| Volume 72 No. 1 | January, 2026 |
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A new writer has joined the Chatter’s staff: the ChatGPT AI program. Because I was not at the December banquet, and therefore could not write an article on Mark Wieclaw’s presentation, Deven Kane fed Mark’s slides into ChatGPT before the meeting. This started as a lark, but we were surprised at the readability and flow of the resulting article. Of course, editing by knowledgeable humans was certainly needed, as well as additional details mentioned during the presentation. The rough framework was useful, and its few illogical inferences made us smile and kept us alert.
Paul Hybert, editor
The 1283rd meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was called to order by President Melissa Gumm at 7:00pm CST Wednesday December 10, 2025. This was an in-person only meeting with 38 members and seven guests present. This December meeting was the annual CCC holiday banquet.
Prior to the meeting call to order attendees enjoyed the cash bar and appetizers of bruschetta, mini meatballs, and mini taco dumplings provided by Chicago Coin Company.
Invocation was given by CCC member Richard Hamilton.
Club president Melissa Gumm called for the approval of an abbreviated agenda due to the banquet event, which was approved by the members present.
Melissa called for a moment of silence for the passing of CCC member number 1087 Steve Feller, a 26-year member of the club.
A family-style dinner of Soup, Salad, Chicken, Beef and Fish entrees, vegetables, pastas and fresh baked cookies was then enjoyed by attendees.
Club Meeting Minutes and Treasurer’s Report
The November club meeting minutes were approved as published in the Chatter, both in print and on the CCC website. The November treasurer’s report was tabled until the January meeting.
New Memberships
Secretary Scott McGowan completed second membership application reading for two new members. Michael Dennison of Chicago who collects coins of Ancient Greece and is referred by the club secretary. Tim Capua of Woodridge, Illinois is starting in coin collecting, having taking over a portion of his grandfather’s collection. Tim is a member of ILNA and is referred by the club secretary. Both were approved by vote of the members present.
Featured Program
Mark Wieclaw on Time Travel Through Numismatics. Mark presented a lightning speed travel through centuries of numismatics beginning with the first coinage, circa 650 BC, and then working up to the 21st century. His program looked at not only coins, but tokens, currency, and medals from around the world. It included items of historical importance as well as items that Mark just finds interesting.
Cabeen Award
Presented for excellence in monthly show and tell presentations.
Chicago Coin Club Medal of Merit
Presented for outstanding service and contributions to the Chicago Coin Club. The 2025 Medal of Merit was awarded to Elliott Kreiter, the current treasurer, past club president, past ANA World’s Fair of Money host club chairman, and member of various CCC committees.
Show and Tell
No show and tell in December.
President Melissa Gumm thanked various individuals for helping make this year’s banquet a success: Chicago Coin Company for donating the appetizers, Katie DeCosta for creating and printing of the banquet program and menu, and Sharon and Kevin Blocker for their financial donation.
Melissa reviewed upcoming numismatic events, then adjourned the meeting at 8:50PM CST.
Respectfully Submitted,
Scott McGowan, Secretary
Dr. Steven Feller (1951-2025) of Cedar Rapids, Iowa passed away on Wednesday, November 19th, at 74 years of age. Steve became Chicago Coin Club member #1087 when he joined in January 2000. He was a 26-year active member of the club. Before joining the club, Steve was the Featured Speaker at the May, 1998 club meeting.
Steve was born in Brooklyn, New York. His childhood was focused on school, stickball, pizza, and adventures with the friends in his neighborhood. He spent his summers with his grandmother, Nana Pearl, in Utica, New York, where he met his future wife, Barbara. They began their relationship as teenaged penpals, ultimately marrying on August 8, 1971, and spending the next 54 years together. Steve was a physics professor at Coe College for 46 years. Steve traveled across the world to collaborate with other scientists, as well as teaching with daughter Heidi, a professor of mathematics.
