Silver dollar gets its due at FUN

I had a telephone call last week from John Highfill.

The Broken Arrow, Okla., dealer is the founder of the National Silver Dollar Roundtable.

He wanted to give me details of the 2017 celebration of the organization’s 35th anniversary.

It will be held Jan. 6 at the Florida United Numismatists convention in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The organization for years has had a wonderful awards dinner held in conjunction with the FUN show.

With such a significant anniversary, the NSDR is going all out. It will hold a riverboat cruise.

I plan to be there.

The main reason I will be there, of course, is to help celebrate with the NSDR members.

They have accomplished much. They deserve to make note of this together in a festive and relaxing atmosphere.

I imagine they are like me in that they wonder where all those years went.

It seems like yesterday when we were meeting for breakfast at the National Silver Dollar Show in St. Louis.

Past presidents will be given gavels.

Secretary Marlene Highfill will be honored for 25 years of service.

Randy Campbell will be honored for being the emcee of the dinner for 25 years. His mixture of personal warmth, humor and facts has made each dinner delightful.

It doesn’t hurt that the crowd that gathers has the same profound devotion to the silver dollar that Randy has.

The NSDR Lifetime Achievement Award will be renamed the John W. Highfill Lifetime Achievement Award.

That’s fitting.

Founding NSDR and helping nurture it all these years is quite an achievement. And after 35 years, it is not overstating it when I say that it has been John’s work of a lifetime.

All those who love the silver dollar owe a great debt to him.

In Fort Lauderdale, this debt will be acknowledged.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper has twice won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

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