Kansas City Fed Money Museum Coin Conservation
Experts from Stack's Bowers Galleries spent two days assessing the Kansas City Fed's currency collection, including the Harry S. Truman Coin Collection, which is on display in the Kansas City Money Museum. Coincidentally, the founder of Stack's Bowers, John Stack, coordinated the recreation of the Truman Coin Collection after it was stolen in 1963.
Museum coordinators Abby Anderson and Elizabeth Hartzler, pictured above, prepared for the experts by creating an audit manual and assuring for secure handling.
“The Bank was concerned with there being even the slightest chance of mishandling, misplacing or mistreating something, not only because we care about it, but because we care even more about being good stewards of somebody else’s stuff," Anderson said.
The experts used water to clean currency, and when more was required, used a 100 percent acetone bath and heat on paper bills to help loosen and remove adhesives like tape or glue.
The one-of-its-kind Truman Coin Collection includes coins that were in circulation during each U.S. Presidency, starting all the way back with George Washington. The collection is on permanent loan to the Bank from the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. Secretary of the Treasury under Truman, John Snyder, originally began the collection with the idea of gifting it to President Truman.
Coins from the Truman collection were taken from the public display and organized into binders.
