At the Annual Meeting on October 23, 1999 Donald G. Partrick was elected President of the American Numismatic Society. Stephen Scher was elected First Vice-President, and Roger Hornsby was re-elected as Second Vice President. Jonathan Kagan remains as Treasurer and Executive Director Ute Wartenberg was elected Secretary of the Society.

Arthur Houghton, outgoing President of the American Numismatic Society, thanked the staff and the Council for their support and work during his presidency. Mr. Houghton, who will remain a member of the Council and the Executive Committee, wished his successor success for the future.

Executive Director Ute Wartenberg thanked all staff for their hard work over the last year. She also reported on plans by the architects Sam White and Josh Brandfonbrener of Buttrick White & Burtis for the renovation of the new building at 140 William Street which is progressing well. Plans for the renovation of the infrastructure and three floors are well under way, which will house the library, vault, and offices for staff as well as visitors’ facilities. On the finances of this project, Dr. Wartenberg said: "To complete this building work by next year, we will need c. $6 million. I am thrilled to report that fundraising for this extraordinary project has been going beyond my wildest dreams. We have now raised over $5 million in cash and pledges from Council members towards this goal. Virtually all Council members have contributed to this great venture, and I hope you all join me in thanking our Councilors for this extraordinary effort. We can now go out to our other members and friends. I know that many of you will want to join in and be part of this success story.

The vision of the future ANS is to offer greater access to the collections of the Society. Exhibitions and educational programs for collectors, scholars, schoolchildren and many others are at the forefront of the program for the ANS. The Website will help to make numismatic publications and tools available to people that are unable to visit the Society in person.

As Dr. Wartenberg also pointed out, there is some need to look at the ANS and its structure if it is going to survive in a competitive market of museums today. A strategy that addresses the Society's financial needs is being prepared, which include a major capital campaign, cutting operating costs, as well as restructuring. "All these measures will be designed to increase our visibility within the numismatic community and the museum world at large, to make the collections more accessible to many more people, and to get more people to enjoy numismatics as we all do", Dr. Wartenberg said.

The five curators presented the reports of their departments, Dr. Metcalf speaking for Dr. Bates who was away on leave. Dr. Metcalf drew attention to significant donations from William B. Warden, Jr., including a rare Umayyad copper with a senmirv, a mythological beast, on the reverse. The highlight of the Roman department’s acquisitions was a series of five denarii of the Civil Wars of 68/9, of which one is the second known specimen. Dr. Stahl drew attention to the gift of Zvi Griliches, the Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University, who donated a collection of medals he has been assembling for many years of the work of his distant relatives, Avenir and Avraam Griliches. These men, father and son, were successively chief engravers at the Saint Petersburg Mint at the turn of the last century, a great achievement for observant Jews from Vilna. Dr. Kleeberg's presentation focused on Dr. Lawrence E. Cutler's donation of 20 pieces of Nevada fiscal paper.

Mr. Campbell, ANS Librarian, reported on the donation by Joseph R. Lasser, of Charles Patin’s, Imperatorum Romanorum Numismata (Strasbourg, 1671). In referencing this volume, Campbell found it to be a second issue according to the listing in Christian Dekesel’s Charles Patin : A Man without a Country. This led Campbell to re-assert his praise for Dekesel’s bibliographic works, which he says have contributed to a “revived interest in re-examining the early numismatic works.” The Librarian pointed to the recent publication of John Cunnally’s Images of the Illustrious : The Numismatic Presence in the Renaissance as being indicative of this interest. Cunnally, a former ANS Seminar participant, is now Associate Professor of Art History at The College of Design, Iowa State University. The title of his book is inspired by Andrea Fulvio’s “Illustrium Imagines,” published at Rome in 1517. Cunnally argues that the ubiquitous presence of coins and coin images, such as those found in the Imagines and other works, made comprehensible to literate Europeans of the time, the lost world of the ancients.

Campbell also noted that the Society had received the numismatic library of the late Charles A. Hersh, a collection which reflects Mr. Hersh’s own interests, namely, the Roman Republican coinage and the coinage of the Macedonian Kings. In closing his report on acquisitions, the Librarian mentioned that the Society had just received the Garrett Numismatic Archives, an outstanding donation about which he would have more to say at a later date.

It was also noted that the conversion of the Library's card catalogue to MARC coded records was virtually complete and that the Library looks forward to the day when all of the Library's catalogued records are available on the Web.