EXHIBITING AT ANA by Bob Fritsch
PART 1 - Introduction and Getting Organized
INTRODUCTION
Numismatic exhibits have long been a part of ANA (American Numismatic Association) shows. Several exhibit classes cover every aspect of the hobby, from US coins to foreign paper money to medals and tokens. Our exhibit class is number 24: Elongated Coins, with its associated Dottie Dow Award. This award is fully sponsored by TEC, and the club went to a lot of time and trouble to make it happen.
Basically, a sponsor must field at least three exhibits for two years in a row to establish a class. New York and Portland ANAs saw those exhibits and 1999 was the first year of the Dottie Dow Award. Larry White was the first recipient with a beautiful display on TEC Convention Badges with Ray Dillard second and Anthony Tumonis third. Congratulations to these exhibitors for their beautiful and informative displays.
So why am I telling you all this? Well, we need exhibits to sustain the class. There are predictions that there will be small participation in the future and that the class will die within a few years. We cannot let this happen! TEC depends on YOU to display some of your wonderful coins for all to see. There are many things to consider and to do while creating an award-winning exhibit, and that is the purpose of these articles: to give you the knowledge needed to create your display. Remember that these are numismatic exhibits and that they must be given a numismatic treatment. You will see what I mean by this as the series progresses.
What are my qualifications to tell you all this? Through a bit of extra effort at an extremely busy convention, I did my homework and became the first exhibit judge qualified for Class 24. I will be telling you what I and my fellow judges will be looking for when we view your displays. The remainder of this part will talk about getting organized. Part 2 will center on presentation, and Part 3 will give detailed information and tie up any loose ends. Any feedback you care to give on these articles will be appreciated.
GETTING ORGANIZED
You have all of these wonderful coins and want to show every one of them. That may not be practical because exhibit space is limited. Also this could lead to a boring display. So you have to narrow it down a bit. Organize your collection and you will find that your coins fall into groups. Find a group that has an interesting story behind it, one that has focus. There is always a display that has lots of nice coins (and even a catchy gimmick) but lacks focus and is not very interesting to the casual observer. And that is your main audience, people who do not know about this part of the hobby. These exhibits help to educate them.
Once you have a common theme or focus, choose the pieces to be exhibited with care. Choosing the core group of coins should be easy, but you will find as you build the exhibit that adjustments are necessary. Maybe this coin should be added, maybe you should forget about that one. This is normal and perfectly acceptable. Just don’t say, “This coin has to fit and I’m gonna make it.” That could kill the whole thing. Be flexible. ANA allows up to six cases for your exhibit, so there is plenty of room to work.
Start gathering the data for your exhibit. These are supposed to be educational exhibits, and to educate you must provide information. This is such a vital commodity that it counts for a full 35% of the score. Each judge has a rating sheet for your exhibit, and will examine and grade it following the criteria on the list. The smart exhibitor knows what the judges are looking for and present their displays accordingly.
Basic Numismatic Information is 15 points (out of 100). From the rating sheet: “The numismatic specifications of the exhibited items should be described to the extent needed by the exhibit's scope to answer the questions of another numismatist. Examples: mint and mintage, composition, dimensions, designer, engraver, variety identification.” In other words, tell about the physical coin itself. How much does the coin weigh? What mintages does it have? For souvenir machines, the mintage is “unlimited”, unless it’s a short run like the Disney Christmas machines. In that case, try to get an estimate of the number of coins rolled. What is the coin made of? If a Lincoln cent, is it the bronze composition or copper-clad zinc? Most elongates have the designer’s initials or mark -- who is it (RWD for Ray Dillard, JD for Jim Dundon, FB for Frank Brazell, etc)?
Special Numismatic Information is also 15 points. “Enough additional information should be given to answer the questions of a general viewer. Examples: historic, biographic, geographic, economic, artistic, and bibliographic information.” This is the background information. One of my exhibits was on the coins I got during my Alaska trip. I told how I came to be visiting that state, where the machines were, and even included pictures of the machines themselves. This all comes under this heading. How did you get the coin? What is its significance? Is there any history behind it? Tell the viewer all the relevant facts. This is not as easy as it seems, because you want an exhibit that is easy to view and read. Larry White’s display had only a few lines of special information for each piece, but that was sufficient to carry his message.
Title and Scope is valued at 5 points. “The title should be obvious. If necessary there should be an explanation of what the exhibitor intends to show.” Choose a working title for the time being but have the final title when you submit your application. The scope statement tells what you are showing. A specific statement of scope will put bounds on your display. A statement like “This display shows nine elongates from Alaska that I rolled there last year,” is far preferable to “These are all the elongates in Alaska.” The latter statement is just too general, and the judge could easily subtract points for not showing what you said you were going to show (How do you know that these are all the elongates in Alaska?). This criteria and Completeness go hand-in-hand. The judge uses the scope statement to determine completeness. Make sure you scope what you are showing and show what you have scoped.
The more data you can provide the better, but don’t go overboard. I have seen exhibits that have four cases full of writing. Unless you are a highly skilled writer, the viewer will probably lose interest in what you are saying before finishing, and that includes the judge. However, the judge must read every word in an exhibit; it is part of the job. If some information is not available, you can either say so, or just ignore it. This is a judgment call, so ask yourself, “Does my information raise any questions that I have not answered?” Massage your data until the answer is No. One display I judged this year had the statement, “I couldn’t fit all my pieces in six cases.” I wanted to know what the selection criteria was, why some pieces were included and others were not, but the exhibitor did not tell me and lost points because of it.
While you are gathering your information, keep a running bibliography of the reference works you use. While it is not mandatory, you won’t win the Gold Medal without a reference statement. Use the standard bibliographical format found in most nonfiction books.
One thing you should do immediately is to get the exhibit rules from ANA. They are available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.money.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=National_Money_Show&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=5002, or write to the ANA Convention Department at American Numismatic Association; 818 North Cascade Avenue; Colorado Springs, CO 80903-3279. These will tell you everything you need to know about doing an exhibit at the ANA conventions. The specific rules for each convention are linked on the cited page above.
You have your work cut out for you. Start now and in a few weeks you should know what you want to exhibit and have a good body of information to go with it. We will discuss presenting your exhibit in the next part of the story.
