| Volume 72 No. 4 | April, 2026 |
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CCC Dues for 2026 are due by the end of March. Please pay now if you are not current. If you are not certain of your dues status, ask at either of our meetings in April, ask at the CCC table on the CSNS bourse floor, or email the treasurer.
Paul Hybert, editor
The 1286th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was called to order by President Melissa Gumm at 6:45pm CDT Wednesday March 11, 2026. This was an in-person and online meeting with 18 members and three guests, one applying for membership, present at the CBA and 22 members online for a total of 43.
Club Meeting Minutes
The February club meeting minutes were approved as published in the Chatter, both in print and on the CCC website.
New Memberships
Secretary Scott McGowan did the first reading of the membership application for Jeanette Bordelon of Chicago whose numismatic interest is coin investing and is a member of Central States Numismatic Society.
Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer Elliott Krieter presented the treasurer’s report for January 2026 reporting revenue of $80.00 (dues) and expenses of $114.00 (Corp Filing, Auction Reimburse) for period total -$34.00.
Old Business
New Business
Featured Program
Jeffrey A. Amelse on A Selection of Coins of Poland and Its Occupiers from Medieval Times Through the Renaissance. After the presentation Deven Kane presented Jeff with a CCC speaker’s medal and ANA education certificate.
Show and Tell
Second Vice President Ray Dagenais announced the nine Show and Tell presentations for the evening. Ray reminded the club that in tallying the show and tell points at year-end, presenters receive extra points per presentation after giving five presentations.
Upcoming Events
In addition to the upcoming events in the agenda, one more was mentioned by club members: Early American Coppers (EAC) Convention, April 29-May 03, 2026, Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel, Charlotte, North Carolina.
President Melissa Gumm reviewed upcoming numismatic events, then adjourned the meeting at 9:07PM CDT.
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Respectfully submitted,
Scott McGowan, Secretary
presented by
Jeffrey A. Amelse
to our March 11, 2026 meeting
In September of 2025, Jeffrey went on a numismatic tour of Poland, organized by Les Rosik of the Polish American Numismatic Society (PANS). The tour started in Warsaw and went south, ending in Prague, Czech Republic. This presentation provided a sampling of Polish history from early statehood in 966 through the end of the 17th century, illustrated with photos taken during the tour, coins from his collection, and images from the internet.
The presentation started with an acknowledgement of references: the websites of the Numista Catalog (https://en.numista.com/catalogue/index.php) and Coinstrail (https://coinstrail.com/catalog/poland), as well as Wikipedia for details on history and leaders. On Numista, Jeff has posted the image of a coin and asked for an identification, and have it identified by someone overnight. As for books, Dzmitry Huleski’s Lithuanian Coins 495-1536 and Lithuanian Grand Ducal Coins Before 1401 were mentioned, along with Edmund Kopicki’s Monety Zygmunta III Wazy. This last is in Polish, and covers coins of Sigismund III Wasa (1587-1632) in great detail – information is out there, but it might not be available on demand.
The traditional date for the founding of the Polish state is April 14, 966. This marks the Baptism of Poland, when Duke Mieszko I (ca. 960-992), the first documented ruler of the Piast dynasty, converted to Christianity. This event integrated the Western Slavic tribes into Western European civilization. Blind during the first seven years of his life, he gained his sight during his first haircut, which was a pagan right of passage ritual. His coinage is rare – Jeff showed a line drawing of a coin, a modern replica from the Numista database, and as depicted on a set of matchbook covers in his collection. His collection also has a 1994 10 zlotych gold foil fantasy note with the same coin type depicted on the back.
Poland officially became a kingdom on April 18, 1025, when Mieszko’s son, Bolesław I (the Brave), was crowned the first King of Poland. He was also Duke of Bohemia between 1003 and 1004 as Boleslaus IV. He introduced the first Polish monetary unit, the grzywna, divided into 240 denarii, and minted his own coinage. One of the earliest Polish coins features the supposed effigy of Bolesław with the inscription Bolizavs - gnezdvn civitas, circa 992-1000 – it is not in Jeff’s collection, but he showed a photo of that coin type seen at a museum on their tour. Jeff also showed a denarius (circa 1000-1003) with the inscription Princes Polonie; a small bird is on one side while a cross is on the other side. These thin, hammered coins seem similar to contemporary medieval European coins. Coins of this era are not very common. A worn/crude coin of Vladislaus I,Duke of Bohemia (1109-1117 and 1120-1125), was shown because of his military campaigns in Poland.
