On Friday, May 3, 2019, at the Early American Coppers (EAC) Convention in Dayton, Ohio, the EAC and the American Numismatic Society (ANS) will host a get-together to allow the many friends and colleagues of the late Del Bland to remember, celebrate, and honor this extraordinary man.
He passed away on October 16, 2018.
Delmar Norris Bland, born in 1933, first became interested in coins around the age of 17, filling slots of Whitman albums from rolls he got at the bank. Before long he was laying out what was for him real money for the coins he most wanted—among them the United States large cents that would demand his attention for the rest of his life.
Del became a full-time coin dealer in 1969, specializing in early US copper coins. Four years later he began serious research into those coins, a pursuit that more than a quarter century later, in 2000, led to the publication of the widely respected provenance and condition census published in Walter Breen’s Encyclopedia of Early United States Cents, 1793-1814. It included over 4,000 coins and more than 25,000 individual entries.
Several months prior to his death, the ANS purchased Del’s vast archive of research data, compiled over 50 years with meticulous information on the condition, sale prices, and ownership of large cents. This huge, largely unpublished reference work weighs over 900 pounds and occupies 40 feet of shelf space. The Society is deeply grateful to members whose contributions made this purchase possible.
The EAC Convention will be held from Thursday, May 2, to Sunday, May 5, 2019. The memorial will be held in the evening of Friday, May 3, and ANS Librarian David Hill will be among the speakers. Additional details will be made available soon. For more information on the convention contact Convention Chairman Jack Young ([email protected]); Dayton Convention Center (DCC) 22 E. Fifth Street Dayton OH 45402; (937) 333-4700 / (937) 333-4711.
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About the ANS
The American Numismatic Society (ANS), organized in 1858 and incorporated in 1865 in New York State, operates as a research museum under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is recognized as a publicly supported organization under section 170(b)(1)(A (vi) as confirmed on November 1, 1970.
Wanting to see what my pine tree shipping is worth