Miami Valley Coin Club

You Never Know What You Might Dig Up

Here’s a series of articles detailing the discovery and history of a most unusual hoard of coins in the UK. Makes you want to go get a shovel and see what might be out back.

Hackney gardeners dig up hoard of American gold

Coroner to rule on unique and historic treasure case

Owner of the Hackney Hoard ascertained

Really Big Shows on Their Way

Between now and October there are two big, and two really big, coin shows within reasonable driving distance from Dayton. They are:

June 10-11 Greater Cincinnati Numismatic Exposition, Sharonville Convention Center, 11355 Chester Road, Cincinnati. 10 AM to 5 PM

 August 16-20 ANA World’s Fair of Money, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Chicago/Rosemont, IL

September 1-4 Ohio State Coin Show, Crowne Plaza Hotel-Dublin, 600 Metro Place North, Dublin, OH 

 October 13-15 ANA National Money Show, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, PA

Make sure you put some or all of these shows on your calendar – they’ll all be great places to see some wonderful coins and presentations, not to mention some of the best ways to pick up new items for your collection. Let’s talk at our June meeting about the club putting together a group trip to either Chicago or Pittsburgh. If you’ve never been to an ANA sponsored show, you’re depriving yourself of a truly great numismatic experience.

DKCC Picnic July 24 at Crains Run Park

We’ve found a location for the club picnic! Same place as last year (duh)! So plan on bringing the family on Sunday, July 24 at 11:30 at the Crains Run Park South Shelter, 10741 Dayton Cincinnati Pike in Miamisburg. The club will provide the burgers, dogs, and drinks. You can bring a covered dish, salad, desert or other items to share. We had a great time last year and are looking forward to an even better one in 2011.  Here’s a map to the park – see you there.

May Meeting Wrap Up

We had a well attended meeting on May 5. Charles Caldwell from our friends at CONA made an excellent presentation on the coins of the Twelve Caesars and brought some pretty neat silver examples of these ancient coins for the attendees to examine. In addition to the coins, we learned that most of these guys weren’t the best marriage material and few of them ever got to use their retirement accounts. If you would like to learn more about the coins of Rome, take look at this web site operated by Forum (maybe it should be Forvm) Ancient Coins.

Silver Surge (or Purge?) Part Two

Silver has had a challenging week since the last post on this subject. It’s important that people keep their composure in this difficult environment; the silver bulls in this video are typical of how folks are reacting.

Silver Surge: Serendipity or Silly?

While coin collecting and precious metals investment/speculation are not the same thing, it’s sometimes tough to remember that when metals are in the heat of a bull market. The value of common date silver coins has shot through the roof, with that beat up old silver Roosevelt dime worth over $3.40 and that common date Franklin half going for $17. Makes collecting a bit more of a challenge, doesn’t it?

How long will the bull keep charging?  A couple of recent  articles illustrate that it depends on who you talk to. David Ganz, numismatic author and attorney, published this article in Numismatic News that details silver’s price over the last eighty years and indicates (so the headline goes) an upward trajectory over that time.  On the other hand, an article written by Alex Dumortier in The Motley Fool leads off with the chilling possibility of a 66% crash in silver prices. Who’s right? Well, I don’t have a clue, but it might be interesting to take a look at what the supply and demand numbers as published by the Silver Institute look like.

Also, does anyone else see the historical irony of silver being touted as a store of value 115 years after it was pushed as a way of inflating the currency? Click here to learn more about the free silver movment; you’ll be quite the conversationalist at the next party you go to.

"...you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."

Bebee Collection of United States Currency

One of the more attractive on line numismatic exhibits is the Bebee Collection of United States Currency on the American Numismatic Association website. Long time Omaha dealer Aubrey Bebee and his wife Adeline donated their extensive collection of high quality notes to the ANA  in 1987. The collection contains a wealth of 19th and 20th century large size notes and the ANA has provided excellent images. Click here to go to the exhibit.

Interesting Token & Medal Sales Catalog

Several of our club members collect medals, hard times token, civil war tokens, worlds fair memorabilia, and other esoteric numismatic fare. They may find the recently released C & D Gale Token and Medal Catalog #62 of interest. Click here to get a PDF version.

New U.S. Mint Products

The U.S. Mint has recently announced products for both ends of the budgetary spectrum. For you gold bugs, the new 2011 American Gold Eagle Proof Set is now out. For us everyday types, the 2011 America the Beautiful Quarters Uncirculated Coin Set is also now available. Click here for ordering information on the gold, and here for the quarters.

DKCC Donates Books to Library, Schools

As part of its mission to spread the fun of coin collecting, the Dayton-Kettering Coin Club donated a bunch of new coin books to area libraries in March. Half of the books went to the Wilmington-Stroop branch of the Dayton Metro Library (our home for a number of meetings last year), while the other half went to the Kettering City Schools for the high school and two middle schools. Club leadership made the presentation to both the Kettering City School Board and the Dayton Metro Library Board of Trustees, and reported back that both organizations expressed great appreciation.

The book donation program is mostly funded by the Central States Numismatic Society and is one of the benefits of our membership. If you don’t already belong to this fine organization, click here for more information.

Finally, both the library and the school system has sent us nice thank you notes. Click here to read the one from the library, and here for the one from the school.

