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Minutes of the 1034th Meeting

The 1034th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was called to order at 7:00 PM by President Robert Feiler with 16 members present. The January minutes as published in the Chatter were approved. A motion was made and passed to approve Treasurer Steven Zitowsky’s January report of $296.00 in revenue and $154.79 in expenses. After Winston Zack’s application for junior membership received a second reading a motion was made and passed that he be accepted into the Club.

Carl Wolf gave a brief description on upcoming featured speakers prior to First V.P. Jeff Rosinia’s introduction of Mark Wieclaw, the meeting’s featured speaker. Mark spoke on The Tetradrachms of Roman Egypt, showed a number of fine numismatic specimens, and showed several major references. After answering several questions, Jeff presented Mark with an engraved Club speaker’s medal and an ANA Speaker Certificate.

Exhibitors for the evening were:

• Phil Carrigan: Florida United Numismatists auction reminisces and an 1894 restrike of an 1794 copper one half penny of the Copper Company of Upper Canada;
• Chuck Jacobs: 12-coins showing imagery of Buddhism;
• Mark Wieclaw: a selection of ancient Roman Coins;
• Steve Huber: South American coins, a German Thaler and the story of participating in dismantling the National Collection in The Smithsonian;
• Robert Leonard: 3-gold coins of Italy from the 13th and 14th century;
• Robert Feiler: 5-pieces of numismatic memorabilia;
• Don Dool: early dated copper coinage;
• Steve Zitowsky: 2-medals issued in 1921 and 1932 from Hollywood advertising movies, plus a Roman Republic coin of 1849.

Under old business Jeff Rosinia and Carl Wolf reported no development on meeting sites that would reduce rental expense. Steve Huber volunteered to investigate purchasing audio visual equipment for exclusive club use to reduce rental expense. Jeff Rosinia reported that a subject had not been chosen for the Chicago Paper Money Expo souvenir card. Robert Leonard reported that the Togo stones had arrived for the Chicago International Coin Fair souvenir card and he would soon begin writing the article.

Under new business Treasurer Zitowsky reminded everyone to pay their 2005 dues. President Feiler delivered a short State of the Club Speech and asked everyone to bring at least one new member to the Club during 2005. Dr. Saul Needleman announced that he had submitted a proposal to the Board of Directors to issue another book as a fund raising project. Carl Wolf reported the ANA Convention Director Brenda Bishop visited Chicago last week and discussed the possibility of Chicago hosting the 2009 convention. A motion made by Robert Leonard to donate $50.00 to the American Numismatic Society’s Francis D. Campbell Library Chair in memory of those members who passed away in 2004. The motion passed.

Don Dool who provided audio visual equipment to view material on the television announced he would be in Argentina during the March meeting and the Club would have to make other arrangements.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:37 PM.

Respectfully submitted, Carl Wolf
Secretary

Speaker's Wor[l]d
The Tetradrachms of Roman Egypt

Presented by Mark Wieclaw to our February 9, 2005 meeting.

Over 500 locations are known to have issued Roman Provincial coinage, but only three cities, Caesarea in Capodocia, Antioch, and Alexandria, were located near a source of silver. While silver coins are known from many mints, these three cities were the steadiest issuers of silver Provincial coins.

Alexandria was the major city of Egypt when the Roman Emperor Augustus defeated Cleopatra and took Egypt as his personal property. All Egyptian exports also were the property of the Roman emperor; since the Nile valley was the major source of wheat for the entire Mediterranean area, Egypt provided a nice income to many emperors before control was yielded to the government.

The onset of Roman rule saw an increase in the silver in the Alexandrian coins. The severely debased tetradrachms (only 3-5% silver) of Cleopatra were replaced with the 30% silver coinage of Augustus. The Alexandrian silver coins were debased at about the same rate as the coins back in Rome: to about 25% fine under Claudius, down to the 6% silver consistency of billon under Tiberius who issued the the first Roman Alexandrian tetradrachms, and finally down to 1% for the last tetradrachms under Diocletian. It is believed that from Tiberius to Nero, one denarius was melted down and mixed with copper to obtain the metal needed for one tetradrachm.

