• Contents of this Issue
  • Notes
  • CCC Meeting Minutes
  • Coinage of Syracuse, 5th - 3rd Century B.C.
  • Exhibits
  • Upcoming Meeting
  • Important Dates
  • Chatter Matter
  • Share This Issue!
• Other Chatter Issues
  • Prior Issue
  • Next Issue
  • All Past Issues
• Contact Editor

Chatter

Editor’s Notes

Starting with this August convention in Denver, ANA has made some schedule changes to the start of the summer convention. First, the 3-day pre-show with PNG has been reduced to a one-day ANA/PNG Numismatic Trade Show, on Monday, July 31. Public admission on that day is $5 at the door, or free if you pre-register with PNG – see PNG main page, http://pngdealers.org, for details. Second, dealer setup for the ANA convention is only on Tuesday, August 1 – this year from 8AM until 1PM, with the general public being admitted on the first day at 1PM instead of at 10AM as in recent years. Follow the “Schedule of Events” link at https://www.money.org/worldsfairofmoney for the latest in official dates and times.

So far, the schedule for setup of Collector Exhibits is the same as in recent years – from noon until 6PM on Monday, and from 7AM until 9:30AM on Tuesday – but exhibitors should look for a letter from ANA with the official dates and times.

Paul Hybert, editor

Minutes of the 1182nd Meeting

The 1182nd meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was held Wednesday, June 14, 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 attendance of 20 members and 2 guests, Shanna Schmidt and Mark Zak.

The Minutes of the May 10th meeting as published in the Chatter were approved. The Treasurer reported May revenue of $0.00, expenses $156.00, and total assets $26,719.25. A motion was passed approving the report.

Secretary’s Report and Announcements:

1. Read a note from Kevin Foley thanking the Club for participating in the recent CSNS Convention.
2. Gave the first reading to Shanna Schmidt’s application for membership.

Old Business:

1. 8 members interested in attending a joint dinner with the NY Numismatic Club at the Denver ANA.
2. Mark Wieclaw, the 100th Anniversary Chairman, announced:
   1. An open planning committee meeting scheduled for Sept 20, 2017.
   2. The ANA convention coordinator shared their Hyatt Regency contact info, and the Committee will begin discussing an Anniversary Banquet.
   3. The Anniversary Committee is very interested in seeing medal design ideas.
3. The Club’s Annual Banquet will be held December 13th at the Grand Lux Café, 600 N. Michigan Ave. (entrance on Ontario) at a cost of $60/person. More details will follow.

No New Business was discussed.

First V.P. Marc Stackler introduced Shanna Schmidt, the featured speaker, who spoke on the subject Coinage of Syracuse, 5th–3rd Century B.C. Following questions and answers, Shanna was presented with an ANA Educational Certificate and an engraved Club medal suspended on a neck ribbon.

Second V.P. John Riley announced the evening’s eleven exhibitors. MARK WIECLAW – separate double sestertius of Trajan Decius (249-251 BC) and Herennia Etruscilla, his wife. DEVEN KANE – a hemidrachm from Bactria, two coins commemorating the end of the 30-Years-War. RICH LIPMAN – five English banknotes demonstrating regional interplay with Irish and Scottish banks. DALE LUKANICH – two early banknotes from Will County, IL. ROBERT FEILER – Greek tetradrachm of Ptolemy II, a $1 Kirkland Ohio Safety Society note signed by Joseph Smith, and a remainder note from Brunswick and Florida Steamboat &: Stage. LYLE DALY – 10 cent note from Westerbork Concentration Camp in Holland, and the book Counterfeiter: How a Norwegian Jew Survived the Holocaust. STEVE HUBER – set of six pattern 1873 U.S. Trade Dollars. STEVE ZITOWSKI – a coin from Axum and 3 coins from Saba. WILLIAM BURD – the Club’s first bulletins issued in 1920. ANDREW MICHYETA – four international silver coins dated 1919, donated to Club for display at the 2019 ANA Convention if more coins are added. JEFF AMELSE – newly acquired French Marianne medals and some Shield Nickels.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:06 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Carl F. Wolf, Secretary

Speaker’s Wor[l]d
Coinage of Syracuse, 5th - 3rd Century B.C.

a presentation by Shanna Schmidt,
to our June 14, 2017 meeting.

