• Contents of this Issue
  • Minutes of the 1220th Meeting
  • US Nickel and Penny Coins Before, During, and After World War II
  • Allen H. Meyer, 1925-2020
  • Exhibits
  • Upcoming Meeting
  • Important Dates
  • Chatter Matter
  • Share This Issue!
• Other Chatter Issues
  • Prior Issue
  • Next Issue
  • All Past Issues
• Contact Editor

Chatter

Minutes of the 1220th Meeting

The 1220th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was called to order by President Richard Lipman at 6:45 PM CDT, Wednesday, September 9, 2020. Due to the pandemic shutdown, the meeting was online with 27 members and guests.

The August minutes were approved without objection as posted in the Chatter. Elliott Krieter gave the August Treasurer’s Report, showing $0.00 revenue and $492.50 expenses. The report was approved. Elliott announced that Robert Feiler had become Life Member.

Announcements:

• Mark Wieclaw: ANA is hosting many educational online programs at www.money.org
• Carl Wolf: Lawrence Lee asked that his planned presentation, The Crane Collection of Indian Peace Medals be moved into 2021.

Old Business:

• Lyle Daly, Hall of Fame Committee: proposed Alden Scott Boyer as 2020 inductee.

New Business:

• Mark Wieclaw, Nomination Committee: expect next month a proposed slate of officers for 2021-22.
• Past President’s Medal: expect report with design at next month’s meeting.

Lyle Daly introduced Junior Member Madeline Rodriguez who gave the evening’s program, U.S. Coinage During and After World War II. There were many questions and answers.

Second VP John Riley announced the evening’s 8 exhibitors.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:39 PM CDT.

Respectfully Submitted,
Carl F. Wolf, Secretary

Speaker’s Wor[l]d
US Nickel and Penny Coins Before, During, and After World War II

presented by Madeline Rodriguez,
to our September 9, 2020 meeting.

The program started with a chart showing the years during which the US Mint and branches made the different denominations of circulating coins. The short-lived denominations were noted first: the 2-cent, 3-cent, and 20-cent pieces had relatively short lives; the $3 pieces lasted not much longer; and the half cent was dropped more than 160 years ago. (The denominations above $1 were all minted in gold, but that has been over for more than 85 years.) Of the long-lived denominations, this presentation would be on the 1-cent and 5-cent coins, focused on the types similar to today’s: the small 1-cent penny, and the 5-cent nickel. Starting with the nickel.

The Shield Nickel, introduced in 1866, has the same weight and copper-nickel alloy as does today»s nickel. The small mintages of 1877-1881 were due to the return of the silver 5-cent half-dime to circulation following years of hoarding. The somber, not celebratory, design was not popular, and it was replaced by the Liberty Head design in 1883; also, the diameter was increased to the size used to this day. Its being similar is size to the current $5 gold piece, and the lack of CENTS under the V (signifying five), led to pieces being gold plated and passed off as a $5 coin. That, and the existance of five pieces dated 1913 which are not mentioned in the mint records, are what most people know about this design. Lesser known is that the introduction of coin operated machines in the 1890s (many accepting only the nickel) increased the need for this coin, especially in the west where the silver minor coins were favored.

The Buffalo/Indian Head nickel was introduced in 1913, as part of a coin redesign effort started by President Theodore Roosevelt who was disappointed by the current designs. The public had contrasting opinions about the new design: some appreciated the American ideals and history it depicted, while others thought it was ugly and did not match the other coins (with their traditional devices such as eagle, shield, and Liberty). A second design was introduced because the first was hard on the dies, but the second design proved to be even tougher on the dies; the date was very exposed to wear on both designs. Although Congress’ permission is needed to change a design used for less than 25 years, only the Secretary of the Treasury’s permission is needed after that. A design competition was held, requiring a bust of Thomas Jefferson on the obverse, and a view of his home, Monticello, on the reverse.

Felix Schlag won the competition and the $1000 prize. The featured bust remained the same until 2004, but his Monticello design had to be changed because the used perspective view would be hard to strike correctly. His initials, FS, were added below the bust in 1966 – some say he forgot to include them. Although the 5-cent nickel coin’s design had changed a number of times, its weight and composition had remained the same – until WW II. Nickel was a critical war material, added to high grade steel to make armor plating for battleships and tanks.

Due to the need for nickel, the US Mint considered other alloys for the coin. A composition of 50% copper and 50% silver was considered first, with eventually a 56% copper, 35% silver, and 9% manganese decided, as this combination still worked with counterfeit detection machines. A large special mint mark was placed above Monticello so that these “war nickels” could easily be separated out after the war. After the war, the composition returned to the original 75% copper and 25% nickel, which continues to this day.

