Charles Hersh, Dead at 75

        The American Numismatic Society mourns the passing of Charles Austin Hersh, one of the great collectors of ancient coinage of our time. He died on January 5, 1999, in Virginia where he was spending the holidays with his family and was laid to rest in the mausoleum of the Hersh family in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
        Charles Hersh was born on June 7, 1923. He grew up in Elizabeth where he graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1940. While at Amherst College he decided to enlist in the Army Air Corps, and after training as navigator on a B-24 bomber, he was posted to England in 1944. During thirty missions he flew ten as the lead plane, and only 2 out of the initial 12 crews survived these highly dangerous daylight flights. One of the target cities to which he flew on several missions was Saarbrucken, an important industrial city on the French border, which after World Word II became one of the leading centers of ancient numismatics. His precise recollection of the city from the air was one of his favorite surprise anecdotes for many German numismatists. As a First Lieutenant, Hersh received the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak-Leaf Cluster for his military service.
        Unlike others Hersh used to fly weekend missions as this allowed him to pursue his hobby of coin collecting during the week. Hersh acquired an already remarkable coin collection in his time during the war and built relationships with dealers and collectors all over the world. Many of his friends will recall his accounts of how he would deposit substantial sums won during poker games in the safe deposits at Baldwin's, the London coin dealers, and then set off on one of his hazardous missions. One day, he went to Spink's where he encountered Leonard Forrer looking for coins in the ruins of the building which had been hit by a bomb during the night.
        After his return to the U.S. he graduated with honors in 1946 from Amherst in history and membership in Phi Beta Kappa. In the fall of that year he enrolled at Harvard Law School, only to discover after a few months that this was not his calling. He changed to history and graduated in 1948 with an MA. After a brief career in the sales department of Singer Sewing Company, Hersh decided to return to his love of coins. A Fulbright Scholarship allowed him to embark on a journey back to London where he arrived on board the Queen Mary in January 1950 to spend the next three and half years at the British Museum. These were formative years for Hersh, who intensively studied the coin collection under the direction of Stanley Robinson, Kenneth Jenkins and Robert Carson. His scholarly achievements at this early age were remarkable, exemplified in articles in the Numismatic Chronicle of this period but particularly in the posthumous edition of Sydenham's The Coinage of the Roman Republic (1952), on which Hersh had worked with Forrer and Haines. His two fundamental articles on overstrikes (widely used by Rudi Thomsen in his study of early Roman chronology) and on P. Crepusius still provide material for students. His other great passion, the coinage of Alexander the Great, also began in his early years at the British Museum.
        In 1953 Hersh left London. He appears to have considered a career as curator at the American Numismatic Society, a position for which he would have been amply qualified after his training at the British Museum. Instead he was offered a position at Manufacturers' Bank, which started his long and successful career as a banker. Until his retirement in 1989 he worked for Valley National, Bank Leumi, Chelsea National Bank and Republic National Bank.
        Hersh's scholarly interests are manifest in his numerous publications in numismatic journals. Perhaps as important for the academic community was his advice and extraordinary knowledge of his two special fields of interests – the coinage of the Roman republic and the coinages of the Macedonian kings. His contributions are noted in all major standard works of recent decades. Margaret Thompson's work on the drachm mints of Alexander the Great benefited from Charles' acute eye for die-links, which he generously shared with the author. The standard work on the coinage of Alexander the Great by his late friend Martin Price incorporates most of Hersh's rare coins of this series. On his 75th birthday in June 1998 Hersh was presented with a volume of essays in his honor, to which many of his friends and colleagues contributed to express their gratitude for the many years of generous friendship.
        Among his other interests were a love for early New Orleans jazz, football, and not least, as a true gentleman of the old school, Hersh enjoyed good food and wine. His dinner parties at the Savoy Hotel in London will be remembered fondly by his friends and fellow numismatists. He was a keen traveller and visited Europe regularly. His many friends in London, Italy, and Greece were always delighted to see him, and in his years of retirement he made many new friends, a number of whom were young numismatists. Many students of the ANS summer seminar will remember his invaluable help with projects on Greek and Roman coins. Hersh was a Life Fellow of the Society honored in 1997 on the occasion of his fiftieth anniversary as a member of the Society. He was a regular visitor to the coin room and a generous donor to the Society's coin collections and library. His knowledge, his sense of humor and his many stories about numismatics will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him.

