Chatter

Ten Months until ANA in Philadelphia

And the ANA will be in Pittsburgh in two weeks for those who cannot wait. I must make one small correction to last month’s ANA report: the mentioned exhibit that took First Place in its class was listed in the printed guide — it was another exhibit, by that exhibitor, that was not listed in the guide. And the guide also missed another exhibit by a different exhibitor. An online guide to the 2011 exhibits is at
http://www.chicagocoinclub.org/events/2011/ana/ex/all.by.cl.html,
but not all of the awards have been added to it, yet.

Minutes of the 1113th Meeting

The 1113th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was held September 14, 2011 in the Chicago Bar Association Building, 321 S. Plymouth Court, Downtown Chicago. President Jeffrey Rosinia called the meeting to order at 6:45 PM with an attendance of 26 members and 1 guest, Ernest Armstrong.

A motion was passed to accept the August Minutes as published in the Chatter. Treasurer Steve Zitowsky reported a detailed break down showing August income of $2,863.41, expenses of $3,920.68 and total assets of $18.206.22 held in Life Membership $1,910.00 and member equity $16,296.22. Following comments from Robert Leonard that some expenses were covered by a previous ANA donation, a motion was passed to approve the report.

The application for membership of Ernest Armstrong received first reading. Outstanding dues were reported from the following members: Martin Aguilera, Jr., David Bynum, Richard Craig, Chuck Jacobs and Ivan Thompson.

Announcement of awards presented to Club members at the recent ANA Convention included: The Chicago Coin Club Host Club Plaque; Robert Leonard’s Presidential Award & 50 year ANA Membership; Joel Orosz & Leonard Augsberger’s First Place Heath Literary Award; Tom DeLorey’s Burnett Anderson Memorial Award for Excellence in Numismatic Writing; Harlan J. Berk’s Numismatist of the Year Award & Chicago Coin Club’s Medal of Merit; Dr. Saul B. Needleman’s Ben and Silva Odesser Award by Token & Medal Society; Jeff Bernberg’s election as President of the Professional Numismatic Guild; exhibit awards to Donald Dool (3), Nancy Wilson, Bruce Bartelt, Dan Freeland, John Wilson and Jeffrey Rosinia (2) who also received the People’s Choice Award for his exhibit Chicago, My Kind of Coin Town: Chicagoland Coin Savers.

Steve Zitowsky reported the sale of 140 of the 250 copper Standing Lincoln Souvenir Medals issued by the Club to commemorate the ANA Convention. It was announced that a limited number of Columbian Exposition Entrance Ticket souvenir sheets were available. Jeffrey Rosinia received a warm round of applause for writing and producing the sheet. Robert Leonard, ANA General Chairman, delivered a general report on the success of the Convention.

The November program will be the Annual Auction and members were reminded to submit a list of items for sale and/or get them to Bill Burd at Chicago Coin Company. Members were reminded that the Club’s Annual Banquet will be held on Saturday, December 10th at Marcello’s Restaurant, 645 W. North Avenue, Chicago. The time, cost and program to be announced.

The evening’s featured program by Mark Wieclaw on Fort Knox Gold Mine, Fairbanks, Alaska included a company video. Following a question and answer period, Mark was presented with an engraved Club medal and ANA Educational Certificate.

Elliott Krieter introduced the eleven exhibitors for the evening. DAVID G. GUMM: two U.S. Large Cents; KURT HYDE: hard times tokens and cancelled check from 1979 purchase; DALE LUKANICH: two cut Ancient Roman denari and U.S. $5 error note; RICHARD LIPMAN: eight pieces of U.S. currency; ROBERT FEILER: Ancient drachm of Thrace, Operation Bernhard banknote, old U.S. Cent board and Civil War era Copperhead Badge; MARC STACKLER: two Mexican Revolution era “Bank on Bank” cheques; ROBERT LEONARD: imitation gold Ducats and ANA 50 year membership pin and medal; JEFFREY ROSINIA: memorabilia of the ANA Convention; MARK WIECLAW: ten items that included obsolete notes and discount ANA Convention admission coupons; STEVE ZITOWKSY: Moneta, the official publication of the Ottawa Coin Club and recipient of ANA’s 2011 Best Local Club Publication Award; and ROBERT WEINSTEIN: six copper coins from ancient Indo Kingdoms.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 PM and with the next meeting to be held October 12, 2011 at the Chicago Bar Association Building.