But how important was this alloy change to the war effort? Madeline shared her calculations which show only a small part of the nickel supply going into coins. Her revised calculations started with the number of nickels (of both types) actually produced from 1941 through 1943 (845 million) and multiplied it by the 5-gram weight of a single coin to obtain, after unit conversion, a total weight for three years of about 4,700 tons of metal. Had they all been produced at the old alloy, they would have used almost 3,600 tons of copper and 1,200 tons of nickel; which seems a large amount, but not when compared to the approximately 375,000 tons of nickel mined during those three years in Canada (the major supplier of nickel to the US). This led to a discussion about shared sacrifices and the sense of involvement when spread over many groups, each of which contributes a small amount – when enough small bits are added together, a large amount might be raised.

Madeline concluded the nickel story by showing the Westward Journey Commemoratives which honor the 200th anniversary of the Louis and Clark Expedition. Four different reverse designs were used in combination with a different bust of Jefferson on the obverse: an Indian Peace Medal; a Keelboat, similar to what was used at the start of the expedition; an American Buffalo; and a Coastline View with a quote from William Clark, “Ocean in view! O! The Joy!” The traditional Jefferson/Monticello design resumed in 2006.

Madeline started the penny part of the presentation with a composition history of the 1-cent coin, but highlighted the part, starting in 1856, for the small-sized coin we know today. A composition of 88% copper and 12% nickel was used from 1856 through 1864, being replaced by a bronze composition in 1864, consisting of 95% copper and 5% tin/zinc. That was the composition when the Lincoln Wheat Cent design was introduced in 1909 for the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth – this is Madeline’s favorite design on the 1-cent coin. This bronze composition was used through 1942, when replacement materials were investigated because copper was used in the war effort, commonly identified as used for shell casings for ammunition. The 1-cent coin was made of zinc plated steel in 1943, a coin weighing 2.72 grams instead of the usual 3.11 grams.

Was this alloy change more necessary than the alloy change to the 5-cent coin? Madeline shared her calculations on this question, and the result shows a small effect. The 1-cent mintage in 1941 and 1942 totaled 2.06 billion pieces, at 3.11 grams each, of 95% copper &ndash showing 6,700 tons of copper used in two years. Because US copper production in those two years totaled 2,300,000 tons, less than 0.3% of US copper production was used in the cent coins. The comments made during the discussion of the war nickels apply here, too.

Due to the complaints, a copper alloy for the 1-cent coin was resumed in 1944, but with a little twist. The prior tin component was not restored, so the alloy was 95% copper and 5% zinc from 1944 through 1946. This was due to the use of used shell casings, of 95% copper and 5% zinc, to make the planchets. The bronze alloy was used from 1947 through 1962, but then the 95% copper 5% zinc was used from 1962 through 1982, but these usually are called “copper alloy.” Copper plated zinc has been used since 1982, with these pieces weighing 2.5 grams (instead of the earlier 3.11 grams). The pre-1982 coins are much preferred when making an elongated, because the high copper content results in a more uniform surface coloring.

Although the obverse design has mostly stayed the same (Lincoln’s head became smaller in 1969), there have been changes to the design of the reverse, starting in 1959 with the appearance of the Lincoln Memorial to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth. In 2009, for the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the Lincoln cent and the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, there were four different reverse designs representing important stages in his life: a log cabin similar to where he was born and grew up in Kentucky; a young Lincoln seated on a log, taking a break to read a book; Lincoln in front of the Illinois state capital building; and the construction of the US Capitol dome during Lincoln’s Presidency.

Concluding the 1-cent portion of the presentation was the current Union Shield reverse which is supposed to be a modern rendition of the American flag. Madeline is in good company in considering this her least-favorite design on the cent. In 2017, cents minted in Philadelphia were marked with a P to celebrate the 225th anniversary of the US Mint (Philadelphia Mint pennies are not usually struck with a mintmark).

Allen H. Meyer, 1925-2020

Allen Howard Meyer, age 94, passed away July 5, 2020 in Chicago. He joined the Chicago Coin Club, May 1960 and became member #714. He was ANA member 1185493.

A life-long Chicagoan, Allen attended Nettelhorst School and Senn High School. He graduated from Harvard University (1948) and Northwestern University Law School (1951). Served in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service as a Lieutenant from 1945-47 during the post-WWII occupation of Japan. Practiced law 1951-2014 from his downtown Chicago office at 111 W. Washington. He was a longtime member of Temple Sholom of Chicago, served in leadership positions with the American Legion Post No. 1183 (Chicago Nisei Post) and fought for justice for Japanese Americans, and received the Congressional Gold Medal.

