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ACCent: The Monthly Newsletter of the Anchorage Coin Club

BIG CHANGES !!!!!

    The Anchorage Coin Club’s meeting dates for the coming summer months will change.

Our meetings will move to the 1^st Monday of every month (May 1^st, June 5^th, August 7^th , and September 4^th). For the month of July, we will have our club’s Summer picnic in place of the regular meeting date. That July date will be announced in our next club’s newsletter.

Central Lutheran Church plans to go forward with new construction in the location where we meeting (the downstairs meeting area). Because of that construction, the church has requested we move our meeting to a different date. Accordingly, the first Monday of the month proved to be the best compromise since we will be able to use the Community Room for our meetings this Summer.

So….by the time you receive this newsletter….be advised our next meeting will be on Monday, May 1^st / Central Lutheran Church/ Community Room/ 7:15 PM.

The May 1^st meeting will be a potluck event in which club members are asked to bring food items. The agenda will call for a continuation of last month’s meeting…..a discussion session on how each of us  got into coin collecting and what we like to collect. We would also encourage members to bring coins and other numismatic items for a “Show and Tell”.

Club member, Bill Fivaz, sent us another batch of coins for our May 1^st bullet coin auction. Ten lots altogether:

• Lot #1                 1806 U.S. Large Cent  VG                 Minimum Bid  $75
• Lot #2                1833 U.S. Large Cent   F/VF                Minimum Bid  $40
• Lot #3                1944-P Lincoln Cent (Double clip error)  AU   Minimum Bid  $15
• Lot #4                1810 U.S. Bust Half Dollar EF40                Minimum Bid  $165
• Lot #5                1817 U.S. Bust Half Dollar  VF                Minimum Bid  $95
• Lot #6                1882-CC Morgan Dollar in GSA Holder  MS63                Minimum Bid $180
• Lot #7                Twenty (20) 1957 Proof Franklin Half Dollars Pr 65/67   Minimum Bid $325
• Lot #8                1976-S 3-piece U.S. Mint Bicentennial Silver Uncirculated Set  Minimum Bid $10
• Lot #9                1957 $1 Silver Certificate Star Note in EF condition    No Minimum Bid
• Lot #10                1953-A  $2 Red Seal Star Note in crisp AU condition  Minimum Bid  $25

These are some very nice items that you can bid on at our May 1^st club meeting.  Any member wishing to submit additional coins and numismatic items for the bullet coin auction should also bring them to the meeting.

Our April 5^th club meeting saw our club’s raffle prize, a 1918-S Liberty Standing Quarter in AU condition, won by club member Joyce Zorick. Congratulations goes to Joyce on winning such a fine coin.

For your information, our next club’s raffle prize will be two U.S. Walking Liberty Half dollars:

• A 1940P Half dollar graded PCGS MS64, and
• A 1936D Half dollar graded HTGS MS63.

At our April 5^th meeting the door prize, an Uncirculated roll of 1974-D Lincoln cents, was won by Howard Wright. Our membership prize, a 1972 U.S. Mint Proof Set, was won by Edward Vey.

One final thing.  We are asking for donation coins and numismatic items for our club’s YN Numismatic Auction. So far, we have 11 lots that have been donated and are looking for more donations. Check out your coin collections and see if you can spare that nice coin, currency, or numismatic item that you may have as an extra. You can bring those items to the May 1^st meeting or get them over to Roy’s Coin or Carl’s.

Proceeds from the donation auction goes toward the YN Program of our coin club. We would like to conduct the YN Numismatic Auction at our June 5^th (Monday) meeting. We need more than 11 donated lots to make an effective auction.

Alaska Rare Coins in Fairbanks Alaska

Schedule of Events for the Month of May

1.  Monthly Membership Meeting: May 1^st (Monday) at 7:15 PM at the Central Lutheran Church (Community Room). This will be a “potluck dish” event. Bring a dish to the meeting. Also…bring your favorite coins, currency, or numismatic collectable to the meeting. We are having a “Show and Tell” event and a discussion on how each of us got into coin collecting. There will also be a bullet coin auction of no more than 15 numismatic lots. Members, YNs, and general public welcomed.
2. Anchorage Coin Club Board Meeting:  May 17^th (Wednesday) at 7:00 PM at the New Cauldron Restaurant located at the University Center. Club members welcomed.  

Minutes of the April 19^th Board Meeting

The Board meeting was called to order at 7:15 PM by club president Carl.

There were no bills or correspondence to review that evening.

First order of business was a discussion as to what day of the week the club’s monthly meetings are to be held through this summer.  The construction activity at Central Lutheran Church will require moving our meeting day away from the 1^st Wednesday of the month. The administrator of the church has given us either Monday or Friday as days we can meet. If we meet on Friday, it will be necessary to meet in the Narthex (where we held our April 5^th meeting). If we meet on Monday, we can have use of the Community Room. After some discussion, the Board decided to have the meetings moved to the first Monday of the month. Our next meeting date will then be May 1^st in the Community Room.

Larry Nakata brought up the club’s next event….the YN Numismatic Donation Auction. This is a yearly event in which club members donate coins, currency, and other numismatic items that are auctioned off at either our club’s May or June meeting. Larry will be soliciting donations and will post a request to all members in the upcoming club newsletter.  The tentative date for the YN Numismatic Donation Auction will be June 5^th (1^st Monday of June).

The meeting agenda for the May 1^st meeting was then established and will be posted in our club’s next newsletter.

The final item of discussion was the matter of our club’s yearly Summer picnic. It was decided that our coin club will have it’s summer picnic on one of the last three Saturdays in July (July 15^th, July 22^nd, or July 29^th). Last year’s picnic at the Centennial Park Campground proved to be a very good location. As a result, Larry Nakata will check with the Centennial Park campground supervisor (when the campground opens on May 15^th) to secure one of those dates.