Respectfully Submitted,
Carl Wolf, Secretary

Call for Club Auction Lots
November 9, 2011

The club auction is scheduled for 7PM, near the start of the regular November club meeting. In the past few years, club related material (and Chicago area numismatic items) have had the best results. Some printed material also has shown good results. Please consider using the club auction to dispose of the numismatic items you no longer need.

You can place a reserve on each lot, and there is no commission charged to either the buyer or seller. Auction lot viewing will be held before the meeting starts, and again briefly before the auction starts.

The November Chatter will contain a list of all auction lots that are known to us by Tuesday, October 25. You can either e-mail your list to Paul Hybert by Tuesday, October 25 if you plan to bring your lots with you to the November meeting; or you can ship your items to Bill Burd by Tuesday, October 25.

If you have questions, Bill can be reached at 773-586-7666.

Speaker’s Wor[l]d
Fort Knox Gold Mine, Fairbanks, Alaska

presented by Mark Wieclaw
to our September 14, 2011 meeting

During the recent run up in the price of gold, many small accumulations of household gold have found their way back to refiners; but nothing beats a gold mine as a source for a big pile of gold. With the assistance of a 12-minute company produced video, Mark gave us an overview of the operation of a modern day open pit gold mine located about 25 miles north of Fairbanks.

Mark’s niece Becky, a geologist who graduated from the University of Alaska, works for Kinross; her job is to go out and explore the company’s land, suggesting where to drill. She works in the Fairbanks mining district, one of the largest gold producing areas in Alaska. Gold mining in that area started in 1902, and lasted until the easy gold was gone. Interest returned in 1984 when some visible signs of gold were found, and construction of the Fort Knox mine started in 1995. The large scale use of picks and shovels to recover gold nuggets is long gone from Alaska; the remaining gold mostly consists of small particles embedded in rock, where many tons of rock have to be processed to recover one ounce of gold.

The video of Kinross’ Fort Knox open pit mine covers all operations at the mine, from excavation to rough refining. Daily blasting on the pit’s floor loosens the rock; one or two loads from a frontloader fill a dump truck (the wheels on these large vehicles are taller than a person) that takes it to a crusher that can turn a car-sized rock into the size of a headlight; with the result ending on a huge stock pile. In a day, up to 130,000 tons can be added to that pile. Each day, about 45,000 tons of that pile are taken to a mill, where it goes through a series of steps to reduce it to the consistency of sand grains; picture a bank of 20 to 30 foot diameter rotating drums, filled with steel balls three to five inches in diameter. Sluice boxes are used to recover any large grains of gold, with the last traces of gold recovered in some disolving steps. The final product from this site is bars of 90% gold, weighing between 60 and 80 pounds. In 2010, the avearge cost of production was $500 per ounce of gold.

Actual mining at Fort Knox started in 1996, with digging operations projected to stop in 2014. After that, the stock pile will be worked off, to be followed by land reclamation efforts. Mark concluded the presentation with a map, on which he noted the nearby Gil Mineral Claims area that the company is evaluating for future efforts. The company’s web site, www.kinross.com, has more information about all of their mines, including Fort Knox (what a great name for a gold mine — any other mines ever use that name?)

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Show and Tell

Items shown at our September 14, 2011 meeting.

