Miami Valley Coin Club

1981 Type I and Type 2 Proof Washington Quarters

There were 4,063,083 proof sets struck by the San Francisco mint in 1981.  Although a lot of past attention has been placed on the Type I & II Susan B. Anthony Dollar proofs,  the more collected Washington Quarter is beginning to attract the attention of quarter enthusiasts.

There are no figures available to know just how many Type II proof sets were struck. Experts believe that roughly 10-20% of 1981 proof sets were of the Type II design. That means there are somewhere between 400,000 and 800,000 Type II Washington Quarters out there in the world. And though that means that they are not particularly rare, a modern-era coin with a production of less than one million does indicate scarcity.

As for price differences between the two types, when you look at PR70 DCAM grade level, The Type II quarters sell for around $215 and the Type I quarters sell for around $38. This makes the Type II is worth seeking out.

Type I has serifs on the mintmark

Type II mintmark appear bulbous

Next Meeting: May the 4th…(be with you)

Our next meeting approaches and it just happens to coincide with Star Wars Day, Thursday May 4, 2023. Come out and maybe add some new knowledge about coins and coin collecting.

Congrats to Legacy Knights for coming in tied for second in adding new members to the ANA. They got a mention in the May 2023 edition of Numismatic News. Great job Dave and the club!

By the way, if you are into Star Wars and coins, there are 62 different Star Wars coins to collect in the Power of the Force collection to satisfy your collecting needs.

If It’s In a Slab, It’s Got to Be Legit

Not so fast there cowboy! Recently on both Morgan and Peace dollars, “certification” numbers have been found on more than one coin. The crooks are getting smarter.

Unsuspecting buyers look the certification number up on a legitimate grading company website, sees that the number corresponds with the coin, and thinks that everything is A-Okay. The truth may be that the coin is a fake, the holder is fake, and the certification number is also fake. Crooks are creating multiple “coins” and then using a legitimate NGC or PCGS registration number on the holder. There is a correct coin out there with that certification number somewhere. But there may be several counterfeits also.

PCGS and NGC have temporarily deactivated some numbers that they know have been used in this way.

If you happen to be attending the Central States Numismatic Society convention in Schaumburg, look for an educational display of the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation (ACEF). They will have examples of some of the fakes they have come across.

How do you avoid being scammed? Work with a reputable dealer or coin expert and stay away from places like Craigslist.

More Coin Theft In the News

Beaumont, Texas

A mother and adult son were charged in connection with the theft of rare coins in the Beaumont, Texas area. She worked for the U.S. Postal Service, her adult son died before he could be tried in state court.

Local post office representatives stated that the packages were being stolen after leaving the distribution facility, but that wasn’t the case. Some of the coins stolen started showing up at local coin shops as the thieves were selling them off. One customer entered the serial number at NGC of a purchased item and was notified that it was stolen.

This just puts an explanation point on some of what was discussed at our recent club meeting concerning coin theft and the length that thieves will go to rob collectors and dealers. If you buy through the mail, quickly report if the coins were not delivered. When leaving a coin show, it can be smart to team up with a friend and keep an eye out for suspicious characters hanging around the area. You can never be careful enough.

For more info go to:

April 6, 2023

Our next club meeting is this coming Thursday at 7pm. Bring a friend, bring a favorite coin for show and tell, bring anything numismatic related to sell at the club auction, and possibly learn something new and exciting about coin collecting.

*** Warning: coin collecting has been shown to be addictive***

World War II Emergency Issues

Early in the 2^nd World War, the United States produced two different kinds of emergency currency paper money. One issue was for Hawaii and the South Pacific; the other was for Africa and Southern Europe. Today collectors refer to these notes as “Hawaii” and “North Africa”. Because the government was concerned that large amounts of U.S. money would possibly fall into enemy hands and be used against our country, these two kinds of currency were issued for U.S. troops to use in those specific areas of the world.

The 1935A series “North Africa” notes were issued to troops headed for Africa. Instead of the usual blue seal, these notes had a yellow seal. If they fell into enemy hands they could be demonetized and made worthless. These notes were issued in denominations of $1, $5, and $10. All were Silver Certificates, series 1934A.

For the “Hawaii” notes, an overprint of H-A-W-A-I-I was placed twice on the face of each note and once on the back. The Treasury seal was brown instead of the normal blue. These notes were in denominations of $1, $5, $10, and $20. The $1 notes were 1935A Silver Certificates; the other denominations were 1934A Federal Reserve Notes.

In Hawaii, the government required that all U.S. currency be replaced with notes bearing the HAWAII overstamp. This left a major problem: what to do with all the currency exchanged for the overprint version. Rather than ship all that money back to the mainland, it was decided to burn it. At first it was burned in a local crematorium, but that was taking too long. So the government used the bigger furnaces of the Aiea sugar mill to finish the job.

Coin Show Safety

The world seems to get a little more dangerous every day. When attending a coin show these days, it’s smart to be a little cautious and avoid becoming a criminal’s next victim:

1. Assume you are a likely target. Stay alert to people who are around you.
2. Never leave any coins that you have brought or coin show purchases in your unattended vehicle.
3. Know the location of security and emergency services offices.
4. If you are a dealer, make sure to keep display cases locked.
5. Use your phone to photograph/video suspicious persons.
6. Remove any show credentials before leaving the building.
7. If you are accosted, stay calm, and never chase after the thief.

Seriously!

Yes, that’s right! No October meeting. It’s too dangerous for us to act like responsible human beings and meet in a safe manner…

STILL!

