MEMBERSHIP NEWS

THE SUMMER PICNIC

The date and location of the Anchorage Coin Club's annual picnic have been established by the Board of Directors, and the appropriate reservations made by Larry Nakata. 

The picnic will be held at the upper pavilion at Russian Jack Park on August 12th. The hours will be from 11 AM through 6 PM, although if you would like to help set up, be there around 10 AM.

The club provides hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken, potato chips, sodas, and utensils. Members are encouraged to bring salads and desserts, as well as a good supply of coins (or cards) for showing around or trading or whatever.

JULY MEMBERSHIP MEETING

Our President, Mike Orr, has taken the first steps toward bringing back the auctions that were a regular fixture at our club meetings for many years.

A listing of the lots that will be sold during the July membership meeting appears on page 3 of this newsletter. Keep in mind that there will actually be about 100 lots total as some people intend to submit their lots at the meeting.

For anybody who has never been to one of our auctions before, be warned that the pace is fairly quick. If there is no interest in a lot, it will be rapidly skipped to go on to the next lot. Hence, it is best to view the lots before the meeting and immediately before the auction, and formulate a bidding plan. Many items sell for well below Trends values, so there are some decent bargains to be had.

SUMMER CONFERENCE COMING UP FOR YNs

Our two YNs that will be attending this year's ANA summer conference will soon be packing their bags for the trip to Colorado Springs. Mike Greer won his scholarship from the error coin society, CONECA, and Robin Sisler won his as a result of the Anchorage Coin Club donation auction organized by M. Greer.

In return for their scholarships, our President, Mike Orr, is planning on having them take center stage in the August membership meeting to tell us about their trip.

BAD NEWS

It seems that an individual was able to slip a tray of coins out of the Excalibur Card shop on Abbott Road. While the proprietors of the store were kept busy by other customers, the thief was able to exit the store unnoticed. He is described as a male in his 40's with a long ponytail.

Mike McKinnon has provided a list of the stolen coins below, so if you are offered a group of coins that closely matches all or part of this list, be suspicious.

The stolen coins are:

1) 1890 Indian Cent Proof

2) 1993-S Silver Proof half

3) 1994-S Silver Proof half

4) 1878 7TF Morgan $ BU

5) 1883-O Morgan $ BU

6) 1883-O Morgan $ MS-63

7) 1893-O Morgan $ G/VG

8) 1897-S Morgan $ AU

9) 1898-O Morgan $ BU

10) 1899-O Morgan $ BU

11) 1901-O Morgan $ AU

12) 1922 Peace $ BU

13) 1923 Peace $ BU

14) 1924 Peace $ BU

15) 1934 Peace $ EF

16) 1934-S Peace $ VF

Anybody with information about any of these coins may contact Mike McKinnon at the numbers listed on the bottom of page two.

The YN Corner
By Larry Nakata

Now that we are in the midst of summer, YN meetings will go on hiatus until the month of October. The next scheduled YN meeting will be October 13th. This should give our YNs the time to enjoy the summer.

For those YNs who wish to participate in our Anchorage Coin Club's summer activities, the club's July 5th regular meeting will feature a coin auction for the membership. August 12th will be our club's Summer Picnic which will be held at the Russian Jack Park between 11 AM and 6 PM. September will feature our club's seminar on "Ancient Coinage" which will be held from September 8th through September 10th. And of course, there are the club's regular membership meetings which are held the first Wednesday of every month.

So.....there are still lots of activities for our YNs this summer.

The YN meeting on June 9th covered the subject of silver dollars. Specifically, the history of the Morgan silver dollar and it's varieties was the primary topic of the evening. The subject of Peace dollars was also discussed at the YN meeting. Pizza, potato chips, and soda pop was enjoyed by all who attended. Each YN was given an uncirculated silver dollar at the conclusion of the meeting.

So Summer is now upon us.............

Two of our YNs, Mike Greer and Robin Sisler, will be going to the ANA Summer Conference at Colorado Springs in several weeks. Mike Greer should be congratulated for winning the CONECA scholarship for the event. Congratulations should also go to Robin for being the recipient of our club's scholarship to the event this year

Overall, it's been a good year thus far for the YN program..............

