• Contents of this Issue
  • 2020 Dues
  • Call for Club Auction Lots
  • Minutes of the 1208th Meeting
  • Insights and Inner Workings of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee
  • Exhibits
  • Preview of Our December Banquet
  • Upcoming Meeting
  • Important Dates
  • Chatter Matter
  • Share This Issue!
• Other Chatter Issues
  • Prior Issue
  • Next Issue
  • All Past Issues
• Contact Editor

Chatter

2020 CCC Dues are Due

It is that time of year again. Although your 2019 dues are good through December, 2019, please pay your 2020 dues before the start of 2020.

Check the outside of your printed Chatter. A slip of yellow paper stapled outside the cover indicates that, according to our records, you have not paid your dues for 2020. Please mail the dues to the address on that slip, or bring them to our next meeting. For members who are notified by email when a new Chatter issue is available, the email stated if you have not paid your dues for 2020.

Call for Club Auction Lots
November 13, 2019

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.

We have a number of popular items already consigned, but we have space for a few more items. Please contact Bill Burd at Chicago Coin Company to discuss what material would complement the existing lots.

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 22. You can e-mail your list to either Paul Hybert or Bill Burd by Tuesday, October 22. Bring your lots with you to the November meeting, or you can ship your items to Bill Burd by Tuesday, October 22 if you will not be at the November meeting.

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

Minutes of the 1208th Meeting

The 1208th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was called to order by President Rich Lipman at 6:45 PM, Wednesday, September 11, 2019, Chicago Bar Association Building, 321 S. Plymouth Court, Downtown Chicago with 29 members and 3 guests: Amy Ceisel, Matt Smith, and Laurence Edwards.

A moment of reflection was held in memory of those who died as a result of the attack on New York’s World Trade Center, September 11, 2001.

Session I & II of the August minutes were approved as printed in the Chatter. A detailed Treasurer’s Report showed $12,412.00 in revenue, $24,368.15 in expenses, and $30,220.11 in assets. A motion was passed accepting the report.

The membership application of Laurence Edwards received a first reading. Following the second reading of the membership applications of: Jim Paicz, Mitch Ernst, Rosana Uskali, Arthur Schattke, Pierre Fricke, Craig Eberhart, Kathy Freeland, Michael T. Shutterly, James M. Uram, Madeline Rodriguez, Alan Flint, and Tyrone Galtney, a motion was passed accepting them into the Club.

Old Business:

• ANA Convention Reports:
  • Donation of the book: Venezuelan Lazareteos Leper Colonies by Manuel Rojas Aponte, which will be put into the November auction.
  • Scott McGowan received compliments for photos posted on the internet.
  • The Club received a Ray Dillard Exhibit Award for Elongated Coin(s) for the non-competitive 10-case Club exhibit on numismatic issues.
  • Mark Wieclaw reported Mint Masters came up with five additional oval anniversary medals in copper with platinum highlights. All were edge marked SPECIMAN and purchased by Mark Wieclaw, Robert Feiler, Bill Burd, with one reserved for the Club Archives, and one to be put in the November auction.
• Annual Banquet
  • To be held December 11, 2019, at Tom’s Steak House, 1901 W. North Ave., Melrose Park.
  • Cost: $45/person, reservation required.
  • Program: Mark Wieclaw will speak on “The Thrill and Joy of Collecting Anything.” He asked members to complete a 19-question survey.
• Marc Ricard asked everyone in attendance to sign his copy of the Club-issued Red Book.

New Business:

• Steve Zitowsky announced he would resign as Treasurer with the December 2019 year-end report. President Lipman asked members interested in assuming the position to speak to him and members of the CCC Board.
• The Club will staff an information table Sept 12-14 at the Illinois Numismatic Association Convention, Pheasant Run Resort, St. Charles. Robert Leonard provided a list of dealers registered to attend.
• First VP Lyle Daly announced:
  • Featured speakers for 2020 meetings are being scheduled.
  • CCC Hall of Fame inductees are:
    • July: Harry X Boosel.
    • August: Glenn B. Smedley.
    • September: Elston G. Bradfield.
    • October: Arlie R. Slabaugh.

