Chatter

archive also available

Editor's Notes

Congratulations to club member Clarence Wills on his 50 years of membership in ANA, as announced at the recent convention in New York. On a sadder note, it has come to our attention that former member Larry Natta passed away July 4th. Larry was editor of the Chatter 1981-82 and will always be remembered for putting out the first typeset issues of the Chatter.

Finally, a reminder that the annual member auction will be during our November meeting. Although lots are accepted up to the start of the auction, you have less than three weeks to send in the list of any items to be auctioned to guarantee that your lots will be included in the November Chatter, which I will try to send out earlier than usual. For details, see the announcement later in this issue.

Paul Hybert, editor

Minutes of the 1005th Meeting

President Carl Wolf called the 1005th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club to order on September 11, 2002 at 7:00PM. The meeting was held at 1 Bank One Plaza.

A motion was made seconded and approved to accept the August meeting minutes as they appear in the Chatter.

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

A motion was made seconded and approved to accept the treasurer's report. President Carl Wolf noted that it was the 1 year anniversary of the terrorist attack on the WTC and Pentagon. He asked the membership to stand for a moment of silence.

There were no guests present.

First Vice President Robert Feiler introduced Dr. James McCormick and his presentation of Microscopic Images of Coins and Paper Money Produced by J. B. Dancer. Dr. McCormick is a collector of vintage scientific equipment. He noted the common theme among all collectors in their desire to have precious things to show and a desire to discover and add information that others have overlooked. Dr McCormick shared an interesting perspective on the entertainment value of the slides, noting that the slides came to be valued for their esthetic appeal rather than their ability to impart scientific knowledge.

Robert Feiler thanked Dr. McCormick for his presentation and awarded the featured speakers medal & and the educational certificate to him.

Second Vice President Don Dool announced there were 11 show & tell presenters:

• Bob Weinstein - Counterfeit Roman Coins.
• Phil Carrigan - Vintage coin boards.
• Drew Micheyta - 1837 double denomination coin from the Russian occupation of Poland.
• Carl Wolf - Primitive money in the form of Shell rings.
• Mark Weiclaw - Two Roman coins from the reign of Caracalla, elongated coin badges from the New York ANA convention by the Elongated Cent Society.
• Steve Norton - three Conder Tokens from the late 1700's.
• Mike Metras - Paper money from the ILNA Auction
• Steve Huber - 1901 & 1902 British Trade Dollars and multiple taler denominated coins.
• Bob Feiler - numerous miniature cooking utensils made of 1 cent coins.
• Reid Geisler - A remarkable 1912-D V nickel from metal detecting, a French coin from 1711 and a polish coin dated 1529
• Sharon Blocker - a collection of star notes, and bimetallic coin, some purchased at ILNA
• Don Dool - A coin from 1831 Russian Warsaw and one from Breslaw coins of various German states.

Old Business:
The ANA 90 Year Membership Certificate, received at the New York convention of the ANA, was on display.

President Carl Wolf noted that members Sharon Blocker and Bruno Repka gave presentations at the ILNA convention on September 7th.

Lyle Daly advised the membership that letters were sent to members with membership dues in arrears. The names of those members who do not respond were Bierly, Doran, Grundy-Noble, Holmer, Kitchen, Raff, Schmidt, Simek, Walsh and Williams. Membership was asked if they were aware of any extenuating circumstances associated with these members. No unusual circumstance were noted, the recommendation is to drop their names from the membership roll in November if dues are not received.

Bob Feiler advised the membership of the cost for the Year End Banquet. A motion was made seconded and approved to hold the banquet at the Alpine Banquet House in Hillisde.

New Business:
President Carl Wolf advised the membership that the items in the club's safe deposit box that were designated as duplicates and non related material were available for viewing. The Board recommended that this material be auctioned off at the November meeting. The Board further recommended the Auction Committee, which has not been formed, be empowered to determine what material will be included in the November 2002 auction and what should be held in reserve for future auctions. A motion was made seconded and approved to auction off the material as recommended by the Board.

President Carl Wolf advised the membership that the club's archives include bank statements that date back to the mid 1980's and old copies of the Numismatist. The board recommended that bank statements 8 years or older could be destroyed and old copies of the Numismatist be distributed to any interested club member. A motion was made seconded and approved to destroy the records and give away copies of the Numismatist as recommended by the Board.