                                -Larry Nakata

REMEMBER THE SEMINAR

It is time to remind everybody about the upcoming seminar to be held in Anchorage this fall. In case you have forgotten, or you have not heard, Robert Hoge will be presenting a seminar on "Ancient Coinage".

The seminar will be held at the Golden Lion hotel as a three day event running from September 8 through 10. The cost is $225 to members of the Anchorage Coin Club and $250 for non members (which includes a one year membership).

If you would like more details, or better yet, to sign up, contact Larry Nakata at:

Days                       269-5603

Evenings                563-1729

July 1995 Auction!

What follows is a listing of the lots that will be auctioned off at the July membership meeting.

The listing gives a brief description of the lot along with an estimated catalog (retail) value. In cases where the coin is damaged or cleaned, the catalog value is for an unimpaired specimen. It is up to the bidder to determine how much to discount the coin for these imperfections. Also, if a coin has not been harshly cleaned, it will not be mentioned here.

The grades given are those that were arrived at by consensus grading at the June board meeting. As always, grading is subjective, and all lots will be available for inspection (highly recommended) before the auction.

Many lots have minimum bids to prevent the coins from selling at ridiculous prices. The minimums are not listed here, but will be announced at the auction.

Now a listing of the lots:

1) $1.00 Montgomery, Alabama obsolete bank note. 1863 AU cv=$12

2) 1948-S BU nickel roll, 40 pieces. cv=$14.50

3) 1904 Indian Cent AU cv=$14

4) 1994 US mint World Cup commemorative 2 piece set. Half and dollar PF cv=$40

5) 1921 Peace dollar ANACS-62 cv=$160

6) 1828 1/2 cent 12 star variety. ANACS-40 cv=$220

7) 1892 half dollar MS-62 cv=$525

8) Group of 25 different Mercury dimes, circulated

9) Group of five circulated Washington quarters and one cull Buffalo nickel.

10) Group of circulated Lincoln cents 1909 to 1958, no keys.

11) Group of 31 circulated Indian cents some damaged. No keys, some semi keys.