New Members Welcomed

        At its meeting of January 16, 1999, the Society's Council elected 30 new Associate Members of the ANS. Those elected are:

Al C. Adams Jr., Alpharetta, GA
Louis Annino, Killingworth, CT
Stephen Bagnell, West End, NJ
Richard P. Bilak, Anchorage, AK
Lori D. Blankenship, Jacksonville, FL
Pedro A. Castillo, Key Biscayne, FL
Seth W. Chandler, New York, NY
Chaim Greenberg, Brooklyn, NY
Paul Harris, Minneapolis, MN
Gregg S. Havass, Coconut Creek, FL
Rick Hill, Irvine, CA
Shinji Hirano, Kasugai City, Aichi, Japan
James M. Hunnicutt, Kensington, MD
Yahya D. Jafar, Sharjah, UAE
Lowell Kane, Great Neck, NY
Ron Landis, Eureka Springs, AR
Michael McIvor, St. Petersburg, FL
Stephen Mulligan, Sydney, Australia
F. Lewis Orrell, Carefree, AZ
David D. Pearce DCM, Washington, DC
Gillian Pearson, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
David E. Pepe, Kingston, MA
William Pitt, Eureka, CA
Gary M. Romano, Las Vegas, NV
Robert L. Rubel, Dobbs Ferry, NY
Fred Rubenstein, Miami, FL
Stanley E. Stephens II, Morgantown, WV
Mark Sullivan, San Francisco, CA
Lance Tchor, Rifton, NY
Abbas M.A. Zaki, Cairo, Egypt

New Life Members
        At its January meeting, the Council recorded the following conversions to Life membership in the ANS:

Edward A. Allworth, New York, NY (Assoc. 1993)
John West Dannreuther, Memphis, TN (Assoc. 1979)
D. W. Holmes Jr., Cleveland, OH (Assoc. 1989)
John P. Huffman, Silver Spring, MD (Assoc. 1977; Fellow 1993)
James LaSarre, Greenwood, IN (Assoc. 1994)
Andrew E. Michyeta III, Riverside, IL (Assoc. 1989)
Scott A. Travers, New York, NY (Assoc. 1982)
Len Wechsler, Santa Monica, CA (Assoc. 1995)
        All ANS members have the option to convert to Life Membership by the one-time payment of $1,000. Life Associates and Life Fellows are excused from the payment of annual dues and are thus spared any increase in dues.

And an Honorary Life Member
        The Society's Council also conferred Honorary Life Membership on Dr. Robert Turfboer of Tarboro, NC.

Jeanne Stevens-Sollman Elected Life Fellow of the ANS
        Noted sculptor Jeanne Stevens-Sollman, of Bellefonte, PA, was elected a Life Fellow of the Society at the January Council meeting. Ms. Stevens-Sollman is the 1999 recipient of the Saltus Medal Award for "distinguished achievement in the art of the medal."

All are Welcome
        Associate membership in the ANS is open to all with an interest in numismatics. Members receive a range of benefits including the Society's annual journal, American Journal of Numismatics, and are informed about forthcoming events and opportunities through receipt of the quarterly ANSNewsletter and special mailings. An added benefit instituted in 1997 and continued during 1999 provides members the opportunity to receive a free subscription to the Colonial Newsletter, a journal devoted to the numismatic history of the United States in the pre-Federal period, which was donated to the ANS by the CNL Foundation as of last year. Three issues of CNL appear each year.
        Members are eligible to receive a special benefit during 1999. The useful and highly distinctive umbrella emblazoned with the ANS logo identifies you as a "rainy day" supporter of our Society. This attractive gift is available to all ANS members joining an ANS Circle in 1999. Sign up as a Bronze, Silver, Electrum, or Gold Circle Member and receive this unique gift in addition to the other benefits enjoyed by Circle Members.



