2016-07-07 Thu

A private publication called “The Numismatist” was started by Dr. George Heath in 1888. He proposed the idea of ANA in one of his issues in February 1891. One of the nominated officers by him for ANA was Plain Talk’s coin columnist, Tatman. Heath believed that the journal should be ANA’s “official organ.”

His suggested names of officers who belonged to strategic regions of the United States and Canada. Tatman was a brilliant writer and a promising numismatist from the East Coast. He started writing for Plain Talk from March 1891. His first column spoke about “Why should there not be an American Numismatic Association?” which was then taken forward in May by Heath. July’s column shared a good news “It has now become a sure thing that an American Numismatic Association will be formed this year.” The next month, the first ANA membership roster was published which included noted numismatists from around the country.

Tatman’s September 1891 column announced that Tatman was the ANA’s secretary. “Plain Talk” never became ANA’s journal though. But the November column anyways spoke about the first ANA convention, held in Chicago. This continued till 1892, sometimes with errors, for example the word “Detector” was misspelled as “Director”.

“The Numismatist” was chosen over “Plain Talk” as the official organ by default in June 1992 as Secretary Tatman, owing to absence in Europe, resigned as Secretary of the ANA.

Tatman, continued serving for ANA from 1893 to 1895, but later backed off from numismatics as he got busy with practising Law.