12) 1799 George III Great Britain farthing VF+ cv=$20.00

13) 1856 Great Britain 1/2 penny VF cv=$5.00

14) 1858 Great Britain 1/2 Penny F cv=$1.50

15) 1860 Great Britain 1/2 penny VG cv=$1.00

16) 1838 Great Britain 2 pence F cv=$2.00

17) 1864 France 50 centimes F solder damage cv=$5.00

18) 1867-A France 50 centimes F cv=$3.00

19) 1917 France 5 centimes F cv=$1.00

20) 1862-A France 2 centimes VF cv=$3.00

21) 1872-A France 5 centimes EF cv=$10.00

22) 1845-W France 1 franc VF cv=$25

23) 1822-A France 1/2 franc VF cv=$35

24) 1921 Sweden 2 kronor BU cv=$15.00

25) 1865 two cents AU light porosity   cv=$52.50

26) Philippines 7 piece mint set 1983-1984 cv=$6

27) 1853 quarter VF with obverse scratches cv=$36.50

28) 1853 half EF cv=$225

29) 1883 Hawaii half VF cv=$90

30) 1883 Hawaii dime F bent   cv=$40.00

31) 1883 Hawaii dime VG cv=$30.00

32) 1883 Hawaii dime F assorted obverse damage cv=$40.00

33) Group of 33 assorted world coins

34) 1832 half dollar VF-30 cv=$62.00

35) 1878-S Morgan dollar MS-62 cv=$25

36) 1927-D Peace dollar F cv=$12.00

37) 1921 Peace dollar EF cv=$40.00

38) 1918-S half VG cv=$7.50

39) 1954-D half AU-58 cv=$5.00

40) 1955 half Proof cv=$50.00

41) 1970-D half BU cv=$12.00

42) 1838 Large cent F cv=$18.00

43) 1857 1/2 dime F cv=$7.75

44) 1939-D nickel BU cv=$24.50

45) 1961 Philippines 1/2 peso and peso   cv=$13.00

46) 1921 Canada quarter VF cv=$95.00

47) 1930 Canada quarter VF cv=$15.00

48) 1887 Great Britain crown VF cv=$27.50

49) 1896 LIX Great Britain crown VF cv=$50.00

50) 1957 Bermuda 10 shillings note F   cv=$10.00

51) 1944 Netherlands 10 gulden note EF   cv=$10.00

52) 1943 Belgium 100 francs note VF  cv=$5.00

53) 1944 Belgium 100 francs note F cv=$20.00

54) 1958 Scotland 5 pound note EF  cv=$25.00

55) 1954 Scotland 1 pound note AU  cv=$10.00

56) 1948 Sweden 5 kronor note BU with staple holes, net AU  cv=$18.00

57) 1940-D dime AU  cv=$5.00

58) 1941 dime AU  cv=$2.00

59) ANA Anthology by Carl Carlson and

                Michael Hodder cv=$65.00

More lots will be submitted at the meeting. Expect the total number of lots to be in the 100 area. Good luck on your bidding!  

DUES REPORT

The following dues report is current as of the board meeting on June 21st. If you have paid your dues since that time, your name will still be on the dues report this month.

The following people are between one and two months behind on their dues:

#17  R. W.                #118  J. R.

#18  J. L.                 #161  J. N.

#26  M. M.                #162  E. B. D.

#27  B. D.                #163  J. D.

#117  R. S.                #164  C. B.

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President's Message
#4 - July 1995
by Mike Orr

June was a great month!

Thanks are in order for Mike Nourse's presentation on Peace Dollars last month. I learned quite a bit that I did not know as I am sure all those who attended did. Atta boy Mike! The meeting was well attended for Summer as I hope it will be in July for our auction. Along with Mike's talk last month we also added seven new members to our roster:     

Allan Mallory

Norman Little                Bosco's cards

Matt Puetz                Brad Ruth

John Hanen                Michael Jeleuffy

The continued growth for the club is the direct result of being in the public eye at our shows last season. Welcome to all our new members. If we can do anything to help you along the path of numismatics just let us know.

Some decisions were made at the last board meeting. Since we have been having trouble with the Sears Mall wanting too much money to set up shows we are exploring the possibility of setting up at the spring gun show. With Robert on the board we should be able to have a positive voice on our behalf. We also have a new ANA representative for the club since Paul has been too busy with his new job. Mike McKinnon has volunteered to fill this position and the board concurred. Another decision made was to have the summer picnic at a different place this year. Last year we had derelicts accosting us at the Valley of the Moon Park. To hopefully avoid this we are looking into having it at Russian Jack Park on the 12th of August. We will have more on this in the next newsletter.

This brings me to a matter of importance for our July meeting. During the past year or so we have set aside our auctions in favor of a bid board format. Last Christmas we brought in some coins for this but they really received few bids.   We have not had one since. This July 5th meeting I want to reestablish an auction. When I first joined the club we had auctions every month until it reached the point that few good submittals were being brought in with fewer lots sold. This is an attempt to rectify that past situation and an opportunity for members to add nice material to their collections. It may take several times for this to become successful but it would be worth the effort. If the YN auction was any indication I feel the club is hungry to reestablish in once again. As usual our past rules will apply and for the new members the rules will be published in this newsletter. If nothing else comes from this effort at least the board meeting was a lot more lively. It was fun as we were again grading coins and haggling over these different lots. For the new members who have been asking about learning to grade, this was a great opportunity. Grading, above all, is very subjective and the quickest way to learn is at one of these consensus grading sessions. You do not have to be a board member to attend. All members are always welcome at these meetings.

Another thing to consider is to limit the auctions. I believe this should generate more interest. The next one I propose will be for the Christmas meeting. If you miss this auction in July, it will be quite a while before the next one. Also, another problem we have had has been pricing of the lots. Some of our members thought they were being cheated as the bidding dropped way below Greysheet levels. I am trying to eliminate this by asking participants to let me know at what level they want me to start the bidding. Gone are the days of obtaining material at 10 cents on the dollar level. The whole idea behind this auction is to offer coins to the membership at a level which is fair to all parties. If we do not do this, good items will not be submitted. The idea is to bring more interesting lots up for bid by the membership or general public at a fair price without disenfranchising the consignors. In the process we can generate some revenue for the club and improve the meetings. This should prove to be fun.