Richard Witschonke Elected to Council

        Richard B. Witschonke, Vice President and Manager of the North American Financial Institutions Practice for American Management Systems, was elected a member of the Society's governing Council at its meeting of January 16. He will initially complete the unexpired term vacated by the death of Harry W. Bass, Jr. (Class of 1999). Mr. Witschonke, a member of the ANS since 1969, was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1993.
        Mr. Witschonke has been with AMS, a billion-dollar international information technology consulting firm, since 1972. He holds a Bachelors degree in English, Magna Cum Laude, from the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and an MBA, with high honors, from Harvard Business School. He has been an active collector and student of the coinage of the Roman Republic for 30 years. He has assisted many scholars in their work on this series, and recently edited the Charles Hersh Festchrift Volume, together with Ute Wartenberg of the ANS and Andrew Burnett of the British Museum. Now a Life Fellow of the ANS, he is also a Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society, and a member of the ANA, and the French, Italian, and Swiss Numismatic Societies.
        Mr. Witschonke resides in Palo Alto, California, with his 12 year old son Andrew.

ANS Circle Memberships

        It is a pleasure to record the names of ANS members who join or renew their memberships as Circle Members, thereby taking advantage of the tiered dues structure to enjoy increased benefits and discounts while providing much needed support for our organization.
        As an added incentive this year, the special ANS umbrella, bearing our distinctive logo, will be offered to all members who join a Circle for 1999.
        The Society expresses great appreciation to the following members who have joined the Gold, Electrum, Silver, and Bronze Circles through January 26, 1999:

Gold Circle ($1,000)
Martha Carter, Madison, WI
Kenneth L. Edlow, New York, NY
Sidney W. Harl, Glen Cove, NY
Arthur A. Houghton III, Washington, DC
Jonathan H. Kagan, New York, NY
Donald G. Partrick, Islandia, NY
Jonathan P. Rosen, New York, NY
Linda N. Schapiro, New York, NY
Richard B. Witschonke, Palo Alto, CA
George U. Wyper, Darien, CT

Electrum Circle ($500)
Mr. Robert Ronus, Los Angeles, CA

Silver Circle ($250)
Prof. Jere Bacharach, Seattle, WA
Mr. Tony Carlotto, Sheffield, MA
Mr. Robert E. Darley-Doran, Winchester, Great Britain
Mr. Jonathan K. Kern, Lexington, KY
Mr. Emmett McDonald, Islip, NY
Mr. John C. Pottage, Chicago, IL
Dr. Ellen D. Reeder, Baltimore, MD
Dr. Ira Rezak, Stony Brook, NY
Prof. James H. Schwartz, New York, NY
Mr. Albert J. Zaloom, Norwood, NJ

Bronze Circle ($100)
Edward A. Allworth, New York, NY
Robert G. Bagnall, Washington, DC
Bruce D. Bartelt, Thiensville, WI
Allen Berk, New York, NY
James R. Briggs, Redlands, CA
Richard Brilliant, Scarsdale, NY
Donald W. Edlow, Owings Mills, MD
Brian Lewis Edlow, New York, NY
Ellis Edlow, Pompano Beach, FL
Raphael Ellenbogen, Upper Arlington, OH
J. Eric Engstrom, Wichita, KS
William L. Esposito, Bayshore, NY
T. R. Fehrenbach, San Antonio, TX
William R. Fielder, Atherton, CA
David L. Ganz, New York, NY
Peter P. Gaspar, St. Louis, MO
David D. Gladfelter, Moorestown, NJ
Cynthia M. Harrison, Bryn Mawr, PA
Raymond Huckles, Williamsville, NY
Roger Kahles, Eastmeadow, Long Island, NY
Omar S. Khudari, Cambridge, MA
Daniel L. Koppersmith, Houston, TX
Richard Gordon McAlee, Crofton, MD
Marvin M. McNeil, Woodland Hills, CA
Richard P. Miller, Troy, MI
Roger Addison Moore, Moorestown, NJ
Alan W. Pense, Bethlehem, PA
Elwood Rafn, St. Paul, MN
T. D. Rao, Hollis, NH
Carol F. Ross, New Haven, CT
Robert L. Rubel, Dobbs Ferry, NY
Rudy L. Ruggles Jr., Ridgefield, CT
Faith Ford Sandstrom, Coconut Grove, Miami, FL
John Paul Sarosi, Johnstown, PA
C. Barry Schaefer, Greenwich, CT
Richard C. Striley, Buena Park, CA
David E. Tripp, Stuyvesant, NY
Paul Peter Urone, Citrus Heights, CA
Beth G. Weingast, New Rochelle, NY
Douglas A. Winter, Dallas, TX
Abbas M.A. Zaki, Cairo, Egypt
Randolph Zander, Alexandria, VA

