This is the MCCC ARCHIVE – for the CURRENT Montgomery County Coin Club see https://montgomerycoinclub.org
April 2000 Bulletin - Early Web Edition
MCCC: A Collector's Club for the Third Millennium
Next Meeting: Tuesday, April 11, 2000
The Montgomery County Coin Club will meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday,
April 11, 2000, at the Silver Spring Senior Citizens Center
(1000 Forest Glen Road, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA). The featured
event for the meeting will be a workshop on How to Make a
Great Exhibit. MCCC experts will discuss the factors that
go into a prize-winning numismatic display. If you're interested
in showing some of your coins at a major convention, bring them
and take part in the workshop --- and even if you're not going to
build an exhibit yourself, please come, participate, and learn!
The main attraction at the March MCCC meeting was
a panel discussion by Willy Massey, Simcha Kuritzky,
and Kermit Smyth
on Buying and Selling Coins via the Internet.
See the Featured Article below for
further details.
President William C. Massey called the MCCC
to order at 7:15 p.m. on the evening of March 14, 2000.
A strong crowd of over forty collectors were present, including
three Young Numismatists (YNs).
Several first-time visitors came to the meeting:
- Bert Marks --- a half-dollar collector;
- Ana Sol Gutierrez --- a collector of Central
American Coins of the 1800's (and a member of the
Montgomery County Board of Education); plus
- two anonymous guests.
Welcome, and please come again!
General Announcements
Treasurer Simcha Kuritzky reported that the Club's
finances were in excellent shape, and that as an experiment a
Gold Raffle would be conducted in place of the 50-50 raffle.
Librarian Kermit Smyth announced that the Club's
library has over 350 volumes available for members to borrow.
The online Catalog of holdings will be updated in months to
come, to reflect a dozen or so new acquisitions during the
past year.
Door Prizes
The awards for those whose lucky tickets were drawn included:
- from Great Britain, 1939 and 1944 half crowns; and
- from Canada, a 1972 fifty cent piece.
Winners this month were Dennis Bogley, Danny Henderson,
and Gerry Bogley.
The Gold Raffle prize was from France, an 1868 ten Franc piece
of Napoleon III (mint mark "BB" = Strasbourg) --- an excellent coin,
almost 0.1 oz. of gold. The gold raffle was won
by Norman Brand. It attracted strong participation, and
the Club will continue to offer this raffle in months to come.
The Bison Chip drawing winner was President Willy Massey;
this is his second "leg" toward the three needed to win
a proof silver eagle. (Note: you must be present to win!)
Other Announcements
Be sure to Pay Your Dues! --- since the MCCC Y2k mailing
list purge will begin soon. You have been warned!
The Maryland State Numismatic Association (MSNA)
is holding a Convention on the Memorial Day weekend. The
Association will
release a 1932-S quarter into circulation before the show,
with a $100 reward going to the finder who turns it in.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) has only 305
$20 star notes left for sale. The BEP will have a lottery
to decide who gets one among those who order.
April Showcase Displays
MCCC exhibits this month included:
- Tom Hall showed an article from the Washington
POST newspaper's Metro section
about the new Maryland commemorative quarter's release.
The article explained the slogan
"Old Line State" and other features of the coin.
Tom also displayed some classic issues of
the MCCC Monthly Bulletin, and invited members to send him
pre-1996 bulletins that he needs to complete the
Club archive.
- Donald Wilson exhibited three coins he got in Florida
at the big coin show held there
recently: a 5 Heller of German East Africa, a 1 Rupiya from Italian
Somalia, and a Bolivian commemorative of 1879.
- Simcha Kuritzky displayed several coins he got on Ebay.
There are many items that have exclusive distribution channels and
are now only found on Ebay, such as the most
recent World Wildlife medals. Simcha exhibited a Lion King medal
that was released only in the UK, a Shriner's medal with a tiger face,
a cat license in the shape of a cat, a Vermont good-for piece with
a catamount statue on it, and a pattern Europa coin (probably a fantasy
piece) with a colored Belgian lion on it.
