This is the MCCC ARCHIVE – for the CURRENT Montgomery County Coin Club see https://montgomerycoinclub.org
November 2001 Bulletin - Early Web Edition
MCCC: A Collector's Club For the New Millennium
Next Meeting: Tuesday, November 13, 2001
The Montgomery County Coin Club will convene on the second Tuesday of the month, 13 November 2001, at the Silver Spring Senior Citizens Center (1000 Forest Glen Road, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA). Doors open at 7:00pm, and the meeting begins with the Pledge of Allegiance at about 7:20pm. The featured event for this month's gathering had not been announced as of press time for this edition
of the Bulletin.
Charity Auction Contributions Needed!
The MCCC's traditional Charity
Auction will be held in January 2002. Bring your donations of numismatic materials
to the November or December meeting, or contact a Club officer to arrange a rendezvous or pick-up
between meetings. Please give generously!
Szauer Note
J. Neil McCormick of the Numismatic Society of Ireland
(Northern Branch, Belfast) writes:
"I noted a brief reference to the late Emil Szauer in your April Bulletin.
He was a well known and respected coin dealer in Dublin who died about two years
ago. Of Hungarian extraction, his father was an aeroplane pilot
in the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the first world war. The Numismatic Society of
Ireland has an Emil Szauer memorial lecture each February in Dublin."
Thank you, Mr. McCormick! Thanks also for advising on the correct spelling of
Mr. Szauer's name (the April Bulletin had it mistakenly as "Zauer").
The Numismatic Society of Ireland's web pages may be found on
http://www.coinclubs.com in the "Other Countries" section.
December Featured Attraction
Bob Lande has agreed to be the MCCC's guest speaker in December.
He will be talking about California fractional gold tokens.
Little Red Books
Ed Russell has only a few copies remaining of the new hardback 2002 edition of
A Guide Book of United States Coins, aka "The Red Book".
The Red Book is for sale to MCCC members at the bargain price of $8.50; the list price is $15. Contact Ed at the next meeting to get one; a portion of the
proceeds goes to benefit the MCCC's charitable activities.
On a brisk evening, 9 October 2001, the MCCC meeting was called to order at 7:22pm by President Jack Schadegg. Approximately 28 members, including 1 Young
Numismatist (YN), were present.
After the Pledge of Allegiance to the US flag President Schadegg reminded members that the Club will not meet
when the Senior Citizens Center is closed, as
was the case last month. The Center closes whenever Montgomery County schools
are closed early, when road conditions are unsafe,
or in other extraordinary circumstances (as happened on 11
September). Don McKee has volunteered to be a central point of contact
in case of any questions about meetings; his telephone number will be published
in a future Bulletin.
Volunteer Awards
Willy Massey presented Silver Eagles on behalf of the Maryland State
Numismatic Association (MSNA) to MCCC members who volunteered and served
at the recent MSNA Convention. Recipients of these awards included
Herb Hall, Simcha Kuritzky, and Bert Marks. (One prize,
for a person named "Mashinki", was a mystery --- will the winner please
come forward?) The MCCC received a $100 check from the MSNA for its
support.
Board of Directors & Petition
President Schadegg described the major actions taken at the MCCC Board
of Directors meeting on 25 September 2001. After some discussion, the
members present voted 25-2 in favor of the proposed Petition to Senator
Sarbanes (printed in last month's Bulletin) in support of extending
the State Quarter program into 2009, to include quarter designs for
the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, American
Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Door Prizes & Gold Raffle
Willy Massey announced the Door Prizes:
- 1894 Hungary 1 Korona
- 1932 US Washington quarter
- 1904 Panama 10 centisimos
All of these are silver coins. (An additional Special Door Prize --- an 1886-O
US silver dollar --- was added during the meeting; see below.)
The Gold Raffle prize was a 1945 Mexico 2.5 peso in a plastic holder.
Door prize winners this month were Jack Cross, Herb Hall, Steve Lokey,
and Al Yuni. The Gold Raffle was taken by Andrew Luck on behalf
of YN Nicky Luck. (As was the case some months ago,
Andrew rubbed his ticket on Nicky's head, and Luck, so to speak, smiled on the
family.) There was no Bison Chip drawing this month. Congratulations to
all the winners!
Visitor
This month the MCCC greeted Lt. Col. Leon Robert (USA), an
entomologist stationed at the Uniformed Services University of the Health
Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda. Colonel Robert is back in the States after three years
in Germany. He told the MCCC that he collects coins and other numismatic
material featuring insects --- and although one might not have expected it,
there are thousands of such distinctive
pieces. Only a few people in the US focus on this area, and they mostly know
each other and trade material with one another to help build their sets.
