This is the MCCC ARCHIVE – for the CURRENT Montgomery County Coin Club see https://montgomerycoinclub.org
January 2003 Bulletin - Early Web Edition
MC3 = Numismatics!
Next Meeting: Tuesday, January 14, 2002
The Montgomery County Coin Club will meet on the second
Tuesday of the month, 14 January 2003, 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 ~7:20pm. The featured event this month will be a talk
by Henry Adler on Kennedy half dollar varieties.
On the frigid evening of 10 December 2002 (with an ice storm scheduled to
start early the following morning) the MCCC was called to order
at ~7:21pm. In defiance of the weather this month ~38 people were present,
including ~4 YNs (Young Numismatists).
The Club welcomed one new visitor, Richard Scorza, husband of MCCC member
Lina Scorza. Good to see you!
Announcements
Ed Russell, chair of the MCCC Nominating Committee, presented the
slate of candidates for Club offices for the 2003 term. Ed invited additional
nominations from the floor. None were offered. Ken Swab moved that nominations
be closed; the motion was seconded by Mark Zimmermann, and all
the 2003 MCCC officers were elected by a unanimous voice vote. They will
take the oath of office at the January meeting. The new officers are:
President: Wayne Mitchell
1st Vice President: Ken Swab
2nd Vice President: Ed Russell
Treasurer: Simcha Kuritzky
Secretary: Jack Schadegg
Sergeant at Arms: John Herman
Directors: Rob Dorsey, Tom Hall, Andrew Luck, John Pylpec, Willy Massey, Bruce Longyear, Don McKee
Librarian: Wayne Mitchell
Web Master & Reporter: Mark Zimmermann
Historian: Tom Hall
Greeter & Door Prize Patrol: Willy Massey
Refreshment Management: William "Bill" Massey & Jonetta Russell
Bulletin Hardcopy Editor: Jack Schadegg
Simcha Kuritzky reported on Club finances, which remain sound. The
MCCC will finish the year with a balanced budget. Simcha also reminded
members of the Frederick Maryland coin show to be held 3-5 January, and
the Wilmington Delaware show on 17-19 January.
Librarian Wayne Mitchell announced the availability of three videotapes
for members to borrow:
- Money: History in Your Hands, narrated by James Earl Jones;
- The Money Story; and
- Inside the World's Mightiest Bank, a Discovery Channel production.
Ken Swab collected surveys of MCCC members' interests in coin
photomicroscopy (or microphotography); the results will be published in
a future Bulletin. Ken also discussed the fate of
the bill H.R. 4005, a proposal to extend the
Commemorative State Quarter program to include the District of Columbia
and various other non-state entities. It passed the House of Representatives
but died in the Senate. Maybe next year!
(See the November
2002 MCCC Bulletin for further background.)
Exhibits
The December MCCC display case held many interesting items:
- Herb Hall, inspired by the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's
reign, showed a gold set from Queen Victoria's 50th anniversary year.
- Simcha Kuritzky displayed an exotic $3 gold piece, holed and plugged,
which had been crafted to be a magical talisman. It bears three names from the
Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, inscriptions purported to protect
the bearer against sudden death and to
promote victory in battle. Simcha's analysis suggests that the gold piece was
engraved after 1933 --- most probably between that year and 1950.
- Gerry Grzenda exhibited medals and political badges of the Grand
Army of the Republic. The GAR was an organization composed of Civil War
veterans who had served as Union soldiers, sailors, or marines. Jerry
described his display as coming from the holdings of a single GAR member
from the state of Indiana who was apparently an active delegate and officer
of the organization. The GAR's five-pointed star design was copied from the
Type 1 US Medal of Honor emblem, and its use by the GAR led to the creation
of the Type 2 Medal of Honor design ca. 1904. The GAR was active until
the 1940's, at which point its membership had mostly passed away. Jerry also
showed a gold bar pin, made with gold dollars and incorporating two Type 1
pieces, one Type 2, and two Type 3s. All were inscribed as love tokens.
(Simcha Kuritzky commented that the widespread use of gold dollars in
jewelry may account for the relatively high price of those coins today.)
- Mark Zimmermann exhibited the medal he received for finishing
the Montgomery County Marathon in the Parks on 17 November 2002. (See http://www.marathonintheparks.com.)
Mark also showed the Tuesday 10 December 2002 New York Times
crossword puzzle which his wife, Paulette Dickerson, found was devoted this
day to a numismatic theme. Clues on this puzzle included "Washington flip side",
"Monticello flip side", "Memorial flip side", "Presidential seal flip side",
"Sacagawea flip side", "Roosevelt flip side", and "It's flipped in this
puzzle" --- all of which should be quite easy for coin collectors to answer.
- Lina Scorza displayed a set of Bulgarian coins which her son had
recently received from Lina's parents. She described the coins --- many of
them silver, from the 1911-1913 era --- as probably gathered by her
maternal grandfather. They form the nucleus of a type set of Bulgarian
coins for the post-1878 time period, when Bulgaria was liberated from
Ottoman Empire rule. Lina noted that Bulgarian coins are, somewhat surprisingly,
widely available on Internet auction sites as well as at coin shows, where
she has acquired some good specimens in recent months.
Please bring some of your own coins in next month to share with your
fellow Club members!
Door Prizes & Gold Raffle
The raffle and door prizes this month were distributed by Willy Massey.
The door prizes for December were:
- a 1905 "V" nickel;
- a 1925 standing Liberty quarter;
- an 1874-1974 Winnipeg 100th Anniversary Canadian dollar coin; and
- two Pobjoy Mint 2002 Isle of Man coins in Christmas card holders.
The gold raffle prize was a 1/9th ounce 1989 Dutch ducat.
Door prize winners this month were Sandy Swab,
Jack Schadegg, and Rob Dorsey.
The Gold Raffle was won by lucky (^_^) YN Nicky Luck.
(The Luck family has had extraordinary success in winning prizes;
last month, one MCCC member was observed paying a Luck YN for the
privilege of rubbing a door prize ticket on the YN's head. The ticket
did not win. Perhaps the Luck does not rub off?)
Jeff Crockett's name was drawn for the Bison Chip;
since this was his third "leg" toward the prize, he won the
prize, a one-ounce silver coin. Congratulations, Jeff!
A new Bison Chip drawing series will begin next month.
Remember, you must be present when your name is called in
order to win a Bison Chip.
The December 2002 MCCC meeting adjourned at ~9:15pm.
MCCC Charity Auction
This year the MCCC Charity Auction included 68 lots of donated coins,
medallions, tokens, and other numismatic material. The auctioneers,
Ken Swab and Don McKee, did a vigorous job --- and the
result was a total of $457 raised for the Silver Spring and Wheaton
Boys and Girls Clubs.
The traditional contest to guess the amount of the winning bids was
won by Tom Hall who estimated $455. Second closest to the correct
sum was Don McKee, at $465. (Andy Luck came in third,
with $444.44 for his entry.)
Tom and Don will receive prizes and recognition for
their acumen at the January 2003 MCCC meeting.
The refreshments during the break this year were again a superb feast, thanks
to Jonetta Russell and colleagues. Thank you!
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" (see also http://zhurnal.net/).
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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