The typical design showed the emperor on the obverse; very few women appeared on their own coins. One was Julia Mamea, the mother of Septimus Severus, and another was Severina who was in charge for a period after the murder of her husband Aurelian.

An eagle is the most commonly found reverse of a Roman Alexandrian tetradrachm. Among the other reverses Mark showed were a galley under sail, Zeus, and some other deities. This tetradrachm of Phillip II, 244-249AD, shows Zeus on the reverse.

In addition to the gradual quality decline over time, Mark showed coins demonstrating the decline during a single emperor. (And then the following emperor would start by issueing a coinage which, although better than the recent coinage of the previous emperor, was not always as good as the earliest coinage of the previous emperor.) Two coins of Philip II, from regnal years 3 and 6, show the nearly the same obverse and reverse devices, but the later coin's darker color is an obvious indication of its lower silver content.

The regnal years were identified with a combination of Egyptian and Greek symbols, instead of Roman numerals. Consider the characters LIB indicating the twelfth year of a reign: the L is the Egyption heiroglyphic for "year," while the Greek letters I and B represent ten and two, respectively.

Mark showed a coin of Gallienus with rough edges, but it is one of the last of the large-sized pieces.

There are several reference books on the subject. The most definitive study is by Dattari, published in 1901, with reprints occasionally available. The text is in Italian and only a small percentage of varieties are pictured. In 1999, a limited run of hardbound copies were printed of the pencil rubbings of the entire Dattari collection.

A new reference by J.G. Milne was written in 1927, correcting some of the errors that appeared in Dattari. The text is in English and has been reprinted several times. More recently (1954) James W. Curtis authored a book that updated the works of both Dattari and Milne. A 1990 reprint also includes several auction and mail bid sales of Roman Egypt coins so that collectors may see what value these coins have achieved.

Show and Tell

Each image has a scale in the lower-left corner, with the tics spaced 1 mm apart. Because the brightness and contrast were manipulated on a computer, the coloring of a coin's image differs from the coin's actual coloring.

