Tuesday, September 9, 2014 was the latest gathering of my northern Virginia numismatic social group, Nummis Nova. Howard Daniel and I were the hosts. We picked Reston Town Center as the location and chose an Italian restaurant called Il Fornaio. Neither of us had been there before, so it was going to be an adventure. Howard scouted the place in advance to make our reservation. It LOOKED very nice. The food, we learned, not so much. More later.

I picked the theme: "things that USED to be worth a lot more." Purchases that weren't what you thought they were, things bought at a market peak, etc. Painful memories perhaps, but good conversation starters.

Gene Brandenburg wrote:

I was a little afraid people might have trouble finding the place. GPS is only of moderate use when you have to park in a garage and then walk. But the table was full when I arrived about 6:30. I sat next to Roger Burdette. Other attendees were Gene, Dave Schenkman, Joe Levine, Chris Neuzil, Eric Schena, Jon Radel, Mike Packard, Wayne Herndon, Julian Leidman, Howard and Steve Bishop. Aaron Packard arrived and took the last open seat, between me and Steve.Gene Brandenburg took a few pictures with his cell phone. Thanks!

As usual, a number of interesting numismatic items were passed around the table before dinner.

Dave Schenkman writes:

Dave also displayed three great 1740 silver medals. He writes:

My dish was OK. Trying to save calories and money, I just ordered a chicken breast (although I've long forgotten the fancy-schmancy name of the dish on the menu). Roger was clearly not pleased with his meal, which he promptly sent back. He writes:

Gene Brandenburg writes:

I agree about the location. I walked the long way around to my parking garage and the area was quite vibrant, looking great lit up at night. I would come back again, but not to Il Fornaio.Despite the restaurant food problem, it was another in a long series of great nights of numismatic fellowship.

There's not much else numismatically that I can report this week, but given our earlier discussions about online numismatics, e-books and the like, thought I'd pass along this headline I came across on Thursday:

To read the complete article, see:
FORGET YOUR PASSWORD? NO PROBLEM -- HERE ARE 4 BODY PARTS THAT COULD AUTHENTICATE YOUR IDENTITY ONLINE(www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2014/09/forget-your-password-no-problem-here-are-4-body-parts-could-authenticate-your-identity-online/93395/)

'Til next time, everyone!