Chicago Mayor Proclaims August 13 “Chicago Coin Club Day”

In a press release we received from the Chicago Coin Club, we learned that Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot issued a Proclamation announcing August 13, 2019 as “Chicago Coin Club Day” in honor of the Chicago Coin Clubs 100th anniversary in 2019.

Their anniversary celebration began in January 2019 with their 1200th meeting and has continued with several additional events leading up to a celebratory banquet on August 13, 2019 during the American Numismatic Association (A.N.A.) national convention, The World’s Fair of Money®, to be held August 13 – 17, 2019 in Rosemont, Illinois.

State of Illinois Representative John C. D’Amico has also introduced house resolution 474 acknowledging and celebrating the occasion of the Chicago Coin Club's 100th Anniversary which his 15th legislative district is part of. H.R.474 is anticipated to be passed and signed during the September session.

Founded in 1919 the Chicago Coin Club "celebrates and promotes the collection, study and education of Coins, Paper Money, Tokens Literature and other objects related to Numismatics and Exonumia." Meeting consistently since their founding in 1919 the Chicago Coin Club evolved out of a group of Chicago individuals who were previously members of The Chicago Numismatic Society (1903) and the A.N.A. Branch Club #1 (1912) both of which no longer are active.

The Chicago Coin Club held their first meeting on Feb. 14, 1919 with 15 individuals in attendance and 8 exhibits of various coins which members shared to educate the others on their collections. Since that meeting in February 1919 the Chicago Coin Club has prospered and continued to meet celebrating numismatics in all aspects. The Chicago Coin Club named itself a non-profit organization on Jan. 19, 1938 and adopted a new seal to reflect this change. This is the same seal in use today which shows the vertically interlocking initials of the Club, "CCC;" appearing above is "ORGANIZED 1919" and below "INCORPORATED 1938." Beneath are two laurel branches. Surrounding this and around the top edge is "CHICAGO COIN CLUB." In the exergue is the Latin motto DOCENDO DISCIMUS (“We Learn By Teaching”). This motto is celebrated at each club meeting with educational presentations, club member trip reports and members show-and-tell of items from their personal collections or new acquisitions just as was done at that first meeting.

Over the past 100 years, the Chicago Coin Club has been the host club for many A.N.A. national conventions held in Chicago and is proud to have its members become officers of the A.N.A. and regional numismatic associations. The Chicago club will once again be the host club for the 2019 ANA World’s Fair of Money® held in Rosemont IL in August. A celebratory 100th anniversary banquet will round out the week’s convention activities on August 13 which Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot has proclaimed as “Chicago Coin Club Day.”

The Club has issued many series of medals for both educational speakers as well as commemorative pieces for key anniversary meetings and events. Many of these pieces can be seen in the book Medals and Tokens of the Chicago Coin Club 2018 which covers the club history in text format through its exonumia. The club is proud to have created a new Hall of Fame to honor some of the prominent numismatists among its ranks over the past century as seen in issues of Numismatic News.

For one hundred years the Chicago Coin Club stands by its objective “To pursue numismatic knowledge through the study and research of coins, currency, medals, tokens, and other related items and the sharing of this information through monthly meetings, dialogue, and the publication of literature.” Individuals interested in joining the Chicago Coin Club may attend its open meeting Saturday August 17, 2019 at the Donald E Stevenson Convention center in Rosemont or find further membership information on the clubs website www.chicagocoinclub.org