NumismaTalks: ANA eLearning Academy Webinars

Japanese American Internment Camp Money from WWII
September 10, 2026, 12 p.m. MT

Ray will share both numismatics and exonumia from the Japanese American Internment Camps during WWII. The talk will go through the history and describe how the internees put lives together while behind barbed wire. Highlights include special coupons, co-op money, event tickets, special tokens, and more. She will also share how she and her father researched this area.

Ray Feller is Associate Dean and Director of Student Support Services at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her interest in numismatics began because she wanted an excuse to go on adventures with her father, Steve. As a child, she began the quarterly column “Rachel Notes” in the International Bank Note Society Journal. The column ran from when she was in elementary school until she was in graduate school. Ray wrote her undergraduate thesis on camp money and her doctoral dissertation on how collecting can help people process traumatic experiences. She very much enjoys research and is especially focused on money used during World War II. She and her late father wrote a book on civilian camp money, Silent Witnesses: Civilian Camp Money of World War II, published by BNR Press in 2007. They also co-wrote articles, gave dozens of presentations, and ran the educational portion of the annual MPC Fest (an annual meeting for collectors of military currency and related objects). Ray is continuing these efforts and has been including her children for a third generation of numismatists. Alongside camp money, Ray collects short snorters and other notes with stories.

The Lost Mint of Manhattan: Rediscovering New York's Forgotten Branch Mint
September 24, 2026, 12 p.m. MT

Every collector knows the story of America's eight United States Mints, but few realize that a ninth mint nearly joined their ranks. During the mid-nineteenth century, as New York emerged as the nation's financial capital, federal officials, Treasury administrators, and members of Congress spent more than a decade studying and debating the establishment of a United States Branch Mint in New York City.

Long overlooked by both historians and numismatists, this remarkable chapter of American coinage history was rediscovered through archival research conducted using primary-source government documents, Treasury correspondence, and congressional records. What began as a chance encounter with a forgotten report soon revealed a complex story of politics, commerce, bullion deposits, and competing regional interests at a pivotal moment in American history.

Join researcher and author Russ Bega as he traces the rise, development, and ultimate disappearance of New York's proposed branch mint. Through contemporary documents and newly uncovered evidence, attendees will explore one of the most fascinating "what if" stories in American numismatics and discover how close New York came to receiving its own mint mark.

Russ Bega began collecting U.S. coins when he was 8 years old after a trip to his local coin shop in Northern Colorado. He was previously employed by Heritage Auction Galleries, before departing on a decade-long career as a US Army Infantry Non-Commissioned Officer. In 2021, he joined the Harlan J. Berk team in Chicago, IL, where he is now the store manager. His specialty is Liberty Seated coins and 19th-century numismatics.