Syracuse, located on the eastern coast of the island of Sicily southwest of the Italian peninsula, was founded in about 734 BC by Greek colonists from the cities of Tenea and Corinth. The local aristocracy (the Gamoroi) held power until 490 BC when they were expelled by the lower class (the Killichiroi) of the city. Thanks to the help of Gelon, the ruler of nearby Gela, the Gamoroi returned to power in 485 BC – Gelon became the despot of the city, and moved many inhabitants of Gela, Kamarina, and Megera to Syracuse.

Equestrian pursuits were popular around Syracuse, and the Syracusans were strong competitors in the equestrian events at the sporting contests of Delphi and Olympia in Greece. Their pride was shown by the use of a horseman on the obverse of the didrachm (the reverse had a four-part incuse to bring up the obverse design). Another design showed a slow moving biga (a two-horse chariot) with the name Syracuse above. A small head of Arethustra, the local fountain goddess, soon appeared in a medallion at the center of the four square incuses. These two styles lasted for about 15 years, and 22 obverse dies are known. It is believed that these styles ended when the Gamoroi were expelled in 490 BC.

The style of the early Syracusan coins was influenced by the northern Greeks of Acanthus, coins of which are known from Sicilian hordes. Syracuse did not have silver mines, so the source of their silver was the silver coins of Greece which were traded for Sicilian exports, mainly wheat. With Gelon ruling Syracuse, silver coinage resumed, mostly in tetradrachms. Although the quadriga still occupied the obverse, it was presented in a much freer and less archaic style. Instead of showing four horses with parallel outlines, each horse had its own pose within the team. Nike hovered above, to crown the horses or the charioteer? Perhaps this commemorated Gelon’s Olympic victory in 488 BC. But the greatest change took place on the reverse.

The tiny head of Arethusa was enlarged, becoming the main reverse element, and was surrounded by four circling dolphins. The mintage was small in the first years, due to a shortage of silver – five obverse dies are known. Gelon’s finances greatly improved after his victory in 480 BC over the Carthaginians at Himera, on the northern coast of Sicily. An indemnity of 2,000 talents was imposed on Carthage, and the large number of Carthaginian captives provided labor and a steady income of ransoms. This resulted in a massive increase in the output of the Syracuse mint, with about 140 dies used in the next 15-20 years. (During the reminder of the century, only a further 111 dies were used.) But Gelon did not see much of this, as he died in 478/477 BC.

The mint at Gela stopped producing Gelon’s series of didrachms, and started a series of tetradrachms on the Syracusan model, of a quadriga on the obverse but with a man-headed bull on the reverse. The mint at Leontini also used designs influenced by Syracuse; the obverse quadriga had a reverse with a lion’s head (punning the city’s name), surrounded by four grains of barley (similar to the four dolphins around Arethusa’s head). A later coin replaced the lion head with Arethustra, but kept the barley corns.

It appears that the massive mintage of tetradrachms at Syracuse ended with the fall of the despots in 465 BC, or maybe a little later. The last of these issues included a special decadrachm, known as a Demareteion, where a running lion appeared in the exergue below the quadriga, and a wreath of olive branches was added to Arethusa’s head on the reverse. These coins are rare, and are either connected with the fall of the despots or the establishment of the ensuing democracy – the truth is hard to establish without any real literary evidence.

During the years of peaceful development (about 460-425 BC), Syracuse was the dominant mint in Sicily. The quadriga and Arethusa remained on the coins, but there were changes. A sea monster was added under the quadriga, which had the horses at gallop instead of walking. The hair style of Arethusa changed from long hair over the neck to a number of styles: in a bun, in a knot at the top of the head, elaborately weaved, or in a sakkos (a soft woven cap). Her face became less archaic, with wider eyes, the appearance of eyelashes, and heads larger and more elaborate in detail.

The most artistic Syracusan coins were minted about 425-400 BC, when the artistry of their die engravers was at an all time high and they issued some of the most beautiful coins ever struck, even by the standards of today. This turbulent time saw the Carthaginians overrun much of Sicily, while an expanding Syracuse became the only Greek power on Sicily. And a major Athenian attack on Syracuse utterly failed. Among the cities mentioned earlier in this presentation, Carthage took Himera in 410 BC, and Gela in 406 BC; Syracuse took Leontini. On the tetradrachms, the galloping quadriga design was further enhanced, even using a three-quarter facing view instead of in profile. Even Arethusa’s head was rendered in a facing view – or is it a three-quarters view? It was during this time that some of the dies were signed, at least that is the general concensus about the personal names that sometimes are prominent in the field, and on other coins are in the design. Euainetos and Kimon are the most renowned of the engravers, but full and partial names of others are known. An engraver’s name appears on some coins from Sicilian cities allied with Syracuse, and some names appear on the coins from multiple cities.

