• Contents of this Issue
  • Call for Club Auction Lots
  • Minutes of the 1244th Meeting
  • Inflation and Coinage in the Late Roman Empire
  • Exhibits
  • Preview of Our December Banquet
  • Upcoming Meeting
  • Important Dates
  • Chatter Matter
  • Share This Issue!
• Other Chatter Issues
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Chatter

Call for Club Auction Lots
November 9, 2022

The club auction is scheduled for 7PM, near the start of the regular November club meeting. In the past few auctions, club related material (and Chicago area numismatic items) have had the best results. Please consider using the club auction to dispose of the numismatic items you no longer need.

We have a number of items already consigned, but we have space for some more items. Please contact Bill Burd at Chicago Coin Company to discuss what material would complement the existing lots. Among the consigned lots are items from Canadian clubs and dealers, items from US clubs and dealers, and even some large silver medals.

The auction will be called from our in-person meeting room, and all lots must be picked up when the auction ends – that is when all accounts must be settled, too. If you wish to bid but will not attend in person, please make arrangements with a fellow member: to bid for you, to pick up your won lots, and to pay for you. We do not know how well the remote-support capabilities of our meeting room will support remote bidders.

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 Bill Burd by Friday, October 14. Bring your lots with you to the November meeting, or you can ship your items to Bill Burd by Friday, October 14 if you will not be at the November meeting.

Minutes of the 1244th Meeting

The 1244th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was called to order by President Lyle Daly at 6:45 PM CDT, Wednesday September 14, 2022. This was a hybrid in-person and online meeting. Attendance at the meeting was 16 in person and 23 online for a total of 39.

Club Meeting Minutes and Treasurer’s Report

The August Session I and II 2022 meeting minutes were approved as published in the Chatter, both in print and on the CCC website.

Treasurer Elliott Krieter submitted the treasurer’s report for the August period, stating income of $3,814.00 (CCC-NYNC Joint Dinner payments, dues, ANA club table sales) and expenses of $2,285.97 (Chatter, meeting room cost, corporate filing, postage, ANA expense, medals expense) for a net August total of $1,528.03.

New Members

Secretary Scott McGowan announced the second readings for new member applications. Readings are done in the order applications are received.

Second readings were completed for Christopher Propheter, Mary N. Lannin, Ray Oshinski, Floyd April, Raul Buendia, Helen (Louise) Boling, Albert Azarias, and Dr. Ralph W. Ross. After each reading the club members voted to approve all for membership.

Old Business

1. Bill Burd announced we will hold the club auction at the November 9, 2022 meeting, and currently we have 45 auction lots. There is room for 15 additional lots. Anyone interested in consigning items should contact Bill by October 14.
2. Bill Burd provided an update on the annual club banquet to be held during the traditional meeting time on December 14, 2022. The banquet will be at Coopers Hawk in Arlington Heights, Illinois. We have space for 80 people. Cost is $55 in advance, $65 at the door, for banquet with cash bar. Times are: 6pm cocktails, 7pm dinner, and 8pm featured speaker. Space is filling up; mail your check or ZELLE your payment for your reservation to the treasurer today.
3. Mark Wieclaw reported on the 1250th club meeting on March 8, 2023. The committee is looking at doing a counterstamp for a Silver Eagle coin and a possible banquet on the March meeting night.

New Business

1. 1) President Lyle Daly announced the planning of a Numismatic Symposium in conjunction with the New York Numismatic Club and San Francisco Ancient Numismatic Society. The Symposium would be conducted online and include one 40-minute presentation from each group, 30 minutes for presentation with 10 minutes for Q&A. Originally the symposium was suggested for fall 2022, however CCC recommended winter/spring 2023 to allow for planning and preparations. An overall theme has yet to be decided. Any CCC member interested who may be interested in presenting should contact Lyle.
2. Lyle Daly also spoke briefly on the minutes of the August CCC Board Meeting, reminding CCC members that full minutes of the meeting are in the September Chatter. One highlight was an update on the Legacy Project, which is designed to do video interviews of club members to preserve club and member history for current and future numismatists. CCC has discussed options with the Newman Numismatic Portal for ideas and resources to further this project.
3. Lyle Daly announced and congratulated new Chicago Coin Club Life Members John and Nancy Wilson.
4. Jeff Rosinia asked for an update on CCC 100th Anniversary medals after the ANA show. Altogether there are 34 Copper oval medals still available.

First Vice President John Riley introduced the Featured Program: Jeffrey A. Amelse on Early Half Dollars: Overdates and Some Interesting Late Die State Varieties. After the presentation, John presented a Speaker’s Medal and ANA education certificate to Jeff.

Second Vice President Melissa Gumm introduced the evening’s five Show and Tell exhibitors.

The next meeting will be October 12, 2022, at 6:45pm CDT, both in-person at the Chicago Bar Association and online.

Lyle Daly adjourned the meeting at 8:37pm CDT.

