Warrenton Stamp & Coin Club
APS Chapter #1492
ANA Chapter #C-173784

Warrenton is a rural community about 35 miles southwest of Washington, DC, in horse country, near the foothills of the mountains on the western boarder of Virginia.

When the WSCC was formed, it met in Tony Tripi's hobby shop and had room for about 4 people! Very soon, the club grew and was lucky enough to have a new member (Phil Warman) who owned a nursing home nearby, so he offered to let them meet in the cafeteria. The club grew to about 10 people very quickly, with about half interested in stamps and the other half interested in coins.

It continued to meet at the nursing home for about 2 years until Tony got a larger store, where meetings were held in the meeting room. With the move out of the nursing home, attendance grew to about 20 members for each meeting. As the club got more new members, we needed more space, so we then moved to the cafeteria of a local medical facility, of which one of our members, Dr. Black, was a partner. This was a great move and our club got youngsters and young adults and women to join. We grew to about 40 members. Unfortunately, Dr. Black passed away and we lost our meeting room. We then moved to a local bank, the Sun Trust Bank basement conference room graciously donated at no cost for community meetings, in the Warrenton Center shopping center at the intersection of Route 17N and Route 29 Business, where we have been since then. Our numbers have dropped to about 20 members again and we are looking to increase our membership through various activities in the community.

The club has undertaken the task of providing scholarships to the two local high schools for students going to collage. We have a fund raiser by selling raffle tickets each fall and have been fortunate enough to be able to provide 2 scholarships to Fauquier High School and also 2 to Liberty High School. The students who receive the scholarships are determined by essays on stamp or coin collecting that we as a club review and award based on that review. The scholarships are named after our deceased members who have been instrumental in organizing and helping our club. Specifically, the Dick Herbert Memorial Scholorship, the Dr. Frank Black Memorial Scholarship and the Carl Harmon Memorial Scholarship.

Meetings consist of a short business review with committee chairmen from each committee reporting. Committees cover the following:

• Show - we had our first show in the local armory at Christmas in conjunction with an antique show and we are looking to do our own show in the future.
• Membership Programs - we have a stamp and/or coin related program after the business meeting at each meeting.
• Auction - we have an auction at the end of each meeting whereby members bid on items put up by other members, with a small percentage of each sale going to the club.

All in all we seem to be growing and having a good time. We welcome anyone in the area to join our group and anyone to visit if they happen to be in the vicinity.

Meetings: We meet the first Thursday of each month at the Sun Trust Bank in the Warrenton Center Shopping Center at 7pm.

Directions: Take Route 66 West from Washington DC to the Marshall exit (Exit 28). Turn left on Route 17 to Warrenton. At the traffic lights as you enter the town of Warrenton, there is a shopping center on your left (Blockbuster Video is visible).

Contact Information:
Tony Tripi
540-347-2567
Email: tripi@earthlink.net