Numismatic Autographs
Dennis: I beheld an astounding coin the other day—a massive five-kilogram .999 fine silver coin from Great Britain, colorfully enameled in gem Proof finish. The Royal Mint made it to honor Paul McCartney. It’s one of only four available for private ownership. Eight were minted, of which three were examined and then melted in the annual Trial of the Pyx ceremony. One of the remaining five was gifted to the former Beatle himself, taking it off the market presumably forever. The storied American auction firm of Stack’s Bowers Galleries was granted the honor of auctioning the other four.
The reverse, designed by Deborah Osborne and Andrew Ross, has a neat feature: Paul McCartney’s first-name signature recreated in silver. The coin comes with a certificate of authenticity that he hand-signed.
I later learned there’s a companion gold coin with the Paul McCartney design. It measures almost seven inches across and, like the silver coins, weighs five kilograms—but in .999 fine gold. This one is unique—four were minted, and three were inspected and melted, leaving only one piece “as a crowning jewel for the world’s top collectors,” as the auctioneer put it.
I have a few numismatic autographs in my collection. At ANA banquets I used to pass around my dinner menu and have everyone at the table sign it; that’s one way I’ve gathered autographs of a colorful tapestry of numismatic personalities over the years. U.S. Mint Director Ventris Gibson signed some certificates of authenticity for me at an ANA show. I have a photo of me and Dave Bowers (lounging in the archives of the Smithsonian’s National Numismatic Collection) that he autographed. Books signed by Ken Bressett and other authors. Slab envelopes autographed by Bressett, made to hold the Red Book 60th-anniversary medal.
[Image: Among my daughter’s “loot” from Ernie’s Treasure Treehouse at the 2025 ANA National Money Show: an American Women Quarters holder signed by U.S. Mint Director Ventris Gibson.]
Steve, you’ve bought, sold, and collected some remarkable works of art and history. Do you have any numismatic autographs in your collection?
Dennis, some of my favorite numismatic items come from attending the ANA Summer Seminar in the 1990s and having my Red Books autographed by the instructors and the other young numismatists. It’s like a yearbook of sorts, and I especially liked when contributors would sign over their own names in the long list of contributing editors who helped with valuation.
I also have a few books in my library that belonged to coin designer Victor David Brenner, neatly signed by him in the upper corner of the interior cover, from his time in France. The books are on non-numismatic topics and have unforgivably tiny print.
A favorite piece I have from former Coin World editor Margo Russell is a large, thin wooden replica of a Federal Reserve Note signed by many attendees at a 1979 coin show in Pennsylvania, including Frank Gasparro who was then-serving as the tenth Chief Engraver of the United States Mint.
The signatures take me back in time: imagining Brenner working in Paris, remembering myself as a 13-year old starry eyed YN at the ANA’s Summer Seminar, and thinking of all the coin show banquets I’ve attended over the years. (Though, as an art appraiser I can implore everyone signing anything: please, be legible! Unclear signatures are among the most frustrating things when identifying works of art.)
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Hello! And welcome to the ANA’s blog series, “Collecting Friends.”
We decided to approach this much like a conversation between friends. One of us starts with a topic, then the other responds. Simple as that. Along those lines, we’ll keep the tone conversational as much as possible.
We both write about coins professionally, and will keep our relative style guides in our writing. For Dennis, former Publisher at Whitman Publishing, that means capitalizing “Proof” and italicizing Red Book and never saying anything bad about Ken Bressett, who’s awesome anyway.
For Steve, who’s written with Coin World for 15 years, it means Winged Liberty Head dime instead of “Mercury” dime, and similar nuances and oddities. And, it means writing A Guide Book of United States Coins (better known as the “Red Book”).
Both of us started collecting when we were little, introduced to coins by a chance encounter with an old coin that sparked our curiosity. One of Steve’s interests is coin valuation, and he gravitates towards the intersection of art and coins. Dennis enjoys medals and world coins, and studying modern U.S. coins in the context of older series, what came before.
We met in 2012 at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Philadelphia at an event hosted by the Austrian Mint where there was both a Ben Franklin and a Betsy Ross impersonator. We’ve become great friends in the past decade. We even were appointed together to sit on the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee starting in 2016, but Steve resigned soon after he was appointed to accept a full-time job at the Treasury Department while Dennis was re-appointed in 2020.
We taught a course together on numismatic publishing and writing a few years ago at the Summer Seminar, and while life has gotten in the way of us teaching another class, we jumped at our friend Caleb’s suggestion that we write a column. We hope you enjoy it!
The American Numismatic Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and encouraging people to study and collect coins and related items. The Association serves collectors, the general public, and academic communities with an interest in numismatics.
The ANA helps all people discover and explore the world of money through its vast array of educational programs including its museum, library, publications, conventions and numismatic seminars.