I didn't get a chance to write about last month's meeting of my Northern Virginia numismatic social group, Nummis Nova, but we had a good time at Café Oggi. Dick Doty of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian was able to attend, and it was great to see him.

The host for our March meeting was Tom Kays. He picked Mango Mike's in Alexandria, a fun Caribbean-themed restaurant with a great bar, tiki torches and huge tropical fish tanks. Our table was right in front of one of the tanks, providing a soothing backdrop for our conversation.

Dick couldn't make it this month, but Dave Schenkman brought a guest - Gene Brandenburg, who owned the Old Town Coin & Jewelry shop in Alexandria. It was nice to meet him, although I was seated at the far end of the table most of the evening. I asked Tom Kays for a report on the topics up at his end. He writes:

Back at my end of the table I spoke with Joe Levine, Chris Neuzil and Bill Eckberg. There was some talk about Gene's store, and two medals recently sold in a James D. Julia auction, both examples of the rare 1812 Stephen Decatur medal. Both had come to the auction via different branches of the Decatur family. One sold for $28,750, the other for $19,550.

Bill passed around a photocopy of the Chief Coiner's book from the U.S. Mint archives. He's giving a talk at this summer's American Numismatic Association convention in Boston and wanted our thoughts on a perplexing entry. The book lists the names of two "Coiners". These are the folks who actually operated the coin press. But Bill wondered why there were only two names listed - the technology of the day (1793) required THREE people to operate the press - two to swing the arm, and a third to place blanks and retrieve struck coins. We speculated, but didn't come to a conclusion.

I rarely come to a meeting without coin books. Before our dinners came I passed around my copy of A Griffin in Her Desk, the first book in the "Mrs. Moneta" children's series that I reviewed in last week's E-Sylum. I also passed around my copy of Bob Leonard's Curious Currency. In line with the restaurant's theme, Tom Kays passed around a book on Coinages of Latin America and the Caribbean, gleanings from The Numisamtist published by Quarterman Publications in 1974.

Speaking of "Curious Currency", Jon Radel bought a number of neat items himself, including at least one purchased from dealer Scott Semans - Lanchong Tiger Tongue, a forgery of Lannatai C'ieng Money. Tom Kays passed around three display boxes featuring animals on coins, such as eagles on both ancient and U.S. coins, and an owl on an Athenian coin. Can anyone name ANOTHER coin with an owl on it? I asked Tom for more details, and he writes:

Tom can always be counted on for some impressive exhibits, and the night was no exception. I really need to remember to bring both a flashlight and magnifier to the meetings.

Since the theme was Ancients, I brought along a cute little item from my library: James Ross Snowden's The Coins of the Bible and Its Money Terms, Philadelphia, 1864, 94pp. U.S. Mint Director Snowden collected and published several short papers he'd written for a "Sabbath-school paper". My copy is actually a second edition from 1866. It's only 6 inches tall and four inches wide. Do any of our readers have a copy of this?

Tom Kays handed me a bag containing a generous donation of coins to give away at upcoming Coins4Kids events. When I visited the other end of the table, Gene mentioned he could donate as well. He asked, "How big's your car?" Looks like we found the mother lode of donations.

Before leaving I spoke with Jon Radel and Wayne Herndon, and we made plans for the next kids' event at the Dulles Coin show on April 24th. It was another great evening of numismatic fellowship. I told Gene how I'd modeled the group after The Sphinx Society in Pittsburgh. The group has no officers, no reading of the minutes, no chores - just relaxing conversation about numismatics and any other topic that happens to come up. He enjoyed himself and I think we'll be seeing him at future events. We're already looking forward to next month.