Lyle Daly introduced Deven Kane, who delivered a program Journeys into Abstraction - The Evolution of Indo-Sassanian Coinage in Early Medieval India. Following a question and answer period, Deven was presented with an ANA Educational Certificate and a personally engraved Club speaker’s medal suspended on a neck ribbon.

Second VP John Riley announced the evening’s 13 exhibitors.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:27 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Carl F. Wolf, Secretary

Speaker’s Wor[l]d
Insights and Inner Workings of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee

presented by Thomas Uram,
to our August 17, 2019 meeting.

The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) does not regularly advise the government on the topics for future coinage – the items to be honored by U.S. coins and medals are the subject of laws, decided by Congress and approved by the President. The CCAC’s primary purpose is to review designs for coins and congressional gold medals. Although the enabling legislation is explicit on the topic to be honored, and might list the legends the coins are to bear, the stautory requirement for the design is commonly vague, along the lines of “emblematic of” the item being honored. When the design is specified in legislation, the CCAC does not have to choose from a wide range of concepts.

The designs reviewed by the CCAC can come from a range of sources, including Mint personnel, the more than 27 artists in the Mint’s Artist Infusion Project, and the group which had lobbied Congress for the coin. The time frame for each project varies, with a looming deadline obvoiously limiting their options. But the CCAC has sent back all designs and said, “Try again.” A Congressional gold medal usually has a short design cycle, so the design is usually heavily influenced by a family member of the honoree, with the CCAC offering suggestions. Also involved are Mint personnel, who look at a design with an eye toward manufacturability.

Eleven people serve on the committee. By law one must be specially qualified in numismatics, another on numismatic curating, one must be an expert in medallic arts, one an American historian, and four are recommended by the House and Senate leaders; the remaining three are ordinary citizens. To give us feel for the task facing the committee, Tom handed out a five-page example of what the committee sees.

These were the proposed reverse designs for the Apollo Lunar Landing 50th anniversary commemorative from earlier this year. The obverse design was stated in the legislation, so the committee had to review only the reverse designs. One page held each design in multiple sizes, from a 7-inch diameter rendition to show all details, through a 3-inch diameter suitable for a 5-ounce silver piece, through the sizes for the classic silver dollar and half dollar, down to the size for the gold $5. We realize that judging two-dimensional drawings of three-dimensional obects is not the perfect situation, but it is faster and less expensive than judging sculpted pieces. These were artistic designs – but legislation said only one design, not a set or series, would be used, so multiple good designs would be dropped. The chosen footprint design was the only design to mention the Mercury and Gemini predecessor programs to Apollo.

The committees and groups that propose or back a medal or commemorative are known as stakeholders. The stakeholders can propose actual designs to Congress in addition to organizing support for the basic idea. Once legislation is passed and designs are ready for review, the stakeholders’ feelings and preferences for each design are inputs to the CCAC. Keeping the diverse groups engaged during the process is one way of achieving the best possible accuracy in the final items. Tom mentioned that one of the final touches for the Basketball design – the upcoming third curved coin, for the Naismith Museum – was what he called tasteful colorization; limited colorization, of possibly the rim and netting, had been discussed during meetings. Since Tom’s talk, the final design shows no colorization, but the mint director is on record as saying that colorization can be considered.

Tom concluded the presentation by going back to legislation. The mint cannot lobby Congress for new coin designs, and neither can the CCAC. But clubs and the public can lobby Congress, and Tom mentioned some of the latest developments regarding the proposals for Morgan and Peace dollars, dated 2021, to honor the upcoming hundredth anniversary of the post World War I coinage in 1921. This is House Bill H.R. 3757, which is being publicized in a number of numismatic venues.

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Show and Tell

Items shown at our September 11, 2019 meeting,
reported by John Riley.