Allen attended our meetings when held at multi-day coin shows. He frequently stopped to visit at the club’s information table. Although he rarely attended regular Wednesday meetings, he read The Chatter and was always up-to-speed on club news.

At the August 14, 1999 meeting at the ANA Convention, Eric Newman gave a talk on “The Sheldon U.S. Large Cent Theft.” He went into detail how it happened and the lawsuits filed by the American Numismatic Society (The Chatter, September 1999, pages 3-4). Since Allen was a lawyer, he arrived early and got a front seat. Afterwards he told the Club President how much he enjoyed the program and volunteered to share his legal knowledge on this subject at an upcoming meeting.

At the February 9, 2000 meeting, Allen delivered his program “Theft of Valuable Coins: Impact on Innocent Collectors.” He procured and analyzed all the legal briefs and court findings related to the cases and appeals referred to by Eric Newman. Allen then compared applicable California and Illinois laws on the matter (The Chatter, March 2000, pages 8-10).

Allen was a voracious reader and wonderful role model for everyone who knew him. In addition to coin and stamp collecting, he enjoyed cartography, genealogy, and horse racing.

Allen is survived by Suzanne, his wife of 68 years, children Lynn Gutzmer, Chuck Meyer, Nancy Knight, and four grandchildren. He is preceded by his son James Meyer, sister June Becker, and parents Nathan and Bess (Rubenstein) Meyer.

Carl F. Wolf

Current Advertisers

Show and Tell

Items shown at our September 9, 2020 meeting,
reported by John Riley.