- Kermit Smyth discussed the "King of Indian
Head Cents": the double-die
1873. He showed enlargements from the Cherrypicker's Guide
and described the coin and its varieties. The word LIBERTY is doubled
and the coin is worth over $1000, even when in only "good" condition.
Kermit bought one on the Internet; he noted that the scanned-in
image did not reveal the double die characteristics, so some correspondence was needed to establish that it was the "right" 1873 double-die variety, version "Snow 1". The price he paid was very
fair, half or a third of what it might have been; the specimen he got
has been cleaned, but definitely could be worth $1000 or more.
- Richard Jozefiak exhibited a new British half sovereign,
in Uncirculated condition, on a nice card. It bears the fourth
portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, who is now in the 48th year of
her reign. This coin was bought via the
Internet from the British Royal Mint.
- Scott Helmick showed an example of a legitimate
mint product and a counterfeit: 1921 Morgan dollar. The pair made
a fascinating comparison.
- Ken Swab told the MCCC about his recent experience
at the unveiling of the Maryland commemorative quarter dollar.
Ken was on the committee which recommended designs to the
Governor, and he displayed a letter of invitation to the celebratory
dinner, along with
the US Mint's official press release kit. He also showed a
brochure describing the design committee and its work.
The Governor of Maryland, along with Senator Paul Sarbanes
and a fifth-grade class of Maryland students,
were at the dinner. (The schoolchildren had written a set of letters
to the Governor
as an exercise in persuasive writing two years ago concerning
their preferred designs.) Ken also displayed a huge certificate
he received, and two new Maryland commemorative quarters.
He has written an article for
COIN WORLD which should
appear in the next issue.
Ken noted that the initial design as selected --- the Maryland Capitol
dome in Annapolis --- did
not include any motto or oak leaves. Those were added at
the Mint, and the design committee did not see them in advance.
(The U.S. Mint can do what it pleases; the state Governor merely
recommends a design.)
The Capitol dome as originally depicted might not have worked well,
given the configuration of the opposite surfaces of the
coin, where Washington's head is
on one side and the dome on the other. So the
Mint shrank the dome and put oak branches and motto on the
other side. If you don't like it, "Blame the Mint!"
Ken concluded.
Feature Attraction:
Panel Discussion on "Buying and Selling Coins
via the Internet"
The March MCCC meeting featured a three-part presentation
concerning online auctions and numismatics. Willy Massey
introduced the subject, Kermit Smyth talked from the
buyer's perspective, and Simcha Kuritzky discussed the
seller's side and his experiences.
Introduction
President Willy Massey explained that Internet auction sites
such as Ebay do not hold items --- they just facilitate buyer
meeting seller. He described some of the ways to check the
reputation of a buyer and seller, and showed printouts of Ebay pages,
down through the numismatic hierarchy of categories.
Willy said that pictures are often included by sellers, and
that bidding is easy, just a matter of filling out a form
Buyer's Side
Kermit Smyth told of his personal experiences since October 1999
in buying coins on the Internet. Although there are over 45,000
coins currently listed on Ebay, in some cases this is only
about 40% of the total available for purchase on the Web.
Kermit uses a site called "Bidder's Edge" to search for listings
and to manage his bids. He also does direct surveys of the
categorized auctions on Ebay, Yahoo, and Amazon.
Dr. Smyth typically doesn't bother bidding on items if they
don't have a scanned-in image, since grading is so highly variable.
Of 21 completed online purchases, Kermit rated 9 as "A" (good
values or bargains), 7 as "B" (fair prices on desirable items),
but 5 were "F" --- things that turned out not to be what
he wanted or what they appeared to be. Some pieces have
hairline scratches or other defects that don't show up on
the scanned picture, for instance. This is perhaps five or more
times the error rate that he would have experienced for
in-person purchases.
