DANSCO, FRANKLIN MINT AND NORMAN ROCKWELL

Here's a bit of newly learned Dansco history I think readers will enjoy.

I had attended a coin club presentation in Portland on the intersection of numismatics and art. One of the works he discussed was Norman Rockwell's 1971 painting The Collector. When I saw it, the album in the painting looked familiar...

It turns out the Franklin Mint commissioned the painting to promote its new album, The Genius of Michelangelo, which holds 60 sterling silver medals depicting Michelangelo's work.

Looking at the album closely, I recognized the construction Dansco used for other Franklin Mint albums of the same era. What stands out is that the slides on these albums move vertically, not horizontally like a traditional Dansco album.

So Dansco has a connection to one of the 20th century's best-known American painters. It makes me wonder whether Rockwell painted coin albums anywhere else in his work. Perhaps a reader knows.

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web