New Membership Campaign

        As we plan for the future of the Society and the many new activities that will be taking place when we are in our new home at 140 William Street, we look forward to attracting new members. The Society has so much to offer and we are adding programs constantly.
        Watch the mail! 1999 is the kick-off for an ANS membership drive. Do you know someone who might enjoy what the Society has to offer? We thank you for suggesting membership to your friends and we can assure them that we will do everything to make them welcome members of the Society.

ANS Photography in New Era

        The ANS maintains a Photography Department specializing in numismatic (macro) photography. In addition to supplying images for Society-sponsored projects, the Department accepts orders from members and the genral public for photography of objects in the Society's collection.
        Beginning in 1999, the Department will employ a new technology in filling requests. Customers may order color slides, grayscale (black & white) prints from scans or TIFF image files of coins and related objects. A revised "Photographic Services" flyer is available describing these processes and providing a new rate schedule for ordering work from the Department. As in the past, ANS Circle Members enjoy a 10% discount on all photography orders.

ANS Winter-Spring Calendar


February 18-20 Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe. Conference on Material Culture and Cultural Materialisms. Alan Stahl to speak on "The Mint in the Life of Medieval Venice"
  27 1:30 (Public Invited): ANS Day of the Etruscans, in cooperation with the Etruscan Foundation. Program of talks; special exhibits
March 2 Deadline for applications for ANS Graduate Seminar, Fellowships
  13 12:30: Meeting of ANS Council 3:00 (Public Invited): Huntington Award Meeting honoring John S. Davenport. John M. Kleeberg, ANS Curator of Modern Coins and Currency, will deliver the Margaret Thompson Memorial Lecture on "Coin Debasement and Countermarks: the Silver Gulden of Germany's 'Klein Kipper- und Wipper-Zeit,' 1667-1693"
  20 Meeting of the American Medallic Sculpture Association at the Pen and Brush Club, 16 E. 10th St., 2 p.m. Stephen K. Scher to speak on "Hunting the Wild Aftercast: Confessions of a Medal Collector"
April 1 ANS Graduate Seminar, Class of 1999 announced; ANS Fellowship recipient announced
  10 3:00 (Public Invited): Groves Forum featuring Michael Hodder speaking on "Western American Assay Bars Revisited"
  13 Alan Stahl to deliver the Loew Lecture, The Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, "The Mint of Venice in the Middle Ages" (see article, inside)
  15-20 Opening of the Islamic Arts Museum, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Michael Bates to speak on "The Origins of Islamic Coinage"
  20 Opening of MMA new Greek Galleries featuring ANS coins
  24 Crusader Coinage Symposium, Medieval History Dept., Tulane University, New Orleans, LA; Michael Bates and Alan Stahl to speak
  29-1 ACLS Annual Meeting, Philadelphia; ANS Delegate–Roger A. Hornsby; CAO Representative–Leslie A. Elam
May 4 Carmen Arnold-Biucchi to speak at MMA's Uris Auditorium, 4:00 PM, on "Masterpieces in Miniature: The Art of Ancient Greek Coins"
  7-10 Thirty-fourth International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University. ANS to sponsor session and hold reception for members, alumni, and friends (see article, inside)
  15 3:00 (Public Invited): Inaugural Krause-Mishler World Coins Forum; Sewell H. Menzel to speak on Spanish colonial coins