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ACCent: The Monthly Newsletter of the Anchorage Coin Club
| Volume 19, Number 9 |
September 2006 |
|
| September Membership Meeting | ||
| Wed., Sept. 7th, 2006 | Central Lutheran Church |
7:15 PM Meeting |
A reminder to all club members that our next meeting will be the first Monday of June (June 5th) 7:15 PM at the Central Lutheran Church.
As stated in last month’s publication, Central Lutheran Church is undergoing renovations in our downstairs meeting area that has resulted in a change in our club’s meeting schedule through this summer:
So…we ask that you bear with this matter through this Summer. By September we will have a newly renovated area for our meetings at Central Lutheran Church.
As of this month, we logged in only 14 donation lots for the YN Numismatic Auction. Those lots are posted in this issue of our club’s newsletter.
It’s been slow going for donation items…and we need to get more items. If you have a nice coin or numismatic item that can be donated for the auction, please bring them to our June 5th club meeting and turn them over to our club president Carl. If you cannot come to the meeting, drop off the items off at Roy’s Coins or Carl’s (their advertisements are in our newsletter). For those of you who live outside of the Anchorage area, you can mail in the donation items to our club’s post office box address (Anchorage Coin Club/ P.O. Box 230169/ Anchorage, AK 99523).
We are now going into our Year 2006 Summer. People will be going fishing, traveling around the state, and vacation time soon.
The club will still continue to meet through the Summer months.
Hope to see a number of you at our club’s summer meetings and especially at our July 22nd Summer picnic……Your Editors.
Schedule of Events for the Month of June
I’d like to thank everyone for coming to the meeting which is on our new schedule, which is now the first Monday of the month. It will probably take a little getting used to. We will resume Wednesday meetings in the Fall after the church is finished with it’s remodeling.
The May meeting went very well with approximately 15 people in attendance. We had the whole church to ourselves that evening since we were the only ones there. We had a good auction with around 20 items sold with a number of excellent quality lots from member Bill Fivaz. Special thanks go to Bill for supporting our club and supply us with many quality numismatic items.
At the last Board meeting (on May 17th) we all decided to have the YN Numismatic Auction at the July 22nd meeting/Summer Picnic event at Centennial Park.
We want to urge all members to participate and donate numismatic items for the July 22nd YN Numismatic Auction. Items can be directly dropped off at Roy’s Coins or my place, Carl’s.
Mark your calendars!! And please plan on attending our club’s July 22nd Summer picnic, meeting, and Summer YN Numismatic Auction Families and friends are welcome- the more the merrier to make it successful and enjoyable.
Hope to see everyone there.
Also, a reminder that our next meeting will be on Monday, June 5th at the Central Lutheran Church
See you then…..Sincerely, Carl.
Minutes of the May 17th Board Meeting
The meeting was called to order at 7:10 PM by President Carl.
Meeting was held at the New Cauldron Restaurant located at the University Center in Anchorage.
First order of business was to review correspondence and bills.
The meeting then moved onto the matter of addressing old business. Secretary Larry Nakata gave a progress report on the club’s Summer picnic. Larry was able to secure the afternoon of Saturday, July 22nd for the event. Location will be the same spot as last year….the Municipality of Anchorage Centennial Campground located near the corner of Muldoon and the Glenn Highway. The club to provide the main items for the event (hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, dips, soda pop, and utensils). The club members to be asked to bring a salad, dessert, or hors d’oeuvres dish.
Larry then went onto the matter of the YN Numismatic Auction. As of the May 17th meeting, Larry was only able to collect 14 donation items for the event. More items are needed. Based upon this information, the Board decided to extend the date of the YN Numismatic Auction to our club’s July 22nd Summer picnic. This move should allow more time to collect donation items and to also provide for a nice event for our club’s Summer picnic.
As there was no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 7:45 PM.
I watched a good movie the other day called “National Treaure” and as a numismatist, I found some interesting money related mysteries in the movie. We all carry cash and know what it looks like, but do we really all know what the designs on our currency actually mean?
If you look at the current one dollar bill, first off, it is called paper money and in fact it is actually a cotton linen blend with red and blue minute silk fibers running though it. It is actually a fabric. It can be washed without falling apart and has a special blend of inks that is a secret. It is overprinted with symbols and then starched to make it water resistant, then pressed to give it a crisp appearance.
On the obverse side of the note you’ll see the United States Treasury Seal. On the top of the Seal there are scales representing a balanced budget. The center has a carpenter square representing a tool for creating an even cut. Underneath is the key to the United States Treasury.
On the reverse side, you will see two circles. Both circles together comprise the Great Seal of the United States. The First Continental Congress requested that Benjamin Franklin and a group of men come up with a Seal. It took them four years to accomplish the task and another two years to get it approved by Congress.
Inside
the left-hand circle you will see a pyramid. The face is lighted and the western
side is dark. This represents that our country was just beginning. We had not
yet begun to explore the West or decided what we could do for Western
Civilization. The pyramid is the all-seeing eye, an ancient symbol for divinity.
The Latin saying above the pyramid – ANNUIT COEPTIS – means God has favored our undertaking. Below the pyramid, its says- NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM- which means a new order has begun. At the base of the pyramid is the roman numeral for 1776.
The bald eagle was selected as a symbol of victory for two reasons:
At the eagle’s beak it reads- E PLURIBUS UNUM- which means “one nation from many people”. Above the eagle are 13 stars which represent the 13 original colonies. Clouds of misunderstanding rolling away represent coming together as one. The eagle is holding an olive branch and arrows in it’s talons, representing that the country wants peace but is not afraid to fight to preserve it.
