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Every year, some club members submit trip reports about the ANA summer convention. Reports are accepted from all club members, so do not be shy. Submit something while it is all fresh in your memory

No need to list everything that happened there; a few paragraphs on your highlights of the convention is fine. Make us stay-at-homes want to attend the 2006 Denver convention!

Paul Hybert

Minutes of the 1039th Meeting

The 1039th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was called to order at 7:05 PM by First Vice President Jeff Rosinia with 13 members and 1 guest, Alex Dool, present.

The June Minutes as published in the Chatter were approved. Steve Zitowsky’s Treasurer’s report was approved showing June revenue of $151.31, expenses of $149.30 and a balance of $7,651.53.

The evening’s featured speaker was Don Dool on the subject German States Coins from the Kipper Era (1617-1623). Don showed 32 coins and discussed the standard references used to research these little known coins. The presentation was done on MS PowerPoint which received many compliments and questions. Information regarding Virtual Coin Cabinet is available at: http://www.dataxm.com/>. Following a series of questions, Don was presented with an ANA Educational Certificate and an engraved Club medal. A certificate and medal was also presented to Chuck Jacobs for his May presentation Die Struck Copper Coins of China.

Exhibits for the evening were: Steve Huber – 5¢ and 10¢ gem proof 1909 copper-nickel coins from China; Phil Carrigan – a selection of numismatic literature obtained from the J.J. Ford book sale no. 2; Don Dool – a 1690 half-crown of Irish gun money, a 1535 pfennig from Brandenburg Franken and a 1494 coin from Liege, Brule; Robert Leonard – a bottle of olive oil from Moscenice, Croatia and the story of how olive oil was used as money in Moscenice from 1400-1979; Andy Plioplys – a selection of silver bars kapas (Lithuanian: to chop) and grivna (Russian: bundle) from 1100-1300 Lithuania and a recently acquired large silver disk found in the Baltic region. The disk is like those found in the 1990s in Sweden where they are also called “bundles.”

It was announced that the annual convention of the Illinois Numismatic Association will be held September 8-11 at the Park Place of Countryside Banquet Hall, 6200 Joliet Road, Countryside, IL. Exhibit forms were made available and anyone interested in giving a presentation was asked to contact Carl Wolf.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 PM.

Respectfully submitted, Carl Wolf
Secretary

Speaker's Wor[l]d
German States Coins from the Kipper Era (1617-1623)

Presented by Don Dool to our July 13, 2005 meeting.

I wrote an article on the so-called kipper und wipper period of 1618 to 1623, at the start of the 30 Years War, for the December, 2001 issue of World Coin News and after looking it over in preparation for this talk I decided to quote it.

Since this coinage was a direct result of the war, a brief history is in order.

It was expected that the conflict between Catholics and Protestants would flare up in 1621 when the 12-year truce between Spain and the northern provinces of the Netherlands ended. Also expected was that Spain, rather than challenge Dutch naval strength, would send troops via Italy, through the Alpine passes and the up the Rhine River valley. The Habsburg emperor-to-be, Ferdinand II, had already promised Alsace to Spain as a consequence of the support of his Spanish cousins in his election to the throne.

These actions had the danger of drawing the French into such a war, as they would not take lightly to being surrounded by Spain. Another danger lay to the north - would the Swedes and Danes allow the Habsburgs to extend their empire to the Baltic Sea at the expense of their fellow Lutherans?

The conflict started in Bohemia in 1618, a year before Ferdinand ascended to the throne. Bohemia was mainly a Protestant state in the Catholic Habsburg empire, but with a growing Catholic minority. The Bohemian nobles were upset with the Habsburg regime and expected further encroachment on their powers when Ferdinand became emperor, so on May 23, 1648, they revolted. Civil war was on and eventually most of Europe would be drawn into the conflict.

The war continued until it was ended in 1648 by the Treaty of Westphalia, although the French and Spanish fought on until the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees. It is believed Europe's population declined from about 21 million in 1618 to 13.5 million in 1648, over 35 percent - one of the most terrible wars in history.

A debasement of much of the coinage of the German states had started about 1590; a practice of mixing copper with silver, i.e. billon. With the advent of the Thirty Years War, many of the local princes, including those who had no authority to strike coins, carried this to the extreme of virtually, if not completely, eliminating the silver content. This practice came to a head in 1621-1622, thus coinage, especially copper, for many locations is found only for these years. The term kipper und wipper used for this coinage is a reference to a dishonest method of weighing by the swaying of a balance scale.

At the time I wrote this I was of the opinion that the term referred to a practice used by butchers in the weighing of their products, however a quick look on the Internet led me to a German site that had a woodcut depicting the weighing process and the following information.

Large numbers of soldiers had to be paid, and in order to do so in the early years princes overvalued and overissued lesser valued coins for profit. Local debasement was complicated by forgeries produced at the Swedish-held towns of Ebling and Riga on the Baltic.

In order to establish their worth, coins had to be weighed. These were laid on a specially made scale (a Wippe or "see-saw") by a "tipper": If the coin was of full value then the Wippe tipped (German: kippen).

The populace tried to hold on to their silver money, but as the rulers of larger states joined in the fraud in 1619, inflation increased from year to year. Starvation and crisis resulted and the church finally spoke up against the Kipper and Wipper.

Blame for the forgeries went to the coin makers, but the guilty ones were the princes, moneyers and bishops. After Austria and later the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations rose up against the Kipper money, it was outlawed in 1622. In 1623 the use of the old coinage returned.

The following German States coins were then viewed as projected from the speaker's laptop and discussed:

Works Cited

• Dool, Donald H., Coppers hail from kipper und wipper period. World Coin News, Dec. 2001: 34-38.
• Tipper and See-Saw Time. http://www.moneymuseum.com/standard_english/raeume/geld_machen/bank/geschichte/kipper/kipper_unten.html

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