DICK JOHNSON'S 2016 NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

In 2016 I want to publish my Encyclopedia of Coin and Medal Technology. I must obtain 1200 illustrations to go with the 988 pages of text I have written.

I began collecting the terms and tasks of medal making 50 years ago when I first went to work for Medallic Art Company. I recognize I was like so many of my collector friends, ignorant of the process of creating coins and medals. This information was not easily available, no book on the subject revealed what I wanted to learn.

So I started to write down the terms workers at MACO used. If the meaning wasn't obvious I would ask what it meant, sometimes even asking to show or tell me the process. Maybe I was a little obnoxious at times but fellow workers from the vice president on down were patient with me, so I learned fast.

I became fascinated with these terms and my list grew. I had several hundred by the time I left MACO and became a medal dealer. That is when my list exploded, particularly since I had to describe these numismatic items in my auction catalogs. Perhaps I had reached a thousand terms by the time I stopped cataloging and "retired."

In my retirement I began writing the definition and description of each of those terms until they were encyclopedic in length. I added the other 250 terms along the way.

I did not want to write a textbook, or a "how to" book with all this text. Instead I wanted a reference book, a book that would be on the desk of everyone in the field -- from designer, to modeller or engraver, to manufacturer, to collector, to curator -- to cover the entire field. For maximum use by everyone.

That's a big chore I know, but it's a new year. I've set a big goal.

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