No more coins of the Piast kings were shown. Jeff jumped forward to Louis I (The Great) of Hungary (1342-1382), who was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370 until his death in 1382. A 1338 treaty between his father and Casimir III of Poland (1333-1370), Louis’ maternal uncle and the last Piast king, confirmed Louis’ right to inherit the Kingdom of Poland if his uncle died without a son. Since Louis had no sons, he wanted his subjects to acknowledge the right of his daughters, Mary and Jadwiga, to succeed him in both Hungary and Poland.
Having no male siblings, Mary was crowned “king” of Hungary on 17 September 1382, seven days after Louis the Great’s death. Her mother, who had assumed the regency, absolved the Polish noblemen from their oath of loyalty to Mary in favor of Mary’s younger sister, Jadwiga, in early 1383. The Jagiellonian Dynasty (1386-1572), the Polish “Golden Age,” was formed by the union of Poland and Lithuania with the marriage of Władysław II Jagiełło (1386-1434), Grand Duke of Lithuania, who married Queen Jadwiga (ruled 1384-1399).
Sigismund I the Old was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until his death in 1548. He was the son of Casimir IV and younger brother of Kings John I Albert and Alexander I Jagiellon. Jeff showed a range of coin types from this ruler: in copper and silver, young and old busts, and some with a knight on horseback on one side (a Lithuanian symbol) and a Polish Eagle on the other.
A great patron of the Renaissance, he was nicknamed “the Old“ to distinguish him from his son and successor, Sigismund II Augustus (1548-1572), as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. After establishing the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, he was its first ruler – also the last male monarch from the Jagiellonian dynasty. Jeff showed a coin continuing the rider and eagle style, and a coin featuring a rider and crown.
After 1572, Polish kings were elected by the nobility – this Elective Monarchy continued until 1795. Stephen Báthory (1576-1586), a renowned military commander, was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania as well as Prince of Transylvania (1576-1586). The son of Stephen VIII Báthory and a member of the Hungarian Báthory noble family, Báthory was Voivode of Transylvania (1571-1576). In 1576, Báthory became the husband of Queen Anna Jagiellon and the third elected king of Poland. A 1581 coin has a crowned bust on one side and a castle on the other.
Sigismund III Vasa was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 to 1632 and, as Sigismund, King of Sweden from 1592 to 1599. He was the first Polish sovereign from the House of Vasa. Sigismund was the son of King John III of Sweden and his first wife, Catherine Jagiellon, daughter of King Sigismund I of Poland. Religiously zealous, he imposed Catholicism across the vast realm, and his crusades against neighbouring states marked Poland’s largest territorial expansion. As an enlightened despot, he presided over an era of prosperity and achievement, further distinguished by the transfer of the country’s capital from Krakow to Warsaw. He is commemorated in Warsaw by Sigismund’s Column, one of the city’s chief landmarks. Jeff showed a range of Sigismund’s coins, including a 1627 coin with the Moldova mintmark of a facing bull’s head – then he showed an earlier groat of Stephen III of Moldavia (1457-1504) that features a facing bull’s head as the central motif on one side.
John II Casimir Vasa was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1648 to his abdication in 1668, as well as a claimant to the throne of Sweden from 1648 to 1660. He was the first son of Sigismund III Vasa with his second wife, Constance of Austria, and succeeded his older half-brother, Władysław IV Vasa. He abdicated after a Swedish invasion. The shown coins of this ruler included a coin from Vilnius.
Jeff showed a few coins of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor 1655-1705. He played a pivotal role in Central European history, and his influence extended significantly into Poland through both military alliances and the patronage of higher education. His relationship with the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (then often referred to as the Kraków Academy) was a blend of political strategy and the Catholic Counter-Reformation spirit.
