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Mid American Rare Coin Gallery - America's Gold Specialist

Welcome to Mid-American Rare Coin Galleries, Inc. America's rare coin resource for over 30 years. Mid-American offers the finest quality coins and coin appraisals with the utmost in expertise and experience. Our president, Jeff Garrett has handled nearly every United States issue and his knowledge of rare coins is considered among the best in the industry. Mid-American offers free appraisals to prospective sellers of rare gold coins. Whether you are looking to sell a valuable coin collection or trying to locate that rare coin you have been looking for at the best possible price, let our company work for you. If you have any questions, please call us toll free at 1-877-836-0833 or contact Jeff via email: jeff@rarecoingallery.com.

Serving Lexington, Louisville, Cincinnati and the nation for over 30 years!

Jeff Garrett answers ANA Board Questions

Each candidate for the ANA Board of Governors was asked to answer a series of six questions related to issues facing the Association and the hobby. Following are the answers each candidate provided to each question.

As a member of the ANA Board of Governors, would you believe you were elected to serve in a policy-making or management role?

The role of the board of governors is absolutely for creating policy and to closely monitor the progress of management that has been hired to carry out that policy. Decisions made by the board can have very long term consequences. If the board becomes too focused on micro management, there will not be sufficient time or resources to effectively deal with critical issues that need to be addressed. Oversight of management has obviously been one of the key problems in the last several years. It is vitally important that the board understands the financial direction of the ANA. Rubber stamping can lead to disastrous results. It is also difficult to engage new sponsors if there is a perception that the ANA mis-handles its finances. The new board of governors will need to pay close attention to its management as well as carefully consider new policies that will impact the organization.
How important is the Internet to the future of the hobby and to the growth of the ANA? Should the ANA dedicate new resources to developing its online presence?

The internet is not the answer to all of the problems facing the ANA. It is, however, an extremely powerful tool that needs to be fully utilized for the growth of the hobby and the organization. The online community of those interested in numismatics is growing at a rapid pace and it would be prudent for the ANA to explore ways to increase traffic to money.org. I strongly believe content will be extremely important for expanding the ANA web presence as well as recruiting new members. Most of today�s successful websites focus on content. I would like to see important parts of the ANA library digitized and offered online. Also, the ANA could explore ways for collectors and dealers to contact one another to expand the relevance of money.org. A decade from now the world of numismatics will probably look very different. I want to be sure the ANA has not been left behind.
The ANA is operating under a balanced budget for the first time in years. What safeguards should be put into place to ensure fiscal responsibility in the future?

It is extremely important that those elected to the ANA board of governors have an understanding of basic financial statements. Past boards have approved proposed budgets that were allegedly balanced, but included income projections that were completely unrealistic. The future of the ANA will depend on a board that both understands the finances of the organization and has the courage to make the tough choices required. I would also like to see a long term plan for the endowment of the ANA. In the past the endowment has been a much too frequently tapped piggy bank. Horrendous deficit spending, unwise legal actions, and ambitious projects have all been funded by the back stop of the ANA endowment. This must stop and the ANA should adopt long term plans to not only stop the erosion of the endowment, but explore ways to adopt a path of growth.
What can the ANA do to promote better understanding and greater collaboration among the collector and dealer communities?

Communication is vital for all members of the ANA to be more fully engaged with the activities of the organization. Many collectors and members of the dealer community feel that the ANA does not understand their needs. The ANA needs to do a better job to indentify the issues that are important to its members. Last years survey of convention cities was an excellent example of the improvements in communication needed. The survey led to a change of sight locations for the 2011 Summer ANA. With proper communication and planning this sort of problem will be avoided in the future. Joint board meetings with the Professional Numismatist Guild board of directors have also been useful in the past and I strongly urge more in the near future. My 15 years of experience on the PNG board will be extremely useful in helping the ANA address the important issues that face both organizations.
Interest in the hobby is growing faster than membership in the ANA. What would you suggest the ANA do to increase its membership?

I strongly advocate working more closely with the dealer community, institutions (such as the Smithsonian), and the U.S. Mint to explore ways to expand membership. There are millions of coin collectors in the United States. The opportunity for growth in our membership is incredible. Better content on the ANA web sight would also help attract new members and retain the ones we have. Although there is a membership committee in the ANA, I would like to see a strongly focused task force to address membership numbers. We should bring in the best and brightest from not only the ANA board and management, but from the entire membership. Marketing and promotion is extremely important. The hobby has exploded in the last 10 years and the ANA needs to get to bottom of the reason for its stagnant membership numbers. I am confident that with the right talent focused on the problem, we will see a tremendous increase in membership.
What should the ANA do to encourage a higher percentage of ANA membership within its member clubs?

Some see local coin clubs as dying. I disagree, and I feel they are extremely important to the long term health of numismatics. The ANA should do more to ensure the success of local clubs. This can be done in the form of marketing assistance, traveling educational programs, and online resources. Area coin dealers can also be tapped to sponsor first year memberships for local club members. This has been very successful in our Lexington, KY Bluegrass Coin Club. I would also like to see a change of perception that ANA membership is only for serious collectors. Many feel their one day a month interest in numismatics does not warrant membership in a national organization. More needs to be done to attract the beginner collector. The new lower tier membership with the online option is a good start. Another idea worth exploring would be an introductory membership that would be inexpensive for the first year only.

Garrett can be reached by email at coinman4u@aol.com or by calling (859)-276-1551.