Eric Leonard
President 2001 - 2003

As President of the Crescent City Coin Club for the past 3 years, I have good reason to express my heartfelt thanks to the officers, members, and friends of the club.  We have accomplished much together in these years that passed too quickly.

Together, we hosted 3 outstanding shows per year with unprecedented member support for set-up and take-down.  Our dealer participants cite our shows as among the best for organization, member support, and the ratio of dealers to show attendees.

We relocated from the Quality Hotel to the VFW Post 6640 Hall, a move orchestrated by our Show Chairman, Bob Eddy.  This move has proven to be cost effective, convenient, and the support from Ruth Young and her staff is generous.

We established a Website complete with our own domain name (crescentcitycoinclub.org) and gained the support of the American Numismatic Association for webspace.  In fact, we were featured in an ANA bulletin citing our website as a premier example for other clubs.

We supported the Louisiana statehood quarter launch ceremony in May 2002.  Several of us had the honor of meeting with Henrietta Holsman Fore, the Director of the United States Mint, and sharing our views with her, thanks to Jimmy Cohen.

We had meetings that encouraged the free exchange of information about numismatics, included enjoyable programs, drawings and prizes, and most importantly accomplished the business of the club.  Thanks to Vice President Dale Toncrey for scheduling the meeting programs and drawings.

Critical to our success was the business of the club.  We reaped the harvest of men and women who were willing to serve and were elected to the Board of Governors who met regularly to make the management decisions that allow our club to run so effectively.  Thanks to all of the board members who served so faithfully.

Finally, we lost some friends along the way.  Early in 2000, Joe Ferrantelli… “Santa” died in a tragic house fire.  Just a year later in March 2001, we lost Karl Close to cancer.  And just this past September 2003, we lost Clarence Rareshide.  In December 2003, we mourned the passing of JoAnn Wilsey (Marhay), Life Member #1, to cancer.  While these are not the only friends we have lost, they all earned a place in our hearts.

Thank you, officers, members, and friends of the club.  Thank you for the opportunity to serve a club that deserves to grow and prosper, and will grow and prosper with your continued participation.

Eric Leonard
Immediate Past President, Crescent City Coin Club