| Volume 63 No. 4 | April 2017 |
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Session I of the 1179th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was held Saturday, March 4, 2017 in conjunction with the 32nd Annual PCDA National Currency & Coin Convention, Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare, 5440 N. River Road, Rosemont, IL 60018. Vice President John Riley called the meeting to order at 1:00 PM with 15 members and 3 guests: Dennis, Meryl, and Justin Lutz.
The Secretary spoke of the upcoming program agenda and gave the first reading to the application of Dennis Lutz.
The featured program was delivered by Dennis Lutz, President of the International Banknote Society (IBNS) who spoke on World Bank Note of the Year, a Background Story. He related the history of the award and displayed the nineteen different banknotes under consideration for the 2016 Bank Note of the Year. Meeting attendees were given ballots and asked to vote for first, second, and third place notes. The sample poll results were first place: Switzerland 50 Francs (22 points); second place: Maldives 1000 Rufiyaa (12 points); and third place: Seychelles 500 Rupees (11 points). Dennis promised to email official vote results so the Club can compare it against their sample poll. After many questions and answers, Dennis was presented with an ANA Educational Certificate and an engraved Club medal suspended on a neck ribbon.
The meeting was recessed at 1:59 PM.
Session II of the 1179th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was held Wednesday, March 8, 2017 at the Chicago Bar Association Building, 321 S. Plymouth Court, Downtown Chicago. President Richard Lipman called the meeting to order at 6:45 PM with 23 members and 1 guest, Mable Ann Wright.
The Minutes of the February 8 meeting were approved as published in the Chatter. A comment was made the Chatter still shows the 2016 list of officers. Members of the Board approved the Minutes of the February 15th Board meeting as published in the Chatter. The Treasurer reported February revenue of $861.46, expenses $225.77, and total assets $26,045.25. A motion was passed approving the report.
Old Business:
New Business:
First VP Marc Stackler introduced the featured speaker, John Wright, who spoke on Making Sense. Following questions and answers, John was presented with an ANA Educational Certificate and an engraved Club medal suspended on a neck ribbon.
Second VP John Riley introduced the following exhibitors. BILL BIERLY: Marshall House token, Alexandria, VA. MARK WIECLAW: 4 ancient Roman coins showing different hairstyles. ROBERT LEONARD: Kagin’s March 9-10 Auction catalog where he cataloged the small California gold coins and Golden West tokens; and an electrum hemihekte (1/12 stater) of Ephesos in Iona (625-600 BC). DEVEN KANE: a Neo-Assyrian cylinder seal (8th–7th Century BC) and silver drachms of the Western Kshatrapas, the Trailutaka Dynasty, and the Indo-Greek Kingdom Dionysios Soter. RICHARD LIPMAN: a 2017-D Lincoln Cent found in circulation, a number of bank notes modified to serve different purposes and to serve as a medium to communicate or commemorate. MELISSA GUMM: 2 medals from the 1893 Columbian Exposition. STEVE ZITOWSKY: “Coin Collectors Crying Towel” from the 1960s featuring many numismatic foibles. LYLE DALY: English Celtic coins and reference books.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:07 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Carl F. Wolf,
Secretary
by Mark Wieclaw
Here are the results of the club banquet survey, distributed and collected at our March 8 meeting.
a presentation by Dennis Lutz,
to our March 4, 2017 meeting.
Beginning in 2004, the International Bank Note Society has held a yearly competition to select a newly issued bank note as the Bank Note of the Year. The notes must be of a new design and have been placed into circulation in the current year.
The newly issued notes are nominated by IBNS members, with the January issue of the IBNS Journal picturing the nominated notes. Although there might be 150 new bank notes each year, many have only small changes, such as to the date and signatures. This competition is for notes with striking changes, such as to the design or material. They must also be used in commerce, be legal tender, and issued in enough quantity to generally circulate and be available at face value. The 19 nominated notes for 2017 is typical.
Long-time collectors might not agree with the popular vote, and sometimes suggest a “preliminary” vote to select the “good” notes deserving of attention. It was noted that bank note collectors can be very opinionated, and that no two people have the same idea about beauty.
