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Montgomery County Coin Club

August 2000 Bulletin - Revised Web Edition *

Meeting Report - Feature Article - Feedback - MCCC Home Page - Bulletin Index

MCCC: A Collector's Club for the New Millennium

Next Meeting: Tuesday, August 8, 2000

The Montgomery County Coin Club will meet at 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month, August 8, 2000, at the Silver Spring Senior Citizens Center (1000 Forest Glen Road, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA). The featured event for the meeting was not determined as of press time for this Bulletin.

2001 Red Books --- Special Offer!

The new hardback edition of A Guide Book of United States Coins, commonly known as "The Red Book", will be available for purchase by MCCC members at the extraordinary discount price of only $8. All sale proceeds will go to benefit MCCC activities. See Ed Russell at the next meeting to reserve your copy. (With luck, copies may already be available on the evening of August 8.)

July Report

The main attraction at the July MCCC meeting was a presentation by MCCC member Jerry Grzenda on "Hard Times Tokens". See the Featured Article below for full details, and for a special "Ted Freter Retrospective" about the MCCC in 1966-67.

President William C. Massey called the MCCC to order at 7:20 p.m. on the warm evening of July 11, 2000. About 32 MCCC members were present, including 2 Young Numismatists (YNs) but no first-time visitors. (Please invite friends and relatives, especially young people, to come to the next MCCC meeting!)

News & Announcements

Drawings & Prizes

The door prizes this month were: Lucky winners in July were Frank Guerrero, Ben Kalman, Jonetta Russell, and Andrew Luck. (Congratulations!)

The July Gold Raffle prize was an Australian "kangaroo" AKA "nugget" (0.1 oz of gold, face value $15), dated 1999. The raffle was won by Ken Huff (who ran the Door Prize table --- coincidence?).

The Bison Chip drawing named Andrew Luck; this is his first "leg" of three needed. (Note: you must be present to win.)

July Showcase

Member MCCC displays this month included:

Featured Attraction: Jerry Grzenda on "Hard Times Tokens"

Jerry Grzenda spoke to the MCCC on the large cent tokens issued during the Andrew Jackson Presidential administration and shortly thereafter (beginning in the 1830's). These tokens tended to have political themes, Jerry noted, and often focused on economic policy issues. President Jackson fought against large banks, and his actions caused considerable controversy along with economic turmoil.

Mr. Grzenda described the political situation of the time, including Andrew Jackson's opposition to the Bank of the United States and the associated financial events. Jerry then showed and discussed tokens with anti-Jackson themes, such as one from 1837 (during Martin van Buren's term of office) with a tortoise labeled "Executive Experiment" on one side and a leaping donkey image on the other side. (The "jackass" represented President Jackson.)

Jerry also displayed tokens of the 1834-1840 timeframe. One of these was a specimen of the famous anti-slavery token with the inscription "Am I Not a Woman and a Sister?". Other pieces included images alluding to the US Constitution and President Jackson's alleged lack of understanding of it.

During the Panic of 1837, Jerry explained, hoarding of hard money led to coin shortages --- so many merchants in the Atlantic seaboard states produced tokens advertising their wares and which were also useful in making change for small purchases. Among the goods shown for sale were books, groceries, machinery, and other items. Jerry showed a half cent token and a small-cent-sized token by Fuerchtwanger in a copper-nickel alloy --- an important coin issued twenty years ahead of the Flying Eagle cent of 1856-1858 (the first official small cent).

The economic problems of the times led to Martin van Buren's defeat in the Presidential elections of 1840, and thus the end of the era of most Hard Times tokens. Comments and questions from the MCCC audience led to further discussion of proof struck tokens and the possible production of such coins in England. Jerry remarked that counterstamps sometimes were applied to Hard Times tokens; he displayed one, a Liberty Head obverse design with the reverse inscription "Millions for Defense - Not One Cent for Tribute". It was counterstamped with the initials "MVG" on the obverse, with the "V" looking like a heart. Jerry suggested that a merchant likely counterstamped it for advertising purposes.

Other questions led to discussions of the variations in weight among Hard Times tokens and their patterns of circulation. One piece Jerry showed, he noted, was holed at the 12 o'clock position and was probably used as jewelry. Hard Times tokens contrast, Jerry said, with British Condor tokens which had to meet strict government requirements.

Mr. Grzenda's presentation ended to a round of applause from the MCCC membership present. (Thank you, Jerry!)

The MCCC 35 Years Ago: In Memorium, Ted Freter

(thanks to Lisa Freter for archival material!)
In December 1965 Ted Freter was elected President of the MCCC; he served two terms, 1966-1967. Ted passed away not long ago and his daughter Lisa, now living in Colorado, has kindly sent the Club sets of Bulletins from the mid-1960's which she preserved from Ted's estate.

A look at those Bulletins reveals much that has changed, and much that remains the same. Some names of current MCCC members appear frequently: Irv Eisen, Mike Dolnick, and Mae Clarke, among others. Some silver and gold coin prices in the monthly auction look quite low by modern standards: a 1921 Peace dollar in EF condition listed for $14? ... a 1910 quarter eagle EF for $23.50? ... an 1878-CC Morgan dollar in F for $3? ... an 1892 eagle in AU for $30? ... an UNC 1889-S $20 gold piece for $55? (The mind boggles!) But in contrast, prices of copper and nickel coins, of foreign material, and of books appear rather high compared with today.

The topics of Bulletin articles and monthly presentations include some familiar themes:

The limit on the maximum number of members in the MCCC was lifted from 150 to 175 in June 1966. The raffle prize in January 1966 was a $5 gold piece. The Bulletin at that time included a public service announcement, "We can be of great help to the Mint and to our hobby by not doing any hoarding of the 1965 coins, especially the half-dollars." And then there was the admonition, "REMEMBER, although we want material, the club auctions should not be used as a garbage disposal to dispose of material that is damaged, badly worn or any such material that you yourself would not want to purchase at a club auction." The MCCC donated auction raised funds to benefit the Silver Spring Boys Club (later to become the Boys and Girls Club). The MCCC Annual Picnic was held in September in both 1966 and 1967. New "Blue Books" for 1968 (25th Edition) sold for $0.75 each, one to a member.

Finally, a still-valid thought from Ted Freter's editorial in the July 1966 issue:

"... it seems appropriate to note that a coin club can have a broader motivation than to serve merely as a market-place or investment counselor for its members. There are many facets of the hobby which, through the educational and inspirational activities of a coin club, can be brought to the attention of its newer collectors. It appears to us that, on the record and in the attitude of its membership, the MCCC has done a consistently outstanding amount of service in this respect."

Auction & Aftermath

After the feature and a break for refreshments, Don McKee ran the monthly club auction. (Bidding was fast and furious!) The meeting was adjourned at 9:16pm.
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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.