50 Years of Membership: PNG Honors Past President Gillio
The Professional Numismatists Guild has presented a 50-year membership plaque award to dealer Ronald J. Gillio of Santa Barbara, California. Gillio served as the organization’s President from 1991 to 1993, and earlier served as its Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary.
Ron Gillio (center) accepts a Professional Numismatists Guild 50-year membership plaque from long-time friend Kevin Lipton (left) and PNG Executive Director John Feigenbaum (right) at the American Numismatic Association 2023 Pittsburgh World’s Fair of Money on August 8, 2023. Photo credit: Donn Pearlman.
The plaque was jointly presented by new PNG Executive Director John Feigenbaum and long-time PNG member-dealer Kevin Lipton of Beverly Hills, California at the American Numismatic Association Pittsburgh World’s Fair of Money on August 8, 2023.
According to Feigenbaum, “It is an amazing honor and a cornerstone of my new tenure as Executive Director to have the opportunity to present Ron with his 50-year plaque. Ron’s participation in the PNG for six decades represents the perfect example of the enduring value and legacy of this vital organization. The PNG stands for “knowledge, integrity, and responsibility” of its members, and nobody encapsulates these virtues better than Mr. Gillio.”
Gillio is immensely proud of his career-long membership in the PNG and said it has been an honor to be a member-dealer for 50 years.
“I joined in May 1973 at the young age of 27 as member number 204. A few years later I was elected to the Board of Directors and served continuously for 17 years, never missing a meeting. During my tenure as President, I formed many consumer protection committees and organized various meetings with the ANA and other groups to discuss ways to help collectors and dealers. After my years on the Board, I was still very active in the 1990s on different committees, doing whatever I could for the PNG,” Gillio explained.
In 1995, he received the organization’s Abe Kosoff Founders Award, a distinctive honor that is named after the PNG’s 1955 Founding President.
“Plain and simple Ron Gillio is one of the greatest coin dealers in modern history! I have known Ron for almost 50 years. He has taught me a tremendous amount of life and business lessons along the way. When it comes to maintaining long-term relationships Ron is second to none. Honest and loyal he has been the unofficial “diplomat” of our profession for years and years,” declared Lipton.
“He has done more mega deals than almost anyone in numismatic history. This is a fact very few people know as he does these deals uber discreetly behind the scenes. Ron is well known as a dealmaker all throughout the world. He is at home doing business in Switzerland, New York, Hong Kong, or the Long Beach coin show, a true man of the coin world,” Lipton emphasized.
