A collection of banknotes from the St. Eligius Numismatists Brotherhood honouring our Patron Saint

Sir Frank Galindo, Knight of St. Eligius, has been involved in Numismatics for many years. He is the president of the Gateway Coin Club in San Antonio, Texas (USA). In 1995, Frank, and wife Karla, founded the Saint Eligius Numismatists Brotherhood, USA. Frank dedicates much of his time to bringing young people closer to numismatics. Demonstrating that the hobby is not only a collection of metal pieces, but also the basis of great culture. Frank aims to further raise awareness of the Brotherhood outside the U.S.

Earlier this year, E-Sylum contained an article about a new St. Eligius medal. In the article, it mentioned the St Eligius Brotherhood. Interested in more information, I reached out to Frank and we began corresponding. In reading a later edition of E-Sylum, there is an article about Frank welcoming Robert (Bob) F. Fritsch, FRCNA, FONA as a life fraternal brother, and Knight of St. Eligius. I did feel myself a very under-qualified numismatist at that point. I have been a collector on and off my whole life, and more seriously for the past 5-10 years. I must admit, I have very few numismatic honours, I had focussed a lot of my attention to learning more myself. In starting Coin of Note on Twitter back in 2018, I really wanted to share some of the knowledge I was acquiring. I love how much you can learn, just by trying to find out a little about a coin, and I hope I can pass some of that on to others. I have only recently come to start learning more about Saint Eligius, Patron Saint of Numismatics, but as my interest in sharing my knowledge has grown, so too has my connection to our Patron Saint, and I really feel a strong connection to the simple Prayer to Saint Eligius:

St. Eligius, with your hands you wrought beauty and with your heart you won friends and through both you glorified God. Befriend us, dear saint, and pray that we will use our God-given talents to serve Him. Amen.

From ChristianApostles.com

Sir Frank Galindo sent me the beautiful note pictured at the top of this post. In fact, a collection of notes honouring our patron, from this set from the 35th Anniversary of the Gateway Coin Club in 1997:

To a set issued for the 38th anniversary of the club in 2000:

To the 43rd anniversary in 2005:

The 50th anniversary in 2012:

And this set issued just last year for the club’s 60th anniversary:

The notes have continued to get more and more impressive! Is that too many notes for one post? It is the first time I have featured notes on the site, AND they are dedicated to Saint Eligius, so I got a bit excited! 🙂

I noted earlier that Sir Frank founded the St. Eligius Brotherhood of Numismatists USA. Claude Proulx, Chancellor, founded the original Order in July 1989 in Quebec City, and then across other parts of Canada, then through Europe. Claude honoured Frank Galindo bringing him into the Order, and Frank then founded the Brotherhood in the U.S. in 2009. When I first started corresponding with Frank about the Brotherhood, I asked him about it, and have quoted him below with his permission:

“The fraternity’s educational objectives are to promote St. Eligius as the Patron Saint of Numismatists and to introduce the hobby of numismatics to young students, while at the same time encouraging them to read, research and develop their writing skills. We also seek to encourage collectors as well as non-collector-adults to join our hobby and at the same time introduce them to our patron saint. Any person interested can develop their own way of promoting St. Eligius and numismatics.”. If you would like to find out more, you can write to Frank.

So finally, I do have one final thing to share in this post which I am extremely excited about:

Yes, I am the newest member of the Knights of Saint Eligius Brotherhood! I am very humbled and honoured to receive this.

At the top of this site, it requests “Saint Eligius, pray for us”. The honour of this membership only strengthens my passion and my turning to St. Eligius to befriend me, and guide me in sharing a love of numismatics ever more widely. Thank you Sir Frank Galindo, and all the Brotherhood, and glory to God.