1. Phil Carrigan reported on the FUN show auctions: ANR held one of the two pre-show auctions, and the official show auction by Heritage had 16,000 lots in 20 pounds of catalogues. Phil collects Canadian material, and a piece he was interested in was hammered down at a price much higher than expected during the ANR auction; two mail bidders competed against each other, and Phil thought that the catalogue description might have played a part. Although the long and detailed catalogue description never said "restrike," a specialist would know the piece to be a restrike from the description. An estimated 10 original strikes of Breton #721 are known versus about 50 known restrikes struck in 1894.
   The following days saw joking about dealers with that piece in stock who would have to reprice their stock. But then Phil met Tony Terranova who said that his example was not repriced, so Phil showed us his latest acquisition.
2. Chuck Jacobs showed coins and medals showing items related to Buddhism:
   • A 1968 India coin with a lotus blossum.
   • A 1993 Sri Lanka coin (honoring the 2300th anniversary of Buddha's birth) with a tree leaf.
   • An 1847 Cambodia coin showing temples and monuments at Ankor Wat.
   • A 2001 Cambodia coin with a hologram of Ankor Wat.
   • A 100 BC tetradrachm from the Kingdom of Kushnan (near modern day Kandahar) with a standing Buddha looking much like a Greek statue.
   • A 1999 China coin showing a personification of Buddha.
   • A 2000 Sierra Leone coin with a seated Buddha.
   • A Nepal 0.3 gram gold bullion coin.
   • A 1930 fantasy piece with Tibetan markings.
   • A 2001 China coin commemmorating its 1951 occupation of Tibet.
   • A 1987 medal from the National Center for Buddhism, in Indiana.
3. Mark Wieclaw showed some ancient coins along with some original packaging for bullion pieces.
   • A denarius of Macrinus from 217. Macrinus was the last of the Severan dynasty.
   • A Macrinus antoninianus (double denarius) from 217 Rome; note the radiate head.
   • A double sestertius of Trajian acquired from the Gemini Sale; the bust has a radiate crown and weighs 47.8 grams.
   • The Austrian gold bullion coin is the 100 Coronas, and Mark has handled many at the store. But a recent deal included many rolls of 50 coins, and Mark showed one of the (empty) original paper rolls he kept.
4. Steve Huber was preparing for a business trip to Central America so he passed around a tray of six dollar-sized pieces from Central and South America along with an 1804 German taler with a St. George slaying the dragon reverse. Steve is known to like the crown sized silver pieces from around the world, and that reputation led to an interesting experience: viewing and handling the coins while helping to dismantle the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institute. The plexiglass case lids were scratched, mounting paraffin was still on the back of some pieces, and the pieces were returned to the marked envelopes or boxes from which they had been removed forty-some years ago when the pieces had been put into the display cases; the packaging was yellowed, and Steve could not believe that they were sulfer-free. Bottom line: the SI's collection is better than Steve's, but Steve takes better care of his collection.
5. Bob Leonard showed the first Medieval European gold pieces to see wide acceptance in trade; the coinage starting European gold coinage. Although they were not made of pure gold as intended, they were at least 23.5 carat.
   • Genoa was the first to issue its gold coin, in 1252, and the first record of gold deniers to the Levant was in 1253. This type, with a gateway on the obverse, was issued from 1252-1280,
   • In November, 1252, Florence was the next to introduce a gold coin. It was four times the weight of Genoa's piece, and showed a flower on one side and John the Baptist, Florence's patron saint, on the other side. In 1308, the Florentines started a book listing each mint master's symbols, but this coin's mark is not listed. This type was issued from 1252-1382, and this piece is from the Levantine hoard (found in Hungary).
   • In 1284, Venice introduced the ducat. Bob showed one from the 14th century, with the typical design of Saint Mark and the Venetian doge on one side, and Christ within an almond-shaped frame of dots surrounding stars on the other side.
6. Robert Feiler showed items received as gifts.
   • At first glance, it is a roll of 1996 U.S. quarters; but a closer examination shows it to be a lighter.
   • The Barnes & Thornburg law firm of South Bend, Indiana annually releases a token; for 2004, the design was based on the "Am I not a man and a brother?" anti-slavery token from the nineteenth century.
   • A check from the Princeton Bank bearing an IRS 2-cent stamp.
   • A National Bank of Mexico one peso note showing both sides of an 1881 Cap & Rays piece.
   • An 1873 South Carolina Railroad Company fare ticket looking like a $1 note.
7. Don Dool showed some older European pieces:
   • Saint Martin is shown on a horse on a 1520 copper piece from Utrecht.
   • A San Martin medal known both in silver and silver plated. Tom DeLorey performed a specific gravity test and calculated it at 400 fine silver assuming only silver and copper. Then Don sent it for X-ray analysis; instead of the usual X-ray analysis which only analyzes the surface, X-ray fluorescence looks deeper and estimated 27% silver, 53% copper, 10% nickel, and 9% zinc.
   • A 1621 piece from a German state weighed just 0.4 grams. Performing the specific gravity test was difficult; soap had to be added to the water to break the water's surface tension and let the coin sink. The result was 92% copper and 7% tin, and Don feels that the coin's gray color is due to the tin's being mostly on the surface.
8. Steve Zitowsky showed assorted items:
   • A token to promote the 1921 movie Wet Gold directed by Ralph Ince.
   • A token to promote the 1932 movie American Madness directed by Frank Capra.
   • An 1849-R half-baiducco from the Roman Republic (one of the Italian States). It appears to have been double struck; notice the faint DIO under the R of the obverse, and the dentils above the ICA on the reverse.

Our 1035th Meeting

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