1. Pursuing his interest in the German Enlightenment of the 1700s, Laurence Edwards showed three items related to two Jewish intellectuals of the period.
   1. A 1774 medallic presentation of philosopher Moses Mendelsson, engraved by medalists Jacob Abraham and Abraham Abrahamson. The obverse has a bust of Mendelsson, and the reverse shows a butterfly alighting atop a human skull. Larry followed that with a photo of Mendelsson’s gravestone in what was once the Jewish Cemetery of Berlin (ironically, where Berlin Jews were rounded up by the Nazis for deportation during WWII).
   2. A silver 1929 5-Reichsmark commemorative observing poet Gottfried Ephraim Lessing’s 200th anniversary of birth. Larry also showed a photo of Lessing’s statue in Chicago’s Washington Park.
   3. A 1992 medal celebrating the establishment of the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies at the Landeshauptstadt University in Potsdam, Germany.
2. John Riley showed a few examples of elongated cents produced during Chicago’s Century of Progress International Exposition, 1933-34. While not a collector of elongates, after John found that he had several loose CPIE pieces, he decided to pursue a set once the book Yesterday’s Elongateds by Lee Martin and Dottie Dow was obtained. A complete collection consists of 113 distinct coins featuring approximately 60 different venues at the fair. The greatest pleasure, however, has been the virtual “tour“ of the event that pursuing these squished pennies provides – that, along with a better understanding of this Great Depression-era diversion that is represented by the fourth star on the City of Chicago’s flag. Interesting that the American Indian Village pieces are frequently seen with an Indian Head cent as the undercoin and, also intriguing, that no other denominations have been observed on CPIE elongates.
3. Deven Kane showed two newly-acquired Greek coins.
   1. A silver Tetradrachm (circa 380-350 BC) of Dion, a Magistrate of Kos, which is an island off of Caria. This is a lovely example with a Hercules portrait on the obverse and a crab portrayed on the reverse. In mythology, Kos was visited by Herakles (Hercules), and the island was home to a famous sanatoria of Asclepius. In the 5th century, it joined the Delian League and, after the revolt of Rhodes, it served as the chief Athenian station in the south-eastern Aegean.
   2. From the Seleukid Empire, a silver Drachm of Antiochos II (Theos), who ruled 261-246 BC. The coin shows Apollo, holding a bow, seated on an omphalos. Antiochus II Theos was the third Seleukid monarch, and succeeded his father, Antiochus I Soter.
4. Lyle Daly showed two items:
   1. A 1 Reichsmark WWII-era German Third Reich civilian Winter Work Assistance Value Certificate (“Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes“) from 1943-44. Lyle explained how the war situation was declining for the Germans on all fronts by that time – civilians were enduring severe rationing of food, clothing, fuel, rent, gas, and electricity. The value certificates were controlled and strictly enforced by a series of official counterstamps. War is tragic for victors, the defeated, the military and civilians alike.
   2. A heavily corroded bronze coin of Philip II and Serapis, of Tomis, Thrace circa 244-299 AD. Lyle showed a photo example of a well-preserved piece to illustrate that his barely identifiable example was in fact identified through minute tell-tale “clues“ and thanks to corroboration with Chicago Coin Club members, literally hundreds of years of combined numismatic knowledge!
5. Rich Lipman continued his visit of southeast Asia through its paper money of the past century, and showed a Saudi Arabian medal.
   1. A Philippines 1-peso silver certificate of series 66, with “Victory“ prominent on the back. This undated 1944 issue, printed by the US BEP, has a portrait of 1897-1901-era lawyer Apolinario Mabini, the so-called “Brains of the Revolution“ against the long-time Spanish occupiers and, later, the American miliary. The Victory series of banknotes was brought ashore at Leyte, Philippines as American forces returned to the islands to expell the Japanese – the bold overprint communicated the return to all corners of the Philippines.
   2. A 1949 Philippines 20-peso note of the Central Bank. This issue of the Republic of the Philippines features, on the left of the front, the portrait of Andreas Bonifacio, another revolutionary leader and the president of the Tagolog Republic – he is often called “The Father of the Philippine Revolution.“ On the right of the front is the portrait of Emilio Jacinto, a 23 year old revolutionary general; Jacinto was allied with Bonifacio and also renowned as a leading “brain” within the independence-seeking Katipunan society.
   3. A 1990 Philippines 5-peso note of the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas with a portrait of Emilio Aguinaldo, the first President of the Philippines (1897). This example includes a commemorative overprint observing Women’s rights.
   4. A Saudi Arabian commercial medal dated 2016 and showing King Abdulaziz on the obverse and celebrating Ithra, the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Dhahran, on the reverse. Rich’s son brought back the gift shop souvenir from a recent visit, and Rich was unable to find further information about the nickel or silver tone piece online.
6. Dale Lukanich showed a curious and well worn multi-folded ’radar’ $1 Federal Reserve Note from the 1988A series as found in his mother’s papers. This series of notes was the first to be printed in Ft. Worth, Texas at The Western Currency Facility, and had a production run of 748.8 million examples. Great for a game of “liar’s poker,“ the note carries serial number 94444449 of the Chicago Fed District.
7. To complement the evening’s main speaker, Mark Wieclaw started with some errors on wartime U.S. minor coins.
   1. A 1944-S Lincoln Cent of ’shellcase brass’ composition with a reverse area of lamination.
   2. A Similar wartime silver/manganese 5-cent coin dated 1942-P with laminations on both the obverse and reverse. Some discussion ensued and it is believe the experimental alloy’s mix experienced occasional bonding failures.
   3. A six-coin elongated coin set , one cent through golden dollar, produced for the (cancelled) 2020 Pittsburgh World’s Fair of Monday and honoring the late legendary collector and ANA Hall of Famer, Ray Dillard.
   4. Similarly, an enameled Michigan statehood quarter dollar (2004) elongated and featuring Ray Dillard as remembered by all in his trademark fedora and Michigan State Numismatic Society blue blazer.
8. Bob Feiler showed several items obtained during his Florida winter stay.
   1. A ribbon-suspended medal awarded for attendence at a 1938 Los Angeles, California conference promoting the Townsend Plan, and featuring a triangle motif and the motto, “Youth For Work, Old Age For Leisure!“ The Townsend Plan was a socialized old-age pension proposal by American physician Francis Everett Townsend, and argued down by the U.S. Government. As a response to the Great Depression, the plan would have paid $200 per month to every person over 60, and was to be supported by a 2% national sales tax.
   2. A 1960 proof set encapsulated by NGC as a promotion for the Manatee (Fla.) Coin Club’s 60th anniversary in 2020.
   3. A 76 mm Centennial Medal for the Chicago jewelery firm C.D. Peacock, dual dated 1837-1937. This “relic“ medal includes a tiny steel fragment from the company’s safe which survived the devastating Chicago fire of 1871 (noted by the second star in the City of Chicago’s Flag).

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.

Our 1221st Meeting

Important Dates

Unless stated otherwise, our regular monthly CCC Meeting is online during the Covid-19 isolation era on the second Wednesday of the month; the starting time is 6:45PM CT.

Chatter Matter

http://www.ChicagoCoinClub.org/

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.

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.

• The Club has registered the Treasurer.ChicagoCoinClub@GMail.com address with Zelle™ to receive payments.
• When you send a payment via Zelle™, we will receive a notification.
• Be sure to fill out the “What’s this for?” field – e.g., “Dues 2020 & 2021”
• Once the transaction completes, the Club will receive your payment typically within minutes, and you will know that the payment was received.
• Be sure to have your Location enabled on your phone for the transaction.

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