Tuesday May 12, 2019 was the meeting night of my Northern Virginia numismatic social group Nummis Nova. Aaron Packard was our host, and the venuewas Southside 815 at 815 S. Washington St in Alexandria, VA. It's a classic bar and restaurant with great food - we've been there three orfour times now.

I arrived about 6pm and already seated were Gene Brandenberg, Dave Schenkman and Eric Schena. Soon Aaron, Steve Bishop, Mike Packard (norelation to Aaron), Julian Leidman and his guest Scott Spitzer arrived.

My only numismatic exhibit was a new book on the banknotes of Ceylon & Sri Lanka, sent to me by my old friend Kavan Ratnatunga. It had onlytake five days to ship from Sri Lanka! Stay tuned for ordering information once the book is more broadly available.

Old-Time Postage Stamps
I'd been to the post office earlier in the week and picked up some postage stamps for the few dues payments and cards I still sent theold-fashioned way. Several are memberships to coin clubs that don't have an easy way to pay online.

Anyway, I brought my purchases along to the meeting and people were impressed with the products, as was I. The Classics Forever series reproducefamous early U.S. postage stamp designs. The second sheet is a set of stamps commemorating the 150th anniversary of the completion of theTranscontinental Railroad. Both are impressive physical products that can't be reproduced in an email.

Schenkman's Scrip
Dave Schenkman passed around a couple of interesting scrip notes from last month's Heritage sale.

Dave's a big collector of Turnpike notes. I appreciate them for their connection to the development of transportation infrastructure in thiscountry. But the second note was especially interesting. It will take some research, but we both believe it may be connected to the operations ofpioneer gold coiner Christian Bechtler of Rutherford, North Carolina. Here's a Rutherford Gold Company Stock Certificate from a 2017 Kagin'ssale:

To read the complete lot description, see:
Rutherford Gold Company Stock Certificate(https://auctions.kagins.com/Rutherford-Gold-Company-Stock-Certificate_i26659812)

Eric's Finds
Eric Schena had some interesting recent finds. I'll let him describe them.

Roosevelt plaque
Steve Bishop brought this small Theodore Roosevelt plaque by Tournier.

Interesting stuff - some neat finds. It was a fun meeting, as always.