This is the MCCC ARCHIVE – for the CURRENT Montgomery County Coin Club see https://montgomerycoinclub.org
September 1998 Bulletin
Next Meeting: Tuesday, September 8, 1998
Featuring Kermit Smyth on "To Clean, or Not To Clean?"
The Montgomery County Coin Club will meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September
8, 1998, at the Senior Citizens Center on Forest Glen Road in Silver Spring,
Maryland. The meeting will feature Club Librarian Kermit Smyth, who will discuss:
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Whether or not to attempt to clean coins;
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Good, bad, and ugly ways to clean coins; and
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The effect that cleaning can have on coin values.
Bring your sandpaper, wire brushes, silver polish, and ugly tarnished coins
yearning to shine once more --- but don't attempt to do any cleaning until
after you have heard Kermit! In honor of the talk, MCCC will award a prize
to the member who brings in the ugliest coin cleaning job!
Exhibit Case Awaits
The MCCC display case offers a great chance to show off your coins, medals,
currency, and other numismatically-related items of interest. Have you
just acquired a long-sought piece that completes your collection? Do you
remember how much you liked to hear about another Club member's special
find? Do you have squirreled away an extraordinary and obscure artifact
of history from long ago? Please share the wealth --- bring something fun
to put in the display, and say a word or two about it. Your fellow MCCCers,
especially the younger numismatists in the audience, will enjoy learning
about your material!
Exhibits and Displays
At the August meeting, the Club saw several great exhibits:
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Simcha Kuritzky, just back from the Portland Convention of the American
Numismatic Association (which ended on August 9) showed Exhibit Guides
and Programs as well as other convention items. He reported that over 11,000
people attended, more than had been at the previous New York City ANA Convention.
The Portland Museum gave a presentation about its forthcoming exhibit of
art related to money, which will be opening in New York City in December,
1998. Part of the planned show was displayed --- an exhibit of "Road Kill",
money found near Seattle on the streets. Numismatist Bob Hendershott celebrated
this 100th Birthday on Saturday (August 8, 1998) --- Congratulations! The
Numismatists International talk about the new Euro coin coming out by 2002
was noteworthy. Two of Simcha's exhibits at the convention won Second Place
awards.
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Mae Clarke displayed some of what she termed "Odds and Ends" ---
to demonstrate a few of the many ways to have fun collecting coins. Mae's
exhibit included a Constitution commemorative coin that her late husband
had pushed the button to mint, as well as a Mark Twain gold medal, a sample
of raw Alaska gold granules, and a U.S. gold eagle bullion coin.
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Ken Huff reported on his recent visit to the USS Harry S Truman,
a nuclear aircraft carrier recently commissioned, the eighth of ten Nimitz-class
ships. (Next, in 2002, will be the USS Ronald Reagan.) This 97,000 ton
vessel has 4.5 acres of deck space and a crew of over 6,000. Ken exhibited
a commemorative Coca-Cola can marked with the date of the Harry S Truman's
launching, along with a commemorative hat and a program from the event.
He also displayed a commemorative medal for President Truman. (The Coke
can was later auctioned off and attracted spirited bidding!)
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Herb Hall showed a 10 ounce 0.9999 pure silver commemorative medal
marking the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Mint. He also displayed a
Canadian commemorative coin honoring Herman Bethune, born 1890, a physician
in the Canadian Army who and became Chief Surgeon. Herb also showed the
new U.S. Duck Stamp.
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Scott Helmick showed an NGC "Photo Proof" of an 1861 Dahlonega mint
gold dollar --- a beautiful coin, struck when the Dahlonega facility was
under control of the Confederacy, under rather crude conditions.
Charity Auction Looms
Don't forget --- the MCCC Charity Auction is coming sooner than you think,
at the November meeting. All proceeds from this special affair go to benefit
the Silver Spring and Wheaton Boys Girls Clubs. Look through your hoard
and make a gift that can help these young people have a better place to
play and study after school, please! Your donations can be cash or numismatic
material for the Auction. In either case, you get a tax deduction. Thanks
for your help!
