Chatter

Minutes of the 1069th Meeting

The 1069th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was held in their new meeting room at the Chicago Bar Association, 321 S. Plymouth Court. The meeting was called to order at 7 PM by President Robert Feiler with 17 members and 1 guest, Richard Lipman.

The December Minutes printed in the Chatter were approved as published. Treasurer Steve Zitowsky presented a printed report showing December receipts of $2,808.00, expenses $2,709.26, December income -$98.74, and total assets $11,826.96. The report was approved as presented. Steve also presented the 2007 Treasurer’s Report showing 2007 receipts $6,070.29, 2007 expenses $6,256.34, 2007 income -$186.05, and total assets $11,826.96. Following several questions for clarification the report was approved as written.

The life membership committee reported member John Whitfield (1136) of Anderson, SC filed an application to become a life member. They reported their unanimous approval and the club passed a motion to accept his application. The application for membership of Leonard Augsburger (no. 1148) received second reading and a motion was passed to accept him into the Club. The application of Richard Lipman received first reading. Correspondence was read from the Central States Numismatic Society related to their upcoming convention (April 16-19) in Rosemont, Illinois. A card was read from Rosalind Ryant expressing holiday greetings and thanking the Club for the writing the “excellent” obituary on Charles that appeared in the numismatic press.

With a slight delay in setting up the projection equipment official business was conducted. Winston Zack was presented with an engraved Honorable Mention medal for his 2007 meeting exhibits. Jennie Sochon was given a round of applause in gratitude for overseeing the creation of a custom corrugated carrying case for the Club’s newly acquired document reader. Mark Wieclaw commented on how he admired the many members who volunteer their services and contribute to the general operation of the Club.

Before introducing the evening’s featured program, the upcoming program schedule was announced: for February - Steve Zitowsky on Papal Coinage; and March – Sharon Blocker on Coins and Currency of 20th Century Cuba. Mark Wieclaw was introduced and delivered the evening’s featured presentation on Roman Minting Errors. Following a question-and-answer period, First V.P. Jeff Rosinia presented Mark with an ANA Educational Certificate.

Second V.P. Lyle Daly introduced the evening’s 11 exhibitors. ROBERT WEINSTEIN: 5 ancient error coins; DONALD DOOL: 9 bronze early-dated error coins; ROBERT LEONARD: Ecuadorian axe money; DAVID GUMM: U.S. 1823/1822 large cent; STEVEN ZITOWSKY: a Salzburg silver ¼ taler, 1642 Klippe and HRE silver pfennig from Vienna; SHARON BLOCKER: 2 Austrian 20 Euros showing railroads and a $5 red seal U.S. banknote; WINSTON ZACK: an ancient Roman silver denarius and 4 U.S. coins; ROBERT FEILER: 4 coins made into rings or in process; ANDREW MICHYETA: a 1907 Panama medio centesimo; MARC STACKLER: Mexican paper currency; and MARK WIECLAW: 6 wooden medals from 1876 Centennial Expo, Columbian Expo box medal, ancient Roman coins and promotional numismatic items including imprinted shot glasses, hat, Masonic money clip and an ashtray.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 PM.

Sincerely Submitted,
Carl Wolf, Secretary

Speaker’s Wor[l]d
Roman Minting Errors

presented to our January 9, 2008 meeting
by Mark Wieclaw

The most comonly encountered type of error found on Roman coins is the brockage. It is produced when a struck coin sticks to a die, so that the next planchette will be struck by one die and a coin produced by that die. One side of a brockage has the intended design while the other side, struck by the coin stuck to the die, has an incuse and backwards version of the design found on the coin that stuck to the die. Consider the first brockage that Mark showed us, a denarius from 67 BC with the head of Apollo and a trident behind the head:

The obverse die was usually the base (lower) die, and the planchet was placed on the lower die; the reverse die was struck by a hammer while the reverse die was hand held on top of the planchet. The typical case was to have the coin stick to the hand-held die, explaining why most brockages are obverse brockages. Fewer Roman Empire brockages are known than from the Republican era — no one knows why. But more were created during the later years of the Empire than during the early years.

