The Opening Ceremony for the Remodeled Bowker Coin Collection Exhibition Hall

Guests visit the Bowker Coin Collections Exhibition Hall

The grand opening ceremony for remodeled Bowker Coin Collection Exhibition Hall was held at auditorium of Shanghai Mint Museum on December 10, 2015. More than 30 guests were invited to attend. Mr. Gu Jun, Party Secretary of the Shanghai Mint Co., Ltd. Carolyn Bowker, Howard Franklin Bowker's granddaughter，Michael Chou，President of iAsure Group, and Ken Krah, Vice President of NGC and world coins rating expert, delivered speeches respectively at the opening ceremony. After the ceremony, the guests visited the refurbished Bowker Coin Collection Exhibition Hall happily.

Mr Howard Franklin Bowker (1889-1970)—Numismatic Pioneer, is a famous American coin collector who devoted much of his time to Chinese coin collecting and research and became one of the most studied scholars of Chinese coins between 1940 and 1960. In 2010, the Bowker family donated over 139 pieces from his Chinese coin collection, representing different historical phases, to the Shanghai Mint Co., Ltd. as Mr Bowker requested in his will. The Shanghai Mint Museum set up the Bowker Coin Collections Exhibition Hall in 2014. They carefully preserved and displayed the coins, and made the Exhibition Hall one of three permanent exhibition halls in Shanghai Mint Museum. As of now, nearly 2 thousand visitors have come to the Exhibition Hall, most of them from the state organs, enterprises and institutions, universities, etc.. In March 2015, the Bowker family donated another 37 coins from the collection, effectively filling the void in late Qing Dynasty coins for Shanghai Mint Museum. Mr. Gu Jun mentioned that in order to display the new collections better, in 2015 the Shanghai Mint Co., Ltd. spent two months developing and remodeling the Coin Collection Exhibition Hall. This consisted of (1) Adjusting the pavilion and display rack, including placing new vertical showcases to exhibit Qing Dynasty coins while recreating the display rack of coin collections of Qing Dynasty, Republic of China and so on. (2) They used the NGC packaging option to protect the coin boutique and enhance the unity of the exhibits. (3) They adjusted the lighting layout to make it more comfortable for visitors when viewing the displays. And, (4) Replaced the wall cloth and applied visually distinctive lettering for the name of the Exhibition Hall.

Mr. Gu Jun also said the Shanghai Mint Co., Ltd. will continue to explore and develop and present information on the Bowker coin collection. In addition, new media technology such as Wechat will be used to let more people have the opportunity to gain knowledge of Chinese coins and to better understand Mr Bowker’s collection and research findings. Mr. Gu wants to conduct more cooperation and communication in various forms with the Bowker family to make more contributions to the prosperity and development of China's money culture.

Carolyn Bowker thanked the Shanghai Mint Co., Ltd. for what it has done for carefully preserving and displaying these coins in her speech, and she wanted to continue to carry out good cooperation with the Shanghai Mint Co., Ltd. to make contributions to the monetary cultural heritage. Michael Chou and Ken Krah also delivered speeches at the ceremony and expressed their appreciation and gratitude to the common efforts that Shanghai Mint Co., Ltd. and Bowker family have done for coin collections and cultural heritage.
(These pictures provided by the culture department of Shanghai Mint Co.)