1. Deven Kane continued his theme of “rulers who ended badly.”
   1. A silver denarius of Tiberius, made at the Lugdunum mint 15-18 AD. Tiberius was emperor from 14 to 37 AD, and this coin type is considered to be the “Tribute Penny.” The obverse has a laureate head of Tiberius, while the reverse has Livia, as Pax, seated right on a chair, holding a scepter and olive branch.
   2. A bronze centenionalis of Constantine I, from the Siscia mint 319/20 AD. The obverse has a cuirassed bust of Constantine, wearing a crested helmet decorated with stars, holding a spear and shield. The reverse has two standing Victories, facing each other, holding between them a shield above a short altar. This coin is well struck.
   3. A bronze follis of Constantine I, from the Trier mint 310/11 AD. The obverse has a laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Constantine, while the reverse has a radiate and draped bust of Sol Invictus, with features resembling Constantine’s right, seen from behind and the side.
   4. A silver real of Pedro I (the Cruel) of Castile and Leon. The obverse has legends in two concentric circles around Pedro’ crowned P monogram, while the reverse has the shield of Castile and Leon surrounded by a legend in a single circle.
2. Mark Wieclaw showed recent acquisitions.
   1. Two Chicago Coin Club Redbooks with various signatures. One book has Editor Emeritus Ken Bressett’s signature along with current Editors Q. David Bowers and Jeff Garrett. The other book contained signatures of most of the ANA presidents of the past twenty years, all gathered at this year’s World’s Fair of Money in Rosemont.
   2. Appears to be a 1965 Washington quarter, but is very crude and about 3 grams overweight. Believed to be cast in lead, this piece was found recently by Mark in pocket change.
   3. Two silver staters, a thick and a thin example, from Lucania, Metapontum, circa 510-480 BC. The thick coin weighs slightly more than the thin one, but the thin one has more surface area for the design.
   4. Mark learned something new about the current $100 bills, and showed us. On a genuine bill, you can slide a pin under a small slip of horizontal paper which crosses over a vertical strip of plastic. The paper slip has the word July on it, and is located to the right of Franklin’s face.
3. Lyle Daly showed us something old, new, and in-between.
   1. A 1625 thaler from the Bishopric of Salzburg, part of the Holy Roman Empire. The obverse shows Madonna and child standing above coat of arms of the Archbishop, while the reverse shows Saint Rupert, founder and first bishop of Salzburg, above the arms of Salzburg.
   2. Two bronze coins of the Celtic Carnute, from the first century BC. He bought one at the recent ANA, thinking it was a denomination different from the piece he had at home. Originating in the present-day Chartres region of France, these pieces have a typical Celtic deconstructed image, rendered as an abstract representation; of a bust on one side and a bird on the other.
   3. A Big Shoulders Swim completion medal, from swimming 5.5K (3.4 miles) this past weekend.
4. Bob Leonard showed a map, coins (1222-1461), and four catalogs of coins from Trebizond, a Black Sea region on the north coast of modern Turkey. These coins are considered to be a subset of Byzantine coins.
   1. An anonymous scyphate silver coin showing Christ Chalkites. The coin attributed to Andronikios I Gidos, 1222-1235.
   2. Silver asper of Grand Comnenus Manuel I Comnenus, 1238-1263, giving his name in full, with Comnenus abbreviated. The reverse shows St. Eugenius, patron saint of Trebizond.
   3. An asper of John II, 1280-1297, with his name abbreviated but Comnenus spelled out. Same type as preceding.
   4. An asper of Alexius II, 1297-1330. This is a new type with the Grand Comnenus (the title of Trebizond’s ruler) and saint on horseback. Their names are only slightly shortened.
   5. An asper of Basil, 1332-1340; same type as preceding. His name is given simply as BA, with an abbreviation mark. The design is so degraded that the ruler on horseback is rendered using only a group of dots.
   6. A small, flat, anonymous copper coin, 1349-1461 (probably 1417-1446). Badly struck, it shows an eagle on the obverse and the emblem of the Palaeologus Dynasty, two B letters.
5. Bob Feiler showed acquisitions from the recent ANA.
   1. An 1894 Guatemala cutout silver Peso (pin mounted) surrounded by eighteen silver Guatemalan ¼ real coins.
   2. A heavy solid aluminum 8” x 10-½” Ultra High relief “Silver Dollar Award” plaque from Union 76 Auto/Truck Stop. The large plaque features eight obverse and reverse, very high relief images of Morgan and Peace dollars. It is engraved “1977 to Garner’s Truck Service, in recognition of outstanding sales achievement.”
