Tuesday was the November meeting of my Northern Virginia numismatic social group, Nummis Nova. I arrived a bit early (around 6pm) to J. Gilbert's Steakhouse in McLean, VA. Already in the bar were Eric Schena and Wayne Herndon. I ordered a drink and we had a great chat while we waited for our room to open at 6:45. Joe Levine, Mike Packard and Jon Radel joined us, and when Gene Brandenburg and Dave Schenkman arrived we were seated at our table.

It was a different room than we'd had before, a little bigger perhaps, but most importantly we had a squarish table that enabled everyone to see and speak with everyone else. It made for lively conversation as numismatic stories, catcalls and insults were hurled back and forth. Dave and Gene thought it was one of our best dinners ever. The food was great, but the company was even better. Other attendees included Roger Burdette, Julian Leidman and Dave's guest, token collector Lenny Goldberg, who told me I looked just like my picture on The E-Sylum. It was also great to see Bill Eckberg, a longtime regular who retired and moved to Florida, but has been getting back to the D.C. area on occasion for a visit.

We avoid business like the plague, but had a few items to discuss. Jon was organizing our December party, and we decided on the Mount Vernon Inn. Eric had been investigating web sites for tracking meeting invitations and RSVPs. The free sites we'd tried weren't quite cutting it. A donation from Wayne Herndon will pay the first year, and Eric and his wife Heather will set it up for us. Thanks! The last item of business was a possible medal, an idea Dave Schenkman was researching for us. There wasn't a lot of interest, so we shelved the idea for this year. Perhaps another time.

We weren't very well organized this month and hadn't picked an exhibit theme. Among the items passed around were Eric Schena's obsolete notes with unusual denominations.

Eric writes:

Dave Schenkman took the prize with his gold 1689 coronation medal. Gene Brandenburg had the understatement of the night when he told Dave the group's consensus was "NOT to melt it". Dave sent these pictures:

It was a great evening. It's always a pleasure to hang out with friends for a night of numismatic fellowship. You can't replicate that on the Internet.