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Montgomery County Coin Club

May 1998 Bulletin

Feature Article - Feedback - MCCC Home Page

Next MCCC Meeting: Tuesday, May 12, 1998
Featured Speaker: Wayne Smith on the Black Patriots Commemorative Coin

The Montgomery County Coin Club will meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12, 1998, at the Senior Citizens Center on Forest Glen Road in Silver Spring, Maryland. President Wayne Smith of the Black Patriot's Foundation will discuss the commemorative silver dollars issued in support of the Black Patriots Memorial.


Announcements

Reminder --- New MCCC Meeting Date: Don't forget --- the MCCC is now convening on the second Tuesday of the month. Mark your calendars!

Invitation to Exhibit: MCCC members are encouraged to bring and display interesting items from their collections, particularly pieces related to the season. In May, our meeting correlates with the new Islamic year 1419 (which begins April 28), May Day (International Communism! - what's left for the CIA to do?), Cinco de Mayo (Mexican Independence Day, May 5), Buddha's Birthday (May 6), the 50th Aniversary of Israel (May 14) and Memorial Day (May 25). And who could forget Mother's Day (May 10)? Be creative and share numismatic items with fellow Club members!

Maryland State Numismatic Association Convention: On the weekend of May 15-17, the MSNA will hold its Atlantic Rarities Coin Convention at the Baltimore Convention Center. If you are interested in helping out at the Convention, please let Ken Swab know. Check it out!

In Times to Come: For the July MCCC meeting, John Lopez (the Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives Coinage Subcommittee) will speak on "The Future of Money". Mr. Lopez serves Congressman Michael Castle (R-DE), and worked on the legislation authorizing the series of 50 commemorative quarter dollars beginning next year in honor of every state of the Union.


Loot for YNs!

Every month, the Club has door prizes and material for Young Numismatists (YNs) who attend, and extra gifts for YNs who exhibit coins, medals, currency, or other numismatically-related objects. In April, for example, Ezra Berch gave an excellent short presentation (see below) on two items he showed the group (and for which he deserves a prize, if he didn't get one then!).

April MCCC Meeting Highlights

MCCC President Ken Swab being unavoidably away (actually, he was at the beach), Vice President Willy Massey called the club to order at 7:15 p.m. About 40 members were present, including half a dozen YNs. Among the events of note were:

Exhibits and Displays

The April MCCC meeting featured a bumper crop of fascinating short presentations by members: The Club exhibitors showed a wonderful diversity of pieces in April. Next time, bring something from your collection to share with your fellow members!

April Attraction: Don McKee on 
"Sixty Years of Coin and Stamp Collecting"

The Montgomery County Coin Club's main April event was an entertaining and informative talk by long-time Club member Don McKee, illustrated with slides and actual items from his collections. Mr. McKee began with a disclaimer, that he is a "collector with a small 'c'" and does not claim to be an expert --- but that he has been collecting stamps since the 1935 era, when he had a paper route in Detroit, Michigan. He got started when a friend of the family in England sent him a cover of beautiful stamps for King George V, part of a series done by 65 Commonwealth countries around the world. His father in the late 1930's started Don buying plate blocks of 3-cent stamps; years later, during his business travels in Kansas and Missouri, Mr. McKee would buy stamps at small-town Post Offices.

Unfortunately, Mr. McKee said, almost nothing issued by the USPS since 1940 is worth much beyond face value today --- and the quality of the artwork on stamps has definitely gone downhill, in his opinion. He showed slides of some postage due stamps and some famous commemorative issues --- including a 1924 Huguenot-Walloon tercentenary issue, a 1901 Pan American Expo in Buffalo (where President McKinley was assassinated), some 1902 Andrew Jackson stamps, and some non-perforated souvenir sheets from the Chicago World's Fair. (Mr. McKee noted that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a stamp collector and that there were some possible scandals associated with special issues of stamps for privileged friends in the government.) Mr. McKee also showed some coil stamps (from 1908-1910) and the noteworthy Graf Zeppelin 1930 stamps ($0.65, $1.30, and $2.60 denominations).

Mr. McKee commented that stamps are generally much easier to grade (judge the quality and relative condition of) than coins, where subtle differences among mint-state coins can make a huge difference in price. He said that he began to collect coins in the 1960's, when he met some friendly people at the Montgomery County Coin Club (!) and switched to numismatics from philately about that time. Mr. McKee's main interest is silver dollars, and he talked about some of the Carson City dollars that he acquired from the GSA sales in the early 1970's. For coins of significant value, Mr. McKee recommends certification by one of the major grading services. He finished by gently reminding MCCC members of the appraisal service offered by the Club, and encouraged everyone to plan ahead to the dispersal of their collections --- especially when the relatives who may have to deal with the materials are not experts in coins.


Numismatics on the Web

MCCC member Mark Zimmermann recommends these Internet Web sites to MCCC members:

Acknowledgements


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