All of this week's contributions come from participants in
the just-ended Baltimore show. First, we received this from Glenn Peterson:
I was pleased to
represent our club in chairing a
regional meeting of John Reich Collector Society in Baltimore
on Friday, November 4th. We had the largest-ever turnout for a
regional meeting with 25 people. Among the attendees were many advanced collectors of bust coins, a
number of collectors of other series of coins and several guests just learning
about JRCS.
We had a discussion about the bust quarter census to be published
in the next journal. I highlighted the great increase in participation since
the last census of April 2014. The total number of coins reported rose from
1,495 to 1,973. Several advanced collectors
joined the census with some astonishing coins from the Pogue and Gardner
collections. I was pleased to show photos of some of these remarkable coins. We
also discussed bust coin errors and several members displayed double struck,
off-center and clipped planchet quarters. I was pleased to have an enthusiastic
conversation about these coins. A fun time for all!
Glenn Peterson
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We also received a report from David Perkins:
JRCS Meeting at the
Whitman Baltimore Convention
The JRCS meeting at the Whitman Baltimore coin show this
past week was a good one. If my count
was right, there were 27 people in attendance, the most ever I believe for a
Regional Meeting by a large margin. Five
of the 27 were guests (non-members).
Those in attendance had a wide variety of collecting interests, mostly
but not exclusively the early United States
silver coinage.
Dr. Glenn Peterson hosted the Baltimore JRCS meeting. The topic was the early quarters of the United
States and the upcoming JRCS Quarter Census
that will be published in the next issue of the Journal. Dr. Peterson started with a series of slides
with photos of some very beautiful, rare, and high grade early quarters that
are “new to the Census” in 2016. He then
talked about the upcoming Quarter Census, followed by another slide show (with
old fashioned real slides!) of early silver error coins of different
denominations. There were many good
questions and discussion points throughout.
After the meeting adjourned, members and guests shared coins
they had brought for show and tell. One
highlight was a beautiful and recently completed date set (1796-1837) of early
dimes, put together over 20 years “on a modest budget.” All of the dimes were graded by PCGS, with
grades ranging from VF to AU. Five of
the dimes were from the Gorman Capped Bust Dime Reference Collection sale which
was sold in two parts in 2016 by this author.
On my way back to my
table after the meeting I saw an old fashioned pile of circulated Capped Bust
Half Dimes for sale at Jim Matthews' table.
This was fun to see! I’m not sure
what that coin is on Jim’s business card though….
Overall, the Baltimore
show was a very good one, with many serious collectors and dealers in
attendance.
W. David Perkins, Numismatist
Centennial, CO
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Finally, we received the following from the aforementioned
Jim Matthews:
The Baltimore Show was frankly more active than I had
anticipated. After months of wearisome election battles and relentless
revelations, it was nice to set that part of our lives aside and focus on
buying and selling coins! The usual suspects were in attendance at the show,
and everyone seemed to have a good time--collectors were generally able to
secure desired pieces for their collections from the numerous dealers at the
show.
One unexpected surprise was Winston Zack appearing at the
show from far away San Diego, California!
He shared numerous examples of contemporary counterfeit coins that are being
used for his huge research project of documenting and writing a two (or more)
volume book on these historic and often overlooked pieces of our numismatic
history. Some of the Seated coins--struck from hand cut dies created by now
forgotten counterfeiters, were so comical in their crudity that I burst out
laughing. Examining these folk art pieces captures so much of the American
ingenuity spirit--that prior generations of people actually took the time to
stamp out their own money with small common tools and whatever know-how and
ability they had. These mom and pop enterprises continue all through our
history, from the earliest colonial coins through our current coinage--one need
look no further than the 1944 "Henning" Jefferson nickels, created
and stamped out in a certain Mr. Henning's basement to be used to pay the hated
toll on the New Jersey Turnpike! Some of these counterfeiting operations were
huge factories which churned out countless examples of these counterfeit coins.
This is an area of research that simply has been overlooked for far too long,
with the exception being the superlative work by Keith Davignon on Contemporary
Counterfeit Capped Bust Half Dollars. Needless to say many numismatists have
long awaited such a book documenting these fascinating coins.
All in all, Baltimore
once again put on a great show for dealers and collectors, and everyone I
talked with seemed to have their modest expectations well exceeded.
Jim Matthews