Mark showed many brockages from many centuries including a coin with serated edges from 106 BC as a brockage, and a coin with jugate heads having four heads as a brockage. Mark looks for well centered examples for his collection, and suggested collecting the twelve caesars as brockages; he has seen a Gelba brockage, but there are one or two emperors he has not seen.

Brockages can be found well worn, indicating that they circulated along with the correctly struck coins. Brockages can be found at most coin shows with ancient coins; they might be priced at twice the price as a regular coin. Here is a nice Gordian III antoninianus as a brockage.

A few reverse brockages are known with a few shown; Mark ventured that they were produced by placing a blank planchet atop a struck coin that had stuck to the lower die. An alternate explanation would be that the reverse die was the base die, but that is a break from convention instead of just a chance error.

Brockages are not the only errors at the mint. There are off-center strikes, resulting from a planchet not located exactly between the dies. There are double strikes, but those are obvious only if a die position has changed between the strikes. A less common double strike is a flip over, when the coin has flipped over between strikes. Some double strikes can be confusing at first glance: the legends are odd if the coin rotated 180 degrees between strikes, as shown on a follis of Maxentus; a double struck Byzantine follis of Justinian II appears to have jugate heads.

Sometimes the mint did try to rework an error, as shown by a Roman Republic brockage that was then retsruck with a pegasus reverse die. Even though they worked by hand, experienced mint workers could produce coins at a rapid rate with scarcely a glance given to each struck coin. There have always been errors, and always will be errors. Mark concluded by showing a Lincoln Cent struck on a Roosevelt dime.

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Show and Tell

Items shown at our January 9, 2008 meeting.

