| Volume 69 No. 4 | April, 2023 |
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Central States Numismatic Society is trying new things with its convention this year. In addition to the main bourse, there will be a bourse for smaller dealers upstairs, which will be open on Sunday. Meeting rooms have been moved from the second floor of the convention center to the first floor of the hotel, so be sure to check the maps. The attached hotel has sold out its block of rooms, so some additional hotels are listed on the CSNS website. Admission to the bourse is free for CSNS members – for others, discounted admission tickets are available for purchase on the CSNS website. Refer to the CSNS website for the latest details, meetings, and programs.
Paul Hybert, editor
Chicago Coin Club members gathered in Palos Heights, Illinois at Capri Ristorante starting at 5:45pm CST for pre-meeting cocktails. The Chicago Coin Company provided hors d’oeuvres for the cocktail hour.
The 1250th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was called to order by President John Riley at 6:25 PM CST, Wednesday March 8, 2023. This was an in-person only meeting held at the Capri Ristorante Italiano on South Harlem Road in Palos Heights, Illinois for a club banquet on the occasion of the 1250th Club Meeting. Attendance at the meeting was a total of 36 individuals.
President John Riley called for a motion for an abbreviated agenda for the banquet meeting which was moved and passed.
Club Meeting Minutes and Treasurer’s Report
The February 2023 meeting minutes were approved as published in the Chatter, both in print and on the CCC website. The February treasurer’s report was deferred to the April meeting per abbreviated agenda.
New Members
Two membership applications were presented for their second reading. Individual readings for Tyler M. Rossi and Noah J. Graf were followed by their approval for membership.
Old Business and New Business
No old or new business was presented per the abbreviated agenda.
Dinner was served following the membership readings. A wonderful dinner of mixed greens salad, bread service, Mostaccioli with marinara sauce, Chicken ala Capri, Vesuvio potatoes, and Ice Cream was served.
Featured Program: Bob Leonard presented a warm, wonderful, educational, nostalgic, and humor laced program honoring The Lasting Contributions of Honorees of the Chicago Coin Club Hall of Fame, 1919-2023 since its inception in 2019 during the club’s hundred-year anniversary. The presentation included photos of the Hall of Fame inductees that accompanied the history and personal stories of this honorable group of great numismatists.
Show and Tell
There was no show and tell per the abbreviated agenda.
A huge thank you goes to Bill Burd and the Chicago Coin Company for providing the evening’s hors d’oeuvres and the various door prizes given away at the banquet. A huge thank you to Mark Wieclaw for designing, producing, and donating the 1250th elongated coins and the event souvenir cards. A huge thank you to Sharon and Kevin Blocker for providing continued support that covered YNs banquet attendance and banquet support.
Announcements
The next meeting will be April 12, 2023, and will be both in-person at the CBA in downtown Chicago and online.
John Riley adjourned the meeting at 8:17pm CST.
Respectfully Submitted,
Scott A. McGowan,
Secretary
David G. Gumm, a 16-year member of the Chicago Coin Club (CCC), passed away on Saturday March 25, 2023.
David joined the CCC in April 2007 and faithfully attended monthly meetings and events. David’s key numismatic love was Early American Coppers i.e., Large Cents dating 1793 to 1857. David also collected half cents.
In addition to the CCC David was a member of the American Numismatic Association (ANA), the Early American Coppers club, and the Hillside Coin Club of which he was past president. David volunteered at the ANA World’s Fair of Money each time it was held in Rosemont, Illinois and the CCC was host club. David usually volunteered for the Exhibits area, helping spread numismatic knowledge. David was a member of the CCC Century Club which was formed for the 100th anniversary celebration of the Club.
In addition to numismatics, David’s activities included being active in his church and volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, building homes for 15 years. Another pastime David would enjoy was canoeing. David was a retired labor foreman spending 35 years in the construction business. David’s infectious grin and sense of humor shown through every conversation.
David is survived by his daughter and fellow numismatist Melissa Gumm.
The family is planning a memorial service for David at a date to be determined, later in the spring.
by Robert D. Leonard Jr.,
presented to our March 8, 2023 meeting
Good evening, future Hall of Famers! Yes, I hope that some of you will, in time, earn the right to be inducted into the Chicago Coin Club Hall of Fame. Tonight we will look at the 17 members already so honored, and learn how their efforts strengthened and preserved the Club into its second century.
