This is the MCCC ARCHIVE – for the CURRENT Montgomery County Coin Club see https://montgomerycoinclub.org
May 2000 Bulletin - Early Web Edition
MCCC: A Collector's Club for the New Millennium
Next Meeting: Tuesday, May 9, 2000
The Montgomery County Coin Club will meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday,
May 9, 2000, at the Silver Spring Senior Citizens Center
(1000 Forest Glen Road, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA). The
featured event for the meeting was not determined as of press
time for this Bulletin.
The main attraction at the April MCCC meeting was
Simcha Kuritzky's presentation on "Building
a Great Exhibit".
See the Featured Article below for
further details.
President William C. Massey called the MCCC
to order at 7:15 p.m. on the evening of April 11, 2000.
There were 39 members present, including
one Young Numismatist (YN).
No first-time visitors decleared themselves.
(Please invite your friends and relatives, especially
young people, to come to the MCCC meeting --- they're
always welcome!)
News & Announcements
- Treasurer Simcha Kuritzky reported that the
Gold raffle prizes have arrived, and thus the Club is ready for
rest of the year. The coins each contain 0.1 oz. gold. Half
are Australian ("kangaroo") pieces, and half are
Austrian ("symphony") coins; all are quite nice. The MCCC
Treasury remains strong, with club revenues likely
to finish 2000 solidly in the black.
- Librarian Kermit Smyth announced that the MCCC
library has a new book, Life in Republican Rome on
Its Coinage, by Stefanelli. The Library catalog list is
now 19 printed pages long; we have approximately 350
volumes available for members to borrow.
The online version (HTML) will be updated soon.
- Historian Tom Hall noted that he is still looking for
old bulletins and photographs. (Club members applauded
Tom's work.)
- Simcha Kuritzky noted that Ernie Turns (Chair, Maryland
State Numismatic Association) is seeking volunteers to help
at the big MSNA coin show on Memorial Day weekend.
Volunteers will be rewarded with free parking and other
goodies.
- The MSNA's Robert Ruby is sponsoring a chartered
bus trip to the ANA convention in Philadelphia later this
summer. The price, $25/person, is hard to beat; the bus
will leave from and return to Pikesville, MD.
- Ed Russell still has coin supplies from the
estate of a late MCCC member, available at fire-sale prices.
- Richard Jozefiak announced that the Alexandria
Coin Club, in Northern Virginia, will conduct a coin display and
giveaway for children on 6 May 2000 at 10:30am in the
Chinn Park Regional Library, Prince William, VA.
A listing for this event will appear in Washington POST
newspaper's "Calendar" section. There will be four presentations,
and many free goodies for potential YNs (Young Numismatists)
under the age of 18 years. (Suggestion from the audience:
the MCCC should consider sponsoring such an event in
our area.)
- MSNA raffle tickets are available from MCCC Treasurer
Simcha Kuritzky. Tickets cost $1 each (or 6 for $5) and the MCCC
gets credit for sales. First Prize will be a $10 American Eagle
(containing 0.25 oz of gold); other prizes include gold and
silver coins. See Simcha for details.
- Frank & Laurese Katen were the donors of
free copies of The Chinese Numismatic Riddle
distributed at a recent MCCC meeting. The MCCC Bulletin
apologies for the inadvertent omission of this information
from the last month's Bulletin. Thank you for your
generosity!
Drawings & Prizes
The door prizes this month were:
- New Zealand $1 Mount Cook commemorative (1970);
- US Kennedy half dollar (1971); and
- Mexico 1 peso (1966).
Lucky winners in April were Irv Blank, Jerry Grzenda,
and John Pylypec.
The Gold Raffle prize was an Austrian 200 schilling gold coin,
of the "Wiener Philharmoniker" series (1998), containing 0.1 Troy
ounce of gold. The raffle was won by Ed Russell.