Steve was also a renowned numismatist. Steve’s earliest numismatic works (co-written with his wife Barbara) are a pair of articles in The Numismatist (April, 1981 and April, 1982) related to WWII concentration camp money. The topic was personal to Steve, whose grandmother (“Nana Pearl”) escaped Poland before the war but lost most of her family.
Steve traveled extensively, often with daughter Ray, to study and teach about the history of money. He specialized in the money used in civilian internment camps in World War II. He was prolific as an author, presenter, and organizer, with particular pride in his collaborations with Ray. Over time Steve built perhaps the most significant collection of WWII camp money outside of the Charlton Meyer collection in the Houston Holocaust Museum. Steve authored the exhibit catalog for the Meyer collection, Questionable Issue: Currency of the Holocaust (2003) and spoke at its opening.
Steve gave nine featured speaker presentations to the Chicago Coin Club, several monthly show and tells, and most recently in March, 2025 presented on Money Used in Japanese-American Internment Camps.
A lifelong friend recalled the two boys searching for cents and nickels in bank rolls to fill out their Lincoln and Jefferson sets.
Club member Steve Zitowsky recalled a Steve Feller moment at a numismatic show… “Years ago, at a Krause show by O’Hare, probably CPMX, several of us were ‘lounging’ around the club table, and one of our folks asked what was the difference between UV A and UV B vis-a-vis paper money? One of the dealers was selling UV lights. There was a lot of shoulder shrugging among us. Just then, Steve Feller walked up, and I asked ‘Steve, what’s the difference between UV A and UV B for paper money?’ Without missing a beat, he gave us a three-minute, concise explanation of the difference between the two.”
One of Steve’s biggest numismatic contributions was the research and publication of Silent Witnesses:Civilian Camp Money of World War II, a 160 page book.
Steve was a member of numerous numismatic organizations, including AINA, ANA, IBNS (he was editor of the IBNS Journal from 1990 to 2007), LSCC, NLG, SPMC, Carson City Collectors Club of America, Cedar Rapids Coin Club, Chicago Coin Club, and a frequent contributor to The E-Sylum of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society.
presented by
Mark Wieclaw
to our December 10, 2025 meeting
[This article was created using the ChatGPT AI program. Before the meeting, Mark’s slides were fed into the AI by Deven Kane. Deven then edited the article to match some of the points made in Mark’s talk and for further accuracy.]
At our December meeting, long-time club member and past-president Mark Wieclaw took the audience on what he called a “time-travel journey” through 2,600 years of coinage. Using an array of images drawn from ancient, medieval, and modern history, Mark demonstrated how coins not only function as instruments of commerce, but also as markers of political power, cultural influence, and economic stability. Woven throughout the presentation was an insight he has emphasized for years: “Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” As Mark explained, the collapse of both the Greek and Roman worlds can be traced in part through the steady debasement of their coinage. He challenged the audience to consider what parallels might exist today, as the United States has moved from circulating gold and silver to brass, cupronickel, and zinc in just over a century.
Mark began with the first coinage of Lydia, struck around 650 BC in electrum. From there he moved into Hellenistic Egypt and the rich early issues of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, noting that the dynasty had once produced large gold, silver, and bronze coins of impressive quality. By the time of Cleopatra VII, that tradition had deteriorated. Mark illustrated the point with a debased tetradrachm of Cleopatra whose silver was so adulterated that it turned green. Even Cleopatra’s bronze coinage, he remarked, is notably crude. These pieces, along with a bronze obol of the queen and a traditional Ptolemaic tetradrachm bearing the portrait of Ptolemy I, marked both the longevity of the dynasty and the end of Greek supremacy.
Transitioning to Rome, Mark illustrated a serrated denarius of L. Cornelius Scipio from 106 BC. The serrations, he explained, were designed to deter clipping. He reminded the audience that American coins have reeded rims for the same reason, a continuity of minting practice stretching back two millennia. From there he moved to one of history’s most famous numismatic episodes: the Ides of March. His slide marked “There is a connection (1)” linked the assassination of Julius Caesar not only to the coins commemorating it, but also to the rock band “The Ides of March” from Berwyn, Illinois. Its founder, Jim Peterik – recognizable for his purple hair – went on to write the theme for Rocky and the hit song Eye of the Tiger. Mark’s blend of ancient history and Chicago-area musical trivia drew appreciative laughter from the room.
