The Rochester Numismatic Association is one of the oldest coin clubs in America. Here is the site of the RNA which we think the readers of The E-Sylum will enjoy looking at.

Dr. George P. French is credited as being the founder of the R.N.A. He was a medical doctor who was educated locally and attended the Medical College of the University of Rochester. Dr. French practiced medicine, specializing in "female disorders" and after 24 years was not only successful in his profession but had found time to collect coins, stamps, and curios.

His coin collecting interest was U.S. large cents. In the heart of the Depression, B. Max Mehl, the famous Texas coin dealer, purchased the French collection of large cents for $50,000. French's biographer claimed that the 1793 cents were valued at $5000 each at the time his collection of 832 coppers were sold. His curios included the clothes worn by Tom Thumb and Peter the Great, the world's two smallest men.