Jorge Proctor, Agustin Garcia-Barneche, Cori Sedwick Downing (Me), Dan Sedwick, and Glenn Stephen Murray Fantom.

Yesterday we had the pleasure of spending some time with Glenn Stephen Murray Fantom and Jorge Proctor at our office. Both are avid researchers and writers in the field of Spanish colonial coinage and mints. Glenn is the president of the Friends of the Segovia Mint Association (Amigos de la casa de moneda de Segovia) and has worked tirelessly to rehabilitate the Segovia mint building in Spain. He’s written extensively about mints in Spain, particularly the Segovia mint or Real Ingenio which operated from 1583 to 1869. In 2009 Glenn was awarded the Grand Premio Union Europea de Patrimonio Cultural/Europa Nostra for his dedication to restoring the Segovia mint after which he published Las acuñaciones de moneda en Segovia, desde 30 a. C. hasta 1869, en conmemoración de la obra de rehabilitación del Real Ingenio de la Moneda de Segovia.  We have copies of this terrific resource book for sale!

Dan Sedwick and Glenn Stephen Murray Fantom

Jorge Proctor with Glenn Stephen Murray Fantom

As many know, Jorge Proctor’s focus has been on reading and transcribing original records from such venerated repositories as the Archives of the Indies housed in Seville, Spain. He’s a detective and numismatist rolled into one! Jorge has written the definitive book on the Panama mint called The Forgotten Mint of Colonial Panama: A Look Into the Production of Coins in America During the 16th Century and Panama’s Spanish Royal House for Minting Coins. A copy of this book is rare and scarce. Lately Jorge has turned his considerable attention to the assayers at the Mexico City mint and others with a recent article entitled “The Assayers of the Mint of Mexico During the 16th Century Pillars Coinage, 1536-1571 (?)” which was published in the January/February 2015 Numismatics International Bulletin and “Who Were Mexico City Mint Assayers L and J (1677-1723)?” which was published in the June 2015 U.S. Mexico Numismatic Association journal. And Jorge is one of the fastest talkers I know, both in Spanish and English!

It was a fortuitous series of events that led to Glenn and Jorge being able to spend an afternoon with us in Winter Park and we hope they’ll come back again soon with more news from Spain and beyond.

Glenn Stephen Murray Fantom and Jorge Proctor with gold bar

An interesting side note this week: If you’ve opened up your June 2015 copy of The Numismatist, the monthly publication of the American Numismatic Association, you may have seen an article about us on p. 23! It’s called “Golden Cobs” and highlights our Treasure Auction #16 last November. Thanks to Andy Smith for writing the article.

Tags: Augi Garcia, Cori Sedwick Downing, Glenn Stephen Murray Fantom, Jorge Proctor, Mexico, Study