The Bison Chip drawing winner was John Pylypec;
this is his first "leg" toward the three needed to win
a proof silver eagle. (Note: you must be present to win --- and
you must pay your dues to be eligible!)
April Showcase
MCCC exhibits this month included:
- Herb Hall showed a set of Year of the Dragon coins
and stamps from Canada.
- Mark Zimmermann displayed and commented on
the 1 April 2000 issue of Science News
magazine, which featured a story on the new gold-colored
alloy Sacagawea dollar coin, its composition, and the metallurgy
that went into giving it the same electrical properties as the
Susan B. Anthony dollar.
- George McManus displayed Ecuadorian money, including
a 50,000 sucre piece which, due to inflation, is worth ~$2.
He noted that a hair cut in Ecuador recently cost only ~$0.80,
a bus ride was ~$0.08, and so forth. Ecuador soon
will convert to using US dollars; major hotels tend to list prices
in dollars already.
- Jerry Grzenda showed a large-format Hawaiian $5 bill,
a scarce National note, quite nice ("rarity 9"). For St. Patrick's
Day (belatedly) Jerry displayed a couple of JFK bronze
medals, distributed during the 1963 State Visit to Ireland by
President Kennedy, and rather scarce. Jerry also exhibited a
bronze medal which read "Stephanie Tucker, emancipated,
1862, Wash. DC". On 16 April 1862 the slaves in the District
of Columbia were freed, by proclamation of President Lincoln,
so Jerry suspects that what he exhibited may be a genuine medal
from that era. It is a specimen made in
typical Civil War dogtag style, showing Washington on the obverse
and a name & date on the reverse. Finally, in honor of Pope
John Paul II's recent visit to Israel, Jordan, and territories ofthe Palestine Authority, Jerry displayed some Vatican
City coinage, the earliest from the 1670's, and including
a 1929 Vatican mint set with a 100 lira gold coin,
a 1951 Holy Year set (four aluminum pieces, one gold), a
V.I.P. presentation box, and a silver medal issued for Year 1
of John Paul II's reign.
- Simcha Kuritzky brought in a Vatican medal
issued by Pope Pius IX, depicting Daniel in the lion's den.
- Dennis Bogley showed a double-struck 1946 Lincoln
cent and an unusual-looking 1980 (possibly plated) Lincoln cent,
which he found in 1987.
Feature Attraction:
Simcha Kuritzky on "Building a Great
Exhibit"
The April MCCC meeting featured MCCC Treasurer
Simcha Kuritzky who talked about how to craft
a prizewinning exhibition at a major
coin convention. (To show at the ANA meeting one must be an
ANA member; at the Maryland State Numismatic Association
show anyone can exhibit.)
How do you go about exhibiting? You need to have a theme,
Simcha explained, and then write something like a term paper
or the text for a museum exhibit --- not just show
a set of coins. You have to explain the topic in your text,
so that the judge can rate you on coverage, relevancy, accuracy, etc.
At the ANA convention you must choose to compete in a
sincle Class of exhibit.
At Chicago last year, for instance, there were 102 exhibits,
in 24 different classes. (Local shows do not have that kind of
division into classes; they do allow YNs to compete separately
from adults.) Special awards are given
for the best First-Time exhibit, the best exhibit using
circulating commemoratives, the Best of Show (chosen from
among the first prize winners of each class), and a "People's
Choice" award given by popular vote (sometimes idiosyncratic!).
At the Maryland State show, there are separate awards for
medals and tokens (sponsored by the Maryland TAMS).
Rankings of exhibits are based on:
- title and scope --- you need an obvious title, in large letters,
something specific; a cute title is acceptable but must be
explained in the first paragraph of the text. (The title is worth 5
points.)
