American Numismatic Association

Robert W. Julian Named 2012 ANA Numismatist of the Year

Robert W. Julian has been named the American Numismatic Association's 2012 Numismatist of the Year. Julian will receive his award on Aug. 10 during the Awards Banquet at the ANA World's Fair of Money^SM in Philadelphia.

A researcher and prolific, award-winning author, Julian is perhaps best known for his quintessential work Medals of the United States Mint: The First Century, 1792-1892, published in 1977. Other books include From Rus to Revolution: Russian Coins through a Thousand Years (1988); Medals of the United States Assay Commission, 1869-1977 (1989); and Russian Silver Coinage, 1796-1917 (1993).

Julian is a member of the American Numismatic Society, Central States Numismatic Society, Royal Numismatic Society and British Numismatic Society.

A regular contributor to The Numismatist, Julian has received more ANA literary awards than any other author. In 1992 he received the Clemy award, the highest honor of the Numismatic Literary Guild. He was inducted into the ANA Numismatic Hall of Fame in 1998, and in 2002 he received the Burnett Anderson Memorial Award for Excellence in Numismatic Writing, a joint recognition by the ANA, ANS and NLG. He also served as editor of the Russian Numismatic Society Journal from 1999 to 2011.

Earning a master's degree in U.S. history and a minor in mathematics from Purdue University in 1963, Julian taught upper-level high school math from 1962 to 1994, at which time he became a full-time, freelance numismatic writer.

To Julian, coins speak volumes-about history, economics and American culture. "I gain satisfaction from finding new and interesting information about coins and medals that has remained unpublished or little known," he said. "As I study documents in the National Archives, I have the sense of being at the writers' sides as they pen U.S. Mint history into the dusty ledgers."

"(Julian's) first publication was an article on the coinage of Czar Alexander II that appeared in Numismatic Scrapbook in 1960. Since then, he has published more than 1,300 articles in all the significant commercial and organizational numismatic publications in the United States and some overseas," said Joseph E. Boling, who nominated Julian for the award. "He has spent hundreds of hours at the National Archives, extracting information that he then passes to the collecting community. His carefully researched treatises, most based on primary sources, have changed our common knowledge."

The World's Fair of Money is the nation's premier money show. The event features more than 1,000 numismatic dealers with the best inventory anywhere; the ANA Museum Showcase exhibiting some of the world's most valuable and beautiful coins and paper money; a Mint Promenade with mints from around the world; the Collector Exhibits area; a world-class auction by Stack's Bowers Galleries; educational presentations and seminars; and special events including the ANA's annual awards banquet.

The American Numismatic Association is a congressionally chartered nonprofit educational organization dedicated to encouraging people to study and collect money and related items. The ANA helps its 28,000 members and the public discover and explore the world of money through its vast array of education and outreach programs, as well as its museum, library, publications, conventions and seminars. For more information, call 719-632-2646 or go to www.money.org.