In response to questions, Kermit underscored the importance
of reading and understanding the return policy of a seller,
and of studying the reliability/honesty feedback rating of the person
with whom you are dealing. Kermit described his own
procedures for tracking the closing times of auctions.
In many cases, he prefers to wait until the last minute
(literally!) to bid, so as not to reveal interest in an item
prematurely. He tends to avoid competing for material
which has already attracted a lot of bids. Kermit puts in
many of his final bids within the last 15-45 seconds of
an auction, but if he cannot be present during the
critical concluding moments he sometimes enters conditional
bids.
When he wins an auction, Kermit exchanges email with
the seller, establishes the correct amount of postage and
insurance fees to send, and sends messages before, during,
and after the transaction is finished. He has not experienced
any outright dishonesty on the Internet, but he does tend
to avoid sellers with any negative comments in their history.
Dr. Smyth has less experience on other Internet auction sites,
though he has bid on items in the Amazon and Yahoo listings,
and has made a small number of successful purchases there.
He finds that a simple personal check, and shipment via regular
mail, is quite appropriate. Insurance is wise to buy for more
expensive items.
Kermit's Advice
- Turn off automatic notification e-mails if going on vacation.
- Allow plenty of time for images to download.
- Be prepared for some
aggravation, "the downside of Internet trading."
- On the positive side, there's a lot of interesting and
hard-to-find material out there, better than what one
can locate at coin shows in many cases.
- Be patient.
Another Viewpoint
Simcha Kuritzky talked about his experiences in Internet
buying and selling, which differ in several ways from
those of Kermit Smyth. Mr. Kuritzky has bid on over 350
items since September 1999 and has purchased at least
100. These have tended to be "cheap and strange" (his
words!) --- unique or idiosyncratic items, rather than
high-grade numismatic material.
Simcha has developed complex and sophisticated search
strategies to find the pieces he wants to bid on. He discussed
how he has "bookmarked" his boolean search patterns
(AND/OR/NOT combinations of terms) for easy
reuse. He tends to look at 200-400 items during two
sessions per week, and avoids last-minute bidding.
He sorts items by date of listing, rather than date of
auction termination, so as to quickly spot new listings
without having to revisit previously-examined items.
Of the items Mr. Kuritzky has purchased, most cost less
than $5. At times he mails cash, particularly to foreign
countries where check conversion fees are excessive on
small amounts. Only once has he lost any money. Simcha
considers this practice "self-insurance", and finds it works
well.
Mr. Kuritzky's sales on Ebay have also worked out fine.
He lists items without reserve prices, starting at the
minimum amount which he would be willing to accept.
In all cases, bidding has gone up from there. Due to
technical difficulties, he has not yet
been able to scan in and upload images; this has
perhaps been a small handicap.
Simcha's Advice
- Search with care.
- People often do not list items in the right category,
and misspelled words are common.
- Many sellers are
unsophisticated numismatically and do
not know what they are selling.
- Watch for items to
be relisted from week to week.
- Prices fluctuate widely, $60 in one auction and $10 in
another for the same item.
- Consider the value of your
time, and budget it wisely.
- Be systematic about recording
your bids and tracking purchases and sales.
- As many as
10% of purchasers never show up, so many deals fall
through.
- Ebay and other online services do not do much
policing; there are nuts out there, and the best policy is
to avoid dealing with them.
- Be patient.
Auction & Aftermath
After the feature talk and a break for refreshments,
Don McKee and Ken Swab ran the monthly
club auction. The meeting was adjourned at 9:22 p.m.
MCCC Web Comments and Feedback
Please send bug reports and suggestions for improvement to
Mark Zimmermann via
z (at) his.com.
The MCCC Bulletin is copyright © 2000 by the Directors of the
Montgomery
County Coin Club --- who thank the American Numismatic Association
(and especially Ms. Susie Nulty)
for help in sharing the MCCC Bulletin with numismatists everywhere.