The decadrachm was reintroduced late in this period. The issue was small, using only three dies, but there are many surviving specimens of these large artistic coins; Long thought to commemorate the defeat of the Athenians in 413 BC, now they are thought issued for the failure of the Carthaginian siege of Syracuse in 405 BC. The long sequence of tetradrachms ended about 400 BC, and was replaced by a system mainly of a silver decadrachm and gold denominations valued at a decadrachm and higher – the coinage no longer was needed for trade with neighboring cities, but only as payment to mercenaries.

Staters of the Corinthian type were minted by Syracuse throughout the second half of the fourth century BC, possibly for use in the grain trade with Greece. In the western part of Sicily, the Carthaginians minted coins to pay their armies, as the inscriptions on the coins often declare. The quality and execution were extremely variable, with a few masterpieces among the caricatures of their prototypes.

This area of numismatics is much too large to be covered in under an hour, so Shanna brought some reference books:

• Tudeer, Tetradrachmenpragung von Syrakus.
• A catalogue of the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection of Greek Coins, Part 1.
• Gallatin, Syracusan Dekadrachms of the Euainetos Type.
• Morton & Eden, A Select Group of Ancient Greek Coins from a Princely Collection, London, 24 May 2017.

Current Advertisers

Show and Tell

Items shown at our June 14, 2017 meeting.