6. Marc Ricard showed a Medal with a Good Story: On behalf of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society, Marc had designed the obverse of the George Frederick Kolbe Lifetime Achievement Medal – a handsome large 5-ounce silver medal with a spread-eagle in high relief. The particular medal Marc showed had been awarded to his father, Charles J. Ricard.
7. Rich Lipman showed mostly modern world banknotes.
   1. A 2018 100 rubles note of Russia, commemorating the FIFA World Cup, featuring the late soccer great Lev Yashin.
   2. A 2019 10 florin note of Aruba, with a holographic stripe.
   3. A 2019 10 tala of Samoa, for the 16th Pacific Games.
   4. Bahamas 5 dollars, 2013.
   5. Kazakhstan 1000 ter, 2014.
   6. Armenia 500 Dram, 2017 showing Noah’s Ark.
   7. Tuvalu island commemorative silver 1-ounce coin with Queen Elizabeth II on obverse and Homer Simpson (“D’oh!”) on the reverse.
8. Continuing a theme of “gifted” world paper money, Melissa Gumm showed four notes.
   1. A 1961 10 rubles from the State Bank of the Soviet Union.
   2. A 50 sen Allied Military Currency note, series 100, with “B” overprint – used on Okinawa until the late 1950s.
   3. A 10 fen 1979 Bank of China Foreign Exchange Certificate.
   4. A 1944 10 sen note of Japan.
9. David Gumm showed two recently acquired books on early American copper coins:
   1. Penny Prices, 1793-1857 by William C. Noyes.
   2. The Half Cent, 1793-1857 by William R. Eckberg.
10. James McMenamin showed four coins reflecting the evolution from the East India Company to British Colonial and Commonwealth of the old Straits Settlements (now modern day Federated Malay States and the Republic of Singapore).
    1. 1884 one-cent in bronze.
    2. 1894 ten cents in silver (.800 fine).
    3. 1919 one-cent in bronze.
    4. 1920 fifty cents in silver (.500).
11. Dale Carlson show US commemorative coins acquired at the recent ANA.
    1. An 1893 25¢ featuring Spain’s Queen Isabella on the obverse and an allegorical image representing the Board of Lady Managers on the reverse. Produced for the World’s Columbian Expo, now residing in a PCGS MS-62 slab.
    2. A 1936 50¢ observing the Civil War battle of Antietam. Generals McClellan and Lee are on the obverse, with Burnside Bridge on the reverse. In a PCGS MS-65 slab.
    3. A 1936 50¢ observing the Civil War battle of Gettysburg. Dated 1936, issued in 1937, and produced to observe the 75th anniversary (in 1938) of the Pennsylvania turning-point battle of July 1863. In a PCGS MS-65 slab.
12. James Davis showed modern British commemorative coins.
    1. A 1965 crown (5 shillings) memorializing Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister during WWII.
    2. A 1972 25 pence recognizing the 25th wedding anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
    3. A 1973 50 pence commemorating U.K. entrance into the European Economic Community (EEC).
    4. A 1980 25 pence observing the 80th birthday of the Queen Mother (wife of King George VI).
    5. A 1981 crown commemorative for the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
13. Jeff Rosinia showed something old and something new.
    1. The “Carl Wolf Merciless Roast” souvenir engraved token from the memorable dinner of June 23, 2008.
    2. A high relief 2-inch medal from the US Mint.

Reminder: You can email to John a description of what you will show at a meeting, to give him a start on this write-up. Send it to johnrriley@yahoo.com.

Preview of Our December Banquet
(1211th Meeting)

Our 1209th 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

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Club Officers

Correspondence

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
Payments to the Club, including membership dues, can be addressed to the Treasurer and mailed to the above address.

Payments

Renewing Members Annual dues are $20 a year ($10 for Junior, under 18). Annual Membership expires December 31 of the year through which paid. Cash, check, or money order are acceptable (USD only please). We do not accept PayPal. Email your questions to Treasurer.ChicagoCoinClub@GMail.com Members can pay the Club electronically with Zelle™ using their Android or Apple smart phone. JP Morgan Chase customers can send payments to the Club via Quick Pay. To see if your Bank or Credit Union is part of the Zelle™ Payments Network, go to https://www.zellepay.com Please read all rules and requirements carefully.

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