Carl Wolf advised membership that the Board recommended that a separate membership account be set up for life membership dues. Lyle Daly suggested the Dreyfus account be closed due to the difficulty in updating signatures and the low interest rate. The funds from that account could be used to establish the life membership account. A motion was made seconded and approved to create a life membership account and closing the Dreyfus account.

Carl Wolf advised the membership that in accordance with the by laws he has appointed a nominating committee chairman, Bill Burd to establish a committee to search for candidates for the 2003-2004 term. Steve Zitowsky and Mike Metras will also serve on the committee. In accordance with the by laws, Carl will also serve on the committee. The Board concurred with this.

Given the exodus of members all further business was tabled.

Member Mark Weiclaw alerted members of precious metal bars that simply give a weight. He encountered a silver bar that turned out to be silver plated.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:34 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by Lyle Daly

Speaker's Wor[l]d
Microscopic Photographs of J.B. Dancer

Presented by Dr. James B. McCormick to our September 11, 2002 meeting.

We are not alone! The impulse to collect and study small items is by no means limited to numismatists. The study of an apparently obscure item often produces questions, and the search for answers to those questions can lead to other questions, or sometimes to an entirely new collecting area. Our speaker, Dr. McCormick, used one of his collecting areas to show some aspects of nineteenth century life.

J.B. Dancer of Manchester, England came from a family tradition of Sunday afternoon lecturers as entertainers; they provided enlightenment as entertainment. As an instrument manufacturer (among other skills), he made thermometers, scientific glassware, kaleidoscopes, microscopes, and primitive projectors. Dr. McCormick showed us pictures of primitive projectors in his collection - these pre electric age items used a flame as the light source. The weak flame from a gas light system kept the lecture setting intimate and the audience small and involved, while the strong lime light allowed for a larger audience. A collection of projectors quickly lead to a collection of slides, and the oldest slides shown to us had biological subjects. A small frog on one, and the nymph, caterpillar, and butterfly stages of development on another. These were not images on the slides, but the real things mounted on the slides.

The search was for interesting and beautiful items, to be classified and studied later; the main interest was in beauty, not in value. The intended audience was Britain's upper class.

The reduction of a picture onto a small object was popularized once the dagurreotype process for image making was used widely in the 1840s. But that process used no negatives, so multiple "prints" were not possible (think of modern day instant cameras; if you want three photos of something, you must take three pictures with your camera). In addition to using the dagurreotype process, Dancer used the collodion process after its 1851 invention; the fine grained negatives allowed production of multiple prints. In modern terms, his materials had an ASA rating of about 1.

Viewed with a magnifying glass or under a microscope, Dancer produced over 300 hundred items during his career, typically keeping production under 100 of each. After his death, his daughter issued another series. Others copied either his slides or techniques.

Dr. McCormick found a catalog of Dancer's slides after he had started his collection of Dancer slides; another major resource on Dancer is the Ransom Library at the University of Texas. The existence of items in the catalog, but not his collection, helps drive his collecting impulse. There are three serious collectors of Dancer's material in the world today, and their concern about their material's authenticity should be familiar to all numismatists. Dancer's signature appears in many of his images, and some of his pieces have unique characteristics; for instance, his copy of Raphael's Madonna and Child is reversed, while his competitors produced a correct version. For the 1862 International Exhibition in Paris, Dancer produced a slide with 85 portraits of the Kings and Queens of England since the conquest. The numismatic items on slides included notes from France, England, and Prussia. The actual image on the slide measures about one-eighth of an inch on each side, so an image of an engraving was an excellent way to show off the quality of Dancer's process and materials.

Just as the Gallery Mint today makes reproductions of early U.S. coins while remaining as true as possible to the original technology and processes, some people in the late twentieth century made microscopic photographs using Dancer's techniques and processes. Dr. McCormick concluded by showing images, made by DiDonato, of U.S. paper money, including some Educational notes.