Respectfully Submitted,
Scott A. McGowan, Secretary

Speaker’s Wor[l]d
Inflation and Coinage in the Late Roman Empire

a presentation by Gilles Bransbourg,
to our August 20, 2022 meeting.

The presentation started with two slides, showing the obverse and reverse of typical Roman coins of 294 and of 400 – inflation between these years is a complex topic with research in progress. At a glance, each slide had one gold coin, one silver coin and a few bronze coins, and the slides did not appear to be all that different. Extra slides provided details on the shown gold and silver coins, along with a tabular summary of monetary details in 274, 294, and 301. After Diocletian’s reform of 294-295:

• The gold coin, known as an aureus, was worth 1,000 denarii and one pound of gold yielded 60 pieces. The emperor’s bust is laureate.
• The siver coin, known as an argenteus, was worth 50 denarii and one pound of silver yielded 96 pieces.
• The silvered billon coin, known as a nummus, was worth 12.5 denarii and 32 pieces weighed one pound. The emperor’s bust is laureate.
• The large copper coin, known as a neo-aurelianus, was worth 4 denarii and one pound of metal yielded 110 pieces. The emperor’s bust is radiate.
• The small copper coin, known as a neo-denarius, was worth 2 denarii and one pound of metal yielded 250 pieces. The emperor’s bust is laureate.

During the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire, the denarius had been a silver coin – although by the year 300 a denarius coin no longer was minted, the name lived on as a unit of accounting. The denominations mentioned above do not appear on the precious metal coins or many of the bronze coins– these names are in general use now – our understanding of some names has changed over the years. For example, the nummus had been called the follis, but its use has been deprecated since about 1995 when the few ancient mentions of that word were first understood to be refering to a bag or group of coins, and not to a single coin.

Although copper coins were mentioned above, those coins also are refered to as bronze coins. Due to their wide range of sizes and our uncertainty as to what they were called over time, the convention has been to give them four different names, from AE1 for the largest to AE4 for the smallest.

The next group of slides covered the debasement and weight loss of the base coinage. From 300 to 400, a graph of the weights of the AE coins shows a band of weights for each year in a succession of decreasing steady values, following a generally downward staircase pattern – except for two upward steps in the last two decades, which were followed by the lowest values yet. The weights ranged between 8 and 12 grams in the first two decades, but stepped downward to a range between 1 to 2 grams before the two aforementioned upward steps. From 400 to 490, a graph of the weights of the AE coins shows a nominally steady range of weights under 1.5 grams. A series of slides of bronze coins, in the collection of the American Numismatic Society and from eastern and western mints, shows coins with a wide range of weights; most coins are listed with some denomination, from nummus for earlier examples to AE2 (22mm diameter), AE3, and AE4 (11mm diameter) for the later.

How can a base coin be debased? By decreasing the silver content of the billon coins. Graphs from various studies showed the silver content of the billon pieces decreasing from about 4% around 300 to a trace around 360. Even with a range of 1% to 2%, the silver content was important to users, so the debasement was in small steps.

Whether it is called inflation or debasement, the value of one pound of gold increased from 60,000 denarii in 300 to about 3,000,000,000 denarii around 400; the value of gold increased by 50,000 times in 100 years. The exchange rate between gold and silver varied over time – from ten to 16 ounces of silver were equivalent to one ounce of gold. There are two types of monetary inflation: either revalue the existing coinage, or replace existing coinage with debased coinage of same declared value.

A major source of what we know about pricing during the fourth century comes from Edicts during that century. Our knowledge increases as more stones and other records are discovered from around the Empire; our views can change with better translations. There were edicts on currency, which revalued the existing coins. The pricing edicts set the prices of commodities such as wheat, and permits soldiers to enforce the overvalued prices in current currency. Taxes were paid in gold and silver, metals which could be obtained from the government in payment for commodities at the stated prices. Call it a tax, or call it a transfer of wealth to state coffers – by its influence over commerce, the government was able to extract enough wealth in order to sustain itself.

On a number of slides, Gilles showed examples of the new coins from years which followed specific debasements, oh sorry, I mean reforms. Roman authorities were sophisticated enough to develop a system of multiple moving parts, some actions compensating for prior actions, for many years. We must take care and not widely extrapolate a single action; there were many parts, and we can uncover new details at any time.

Counterfeiting was a problem, and there were laws against it. There was even a law against selling the silver which had been privately extracted from billon coins. By telling of an analysis of the metallic signatures of silver, which shows that the 364-378 silver coinage and the 294-330 billon coinage have the same signature, Gilles suggests the state achieved what it had prohibited the public from doing.

Annual fourth century inflation averaged 12% per year. This inflation was a consequence of state actions, intentional and unintentional. The more stable fifth century had a currency system of gold coins and bronze minimi, with no silver coins in the middle.

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Show and Tell

Items shown at our September 14, 2022 meeting,
reported by Melissa Gumm.