The talk then moved into the Roman Provincial sphere, where Mark showed a tetradrachm of Marc Antony and Cleopatra, struck at Seleucia and Pieria. Although issued under Roman authority, these large silver pieces reflect the hybrid artistic style of the eastern provinces.
A series of slides titled “Coins of the Bible” brought the audience into the New Testament period. Mark discussed the classic Tiberius denarius commonly associated with the “Render unto Caesar” passage in Mark 12. He then showed the Widow’s Mite, the humble Hasmonean lepton, before turning to the coin believed to represent the type of “thirty pieces of silver” paid to Judas – the shekel of Tyre, long used to pay the annual Temple tax in Jerusalem. Together, the three coins created a miniature monetary portrait of everyday life in Judea.
From there Mark entered the early Roman Empire and described a system that once featured almost-pure gold aureii, high-silver denarii, and large bronze sestertii. Gradually this stability eroded. He explained the introduction of Caracalla’s Antoninianus, tariffed at two denarii but struck with only about one-and-a-half times the silver. After Caracalla, even that diminished standard collapsed. The coinage of the third century became progressively debased – a vivid example, he noted, of his central lesson: monetary decline reflects governmental decline. “Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it,” he reminded the audience, drawing a parallel to the US experience from 90% silver and gold to today’s base-metal coinage.
Next came the Byzantine world and a milestone in religious iconography: the first portrait of Christ on a coin, issued under Justinian II (AD 685-695). Mark then contrasted these with the distinctive cup-shaped, or scyphate, coins of later Byzantium, explaining that the shape helped protect thin planchets from bending. He added with a smile that the United States has also minted cup-shaped coins in recent years, a modern echo of medieval practice.
A highlight of the middle portion of the talk was Sir Isaac Newton, whom Mark described not only as the scientist of gravity, motion, and calculus, but also as Warden (1696) and Master of the Royal Mint (1699-1727). Newton fought counterfeiting, perfected the reeded edge, and pushed Britain toward a gold-based standard. Mark jokingly noted that Newton was involved in “two of three things” shown on his slide – and certainly not the Fig Newton.
From England the presentation shifted to surprising corners of European monetary history, beginning with the Irish Gun Money of James II (1689-1690). Mark explained that the tokens were struck in brass during James’ exile and were intended to be redeemed with interest should he regain the throne – older pieces accruing more value. He observed that James never returned to power, but his son-in-law and nephew, William III, who replaced him, appreciated the underlying idea of a circulating IOU. On the slide depicting Peter the Great, Mark described the czar’s campaign to force the shaving of his nobles, enforced by a tax that required men to carry a facial-hair receipt token. He distinguished the rare originals from the more common novodels, explaining that the difference can often be spotted by examining the nose. Some originals were even gold-plated by men who had paid the tax, giving them a small status symbol in Peter’s rapidly modernizing Russia.
Mark then introduced Connection (2) – a tale combining artistry, aristocracy, and modern royalty. He explained how Lavinia Spencer commissioned Benedetto Pistrucci to carve a cameo using his now-iconic St. George and the Dragon design. Spencer encouraged him to submit the motif for use on Britain’s sovereign, where it has appeared for more than two centuries. Mark noted the genealogical irony: Spencer was the great-great-great-grandmother of Princess Diana, whose former husband (now King Charles III) appears today on the sovereign – and whose son, Prince William, will likely someday appear opposite the same Pistrucci design.
The talk continued with the 1838 Sovereign and the remarkable bequest of James Smithson, whose estate consisted of 105 bags containing 104,960 freshly minted 1838 sovereigns. The coins were melted and recoined into $10 Liberty Head Eagles, forming the financial foundation of what would become the Smithsonian Institution. Mark pointed out that these were the first British coins to bear the new portrait of Queen Victoria, and the first year of the Liberty Head design in the US. Both the weight and diameter of the eagle were reduced as part of this redesign.
