This is the MCCC ARCHIVE – for the CURRENT Montgomery County Coin Club see https://montgomerycoinclub.org
November 2000 Bulletin - Early Web Edition
MCCC: A Collector's Club for the New Millennium
Next Meeting: Tuesday, November 14, 2000
The Montgomery County Coin Club will meet at 7pm on the
second Tuesday of the month,
November 14, 2000, at the Silver Spring Senior Citizens Center
(1000 Forest Glen Road, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA).
The featured event will be the Annual MCCC Charity
Auction!
2001 Red (Hot!) Book Bargains
The latest hardback edition of A Guide Book of United
States Coins, commonly known as "The Red Book",
is available for purchase by MCCC members at the
discount price of only $8. All sale proceeds go to benefit
MCCC activities. Ask Ed Russell for a copy at the next
meeting.
The main attraction at the October MCCC meeting was a talk
by long-time club member Irv Eisen on The Euro,
illustrated with coins, posters, books, and numismatic
anecdotes from his recent European tour.
See the Featured Article below for details.
President Willy Massey called the MCCC
to order at 7:14pm on the chilly evening of
October 10, 2000 (Double-Ten Day!).
About 39 MCCC members were present, quite a crowd, but
no Young Numismatists (YNs) on this school night.
Two visitors, Bruce Longyear (a specialist in error coins)
and Tracy Locke, were welcomed with a round of applause.
(Don't forget to bring friends and relatives, especially
younger people, to the next MCCC meeting.)
News & Announcements
- The MCCC Charity Auction will be held in November ---
be sure to come, and bid from the heart. Donors get tax deductions,
purchasers get numismatic treasures, and all proceeds go
to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of Silver Spring and Wheaton.
(Please call President Massey before the meeting if
you have some material for a last-minute donation.)
- President Willy Massey announced that nominations
are welcome for MCCC Officers next year. Please volunteer!
The jobs are (relatively) painless, and by taking a turn to
serve you will help your fellow MCCC members as well as
numismatics in general. (Maybe it will even make your own
collection's value go up!) Looking ahead to next month,
Willy announced that the MCCC Guest Speaker at our December
2000 meeting will be Glen Burger, who will talk about
Error Coins --- an important topic, given
recent big-ticket sales of some major Mint errors.
- Treasurer Simcha Kuritzky reported that Club
finances are solid, and that the MCCC is on track to finish
the year "in the black". He also asked anyone who has not
resolved Mail Auction Bids or other obligations to see him.
Simcha reminded members that there will be a coin show in
the Baltimore Convention Center on the last weekend of October.
He concluded by announcing that MCCC dues for 2001 can be paid
now; the pricetag remains $6 for adults and $1 for Young
Numismatists. (Still a great bargain!)
- Wayne Mitchell offered rolls of uncirculated
New Hampshire commemorative quarters at face value.
Drawings & Prizes
The door prize drawings were run by Ken Huff, Herb Hall,
and Joe Mallon. Prizes awarded this month were three
(500 fine) silver shillings of Great Britain, all from the reign of
King George VI. They were dated 1939, 1940, and 1941.
Fortunate door prize winners in October were
Dennis Pogley, Herb Hall, and
Don McKee.
The September Gold Raffle coin was an Australian 1999 $15
kangaroo piece containing 0.1 ounce of the yellow precious metal.
The gold raffle was won by Frank Guerrero.
The Bison Chip drawing this month picked Mona Berch. This
makes her second "leg" toward winning the prize: a one-ounce
silver round.
(When your name is called three times, you get a prize --- but
you must be present to win.)
October Exhibits
MCCC display items this month were varied and fascinating:
- Simcha Kuritzky showed new issue coins which he
acquired recently via Ebay on the Internet. He brought in three
Zambian conservation-oriented pieces, showing respectively a lion
family, a cartoon tiger commemorating the Year of the Tiger, and
a lion (laser-etched?) photograph, a most interesting effect.
- Danny Henderson brought some "short penny rolls",
each long enough to hold 25 cents, from his local bank. He
donated them to anyone who needs them.
- Jerry Grzenda brought a numismatic video, as an
option for the Club's monthly presentation. (Thank you, Jerry!)
Featured Attraction:
Irv Eisen on "The Euro"
This month Irv Eisen, recently returned from a European tour,
presented a series of numismatic vignettes and anecdotes.
He also reported on the status of the Euro, the new unified
currency of the European Community.
Irv's tour narration began in Norway. He discovered a fine coin store
there and purchased some gold and silver items at good prices.
Irv recommended that anyone going overseas take along some
interesting and unusual US coins --- such as Sacagawea
dollars, Kennedy halves, and so forth --- since in his experience
they can be traded for local coins and make for happy dealing.