1. David Gumm showed recent acquisitions:
   • An 1806 Large Cent that he grades as Fine-20. Only one die variety, S-270, is known from the year’s mintage of 348,000.
   • An 1807 Large Cent that he grades as FV-25. This variety, S-271, is known for the comet that results on the coin from die failure, and this coin shows the comet nicely.
2. Kurt Hyde showed copper pieces:
   • The 1860 small cent he showed us last month will be slabbed, and it appears that the certificate from Taxay will be mentioned. Kurt also showed us more of the provenance of the 1979 purchase: the cancelled check, signed by Taxay.
   • Kurt started a new collecting area while at the ANA: Hard Times Tokens. These cost under $100 each for nice examples, and he showed us four with interesting designs: Jackson arising from a lock box, the ship of state on rocks, the legend “I follow in the steps of my predecessor,” and the legend “My Experiment, My Currency, My Glory.”
3. Dale Lukanich showed recent acquisitions:
   • From the ANA: the bottom halves of two anonymous denari from the Roman Republic, 209-208 BC.
   • From the ILNA show: a 1907 $5 Woodchopper legal tender note, with an engraving error on the back: The U of PUBLIC appears to be a C, resulting in PCBLIC.
4. Richard Lipman showed examples, over time, from one Legal Tender denomination. Only one piece is missing from a complete Large $1 set.
   • An 1862 Chase with a red seal, and a five-digit serial number (91423).
   • An 1869 Washington with a large red seal and serial number B6747138.
   • An 1875 red seal with red serial number, with a sawhorse back.
   • A large brown seal with a red serial number.
   • A large red seal with a blue serial number.
   • A small red seal with a blue serial number.
   • A 1923 with a small red seal and red serial number; a simple yet beautiful design.
   I might have missed one of the shown items; if you were keeping score, the missing type has a large brown seal with blue serial number.
5. Bob Feiler showed a range of items:
   • A large round, red coin holder for Lincoln “Pennies” from the New England Merchants Bank of Boston.
   • A badge from the US Civil War era: a copperhead. The head of Liberty cut out from a Large Cent (head of 1838) with a loop attached at top. Copperheads were Northern Democrats who wanted peace with the Confederacy.
   • A counterfeit Bank of England £10 note, produced during WWII as part of Germany’s Operation Bernhard.
   • An early Greek silver drachm (450-400 BC) from Thrace; a gorgon head fills one side.
6. Marc Stackler showed two pieces of bank-on-bank checks from October, 1913 during the Mexican Revolution era; this is early paper money of Pancho Villa. These resulted from bankers who did not want to refuse Villa’s request for money. Their use was very brief.
   • A 20 peso note without Villa’s name on it.
   • A 5 peso note with FALSO stamped on it. From a town that changed hands a number of times, the stamp might have been used to cancel it (or maybe to revalidate it for use by the other side?).
7. Robert Leonard showed a range of items:
   • His 50 year pin from ANA.
   • In a Finnish numismatic journal, an article that pictured a 25 cents token from the Finnish Socialist Club, Astoria, Oregon; the article cites Bob.
   • A Venetian gold ducat featuring St. Mark and the Venetian Doge, 1423-1457.
   • From the Greek island of Chios, a similar type: a gold ducat featuring St.Peter and the duke, 1423-1436.
   • An imitation of the Chios ducat, with little differences.
   • Another imitation of the Chios ducat, but larger in diameter.
   • Another imitation of the Chios ducat, but even farther off: in very low relief, the S is retrograde, and the elements are hand engraved (the design elements are punched into the die on the orginal).
8. Jeff Rosinia showed memorabilia from ANA.
   • A coin set from the Canadian mint.
   • The official convention medals, in various metals and sizes, and elongated coins from various sources.
   • His People’s Choice award, for one of his two exhibits.
   • A Numismatic Passport.
   • And assorted auction catalogs.
9. Mark Wieclaw showed a range of items, including some from ANA.
   • A Canadian coin and medal set; the current 5¢ coin is not included, being replaced by a medal.
   • From Dominick’s (some years ago), a $1 Santa Claus note.
   • A Mt. Florence Fund $1 note.
   • From the Bank of Happiest Days, greetings and checks.
   • The five different discount admission coupons to the ANA, each signed by the illustrated person.
   • An elongated cent from Boulder City, for the 50th anniversary of the Hoover Dam. The accompanying card states that this is one of the 1,807,296 cents laid out along a road.
10. While at our club’s table at the ANA, Steve Zitowsky met many people. One was Serge Pelletier, the editor of the Ottawa Coin Club newsletter, Moneta. They email their monthly newsletter and, at year end, print and bind all content into a book that sells for about $60 to $70. Steve showed us a copy from 2010 — good articles on a range of topics.
11. Robert Weinstein found a dealer in his favorite material (old Central Asia) at the ANA, and he showed us pieces from the Apracha dynasty after the death of King Azes (from around what now is Islamabad). The coins can have many inscriptions and multiple dating systems; some have two dating systems, and one uses three.
    • A copper tetradrachm of Apracha Raja Itravasu, struck in the name of Azes.
    • A copper tetradrachm of Apracha Raja Itravasu, struck in his own name. Similar in design to the above, but rare.
    • A copper tetradrachm of Apracha Raja Aspavarma, a nephew of Itravasu. His later coins contain the rosette badge of Itravasu.
    • A copper tetradrachm of the Kushan King Vima Takto. The common coin type shows the head of the king on one side, and a king on horseback on the other; this coin has a mounted king and a head of Zeus.
    • A copper unit of Indo-Scythian King Kharahostes; the shape is rectangular.
    • A copper quarter unit of Kharahostes, also rectangular, but this piece is the second known.

Our 1114th Meeting

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