Alden Scott Boyer was unfortunately overlooked when the initial group was selected, but as Charter Member Number 7 he now heads tonight’s list. Mr. Boyer was a founding member of the Club in 1919 and its first Vice President; he was elected President that same year and served until 1927. Mr. Boyer owned a successful chemical company, and during the 1920s he opened his building for Club meetings. He had so many collections that he needed a warehouse to hold them all, and purchased a bank building to house the “Boyer Museum for the Preservation of American Antiquities.”
Mr. Boyer gave short programs to the Club from time to time, and his October 1951 talk “How I Became a Collector and What I Collected” was called “the highlight of the evening.” In the 1920s he brought outstanding exhibits to Club meetings, from a $50 slug to Swedish plate money, but these decreased as he began traveling for business and his interests broadened.
Mr. Boyer was well known nationally; he was very active in the American Numismatic Association, serving as General Secretary 1921 to 1922, Vice President 1925 to 1930, and President, 1932 to 1933. He loaned his personal exhibit cases for use at the 1933 Chicago ANA convention.
J. Henri Ripstra received Charter Member Number 9 when the Club was organized. From 1933 to 1936 he served as President of the Club, and later as Director. He spoke at Club meetings many times.
Mr. Ripstra was also active in the ANA, serving on the Board of Governors for six years and then President, 1937 to 1939. In January 1939, he was appointed Honorary Chairman of the first meeting of what became the Central States Numismatic Society. While ANA President, he was instrumental in the formation of the Iowa Numismatic Association. He was elected to the ANA Hall of Fame in 1978.
Mr. Ripstra was a highly talented medallic artist and die engraver; his portrait die of Abraham Lincoln was used to strike medals for the 1965 Central States convention.
Many tributes poured in after his death. In the Numismatic Scrapbook, Lee Hewitt wrote, “With the passing of J. Henri Ripstra organized numismatics has lost one of its most colorful personalities. It was our privilege to know Henri for thirty-five years and, with one possible exception, he was the best extemporaneous speaker and presiding officer that we have known in numismatic circles. He had an endless repertoire of stories about the important numismatists of the early twentieth century such as Virgil Brand, William F. Dunham, and Henry Chapman…” ANA Past President V. Leon Belt wrote, “Whatever honor I may have attained in both the American and Iowa Numismatic Associations was largely due to his assistance, encouragement, and support.”
Dr. Alexander Michaels Rackus, MD, also joined the Club in 1919, becoming Charter Member No. 16. He served as Vice President 1920-21 and President in 1928. A frequent exhibitor and occasional speaker at Club meetings, Dr. Rackus kept up his membership in the Chicago Coin Club during the 1930s, but let it lapse during the Second World War, when he was frequently in Europe.
Dr. Rackus primarily specialized in all things Lithuanian, forming the world’s largest collection of Lithuanian numismatic and ethnographic material, over 80,000 objects. In 1936 he sold it to the Lithuanian government at a nominal price, then served as Curator of the Historical section of the Museum of Culture in Kaunas from 1936 to 1938. For his contributions to Lithuanian culture, he was awarded prestigious medals in 1935 and 1939. After the war, he formed an important second collection of Lithuanian cultural material, which passed to the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture upon his death.
He was the author of a number of short articles published in The Numismatist between 1921 and 1934, primarily on various primitive money subjects, unfortunately not always accurate. He also published two books: Guthones (The Goths) Kinsmen of the Lithuanian People, 1929, and Cyclopedia of Lithuanian numismatics. Vol. 1: Primitive money in prehistoric times, 1965. On the 125th anniversary of his birth, Dr. Rackus was honored with the lead article in Draugas, the Chicago-based Lithuanian-American newspaper.
Though William Forrester Dunham, Charter Member 17, never held elective office in the Club, he was an avid booster. In 1919 he minted aluminum “One Mill” tokens as a premium to encourage others to join the Club: for annual dues of one dollar, members received a souvenir token in addition to the Club Bulletin. Prior to the formation of the Club, he was President of the Chicago Numismatic Society in 1905 and 1907, Chairman of the ANA Board of Governors in 1909, and a Governor in 1915.
