Montgomery County Coin Club

March 2000 Bulletin - Early Web Edition

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MCCC: A Collector's Club for the Third Millennium

Next Meeting: Tuesday, March 14, 2000

February Report

President William C. Massey called the MCCC to order at 7:15 p.m. on the evening of February 8, 2000. A big crowd of ~45 collectors were present, including two Young Numismatists (YNs) who were awarded Commemorative Quarter albums from the Maryland State Numismatic Association. Three visitors were welcomed:

• George & Daniel McManus --- who heard about the club at a nearby coin show
• Dennis Bogley --- a local collector returning to the MCCC after many years

General Announcements

• Treasurer Simcha Kuritzky reported that the club now has a healthy surplus, and suggested that some of the resources could be used to re-institute the Gold Raffle, perhaps as soon as April. (The Gold Raffle would replace the 50-50 raffle.) Mr. Kuritzky still has some receipts for donations to the MCCC 1999 Charity Auction; please see him if you have not yet picked yours up.
• Don McKee called for and got a round of applause in honor of Mr. Kuritzky's superb stewardship of the MCCC Treasury.
• Librarian Kermit Smyth announced that there is over $200 in the Library Fund --- so please suggest items to acquire.
• The ANA midwinter convention in Florida is coming soon, and the big ANA convention in Philadelphia will occur in August. Simcha Kuritzky has information about lodging there; see him for details on how to save some money (so you'll have more to spend on coins!).
• The April 2000 MCCC meeting will feature a program on how to build a prizewinning exhibit.
• Free copies are available of The Chinese Numismatic Riddle, a 1975 reprint of the Frank C. Higgins book originally published in 1910.
• On "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" a recent question hinged on the denomination of Irish money: Guilder, Dollar, Punt, or Krone? (For those who have been too immersed in their collections to notice, WWTBaM is a popular current television show.) Answer: the Punt.

Door Prizes

• 1960 and 1965 Canadian 25 cent pieces;
• 1958 Canadian 50 cent; and
• 1947 Australian florin.

February Display Case Offerings

• Simcha Kuritzky for Valentine's Day showed coins with hearts on them, and noted that the "heart" symbol we use appeared first on ancient Greek coins. He displayed a medal that comes apart into two pieces, one for each lover, plus a love token and medalette. He also exhibited several Christian medals with heart motifs, both Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox. Mr. Kuritzky in addition displayed a Hindu medal of the Monkey God revealing his heart, a marriage token from Mexico, an "I Love You" elongated coin, and a pink panther Valentine one oz. silver round, bearing the legend "You Put Me In the Pink" (found on eBay).
• Sterling Bogley exhibited special wartime currency from World War II: a 50 cent bill with a portrait of young Abraham Lincoln; Japanese peso notes used in the Philippines during its occupation; $1 bills of Hawaii; and North African money. Mr. Bogley's father worked in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing during WWII, where he made cedar boxes to ship those notes in. Mr. Bogley also showed a genuine $3 bill and a $30 bill, both printed by banks themselves, neither one signed or circulated.
• Tom Hall showed a Sacagewea dollar coin plus a memorandum from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) concerning the Susan B. Anthony dollar. (The memo attempted to encourage employees to use and circulate SBA coins.)
• Richard Jozefiak exhibited a Canadian 1999 millennium set of 12 quarters, one per province and territory. The Canadian Mint made some errors in creating these coins: "mule" denominations with incorrect obverse/reverse combinations. Mr. Jozefiak checked his set and discovered that the September and November 1999 quarters were both minted wrong --- making the $15 set worth hundreds of dollars! Mr. Jozefiak also displayed some articles from Coin World on this subject.
• Jerry Grzenda displayed Ecuadorian coins, including 5 Francos of 1858, 8 Escudos of 1843 and 1855, and several other impressive gold and silver pieces. Ecuador, as Mr. Grzenda explained, made the news recently due to political unrest. The country has a long and fascinating history, and has produced many lovely coins. Some Ecuadorian coins are mentioned in Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick. Modern times, Mr. Grzenda observed, have brought inflation and some huge denominations. It now takes 25,000 Ecuadorian Sucres to equal one U.S. dollar. (So who wants to be an Ecuadorian millionaire? --- it only requires $40.)

Feature Attraction: Richard Jozefiak on "The Heritage of Coins"

Mr. Jozefiak talked about the history of coins, their minting, their context, and their current value. Some of the earliest coins, such as those made in ancient Greece, were amazingly beautiful. ("But they wouldn't stack very well!" Kermit Smyth noted.)

Although the book The Heritage of Coins is good in many ways, Mr. Jozefiak criticized its failure to discuss the dimensions, weight, or other parameters associated with the coins that it featured. But on the positive side, the photography was excellent. The slides which Mr. Jozefiak showed were:

• electrum Stater of Lydia, 640 B.C.E.
• electrum Stater of Ephesus, 600 B.C.E.
• silver Tetradrachm of Athens, 500 B.C.E.
• silver Dekatrachm of Syracuse, 415 B.C.E.
• aes Signatum of Rome, 289 B.C.E.
• gold Nomisma of Byzantium, 1100 C.E.
• bronze Nummia of Byzantium, 600 C.E.
• gold Florin of Florence, 1250 C.E.
• gold Excellente of Spain, 1492 C.E.
• silver Penny of William the Conqueror, Britain, 1066 C.E.
• silver Denier of Charlemagne, France, 800 C.E.
• silver double Taler of Saxony, 1657 C.E.
• silver 5 Pengo of Hungary, 1938 C.E.

After the feature talk and a break for refreshments, Don McKee ran the monthly club auction. The meeting was adjourned at 9:22 p.m.

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