A visit with Leroy

[vampicker]

Saturday I made the drive from just outside Columbus over to Sidney and met up with John Baumgart (who drove much further) in front of Leroy's assisted living apartment building. We found Mr. Van Allen waiting for us with several friends in the dining room and after a short tour around the place spent a good four and a half hours talking about the past and future of VAMs and related subjects. Leroy is 88 now, but still quite active. He has several works in progress, with a book on his first hand observations of the minting process from several trips to the Philadelphia and San Francisco facilities around forty years ago now virtually complete. He did say this project has been on the back burner for a very long time. I also got to take another look at Leroy's personal annotated copy of the VAM book, likely the most valuable piece of literature in our field if it ever came up for sale. I'll just say it was a very good day.

[DHalladay]

Thanks SO MUCH for the update about LVA. He looks wonderful!

[RogerRock]

GREAT UPDATE on LEROY ! THANK YOU VERY MUCH !

[messydesk]

What's not immediately apparent from the picture is that his VAM book is about twice as thick as normal due to extra pieces of paper and photos stuffed into it. The binding is an unrecognizable pile-up of layers of tape.

Besides his numismatic projects, he has also kept busy designing and painting raised flower beds, installing brick borders in the garden, and working with contractors to get some new sidewalks built to his specification. He may be 88, but he's keeping busy and active.

The trip was very enjoyable and I know Leroy really liked having us there. Well worth the drive of just under 5 hours each way.

[shortnock]

Wow! Good news, Good reading, Good photos. Great to see smiling faces of the big guys in VAMdom.

[vamnuke]

Thanks for sharing!!

[Unc90o]

Very cool and thank you for sharing

[PickNGrin]

Great News! Thanks for the update!

[messydesk]

Also, if you look closely at the picture with his book, you'll see a box for one of the 2021 Morgans. John R brought one to show him. He hated it.

[alefzero]

If only the Mint had struck those 2021 Morgans/Peace in 90% silver....

Gives me an idea. I'll have to ask Carr to consider striking a clad Morgan (overstrike on Ike). Probably would be an ugly beast, but never know.

[Vam-mysterio]

Awesome,very cool,

[keilg1]

Adding my thanks for sharing the story. The smiles summarize it all.

[Tekkie1]

Wow!
LVA looks really, really well!
Thanks for the update y'all.

[LateDateMorganGuy]

Very cool get-together! I like the old school T-Square on the wall in the background used for manual drafting. A testament to his early engineering days as a mechanical engineer. Good training for the minting process.

[colwillys]

LVA and JB look like twins or maybe Morgan and Peace . Love the post and you all look goooood .

[messydesk]

Very cool get-together! I like the old school T-Square on the wall in the background used for manual drafting. A testament to his early engineering days as a mechanical engineer. Good training for the minting process.

He was a draftsman for a while in his early days. All of the illustrations in his books and in the stack of papers that is to become the book on more modern minting practices are hand-drawn.

[morganman]

Thanks Much to: JB & JR- For driving a ton of miles to visit LVA " Vam King"
This means the world to Mr Van Allen - this i am sure.
Very bitter sweet to me as we age and our life changes quite
drastically both health ways and surroundings.

Amazing that Leroy is so active both physically & mentally,
still working on Vam projects etc.

[collectinsince65]

Great to see JB & Mr LVA. Sounds like a great visit!. Thank you for posting JR

[...kenny]

Also, if you look closely at the picture with his book, you'll see a box for one of the 2021 Morgans. John R brought one to show him. He hated it.

Of course he did! It's a terrible tribute to a Beautiful piece of history!!

As Always, TY for sharing!!...kenny

[vamsterdam]

I am so glad to see that you fuys visited him and that he is well and keeping busy. I also appreciate you showing him the 2021 “morgan dollar”. I see them as glorified silver eagles. I am glad he and i are on the same with them.