ANA NUMISMATIST OF THE YEAR: DAVID LANGE

Numismatic Guaranty Corporation® (NGC®) is proud to announce that David W. Lange, NGC Research Director, has been named Numismatist of the Year by the American Numismatic Association (ANA).

The Numismatist of the Year award honors a person from the numismatic community who has shown long-term leadership both to the field and the ANA, a congressionally chartered organization dedicated to coins and related items. The ANA has bestowed the Numismatist of the Year award — one of its highest honors — annually since 1995. Past recipients represent a “who’s who” of numismatics and include NGC Chairman Mark Salzberg, who received the award in 2006.

Lange is one of the hobby’s best-known researchers and writers, having authored nine books and hundreds of articles on United States numismatics. An ANA member since 1978, Lange has taught numerous courses at the ANA’s annual Summer Seminar at its headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His many contributions to the ANA were previously recognized in 2009 when he received the association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Besides his involvement in the ANA, Lange has been an active participant in a number of other hobby organizations. He is a former president of the Pacific Coast Numismatic Society, the California State Numismatic Association and the New Jersey Numismatic Society, with memberships in a host of other hobby groups.

Lange has served as NGC’s Research Director since 1994, making him one of the company’s longest-serving employees. His contributions to NGC include the development of its VarietyPlus® variety attribution program and catalog, the NGC Photo Proof® service and a plethora of educational articles published on its website, NGCcoin.com.

“I am so proud that our own Dave Lange has been honored with this important award,” says Mark Salzberg, chairman of NGC. “Over the course of the 23 years that we have worked together I have witnessed first-hand the extent of his knowledge and his commitment to the hobby. Congratulations, Dave!”

"I'm truly honored to be recognized by the ANA with such a significant award,” says Lange. “When I joined the Association in 1978 as a young adult, it was with some uncertainty as to what it would offer me, but my only regret has been that I was not introduced to it in childhood. My fascination with coins began as soon as I learned to read, and it's been a wonderful journey of discovery. I'm pleased to be able to give back to the hobby as a Summer Seminar instructor for the past 20-plus years and as a columnist for the ANA's journal since 1988."

To read the complete article, see:
NGC Research Director David W. Lange is ANA's Numismatist of the Year (https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/6025/david-lange-ana-award/)

David W. Lange
Director of Research, Numismatic Guaranty Corp., Sarasota, Fla.

He has been a columnist for The Numismatist, the monthly journal of the American Numismatic Association, since 1988 and has written countless feature articles for this and other publications in the numismatic field. He is also the author of nine books on United States coins and U.S. Mint history, as well as coin boards and albums. He maintains a website for collectors of vintage coin boards: coincollectingboards.com.

If you go to any major show, you’re likely to find David at NGC’s booth. His responsibilities at NGC include variety attribution, counterfeit detection, pedigree search, writing and research.

Q: While you were initially known for the research that led to your books on Lincoln cents, Buffalo nickels and Mercury dimes, more recently you have turned to the history of coin boards. What led you to go in this new direction?

A: It started like so many obsessions do — with a casual purchase of a single Whitman coin board during a coin club auction more than 30 years ago. After that I began noticing there were many different designs and color schemes of Whitman boards, and that prompted to get one example of each style. This led to the discovery of other board publishers, and there’s been no stopping since then.

Q: Is there a “Holy Grail” equivalent of a coin board?

A: The very first coin board made is exceedingly rare. It was an oversized prototype produced by coin board inventor Joseph K. Post in 1934. This was first shown to me by Post’s granddaughter during the 2006 ANA convention in Denver, and we both considered it unique. Since that time two others have surfaced, and I paid strong money for them. The finer one remains in my collection, and I sold the other to one of my more advanced customers.

Q: How do your research methods differ when studying coins and studying coin boards, or do you approach your research in the same way?

A: The difference between researching coins and boards is that there was nothing factual published on coin boards until I wrote my 2007 book on them. (Imagine collecting coins without any guide book to know what was even produced.) I began with cataloging the 2,000 or so boards I’d acquired over the years by publisher, edition and variety. After that, I tracked down the publishers by searching Ancestry.com, old city directories and vintage ads in coin journals. I traveled to the various cities to locate their former printing plants and homes. This brought me into contact with descendants of the publishers, and they provided me with photos, documents and family lore that gave coin boards a more human dimension for my book.

Q: Why should collectors consider collecting historical coin boards?

A: Coin boards are very colorful, and they feature quaint (and sometimes inaccurate) illustrations of the popular coin types. They’re also historic souvenirs of the time when coin collecting evolved from an exclusive pursuit to an “everyman” hobby during the 1930s. Finally, of the hundreds of known varieties, some are quite rare and have brought into the mid-three figures at auction. Fortunately, collectible examples of most boards are in the $20–$50 range, making it a hobby that doesn’t bust the budget and still offers room for growth.

Q: Do you have any future books on coins on your schedule, to join those already published?

A: I’ve published one coin board book and two volumes on coin albums under my own imprint, PennyBoard Press. Volume Three of the album series will be on the folders and albums produced by Whitman. This will be a very large work (or perhaps two volumes), but I’d like to move more copies of the earlier books before publishing a new one.

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