As there was no further business to discuss the meeting was adjourned at 7:45 PM.

 Commission Meeting on April 4^th, 2006.

    The April meeting started at 8:30 am with most of the commissioners and Mrs. Murkowski present. The goal was to start reviewing the 851 official state quarter narrative design forms that were submitted by the public and see how far we could reduce the amount to a reasonable number in a reasonable amount of time.

As the meeting progressed, it soon became apparent that all the commissioners and the First Lady (Mrs. Murkowski) were all positive with one goal in mind….to find the best submissions for the state quarter.

The 851 official narrative design forms were divided, along with the commissioners, into three groups to best narrow our focus and speed up the review process. This also assured that all submission forms were reviewed by at least 3 or more commissioners.

Alaska Rare Coins
Inside View of the Shop

Within the first hour it became apparent that 75% of the submitted forms related to the following themes:  Denali/ McKinley Mountains, Brown Bears, Salmon, Polar Bears, Northern Lights, Dog Sleds, outline of the state, Gold Panners, and the Big Dipper.  We found that these concepts and themes intermingled with one another to a large degree that it became impossible to place any one submission into any one category. We found that 20% of the submissions related to the Alaska Pipeline, fishing boats, whales, flowers (For-get-me nots & fireweed) and bush planes.  We found that 5% of the submissions related to the themes of Moose, Caribou, Wolves, Igloos, King Crabs, etc. A couple of funnier ones were of Santa at the North Pole, Road Kill (you had to see the picture), and one relating to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

Owners Jerry Cleworth and Dick Hanscom

The mottos for the state quarters were much easier to process, “The Last Frontier”, “North to the Future”, “The Great Land”, and “The Land of the Midnight Sun” which seemed, in large, to be the favorites.

Working straight through the day and brainstorming different elements and concepts….and occasionally dividing into groups… we narrowed the theme process down to 10 of what the commissioners thought were the best narrative design concepts submitted by the public. With the general public in favor of 10 to 20 elements in their theme concepts, this made it easy for the commissioners once the narrative forms were finally reviewed and sorted out.

At the next May meeting, we will review our process of selecting the best narrative design concepts to make sure that nothing has been left out of the process. Once the commissioners are reassured that we did indeed do our best in representing the public input, we will then proceed further with the process. We hope to narrow the field down to 5 of the best narrative design concepts in the next few meetings…….Stan Mead.

Alaska Rare Coins
Another Inside View of the Shop

    Mid February found me in the center of the state, in Fairbanks, AK for a week. I have been to Fairbanks many times before but it has always been on a ‘passing through’ basis on my way to the northern part of the state. This time I had a whole week to spend in town, and a visit to Alaska Rare Coins was on my list of things to do while I was there.

As luck would have it, on Wednesday I had to work in the downtown area one block west of Cushman St. on 3^rd Avenue. Alaska Rare Coins is right nearby on the corner of 2^nd and Cushman. I had the pleasure of chatting with the owners Jerry Cleworth and Dick Hanscom as well as exploring the shop that afternoon.

The shop is quite large and contains a good selection of coins, both raw and certified. There is also an entire wall of older books, mostly focused on the subjects of Alaska, the Yukon, and Arctic studies. There are also a number of ivory carvings near the front of the store. Currency is also well represented.

For those of you that may be planning to drop into the store, you should know that much of their coin inventory is not kept at the store, but is instead kept at an off site location. If you are looking for something specific it is a good idea to give a call a day or two ahead of time so that Jerry and Dick can retrieve the desired items for you to see at the store.

Now, in addition to running the store downstairs, Jerry and Dick conduct auctions in Fairbanks twice per year, generally around April and November. The auction lots are presented without reserve, though as with any auction unrealistic bids will not be registered. Auction lots consist of coins, tokens, medals, currency, numismatic books, and anything else that may be of interest to numismatists in Alaska and elsewhere. The auction lots are not posted on the internet at this time, so you will have to get in contact with somebody there to be put on their mailing list. I looked over the lots from their most recent auction, including the prices realized list, and lots sold in a wide range from a low of $5 on up to about $3000, though about half sold for under $100 and a good number sold in the popular $100 to $500 range, so their auctions are not all about high priced slabbed rarities.

To get in touch with Alaska Rare Coins to inquire about some items you may need for your collection or if you are interested in bidding the auction and wish to be placed on their mailing list, the contact information is presented below. Jerry and Dick are easy to work with and get along with  and their prices and grading are right on target. While there, I was able to find David Akers’ book about the $3 gold series which I needed to complete the six book set on the subject of United States gold coins.

To contact Alaska Rare Coins, write to them at 551 Second Ave Suite B, Fairbanks, AK 99701. You can call Jerry or Dick at 452-6461 or e-mail at akcoins@mosquitonet.com…………Mike Nourse.

Club Officers

• President - Carl Mujagic - Days: (907) 561-2275
• Vice President - Mike Gentry
• Treasurer - Stan Mead (907) 349-6009
• Secretary - Larry Nakata - Eves: (907) 563-1729

Board of Directors

• Bill Hamilton - Days: (907) 567-7397
• John Larson - Eves: (907) 276-3292
• Jim McFarlane

Editors

• Larry Nakata
• Mike Nourse
• Loren Lucason

Club Archivist/ Photographer

• Open Position

DUES

• Life Membership $250
• Regular Membership $25/year
• Associate Membership $10/year
• Senior/Disabled $10/year
• YN (Junior) Membership $5/year

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: Anchorage Coin Club, P.O. Box 230169, Anchorage, Alaska 99523