Pick someone for Ambassador Award

Numismatic Ambassador Award nominations have been opened by the Florida United Numismatists. The hunt now begins for the next annual class of recipients to be recognized Jan. 5, 2018, at the Ambassador breakfast at the FUN convention in Tampa.

Do you know someone who deserves the honor? He or she likely will be sitting next to you at the next club meeting, or coin show educational forum.

Since it was created in 1974, the Numismatic Ambassador Award has been given to individuals who have distinguished themselves as volunteers. Recipients are often the unsung individuals who make sure bourse tables are correctly set up at local shows across the nation, or the coffee pot is kept full at the annual show and tell club meeting.

Volunteers run the gamut of familiar hobby activists. They might be educational speakers at a monthly meeting or educational forum. They might be exhibitors who painstakingly arrange numismatic material in glass-topped coin cases. They could be the individuals who judge the exhibits.

How about an editor of the club newsletter, or the dependable writer of most of the articles in it?

The long-serving secretary, treasurer, or bourse chairman also are deserving of the award.

There might be a club president out there whose first term has turned into 20 years because no one else wanted the job.

These are the kind of people FUN is looking for from across the 50 states.

The Numismatic Ambassador Award is a national honor. It is not confined to people in the State of Florida. It just so happens the FUN organization stepped forward to keep this award alive and thriving when Numismatic News could not longer do so.

This is the third award cycle conducted by FUN under the guiding hand of Tony Swicer.

To assist you in making your nomination, FUN has provided a handy nomination form (CLICK HERE for the PDF version). You can fill this out by hand and mail it to Tony, or simply use it as a guide to write him an email.

It really is that simple. Chances are, you know enough about an intended nominee to write it from memory. If not, enlist your hobby friends in coming up with the pertinent information.

We do not say thank you often enough in this world. There is nothing like being given this award to put a spring in a volunteer’s step. They don’t do it for money. They don’t do it for fame. But a formal “atta boy” for long years of service is a great way to demonstrate how much we all appreciate what they have done for us.

Deadline is Sept. 1. Tony will then take all the nominations and prepare a ballot to be sent to all current holders of the award. They will then vote on the next group of winners.

It will be my privilege to give the award plaques to those who have been selected. I have done this for many years and it is a high point in the numismatic calendar for me. Get your nomination started!

More Collecting Resources

• The 1800s were a time of change for many, including in coin production. See how coin designs grew during the time period in the Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900 .

• With nearly 24,000 listings and over 14,000 illustrations, the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Modern Issues is your go-to guide for modern bank notes.