Mr. Dunham’s collecting interests stretched from Greek, Roman, and Japanese coins to United States coins, Hard Times Tokens, encased postage stamps, and Papal medals. In 1904 he bought the Dexter specimen of the 1804 dollar, and in 1906 snared the H.P. Smith example of the 1822 half eagle. Both coins were shown at the 1920 ANA convention in Chicago.
He was the author of “Easy Finding List of Hard Times Tokens” in 1910 and “Check List of Encased Postage Stamps” in 1915, both still useful. A life member of the Art Institute of Chicago, he gave his collections of Greek, Roman, and Japanese coins and Papal medals to them. But he was more possessive of his United States coins: per Lee Hewitt in 1961, citing J. Henri Ripstra, who was present, “the agent of the late J.P. Morgan … offered Mr. Dunham $40,000 for the 1822 half eagle – at that time $10,000 was the highest price that had ever been paid for a U.S. coin – and Dunham turned it down with the comment that Mr. Morgan with all his millions did not have enough money to buy that coin.” With the rest of his U.S. coins, it remained in the Dunham Collection until his death.
Virgil Michael Brand was a charter member of the predecessor Chicago Numismatic Society and served as its President 1908-1909. He joined the Chicago Coin Club during its first year of existence as Member Number 55, and retained his membership the rest of his life, though he soon stopped coming to meetings due to failing health. While he never held office in the club, at the January 1920 meeting he amused members by reciting a humorous poem, probably his own composition, entitled “The Quarrel of the Coins,” in which the characters were an Indian Head cent of 1909, an 1883 nickel without cents, an 1802 half dime, an 1804 dollar, and “the villain,” who was a coin collector. This was greatly appreciated, and attendees clamored for more!
Mr. Brand’s fortune came from the Brand Brewing Company, which he owned; it operated until shut down by Prohibition in 1920. A lifelong bachelor, he devoted his free time to coin and currency collecting, forming the greatest private collection of coins in the world. He bought individually, in groups, and entire collections en bloc. At his death the collection included over 350,000 pieces, worth $2,000,000, plus a substantial numismatic library. But he left no will, and his collection was fought over by his heirs and broken up.
Mr. Brand showed that he was a scholar-collector, and not a mere hoarder, in a paper read at the April 1905 meeting of the Chicago Numismatic Society, “The Objects of Coin Collecting,” which was reprinted in The Numismatist: “The true numismatist … strives to acquire a full knowledge of everything pertaining to [his coins]. He notes the size, weight, composition, shape and date of issue of each specimen and learns its name and place in the monetary system of the times … He translates the inscriptions…”
M. (Merrill) Vernon Sheldon joined the Chicago Coin Club in 1928 as Member No. 166. He was Secretary 1937-38, but his most lasting service to the Club was securing life membership in the ANA for it; in 1941 he generously offered it with his compliments. He was awarded the Club’s Medal of Merit in 1956.
Mr. Sheldon initially specialized in U.S. and ancient Greek and Roman coins. Later, his collection of United States currency included many plate notes in Friedberg’s Paper Money of the United States, particularly a group of the “coin notes” of 1890.
In 1938 he was elected general secretary of the ANA. Elected to the ANA Board of Governors in 1944, he was First Vice President 1947-49 and President 1949-51. In 1938, the committee responsible for the fifty-year index to The Numismatist relied heavily upon his personal card records. He was instrumental in setting up the ANA’s slide program in 1949, allowing local club members to view rare coins and currency. In 1955 he was appointed Chairman of the Exhibit Case Committee, set up to manufacture and sell a quantity of standard steel exhibit cases by subscription; the project was a success, and they were used at ANA conventions until replaced by the somewhat larger Allstate aluminum cases many years later.
Mr. Sheldon was the recipient of ANA’s 1949 Medal of Merit and in 1951 received its highest honor by being named the first recipient of the Farran Zerbe Award. In 1983 the ANA initiated an annual award in his memory for the best audio/visual program; five years later, he was inducted into its Hall of Fame. In his obituary notice in the Chatter, Carl Wolf wrote, “His dedication and the generous sharing of his time and talents will forever remain a standard for the membership to follow.”
Lee Francis Hewitt joined the Chicago Coin Club as Member No. 215 in 1932. A frequent exhibitor, he provided many services to the Club over the years, receiving the Club’s Medal of Merit in 1957; he served as President in 1971.