Show and Tell

Each image has a scale in the lower-left corner, 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 Weinstein showed counterfeit Roman coins struck over earlier Roman coins. They usually are found struck over large coins; the older coins had been larger but they were completely demonetized, while the more recent coins were smaller and were only devalued, so they still had some value.
   One counterfeit from Spain has a reverse showing an emperor holding a Victory, and one from Britain has the same reverse (!), even though that reverse never was used in Britain. The emperor is found holding a globe on coins from Britain.
   During a revolt by the eastern empire against Gratien, eastern mints did not make dies with Gratien - they used earlier emperors.
2. While visiting Columbus, Ohio during the Labor Day weekend, Phil Carrigan attended a coin show and bought some coin boards. The one Titled "Liberty Head Dime (Barber)" lists the 1894-S as having 204 issued; it also has a 1938 copyright by Joseph Oberwise. The reverse lists buying prices for filled-in boards. Phil also showed a Whitman 1938 "Morgan Quarter Dollar" board, and one for "Morgan Half Dollars."
3. Drew Michyeta's main collection is of silver crowns from around the world. He mentioned the three pieces which are hard to find nice as: Hong Kong of 1866-68, the Greek Colonial 5 drachm from Crete, and the one he showed - from 1837 Poland, a dual denominated 1 1/2 ruble 10 zloty coin. In beautiful condition, Drew's coin was struck with a new reverse die and an old reverse die.
4. Carl Wolf showed two similar pieces, but made thousands of miles and thousands of years apart - shells polished into ring shapes.
   • From the Solomon Islands, circa 1850. Commonly used as decoration, it also was used as a trade good although probably not as money.
   • From ancient Sumeria, circa 3500 - 3000 BC. These are found in hoards, but we do not know if they actually were used as money.
5. Mark Wieclaw started with some elongated coins issued at the recent ANA convention in New York, then finished with some ancients.
   • A TEC badge made on a New york quarter, showing the WTC twin towers and the ANA owl.
   • As above, but enameled and on a gold plated New York quarter.
   • An elongated cent featuring three firemen raising a U.S. flag.
   • A Roman provincial bronze of Caracalla from Thrace, featuring a radiate crown on a young (12 or 13 years of age) ruler. The obverse shows a serpent rearing.
   • A dupondius of Caracalla's cousin Elagabalus. A rare denomination for him.
6. Steve Norton showed three British provincial tokens (from Sussex, Portsmouth, and Edinburgh) commonly known as "Conder" tokens; they were produced to answer a coin shortage in the late 1700s.
7. Mike Metras showed paper money acquired at the auction held during the recent ILNA show.
   • An 1853 3 dollar note of the Cochituate Bank of Boston.
   • A cancelled 1862 10 cent note from the Watertown Bank and Loan Company. It is ragged, but it was bought for the train vignette.
   • An 1850 5 dollar Internal Improvement note issued by the state of Illinois.
   • An 1863 50 cent note of the Augusta Insurance and Banking Company. The back has parts of $10 and $20 notes of the same company.
8. Steve Huber started by showing 1901 and 1902 British Trade Dollars from the Bombay Mint. He concluded with multiple talers from Brunswick-Wolfenbuettel picturing Rudolph Augustus in equestrian designs. The 1 1/2 and 2 talers were beautiful and original, unlike many which had been re-engraved during the 17th and 18th centuries.
9. Bob Feiler brought in his lifetime accumulation of coins made into miniature kitchen utensils:
   • Teapot from an 1890 British penny.
   • 1943 steel cents hammered into little pots and baskets.
   • Lincoln cents made into little candle holders.
   • Two Lincoln cents made into a canteen.
   A ladle and frying pan.
10. Reid Geissler showed a variety of coins.
    • A 1912-D nickel found with a metal detector. Not much wear on the piece, but heavily mottled. One of our members asked if the mint mark was a D-over-S, but Reid could not tell.
    • A piece brought in for our members' help in identification, which was obtained. It is a 1711 quarter ecu of Louis XIV.
    • Another piece brought in for identification, but we could not add to the obvious 1529 Polish piece of Sigismund I.
11. Sharon Blocker brought items bought at the recent ILNA show.
    • A crown with a train, from the Isle of Mann.
    • A 1989 20 piatres from Egypt, picturing a train.
    • A 2002 bimetallic coin from Croatia.
    • A 1992 bimetallic (steel and aluminum) 10 dinars from Algeria.
    • An enameled Solomon Islands coin, featuring the windsurfing mascot of the 2000 Olympics.
    • U.S. star notes, and some production error notes (off-center and inking errors).
12. Don Dool showed more copper coins from his collection specialties, of conflicts and by date.
    • A 3 grozny of Poland, from the failed 1831 revolution against Russia. Don noted that usually the word revolution is applied if it succeeds, otherwise it is called a rebellion.
    • A uniface Breslau piece with dual dates and denominations; dated 1571 and 1572, and denominated as 4 pfennig and 1 heller.

