Item 2004/1 - Letter from Mark Blackburn to Simon Blunt

1 item, paper

Letter from Mark Blackburn to Simon Blunt, typescript, single page, dated 6 October 2004, regarding the British Numismatic Society's Council Prize, which MASB explains was established in 1986 to encourage and reward younger numismatists as a counterbalance for the Society's gold medal for scholars at the height of their careers. MASB suggests that it would be appropriate to rename the award as the "Blunt Prize", further explaining that the BNS has no dedicated funds for the award, which is a cash prize in the value of £200 every third year. MASB says that he would like to establish a small endowment to secure funding for the award. The endowment would need to be sufficient to yield £100 annually, indexed, and keep pace with inflation, suggesting something in the range £5000-8000 and wondering whether the Blunt Trust would be able to make a contribution to such a fund. MASB says that he is writing to Simon in the first instance but also wishes to share the idea with Anne and Judith [Simon's sisters]. He also refers to an enclosure, consisting in "a copy of the page from our [i.e. the BNS] web-site that lists the awards and recipients", but the enclosure is no longer associated with the letter. In the upper left margin of the letter, which is on Fitzwilliam Museum stationery, there is a manuscript note that reads: "Ian, copy for information, Mark". To the right, in manuscript, is the note "BNS", circled.