In January 1935, Mr. Hewitt founded Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine, originally intended to reprint classic numismatic studies. However, it quickly expanded, adding news and original articles, and eventually bulged with advertising. It was sold in 1968 and discontinued in 1976. Over his long career he wrote Mint Record of United States Coins (with C.E. Green), Price Catalog of Hard Times Tokens, United States Numismatic Dictionary (with Ted Weissbuch), Hewitt-Donlon Catalog of United States Small Size Paper Money (with Willian Donlon), and Nevada Gaming Tokens.
Mr. Hewitt was very instrumental in the revival of proof set issues in 1936. He spearheaded the formation of the Central States Numismatic Society, and received their Medal of Merit in 1959. In September 1942 he was appointed temporary editor of The Numismatist through the end of the year, following the editor’s unexpected resignation. Despite being drafted, neither The Numismatist nor the Scrapbook missed an issue during this time. He received the ANA Medal of Merit in 1950 and the Farran Zerbe Award in 1962. In 1978 he was elected to the ANA Hall of Fame.
Mr. Hewitt is most famous today for the phrase “There is no Santa Claus in numismatics.” From time to time pricing mistakes would appear in the Numismatic Scrapbook and readers would flood the advertiser with orders for “bargains,” much to Mr. Hewitt’s annoyance. In 1959 he wrote an Editor’s Note, “Don’t Believe in Santa Claus; At Least Not in the Coin Business,” and ran similar warnings later. The present version is now credited to him.
Tall and dignified, with a deep voice, Mr. Hewitt commanded respect from all. In his obituary in the Chatter, Carl Wolf wrote: “he was honest and ‘called the shots as he saw them.’ … [He] had great powers of concentration and had an outstanding ability to absorb and retain information, which could best be described as an archival memory.”
Harry X Boosel joined the Chicago Coin Club in 1934 as Member No. 239. During his 60-year membership he served as President 1951-52 and was Chairman of the 1937 ANA Convention (in Washington, D.C., while living there temporarily) and General Chairman of the 1966 Chicago ANA Convention – the only person ever to chair ANA conventions in two different time zones. He received the Club’s Medal of Merit in 1962 and its Literary Award in 1972. A frequent exhibitor, he was honored with eight Cabeen Exhibit Awards, and spoke before the club many times.
Fellow club member Lee Hewitt suggested to Mr. Boosel that he collect the coinage of 1873 because of the many types produced that year. Rising to the challenge, Mr. Boosel wrote a series of articles on them for the Numismatic Scrapbook in 1957 and 1958, discovering that there were two varieties of the date: Closed 3 (original) and Open 3 (improved). These articles were reprinted as 1873-1873 (with the two date fonts) and the varieties were added to the 13th edition of the Red Book. In 1959 he published the results of his study of Saudi Arabian gold discs, giving the reason for their issue and exposing recent counterfeits.
Mr. Boosel was a Governor of the ANA in the 1930s and again in the 1980s; Chairman, National Coin Week; and Governor and President, Central States Numismatic Society. He placed award-winning exhibits. He received the Farran Zerbe Award in 1989 and was elected a Fellow of the American Numismatic Society in 1987.
Mr. Boosel wanted to be called “Mr. 1873” because of his extensive study of the coinage of that year, to the eventual exclusion of almost everything else. He made a point of insisting that his middle name was “X” (no period), and refused to accept a Chicago Coin Club Speaker’s medal on which the engraver had added one, and we had to have another one made, with careful instructions.
The first month after he moved here, in 1945, Glenn B. Smedley joined the Chicago Coin Club as Member No. 443, and five years later became Secretary-Treasurer. After serving on many committees, he accepted the position of General Chairman for the 1956 Chicago ANA Convention. He served as President for the 1960 term, and was the first to receive the Club’s Medal of Merit when it was introduced in 1955. A frequent exhibitor at meetings, he was also the first to receive a silver Cabeen Exhibit Award, in 1968, and in 1958, the Club’s Literary Award.
Mr. Smedley began collecting U.S. Type Coins and oddities in the 1930s, but later he added medals to his collection, specializing in the issues of Victor D. Brenner. He was the author of over two dozen articles, plus a monthly column that ran in The Numismatist for 25 years. His most lasting work is his catalog of Brenner medals – the standard reference – published in four parts and reprinted. He also wrote many articles on various aspects of paper money, and was co-editor of the ANA’s Introduction to Numismatics booklet in 1962. He was appointed Assistant to the Editor of The Numismatist in 1959 when the Editor’s heath declined, becoming Editor with the issue of April 1966 upon his resignation. His last issue was February 1967, after which The Numismatist was transferred to the new ANA Headquarters.
