Congress Report

An Afterword

As my voice was giving out by the end of the Congress, I’m afraid my closing remarks were less audible than they should have been. I feel it is appropriate to express my gratitude to all those who participated and give proper credit where it is due.

The Speakers

Firstly, I must commend the speakers on maintaining an exemplary standard throughout. The presentations were professional and the content both informative and entertaining. Chris Barker’s Royal Mint Museum Lecture on Friday evening could not have been more contemporary and set a high standard for the rest of the speakers. Saturday morning was dedicated to the Congress’s theme of Facsimiles, Fakes and Forgeries though it was rather a surprise for the organisers to learn that a theme was innovative! Adrian Marsden was anything but ‘Boring, Barbarous and Base’ in his polished presentation of ‘irregular radiates’. This was followed by the Linecar Memorial Lecture on tetrarchic nummi given by Vincent Drost and wisely illustrated with specimens of the coins of several audience members.

The CNG Lecture, by Tony Abramson, demonstrated the enduring, if transforming, influence of some of the Roman designs discussed in the previous two papers. In the final paper of the morning session, William MacKay skilfully distinguished Viking imitations of the London monogram coinage of Alfred from the authentic West Saxon models, and gave a glimpse of his forthcoming comprehensive die-study of this glamorous series.

Sunday morning’s lectures expanded the theme to cover token and obsidional coinage. Phil Mernick delivered the UK Numismatic Trust Lecture on ‘Medieval Jettons used in Britain’ showing how and why the sources changed over time. Tristan Griffin, with a background in military history, gave a commanding exposition of how much can be gained from an interdisciplinary approach, in his numismatic history of the Civil War in Yorkshire. Similarly, a different and illuminating perspective on the social history of C17th York was given by Melinda Mays’ eloquence on the fascinating topic of commercial tokens. The conference closed with Chris Comber’s lecture, generously sponsored by Baldwin’s of St James’s, on the Irish Harp coinage of Henry VIII, where extreme rarity compensates for any deficiency in execution. Phil and Chris demonstrated the numismatic advances to be won through dedicated specialisation.

We are also grateful to the session chairs, Tony Abramson, Andy Woods and Martin Allen for maintaining the tempo.

Sponsors

The Congress would not be viable without the financial support of a small number of community-minded sponsors. The Royal Mint Museum, UK Numismatic Trust, British Numismatic Trade Association, British and Royal Numismatic Societies constitute the institutional backers where the Congress fulfils their remit. But we must never take for granted support from commercial organisations who recognise a sensible investment in their client base. Were there more with this vision. Our sincere thanks go to Dix Noonan Webb and Classical Numismatic Group.  Particular gratitude is due to both Stephen Fenton of Baldwin’s of St James’s and Stephen Mitchell of Studio Coins for responding unstintingly to our requests for support. Last and far from least, we toast Mark’s Rasmussen’s sponsorship of the banquet wine!

Mention must also be made of donors to the raffle and auction, notably Coin News, Lee Toone, and Stephen Mitchell.

Organisers

We benefitted from the experience of the central committee and previous organisers – particularly Peter Preston-Morley, Chris Comber, Tony Gilbert and Bob Thomas. Thanks to Roger Barrett’s technical competence, we made good use of some of the audio-visual equipment that Colchester purchased out of the surplus from the last Congress. Disappointingly, we have also absorbed the remainder of Colchester’s surplus.

Of the local organisers, the highly professional brochure was assembled by Lee Toone, with contributions from Andy Woods and Tony Abramson, and produced by Press Green of York. The programme was assembled by Andy. Tony looked after administration and accounting.

"The full colour programme is outstanding and is an excellent advertisement for BANS as well as this particular event."

Thanks are also due to Amanda Grobelna and her colleagues at the Crown Hotel and Katy O’Malley of Ripon Museums for ensuring that arrangements ran smoothly.

Finally, two highlights of the weekend were the mock trial, allegedly scripted by Tony, when Mike Roberts and Adrian Bailey manfully rose to their roles of hero and villain respectively, and the auction, where Peter Preston-Morley’s majestic command was a both a delightful spectacle and financial success.

Outcomes

Having expended some effort on making arrangements, the organisers thought it may be sensible to ascertain whether participants approved and what can be learned for future events.

" ..... thanks very much indeed to you and your team for hosting a splendid Congress, very well done, a relaxed occasion encompassing innovation and a lack of formality, all in excellent company, so congratulations all round!"

About half the delegates obliged by submitting feedback, and approval ratings were as follows:

Saturday excursion	97.6%
Value for money	95.8%
The brochure	95.0%
Quality and timing of communications from YNS	94.2%
Clarity of booking arrangements and cost information	93.3%
Quality of original information on the venue for the Congress	92.5%
Hotel service	89.2%
Hotel ambience	87.8%
Hotel cuisine	85.8%
Accommodation	85.5%
The variety and quality of the lecture programme	85.8%
The raffle & auction	82.9%
Parking arrangements in view of the limited space at the hotel	75.4%

These ratings are most gratifying. Were this your school report, I suspect you might be rather proud of it. But let’s not get carried away there is always room for improvement. Among the suggestions for improvement included that we use a roving microphone during post-lecture questions and increasing the number of raffle prizes. Would there have been a rating for the weather, I suspect we would have scored 110%, although some complained that we did not include a warning to bring sun tan lotion!

Thanks to Ronan Fitzpatrick for this image.

"Good hotel, good company, good programme, and good weather – what more could a bunch of numismatists want?"

And finally, something just for you…

Cunningly hidden somewhere in this YNS blog is an accurate transcription of the disreputable "Eyup!" message welcoming delegates - as opposed to the paraphrased version given in the brochure! The first three people to copy the last line to Tony at t.abramson@ntlworld.com win free membership of YNS from now to the end of 2017! The annual fee is usually £15. T&C apply.

Tony Abramson
President of the Yorkshire Numismatic Society