Catalog values for the materials will be published in the newsletter which will come from the Krause Micheler catalog on World coins, Catalog on US and World currency, and the most recent trends values of US coins from Coin World. I realize that not all parties are always going to agree on the board's consensus grading. By no means are we the last word on grading. There will be disputed lots in the auction and I caution each member to check out all lots they are bidding on before they go on the block. I intend to allow enough time before and during the meeting for this. When I call a lot up for bid, I will explain if the lot is in dispute with the consensus grade or not. Ultimately, as always, the bidder will make the final decision. With this in mind, lets have some fun. I realize the meeting is July 5th, but hopefully we can extend the holiday fun one more day and have a well attended meeting. Call the other members and your friends for this event. Remember, the meetings are open to all and participation in the auction is not closed to anyone. Last but not least we are setting up for phone calls to members for the upcoming seminar. We are still needing more participants and the hour is getting ever closer. So lets all get involved! Until next month good luck and good hunting!

                                -Mike Orr

ANA NEWS

-Submitted by Robert Hall

"New ANA Correspondence Course: Learn Coin Grading At Home"

A new correspondence course entitled "Grading Coins Today" will be offered by the ANA School or Numismatics starting on July 1, 1995.

The course was prepared by dealer Don Bonser of Orlando, Florida. A wide array of numismatic experts were consulted in the preparation of the course, including past Anchorage seminar star Ken Bressett who wrote the introduction. The focus is on commercial grading which may differ materially from the official ANA grading guide. For more info, contact the ANA at 818 North Cascade Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80903. Cost is $39.95.

Editor's note: this is the twelfth installment in a series of articles started in August 1994.

Start with a few statistics from 1900:

Imports: $849,941,184

Exports: $1,394,483,082

Population: 75,994,575

National Debt: $1,107,711,258

The new century started out with a bang, literally. President William McKinley was assassinated in September 1901, allowing Vice President Theodore Roosevelt to take the top billing. He was the youngest President ever at age 43.

The new President was well known as somebody who likes to be in the news. He would always try to make big decisions and take actions on Sundays so that he could make headlines in the Monday papers.

One of Roosevelt's first actions was to get the ball rolling on the construction of the Panama Canal. A French company had started building a canal through Panama in the 1880's, but had to stop the work due to large financial losses and large loss of life due to malaria and yellow fever.

At the time, Panama was a colony of Colombia. Roosevelt offered Colombia a one time payment of $10 million along with annual rent of $250,000 for use of the canal zone, but his offer was turned down. However, in 1903, Panama became an independent country and they were eager to grab the $10 million. Construction of the canal began in 1904. President Roosevelt himself visited the site in 1908, the first time a President left United States territory. The canal would not be finished until the year 1914.

In Saint Louis, Missouri, the Louisiana Purchase exposition was held during the summer of 1904. This is where the two varieties of commemorative gold dollars were placed on sale; one picturing Jefferson and the other McKinley.

The next summer, the Lewis and Clark exposition was held in Portland, Oregon. Two gold dollars were issued for this event as well.

In what is almost sure to be the subject of a commemorative issue eight years from now, the Wright brothers took the first airplane flight in history. As most people know, the flight took place on a sandy beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The summer of 1906 is remembered for the not so cheery event of a substantial earthquake that hit San Francisco. This was followed by a fire that burned for two days strait.

Most of the business district was burned down except for the San Francisco mint which was one of the few buildings that was left standing.

Several political posts received salary raises during the first decade of the 1900's. Senators and Representatives saw their pay increased to $7500 per year. The vice president, speaker of the house, and members of the cabinet all received $12,000 per year. The president himself got a raise to a respectable $75,000.

There were a few changes in the coins in peoples pockets during the decade. The Indian cent gave way for the Lincoln version. George Morgan's familiar silver dollar design went into semi retirement in 1904. The long running Liberty Head gold coins gave way to the Indian designs and the Saint Gaudens twenty dollar piece.

To save cost, members not responding to renewal notices within three months will be considered inactive.

The Anchorage Coin Club is a non-profit organization formed to provide information, education, and a meeting place for individuals having an interest in numismatics.

Correspondence Address: PO Box 230169  Anchorage, Alaska 99523