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Minutes of the 985th Meeting

The 985th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was called to order on February 14, 2001 at 7:03PM by President Carl Wolf.

A motion was made, seconded and passed, to revise the passage in last months' minutes that reads "at the Chicago Paper Money Show and the Chicago International Coin Fair" to read "at the Chicago Paper Money Show", deleting "and the Chicago International Coin Fair". The minutes were then approved.

Secretary /Treasurer Lyle Daly gave a treasury report as follows:

First Vice President Robert Feiler introduced Drew Michyeta as the featured speaker. Drew spoke on the Franklin Mint series of Postal Commemorative Medals. The silver medals are packaged with a cancelled companion stamp, commemorating the same topic.

Drew reviewed medals and stamps commemorating the Bicentennial of the United States, A Decade in Space, C.A.R.E., San Francisco Cable Cars, Yellowstone, Glass Blowing, Silver Working, Harry S. Truman, Mt. McKinley and promoting Planned Parenthood and the Prevention of Drug Abuse.

Robert Feiler thanked Drew for his presentation.

Second Vice President Don Dool introduced the following individuals, who presented material during the meeting's Show and Tell:

1. Bob Leonard presented 5 officially altered coins of the 1690s.
2. Jeff Rosinia showed several of his "cooked" & toned clad coins along with several toned silver coins.
3. Reid Geisler presented a love token on a 20-cent piece and a pair of partial brockage New Hampshire quarters.
4. Bob Feiler presented his collection of US Currency and BEP Souvenir Cards The vignettes were displayed in association with the currency on which they were used.
5. Carl Wolf presented literature on some very handsome coin novelty items that included a coin embedded acrylic toilet seat and a casket with currency and coinage embedded in it. He also had a reproduction of the $10 Bison Note.
6. Mark Wieclaw presented a 2001 Chinese Panda noting the design extends to the rim. He also had recently acquired a 1929 D Winged Liberty dime and a Byzantine weight.
7. Steve Zitowsky acquired two counter-stamped Indian Head cents and an aluminum replica of a coin from the Emperor Trajan.
8. Don Dool presented seven copper coins from the 16th & 17th century.

Old Business:

The 986th meeting will be held at the Chicago Paper Money Expo at the Ramada Hotel, 6600 N Mannheim, in Rosemont on March 3rd at 1 PM. The speaker will be Chester Krause who will discuss Mining Scrip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We will recess and reconvene Wednesday March 14th at 7pm. CCC Souvenir cards will be available.

The 987th meeting will be held downtown onednesday April 11th at 7pm. We will recess and reconvene at the Chicago International Coin Fair at the Ramada Hotel, 6600 N Mannheim, in Rosemont on April 28th at 1 PM. The speaker will be David Hendin who will discuss Biblical Coins.

Jeff Rosnia urged club members to participate in the design of the state quarter.

New Business:

Carl Wolf presented a Columbian Half-dollar counter stamped CCC 1933. This was received from the estate of Helen Carmody-Lebo for authentication by the club as club exonumia. Minutes from meetings lend credence to this being an activity and product of the Chicago Coin Club.

Lyle Daly was asked to research memorial donations made to the ANA Memorial Library in memory of members who passed away in 1999. Arthur C. Allen, Harry Flower, A. Charles Swanson and Albert Ivan passed away in 2000.

A board Meeting will be held Wednesday February 21st at the Hickory Pit Restaurant 2801 S Halstead. On the agenda:

• Appoint Replacement to William Bierly
• Safe Deposit Box & Bank Account Signatures
• 1000th meeting
• Illinois Numismatic Association invitation to organize educational activities for their September 7-9 show.

Jeff Rosinia sought signatures to keep the Terra Museum in Chicago. He asked for clarification on club policy for the endorsement of candidates for ANA office. Club policy is to endorse members only.

A motion was made, seconded and passed, to adjourn the meeting at 9:22 PM.

Respectfully submitted by Lyle Daly

Speaker's Wor[l]d
Down Memory Lane with the Franklin Mint Postal Commemoratives
(1971-1975)

Drew Michyeta started his presentation by stating that instead of a lecture, he was hoping for more of an open discussion format. He encouraged the membership to participate during his talk to share reminiscences about the events depicted on the covers.

