25.06.2014
Yearly Meeting of Members and Delegates
Photo: Members and guests in front of the Federal Mint
The Association of Swiss Professional Numismatists held its annual general assembly in Bern on June 25th with numerous members and guests in attendance.
Among other themes, it was decided to institute a Jean-Paul Divo Prize for the Promotion of Numismatic Projects, such as publications, dissertations, expositions, scholarships, etc. This in memory of the deceased founding member Jean-Paul Divo. The prize is endowed with CHF 1500.- annually.
Otto Paul Wenger Prize
The Otto Paul Wenger Prize was awarded to Dieter Raab, founder of the firm of Dr. Busso Peus Nachf. in Frankfurt/Main. As Lutz Neumann, General-Secretary of the organization expressed in his laudatory speech
“For his many years in the service of numismatics and the European coin trade, for his continued efforts to present coins and our passion for collecting to a wide public, for his honourable business ethic, for the fact that he continually guided Germany’s oldest numismatic dealership, that is also closely related to Switzerland, into modern times. Because of this we are proud to award him today the Otto Paul Wenger Prize.”
Photo: The O. P. Wenger awardee Dieter Raab, l. L. Neumann, r. M. Häberling
Dieter Raab replied with the story of how he was able in 1973 to recover the coin collection that had been stolen from the museum in Zofingen/Switzerland. With this deed he made a great service for Swiss numismatics as a whole.
After the traditional lunch the attending members and guests were invited by Swissmint to view the national mint. They received an overview of the creation and minting of coinage from conception- design-pattern-minting-packaging-shipment. At the end of the tour Swissmint offered refreshments and the possibility for interesting numismatic dialogues.