Colonel Robert also collects medals related to Walter Reed and the theme of
Yellow Fever. Welcome, Sir!
Exhibits
- Herb Hall displayed samples of early British coinage, including
pieces dating back to King William III (1697) and through Queen Victoria's
reign.
- Jeff Crockett showed a silver rupee issued by the Sultan of Kabul,
Afghanistan, dated 1305 in the Islamic calendar (1884 C.E.)
- Willy Massey shared a photograph of himself with the native American
who modeled for the Sacagawea dollar coin. The photo was taken by Jerry Grzenda
at the recent ANA Convention.
- Andrew Luck exhibited Love Tokens engraved in the late 19th
Century, including one on a US Trade Dollar.
- Jerry Grzenda displayed Afghani coins, mostly from the pre-1973
era of the monarchy. These coins include a mosque design on one side, similar
to that used on the present national flag. Jerry discussed some of the
history of Afghanistan, and noted that one of the items in his exhibit,
a 1960 gold piece, was the last such coin issued by the nation and had an
official mintage of only 200 pieces. The King of Afghanistan was on a tour
of the US ~1960 and gave one of them out as a gift --- the coin which Jerry
had on display. Jerry also showed an exonumia item from the William P. Rodgers
widow's estate sale, a solid gold life membership card in the Dexter Fellows.
Additionally, Jerry exhibited a UK "Millennium Silver Collection", a Maundy
set, an Australian proof set of 1998, and a commemorative plaque honoring
the defense of Bastogne during WWII.
- Mark Zimmermann shared the sad news of the recent deaths of Frank
Gasparro and Elvira Clain-Stefanelli. Both obituaries appeared in the
4 October Washington Post. Mr. Gasparro was the chief engraver of
the US Mint from 1965 to 1981, and was responsible for the Lincoln Memorial
reverse of the cent as well as the Susan B. Anthony dollar design, the reverse
of the Kennedy half dollar, both sides of the Eisenhower dollar, and many
coins of other nations as well as commemorative medals. Ms. Clain-Stefanelli
was a numismatist at the Smithsonian Institution where she was curator and
executive director of the US National Coin Collection. Ed Russell
reported that Ms. Clain-Stefanelli (and her husband, Vladimir Clain-Stefanelli)
visited the MCCC several times in decades past --- and that at one time many
years ago, one of them brought an 1804 silver dollar to display at a meeting! Mark
also showed copies of the 23 and 30 September issues of "The Mini Page", a
young person's insert section in the newspaper. Those issues featured the
State Quarter commemorative program and the Sacagawea "golden" dollar coin.
NumisQuiz!
As the featured attraction for the October MCCC meeting,
President Jack Schadegg asked some tricky questions of the MCCC membership,
with two silver dollars as prizes for the best answers. Among the posers:
- What was the "Randall Hoard"? How was it stored, and how many
pieces were in a standard Mint-issued container?
- It was a massive amount of 1819-1820 uncirculated US large cents, discovered
many years later in an original Mint keg (or kegs). Each such keg held 14,000 coins.
- Who bought the first Columbian Exposition commemorative half dollar (1892)?
What did it cost?
- The Remington Typewriter company made the purchase, for $10,000.
- Although the US Mint discovered the 1955 double-die cent error on the day
of striking, Mint officials nevertheless released many of them into circulation.
Why?
- The discovery of this error was made in the afternoon, and many of the
coins had already been mixed in with the output of other dies. Although a
box of 40,000 was destroyed, about 24,000 were released.
- What mid-19th Century denomination and date US coin had the majority of
its first year mintage issued after its stated date? How many were issued?
- The 1856 Flying Eagle cent was produced in an 1856 presentation issue of
600; another 1000 were minted after 1859.
- What was the first American coin to feature a foreign monarch?
- The 1892 Queen Isabella commemorative quarter dollar.
The NumisQuiz provoked considerable merriment and discussion.
Andrew Luck, on behalf of YN Nicky Luck, took one of the silver dollar prizes
by answering the last question correctly. A joint effort by Tom Hall & Mark
Zimmermann won the other dollar for the penultimate question --- but since they
could not divide the coin, they donated it to the Door Prize this month!
Auction & Aftermath
The MCCC Live Auction ran briskly through a list of 50 lots.
Don McKee & Ken Swab were the auctioneers. The meeting adjourned at 8:57pm.
Comments and Feedback
Please send bug reports and suggestions for improvement to
"z (at) his.com" (http://www.his.com/~z/).
The MCCC Bulletin is copyright © 2001 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.