Jeff showed a table listing the connections between kings Bela I through Bela IV of Hungary (noncontinuous, 1060-1270) and Poland, along with a coin, to introduce a story of Princess Kinga, a daughter of King Bela IV who became a famous Polish saint. She is credited with the discovery of the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Today, the mine features the breathtaking Saint Kinga’s Chapel, located 101 meters underground; everything in the chapel – from the altar and wall reliefs (including a replica of Da Vinci’s Last Supper) to the grand chandeliers – is carved entirely from salt. Jeff showed photos he took inside this famous site.
Slides about a children’s book on Polish Numismatics were part of the program’s conclusion. Coins of the Kings was written by Roussana Alex-Nowakowska and published by the Polish Numismatic Society. She has a background in the arts.
Jeff looks forward to a similar trip in late 2026, this time travelling north after leaving Poland.
| Chicago Coin Company |
| Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. |
| Kedzie Koins Inc. |
| Classical Numismatic Group |
Items shown at our March 11, 2026 meeting,
reported by Ray Dagenais.
Reminders:
presented by
Richard Hathaway
to our February 11, 2026 meeting
Richard Hathaway started the presentation by thanking his wife, whose expertise is in French History, for help in his collecting journey. He then cited four recent books that he references for this era, and noted that the ranges of years covered by those books either start or end with the year 1610. The years from 1540 to 1640 were an era of modernization in French coinage. This era encompassed the introduction of letters to indicate the producing mint, the coinage reform of Henri II, the French wars of religion, and the complete transition from hammered coins. There are dozens of date/mintmark combinations to chase, as well as a huge number of die varieties. The coins of this era are relatively overlooked and less popular than the coins of the later Bourbon kings.
After a quick overview of coins from the Roman era to modern Euro pieces, Richard listed the eight rulers he would mention in his presentation, from Francis I (1515-1547) to Louis XIII (1610-1643). Then came an introduction to a basic unit of accounting that has many meanings, the denier.
Denier can refer to individual coins, as when “9 deniers” means 9 coins. It can also be a denomination, as in “Denier Tournois” (there are 12 denier tournois in 1 sol). It has been used as a weight (1⁄192 of a marc, or 1.275g) and to express the fineness of silver (“11 deniers” means there are 11 deniers-weight of pure silver in an alloyed piece weighing a total of 12 deniers-weight, but now we would just say .917 fine silver instead of 11⁄12).
The denier was not the only denomination used at that time. A larger denomination was the livre but this was only a unit of accounting, not an actual coin; there were 20 sols (sou) in one livre (so 1 livre was equal to 240 deniers). Actually, there were two different livres in use: the Livre Tournois which was valued at less than the Livre Parisis. Of course each of these livres had its own sol, the Sol Tournois and the higher valued Sol Parisis. In France, each of the commonly-used denominations (Ecus, Francs, Testons, etc.) was set to a value expressed in Livres Tournois, but each value changed over time. Consider the Ecu.
In 1577, the Ecu was a gold coin valued at 3 Livre Tournois (60 sols), while in 1726 the Ecu was a silver coin valued at 6 Livre Tournois (120 sols). Although many coins have been called an “Ecu” over time, Richard does not know of any which carried that actual word. Richard showed slides giving the names of the copper/billon coins valued at multiples of the denier, the silver coins of various fineness valued at multiples of the sol, and the gold coins valued at even larger multiples of the sol. Remember, very few coins bear the name of the denomination.
Paris had three mints during this time: Monnaie de Paris, Monnaie de Nesle, and Monnaie des Etuves (which moved to the Louvre in 1609). In addition, there were a number of minor mints that operated for some time, and there were many short-lived mints during the religious war. Die creation varied with time period and mint. Sometimes master dies are prepared in Paris and shipped to mints for finishing with legends, marks, and/or official marks. At other times each mint hand-engraved its master dies or working dies. Dies often were re-engraved and re-worked, and double punches and doubled dies are common.
The Cour de Monnaies (Chambre des Monnaies prior to 1552) issued edicts on coinage, judged weight and fineness of coins, and prosecuted those making underweight/debased coinage. Throughout this period, mints were leased to individual mint masters through auction. Mintage figures are sparse and of varying quality; sometimes the records show number of coins struck, and sometimes they show the weight of the coins struck. A complex and unreliable method of quality control was used, based upon a sample of coins set aside in a special box to be sent to the Cour des Monnaies for inspection. The general rule was to place into the box one of every 200 struck gold coins, one coin per 18 marcs (244.75 grams) of silver, and one of every 720 copper/billon coins. Some mints/denominations used other rules, there were reports of boxes arriving damaged or broken open, and underreporting the mintage was one method to defraud the crown.