Mark next explored the Canadian blacksmith tokens of the 1820s and 1830s – unofficial issues modeled on English or Irish coppers that circulated widely across Upper and Lower Canada and into northern New York and New England.
The presentation then moved into the Civil War era, which produced a wide range of emergency money. Mark discussed the disappearance of “good” money from circulation during wartime and the rise of stamp money, which became so popular that it was banned in New York. He then showed merchant tokens and the familiar series of Fractional Currency. From there he connected this to the extraordinary variety of German Notgeld issued after World War I, including pieces made from aluminum foil, linen, leather, porcelain, coal, and even postage stamps – creative responses to a collapsing monetary system.
Mark then highlighted the “overkill” of Seated Liberty coinage across so many denominations before turning to Theodore Roosevelt’s campaign to beautify American coins. By employing leading sculptors, Roosevelt ushered in the “Renaissance of U.S. Coinage (1907-1916),” giving us enduring designs such as the Buffalo Nickel and Saint-Gaudens double eagle. Mark also remarked that the United States once enjoyed beautiful paper currency, pointing to the artistry of the 1896 Educational Series.
He then described how the Great Depression affected US coinage, noting that the Peace dollar was not struck between 1929 and 1934 due to the economic contraction. World War II brought further change, including shifts in metal usage and alloy experimentation. Mark illustrated these with examples of Allied Military Currency (1942-1948) and Military Payment Certificates (1946-1973) used by American forces overseas.
Next came Connection (3) – an unexpected chain reaching from classical mythology to American television. Mark explained that the Pegasus sculpture at Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina was the work of Laura Gardin Fraser, renowned medalist and coin designer. The sculpture – the largest piece at the gardens – was carved from granite quarried in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, the hometown of Andy Griffith and the inspiration for the fictional town of Mayberry. Fraser also designed the Oregon Trail Commemorative Half Dollar, completing this eclectic and entertaining connection.
As Mark approached the end of his presentation, he returned to American coinage, showing examples of early federal issues, modern designs, and the Chicago Coin Club’s own 100th Anniversary Medal. He closed with a final note of genealogical “IRONY,” reminding the audience of the broad cultural webs that coins reveal – from Cleopatra to Princess Diana, from ancient debasement to modern alloys, and from St. George to Andy Griffith.
Mark concluded his illustrated journey with a simple holiday message and an invitation: “Please consider sharing your numismatic knowledge.” His presentation, rich in history, humor, and connections across centuries, was a reminder that coins carry stories far beyond their face value – and that those stories, when studied carefully, help us understand both the past and ourselves.
| Chicago Coin Company |
| Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. |
| Kedzie Koins Inc. |
| Classical Numismatic Group |
| Date: | January 14, 2026 |
| Time: | 6:45PM CST (UTC-06:00) |
| 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: | Steve Starlust —
Referencing Columbiana
In 1893 Chicago, America rediscovered Christopher Columbus at the World’s Columbian Exposition. This presentation will cover the many firsts at the expo, the many faces of Columbus Medals offered at the expo, Steve’s award-winning reference book about the expo, and how to order a copy of the new “Preview Deluxe” edition. |
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.
| January | 14 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - Steve Starlust on Referencing Columbiana |
| February | 11 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be determined |
| February | 22 | Will County Coin Club Show, to be held at Joliet Junior College Annex, 17840 W. Laraway Road in Joliet, Illinois; 9:00am to 3:00pm. |
| February | 26-28 | ANA’s National Money Show at the Savannah Convention Center, Savannah, Georgia. Details at https://www.money.org/NationalMoneyShow |
| March | 11 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be determined |
| April | 8 | CCC Meeting - Featured Speaker - to be determined |
| 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 - to be determined |
http://www.ChicagoCoinClub.org/
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should be addressed to the Secretary and mailed to:
CHICAGO COIN CLUB
P.O. Box 2301
CHICAGO, IL 60690
Or email the Secretary at
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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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