Kentucky Teenager Wins PNG 50th Anniversary YN Scholarship

– Lexington, Kentucky high school student, Dane Morgan Taylor, 16, has been named the first recipient of a new scholarship from the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG). To mark this year’s 50^th anniversary of the organization, the PNG established a scholarship program to send a young numismatist (YN) to the annual American Numismatic Association’s (ANA) Summer Seminar.

"We were not expecting this. We’re all really surprised and very excited about it,” said Dane’s mother, Tammy Riggs. “She’s been collecting since kindergarten or first grade, and attended many of the youth auctions at the Bluegrass Coin Club (in Lexington).”

          Dane Morgan Taylor

Lexington, Kentucky

Dane, who begins her junior year in high school this fall, will study tokens during the second session of this year’s ANA Summer Seminar. In her scholarship application letter to PNG she said her interest in collecting was influenced by her grandfather, Stanley Taylor, a long-time member of the Bluegrass Coin Club.

“This is PNG’s golden anniversary, and we want to give golden opportunities every year for a deserving young collector to attend the outstanding ANA Summer Seminar programs. We are proud to have Dane Morgan Taylor as the first recipient of the scholarship program established earlier this year,” said PNG Executive Director Robert Brueggeman.

In a letter supporting Dane’s scholarship application, Tom Mulvaney, a member of the Bluegrass Coin Club Board of Directors and long-time Summer Seminar photography instructor, wrote: “At our club meetings, she has given presentations and is eager to learn about new numismatic subjects.... I know Dane would be an ‘ideal’ and truly worthy Summer Seminar student who would immensely benefit from attending such an event.”

The scholarship money is administered from the PNG’s Gerald Bauman Memorial Fund. Bauman, who died in 2001, served for many years as a prominent coin dealer with Manfra, Tordella & Brookes.

“The week-long ANA Summer Seminar in Colorado Springs, Colorado can be an invaluable experience for a budding numismatist, and the PNG is excited to be part of the process,” said PNG President Steve Ivy.