The first coin that Richard showed was a 1555-D (Lyon) Douzain (12 deniers or 1 sol) of Henri II; one side features a stylized cross tipped by fleur-de-lis while the other side features a crowned shield, surrounded on both sides by legends. (The coin images on his slides were obtained from online sources; he passed around a tray of his coins.) He used this slide to identify the official marks used on coins; the Mintmark (D) is on only one side, below the shield tip, while more marks appear on both sides: the Mint Master’s Mark (A), the Engraver’s Mark (Crescent), another mark (Clover), and the Secret Point. The Secret Point was the prior version of a mintmark, and it still appears even after the new convention of denoting the mint by a letter or two. The Secret Point is merely a dot located under one letter of the legend – each mint was identified by placing the dot under a specific numbered letter of the legend, with the dots on this coin appearing under the 12th letter (starting from 1 at the top, and counting clockwise).
The use of the royal effigy became widespread first on silver testons (equal to 10 sols) of Francis I and then gold and silver coins of Henri II. Richard showed a teston of Francis I (1515-1547); a product of the Paris mint, as indicated by an A mintmark on each side, one side features a bust of the king and still uses a Secret Point under the 18th letter of the legend. Each mint created its own portrait of the King, but Henri II (1547-1559) sought to centralize this. In 1549, Henri closed all the mints and then gradually reopened them. The success was short lived, with multiple effigies being used again by the late 1550s. His reign saw the introduction of the date, engraver’s mark, and the regnal number of the king (in addition to the king’s name) on the coins. One of his two new mints, La Monnaie du Moulin on the Seine on Île de la Cité, had a screw press powered by a mill.
Billon coinage formed the workhorse coins of the era, sometimes produced in huge quantities by many mints, with 1550-1551 seeing a huge outpouring. Quality of strike was not important, resulting in double-struck and off-center coins. Mintages for a given date-mintmark of over 1 million are common. At least 30 different mints struck the douzain; the 1551-A (Paris) douzain has a mintage of 7.44 million coins! Many different types/varieties exist to collect; many surviving examples are off-center, weakly struck, heavily worn, and/or damaged and corroded.
The reign of Henri II saw large numbers of the billon denominations: the Douzain of 12 deniers, the Sol Parisis of 15 deniers, and the Double Sol Parisis of 30 deniers. This was not the case during the reigns of his successors, Charles IX, Henri III, Charles X, and Henri IV, when there were alternating periods when the main billon coin in production was either the Douzain or the Sol Parisis and its Double, with small quantities of the other billon coins struck.
Some Testons of Henri II were shown; the king’s busts from the different mints exhibited varying degrees of artistry, with the coin from the screw press at La Monnaie du Moulin in Paris being well executed, while the hammered coins from Lyon and Toulouse show how the crown struggled to control the bust used on the coinage at the various mints. Coinage continued to be issued in the name of Henri II during the reign of Francis II (1559-1560) and the beginning of Charles IX’s reign. It is impossible to distinguish between coins of Henri II, Francis II, and Charles IX (1560-1574) for overlapping years until Charles IX in 1561 when a point was added under the mintmark to distinguish them. A further complication was that different mints used differing calendars; it was in 1565 when the start of the new year was standardized on January 1 instead of Easter. Charles IX’s name and effigy appeared in 1562; some mints used Roman numerals for dates, others used Arabic numerals. Testons and Demi-Testons continued as the large silver coins.
The reign of Henri III (1574-1589) saw a coinage reform, possibly to to expel foreign currency and slow inflation: the Franc replaced the Teston in 1575-1577, with a .833 fine silver Franc valued at 20 sols or 1 Livre, a ½ franc at 10 sols, and a ¼ franc at 5 sols. These were easy to trade and compete with coinage of the Low Countries, but the Franc was abolished in 1586 due to the size (35mm) and weight (14.2g) making it a target for edge shaving; the fractional Franc coins were continued. An accounting change from Livres to Ecus was introduced in 1578, with a silver ¼ Ecu (15 sols) and ⅛ Ecu (7.5 sols) to go along with the gold Ecu (60 sols) and demi-ecu (30 sols). These were made of .917 fine silver to make it easy to trade and compete with Spanish coinage. A shown Franc featured the king’s bust on one side, as on the Testons, while the shown silver fractional Ecus used a decorated cross on one side and a shield on the other. The billon coinage (Douzain, Sol Parisis, Double Sol Parisis) continued to be minted, but with reduced silver content. All was not well, as a religious civil war loomed.
