Plans for a museum in Washington, D.C., and the fund-raising effort that went with it have been abandoned by the American Numismatic Association board of governors.
?At this point in time we can?t make the financial commitment to raise over $20 million that would be needed for the Washington project. When the association?s finances allow us to do so, we may revisit this proposal in the future,? explained Barry Stuppler, ANA President, after an Oct. 2 unanimous telephone vote of the board.
Two other museum projects, an expansion of the ANA headquarters museum in Colorado Springs, Colo., and a new one in the Old San Francisco Mint, were to be addressed at an Oct. 15-16 board meeting.
The San Francisco effort to establish a American Money and Gold Rush Museum is a project undertaken in conjunction with a San Francisco Historical Society?s renovation project of the Old Mint building.
Under current projections, once completed in 2011, the Old Mint would house the Museum of San Francisco and the Bay Area, the American Money Museum, a proposed new location for the San Francisco Visitors Information Center, a museum store and several dining and retail venues and rental space for events and cultural festivals.
The cost to all parties involved in the project is projected at $38 million.
