On Tuesday, October 17, 2017 I attended the 2017 United States Mint Numismatic Forum at the Mint HQ in Washington, D.C. It had been many years since I'd visited the building (I believe it wasfor a meeting with Mint Director Philip Deihl).

The new Silver Line metro extension hasn't quite reached our suburban neighborhood yet, so I decided to drive in. The commute wasn't bad and I parked in a surface lot nearby. As I enteredthe building I ran into Coin World correspondent Steve Roach. We went upstairs and checked in, then struck up a long conversation with Charles Morgan of CoinWeek.

Charles and his fellow CoinWeek writer Hubert Walker published an excellent article on the event. It's linked below, so be sure to read that for a full account. Here are my own picturesand notes.

The Forum was well-organized with staffers escorting participants upstairs to the meeting room, which was set up with comfortable tables and chairs, each place set with an agenda folder, notepadand goodie bag. In the closest I'll ever get to "free samples" from the Mint, mine included a 2x2 flip with a 2017-P cent and a blank cent planchet. Nice.

The back of the room held display cases watched over by U.S. Mint Police.

Above are some shots of speakers and the audience.

Here are my tablemates: Robert Hoge and his wife Imma, and ANA Governor and CCAC Member Tom Uram.

I didn't realize the format would be different than last year's forum, where attendees split up into focus groups to discuss various topics and make recommendations to the Mint. I'dcome prepared to pass along some complaints and suggestions I'd gathered from fellow club members, but never really got a chance to share them. But I was heartened to see that some requests andsuggestions from last year's Forum had been adopted by the mint.

It was a large crowd and I saw a number of familiar faces and had a chance to speak with many of them on the breaks including Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) members (and formermembers) Don Scarinci, Mary Lannin, Jeanne Stevens-Sollman, Erik Jansen, Robert Hoge, Tom Uram, Steve Roach and Roger Burdette. Other folks I spoke with included Hubert Walker of CoinWeek,formet ANA President Jeff Garrett, and Mary Burleson of Whitman Publications.

On the way out I took several pictures of the building and some displays. It's a very nice structure and my only regret is that I didn't have time to get a closer look at everything.

CoinWeek Coverage
As mentioned earlier, Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker published a thorough write-up of the event. See the complete article online. But here are some images I greatly enjoyed seeing during thepresentations.

To read the complete CoinWeek article, see:
Second United States Mint Forum Casts Mint Marketing Behemoth in New Light(https://coinweek.com/us-mint-news/second-united-states-mint-forum-casts-mint-marketing-behemoth-in-new-light/)