Chatter


Archive available at http://www.ChicagoCoinClub.org/
Volume 54 No. 7 July 2008


Minutes of the 1074th Meeting

The 1074th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was held June 11, 2008 in the Chicago Bar Association Building, 321 S. Plymouth Court, Downtown Chicago. President Robert Feiler called the meeting to order at 7 PM with 21 members present.

Treasurer Steve Zitowsky presented a printed report showing May income of $520.00, expenses of $195.09 and total assets $12,809.38. The report was approved as presented. Steve also announced the donation of 300 first-class stamps for Chatter postage. A motion was passed to accept Robert Kulys’ application to convert his membership status to Life Member.

Robert Leonard announced that Robert J. Leuver, former Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, would speak at the July 9th meeting. The topic will be U.S. Government’s Tryst with a Plastic Substrate for Currency. It was also announced that in 3 days, Dr. Roger Bland, an expert on ancient Roman coinage at the British Museum, would speak at The Field Museum on A British Approach to Antiquities and Buried Treasure.

President Feiler was the evening’s featured speaker on Changed Coins.

Lyle Daly introduced the evening’s exhibitors: MARC STACKLER: 5 books on Mexican revolutionary coinage; WINSTON ZACK: a new coin magnifying device of 55-200X; DAVID GUMM: 3 love tokens & an 1849 seated dollar; ROBERT LEONARD: a current presidential dollar & 5 oversize copper coins; ANDY PLIOPLYS: a 1918 Russian lottery ticket with Lithuanian insignia with 25,000 rubles in prizes; SHARON BLOCKER: 1936 California Pacific International Exposition half dollar received at the bank for 50-cents; ROBERT FEILER: 1798 Norwegian 1/15 specie daler; MARK WIECLAW: 1921 counterfeit Peace dollar, 1882 French 100-franc in gold, 2 distaters & bronze ancient Roman coins; DONALD DOOL: 4 San Martin medals modeled after monuments; RICHARD LIPMAN: Liberian $12-gold and $5-bronze coins, and a Morris ‘Moe’ Berg medal; ROBERT WEINSTEIN: 8 billon tetradrachms of Indo-Parthian and Apracha kings.

It was announced that all four advertisers for the Chatter had renewed for the year, and Mark Weiclaw is the chairman of the Club’s 90th anniversary celebration.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Carl Wolf, Secretary


Current Advertisers

Amos Advantage Chicago Coin Company
Numismatic News Harlan J. Berk, Ltd.

Show and Tell

Items shown at our June 11, 2008 meeting.

  1. Marc Stackler showed books on Mexican Revolutionary coins, of both wide and narrow focus:
  2. Winston Zack brought a small microscope that connects to his PC. Under the Dino-lite name, this one of three available at PCgear.com that retail from $200 to $600. With the provided software, the PC displayed images at magnifications from 55 times up to 200 times. Pretty good images of coin details.
  3. David Gumm showed U.S. 19th century coins; the first were Love Tokens:
  4. Bob Leonard showed us a recent James Madison presidential dollar. Many people prefer to carry paper dollars than these light dollar coins. What wimps we are! Then Bob showed us some large, heavy coins that did circulate:
  5. Andy Pliopolys showed a lottery ticket with Russian and Lithuanian content. Dated April, 1918, three months after Lithuania declared its independence, this one ruble ticket to a lottery offering 25,000 rubles in prizes was printed at the Russian miltary center of Pskov. Widows and orphans had been sent to that city, out of the way of the war, and Andy thinks this might have been a last-ditch effort to raise needed funds. Andy will continue his research.
  6. When Sharon Blocker goes to a bank, she asks the teller for halves and anything unusual. She showed us a 1936 San Diego commemorative half dollar in AU condition that she recently obtained. But she refused to tell us the name of the bank. Another member mentioned that another one of those coins had appeared in the area within the last few months.
  7. Bob Feiler showed a 1798 Norwegian 1/15 Specie Daler (also worth 8 skilling).
  8. Mark Wieclaw showed a range of items:
  9. Don Dool showed medals issued for the inauguration of monuments to San Martin, and compared each to his recent photograph of each monument:
  10. Rich Lipman showed some coins and a medal:
  11. Bob Weinstein started by showing a map of southwest Asia to show the origin of his coins from last month, the kingdom of Apracha. After Gondophares returned to his homeland, he left his nephew Abdagases in charge. Except for Abdagases, all following rulers used Gondophares as a title. Bob showed eight billon tetradrachms from a series of Indo-Parthian kings, with some coins not indicating the ruler by name or mark. The coins follow the same general design: one side shows a man on horseback, while the other side shows Zeus.

Trip Report — Field Museum

Approximately 50 people attended Dr. Roger Bland’s presentation at The Field Museum at 1 PM on Saturday, June 14, titled A British Approach to Antiquities and Buried Treasure. The history and traditions surrounding the discoveries of buried treasure in England were covered, including which objects qualify as treasure. The Portable Antiquities Scheme was explained. This is a voluntary program to record every archaeological object found by the public. When recorded, these finds have the potential to tell us much about the past. Bland also spoke of how they educate the public to know when they should leave a discovery untouched and call in professional archaeologists. An example included a kettle full of coins and jewels brought in to authorities untouched. Since the treasure was probably the result of years of hoarding, this allowed experts to dismantel the discovery in layers, revealing the newer items near the top and the oldest at the bottom.