The first competition, in 2004, started small, but the profile has increased over the years. The Canadian Banknote Company printed the 2015 winning note of New Zealand; press releases were made, and daily website visits went to the thousands for the IBNS. The December 5-11, 2016 issue of Bloomberg Business Week, their “New Money Issue,” had a four-page article, titled And the Nominees for Best New Bill Are…, that referred to the IBNS and the Bank Note of the Year competition.
Some countries a full new series of all denominations in one year, while others introduce one new denomination per year. In the year that three notes from the Maldives were nominated, the IBNS committee identified one of the notes for the voting.
We took a break, and examined the 19 notes in the current election. Real examples of most of the 19 notes were available for viewing, handling, and careful checking of designs and security features. For the few notes not physically available, Dennis had color copies printed. We cast special ballots, and IBNS General Secretary Roger Urce tabulated our votes while Dennis continued with the program.
What attracts votes? The note design’s topic, and ties to a country were mentioned. Features of past winning notes have included the historical, printing, and security aspects. One side of a note might produce a WOW reaction, while the other side might produce a yawn. For 2014, the Trinidad & Tobago $50 note was the run-away winner from day one.
Each member votes for a first place, second place, and third place note, with three points awarded for each first place vote, two points for each second place vote, and one vote given for each third place vote. Roger used the same procedure to tally our votes, and announced 22 points for Switzerland, 12 points for Maldives, 11 points for Seychelles, and 9 points for Argentina. Three of the 19 notes received no points, but that might have been due to their being represented by a printed copy, not an orginal note. In the January IBNS Journal, all notes are shown in the same manner — the issue does not come will real examples of all notes! For what it is worth, almost half of the attendees at our meeting are IBNS members.
Dennis could not obtain examples of the 2000 rupees note from India; India recently pulled the older 500 and 1000 rupee notes from circulation, so the 2000 rupee notes saw heavy demand in India, and could not be found outside of India. Among the comments that Dennis relayed about the other notes: the Argentina note, with its beautiful rendering of a jaguar, is popular; the Australia note has both supporters and detractors; the beautiful back of the Bahamas note has supporters; and a book was issued about the design of the Swiss note (the design is about time).
The Bank Note of the Year committee will announce the 2016 winning design at the annual IBNS Board meeting this Spring.
by John Wright, NLG,
presented to our March 8, 2017 meeting,
Here is a fascinating year. Though momentous events occur abroad this year, many more noteworthy events transpire here at home. How soon can you identify this truly captivating year?
Giuseppi Garibaldi, recently returned from five years in America, founds the Italian National Association to work for unification of Italyfrom several regional states. Today Garibaldi is revered as “the father of modern Italy.”
Britain’s “Matrimonial Causes Act” declares that a husband’s responsibility as provider continues in perpetuity after a marriage is ended,thus ordering the world’s first alimony payments.
Benito Juarez becomes President of Mexico in spite of opposition from followers of the again-ousted Santa Anna.
The US Supreme Court rules in the “Dred Scott Decision” that residence in a free territory does not make a slave free, that a slave is property, not a US citizen, and may not bring suit in a US federal court, and that Congress never had the authority to ban slavery in any US territory. This ruling judges the 47-year-old Missouri Compromise, already superseded by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, as unconstitutional.This blatant act of judicial activism enrages abolitionists. The minority report from this 7-2 decision asserts that the judicial power of this decision “transcends the limits of authority of the Court.”
Hinton Helper publishes The Impending Crisis of the South and How to Meet It. Helper, a North Carolina farmer, publishes statistics showing that slaves benefit only one of every 660 free Southern farming families at the expense of the other 99.6% who farm without slaves. Helper calls slavery “the root of all the shame, poverty, ignorance, tyranny, and imbecility of the South.” Even the slave owners suffer from their “peculiar institution,” as the cost of a prime field hand runs $1,500 and up — money that could be better spent on labor-saving farm equipment. Helper is lauded in the North for his “courage and vision” and is denounced by Southerners. His book is banned in the South.
Universities founded this year include the University of California, San Jose State College, Illinois State University, Marquette University, Michigan State College of Agriculture, Cooper Institute, and the Universities of Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras in India.
One of the first large and well-planned city parks in this country is begun as 624 acres of swamps, hog-wallows, bone-boiling works, and squatters shacks begin their transformation into what is now Central Park of New York City. The park will open next year.