1. James McMenamin showed two new acquisitions from the 2022 ANA WFM this past August in Rosemont, both Jetons.
   1. An undated medieval Jeton, probably from Tournai, which is now in Belgium but was part of the Kingdom of France until late medieval times. It is made of a base metal, one side featuring the coat of arms of France, a decorated cross, and the other a fleur-de-lis. There is no record of mint releases of such a Jeton, so this is believed to have been a casting counter.
   2. A 1711 jeton in silver which is believed to have been a presentation gift to those involved in the finances, such as accounting and tax matters, for Etats de Bretagne as one side states. A large bust of Louis XIV is on one side of this piece from Brittany.
2. John Riley, in honor of our speaker’s topic, showed an early Flowing Hair US half dollar, 1795, of the so-called “two-leaf” variety, a reference to the number of leaves in the wreath below the eagle’s left wing on the reverse. The obverse features 15 stars, a convention which was suspended shortly after this issue as more sates joined the Union – the US Mint decide to use 13 stars for our original 13 colonies, instead of adding a star for each additional state. John’s example has been cleaned and features a plug, thus raising the point of discussion as to the collectibility and value of “damaged” coins.
3. In honor of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, Deven Kane chose a theme based on coins that do not feature Queen Elizabeth II, but do have a connection to her.
   1. A medal of 1766 featuring Henry Benedict Maria Clemente Stuart, an exiled British archbishop and cardinal. One side features his bust wearing a cap and mozzetta, while the other side has a religion themed with the Vatican Basilica in the back ground. He was the fourth and last Jacobite pretender to the throne of England, Scotland, and Ireland; he had the title of Duke of York. In 1788, on the death of his brother known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, he was proclaimed by the Jacobites as Henry IX, king de jure of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland. He died on 13 July 1807 in Frascati. His body was exhibited in the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome where the funeral also took place, and he was buried next to his father and brother in the tomb of the Stuart family present in the Vatican Grottoes. With his will he established that his rights to the thrones of England, and Scotland passed to his closest relative: Charles Emmanuel IV, King of Sardinia, who was recognized as Charles IV by the Jacobites.
   2. A 500-Krone coin in silver to honor Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II’s 75th birthday in 2015. The obverse was modeled by medallist Henrik Wiberg, who chose to show a beautiful, natural, and personal portrait of the Queen. The reverse design, by Jeanette Skoy Jensen who was inspired by the Queen’s own watercolors, has motifs of Denmark rendered with lines. An added extra is the Queen’s own personal signature.
   3. In honor of Queen Margrethe II’s 50th Jubilee in 2022, a 500-Krone silver coin with the obverse featuring a new portrait of Queen Margrethe II by Denmark sculptor Kathrine S Moseholm. This portrait is inspired by paper cuttings and has roots in the Minimalist sculpture tradition. The reverse is an organic pattern created by the number 50 to symbolize the 50th anniversary, creating a visual reference to the four palaces around Amalienborg Square. This was created by Jeanatte Skoy Jensen. Queen Margrethe II is the second longest reigning Queen to her cousin Queen Elizabeth II. These two Danish coins feature a heart, the mint mark of the Copenhagen Mint.
4. Dale Lukanich showed two of his ANA WFM finds.
   1. A silver Nomos from Tarentum (also known as Taras, and modern Taranto) of Calabria, 280-272BC. On the obverse, a nude youth crowning a horse upon which he sits; on the reverse, a nude Phalanthos holds a trident while riding a dolphin. This coin type, identified as Vlasto 867, has about 1,000 known varieties, in case you variety collectors want something new to collect.
   2. From the 1st National Bank of Joliet (Charter #512), a 1902 Plain back $10 National Bank note, Friedberg #624. Dale showed two examples of this note, each featuring two different sets of signatures, sheet positions, and sheet numbers. The SPMC website has a great resource: tables of the names of officers who signed the notes, and the dates during which they held office. From that website, Dale sees that one note was issued 1918-1922 while the note signed by Schmeisser and Woodruff was issued in 1923-1925.
5. Mark Wieclaw showed an antoninianus brockage of Aurelian with Vabalathus circa AD 270-272. This is a very rare reverse brockage, with both the regular image of Vabalathus and his incused image. Ancient reverse brockages are much rarer than obverse brockages, estimated at 5% to 95%: the previously struck coin was not removed from the anvil die, a coin blank was placed on top of the previously struck coin, then the blank was struck with the hammer (reverse) die from the top and the struck coin from the bottom.

Reminders:

• You can email to Melissa a description of what you will show at a meeting, to give her a start on this write-up.
• Send it to mjg513@yahoo.com.
• After a meeting, all members who viewed the meeting should email her their scoring sheet – a listing of each exhibit number followed by a score is all that is needed.

Preview of Our December Banquet
(1247th Meeting)

Our 1245th Meeting

Important Dates

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

Chatter Matter

http://www.ChicagoCoinClub.org/

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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
Or email the Secretary at Secretary.ChicagoCoinClub@GMail.com
Payments to the Club, including membership dues, can be addressed to the Treasurer at the above street 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.
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• 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.

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