A photograph of a metal detectors club in England looked much like one of our local coin club meetings. Our meeting, however, lacks the pints of ale and ashtrays!

Literature handouts of discussed subjects included:

Sincerely, Carl Wolf


Our 1075th Meeting

Date:July 9, 2008, First session
Time:7:00 PM
Location:Downtown Chicago
At the Chicago Bar Association, 321 S. Plymouth Court, 3rd floor meeting room. Please remember the security measures at our meeting building: everyone must show their photo-ID and register at the guard’s desk. A few blocks west of the CBA building is the Ceres Restaurant (enter the Board of Trade building from Jackson at LaSalle, then enter the restaurant from the lobby) with standard sandwiches, burgers and salads for members who want to meet for dinner.
Featured speaker:Robert J. Leuver - U.S. Government’s Tryst with a Plastic Substrate for Currency

A former director of the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) will take us behind the scenes and discuss the BEP’s flirtation with a plastic substrate for U.S. currency, in place of Crane rag paper, 1978-1981. Consideration of two forays into plastic was realistic and serious. It will be interesting to speculate if the BEP can resume such tests after Rep. Silvio Conte’s (R-CT) “legislation” that the substrate for U.S. currency be produced by a U.S. manufacturer.

Date:July 12, 2008, Second session
Time:1:00 PM
Location:At the MidAmerica Coin Expo, which is held at the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center, 1551 Thoreau Drive, Schaumburg, IL 60173. (That is on the east side of Roselle Road, just north of I-90; no interchange there, so check a map.) Show parking is free. No admission charge for our meeting, which will be in the Utopia D room on the second floor of the convention center.
Featured speaker:Ron Sirna - Indian & Flying Eagle Pattern Cents

James Longacre designed the Flying Eagle cent as a pattern coin in 1856 and the next year the U.S. Mint put it into circulation. Officials soon discovered the eagle’s head and tail relief would not strike up fully because they were directly opposite the wreath on the reverse. This set off a five year transitional period at the U.S. Mint where they experimented with different designs and metals. Sirna will show examples of the many pattern coins and tell the story of how the bronze Indian Head cent evolved from the copper-nickel Flying Eagle cent. Attend this program and understand how the 12-piece set (11 patterns and one regular issue) became so popular with collectors that the Mint reissued the patterns at various times, resulting in even more varieties. Sirna is also the Legal Counsel for the American Numismatic Association and will discuss some of the legal apects so prominent in the news for the last year.


Important Dates

July 9 CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - Robert J. Leuver U.S. Government’s Tryst with a Plastic Substrate for Currency
July 11-13 27th Annual MidAmerica Coin Expo at the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center, 1551 Thoreau Drive, Schaumburg, IL 60173. Free Parking. Admission is $5 for Friday and Saturday; free on Sunday.
July 12 CCC Meeting - at the MidAmerica Coin Expo. No admission charge for our meeting, and the parking is free.
Featured Speaker - Ron Sirna on Indian & Flying Eagle Pattern Cents
Jul 30 - Aug 3 American Numismatic Association 117th Anniversary Convention at the Baltimore, Maryland Convention Center. Which of our members will attend? More importantly, who will submit a trip report for the Chatter?
August 13 CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be announced

Birthday and Year Joined

August 1 Danny Spungen 2008
August 11 Clifford Mishler 1995
August 19 Carl F. Wolf 1979
August 20 Melvyn Frear 1989
August 21 Kurt Hyde 1989
August 22 Marc Stackler 2007
August 26 Tom DeLorey 1984
August 26 Donald H. Doswell 1960
August 27 Kevin Foley 2007
August 28 Eugene Freeman 2006
August 29 James M. Rondinelli 1997

Chatter Matter

All correspondence pertaining to Club matters should be addressed to the Secretary and mailed to:

CHICAGO COIN CLUB
P.O. Box 2301
CHICAGO, IL 60690

http://www.ChicagoCoinClub.org/

Club Officers

Robert Feiler- President
Jeff Rosinia- First Vice President
Lyle Daly- Second Vice President
William Burd- Archivist
Directors:Eugene Freeman
Elliot Krieter
Carl Wolf
Mark Wieclaw
Other positions held are:
Carl Wolf- Secretary
Steve Zitowsky- Treasurer
Paul Hybert- Chatter Editor

Contacting Your Editor / Chatter Delivery Option

chatter_editor@yahoo.com

The print version of the Chatter is simply a printout of the Chatter web page, with a little cutting and pasting to fill out each print page. The web page is available before the Chatter is mailed.
If you would like to receive an email link to the latest issue instead of a mailed print copy send an email to chatter_editor@yahoo.com. You can resume receiving a mailed print copy at any time, just by sending another email.