These medals were produced by the Franklin Mint for a group known as Postmasters of America. The start of this series coincided with the release of the first commemorative stamp issued by the USPS; previously, the Post Office Department had been led by the Postmaster general, a Cabinet-level appointee of the President. Only commemorative stamps were included in this series.

Drew started with the first cover in this series, honoring the US Bicentennial Commission; the medal pictures a drummer boy, fife player, and flag bearer. The Decade of Space Achievement was shown next; that medal pictures a lunar scene with Apollo 15, a Lunar Rover, and two astronauts. Drew considered this medal the most beautiful of this series.

After a list of covers was distributed, the members started requesting specific covers. Although the meeting was taking place on Valentine's day, the first request was for the Campaign to Prevent Drug Abuse issue. Not an easy topic to show on either a stamp or a medal. While Drew read the paragraph with that issue, members made comments and observations. That proved to be the format used for the rest of of the presentation. The 25th Anniversary of C.A.R.E. made some members remember how they had helped their parents form CARE packages for Europe after WW II.

The Historic Preservation, San Francisco Cable Car also jogged some memories, and there followed a brief diversion into other cities which had (or still have) cable cars. The Yellowstone National Park produced a good laugh when Drew, reading the provided text, mentioned "semi-tame grizzly bears." The Family Planning initially brought some chuckles when the text mentioned that the earth's then population of 3.5 billion was expected to double by the year 2000 unless changes were made; we did better there (just passed the 6 billion mark) than with drug abuse, was the concensus of the audience.

The next topics had some numismatic tie-ins. The Colonial American Craftsmen, Glass Blowing mentioned how the first glass works in English-speaking colonial America was formed in Jamestown to produce bottles. But bottles were not needed; it later reopened to make glass beads for trade with the Natives. The Silver Working description started an animated discussion with its assertion that plain silverware had been used as a medium of exchange; the members could concede its possible use as a store of value, but knew of no sources for such a claim -- we want references and bibliographies.

After reviewing the Harry S Truman Memorial issue, the program concluded with the Mt. McKinley National Park which produced a number of reponses: a strong feeling by some that the rack of a caribou was pictured on the body of an elk; and the park's and mountain's name have been changed to Denali, meaning great one in the local language. (That is an appropriate name considering how the mountain is visible from much of Alaska; the name McKinley was given, so the story goes, by a Gold Standard supporter to annoy his Free Silver neighbors.)

Everyone contributed comments while Drew led us through a fun and, at times, raucous trip down memory lane. Our members are certainly not bashful.

Show and Tell

Forgot to include the scale in the lower-left corner of most images, with the tics spaced 1 mm apart. Because the brightness and contrast were manipulated on a computer, the coloring of a coin's image differs from the coin's actual coloring.