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. Bob Weinstein showed a range of pieces from Asia complementing the featured speaker’s topic, errors:
   • An Indo Parthian tetradrachm of Gondophares. The obverse has a king on horseback, while the reverse has the Greek god Palus. The reverse is double struck.
   • A silver Roman denarius of Elagabalus. The reverse shows the result of a die clash: the emperor’s profile extends from the top (his chin) to the right side (his forehead) of the reverse.
   • A copper South India piece from the 15th or 16th century bearing a stylized lotus blossum. The dynasty is unknown, and the piece is a brockage.
   • An 1839 Netherlands East India Company duit, as a brockage.
   • A modern India 25 pesa coin in aluminum. Appearing at first glance to be a brockage, it is a fake that was produced by squeezing together two regular coins.
2. Don Dool also showed errors, but these are early dated European coins:
   • A 1691 1 pfennig of Brunswick-Luneberg; the letter N is retrograde (backwards) in pfennig, but not in Munz.
   • An undated piece from La Rochelle with the D double punched and all Ns retrograde.
   • A 1706 10 poltura from a Hungarian uprising; there appears to be a 5 under the 6 in the date, and there is something (a die break?) between the 0 and 6.
   • A 1641 piece from the city of Solsana in Catalonia while under French occupation; the 4 in the date is retrograde.
   • A 1596 double struck duit from Zwolle.
   • A double struck 1585 3 stuiver from Zierikzee; each strike contacted only half of the planchette.
   • A 1659 solidus from Riga, produced with misaligned roller dies so that, when punched from the metal strip, one side has the full design while the other side shows parts of two coins.
   • A roller die error from Barcelona by the pretender Carlos III (1706-1711).
   • A double struck 1806 duit from the Batavian Republic (Dutch East Indies); the first strike is 10% off the planchet, while the second strike is about 60% off.
3. While visiting Manta, Ecuador, Robert Leonard visited a bank museum that helped convince him of the authenticity of Ecuadoran axe-head money. He showed us a photo of a museum exhibit of natives casting axe money, which is located next to a display case of real axe money. These small, uniform pieces were used for trade in the pre-Inca era (800-1400); they were valued by weight, and are found in bundles of 5, 10, or 20. After showing us how well an actual piece matches the image in a book, Bob compared these to a later (1400-1550) Mexican axe money inspired by the Ecuadorans. The last item was an example of Chinese knife money.
4. David Gumm started with a fun item — a pillow case made from fabric that shows many coins. Then he showed the two varieties of large cents from 1823, a year in which mint records indicate no coins were minted: the 1823 over 22 overdate is variety N1, while variety N2 has a perfect date. Do not be confused by restrikes made in the 1860s from a broken obverse die that had been sold for scrap and a reverse die from 1813.
5. While in Vienna, Austria, Steve Zitowsky bought some coins:
   • A 1642 ¼ taler klippe from Augsburg; there is a plugged hole in the corner that explains the low price paid for the piece.
   • A pfennig of Rudolph, the first Hapsburg ruler (1276-1282), that has an elephant with a castle on its back on the reverse.
6. At the past ANA in Milwaukee, Sharon Blocker started collecting a series of Austrian coins that feature railroads. Two pieces, denominated in 20 euros, are issued each year; she bought the first two from the mint booth at ANA, and just received the next two after ordering them from the web. She concluded by showing a 1963 $5 red seal note picked from circulation.
7. Winston Zack showed a range of pieces:
   • A Roamn denarius from 62 BC, with a reverse showing slaves being sold.
   • A broadstruck 1965 Washington quarter.
   • An 1865 U.S. 2 cent, red with the start of light rainbow toning.
   • An well worn 1818/7 bust half dollar; it is about 20% under weight, and Winston is quite sure that it is shaved.
   • A reeded edge 1837 half dollar with nice toning.
8. Bob Feiler showed coins showing varying degrees of being turned into rings. After beating on the rim to raise it into a canister shape (with the obverse and reverse elements that were originally near the rim onto the inside of the ring), the center would be drilled out.
   • A 1918 French franc that had been completely changed.
   • A 1927 one florin.
   • An 1860 Indian Cent that had not been drilled out.
   • A walking liberty half dollar with only a pilot hole drilled.
9. Drew Machyta showed a 1907 copper nickel medio (half) centesimo made for Panama in the U.S. Philadelphia mint. The obverse features the bust of Balboa.
10. Marc Stackler showed paper money from the Mexican Revolutionary period:
    • An October, 1913 “bond” or promissory note for one peso from Durango, intended for circulation. The reverse details the terms of use; the ine for not accepting it was 10 to 500 pesos.
    • A 1915 piece from Zamora has a validation stamp on the front, making it good for only four months. The reverse stamp has a date that is not in the usual form — it should be day month year.
    • A 1915 bond or promissory note for one peso from Guerrero, issued by the Morales and Molina Brigade.
11. Mark Wieclaw showed a wide range of items:
    • A Columbian Expo box medal featuring a U.S. man of war on the reverse and 14 uniface rondels with expo views inside.
    • Five wooden medals from the 1876 Centennial Expo in Philadelphia in a box, the inside lid of which has a bird’s eye view of the expo. All pieces have a common reverse, and Mark showed a separately acquired piece with the same reverse.
    • A Ptolemy III tetradrachm from Egypt weighing 14.2 grams; it is in great condition.
    • A Roman provinvial piece of Macrinus with a temple on the reverse.
    • As a fun exhibit, items picturing coins or money that Mark saw in a gas station: a money clip, a baseball cap, and a shot glass.
    • An ash tray with an embedded 1910 British Trade Dollar.

Exhibit at the Central States Numismatic Society Convention

The Central States Numismatic Society (CSNS) will hold their 69th annual convention April 16-19, 2008 at the Donald Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont. Chicago Coin Club members are encouraged to participate by building an educational exhibit or two. There are eight categories and every first, second and third place winner will receive a gold coin. Exhibit applications received before March 1 will be placed in a drawing for a ¼-ounce U.S. gold eagle! The absolute deadline for submitting an application is March 15th. You must be a member of CSNS ($10/year). Membership forms, exhibit applications, exhibit rules and regulations can be found at www.centralstates.info. Forms will also be available at the February meeting.

If you need help and advice on exhibiting, then speak to experienced exhibitors who attend most Club meetings, including Don Dool, Jeff Rosinia, Mark Wieclaw, Carl Wolf and more.

Carl Wolf, Secretary

Our 1070th Meeting

Important Dates

Birthday and Year Joined

Chatter Matter

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CHICAGO COIN CLUB
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