Hail, Charley! Coins of the Caesers’ on May 5th

Charles Caldwell, President of the Central Ohio Numismatic Association, will be our featured speaker at our May 5th meeting. His subject will the coinage the twelve Caesers, the Flavian emperors of Rome. So dust of your denarii and plan on attending. As always, the meeting will be at 7:00 in the Community Room (behind Joseph A. Banks) of the Town & Country Shopping Center, 300 East Stroop Road, in Kettering .

May 5th will be a triumph!

ANS Announces MANTIS

And now for something very cool. With the proliferation of numismatic web sites, we’re finding more and more opportunities to view significant institutional collections on line. One of the newest examples is MANTIS, a relaunch of the The American Numismatic Society’s online data base. MANTIS (Mantis: A Numismatic Technologies Integration Service) provides access to all 600,000 records for objects in the ANS collection, through a series of new, easy-­‐to-­‐use search screens. You can find the press release announcing MANTIS here, or you can go directly to MANTIS by clicking on the ANS logo below.

Dayton Holiday Inn Show is No More

We understand that Jim Huffman, proprietor of Xenia Coin, has discontinued the monthly first Sunday coin show at the Holiday Inn at the Dayton Mall. We want to thank Jim for all of his hard work on the show over the years and his ongoing support for our club.

Origins of Money lecture on April 30 at Sunwatch in Dayton

One of our new members has let us know about an exciting and interesting lecture to be held at the Sunwatch Indian Village and Archeological Park on Saturday, April 30 at 10:30 AM.  Dr. John Papadopoulos will present  The Origins of Money: Coinage, Art and the Construction of Value in the Ancient Mediterranean, exploring the origins of money. Dr. Papadopoulos, Professor of Classics and Archaeology with the Classics Department, Cotsen Institute, UCLA., is a specialist in Aegean prehistory and Classical Archaeology, especially the Early Iron Age, the archaeology of colonization, and the integration of literary and material evidence, Dr. Papadopoulos was selected by AIA as the 2010 Homer A. and Dorothy B. Thompson Lecturer. He has excavated widely in Australia at Aboriginal and historic sites, as well as in Greece, Albania and Italy.

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, admission to the SunWatch Lecture Series presentation is free and open to the public. Admission fees apply for guests wishing to explore the Village or the Interpretive Center before or after the presentation.

RSVPs are requested for the presentation; seating after reservations is on a first come, first serve basis. To make reservations, call 937.268.8199, ext. 111 or or visit the Sun Watch web site.

Club Constitution and By-Laws added

At the club’s April meeting, there was some discussion regarding amending our constitution and by-laws. Several members indicated that they had never had a chance to view them before, so they’ve been added to the What happens at a club meeting page. We’ll have some future discussion regarding updating them, so take a look and bring your ideas to the meeting.

Early U.S. Commemoratives at April 7th Meeting

Our presentation for our monthly meeting on April 7th will consist of a group discussion and show and tell on early United States Commemorative Coins lead by the club’s officers. Starting in 1892 and running through 1954, the early commemoratives are a fascinating series, both for the coins themselves and the often dubious self-interest that led to their issuance. If you want to do some homework in advance of the meeting, CoinSite has an interesting article here , and the American Numismatic Association has another quality effort here. Read up, and remember to bring your Columbians, Boones, Oregon Trails, and Booker T.’s to our April 7th meeting.

1936 Bridgeport Commemorative Half Dollar reverse

Gold and Silver vs. Paper

Gold and silver are enjoying good times, with new highs being registered on a frequent basis as they continue their multi year bull run. We coin collectors mostly like that; by our very nature we tend to be a hard money bunch. We hanker after the good old days before 1933 and 1965, when you could swap your paper buck for its equivalent in gold or silver. Looks like we’re not the only ones; there are movements afoot in both South Carolina and Utah to dump the Federal Reserve Notes and return to the days of yore:

South Carolina Lawmaker Seeks to Ban Federal Currency

2nd Annual DKCC Ugly Coin Contest April 7th

In honor of April Fools Day, the Dayton-Kettering Coin Club will host it’s second annual Ugly Coin Contest at its April 7th meeting. We’ll be awarding prizes for both the ugliest coin, as well as the ugliest short set (cent, nickel, dime, quarter – don’t have to be the same dates). The rules are pretty simple:

                      Coin must found in circulation (parking lots, back yards, couch cushions, piggy banks, etc. count).

                      You can’t damage it any more then it already is – no making it worse.

So start looking for that really hideous bit of numismatics now – the contest promises to be really ugly!

Ugly Coin Contest April 7th

CSNS Spring Seminar in Ft. Wayne April 2

The Old Fort Coin Club in Ft. Wayne, Indiana will be hosting the 2011 Central States Numismatic Society’s Spring Numismatic Semina, which is about all things Lincoln. The link to their flyer is below. The price is very reasonable, more so for CSNS members, and Ft. Wayne is only 2 1/2 hours from Dayton. Looks like a good day with some really excellant numismatic experts. If several DKCC members want to attend, we might be able to put together a ride up there and back. If interested, let us know at daytonketteringcoinclub@gmail.com .

CSNS Spring Seminar 2011

Clark County Coin Club Show April 10

Our friends in Clark County are having their semi-annual show in Springfield on Sunday, April 10 from 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM. The show is at a new location this year, the Springfield Youth BB Association Building at 432 S. Burnett Road in Springfield. Looks like a good show with over 40 tables available. You can access the show flyer below for more information. 

Clark County Show 20110410