1. After showing us two Lincoln cents, dated 2017 and 1945, found along State Street while walking to the meeting, Mark Wieclaw showed two ancient coins.
   1. A heavy double sestertius of Trajan Decius (249-251 AD). They typically weigh 30-39 grams, but this very thick coin weighs 50.73 grams.
   2. A double sestertius of Herennia Etruscilla, wife of Trajan Decius. This denomination is very rare for her. This coin weighs 35.36 grams.
2. Deven Kane showed three coins.
   1. A silver hemidrachm of Apollodotos I Soter, from the Greco-Baktrian Kingdom circa 180-160 BC. A standing elephant is on the obverse of this round coin, while a standing Zebu (bull) is on the reverse. This is a variant of the square Apollodotus coin Devan brought last month. The square bull and elephant coins are relatively common, while the round variety does not show up as often. The legends here are continuous (the tops of the letters are next to the rim). Apollodotus reigned before the innovation of flipping the legend near the bottom of the coin, thereby making it possible to read the inscription without flipping the coin.
   2. A silver ½ thaler klippe from the Imperial Free City of Nuremburg, commemorating the end of the Thirty Years’ War. This square piece, measuring 39.1 by 39.2 mm, is not only dated 1650, but also has the day as 16 IVNII (June). Coats of arms are flanked by olive branch and palm frond, and an open rose is in each corner. One of the legends translates as, “Render great praise to God for the peace restored,” and a manus Dei holds a laurel wreath above hands rising up from a globe.
   3. A smaller silver klippe from the Imperial Free City of Nuremburg, commemorating the end of the Thirty Years’ War. This square piece, measuring 22 by 22.2 mm, shows a young boy waving a toy sword and riding a hobby horse, was supposedly presented to children present, a week or so after the ceremony for the above piece.
3. After showing a £10 Bank of England banknote with Charles Darwin on the back, Rich Lipman showed several regional British banknotes, from Irish and Scottish banks:
   1. A £5 note from the Bank of Ireland (Belfast), with the Old Bushmill distillery on the back.
   2. A £20 note from the First Trust Bank of Belfast, featuring a view of a chimney rock at Lacada Point on the back.
   3. A £10 note from the Danske Bank (Belfast) featuring a portrait of J.B. Dunlop and a bicycle (think: tires). The portico of the Belfast City Hall is on the back. This bank gained the right to issue its own notes after buying the Northern Bank.
   4. A £10 note from the Bank of Scotland with a Sir Walter Scott vignette and a view of the Glenfinnan Viaduct (railroad bridge).
   5. A £1 commemorative note from the Royal Bank of Scotland. This 1997 note features Alexander Graham Bell.
4. Dale Lukanich showed two early banknotes with ties to Will County, Illinois:
   1. From the Citizens Bank of Joliet, a $10 National Banknote series of 1902. This is the first example Dale has seen on the market (not held privately).
   2. A $2 note from the Oswego and Indiana Plank Road Company, from about 1860.
5. Bob Feiler showed a range of items.
   1. To complement the evening’s speaker, one of Bob’s ancient coins: a Greek Tetradrachm of Ptolemy II.
   2. A great “junkbox” find: An 1837 $1 Kirkland (Ohio) Safety Society Bank note signed by Joseph Smith, later founder of the Mormon Church.
   3. A Brunswick and Florida Steamboat & Stage $65 unsigned remainder note. It is listed as “virtually uncollectible” in Bob’s obsolete paper money references.
6. Lyle Daly showed two items from World War II.
   1. The 1949 book Counterfeiter: How a Norwegian Jew survived the Holocaust by Moritz Nachtstern, who was the last typographer taken into Operation Bernhard. The book covers his experiences from deportation from Norway on the SS Donau prison ship, to Auschwitz, to Sachsenhausen, to Mauthausen, to Ebensee, to liberation. Of the 771 Jews deported from Norway on the prison ship, 34 survived.
   2. A 10 cent note from the Westerbork Concentration Camp in Holland, dated February 15, 1944. The printing translates to, “This Voucher is valid only within the camp,” and it is signed by the Camp Komandant, Albert Konrad Gemmeker, SS Obersturmfuhrer. From 1942 to 1944, Westerbork served as a transit camp for Dutch Jews before they were deported to killing centers in German-occupied Poland. From July 1942 until September 3, 1944, the Germans deported 97,776 Jews from Westerbork: 54,930 to Auschwitz in 68 transports, 34,313 to Sobibor in 19 transports, 4,771 to the Theresienstadt ghetto in 7 transports, and 3,762 to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 9 transports – one was Anne Frank. Most of those deported to Auschwitz and Sobibor were killed upon arrival.
7. Steve Huber showed a fantastic set of six 1873 U.S. Trade Dollar pattern pieces, originally sold by the Mint for $30 for the six. The Judd numbers are J-1276, J-1281, J-1293, J1310, J-1315, and J-1322 – the coins have a range of eagles and Seated Liberty figures, some even siiting upon a globe. The pieces are slabbed either 66 or 65. These now are infrequently seen as a uniform set because the sets from the large “name” collections of the late 19th and early 20th century were split at auction.
8. Steve Zitkowski showed four ancient silver coins:
   1. From Axum, a unit of Wazeba, circa 310 AD.
   2. From Saba (now part of Yemen, but long ago also called Sheba), a ½ siglos from the 3rd century BC. A stylized head of Athena appears on the obverse, while an owl appears on the reverse.
   3. A drachm from 3rd century BC Saba, with a similar Athena head but with a much better owl on the reverse.
   4. From 2nd or 1st century BC Saba, a much larger coin in a newer style; now with a male head on the obverse but still an owl on the reverse.
9. Bill Burd showed a copy of the Chicago Coin Club’s first bulletins issued in 1920, the year of the ANA Convention in Chicago. W.E. Dunham was the editor. Now very faint because it was made with a mimeograph machine. Volume I, No. 6 was shown from June 1920, but the bulletins were discontinued shortly afterwards.
10. Andrew Michyeta showed silver 1919-dated world coins.
    1. A 5 Bolivar coin of Venezuela, the only crown-sized silver coin of the world that year.
    2. A 2 franc coin of France.
    3. A 1 franc coin of France.
    4. A 1 shilling British coin for Scotland.
    Drew donated these to the Club in anticipation of a possible larger shared collection of 1919 world silver coinage to display at the 2019 ANA Convention in Chicago.
11. Jeff Amelse showed two groups of items.
    1. A sampling of several newly-acquired French Marianne medals. Jeff obtained these examples after his May, 2017 “Marianne” presentation to the Club, even though they had been ordered well before.
    2. Three 1883-dated 5 cent nickel coins. The high grade Shield nickel (the final date of the series) has a die crack on the left side of the shield. An 1883 Liberty Head nickel without the word “cents” – this piece shows traces of gold plating, to help it resemble the contemporary 5-dollar gold coin. An 1883 Liberty nickel with the written “cents” to indicate the denomination. Attendees contributed some of the lore surrounding this issue.

Our 1183rd 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

Contacting Your Editor / Chatter Delivery Option

chatter_editor@yahoo.com

The print version of the Chatter is simply a printout of the Chatter webpage, with a little cutting and pasting to fill out each print page. The webpage 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.

Sharing this complete Chatter issue with a friend is simple. Just let them scan this code into their smartphone!