Redbooks Sales Brisk, Some Still Available
At the bargain price of $7 each, about half of the available Redbooks (the
famous guide to US coins) sold at the August meeting. The remainder will
be available at the September meeting. Check with Ed Russell if
you want one before then.
August Meeting Announcements
On a pleasant Tuesday afternoon, a bit before 7:00 pm on August 11, 1998,
a crowd began to gather in front of the Senior Citizens Center. People
with bags milled about, watching the traffic and talking with each other.
At 7:10 pm, the Center was unlocked, and the crowd rushed in to set up
for the meeting.
MCCC President Swab called the Club to order at about 7:20 p.m. Approximately
35 members were present, including 4 YNs.
Major announcements included:
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President Swab reminds the MCCC that he still has many special awards
available for Young Numismatists YNs) who exhibit items in the Club Display
Case. As always, please consider bringing a (potential or actual) YN with
you to the meeting. They may discover a hobby that will give them education
and entertainment for a lifetime!
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Door Prizes: Filling in for Vice President William C. Massey,
Ken Huff manned the raffle and door prize table. He announced that
among the prizes were
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a Greek 1982 drachma,
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a 1980 Greek 50 drachma,
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coins of Great Britain from 1894 (one shilling) and 1936,
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a Philippines 1944 piece,
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and a New Zealand 1983 Fiftieth Anniversary Commemorative dollar.
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Lucky winners of these prizes, drawn during the auction at the end of the
meeting, were:
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Joe Mallon,
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Mae Clarke,
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Dave Magee,
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Richard Jozefiak,
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Mark Zimmermann, and
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Scott Helmick. Congratulations!
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Other Awards:
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The 50-50 Raffle was won by Scott Helmick.
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David Magee won his first Bison leg. (Almost a dozen names were
called before David's, but none of those members were present. You have
to be at the meeting when your name is called in order to get a leg towards
the three required for winning the Bison Chip prize.)
40th Anniversary Design Competition
The MCCC will celebrate the Fortieth Anniversary of its founding next year.
There will be a special competition in months to come to create the Commemorative
MCCC Elongated Design. Watch your MCCC Bulletin next month for a template,
draw your design, submit it, and (if you win) your initials will go onto
the die (just like Victor D. Brenner of 1909-S VDB fame). What a way to
achieve immortality!
August's Talk, "Coins from a New Arboretum," by Joe
Howard
Wearing a tree-theme tee-shirt and a large belt buckle of finely polished
and lacquered wood, Joe Howard, MCCC member and Chairman of the
Montgomery County Forestry Board, spoke and showed slides of numismatic
materials featuring trees in their designs. Mr. Howard teaches children
and elderly about trees and coins, and has put together an impressive collection
of arbor-related material.
Mr. Howard began by discussing the annual competition in Montgomery
County for the largest specimen of each species of tree, and distributed
copies of the Montgomery County Register of Champion Trees.
Mr. Howard's brisk and fun slide show began with a Pine Tree Shilling,
dated 1652, one of the first coins struck in the Americas. He went on to
display coins with trees from Prince Edward's Island (one penny) and the
Ontario 1992 commemorative quarter (showing a jack pine). The 1996/1796
Macintosh apple commemorative Canadian silver $1 was next, followed by
several pieces from Central and South America --- a 1 Real coin showing
an oak from the United Provinces of Central America (struck in the 1830s),
and from Costa Rica an 8-peso of 1862 with an oak, a tree-counterstamped
2-Real dated 1775, stamped in 1845, and another piece showing a guanacasta,
the national tree of Costa Rica. Mr. Howard then showed and commented on
the Guatemala 5 centavo coin showing the capon tree, that country's national
tree. He displayed a plantation token (25 centavos) of a coffee tree, and
then the Anguilla mahogany tree (on the island's coat of arms). A coin
of Columbia illustrated a saman or "monkey pod" tree, famous from the Swiss
Family Robinson story. Other South American and Caribbean coins with trees
that were projected included a 2.5 centavo from Columbia, a Peruvian coin
with a chincora tree (the national tree of both Peru and Ecuador, and the
source of the medicine quinine), an 1881 Bolivian coin showing a breadfruit
tree, a Brazil 2 centavo piece with a coffee tree, a 1973 coin of Barbados
with a Ficus Barbados (fig tree), a 1 Gourde coin of Haiti (the second
oldest Republic in the hemisphere) with a palm tree, Cuban coins with royal
palm and kapok trees, and tree-honoring coins of Jamaica, Grenada, Bermuda,
and the Cayman Islands.
