Edward L. Craig, President of the Maryland State Numismatic Association and President of the Maryland Token and Medal Society meets with John Snyder, President of Diamond International Galleries at the booth.

Representatives of Gemstone Publishing and Diamond International Galleries staffed a special booth at this year's American Numismatic Association World's Fair of Money®, which was held in Baltimore July 30 through August 3. The primary purpose of Gemstone's presence at the prestigious coin show was to make coin and money collectors aware of comic books and comic character related items as a category of collectible and to spread the word to attending children - and interested adults - of the availability, once again, of Disney comic books in the North American market.

To these ends, several thousand brochures, handouts and a special ANA edition of Gemstone's Free Comic Book Day comic books were distributed to the show's attendees, as well as a number of CGC graded and slabbed copies of the Free Comic Book.

Comic Guaranty Corporation's (CGC) sister company, Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) is well known for certifying and slabbing coins among coin collectors and the process has achieved wide acceptance in that arena. CGC provided the slabbed comic books gratis to further knowledge among numismatists of the legitimacy of comic book collecting.

The Free Comic Book (Walt Disney's Donald Duck Adventures, “Maharajah Donald”) is the same book that was given away at comic book shops nationwide during this year's Free Comic Book Day, last May 3. The ANA edition sports a green-bordered cover rather than a red one.

Response to the Disney comic books at the show was gratifying. “We handed out cases full of the comic books to attending children and parents,” said John Clark, Gemstone Editor-in-Chief, who helped man the booth. “I was pleased beyond my expectations to get so many of them out into the hands of kids who had never held a Disney comic before, and so many were just thrilled to get them and to know of the books' existence. Hopefully this will help to generate a whole new generation of comic book fans, something the industry really needs.”

In addition to Clark, Melissa Bowersox, Shawn Bowersox, Tom Gordon, Mark Huesman, Joe McGuckin, Sara Ortt, and Jeffrey C. Vaughn were available at the show to interact with attendees and answer questions. Diamond Comic Distributors/Gemstone Publishing's Owner/President and CEO, Stephen A. Geppi and Diamond International Galleries/Gemstone Publishing's President and CAO, John K. Snyder Jr. were also in attendance at the show and available to answer questions.

A special display of Carl Barks' Uncle Scrooge figurines and oil paintings, courtesy of Diamond International Galleries and private collector Kerby Confer, was at the convention as well, to further demonstrate the scope of the field of comic character collecting. Scrooge's affinity and association with coins and money seemed a natural tie-in with coin collecting, and such proved to be the case. Numbers of coin enthusiasts who stopped in to view the historic reunion of five Liberty head 1913 nickels (see last week's edition of Scoop) were fascinated by Uncle Scrooge and Carl Barks' art and happily accepted a special handout on the subject of the nickels and Barks.

The World's Fair of Money® is held once a year in a different major city. It is regarded among numismatics with the same high esteem in which San Diego Comic Con International is held among comic book collectors.

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Edward L. Craig, President of the Maryland State Numismatic Association and President of the Maryland Token and Medal Society meets with John Snyder, President of Diamond International Galleries at the booth.		Lawrence Lee, curator for the ANA, checks out Gemstone's new History of Comics: The Early Years book. These books were given to conference goers as a Gemstone commemorative.		(From left to right): Gemstone's Mark Huesman, John Snyder, J.C. Vaughn, Tom Gordon and John Clark greet Stephen L. Bobbitt (center), Public Relations Director of the ANA. Stephen was instrumental in bringing all the press together for the convention.
Young boy checks out Gemstone giveaway, History of Comics: The Early Years while Uncle Scrooge looks on.		Gemstone's John Clark, Tom Gordon and J.C. Vaughn stand in front of the Carl Barks painting exhibit on the conference floor.		Paper money on exhibit at the ANA World's Fair of Money included this $10,000 note.
A $100,000,000 treasury note.		$100,000 bill on display at the ANA convention		20,000+ fans check out the booths and educational presentations available at the conference.
The crowd mills about, collecting more information and viewing more rare money items.