Mr. Smedley served as Chairman of the Central States convention in 1953 and was elected Governor the following year. And he was ANA Governor 1953-57, First Vice President 1957-59, and Governor again 1967-77, withdrawing from ANA politics while with The Numismatist editorial office. In 1961 he was co-founder of the Society of Paper Money Collectors, serving as President 1969-71. He moved to Colorado Springs in 1977 to volunteer at ANA Headquarters. Mr. Smedley was a frequent, and award-winning, exhibitor and speaker. In recognition, he received the ANA’s Farran Zerbe Award, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame of both the ANA and the Society of Paper Money Collectors, and the ANA named an award after him.
Modest and friendly, he was characterized by Numismatist Editor N. Neil Harris as “one of the most principled men I have ever known” and by Ed Reiter as “one of the most diligent toilers in the … field.”
Elston G. “Brad” Bradfield joined the Chicago Coin Club in 1947 as Member No. 468. After serving on the Club’s Publicity Committee, he was First Vice President 1953-55 and President 1955-56. In 1958 he was honored with the Medal of Merit. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Subsidiary Coinage Act, he presented a 40 minute playlet at the November 11, 1953 meeting, with Club members delivering verbatim excerpts of the actual Congressional debates. Members in the roles of congressmen were placed throughout the audience and spoke on cue or when recognized by the House Speaker, played by Mr. Bradfield. This fine program was so popular it was repeated for the 1954 Central States Convention.
Mr. Bradfield burst on the national scene with eight wide-ranging, well-researched articles in The Numismatist and Numismatic Scrapbook in just over a year, April 1949 to April, 1950. Active also in the Central States Numismatic Society, he founded their journal The Sentinel, remaining editor through 1963. In December 1953, he was asked to take over The Numismatist when the editor became critically ill; he later became Editor in October 1954 and served for the next eleven years. Among his innovations were special issues on Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lafayette. He was editor and co-author of the ANA’s booklet Introduction to Numismatics. Sadly, declining health forced him to resign as Editor in January 1966.
Mr. Bradfield’s excellence as Editor was recognized by the ANA with Honorary Life Membership, the Medal of Merit, and finally the Farran Zerbe Award; in 1982 he was elected to the ANA Hall of Fame. The Central States Numismatic Society awarded him their Medal of Merit in 1954 and named its literary award for him in 1966. In 1975 he was inducted as a Numismatic Ambassador.
Arlie R, Slabaugh was appointed Assistant Editor of the Numismatic Scrapbook in April 1954 and moved to the Chicago area from, “among the West Virginia hills.” The next month he joined the Chicago Coin Club as Member No. 619. A frequent exhibitor, he was recognized for one of the best exhibits at the Club’s 1954 annual banquet. And at the December 1956 meeting, he read an original poem, “A Christmas Phone Message,” asking Santa to bring all the members of the club the items they wanted. He received two Club Literary Awards, and in 1966, the Medal of Merit.
Mr. Slabaugh began collecting as a schoolboy, and soon had an interest in numismatics so serious that he founded his own magazine, The Hobby Spotlite, which later became a national publication. Unfortunately, in 1942 he was stricken with mastoiditis and became completely deaf, but learned to read lips and continued to speak. By 1948 he was the first full-time dealer in world paper money in the United States, but was glad to get a regular pay check from the Numismatic Scrapbook in 1954, as mentioned. Here he excelled until lured out of state by the Franklin Mint in 1967.
He was the author of many short specialty books, but his most lasting contribution was Confederate States Paper Money, published by Whitman in 1958, which has gone thropugh 11 editions. On other wartime emergency monies, he wrote Encased Postage Stamps, U.S. and Foreign; Japanese Invasion Money; and Prisoner of War Monies and Medals. Other longer works covered U.S. commemorative coins, small size National Bank Notes, and several exonumia categories. Besides these booklets, he contributed scores of articles to the Numismatic Scrapbook, The Numismatist, the TAMS Journal, and Paper Money.
