This is the MCCC ARCHIVE – for the CURRENT Montgomery County Coin Club see https://montgomerycoinclub.org
April 2002 Bulletin - Early Web Edition
MC3 = Numismatics!
Next Meeting: Tuesday, April 9, 2002
The Montgomery County Coin Club will meet on the second
Tuesday of the month,
9 April 2002, at the Silver Spring Senior Citizens Center
(1000 Forest Glen Road, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA).
Doors open at 7:00pm, and the meeting begins with the Pledge of Allegiance
at approximately 7:20pm. The featured event this month has not been
announced as of press time for this Bulletin.
On 12 March 2002 the MCCC was called to order on a dark and
rainy night at 7:21pm by First Vice President Ed Russell.
This month 34 people were in attendance, including 2 Young Numismatists (YNs).
Two visitors were also present:
- Frank Stewart of Beltsville, who collects Indian Head cents and
other US coinage
- John Nichols Schadegg, three months old, who collects smiles
Welcome to the MC3, gentlemen!
Door Prizes & Gold Raffle
Willy Massey announced the Door Prizes this month:
- a 1944 US silver Washington quarter dollars;
- a 1915 Great Britain shilling; and
- a 1992 MSNA 40th Anniversary souvenir card
The gold raffle prize was an Australian 0.1 ounce "nugget" dated 1999.
This month the door prize winners were YN Nicky Luck, Caroline
Joss, and Jack Schadegg.
The Gold Raffle was won by Mary Weaver.
The Bison Chip went to Kermit Smyth. This is
his first "leg" of the three needed to win the Bison Chip prize. (You
must be present when your name is called to win a Bison Chip.)
Kudos to all.
In the Display Case
MCCC member exhibits this month included:
- Herb Hall showed items related to the Chinese Year of the Horse,
including postal stamps, a souvenir sheet, and a $15 coin with a gold plated
insert.
- Simcha Kuritzky displayed four Hebrew love tokens engraved on:
- an 1875 US 10 cent
- a 1909 US $2.50 gold piece ("the canonical year that love tokens ended")
- a US $3 gold piece in a bezel, with inscription dated 1892
- an 1866 British florin, probably a "magical piece", with many names
engraved on it
- Ben Kalman showed a set of Civil War fractional currency, aka
"shinplasters", in denominations of 5, 10, 15, and 25 cents
- Jerry Grzenda, in connection with the Utah site of the
2002 Winter Olympics, exhibited a 10 cent example of Mormon scrip which
featured a beehive design and the Salt Lake City temple. Jerry also showed
a complete silver lunar year set of 12 coins from China, plus 6 gold coins in
the same series, and additional Chinese silver coinage issued in 1991 to
commemorate the 80th anniversary of the 1911 Chinese revolution
- Ken Swab displayed and discussed his complete set of six South African
Boer Republic half crowns, minted from 1892 through 1897 by that short-lived
nation. These coins are suprisingly inexpensive, Ken reported;
he acquired his set from a diverse set of international sources via Internet
auctions for a total pricetag of only $60.
Many thanks to all the exhibitors. Please bring some of your favorite items
to the next meeting to share with other MC3 members.
Quarter Master Quiz
The April 2002 issue of Games magazine included (on page 78) ten
numismatic trivia questions by John Machado. An MC3 member
challenges you to answer:
- Which five of the quarters show outlines of their state?
- Which three have trees (not just leaves or branches) prominent in
their designs?
- Which two feature horses?
- Which three show boats?
- Which one features a mode of transportation other than horse or boat, and
what mode is it?
- Which one mentions a person by name?
- Which one mentions a city's name and year of founding?
- Which one mentions its state's name twice?
- Which two show multiple stars?
- Not counting statues, which two quarters depict buildings?
See Games magazine for the answers; thanks to the publisher for permission
to reprint the questions here. Extra credit for anyone who finds
numismatic mistakes. Note that the quiz was written at the beginning
of 2002, when only the State Quarters for the 13 original colonies plus
Vermont and Kentucky had been issued.
Secrets of the US Mint (Part II)
The main attraction for the March 2002 MCCC meeting was a showing of the
second half of the Discovery Channel's video presentation "Secrets of the US
Mint". Thanks to the Discovery Channel for permission to view this
material.
This segment of the program began with a discussion of platinum
coinage by Dr. Bill Daddio of the US Mint. It continued with commentary on
ancient coins by dealer Fred Weinberg. Then the scene cut to a major coin auction.
Several MC3 members noted the presence of local numismatist and
coin dealer Julian Leidman among the participants. (Bravo, Julian!)
A 1913 Liberty Head nickel was hammered down for $1,600,000.
The program continued with a discussion of coin grading and authentication.
Mark Salzberg of the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) was interviewed,
as was Skip Fizzari who commented on counterfeit coins and their detection.
He noted the problem of fake 1909-S VDB cents produced by adding an "S"
(San Francisco) mintmark to the far more common 1909 VDB cents minted at
Philadelphia. Good close-up photography showed specimens of the false
1907 ultra-high-relief $20 gold piece as made by the unknown counterfeiter
"The Omega Man". He apparently made over 20,000 of them, and the quality
of the fakes is extraordinary.
The show ended with a brief discussion of error coins, including the
strange conjunction of a Sacagawea "golden dollar" reverse with a Washington
commemorative quarter obverse. Machinist Brad Reagan demonstrated how
he creates (legal) combinations of Sacagawea dollars and 25 cent pieces
by use of lathes and other machine-shop apparatus. These could quite easily
be brass plated and might fool a naïve collector. Caveat emptor!
End Notes
The January 2002 MCCC meeting adjourned at 9:15pm, after an auction
run by the dynamic duo of auctioneers Don McKee and Ken Swab.
Comments and Feedback
MCCC reporter/webmaster Mark Zimmermann has rehosted the MCCC online archives at
http://www.his.com/~z/MCCC/ where
they are available for reference.
Please send bug reports and suggestions for improvement to
"z (at) his.com" (http://www.his.com/~z/).
The MCCC Bulletin is copyright © 2002 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.