| Stack Family
Coinage Of the Americas
Conference
|
Stack
Family Coinage Of the Americas Conference
The
Coinage of the Americas Conference (COAC) was the brain-child of Harry W. Bass,
Jr., President of the American Numismatic Society from 1978 to 1984, who sought
to increase the Society's involvement with Western hemisphere coinage, currency
and related fields. At the 125 th anniversary meeting of the Society, in 1983,
he proposed establishment of an ongoing series on specialized topics and in
1984, the project commenced with “America's Copper Coinage, 1783-1857.” As stated
in the preface of the first published volume of papers presented at the conference,
Proceedings No. 1, “The Purpose of these conferences is to facilitate the exchange
of information. Toward this end, experts in the field are invited to present
papers, collectors are invited to exhibit, and notice of the conference is circulated
widely to encourage attendance by all interested in the topic.
In
connection with the conferences, the Society has mounted exhibitions of its
own holdings to broaden awareness of its library and cabinet and published an
important series of “Proceedings,” the formal scholarly versions of the papers
presented. These volumes have been edited by former ANS curators William L.
Bischoff, Richard G. Doty, John M. Kleeberg, William E. Metcalf and Alan M.
Stahl, and also Philip L. Mossman. COAC themes have included “Canada's Money”
and “The Coinage of El Perú” but most have focused upon specific United States
or Colonial issues, time periods, denominations or other subject matter. One
particularly noteworthy conference dealt with “America's Gold Coinage,” and
featured the exhibition of the fabulous collection formed by Harry Bass himself.
On-line
versions of the programs from the annual COAC conferences