A charter member of the Token and Medal Society, he was an assistant editor of the TAMS Journal and received their Medal of Merit in 1967; he served as President 1978-1980. The Society of Paper Money Collectors presented him with its Nathan Gold Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in 1963. The Numismatic Literary Guild honored him with their highest award, the Clemy, in 1981. He was voted a Numismatic Ambassador in 1989. And from the ANA, Mr. Slabaugh received a Heath Literary Award in 1948; two B.P. Wright Exhibit Awards, 1965 and 1966; the Medal of Merit, 1991; the Glenn Smedley Award and a President’s Award, both in 1997; and the Lifetime Achievement Award, 2004.
Mr. Slabaugh pioneered the study of many exonumia and synographic areas, combining historical and technical accuracy with a matter-of-fact, folksy writing style. His genius was such that, while typesetting on a linotype machine at the Numismatic Scrapbook, he could anticipate what space would remain after the article and compose a short item to fill it before he reached the bottom of the page!
In 1958 Harry Flower joined the Chicago Coin Club as Member No. 695. Three years later he was elected a Governor and received the Best in Show Exhibit Award at the Chicago Coin Club Fall Festival; the following year he was appointed Exhibits Chairman for this short-lived annual show. He presented many programs to the club on a wide variety of subjects over the years. A frequent exhibitor at meetings, he received a First Place Cabeen Exhibit Award in 1990 and collected many Second Places and Honorable Mentions.
His numismatic interests covered the entire field of numismatics: primitive money, ancient coins, paper money, world coins, tokens, and medals, including altered coins and paper money, cut and counterstamped coins, and gold coins, but he eventually specialized in Judaica in Numismatics, particularly tributes to Albert Einstein. Mr. Flower joined the American Israel Numismatic Association soon after it was formed in 1967, serving as Regional Vice President and Regional Director 1973-88. In 1984 they published his definitive catalog of Tokens & Medals issued by Israel Numismatic Societies. He is best known, however, as the author of “Numismatic Tributes to Albert Einstein,” serialized in The Numismatist January and February, 1987 and reprinted, and for forming the finest collection of Albert Einstein medals, tokens, coins, and paper money.
Mr. Flower won First Place awards in his category for exhibits at three AINA conventions in the 1970s and a Second Place exhibit award at the 1984 ANA Convention. In 1992 he was voted a Numismatic Ambassador. Affectionately known to some as “Mr. Einstein” because of his laser focus on Einstein tributes, he is fondly remembered by Chicago Coin Club members for his generosity and willingness to advance numismatic knowledge. Mark Weiclaw remarked, “He was always willing to help a fellow collector.”
After moving to Northbrook, Rochester New York native Charles J. “Charlie” Ricard joined the Chicago Coin Club in 1963; he remained a member for over half a century. Mr. Ricard served as Financial Chairman for the 1966 ANA Convention in Chicago, personally handling over $100,000 in bourse fees, etc. That year, the Club awarded him its Medal of Merit.
Charlie served as President 1987-88 and did a fine job, though his succession was irregular. In 1989 he received a Club Literary Award and a Second Place Cabeen Exhibit Award, for his exhibits at meetings – including an original Castorland medal in silver! At the 2011 ANA World’s Fair of Money, hosted by the Chicago Coin Club, Charlie was recognized as Honorary General Chairman.
Though he had wide interests in U.S. coins, he was most known for his collection of Napoleonic medals. He published a number of articles, primarily on medals, and placed award-winning exhibits of medals at conventions, receiving a First Place at the 1962 Detroit ANA.
Charlie was nationally famous. He served as an officer of so many numismatic organizations that I did not have room to list them all in his citation, as I did for the other Hall of Fame honorees; he was President of five numismatic organizations and Vice President of a sixth. As Chairman of the ANA’s 1891 Club 1990-91, he attracted over 800 member-donors. He was elected a Numismatic Ambassador in 1987. The ANA awarded him its Medal of Merit in 1991, the Glenn Smedley Memorial Award in 1993, a Presidential Award in 1994, the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996, and the Farran Zerbe Award in 2003 – the last also honoring his great-grandfather, J.C. Lighthouse, ANA Governor 1904-07, and his uncle, Charles N. Ricard, a founder of the Token and Medal Society. The Rochester Numismatic Association named its speaker’s medal for him.
Numismatic literature dealer George Kolbe, who knew him well, recalled him as, quote, “a gentleman of the old school. His love of numismatics and its literature was infectious and enduring.”
