Whitman Brands Attending The Royal Numismatic Society Of New Zealand International Conference

More than 140 collectors of banknotes, coins, and medals are currently attending the fourth international conference put on by the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand in the capital, Wellington, from 11-14 October 2024. 

The event opened with a bus tour of several Wellington museums where guests were treated to private showings of special items from their collections. The New Zealand Police Museum in nearby Porirua displayed counterfeit cash from Operation Bula, as well as crude moulds for making fake coins, and bravery medals awarded to officers. The fantastic national museum, Te Papa, allowed attendees to get up-close views of many rarities from their numismatic collections, and interact directly with curators eager to share their knowledge. The tour ended at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, which closed its public museum so that attendees could peruse rarities including unadopted note designs and a Bradbury, Wilkinson & Company salesmen specimen book brought out of the bank’s archives.

The first day concluded with a cocktail function at the swanky private Wellington Club, where several authors introduced their recently published books. Whitman Brand’s product manager Owen Linzmayer received a warm reception for the New Zealand chapter of The Banknote Book, extensively revised with the addition of coverage of early trading bank issues thanks to the help of many society members. Robert Pepping, author of New Zealand Pre-Decimal History Noted, also joined the festivities via Zoom, and several other authors were also in attendance with new self-published books.

The second day was devoted to the fair held in two adjoining conference rooms at the West Plaza hotel. Dealers from New Zealand and Australia had tables filled with numismatic items from around the world, with a strong focus on Oceania. The fair was open to the public, and show organizer David Galt estimated attendance at well over a hundred people. Attendees were searching for and buying items to fill holes in their collections, and had the opportunity to view select lots from the House of Huia auction to be held the following evening.

The second and fourth days are devoted to talks given by experts from around the world on a variety of subjects, including “Inflation from a collector’s perspective” by Richard Booker, “Make Grading Great Again” by Peter Nagals, “Countermarks on Ancient Coins” by Dr. John Russell, and “Order from Chaos: Creating a Catalog” by Owen Linzmayer.