Tuesday night, November 10, 2015 was the monthly meeting of my Northern Virginia numismatic social group, Nummis Nova. Roger Burdette was our host. We met at J. Gilbert's, a steakhouse in McLean, VA. My GPS took me on an adventurous route, down a few roads I've never before been on or even heard of. But it got me there in plenty of time; in fact, I was about an hour early.

So after calling my wife, I went inside, took a seat at the bar, and ordered a drink. Luckily, Eric Schena was early as well and soon joined me. We chatted for a while then went to our table along with Wayne Herndon. We were in a nice cozy alcove, separated from the main dining area.

Joining us before long were Joe Esposito, Steve Bishop, Jon Radel and Roger, who sat near me and Eric. The rest of the table soon filled up with regulars Gene Brandenburg, Dave Schenkman, Joe Levine, Julian Leidman, and Mike Packard.

Roger had the pleasure of enduring a root canal that afternoon, so he'd declared the evening's theme to be dentistry. The only one to bring something related to the theme was Dave Schenkman, who had this Baltimore College of Dental Surgery medal.

Mentoring Not-So-Young-Anymore-Numismatists
Before the meeting got too crowded, I led our end of the table in a discussion about organizing a program for Not-So-Young-Anymore-Numismatists in our area.

We agreed that it should not be explicitly tied to Nummis Nova, since not everyone would be involved but mostly because the group is explicitly designed to be a purely social group with no committees, responsibilities, or structure. While several of us might end up mentoring or otherwise participating, it would be done on an individual basis.

We'll get started after the regular December Annandale coin show kids meeting, where Joe Esposito has already volunteered to be a speaker. Thanks!

What Is a Collector?
Led by Wayne Herndon, our end of the table had a great discussion about what it means to be a collector.

We agreed that there's a "collecting gene" - that either you have it or you don't. Some people are just born to be collectors. And collectors often collect more than one thing. While all of us in our group are coin collectors, we have other collections too, from antiques to books to banjos. While spouses and friends might also purchase and accumulate similar items, they just don't have the same drive as a collector. They may see something pretty or interesting and decide to acquire it. But a collector is driven seek out their quarry, and will go to great lengths to find it.

Wayne mentioned one customer who is working on birth year coin sets - not just or his own birth year, but those of his wife, their kids, parents, grandparents etc., back five generations. What a great idea! He comes to every show armed with checklists and returns home with new purchases.

Collectors are driven by the urge for completeness, but there's more to it than that. I noted somewhat sheepishly that I'd never been so driven to actually complete any collection I'd started. My first collection, of Lincoln cents, still lacks four key dates. As an adult I could have purchased those coins anytime, but I moved my sights to other prizes. I worked for years acquiring U.S. Encased Postage Stamps and again ran out of money and time to complete it before deciding to sell.

So while completeness is a goal, it's not the key factor. My journey is a common one. Many collectors are serial collectors - they work on assembling one collection, then move on to another collection even if they haven't finished the first. So it's not the destination - it's the journey. Collectors are driven by the quest. The joy is in the seeking and finding, not the having. Wayne noted that as a dealer, the hardest things to sell are, paradoxically, complete sets. Why? Because where's the fun in that? Collectors like the concept of a complete collection, but their focus is on the HOLES. What they have is nice, but what drives them is DON'T HAVE YET.

Transit Company Token Hub

Eric Schena brought a rare and interesting item. He writes:

Mining Company Notes
Dave Schenkman brought along three mining company notes he purchased from Heritage's most recent sale of the Eric Newman collection. His comments are shown below the notes. I've only pictured the front, but the backs are available on our Flickr archive. Just click on the note to go to Flickr and look at the adjacent image.

Dave writes:

Dave writes:

Dave adds:

Oregon Trail Plaque
Dave Schenkman adds:

Steve's returning the plaque to the seller. It's a very nice item regardless, but not at the high price of an original.

Thames Tunnel Medals
Joe Esposito brought a couple of interesting medals and a related book about a tunnel under the Thames river in London. I thought Irecognized the tunnel immediately - back in September 2007 brothers Harry and Philip Mernick treated me to a tour around London, and at one point wewalked through a tunnel beneath the Thames river.

But Joe's book and medals weren't about this tunnel; instead, they related to a much earlier one, the Thames Tunnel. From Wikipedia:

To read the complete article, see:
Thames Tunnel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Tunnel)

Nummis Nova is a delight. It was another great night of numismatic fellowship. 'Til next time.