• Contents of this Issue
  • Notes
  • CCC Meeting Minutes
  • Banco Revolutionario de Guerrero
  • Exhibits
  • Board Meeting Minutes
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  • Important Dates
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Chatter

One Week Until ANA!

In Dallas, that is. A quick scan of the Collector Exhibits turned up the names of three club members. For members unable to travel far from Chicago, the CPMX, CICF, and CSNS shows will be nearby in March and April — that means the Chatter will be a little larger than usual, from April through June, for the extra reports. The club will have a table and meeting at each of these three shows; details will appear in the Chatter and our website as they are finalized.

For members with more varied and specialized interests, maybe the 51st Congress on Medieval Studies, sponsored by the Medieval Institute of Western Michigan University will be of interest — their website is http://www.wmich.edu/medievalcongress. Before that event, on May 8-10, will be The Promise of the Vatican Library to be held at the University of Notre Dame — see http://www.VaticanLibrary.nd.edu for details. Numismatics will play only a small part at these events, so they are not for most collectors.

Paul Hybert, editor

Minutes of the 1166th Meeting

The 1166th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was held February 10, 2016 in the Chicago Bar Association Building, 321 S. Plymouth Court, Downtown Chicago. President Elliott Krieter called the meeting to order at 6:45 PM with 25 members in attendance.

A motion was passed to accept the Minutes as published in the Chatter. Treasurer Steve Zitowsky gave a detailed financial report for January showing $320.00 in revenue and $57.00 in expenses, $27,594.11 in total assets, which are $2,290.00 in Life Membership and $27,594.11 in Club Equity.

The membership applications of Willie Davis, Jr., and Nicholas Zacny received a second reading and a motion was passed accepting them into membership. President Krieter presented Mac Weist with an engraved metal Life Membership card.

In celebration of National Coin Week, Harold Eckardt announced that he will hold a coin collecting program at the Portage-Cragin Branch of the Chicago Public Library, 5108 W. Belmont. The event will be Wednesday, April 20, 6:30PM. President Krieter encouraged members to place exhibits or plan public activities April 17-23, 2016. He also announced the Board will hold a meeting on February 10, 2016. The upcoming CSNS Convention, April 27-30, was announced, and a supply of literature was available promoting their Chicago History Educational Forum.

First V.P. Richard Lipman introduced featured speaker Marc Stackler who delivered a talk on Banco Revolutionario de Guerrero. Following a question and answer period, Rich presented Marc with an ANA Educational Certificate and an engraved Club medal.

Second V.P. Marc Stackler announced the exhibitors. DAVID GUMM – counterfeit 1944 Jefferson nickel. ELLIOTT KRIETER – 1984 Canadian Cartier dollar. LYLE DALY – 1926 Oregon Trail commemorative half dollar, 1812 insurgent coin of Oaxaca, Mexico, and a book found at a flea market. RICHARD HAMLITON – two Marshall Islands $5 coins. MARK WIECLAW – Littleton Coin Co. letters containing Lincoln cents, money soap from Virginia Candles, and a recently issued commemorative quarter. DALE LUKANICH – counterfeit British 10 pound note created by Operation Bernhard. ROBERT LEONARD – plugged silver dirham and gold sultani, and his book Curious Currency for reference. DEVEN KANE – two gold coins from old India. HAROLD ECKHARDT – collection of New Orleans Mardi Gras doubloons. ERIC DELGADILLO – Thomas and Sons coin auction catalog from March 24, 1865, Philadelphia. RICHARD LIPMAN – BEP printed cards, copper Zombie money, 2016 medal honoring Lipman Pike (1845-1893), and 1933 depression scrip from Minnesota. BRETT IRICK – 5 Mexican numismatic items, including an 1823 mint employee pass with leather pouch.

In a last minute bit of business, David Gumm was presented with an engraved speaker’s medal for his joint presentation with John Wright in October, 2015.

Since President Krieter departed early, Second V.P. Richard Lipman called for a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:32 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Carl Wolf, Secretary

Speaker’s Wor[l]d
Banco Revolutionario de Guerrero

by Marc Stackler,
presented to our February 10, 2016 meeting

Amidst the Mexican Revolution, the Banco Revolucionario de Guerrero was established in October, 1914, by a group of generals loyal to Emiliano Zapata. It was a time in between the defeat of a military dictatorship and civil war, when the victorious parties were jockeying to establish a government for what they believed would be post-war Mexico. Up to then the Zapatistas were primarily known for their coinage, mostly crude, struck in various locations in the states bordering Mexico City. The most famous are the “adobe dollars.”

