I remember him — he's involved in mostly medals. One time — decades ago — I had what I thought must be an interesting Venetian medal, brought it with me to a New York Int’l show, and somebody said Jan Lis would be my man. So I found him, he said he’d give me $100, just like that, and I was very pleased.

That was my sole encounter with him. Funny, I can actually picture what he looked like. Funnier still, only recently I happened to remember that episode for some reason, but I couldn’t think of the guy’s name. Then I saw your item and it clicked!

Jan is a still active and is to be found at all of the London, Holiday Inn coin fairs. The Beaver Coin Room is at The Beaver Hotel which he owns, but I don’t think it is visitable.

Beaver Coin Room

Specialities
European coins from the Middle Ages to the 18thC. Polish coins a specialty. Commemorative and artistic medals from the Renaissance to the 20thC.

My wife Linda and I stayed at the Beaver Hotel in London on two different occasions, in the 1980s if memory serves. Rooms were available with communal bathrooms or in-room ones; we chose the latter. A full English breakfast was included. The hotel is well-situated and we enjoyed both of our stays there.

The proprietor of the hotel was and is none other than Jan Lis, and the Beaver Coin Room is situated on the premises. Unfortunately, on both occasions, Jan Lis was away from the hotel and we were not able to visit the coin room. Over the years, we often met in New York at NYINC, in London, and other European cities when major numismatic libraries were being dispersed.

Medals are Jan’s numismatic specialty and his library on that topic is exceptional. Jan is among those pleasant friends and acquaintances that have made numismatic bookselling such an enjoyable adventure.

Jan is a friend of mine, a coin dealer who runs the Beaver Hotel in London! His collecting specialty is the coins and medals of Poland.

I've known Jan since the 1970's when he first came regularly to the New York international Coin Show and have visited the Beaver Coin Room, which is located in the Beaver Hotel, many times since and as recently as last year. I believe that Harry Waterson's advertising plaquette dates to the 1980s.

Attached are images of Jan Lis' private medal, cast in bronze, 100 mm in diameter, by Jane McAdam Freud; it commemorates Jan's 47th birthday in 1988. The reverse shows a beaver (referencing the Beaver Coin Room) and a Fox, along with water lilies and a fleur-de-lis. The Latin translates as "not a lily but a fox" because one might have assumed that Lis meant lily, as it does in French, while it actually means fox in Polish, Jan Lis's familial language and his principal numismatic collecting interest.