Concerns about the ANA's upcoming tour of the Comstock

The subject of the ANA's Comstock tour has been bothering me since I read about it months ago. Don't get me wrong, I'm very pleased that the ANA recognizes the importance of disseminating knowledge concerning the historical, social and numismatic contributions of the Comstock region and the Carson City mint.

However, the closer the tour gets to Carson City and Gold Hill, the more its feels plagiaristic. I don't know the principals involved, nor how they happened to construct a Comstock tour so closely resembling the C4OA's own tour a while back. But clearly, something is fishy.

The ANA is promoting the tour as "Mining and Minting in Carson City." The event is introduced on the ANA's web site as follows;

"... spend a day at the Nevada State Museum, formerly the Carson City Mint, where you'll learn about the mint's history and its errors. See a demonstration of the historic Coin Press No. 1 and learn about the cancelled coin dies found buried in the parking lot. Discover the Chinatown gold coins from Lovelock and watch the Old West come alive."

Certainly, the Museum's curators will do an excellent job lecturing about these topics, though it seems that Mr. Nylen's scheduled lecture about the museum's own collections has the potential to fall short of the expectations for this potentially savvy, numismatic audience.

But whether or not Mr. Nylen does a good job on the subject of the Biltz Collection and the museum's other donated coins, it bothers the heck out of me that Rusty Goe was not asked to provide some kind of lecture about Carson City coins from the more appropriate viewpoint of a numismatic expert... particularly THE numismatic expert about Carson City coins. After all, shouldn't one consider the knowledge level and interests of the American NUMISMATIC Association's members when scheduling the lectures they will attend?

Of course, underlying all of this is the ongoing, stultifying mystery of why the Nevada State Museum has not made the slightest good faith attempt to have a "quid pro quo" relationship with Rusty Goe and, or the C4OA, given that the museum is a mere 30 minutes drive from the club's headquarters and the home of perhaps the world's leading expert on Carson City coins.

The ANA tour is a perfect opportunity for the museum to pull out all the stops, collate their intellectual and physical resources...read, call the C4OA or Rusty Goe specifically and ask them to contribute a killer lecture! The Nevada State Museum's directors could easily make the ANA tour's visit to the old Carson City mint building the absolute highlight of the entire tour.

I have given some thought to writing a courteous, but informative letter to the ANA regarding this event's copy cat nature while in the Comstock region, as well as its failure to give the ANA members attending the tour the benefit of a true numismatic expert's Carson City coin related expertise.

In this letter, I might point out the seemingly logical conclusion that the tour's attendees are mostly COIN COLLECTORS and, or COIN DEALERS who have traveled, some from great distances, to attend a national COIN show. Would it not automatically follow that when COIN COLLECTORS and COIN DEALERS tour the CARSON CITY MINT, they might be interested primarily in a CARSON CITY COIN presentation in greater depth than the usual overview? Does the ANA believes this group of attendees will be satisfied to hear that the mint opened in 1870, stopped minting coins in 1893, produced "X" amount of coins, blah, blah, blah, together with an overview of the museum's own, obverse displayed-only, CC collection, blah, blah, blah, culminating in a mind-blowing display of the cancelled dies found the parking lot. Snore..ZZZZZZZZZZ

Is it just me who thinks these numis-tourists just might anticipate a serious Carson City coin lecture worthy of the time and effort they took to attend this ANA sponsored event? I know I would.

The ANA is no virgin when it comes to internal squabbles and controversy. The issues surrounding the copy cat nature of the tour while in the Comstock area, together with its glaring deficit of true CC coin expertise, will never make national headlines. But some of us C4OA members who also pay dues to the ANA, believe these issue are important, perhaps even important enough that they should be brought to the ANA's attention.

Am I the only one this has occurred to?

Belay Off

I agree with your views on this Belay. I used to belong to the ANA years ago and it was for the reasons you described for me not to renew my membership. I know that if I were to spend the time and money to go out west that I would at least want a presentation by an expert, our own Rusty Goe.

Loosechange

The ANA, of which I'm not a member, perhaps does not know about Rusty and the fact he's 30 minutes north. At least those that planned the trip may not be aware.
Rusty may not be available.
Things can change with a phone call. If you are a member why not give the tour director a call? Might want to talk with Rusty first!
Yes, the tour does sound pretty docile. But, to be fair, most of the tourists will not find it so. Remember that most of them know just about nothing of the wild west, CC or VC. It will still be a great experience. It's just that it could be a lot better with a little planning.
bob

Belay:

My sentiments EXACTLY!!! The day I saw that ad, the first thing I thought was, "Where's Rusty?" Of course, Rusty is too much a gentleman to "intrude" into the ANA's thought process (or I should say lack there of).
You're absolutely right. A tourist trip! No thinking allowed!! You think?

Dan/mcfly

There is a fellow member of my local coin club that went on that tour. He will be speaking about it next month. I'll inform you all as to his views and how his report went after his talk. I think the ones who may have enjoyed that tour would be the ones who know the least about the subject. To me from the discription of it, it seemed to be totally a tourist trip, not that there's anything wrong with that.
-R-

Dan,

Glad you agree Dan. The exclusion of our club and its President, perhaps world's leading expert on Carson City coins and the areas numismatic history, has diminished the ANA in my eyes.

For any person even remotely knowledgable with all things CC related, the ANA's unfortunate exclusions will be the 800 lb gorilla in the corner of the room.

Belay Off