Two hundred limited-edition copies of Paper Money of the United States, 19th Edition, numbered and signed by co-authors Arthur L. Friedberg and Ira S. Friedberg, will be available for purchase at the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money in Boston. The books are $80 (tax included) and will be available August 12-14 in the ANA Museum Showcase on the bourse floor. Proceeds will benefit the ANA Edward C. Rochette Money Museum.

These special hardcover copies are part of the release of the book’s new 19th edition, and include an attractive dust jacket with gold foil lettering. The cover features the image of an 1863 $100 Legal Tender note from the ANA Bebee Collection of U.S. Paper Money. Many other photographs of notes from the Bebee Collection are used throughout the book.

First offering will be to convention attendees on a first-come, first serve basis. A silent auction for the first three numbered copies will be held, with a minimum bid of $80 for each copy. The auction will be at the ANA Museum Showcase, and will begin Aug. 12 at 9:30 a.m. and end Aug. 14 at 3 p.m. Attendees wishing to purchase a specific-numbered copy can e-mail museum@money.org before the show to request a number for an additional $15.

Co-author Arthur L. Friedberg will be available at the Museum Showcase Aug. 12 at 2 p.m. and Aug. 13 and 14 at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. for one-hour sessions to provide personalized autographs and discuss the book. Purchases and bids can only be made by convention attendees, but those not attending may enlist an agent to make bids on their behalf.

Paper Money of the United States is the premier reference book for United States paper currency. Originally authored in 1953 by Robert Friedberg, Arthur and Ira’s father, the book illustrates, catalogs, describes and places values on all U. S. paper money from 1861 to the present. The Friedberg numbering system is the method used by numismatists to identify and describe notes.

The World’s Fair of Money, held this year at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, is the nation’s premiere money show. Show hours are 1-5:30 p.m. August 10, and 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. August 11-14. Dealer set-up is from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, August 10. Admission is $6 for adults, and free for ANA members and children 12 and under. For more information on all of the show highlights, call 719-482-9857 or visit www.worldsfairofmoney.com.

The American Numismatic Association has named Rick Snow its 2010 Numismatist of the Year. Snow will receive his award on August 13 during the Awards Reception at the ANA World’s Fair of Money in Boston.

President of Eagle Eye Rare Coins in Tucson since 1992, Richard “Rick” Snow started collecting in 1972, focusing on large cents and colonial coinage. In 1977 he attended his first ANA Summer Seminar, where he took the “Counterfeit Detection” course. He sold most of his collection during the mid-1980s while drifting through Tennessee and Mississippi looking for work.

Snow moved to Tucson to live with his sister and started to renew his collection. His knowledge of coins and ANA life membership got him a job at Allstate Coin Company in Tucson in 1986.

His experiences there and interaction with other hobby professionals allowed Snow to gather the information he needed to write his first book, Flying Eagle and Indian Cents. To make time to promote the book, Snow left Allstate and became an independent coin dealer.

As one of the few specialists in the hobby, Snow sells $2 to $3 million in cents annually. He also continues to write award-winning reference books on his favorite subjects – Flying Eagle and Indian Head cents – and writes and edits Longacre’s Ledger, the official journal of the Fly-In Club, which he co-founded. Snow is preparing to launch his new business, GreatCoins.com, an Internet auction company geared toward honest practices and consumer protection.

He is a 2007 recipient of the ANA’s Glenn Smedley Memorial Award.

The American Numismatic Association is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to encouraging people to study and collect money and related items.

The Maynard Sundman/Littleton Coin Company Lecture Series will be presented August 12 during the American Numismatic Association’s 2010 World’s Fair of Money at the Hynes Convention in Boston. This annual series features new scholarship on a numismatic topic; the topic this year is “New England Numismatics and Numismatists: Then and Now.”

The lectures will take place in Room 209, and are free and open to all attending the show. A luncheon will be held Aug. 12 from 12:15-1:45 p.m. in Room 204, near the lecture area. Attendees may choose from Chicken Roulade, New York Sirloin or a vegetarian option. The luncheon is $10 per person, and is underwritten by the Maynard Sundman Littleton Coin Co. Lecture Series Endowment and David Sundman. To register for the luncheon call 719-482-9857 (pre-registration required).

Below is the lecture schedule for the 2010 Sundman/Littleton Coin Co. Lecture Series:

10 a.m.: “Colonel Edward H.R. Green: Collector Extraordinaire”

Peter Huntoon is a renowned numismatic researcher, author and instructor

Born into a wealthy Bedford, Mass., whaling family, Edward H.R. (“Ned”) Green had an eccentric and miserly mother, Hetty. After her death, he took his half of her fortune and became a famous philatelic and numismatic collector, acquiring anything and everything in his sights, including all five 1913 Liberty Head nickels.

11:15 a.m.: “It May Prove a Drugg in Time: The Rise and Fall of Wampum in 17th-Century Massachusetts”

Max Spiegel is a prolific author and former ANA Young Numismatist of the Year

For three decades, wampum circulated alongside gold and silver coins in Massachusetts Bay. Its widespread use in the colony arose from both necessity and a desire for quick profits from the fur trade. Governor William Bradford’s warning turned out to be a remarkably

accurate prediction, and wampum’s rapid rise was followed by its sudden fall and disappearance.

2 p.m.: “Making Money in Massachusetts”

Richard Doty is a curator with the Smithsonian Institution’s Division of Political History

Colonists found ways to obtain metal and produce coins without attracting the attention of the British. Massachusetts also got into issuing paper currency, and in the process found it was a fragile medium subject to alteration and counterfeiting. In response, Jacob Perkins of Newburyport invented siderography (the art and practice of steel engraving) and steel-plate printing, making safe money available in abundant quantity to a growing nation. (more…)