When Henri III’s last brother died in 1584, Henri of Navarre (a Protestant) became the heir. The Catholic League, led by Henri of Guise and heavily supported by Spain, supported Cardinal Charles of Bourbon as King Charles X. The 1588 assassination of Henri of Guise led to the 1589 assassination of Henri III, which led to all out civil war. This period saw many mints pop-up, issue coins, and disappear. It was not uncommon to have the opposing sides operate mints within a few miles of each other. Although Charles X died in prison in 1590, coins were issued posthumously until 1598 in the name of Charles X as League factions attempted to secure power.
Henri IV (1589-1610), the first of the Bourbon Kings, converted to Catholicism in 1593 to cement his position as King. He reconquered France from the Catholic League by 1598, which stabilized the economy, agriculture, and industry after decades of civil war and inflation. Although the Livre was re-established as the primary accounting unit in 1602, silver ½ Francs and ¼ Francs, along with ¼ Ecu and ⅛ Ecu coins, continued to be minted.
Louis XIII (1610-1643) continued the mintage of silver ¼ and ⅛ Ecus and ½ and ¼ Francs. Silver coinage became much more scarce during the 1630s, with many mints ceasing silver production. The Protestant coinage from various cities in the 1620s are technically siege coinage, not royal coinage, yet they bear the name of Louis XIII. Hoarding of billon coins became a big issue in the late 1630s, with the old double sol parisis, sol parisis, and douzains counterstamped in 1640 to raise their values by 25%. Richard showed a 1572 Charles IX Double Sol Parisis, from the Riom Mint, with a countermark; he highlighted the diagnostic die break that is on authentic countermarked coins.
Hammered French coins were of low quality, and the clipping and shaving of coins was very common. To address these points, the Coinage Reform of 1640 introduced milled coins, abolished Francs in 1640, established Louis d’Or and Louis d’Argent from 1640 to 1642, and slowly abolished the old Ecus throughout the late 1640s and early 1650s. Different mints adopted changes at different paces. With this, the transition of French coinage from holdover practices of medieval times to early modern standardization was completed.
Bibliography
| Date: | April 8, 2026, 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. |
| 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! Although we try to offer a better experience, please be prepared for possible diifficulties. |
| Featured Program: | Mark Wieclaw —
What an Odd Lot; A Look at the Odd Denominations of US Coinage
The odd US denominations include the ½¢, 2¢, 3¢, 20¢, $2½, $3, and $4. Mark will discuss some of the reasons for these denominations, and review some details about the coins themselves. |
| Date: | April 25, 2025, 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. |
| Online: | This meeting will be available live, online as part of the programming offered by the Newman Numismatic Portal as part of the NNP Forum originating from the CSNS Convention. A day or two before our meeting at the CSNS Convention, the CCC Secretary will email to all members the URL to view our meeting. There might not be the ability for remote attendees to ask questions of the speaker or contribute to our meeting. For the details on all the NNP Forum offerings originating from the CSNS Convention, visit the NNP Forum website. |
| Featured Program: | Thomas Uram —
Morse Code on Money
We will look at communication, the history of communication, and the relevance of Morse code in our daily lives. |
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 | 8 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - Mark Wieclaw on - What an Odd Lot; A Look at the Odd Denominations of US Coinage |
| April | 23-25 | 87th 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 3-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 | 25 | CCC Meeting - 12pm at the CSNS Convention,
which is held at the Schaumburg Convention Center.
No admission charge for our meeting.
Featured Speaker - Tom Uram on Morse Code on Money |
| May | 13 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be determined |
| June | 10 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be determined |
| July | 8 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be determined |
| August | 12 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be determined |
| August | 25-29 | ANA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Admission is free for ANA members — for details, see http://www.worldsfairofmoney.com. |
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CHICAGO COIN CLUB
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