Emiliano Zapata had always preferred that payment be made in coin, especially silver. Nonetheless, in Guerrero state, General Jesus Salgado met with other Zapatista generals to establish a bank and issue paper money. This seems to have been done with Zapata’s approval. The objective of the bank was to promote peacetime reconstruction and economic development. It was October, 1914 and everyone thought the fighting was over.

By the time of the bank’s last issue in December, 1914, civil war broke out. Troops and payees refused the bank’s currency as payment. By February, 1915, Zapata ordered the notes to be exchanged for silver coin, and much of the currency was incinerated soon after. As a result, there is a rich and extensive legacy of Zapatista coinage, but Zapata’s paper currency is for the collector with years of patience and deep pockets.

Today it is unclear how many notes were actually issued or destroyed. Occasional examples show up almost always in low grade. Of the $10 peso notes, perhaps 3 survive. One was last auctioned in 2011. The auctioneer stated that the last time he sold one was 15 years earlier. The 2011 note had at some point been taped after tearing into three pieces; later its tape was removed and the sections glued back together — expertly, of course. It fetched $2800.

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Show and Tell

Items shown at our Febuary 10, 2016 meeting,

1. David Gumm brought a counterfeit 1944 Jefferson nickel. The appearance is that of a cast coin, including a seam around the edge, but the coin is in fact struck. The nickel has been written up in the literature, with the best reference Dwight H. Stuckey’s The Counterfeit 1944 Jefferson Nickel from 1982. These were made by Francis Leroy Henning in Erial, New Jersey, southeast of Camden, in 1954. They were reported to the Secret Service by a bank teller in Pennsauken, NJ on December 13, 1954 &mdash he had received them from local coin collectors. Without examining them, the Mint authenticated them! On December 29, 1954, a coin collector from Merchantville, NJ, sent nickels dated 1944, 1946, and 1947 to the Superintendent of the Mint, noting that the 1944 nickel lacked the mintmark, all had poor color, and the detail was poor. He also mentioned that the R in E PLURIBUS UNUM had a defect, this being a diagnostic for some other dates (which seem to be 1939, 1953, and one other). These were positively die struck and not cast. Henning was arrested by the Secret Service October 27, 1955, and confessed. He claimed to have made his false dies by direct transfer from a struck coin, but some believe that the dies were cast. Henning said that he purchased the metal for $6,800 and made from it about $15,000 face in nickels; about 100,000 nickels (of 6 different dates, so 17,000 1944 nickels) reached circulation. Only about 1,000 were ever turned in to the Secret Service, but another 200,000 were dumped by Henning in Cooper Creek. He was sentenced to three years in prison and died in 1969.
2. Elliot Krieter displayed a Jacques Cartier commemorative Canadian dollar, copper-nickel, for the 350th anniversary (1534-1984).
3. Lyle Daly showed 3 Items.
   1. 1926-S Oregon Trail Half dollar. 83,055 were minted, the highest of all years issued: 1926, 28, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38 and 39. James Earle and Laura Fraser designed the coin collaboratively. James Earle Fraser Studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, Laura Gardin was born in Morton Park but they met in the Art Students League in New York. What Lyle finds attractive with this piece is the toning and the holistic design that uses the entire coin as a canvas. The text is integrated in the design rather than rimming the design. James Earle is also known for:
      1. Pioneers relief at the Michigan Avenue Bridge.
      2. Famous “End of the Trail” and the Indian Head 5 cent piece.
      Laura Fraser won the 1931 competition for the obverse of the George Washington quarter, but was vetoed by Andrew Mellon. Later, her design was used on the $5 Gold commemorative of 1999.
   2. A Max Mehl flea market find, previously owned by Geo. S. Lefrentz: The Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia and Premium Catalog, an Elaborate Encyclopedia of the Coins of the World, copyright 1929, and published by The Numismatic Company of Texas, formerly known as the Numismatic Bank of Fort Worth Texas. Price is 1 Dollar.
   3. A copper 8 reales 1812 Insurgent Coinage of Oaxaca. The Bow and Arrow on the obverse is symbolic of Oaxaca. SUD refers to Oaxaca and General Jose Morelos. The revers shows the denomination, as 8 R, and a monogram of Morelos.
4. Richard Hamilton showed 2 Marshall Islands $5 commemorative coins. Both are copper-nickel and legal tender.
   1. The Heroes of Pearl Harbor was issued on Jan. 1, 1991 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The obverse shows profiles of a soldier, sailor, airman, and nurse and is inscribed to the Heroes of Pearl Harbor dated 1941-1991. The reverse shows the coat of arms of Marshall Islands, which appears on all their national coinage.
   2. The First Men on the Moon was issued on July 20, 1989, exactly 20 years to the day of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing. Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon. The obverse shows an astronaut stepping onto the lunar surface while the reverse features the coat of arms of the Marshall Islands.
