NumismaTalks: ANA eLearning Academy Webinars

John Adams – Medals, Money, and Diplomacy
July 24, 2025, 12pm MT

This presentation will explore John Adams’ challenging diplomatic efforts prior to his attaining the Vice-Presidency, Continental currency’s foreign-relations impact, and the foreign medals issued honoring both America’s hard-won freedom, and Adams’ unwavering persistence.

Jeff Pritchard is a lifelong numismatist and retired financial planner. He has authored numerous articles and books on both personal finance and numismatics. Jeff has done prior presentations for NumismaTalks as well as for the American Numismatic Society, and Newman Numismatic Symposiums. He is a member of the ANA, the American Numismatic Society, Liberty Seated Collectors Club, Pacific Coast Numismatic Society, and the Seattle Coin Club.

The Heads & Tails of Birth-Year Collecting
August 14, 2025, 2025, 12pm MT

This presentation will highlight the challenges and rewards of birth-year collecting. It is based on Peter's experience researching and building a collection of 1963 world coins and commemorative medals. It highlights events of the time, including the JFK assassination, the space race, the Civil War centennial, the death of Pope John XXIII, and the Civil Rights Movement. It also features an interesting commemorative series of the time from Mexico, Venezuela, Germany, and the USA. It will discuss how to determine what coins and medals were issued by or minted in a specific country in a given year. It will also identify various sources of the coins and medals, how you might display them, photograph and catalog them, and put parameters on your collection.

Peter Lawrence spent 35 years managing technology products for companies including Planar, Canon, and Autodesk. Today, he is a small business consultant living in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was born in Portland, Oregon, where his family was in the saddle and holster manufacturing business from 1857 to 1985. He studied business at Oregon State University and then received a master’s degree from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, Arizona. Peter is a musician, world traveler, and coin collector. His current focus is a 1963 birth-year collection of world coins and commemorative medals. Peter is a veteran public speaker and has delivered hundreds of continuing education presentations to architects, engineers, and technology consultants throughout his career. His sessions are always filled with entertaining stories, colorful anecdotes, and humor.

Collecting Confederate Paper Money
August 28, 2025, 12pm MT

This presentation will discuss what Confederate money was, how it came about, and the various types across the 7 issues. It will include many pictures of notes, people, and books, explanations of various types, and what varieties are. Military issuers and contemporary counterfeits will be discussed. Modern fakes will also be covered, and how easy they are to tell from the genuine article.

Pierre Fricke is a well-known collector, dealer, and author of Civil War paper money and early American coppers. He has been a dealer for over 20 years and a collector for over 50 years. Pierre is the author of the standard catalog for Confederate paper money - Collecting Confederate Paper Money, and several other books. He was a past president of the Society of Paper Money Collectors. Member of the ANA, Early American Coppers (EAC), Professional Numismatist Guild (PNG), Professional Currency Dealers Assoc (PCDA), and many more.

The Fabulous $10 Million Saddleback Ridge Gold Coin Hoard
September 11, 2025, 2025, 12pm MT

This presentation describes the February, 2013 discovery of 1,427 buried gold coins in California, by a couple walking their dog through their wooded property. Containing (mostly $20 Liberty) gold coins dated from 1847-1894, this "buried treasure" realized over $9 million for its finders, and is the most valuable land-buried gold coin hoard ever found in the United States.

Robert "Bob" Bair has been involved in numismatics since 1956, first as a collector, then as a coin dealer starting in 1987. As a boy growing up in northwestern Wisconsin in the 1950's he began collection coins that he received from his newspaper route, and a lifelong passion was born. Bair holds masters degrees in U.S. History (1970) and Educational Administration (1994)

Medieval European Coinage; The Fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Rise of the Carolingian Empire
September 25, 2025, 2025, 12pm MT

This talk is about the first half of the Middle Ages from the traditional date of the fall of Rome in 476 AD to the beginning of the Carolingian Empire during the 9th century AD.

Douglas Mudd is the Curator / Director of the American Numismatic Association’s Edward C. Rochette Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is responsible for developing, planning, and content of the museum’s exhibition program and the organization and care of the ANA collections. He has created dozens of numismatic exhibits for the museum and for the ANA’s semi-annual conventions. His recent work has expanded the museum's exhibits into the virtual world of the internet including Trenches to Treaties: World War I in Remembrance and Money of Empire: Elizabeth to Elizabeth.