Montgomery County Coin Club

December 2000 Bulletin - Early Web Edition

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MCCC: A Collector's Club for the New Millennium

Next Meeting: Tuesday, December 12, 2000

Y2k+1 Red Book --- Last Call

November Meeting Report

President Willy Massey called the MCCC to order at 7:27pm on the frigid and windy evening of November 14, 2000. (The building was locked and we didn't get in until 7:15pm.) About 36 MCCC members were present, including two Young Numismatists (YNs). Three first-time visitors were welcomed: Serge Pelletier of Canada, Mike Broderick of Gaithersburg Maryland, and his son Patrick Broderick. Good to see you! (Please invite friends and relatives, especially young people, to come to the next MCCC meeting.)

News & Announcements

• President Willy Massey and Treasurer Simcha Kuritzky announced the schedule for several local coin shows, including the Bank Show in late November at the Baltimore Holiday Inn, sponsored by the Maryland State Numismatic Association.
• President Massey reminded members that nominations are due for MCCC Officers next year. (Please volunteer!)
• Treasurer Simcha Kuritzky reported that Club finances are solid, and reminded everyone that their 2001 MCCC dues can be paid now. Membership remains a virtual steal at $6 for adults and $1 for Young Numismatists.
• Mark Zimmermann invited members to view the latest MCCC Bulletin on the Web at "http://www.money.org/club_mccc_current.html" where it is posted courtesy of the American Numismatic Association, thanks to Ms. Susie Nulty. An archive of MCCC Bulletins since January 1997 is available online. Mark also urged any members who wish to receive occasional e-mail on MCCC matters to send him their Internet mailing addresses via "z (at) his.com".
• Historian Tom Hall asked everyone to share early MCCC information with him as he continues to gather and organize our Club's materials.
• Wayne Mitchell offered uncirculated bank rolls of the new Virginia commemorative quarter for sale at face value.

Drawings & Prizes

• 1898 Indian cent
• 1918 French one franc
• 1970 Russian one ruble (Lenin commemorative)
• 1906 Liberty head ("V") nickel

The September Gold Raffle coin was a lovely 1894 Hungarian 10 korona piece containing a net weight of 0.098 oz. Au. The gold raffle was won by Donald Wilson.

The Bison Chip drawing this month named Bruce Longyear. This is his first "leg" toward the prize (a one-ounce silver round). (When your name is called three times, you win --- but if you're not present, you lose!)

November Exhibits

• Jeff Crockett showed a large medal honoring Isambert Brunel, English engineer and railway builder who was responsible for the first successful tunnel under the Thames River in London (1824-1842). Brunel is noted for many other major engineering achievements of the 1800's, including the construction of three ocean steamships.
• Wayne Wilcox discussed and displayed an early 5 cent nickel coin, a pattern piece struck in 1866, unusual in that it is 3mm thick, 115.4 grains, about 1.5 times the authorized weight of the nickel as officially issued. The reverse is the regular (non-rays) design of the era; the obverse shows George Washington (facing right). Both sides say "United States of America". Wayne acquired the rare piece last month in New York; there are probably only four of them in existence.
• Simcha Kuritzky showed pictures of the designs for the next four commemorative quarters from a recent COINAGE magazine. The states being celebrated next include Rhode Island, North Carolina, New York, and Kentucky. Not all of these designs are official yet, Simcha noted.
• Jerry Grzenda exhibited a counterfeit 1864 piece of Confederate currency, made in Cuba and brought into the South during the late stages of the War. The note is a $100 certificate, hand-signed and with an individual handwritten serial number. Jerry also talked about the history of Malaysia and neighboring nations, and showed some early coins from that region, including nice pieces from the Straits Settlements (when the area was under British control), Sarawak, Singapore, and British North Borneo. Noteworthy were a Singapore $150 gold piece of 1969 (a proof issue, mintage only 500) and some rare bank notes of the British North Borneo Company (1919), in denominations of 25 cents and 50 cents.
• Ken Swab reported that he recently attended the Smithsonian Institution's retirement party for Elvira Clain-Stefanelli. She was at the Smithsonian for 40 years, and was responsible with her husband for organizing and building up the National Numismatic Collection to its current level of 6 million pieces. Ms. Clain-Stefanelli survived a Nazi concentration camp in WWII Europe, moved to Rome, and learned numismatics there. In New York she worked for Harvey Stack and started the Coin Division there. Ken exhibited the program from the retirement party, where the Treasurer of the US and others spoke. Both Ms. Clain-Stefanelli and her husband spoke to the MCCC a number of times over the years, most recently in the early 1990's.

Featured Attraction: Charity Auction

As part of the competition, before the start of the auction everyone submitted estimates for the total amount to be raised. The prize for coming closest was a 1947 silver Panama one Balboa. This year the winner was Ed Russell. The actual total of all bids was $381.50, and Ed's triumphant guess was $375.50. Runner-up forecaster was second-time visitor Mark Moore of Virginia.

Don McKee and Kenneth Swab were the energetic auctioneers.

Aftermath

NumisFAQ (Part 3)

How can I sell my coins?

There are many ways. Quickest is to find an honest dealer and sell directly to her or him; unfortunately, many less-than-honest dealers are around. (Membership in the Professional Numismatists Guild and/or the American Numismatic Association is a good sign to look for. Dealers must make a living and will not be able to pay you as much as you might get from other, slower, methods. They can usually give you between 5% and 95% of their retail price, depending on how quickly they anticipate selling a coin.) Major auction sales are another possibility for high-value coins: live, via Internet, by telephone, or by mail. But prices realized at auction can fluctuate widely, and there will likely be several months of delay in addition to significant commissions to be paid. Selling coins by consignment through a dealer is a slow process, but often can yield excellent prices to the patient. (Direct sales via Internet or in person have major additional complexities and risks --- good luck!) Before you sell, please consult independent references to determine rough price ranges to expect.

What are authentication, grading, and encapsulation services?

The grade of a coin is a shorthand way to describe its condition. Standard coin grades range over Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good, Fine, Very Fine, Extremely Fine, About Uncirculated, and Uncirculated --- on a numerical scale from 1 (severely worn) to 70 (perfection). Grading a coin is a complex business and demands great experience; it's not something that an amateur can do reliably. Commercial services take a coin, inspect it, assign a grade, seal it in a tamper-evident plastic "slab", and guarantee the authenticity and condition of the coin. This typically costs $10-$30 or more, so it is only worthwhile for relatively valuable specimens. Widely-recognized major grading services include PCGS, NGC, and ANACS. A coin encapsulated by one of them can be trusted to be genuine and in the condition specified on the slab, so it is likely to be easier to sell quickly and for a good price. Some numismatic purists abhor slabbed coins. But less-expert collectors often find certified coins the safest and simplest way to collect. It's like buying an insurance policy; the premium pays for peace of mind.

What is a "proof"? What is a "commemorative"?

Proofs are special coins, often struck more than once at the mint (to bring up design details), often made from highly polished dies, and often carefully handled after their production. This gives proofs an exquisite surface finish and can make them lovely coins. Commemoratives are coins with special designs, issued to recognize or honor an event, person, organization, or other circumstance. Neither proofs nor commemoratives are necessarily valuable. In fact, during recent years many mints have issued huge numbers of proofs and have sold them to the less-than-knowledgeable public at excessively high prices --- which have since fallen sharply. Responsible numismatists fight against this abusive practice of preying on collectors, but governments persist, since they can make short-term profits from it.

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