5. Mark Wieclaw talked about 3 items.
   1. Several letters from Littleton Coin Company, each containing a Lincoln cent.
   2. Money soap, from Virginia Candles, that has a piece of U.S. Currency that can be from $1 up to a $50 bill.
   3. The most current America the Beautiful quarter featuring Camel Rock in the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois.
6. Dale Lukanich showed an Operation Bernhard (Counterfeit British) 10-pound note. This note is autographed by Adolf Berger, Hans Walter, and Jack Plapler. These are three survivors of the Sachsenhausen Camp where the notes were produced.
7. Robert Leonard brought in 2 coins and a book, from the days when money actually meant a fixed amount of precious metal:
   1. Umayyads of Spain, circa 825-875 A.D., a clipped silver dirham which has had slots cut into it and a strip of silver inserted to bring it up to the correct weight. (After this was done, the coin was severely clipped again.) These coins are listed by Album as A-A346 (RR), a catchall for examples from multiple Emirs. Coins with the slots, but with the silver strip missing, are fairly common. This practice continued from about 800-900 A.D.
   2. A Turkish gold sultani (altin) of Ahmed I, 1603-1617 (A-1347.2), somewhat clipped and then privately plugged to restore the standard weight, probably from Turkey in Europe based on the fact that the seller (at the New York International Numismatic Convention) was Romanian. Bob could find nothing in the literature about underweight Turkish gold coins plugged to restore their ability to circulate.
   3. Curious Currency (2010); on p. 105 similar plugged silver and gold coins are discussed and illustrated. A plugged Spanish Umayyad dirham from the ANS collection is illustrated; at that time, Bob did not own either silver or gold plugged coins. The plugged gold coin is an 18th century officially-plugged coin from the West Indies.
8. Deven Kane brought in 2 coins from medieval central India (the Deccan Plateau):
   1. A gold Pagoda, 15mm in diameter and weighing 3.90 grams, from the Western Chalukyas of Kalyana, and found in the Mysore region. This coin is generally in the South Indian pagoda weight standard, and came from the Dr. Lawrence Adams collection. Indian coins can sometimes be frustrating since they often have no ruler identified on them. Professor Bhandare at the Ashmolean agreed that this could be identified for the Western Chalukyas, but it is a bit over-ambitious to directly attribute this to a specific ruler (this type had been attributed by Mitchiner to Somesvara I Trailokyamalla, 1043-1068). The Later or Western Chalukyas (977-1198) were the last Hindu Empire to span the entire Deccan.
   2. A gold Padmatanka, 16mm in diameter and weighing 3.82 grams, from the Yadavas of Devagiri, 1261-1270. This was the successor state of the Later Chalukyas in Maharashtra. The early coinage of the Yadavas were similar to the previous Chalukya coins — flat gold coins with assorted punches on them, and they sometimes overstruck Chalukya coins. Under Singhana II (1200-47) the Yadavas introduced this new coin type: the weight remained about the same, but now the flan received a major lotus blossom punch, rendering it scyphate (cup shaped). The coin also bears other devices, along with the name of the ruler in Devanagari script. Thanks to the lotus (Padma) blossom, the coins are referred to as Padmatanka.
9. Harold Eckardt brought a collection of Mardi Gras tokens (“doubloons”). The practice of showering the crowd with these tokens began in 1960.
10. Eric Delgadillo displayed an auction catalog from Thomas & Sons, Philadelphia, 1865. Although worn from age, it was in decent condition with all of its pages intact.
11. Rich Lipman presented some examples of prints and paper money.
    1. Bureau of Engraving and Printing greeting cards with US government themes, such as the US Capitol.
    2. Zombie Money: copper rounds for the zombie apocalypse. Dated 2017, 2018, and 2019, the designs start primitive and become more artistic. The designs are takeoffs on US coin designs.
    3. A 2016 commemorative medal for Lipman Pike, and late nineteenth-century baseball player and the first to be paid (therefore, the first pro baseball player). The medal was struck by the American Israel Numismatic Association, as Pike was a Jewish sports figure.
    4. 1933 Depression scrip, “The Organized Unemployed Inc.” good for 5 cents in trade for labor. This was an organization founded to promote work by providing labor to those who would not otherwise be able to pay for workers. An example cited was farmers, whose crop prices had dipped so low that it was not economically feasible to harvest.
12. Brett Irick discussed 5 items related to Mexican numismatics.
    1. An 1823 Mexico City mint employee pass. This dates back to the early days of the Mexican Republic. The pass is the only one known for any Mexico Early Republic mint. Brett also had the leather pouch in which the pass was stored.
    2. An 1824 profile eagle (“hookneck”) 8 reales, Mexico City mint.
    3. An 1881 facing eagle 8 reales, Hermosillo mint.
    4. Hookneck, by Clyde Hubbard and David O’Harrow. This is considered the bible when it comes to the 1824 hookneck series of reales.
    5. Resplandores, by Mike Dunigan and JB Parker. This is a complete guide to the 1825-97 facing-eagle series of reales.

