Alabama Coin Dealers Honored With Diane Piret Service Award
By Industry Council for Tangible Assets ……
Industry Council for Tangible Assets (ICTA) dealer-members Phil Darby (J&P Coins and Currency, Helena, Alabama) and Steve Caiola (Alabama Gold Refiner, Homewood, Alabama) were honored during the ICTA dinner and update at FishBones, Orlando, Florida, on January 9 as the recipients of the 2018 Diane Piret Memorial Outstanding Service Award.
In the fall of 2016, Darby and Caiola began collaborating with ICTA on a campaign to obtain a state coin, currency, and precious-metals bullion sales-tax exemption. Both hired Graham Champion (Public Strategies, Montgomery, Alabama) as the campaign’s lobbyist. They also paid 100% of ICTA’s expenses in aiding the campaign.
Darby, Caiola, Champion, ICTA treasurer Pat Heller, ICTA chief operating officer David Crenshaw, and others worked tirelessly to get the legislation enacted. Last February, the bill unanimously passed in both the House and Senate, and the governor signed the bill the following month. On June 1, 2018, the law became effective.
“The ICTA partnership, along with lobbyist Graham Champion, was invaluable to the success of our efforts,” said Darby. “The team effort everyone displayed is an example of how ICTA members working together can accomplish the passage of such legislation.”
About ICTA
Industry Council for Tangible Assets (ICTA) is a 501(c)(6) non-profit association that represents the rare-coin, currency, and precious-metals communities. ICTA is supported solely by dues and donations. The Diane Piret Memorial Outstanding Service Award commemorates the 25-year ICTA career of the organization’s industry affairs director, who died in 2015. To join and/or learn more about ICTA, visit ictaonline.org.
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Dustin Johnston Promoted to Currency VP at Heritage Auctions
By Heritage Auctions ……
Currency expert boasts decades of experience in currency industry, professional organizations
Heritage Auctions has announced that Dustin Johnston has been promoted to Vice President of Currency.
Now in his 20th year at Heritage Auctions, Johnston has been active in just about every aspect of the business. Most recently, as Director of the Heritage Auctions Currency department, Johnston oversaw all aspects of the department, including consignment acquisitions, purchasing, catalogs and inventory management.
“Dustin is an accomplished expert who is universally admired and respected throughout the Currency collecting community,” Heritage Auctions Co-Chairman Jim Halperin said. “His knowledge and expertise are the results of exceptional talent and energy combined with his long-term, sharply focused involvement in all aspects of collecting, including roles in prominent currency collecting professional organizations.”
Prior to his arrival at Heritage Auctions in 1998, Johnston was a very active numismatist. He picked up collecting at the age of 10, and by high school, he was attending national conventions and actively buying and selling coins and currency. He also promoted the hobby, won literary and exhibiting awards from the American Numismatic Association (ANA), and served as an Exhibit Judge and Numismatic Theater Speaker at the ANA’s National Money Shows.
A decorated currency collecting expert, Johnston is a member of the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG), the ANA, the International Bank Note Society (IBNS), the Society of Paper Money Collectors (SPMC) and is Vice President for the Professional Currency Dealers Association (PCDA).