Dr. Saul Needleman became a member in 1974. He served as President twice, received the Literary Award four times, and the Medal of Merit in 1994. A frequent exhibitor at meetings, he was recognized with five Honorable Mention Cabeen Exhibit Awards. As President, he strove to have worthwhile educational programs at every meeting, twice speaking himself.
As another milestone Club meeting approached, the 800th on September 14, 1985, Dr. Needleman proposed that the Club issue a special bulletin with contributions from renowned numismatists. By October 1984 this had turned into a full-fledged book, Perspectives in Numismatics, a 364-page festschrift with contributions from Richard Yeoman, Eric P. Newman, Richard Doty, Q. David Bowers, David R. Sear, etc., as well as a number of Club members. These contributions were so significant that four of the chapters were reprinted, two in The Numismatist, one in World Coin News, and another in Talkin’ Tokens. (Unfortunately this led to some friction, because he passed over one person who thought that he should have been included.) His editing of this book is his most lasting contribution to the Chicago Coin Club.
Dr. Needleman gave many talks before groups at the local and national level. He exhibited at major coin conventions winning, among others, First Place in class at the 1984 ANA convention, and Best in Show at the 1978 Greater New York Convention with, “a complex exhibit employing custom-made coin mounts with mirrors to highlight both sides of the coin.”
He also wrote Use of God’s Name: Jehovah on Coins, Medals, Tokens, and Jetons, a 428-page book published in 2002. In addition to his numismatic books, he has 18 unique entries in the library catalog of the American Numismatic Society.
We now come to the living members of the Hall of Fame, beginning with Carl Wolf. Carl joined the Club in 1979 and immediately volunteered to be Secretary and Treasurer, serving through 1984, and he was recognized with the Club’s Medal of Merit in 1981. In 1985, he co-authored “The History of the Chicago Coin Club” with his wife Jennie Sochon for Perspectives in Numismatics, and following his tenure as Secretary and Treasurer, he served as Club Archivist from 1985 to 1990. In 1997 he was elected Second Vice President, was First Vice President 1997 to 1999, and President 1999 to 2002, remaining on the Board of Directors through 2012, and again 2021 to date. Carl resumed serving as club Secretary from 2005 to 2020. And he has won twelve of the club’s Cabeen Exhibit Awards, including four gold.
Carl was asked by the ANA to conduct the Numismatic Theatre at the 1984 ANA convention in Detroit and threw himself into it, recruiting top speakers and presenting 22 programs. He reprised this 1986 through 1988, after which it was handed off to the host committee and then to ANA Headquarters. His efforts were praised by ANA President Stephen Taylor, and he attracted sufficient notice to receive the Numismatic Ambassador award in 1987. The ANA presented him the Glenn Smedley award in 1989, the Medal of Merit in 2015, and he received a Presidential Award in 2013.
One of Carl’s great ideas was to create a giveaway for the Club’s annual meeting at the now defunct Chicago International Coin Fair, in the form of collectibles affixed to three-hole-punched cardboard. The first year, 1988, five elongated world coins were presented to all attendees, but the next year he created leather tokens and asked me to write a history of leather money. This was a big hit, so in 1990 he made Swedish Plate Money replicas, though someone else wrote the text that year. He followed that with replicas of Yap stone money, axe money, clamshell money, etc., until finally we began obtaining and giving away the real thing. This project continued until 2011; by that time we had pretty well exhausted all the Odd and Curious Money that we could afford to give away, and I had already published my book on primitive money.
In 2007 Carl became the victim of the only “roast” the Club has ever held, but then was awarded the Chicago Coin Club Lifetime Achievement Award. He served as Local Volunteers manager for the 2011 World’s Fair of Money and did an outstanding job, continuing in that role for the summer ANA conventions of 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2019. Carl is currently serving as President of the International Primitive Money Society.
We will make short mention of Robert D. Leonard Jr. I joined the Chicago Coin Club in 1983 and have been active ever since, both in the Club and in outside organizations such as the American Numismatic Society, the Token and Medal Society, and the International Primitive Money Society. I enjoy writing and have published three books and over 100 articles.
William A. Burd purchased Daru Coin & Stamp in 1995, changing the name to Chicago Coin Company. Since then, he has grown it into one of Chicago’s largest wholesale and retail gold buyers and bullion dealers. Bill joined the Club in 1993 and quickly became involved in its leadership. He served as Editor of the Chatter 1995-1999, a Club Director, Host Chairman for the 2014 Chicago ANA Convention, and has been the Club Archivist since 2005. Bill received our Medal of Merit in 1999.