Lithographer Nathaniel Currier and his bookkeeper James Ives form a corporation and produce the first Currier & Ives lithographs this year. These lithographs will be sold worldwide for 15¢ to $3 each. The two-family-owned firm will be in business for 50 years.
Italian honeybees are introduced to San Diego, beginning the American honey industry there.
With the proliferation of shipping companies since the gold discoveries in California, New York to San Francisco freight rates have dropped in less than a decade from $60 per ton to $10 per ton. Though clipper ships can still outspeed steamships, the days of the clipper are ending.
At this time mail and government shipments are carried on civilian paddlewheel steamboats manned by US Navy officers. The route between San Francisco and New York involves two ships and a railroad crossing of the Panama isthmus between them. On September 8, the mail packet SS Central America departs Havana for New York under command of Captain James Herndon, US Navy. Though rated for 200 passengers, she carries over 500 passengers, 38,000 letters, and 21 tons of California gold. On September 12 in stormy seas she is leaking and a bailing-bucket brigade is initiated to augment the deck pumps. Despite being intercepted by the schooner El Dorado, only a hundred passengers, mostly women and children, are transferred before the Central America sinks with all remaining souls. Her exact location remains unknown for over 130 years.
In the last six years US railroad trackage has grown from 9,000 to 30,000 miles. In 40 years overland transportation costs have fallen by a factor of sixteen. Railroads are big business, but this year the financial bubble bursts. The cause for the bust is over speculation in railroad shares and land, with the panic triggered by the one-two punch of the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company and the loss of 21 tons of gold on the SS Central America. Almost 5,000 business firms will fail in the “Panic of 1857.” Within the next two years another 8,000 businesses will fail. The New York Tribune fires all but two of its foreign correspondents in an economy move. One of the two retained correspondents is Karl Marx.
In 1857 the five US mints produce 50 million coins: 368,726 in copper (large cents and half cents), 17.5 million in copper-nickel (new cents), 30.4 million in silver (3¢ through $1), and 2.9 million in gold ($1 through $20). There are several rarities of this year, but no great or legendary rarities. The most noteworthy of these are the gold dollar and quarter eagle of Dahlonega (fewer than 6,000 mintage combined), and the eagle of New Orleans (fewer than 5,600 mintage). The shortest-issue DENOMINATIONS of 1857 are the eagle (48K), the half cent (35K), and the $3 (21K), though when I tried to assemble a type set of 1857 I found the silver dollar (94K) to be the most elusive piece. When I finally found a circulated example I was willing to pay double Guidebook for it.
The half cent of 1857, though a low-mintage issue, was evidently hoarded as an inexpensive talisman of a series that was “gone with the wind” even before the war. These are easy to find today at $50 to $400, which is decidedly cheap for so small a mintage.
But the REAL numismatic news of 1857 is the new cent. It is barely larger than a dime, made of a white copper-nickel alloy, and combines the reverse of an 1836 silver dollar for its obverse with the reverse of an 1854 gold dollar for its reverse. This design will be used for only two years.
The coinage act of 1857 makes two major changes to US monetary law. First, foreign coins will no longer be accepted as legal tender in the US. Second, the new reduced-weight cents will replace the old costly-to-produce large cents and half cents and the latter will be discontinued.
On May 25 two booths are set up in the courtyard of the US mint in Philadelphia with signs proclaiming “CENTS FOR SILVER” and“CENTS FOR CENTS” to redeem foreign silver coins (by weight) or the old copper US cents and half cents for the newly-minted flying eagle cents. For some unknown reason there are no complaints that the new cents look like silver and are about the same size as dimes. Lines of eager customers extend for blocks to obtain the new coins as the era of the large cent and the half cent finally draws to a close.
The US coinage of 1857 consists of fifteen totally different coins, including the ten different denominations authorized in 1792 (half centand cent in copper, half dime through dollar in silver, and quarter eagle through eagle in gold) plus the gold dollar introduced in 1849,the double eagle introduced in 1850, the trime introduced in 1851, the $3 gold introduced in 1854, and finally the small cent introduced in 1857.