- basic numismatic info --- data about the
coins themselves, describing what something is
(15 points)
- special numismatic info --- expanding upon the basics
to give historical context, what the meaning of the
designs are, metallurgic info, etc. Material must be
relevant to the theme/scope of the exhibit. (15 points)
- creativity & originality --- novelty, non-obviousness
of theme and content (10 points)
- attractiveness --- physical layout, background, nice
design, quality of printing, cloth, paper, etc. (10 points)
- balance --- numismatic material vs. text vs. other
material, such as photographs, clippings, diagrams, decorations,
maps, etc. (10 points)
- completeness --- based upon title/scope, is this a complete
set, or is something left out? For instance, an exhibit on
"the four varieties of X"
should be accompanied by all four varieties! (5 points)
- degree of difficulty --- how rare or choice the material is.
"Never shrink away from mentioning how difficult it was to
get [the material]", Mr. Kuritzky advised. Difficulty is judged
based on how many of the exhibited
items you could get if you had a blank check and walked out
on the convention floor. (10 points)
- rarity (10 points)
- condition --- depending on the age and availability of
the material (10 points)
Judging has many subjective elements. A competitive exhibit
must be your own material, and it must not have won
more than two previous First Prize awards in its class. You also
must provide an inventory of the material in your display.
Most people put items directly on the background or with a card
behind it. To show both sides, one can use a mirror (tricky) or
include a photograph of the other side. Photographs are also good
to use to show details in enlargement.
It's a good idea to look at many exhibits at coin shows, to see what
kinds of arrangements are most successful. Another good idea is
to take a judge's certification
seminar; the training is free, and is worth having to learn what
judges look for, and what makes for a better exhibit.
In a typical show, last year's, there were a dozen or so competitors
in US modern coins, ancients, etc. --- but many fewer in some
categories (e.g., "Western Americana" did not attract many in
Chicago!). If you are the only exhibit in a category, you may still
not get First Prize, Mr. Kuritzky emphasized.
Judging happens on Wednesday and Thursday; judges must turn in
their results by Friday noon. Exhibits must thus be in by Wednesday.
There are perquisites for exhibiting: one can get in on PNG day,
get a free ticket to the Conference Banquet, receive an
exhibitor's medal (quite nice!), plus some welcome
recognition. There is no cost to exhibit, other than expenses associated
with getting to the convention early and finding a place to
stay. (A risk, according to Simcha: there is more temptation
to buy better material to upgrade one's exhibit --- so exhibiting
may prove costly in another way!)
Any exhibit at the MSNA convention is guaranteed to get at
least a 1 oz. American
eagle silver coin. Recognition also comes, with one's name in
the bulletin, and on a certificate. Overall, exhibiting is a
good deal all around!
MSNA applications need to go in my 1 May, before the next
MCCC meeting. The ANA deadline is in June. Mr. Kuritzky
encouraged anyone interested to ask him for forms,
on paper or via email. Simcha volunteered
to review and suggest improvements in any draft textual
matter for an exhibit.
And doing an exhibit helps one learn how to appreciate other
exhibits more!
A member of the audience asked Mr. Kuritzky, "What
chance would a series collection, (like a set of Lincoln cents)
have?" Simcha's answer was, "It depends!" The results of
any exhibit are hard to predict; if it's choice material, with a
good discussion and a nice appearance, then you could do
well. Originality isn't everything; you usually get 5 points
out of 10 for just showing up! Sometimes an exhibit will do
splendidly at one show and poorly at another. It all depends
on the judges and on the competition.
When asked, "How about a [silver] dollar exhibit?" Mr. Kuritzky
responded, "That could be quite original!" He recommended
thinking about the exhibit like a term paper
at school. (That's a turn-off for some people, Simcha
admitted.) He added that a bibliography
is a good idea, and one is in fact necessary to win Best of Show.
At the end of his presentation, Mr. Kuritzky received a strong
round of applause from the audience. Bravo!
Auction & Aftermath
After the feature and a break for refreshments,
Don McKee and Jack Schadegg ran the monthly
club auction. The meeting was adjourned at 9:25pm.
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 © 2000 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.