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Montgomery County Coin Club

July 2002 Bulletin - Early Web Edition

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MC3 = Numismatics!

Next Meeting: Tuesday, July 9, 2002

Speaker: Miley Busiek Frost

The Montgomery County Coin Club will meet on the second Tuesday of the month, 9 July 2002, 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 approximately 7:20pm. The featured event this month will be a presentation by Miley Busiek Frost, the artist who designed the reverse of the American gold eagle coins. (A small gold eagle will be the Gold Raffle special prize.)


June Meeting Report

On 11 June 2002 the MCCC was called to order at 7:22pm. This month 33 people were present, including 3 Young Numismatists (YNs). No first-time visitors declared themselves.

In Memorium: Frank Guerrero

Ed Russell called for a moment of silence in honor of long-time MCCC member Frank Guerrero. Frank passed away on Sunday, 7 July. He was 82 years old, a veteran of the Second World War (Pacific Theater), and a numismatist who attended MCCC meetings for the past ~15 years. Frank held court every month at a table in the back of the Club room. He will long be remembered for his friendly, dry humor and his active participation in the hobby.

Announcements

Treasurer Simcha Kuritzky reminded members of:

Lame-duck Librarian Kermit Smyth announced that two MCCC members had volunteered to take over the Librarian's duties. Wayne Mitchell tossed his hat into the ring first and will be the next Librarian. Many thanks to him, and to runner-up volunteer Stan Olesh.

Wayne Mitchell discussed the booklet The Conservation of Coins: A Buyer's Guide which was based on a December 2000 conference "Summit 2000" held by the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG) and the Industry Council for Tangible Assets (ICTA), with participation by ICG, NGC, and PCGS. Wayne had extra copies of the booklet and gave them to interested MCCC members. Wayne also commented on the Numismatic Conservation Service of Florida, and described some information he had received about its fees and offerings.

Display Case Notes

Several MCCC members exhibited material from their collections this month: A big Thank you to all exhibitors. Everyone is welcome to bring in some of your favorite items to the next meeting to share with other MC3 members.

Door Prizes & Gold Raffle

Willy Massey described the Door Prizes this month: The gold raffle prize was an Austrian 1999 "Philharmonic" 200 schilling coin containing 0.1 Troy ounces of the precious metal.

This month the door prize winners were Tom Hall (two months in a row!), Mike Dolnick, Steve Lokey, and John Chiusano. The Gold Raffle was won by Stan Olesh. The Bison Chip went to Jeff Crockett. This is his first "leg" of the three needed to win the Bison Chip prize. (You must be present when your name is called to win a Bison Chip.)


Simcha Kuritzky on "The History of the Holy Land"

MCCC Treasurer and expert numismatist Simcha Kuritzky gave a whirlwind tour "...at the rate of 1.5 centuries per minute!" of several thousand years of Middle East history. He started three millennia ago, when the first archaeological evidence appears, and illustrated his talk with maps of the area around the Jordan River plus coins, medallions, and other artifacts from the region.

Given its huge place in world affairs this is a surprisingly small area, Simcha noted --- perhaps ~30 by ~120 miles. He talked of how ~1000 B.C.E. (Before Common Era) King David united the tribes of Israel and moved his capital from Shiloh to Jerusalem. Simcha showed a medal commemorating that action, and another medal representing the construction of the first Temple in Jerusalem. He displayed a King Khezekaya wine jug handle from the ~700 B.C.E. siege of Jerusalem (by Assyria), and further discussed the tumultuous series of invasions and battles which took place in that region for centuries thereafter.

From the time frame of ~400 B.C.E. Simcha showed coins issued in Samaria and Judea under the Persians. He talked about the conquests by Alexander the Great (~322 B.C.E.), Ptolemy, the Seleukids, and the Romans. Various revolts and violent clashes led to the destruction of the Temple and the city of Jerusalem itself. The Jews were exiled; many fled to Persia and into the Arabian peninsula.

Simcha then covered the further history of the area, including its conquest by Moslem Arabs (637 C.E.); its rule from Damascus; the takeover by the Egyptians, then the Turkish Seljuks; the Crusades; the Mamlukes and the Ottoman empire; Napoleon's invasion and defeat at Akko; the British and French holdings; and the complex events of the Twentieth Century. He illustrated many of these historical actions with coins from his collection.

Simcha Kuritzky's talk ended to applause. It was followed by an active question-and-answer session concerning many of the difficult political issues currently troubling the Holy Land region. Many thanks to Simcha, and to all who participated!


Further Notes

The June 2002 MCCC meeting adjourned at approximately 9:20pm. Auctioneers this month were Don McKee and Ken Swab.

Numismatics on the Web

Mahdi Bseiso, a student in the US and a numismatist, wrote recently to the MCCC to contact a Club member who shares some of his collecting interests. Mr. Mseiso also was kind enough to send a pointer to his web site dedicated to Jordanian money: http://www.come2jordan.com/money/ --- which an MCCC reviewer described as "... excellent .... wonderfully organized, easy to use, and very informative." Thank you for your letter, Mr. Bseiso.


Comments and Feedback
MCCC reporter/webmaster Mark Zimmermann has rehosted the MCCC online archives at http://www.his.com/~z/MCCC/ where they are available for reference. Please send bug reports and suggestions for improvement to "z (at) his.com" (http://www.his.com/~z/). The MCCC Bulletin is copyright © 2002 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.

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