Minutes of the Chicago Coin Club Board of Directors

February 17, 2016

The Chicago Coin Club Board met February 17, 2016 at Winberie’s Restaurant, 151 N. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, IL. President Elliott Krieter called the meeting to order at 6:07 PM with the following members present: Rich Lipman, Marc Stackler, Steve Ambos, Steve Zitowsky, Dale Lukanich, William Burd, and Carl Wolf.

1. A motion was passed to appoint Melissa Gumm to fill the Board vacancy left by the resignation of Eugene Freeman.
2. Future Board meetings are tentatively scheduled for May 18, Aug 17, and Nov 16.
3. Possible activities were discussed for Coin Week, April 17-23; theme is “Portraits of Liberty: Icon of Freedom.”
4. With the 100th anniversary year approaching in 2019, Mark Wieclaw, Bill Burd, and Dale Lukanich were appointed as an exploratory committee to draw up general plans, activities, committees, etc, and give their recommendations to the Board.
5. A motion was passed to order 100 window buttons at a cost of $265.00 + freight. They should resemble the current buttons as close as possible and be offered to members at $5.00 each.
6. With a low supply of speaker medals, it was decided to call for new design concepts by the April meeting.
7. After a discussion it was decided to decline a listing on the U.S. Mint Web site.
8. Numismatic leaders and officials are encouraging the Club to begin video recording featured presentations and post them on the Web. After a discussion with many open questions, the subject was tabled.
9. Steve Ambos was appointed Chairman of the December 14th Annual Banquet, and asked to report location ideas within 60-90 days.
10. The Board authorized the 38 members with outstanding dues be dropped March 1.
11. Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. has formed a 501c3 tax-exempt nonprofit organization called “History in Your Hands” which will operate an annual international coin show in downtown Chicago starting in 2017.
12. General liability insurance, and directors and officers liability insurance, was discussed with a conservative estimate annual cost of $1500. With many open questions, it was decided for Board members to consult with their legal contacts and provide input at the next meeting.
13. As the single largest expense is mailing the Chatter, a motion was passed to only send the electronic version to new members. The Board also felt the Club should consider a two-tier membership in 2017 for electronic and print issues.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Carl F. Wolf, Secretary

Our 1167th Meeting

Important Dates

Unless stated otherwise, our regular monthly CCC Meeting is in downtown Chicago on the second Wednesday of the month; the starting time is 6:45PM.

Chatter Matter

http://www.ChicagoCoinClub.org/

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

Club Officers

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