' death. That was a topic of conversation among the attendees, most of whom knew John from the various coin shows he attended.

Dave Schenkman and Gene Brandenburg were running late. Without Gene's expertise I was lost in picking a wine, but I took a shot on a glass of Merlot. I was pleased to see the waiter bring Gene's wine order, which included a bottle of the same Merlot. Gene kept topping off my glass the rest of the evening. I rarely imbibe outside of these monthly nights out, and really enjoyed it.

Steve Bishop passed around a group of beautifully toned Morgan dollars while I passed around my postcards. Eric Schena had a number of interesting ephemera items. He provided images for The E-Sylum and the following commentary:

I congratulated Eric on his great purchase. My favorite item was the Dayton Stencil Works token catalog. What a great piece of ephemera, and perfect for researching old tokens!

I chatted briefly with nearly everyone before I had to rush off to get home before my wife took our oldest son to his basketball game. Others present included Jon Radel, Roger Burdette, Joe Levine, Aaron Packard, and Julian Leidman.

These meetings are always fun. When I founded the group I modelled it after The Sphinx Society, founded in Pittsburgh in 1960. I had been a member until I moved to Virginia. This week I found a great present in the mail from E-Sylum reader Duane Feisel. It was an undated Sphinx membership roster and meeting notice. Well it had a date, but no year: Sunday, September 11th, 1pm at the Mountain View Hotel, Greensburg.

The members at the time were Ray Byrne, Joe Breyer, Prosper DeVos, Duane Feisel, Ithamar B. Lando, Gordon Dodrill, Ed Szypulski, Dr. Robert J. Hudson, George Kiefer, Bob Porter, Emerson Smith, Philip Williams, and Howard Gibbs.

I met Dodrill, Porter and Smith. Byrne and Feisel had moved away from Pittsburgh by the time I became active in the local clubs. If E-Sylum readers have stories to share about any of the Sphinx members, I'd be happy to hear them.That's all for this time.