Moving farther afield, Mr. Howard showed and commented on slides of
coins from Western Samoa (coconut palm trees), Malaysia (betelnut palm),
Indonesia (banyan), Tonga (more coconuts), New Caledonia (Norfolk Island
pine), Japan (paulonia tree --- traditionally planted when a girl is born,
to grow into wood for her hope chest when she is ready to marry), Thailand
(tonson pines), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka, coconut palms), Mauritius (still
more coconuts!), the Seychelles (nut palm), South Africa (orange tree,
for the Orange Free State), Netherlands (more oranges, for William of Orange),
Namibia (acacia, quiver, camelthorn, and aloe trees), Swaziland (pine tree),
Zimbabwe and Senegal (baobabs), Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria (cacao
trees), and what is reputed to be the largest tree in Africa, honored on
a Sierra Leone coin (250 feet tall, a kapok tree).
Continuing his world tour, Mr. Howard displayed slides of the Gambian
1 shilling showing an oil palm, an Equatorial Guinea 7000 Franc coin of
1993 with a mangrove, a Lebanon 1952 cedar, and Israeli coins with cedars,
date palms, and pomegranates. (He showed a coin from the 132-135 C.E. from
that same area of the world, during a Jewish revolt against the Rome, with
a similar tree!) Additional coins then shown included a Jordan olive tree
(the tree most frequently mentioned in the Bible), an Arabian data palm,
a Tunisian cork oak, a Yemen date palm and a coffee tree, a 1986 Italian
1500 Lira with an olive tree, and a 1995 Portuguese set of coins showing
spice trees --- fragrant sandalwood, cloves, and nutmeg. Mr. Howard then
showed a German oak tree on a 1928 five Reichmark (predating Hitler's rise
to power), a 1727 Polish cypress tree coin, a 1985 Swedish 100 Kroner with
a Scots Pine, a Finnish 50 markka birch tree, and the 1985 Coin of the
Year winner, a Finish European spruce. The UK 1 pound coin of 1983 shows
an English oak, and (thanks to Julian Leidman) Mr. Howard showed a slide
of "one that got away", a large plaster model design for a US 1 cent coin
made by Laura Garden Fraser, which he was tempted by but did not purchase
for $2,000. The $1 US commemorative for the 100th anniversary of President
Eisenhower's birthday showed three green ash trees.
Mr. Howard finished up by showing an often-overlooked tree --- the mountain
pine on the reverse of the popular Walking Liberty half dollar. In toto,
Mr. Howard's collection includes 55 different species of trees on coins
from over 100 different countries!
Swab Appointed to Maryland Quarter Commission
Maryland Governor Parris Glendenning has appointed MCCC President
Ken Swab to the commission which will make recommendations to him
about the design of the Maryland quarter reverse scheduled to be struck
by the U.S. Mint in 2000. The Commission expects to finish its work by
the middle of October.
MCCC Authors
Ken Swab and Mark Zimmermann had their article on the MCCC's
recommendation on the design of the Maryland quarter published in the September
1 issue of Numismatic News. Ken Swab's article on Claude Moore Farm
colonial currency appeared on page 1 of the September 7 edition of Coin
World.
Acknowledgments
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As usual, Don McKee and Jack Schadegg were MCCC's able auctioneers.
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Ken Huff substituted for Willy Massey and ran the door prize
and 50-50 raffle drawings.
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Simcha Kuritzky managed the auction accounting and the Bison Chip
drawing.
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 (c) 1999 by the Directors of the Montgomery
County Coin Club.