He wrote “The Inscrutable 1894-S Dime,” published in The Numismatist, February 1994, which received the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for “Best Article in a Club Magazine” and also a Chicago Coin Club Literary Award. He earned a second Club Literary Award in 1996 for “Early Auctions by the Chicago Coin Club” and several times has been a featured speaker and recipient of the Cabeen Exhibit Award. In 2018, Bill published Medals and Tokens of the Chicago Coin Club, a 106-page listing of memorabilia from the Club and its predecessors, which won a second place Mishler Cataloging Award from the Token and Medal Society.
An active member of other numismatic organizations, Bill served as Treasurer of the Illinois Numismatic Association 2012-2016 and was elected a Fellow of the American Numismatic Society. He received an ANA Presidential Award in 2009, and was elected a Numismatic Ambassador three years ago.
Who will be next? If you want to qualify for this great honor, in addition to pitching in to help run things here, take steps to make yourself known outside the Club – though writing, speaking, exhibiting, or service to national organizations. Become an expert that other members look forward to seeing again at meetings. And some additions to the Hall of Fame during our second century have not joined the Club yet, so we need to continue recruiting new members! Thank you for your attention.
| Chicago Coin Company |
| Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. |
| Kedzie Koins Inc. |
| Classical Numismatic Group |
| Date: | April 12, 2023, First Session |
| Time: | 6:45PM CDT (UTC-05:00) |
| Location: | Downtown Chicago
At the Chicago Bar Association, 321 S. Plymouth Court, 3rd or 4th floor meeting room. Please remember the security measures at our meeting building: everyone must be prepared to show their photo-ID and register at the guard’s desk. Because things can change between when this is written and we meet, please bring your face covering to the meeting – all attendees must follow the city’s and building’s rules. This will be another attempt at a regular in-person meeting in the post-Covid-19 era. We will try for a better experience than in the past, but please be prepared for possible diifficulties. |
| Online: | For all the details on participating online in one of our club meetings, visit our Online Meeting webpage at www.chicagocoinclub.org/meetings/online_meeting.html. Participation in an online meeting requires some advance work by both our meeting coordinator and attendees, especially first-time participants. Please plan ahead; read the latest instructions on the day before the meeting! |
| Featured Program: | James Davis —
Events Leading to the Founding of the Denver Mint, and the First-Year Coinage of the Denver Mint
Beginning with the Colorado gold rush of 1858/1859, a series of events, including the coinage of a small private mint, led the Treasury to establish a mint in Denver. This program examines both the coinages of Clark, Gruber & Co. and the first-year issues of the Denver mint in 1906. |
| Date: | April 29, 2023, Second Session |
| Time: | 12:00 PM CDT (UTC-05:00) |
| 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: | Mark Wieclaw
— Docendo Discimus, We Learn by Teaching
Building on the Chicago Coin Club Latin motto, Docendo Discimus, the presentation focuses on education and teaching, a cornerstone of the Chicago Coin Club. Mark will discuss how important Numismatic education and knowledge sharing are to collecting and the hobby. He encourages others to share their knowledge through speaking, writing, or placing exhibits. Mark will also share recollections of times he personally had an impact on others in the hobby through his own sharing. |
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.
| April | 12 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - James Davis on Events Leading to the Founding of the Denver Mint, and the First-Year Coinage of the Denver Mint |
| April | 27-30 | 84th Anniversary Convention of the Central States Numismatic Society at the Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel & Convention Center, 1551 North Thoreau Drive, Schaumburg, IL. There is a $15 per day admission charge, a 4-day pass for $30, free for youth (17 and under), and free for CSNS Members. For details, refer to their website, https://www.csns.org/ |
| April | 29 | CCC Meeting - 12pm at the CSNS Convention,
which is held at the Schaumburg Convention Center.
No admission charge for our meeting.
Featured Speaker - Mark Wieclaw on Docendo Discimus, We Learn by Teaching |
| May | 10 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be announced |
| June | 14 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be announced |
| July | 12 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be announced |
| August | 8-12 | ANA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Admission is free for ANA members — for details, see http://www.worldsfairofmoney.com. |
| August | 9 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be announced |
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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.
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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