More major changes in US coinage will be made in 1864-1866. In 1864 the copper-nickel cents will be replaced with bronze cents, and bronze 2¢ coins will be introduced at about the same size and weight as the recently retired half cents. In 1865 the copper-nickel composition will be expanded to 3¢ pieces (the exact same size as a dime), and in 1866 to 5¢ pieces (distinct from silver half-dimes, which will continue to be made for another seven years). So the 1866-1872 period will boast TWO totally different 3¢ pieces, TWO totally different 5¢ pieces, and TWO totally different dollars. With thirteen denominations, that makes SIXTEEN wholly different coins for each of these years.
James Buchanan will be able to postpone for his tenure the bloody years to come, but the next administration will reap the whirlwind that has been brewing for several decades. Though each year beyond 1857 continues to have a rich collection of nuggets of fascination both trivial and momentous, this year ends the remarkable and captivating series of the Early American Coppers.
| CSNS Convention | Chicago Coin Company |
| PCDA Convention | Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. |
Items shown at our March 8, 2017 meeting,
| Date: | April 12, 2017, First session |
| Time: | 6:45 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. Nearby parking: South Loop Self Park, 318 South Federal Street; that is two short blocks west of our meeting site. Note: Their typical rate of $33 is reduced to $9 if you eat at the Plymouth Restaurant, 327 S. Plymouth Court (next to our meeting site at the CBA) — show the restaurant your parking ticket, and ask for a parking voucher. The restaurant offers standard sandwiches, burgers, and salads for members who want to meet for dinner. Members start arriving at 5pm. |
| Featured Program: | Mark Wieclaw
— Aes Graves: Cast Bronze Coinage of Ancient Rome
Aes Graves coins are large cast bronze pieces issued by the Roman Republic about 289-213 BC. They issued these coins to facilitate commerce with other Italian cities and foreign lands. The invasion of Hannibal (218-201 BC) created a financial crisis which resulted in a complete restructuring of Rome’s currency system. Since Aes Graves coins were cumbersome and unwieldy to use, they underwent a rapid series of weight reductions and were replaced by smaller struck bronze coins. Mark has collected this Roman series of coins for many years. Those who attend will hear the story of Aes Graves and see examples of the seven different sizes and weights. |
| Date: | April 29, 2017, Second Session |
| Time: | 1:00 PM |
| Location: | At the Central States Numismatic Society (CSNS) Convention, which is held at the Renaissance Hotel & Convention Center, 1551 N. Thoreau Drive, Schaumburg, IL. |
| Featured Program: | A Panel Discussion
— When to Dispose of Your Collection
The details are still being arranged, but we hope to have three or four people, plus a moderator. At least one dealer, and one collector who has sold part of his or her collection, to be on the panel. Panel members could relate their experiences in selling, and in deciding what to sell; the panel will have experience in selling. The moderator and audience will pose questions to the panel. |
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.
| April | 6-8 | Chicago Coin Expo which is held at the Cultural Center in downtown Chicago. There is no admission charge. For details, refer to their website, http://www.coinexpo.org. |
| April | 12 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - Mark Wieclaw on Aes Graves: Cast Bronze Coinage of Ancient Rome |
| April | 27-29 | 78th Anniversary Convention of the Central States Numismatic Society at the Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel & Convention Center, 1551 North Thoreau Drive, Schaumburg, IL. Free public admission. For details, refer to their website, http://www.centralstates.info/conv.html. |
| April | 29 | CCC Meeting - 1pm at the CSNS Convention,
which is held at the Schaumburg Convention Center.
Featured Program - A Panel Discussion — When to Dispose of Your Collection |
| May | 10 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be announced |
| June | 14 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be announced |
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
| Elected positions (two-year terms): | |
| Richard Lipman | - President |
| Marc Stackler | - First Vice President |
| John Riley | - Second Vice President |
| William Burd | - Archivist |
| Directors: | Steve Ambos
Melissa Gumm Dale Lukanich Mark Wieclaw |
| Appointed positions: | |
| Elliott Krieter | - Immediate Past President |
| Carl Wolf | - Secretary |
| Steve Zitowsky | - Treasurer |
| Paul Hybert | - Chatter Editor, webmaster |
| Jeffrey Rosinia | - ANA Club Representative |
chatter_editor@yahoo.com
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