Call for Club Auction Lots
November 13, 2002

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

You can place a reserve on each lot, and there is no commission charged to either the buyer or seller. Auction lot viewing will be held before the meeting starts, and again briefly before the auction starts.

The November Chatter will contain a list of all auction lots that are known to us by Friday, October 25. You can either bring your lots with you to the November meeting, or you can ship them to Bill Burd by Friday, October 25. If you will bring your lots to the meeting, please send your list to Paul Hybert by Friday, October 25.

Chicago Coin Club Annual Banquet

The annual Banquet will be held at the Alpine Banquet Haus located at 11141 West Roosevelt Road (at Wolf Road), Westchester, IL 60154. Phone 708-409-8640.

We will have the Alpine Banquet Haus from 6:00 PM until 10:30 or later at our discretion. The cost is $20.00 per person and members are encouraged to bring family, friends and neighbors. Checks should be made out to the Chicago Coin Club, and may be given to Lyle Daly or mailed to the club's mail box, P.O. Box 2301, Chicago, IL 60690.

The location is very easy to get to and there is ample FREE parking only a few feet from their front door. There will be an open cash bar with a knowledgeable bartender.

The dinner meal will be served family style and consists of:

• Rolls and butter
• Soup
• Salad
• Mixed Vegetables
• Mostaccioli
• Mashed Potatoes
• Wienerschnitzel
• Roast Pork
• Chicken Vesuvio
• Apple Strudel

The owner and chef is European trained and has worked for Hotel Nikko, Ritz Carlton, the Whitehall, Mayfair Regent International and Chez Paul. The banquets many of us have attended there in the past have always been very professionally done and the cuisine is excellent.

submitted by Bob Feiler

Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting

President Carl Wolf called the Chicago Coin Club Board Meeting to order on September 3, 2002. The meeting was held at Connie's Pizza. Those present were Carl Wolf, Don Dool, Jeff Rosinia, William Burd, Phil Carrigan and Lyle Daly.

The items in the club's safe deposit box that were designated as duplicates and non related material were reviewed by all present. The Board recommended that this material be auctioned off and displayed at the September meeting. The Board further recommended the Auction Committee, which has not been formed, be empowered to determine what material will be included in the November 2002 auction and what should be held in reserve for future auctions.

Phil Carrigan stated that the club's archives include bank statements that date back to the mid 1980's and old copies of the Numismatist. The board recommended that bank statements 8 years or older could be destroyed and old copies of the Numismatist be distributed to any interested club member.

Carl Wolf recommended that a separate membership account be set up for life membership dues. Lyle Daly suggested the Dreyfus account be closed due to the difficulty in updating signatures and the low interest rate. The funds from that account could be used to establish the life membership account. The board agreed and recommended a life membership account and closing the Dreyfus account.

Lyle Daly advised the Board that letters went out to all members with delinquent dues. The names of those members who do not respond will be reviewed with membership to determine if any extenuating circumstances are associated with these members. If no unusual circumstance is noted, the recommendation is to drop their names from the membership roll in November.

Don Dool advised the Board that liberal grading for show and tell has resulted in the majority of exhibitors receiving Honorable Mention (HM) for the Cabeen Award. He recommended the current rule that HM be given to all exhibitors within 20% of the first place score be revised to 10%. Don also recommended that the grading sheet be revised to include grading criteria. The Board agreed and will recommend these revisions to the membership.

Carl Wolf advised that he is working on a 3 tier email distribution list that members could sign up for. Roughly stated, one tier would receive all email, another would be for club issues only and a third would be for essential communications. The Board recommended this should be proposed to membership.

Carl Wolf advised the Board that in accordance with the by laws he has appointed a nominating committee chairman, Bill Burd to establish a committee to search for candidates for the 2003-2004 term. In accordance with the by laws, Carl will serve on the committee along with 2 additional members. Carl also noted that Paul Hybert wishes to continue as manager of the club's web site but would like to step back from the position of Editor of the Chatter.

Carl Wolf proposed the club host a benefit for the ANA Money Museum. This could be done at a future show. Carl proposed a reception with wine and appetizers for $100 per person. The Board recommended this be discussed with membership.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by Lyle Daly

Our 1006th Meeting

Important Dates

Birthday and Year Joined

Chatter Matter

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

Visit Our Web Site

http://www.ChicagoCoinClub.org/

Contacting Your Editor

Club Officers