Not Again…

First it was on then it is off…AGAIN!! Mr. Dewine thinks we may just cause another increase in the pandemic if we get together as a group for an evening of coin collecting fun. So, that said, there will be no September club meeting.

Maybe October. Maybe next year. This is beginning to look like a one meeting year with (maybe) a Christmas get together. It’s a real shame that we are not smart enough to meet without exposing ourselves to covid-19 (or so our State Government says).

Will It Ever End?

Once again our club meeting has been cancelled due to Covid-19 concerns.

Maybe some day we will be able gather again and swap coin stories.

Treasure Hunt Ends

Ten years ago, art collector and dealer Forrest Fenn, claimed to have buried a treasure worth a considerable amount of money somewhere in the western United States. He was diagnosed with kidney cancer, and told he wouldn’t survive.

Forrest loved the great outdoors and nature and felt that to encourage people to explore the outdoor wonders of America, he needed a way to get them out there. So he said he buried a treasure chest in the Rockies, then wrote a poem giving a series of clues to reveal the location of the treasure.

Not The Actual Chest

As the years past, people began to doubt whether or not there really was a treasure or maybe this was just an old man’s hoax.

Surprise, surprise! A man from the eastern U.S. has finally found the treasure chest. He sent Fenn, who survive his bout with cancer, pictures and a description of where he found the chest. Fenn said that it hadn’t moved since the day he had buried it.

The chest’s contents weighed 42 pounds and contained:

• Pre-Columbian animal figures
• Ancient Chinese jade carvings
• Jars of Alaska gold dust
• Antique jewelry
• Gold coins numbered in the hundreds
• 2 gold nuggets weighing more than 1 pound each
• Various gold objects worth their weight in bullion

The treasure ‘s worth is estimated to be over one million dollars

Forrest Fenn is a Vietnam Air Force vet with 328 combat missions flown, a Silver Star recipient, and was shot down twice. He is currently a healthy 89 years old.

July Club Meeting… NOT!!

Once again the pandemic has reared its ugly head and caused our club meeting to be cancelled.

We need to find a location that does not have to play by our government’s social distancing rules. Everyone should start looking for new possible meeting locations.

Attention World Paper Money Collectors

A town in central Italy began printing its own banknotes during the Coronavirus outbreak. Castellino del Biferno, 158 mils southwest of Rome is putting out “Ducati” notes for their citizens to use for essential goods at shops in the town.

The notes are worth about one Euro each. Every two weeks, a store that accepts the notes can return the notes to the town and receive the equal amount in actual Euros. Each note features a town landmark, ranging from a church to a public swimming pool.

Wouldn’t one of these notes be a neat addition to a world paper money collection?

NO JUNE MEETING

The church says (following advice from Governor DeWine), “No groups larger than 10 allowed!”

Time to seriously search for a new club meeting location so that we, the group, can decide when to meet and how many. Social distancing is getting very boring!

Can’t have a “club” if we’re not allowed to meet!

Designer of the Sacagawea Dollar Passes

New Mexico artist and Sacagawea golden-dollar designer Glenna Goodacre died of natural causes on April 13, 2020. She was 80 years old. Besides the dollar coin, she created several large scale sculptures including the Vietnam Women’s Memorial on the National Mall in Washington D.C., the Irish Memorial at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia, and the Puddle Jumpers in Montgomery, Alabama.

Although for the most part, the American public has shown little affection for modern day U.S. dollar coins, if you travel outside the country, particularly in Ecuador, you will find that the Sacagawea coin is vastly popular with the its citizenry.

The numismatic community has lost a great artist.

May Meeting Cancelled

Once again the Coronavirus has struck our club! Because only 10 of us would be able to gather at one time (Thank you Mr. DeWine) we will once again hold off, until June this time.

Hope everyone is well and staying safe. Can you image the looks if we all showed up in facemarks for a coin club meeting. They’d call in a swat team! LOL!

The Great Toilet Paper Panic of ‘73: History Repeats Itself Yet Again!

We all could use a little humor in our lives in these crisis times. This will relate back to the PSA-graded sheet of toilet paper that was shown on our website a few weeks back.

It seems the 2020 toilet paper “pandemic” isn’t the first one in our country’s history. It happened before, in 1973, along side the OPEC Oil Embargo. Most of our members (except for all you younger members) remember the lines for gasoline but most of us were not responsible for doing the grocery shopping. We don’t recall (no jokes about memory loss, young people) lining up for toilet paper. But it did happen!

Check out this humorous video of those oh so ancient days.

Coronavirus Affects All of Us

Auctions and coin club meetings aren’t the only things being affected by our country’s shutdown. The Mint announced that it was closing two mint facilities. The West Point Mint was shutdown for just a few days after an employee tested positive for Covid-19. The San Francisco Mint was closed indefinitely. The S.F. closure stopped production of the 2020-S Enhanced Uncirculated Basketball Hall of Fame half-dollar.

Wouldn’t it be great if you were a Mint press operator and you had to “work from home”? You’d have money out the wazoo at your house!

Interesting “Variety”

A person recently posted a photo of his coin on a coin blog. The coin’s owner wanted to know if anyone could help him identify it by variety.

Someone quickly replied that it was known as the “Luna” variety.

The owner said that he had never heard of the “Luna” variety and asked what distinguished that variety.

The answer came back just as fast that it is called the “Luna” variety because it looked like the surface of the moon.

Ha, ha!

Coin Collectors Have a Great Sense of Humor!

April Meeting Cancelled

Concerns about the Covid-19 outbreak have caused us to cancel our

April 9, 2020 meeting.

Stay Safe! Stay Healthy! See you in June (we hope)!