1. Bob Leonard showed five coins that were altered by the government and reissued for circulation in the 1690s in their altered state, from five European countries:
   • Ireland, 1691 - halfpenny, Siege of Limerick, overstruck on large "Gun Money" shilling of James II, 1689-90;
   • England, 1695 - "Declaration" halfcrown of Charles I, 1643, Oxford mint, center pierced (now plugged) and returned to circulation as of full weight during the great recoinage of William II;
   • France, 1693 - billon 15 deniers of Louis XIV overstruck on douzain of Henri III, 1577 (both dates clearly showing), which itself had been counterstamped with a fleur-de-lis in beaded oval in 1640 [according to Breen, this issue was also sent to the French possessions in America];
   • Netherlands, States-General, 1693, bundle of arrows counterstamped on rijderschelling (6 stuivers) of Zwolle, 1683, to validate it for continued circulation; and
   • Malta, 1696-1697, 4 tari of John Paul Lascaris-Castellar, 1636-1651, with six counterstamps (two later than the the 1690's) including a crowned fleur-de-lis for Grandmaster Wignacourt, to validate it for continued circulation.
2. Information on the Illinois State Quarter design competition was presented by Jeff Rosinia, and some submission forms with design criteria were passed out. Jeff collects toned coins, and next showed an assortment of toned US silver coinage. The science fair project for Jeff's sons required the heating of different coins to a range of temperatures in an electric oven, and some of the results we saw were US cents colored magenta, brass, and red followed by copper-nickel clad coinage turned blue.
3. Reid Geisler brough a love token to our meeting on Valentine's Day meeting; the initials CDM on the reverse of an 1875 20-cent piece.
   Next was a mated pair of New Hampshire quarters, acquired at different times.
4. A small collection of vignettes was shown by Bob Feiler. Each page of an album showed both a vignette printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing along with a corresponding piece of paper money featuring the same vignettes, also printed by the B.E.P. Starting with Washington on the one dollar note, each page showed the next higher denomination. By the time we saw Grant and Franklin, about midway through the album, the audience started clamoring to see the Cleveland and Wilson notes; but the second half showed famous public buildings such as the capitol and the White House.
5. Carl Wolf showed a catalogue from an acrylic embeddedments company; they put items into blocks of acrylic. Among the items using US coins and paper money were the $250 toilet seat and the $15,000 "Yes, you can take it with you" coffin.
   Carl continued his display of souvenir cards reproducing old paper money by showing the cards from the 1980 International Paper Money Show and the 1986 Salt Lake City ANA Convention, which showed the obverse and reverse, respectively, of the ten dollar bill from 1901 with a bison as the main obverse vignette and Lewis and Clark on the sides.
6. A variety of items was shown by Mark Wieclaw:
   • The Chinese gold bullion coins have been issued every year since 1982, with a different obverse design every year. This year, the design extends to the edge (no rim), as shown on his quarter ounce piece.
   • A dime-folder from a bank, holding three dollars in dimes. The usual procedure at the store is to pull and dump the dimes, but this folder had date and mintmark penciled in near some dimes. And the dime marked "21-D" certainly was!
   • A weight (now 3.95 grams) for a solidus, in copper with some gilt remaining, from Honorius and Theodosius II.
   • An as of Trajan (98-117 AD) with a bust on both obverse and reverse. From the legend, this piece is from 98-102 AD.
7. Steve Zitowsky showed a variety of pieces:
   • A large flat aluminum fantasy piece mixing ancient Roman and Mardi Gras crewe styles, humorously attributed to the emperor Euphonius.
   • Two US Indian Head cents with large plain counterstamped digit: a 1 on the 1889 cent, and a 3 on the 1869 cent. We discussed some possible uses, but nothing conclusive.
   • A possible love token for this Valentine's Day meeting was engraved "Baby" on a 1761 coin of Stad Utrecht.
8. The last exhibitor, Don Dool, showed six pieces dated 1622, from various German states. These are some examples of kipper and wipper, a complex series of billon (debased silver) coins. Debased with either copper or lead, the debasement is generally accepted to have begun about 1590 and reached its zenith during 1619 to 1622 during the 30 Years War. By 1622, the silver content was so low, if at all, that these are considered copper coins. Note that some coins use zz instead of 22 in the date.
   • Breslau city, 1 pfennig. Lion rampant (Bohemia) and spread eagle (Silesia). W is for Wratislava (name for Breslau at that time; a city in Silesia now known as Wroclaw). HR is for mintmaster Hans Rieger. Uniface.
   • Camenz, a city in Saxony, 3 pfennig. The BON PUBL in the legend stands for "public good" according to a consensus of the audience.
   • Fugger-Babenhausen-Wellenburg, 1 kreuzer. The Fuggers were a wealthy banking family dating back to the 14th century. Issued under George IV. Elliptical in shape, these were struck by roller dies (usually rolled and then punched from strip).
   • Schweinfurt, city in Bavaria, 1 kortling (1/84 gulden). the SM is for Stadt Munze, and the S is for Schweinfurt.
   • Teutonic Order, 1 kreuzer. Founded during Third Crusade in 1198. issued under Charles of Austria, grand master 1619-1624.
   • Warburg, city in Westphalia, 4 pfennig.

Important Dates

Birthday and Year Joined

Membership Dues for 2001

Membership dues of $10 for the year 2001 are now due. You may either bring the amount to a meeting or send a check, payable to the Chicago Coin Club, to our mailbox:

Those members for whom we have no record of dues payment for 2000 will find a note enclosed with their April issue of the Chatter.

Chatter Matter