Most people think that the number 13 is unlucky, but there were 13 original colonies, 13 original signers of the Declaration of Independence, 13 stripes in the American Flag, 13 steps in the Pyramid, 13 letters in E PLURIBUS UNUM, 13 Stars above the eagle, 13 bars on the shield, 13 leaves on the olive branch, and 13 arrows.
So actually, there is some well intentioned hidden meanings on our One Dollar Bill…..Carl.
In an earlier newsletter this year, an article appeared as the first of a series of articles on the subject of grading coins. What you read was one perspective. This particular perspective was from a member of the Early American Coppers (EAC) Society….a group of coin collectors who specialize in collecting colonial and early U.S. copper coinage (half cents, large cents, etc.). The article was intended to show you that there are different views on how U.S. coins are graded.
I wanted to follow-up in this second article on how grading has evolved with respect to coins.
Prior to 1949, grading was essentially done by description only. In that year, Dr. William Sheldon (a coin collector) published a book called “Early American Cents”. In that book, Dr. Sheldon proposed a grading system based upon a scale of 1 to 70. A coin represented by “1 or AG1” being a coin in poor condition (that is barely recognizable)….while a coin represented by “70 or MS70” would be a perfect coin (with no flaws). The rationale in use of this scale was that a coin that was graded “50 or AU50” would be worth 50 times the value of a coin graded “1 or AG1”. Dr. Sheldon’s system (today called the Sheldon System) focused on the amount of wear and marks on the coin as the basis of his grading scale.
The Sheldon system quickly became the standard used for grading of all U.S coins. The rest of the world continued to use (and still continues to use) an International grading system similar to the Sheldon system…with the exception of use of the Sheldon 1 to 70 scale.
The Sheldon system then became the technical standard for grading U.S. coins. Again….this technical aspect being the amount of wear on a coin determining the grade of the coin. For a number of years this was acceptable to coin collectors.
In the 1970s the thinking started to change. While the Sheldon system was acceptable for the circulated grades of coins (AG1 to AU59)….it posed problems for the Uncirculated grades (MS60 to MS70). For one thing….the “1 to 70” scale used for determining the value of the coin was no longer valid. By the 1970s, a matter of one grade difference….such as from MS65 to MS66 on a key date coin….could mean a difference of thousands of dollars.
Another problem posed was the technical nature in which coins were graded based upon wear. A coin graded AU58 could have better eye appeal than a coin graded Uncirculated MS61which had some natural bag marks on it’s surface. While the coin was technically graded an MS61….should the better looking AU58 coin be penalized?!
With the rise of professional grading services such as PCGS and NGC, a new term came into existence….Market Grading.
Market Grading would take into account eye appeal as a factor in the grading of coins. Of course, this posed still other questions.
· What constitutes eye appeal on a coin?! and
· When you grade on the basis of eye appeal, are you now dealing with a subjective issue?!
Since the 1970s, there has been controversy on whether coins should be graded on the basis of technical or market grading criteria. Market grading seems to be prevailing as the present standard today.
Key date coins of high value are now being graded through a number of professional grading services in addition to PCGS and NGC. It’s a highly competitive market that has seen much of the U.S. key date coins in higher grades now professionally graded and encapsulated in transparent holders (nicknamed “slabs” by coin collectors).
Now that you have the short history of how coin grading evolved in the United States, future issues of our club’s publication, ACCent, will break the subject of Coin Grading into smaller bite-sized articles. Past presentations at our coin club meetings and in ACCent have covered different ways to collect coins and the history of these coins. Now that you know of these coins, the time has come to look into Coin Grading.
With a larger percentage of our club members being new into the club, it is important that you understand how coins are graded. Our Board wants to take a look at having a grading seminar…perhaps next year in the September timeframe….here in Anchorage. The future articles and club presentations leading up to the seminar timeframe will be important in order to get you “up to speed” on the subject……..Larry Nakata.
LOTS FOR JULY 22ND YN NUMISMATIC DONATION AUCTION
LOT # DESCRIPTION
1 1909-S Lincoln Cent. Net Good (Reverse scratch).
2 1955 S/.S/S Lincoln Cent (RPM #1) MS64 Red.
3 1953P Franklin Half Dollar in MS63 condition.
4 1886P Morgan Dollar MS64.
5 1964 Austria 50 Schilling Silver Commemorative in Proof Condition. Commemorating the 1964 Olympics.
6 1970 10 Riyal Silver Commemorative Proof Coin. Honoring Dwight Eisenhower. Government of Ras Al Khaima.
7 1980 Isle of Man 1 Crown Commemorative in BU condition. Commemorating the Moscow Olympics.
8 Series 1928-B $1 Silver Certificate. Fine.
9 Series 1953 $2 Red Seal U.S. Note. Very Fine.
10 Series 1934-C $5 Silver Certificate. Very Fine.
11 1980 U.S. Liberty Commemorative Half Dollar in BU condition.
12 Siberian 5 Kopek coin in VG condition. Minted somewhere between 1761 and 1799.
13 1974-D BU Roll of Lincoln Cents.
14 1970-S BU Roll of Lincoln Cents.
Thanks go to Bill Fivaz, Carl, John Larson, and Jim Hill for donation of numismatic items.
Club Archivist/ Photographer
DUES
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