Irv traded "golden" dollars for Norwegian crowns, for example,
at a great rate of exchange. In answer to an audience member's
question, Mr. Eisen reported no language problems during his
travels. "Almost everyone spoke English better than me!" he joked.
In Stockholm, Sweden, Irv found by luck the Swedish Royal Mint
and took some photographs of old Swedish plate money. He observed
some beautiful displays in the Mint, with coins and paper money
from many Swedish kings plus foreign. Irv picked up a great book
at the Swedish Mint, which he kindly donated to the MCCC Library.
In St. Petersburg, Russia, Irv bought a coin book from a sidewalk
vendor, a rather unusual source for such a good item! He passed by
the Russian Mint but was unable to get inside for a visit.
In Estonia, Irv looked for coins and again found some good
crowns being sold on the street. He paid for all his purchases
in US dollars, and reported, "They love American money. Any
country in the world loves American money!"
At a local Fair in Germany, Irv picked up numismatic souvenir
cards, posters, and other enlarged samples of the new
Euro currency, including depictions of all the bills up to 500 Euros
and all the Euro coins to be issued. The reverse designs on these items
will be uniform, he stated, but obverse designs will be individualized
by nation. The Euro coins will circulate throughout the continent.
Mr. Eisen recommended that travelers take (or make their own)
currency conversion charts. He also reported favorably on British
Air's fine service. (The airline collects excess small change from
international passengers for donation to children's charities.)
Before his travels began, Irv said, he went through
the Krause and Mishler Standard Catalog of World
Coins and made lists of desired pieces --- and he
found several of his target items.
During a Question-and-Answer session after his presentation,
Mr. Eisen and members of his audience discussed several
themes:
- the fall of the Euro's value (to ~$0.80 recently) relative to
the US dollar;
- the fate of coinage from individual European nations;
- the planned 2002 changeover to Euro coins and currency; and
- the range of coins (0.01 to 2 Euros) and paper money to be issued.
Mr. Eisen's talk concluded to a round of applause from the MCCC
audience. Bravo!
Aftermath
After a refreshment break the club auction was held; bidding was
unusually hot and heavy on many items.
Don McKee was the able auctioneer.
The MCCC October meeting was adjourned at 8:48pm.
NumisFAQ (Part 2)
Some numismatic issues arise again and again in correspondence
and conversations with new collectors. Here is the second installment
of a draft "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ) with some candidate
answers.
- What is this little "California gold" coin?
- Alas, it's probably a replica token of negligible
numismatic value. During the California gold rush (which began
in earnest in 1849 and reached a peak in 1852) small denomination
coins were in short supply in the California territory. Local
mints produced tiny tokens made of real gold with values of
$1 or fractions thereof. You can read about them in various
numismatic reference books. Genuine territorial gold tokens
are worth hundreds of dollars --- if they are authentic and
in nice condition. Far more commonly seen, however, are modern
replicas. These are typically made of brass and are at most plated
with a thin coating of gold. They are of nominal value only, perhaps
a dollar or so. (But if a replica is made of solid gold, it is worth at
least the meltdown value of the metal.) Real territorial gold
pieces usually have the word "dollar" along with a denomination
on one side, and the year of issue with a Liberty head on the other
side. (See, for example, http://www.his.com/~z/gallery1852.html
for obverse and reverse images of a genuine token.)
Replicas generally lack the word "dollar" and often have a bear
(or anteater-like creature) on one side. Beware of spending
too much for a replica which has been misrepresented as
genuine!
- What are some good coin books?
- There are many. The classic Redbook is a fine starting
point for US collectors. (Its official title is A Guide Book of
United States Coins and new editions are issued every year.)
The Redbook includes short historical discussions of each type of
coin, information on how to grade specimens, and retail price
estimates by year, mint, and condition for major varieties.
Beyond the Redbook, you may wish to look at Walter Breen's
Complete Encyclopædia of US and Colonial Coins,
the Krause & Mishler Standard Catalog of World
Coins, or countless other books. (See, for example,
club_mccclibr.html
for a catalog of the books in the Montgomery County Coin
Club's library.)
- Where should I look for online numismatic information?
- An excellent place to start is the American Numismatic
Association,
http://www.money.org.
The ANA web site has pointers to good coin dealers and local
clubs, as well as historical data about coins, paper money,
tokens, and other numismatic materials. ANA Headquarters is
in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where the organization has a major
money museum, a research library, and a staff which is
extraordinarily helpful. You may also want to look at commercial
sites associated with Coin World,
Numismatic News, and other reputable publications,
or at sites posted by honest coin dealers, collectors, museums,
clubs, and societies.
( ... to be continued ... )
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.