LIBRARY DONATION HELPS RESEARCHERS AND YNS

PREV ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE FULL ISSUE PREV FULL ISSUE

V23 2020 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 23, Number 35, August 30, 2020, Article 10

Reader Bruce Benoit made a kind gesture recently to help out fellow researchers and bibliophiles Richard Kelly & Nancy Oliver. Earlier articles described how they lost their home and numismatic library in a horrific wildfire. Bruce sent them a shipment of books, and has still more to donate to new collectors who can make use of them. Thanks! -Editor

In early August of 2020, I contacted Richard Kelly & Nancy Oliver of Roseville, California to offer my numismatic library. Richard and Nancy have written many fine articles for various coin related publications over many years including “The Numismatist,” the monthly publication of the American Numismatic Association (ANA). I remembered reading the sad news that their home including their numismatic library was lost in the “Camp Fire” last year in Paradise, California. I was disappointed when they ceased writing articles due to this tragic event. My library has been sitting in boxes since my last move and figured that they could use some help in re-building their library. Richard and Nancy were very grateful towards my offer and asked if I could put together an inventory of the books and send that to them. This was to not receive any duplicate titles that they already had replaced, or received from other donations since the fire. I complied and created an electronic inventory of just under 100 titles.

I remembered seeing an advertisement for the Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS) in The Numismatist publication, and also for some time have enjoyed reading their weekly electronic newsletter, The E-Sylum produced by Wayne Homren. So I contacted Wayne via e-mail to ask if the NBS would be interested in supporting this donation effort and help with the cost of shipping the books. Wayne replied that there was going to be an upcoming society board meeting and that he would make mention of it on my behalf. Later, he contacted me and told me that one of the board members has stepped up and offered to pay for the book shipment. This was great news to Richard, Nancy, and me, as I did not want to donate my library and then have to pay to ship it. The responding board members were Maria and David Fanning of Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers of Gahanna, Ohio.

When I received the list of books that Richard and Nancy would accept from my inventory I pulled them from the many boxes and prepared them for shipment. Maria was very helpful in providing me the best way to prepare and package the books to decrease the chance for damage during shipping. Once I had the books protected and packaged, all I had to do was e-mail Maria with the box sizes and weights and she e-mailed me the shipping labels to place on the boxes. The whole process was painless due to the help of Maria.

I would like to thank both Maria and David Fanning of Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers for their generosity in covering the shipping costs, and Wayne Homren at the NBS for his role in getting the word out. I really hope that both Richard and Nancy will enjoy the books that I have donated and that they assist them with their research to write future articles that I and many others enjoy reading.

"To all,

"Yesterday afternoon (Wednesday, August 26th) we received all 18 numismatic related books donated to us from Bruce Benoit of Waupaca, Wisconsin. They were well packaged and all arrived in good order. The books are a very welcome addition to our research library, and each and every one will be placed in prominent places within our renewed assemblage. Several holes that have existed in our collection have now been filled.

"We thank Bruce and Kathy Benoit, Maria and David Fanning, and Wayne Homren for their generosity, time and efforts in this endeavor. Best to all and may all be safe,

"Richard Kelly and Nancy Oliver"

"Problem solved, right? Not quite, I still have over 75 titles of books that I would like to find loving homes for. I have books in the categories of: U.S. Coins, U.S. Paper Money, World Paper Money, Canadian Coins, Canadian Paper Money, and Tokens, both U.S. and Canada. Ideally I would like to donate the remaining books to the youth of our hobby, the future of numismatics. I will also consider any local coin clubs that are in need of starting, or expanding their libraries. All I ask is that the parties receiving the donations make arrangements for the shipping.

"My contact information is:
Bruce Benoit
benwab@sbcglobal.net "

Thanks for your generous offer! I'm glad many of the books have found a good home with Nancy & Rich, and hope the remaining books find good homes as well. Happy reading, everyone. -Editor