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Volume 13 Issue 04

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 Volume 13 Issue 04
 
 April 2009
 
We normally meet at the El Segundo Library on Mariposa Avenue, West of Sepulveda, South of LAX. Next meeting: Thursday, April 16th, 6:30 PM  
History of US Coins
Here is a little introduction to how American money came to be. It wasn't until foreign tradesman came to trade with the American immigrants and demanded coins for payment of goods. Before then immigrants used beaver skins, tobacco, and wampum, which was fashioned from mussel shells in the form of beads. Many foreign coins were excepted as payment, however, the Spanish Dollar became the standard monetary unit used throughout the colonial period. As time went on, many coins and tokens of all different types were introduced by the colonist, and the money came to be. On March 1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation provided that Congress should have the sole right to regu-late not only the alloy, but also the value of any coin struck. This meaning each state had the right to coin money, and New Hampshire was the first of the states to consider coinage, but few coins were placed into circulation. Other states, such as Vermont, Connecticut, and New Jersey were granted coining privileges. Copper Coins were the first coins to be minted by the United States Mint, which officially opened its doors in 1793. The Mint produced the Large Cent and the Half Cent, which both went through some rather major design changes. But none the less the cents were produced in a time where they were greatly needed. Af-ter the era of the Large and Half Cents, which ended in 1857, came rise to a new copper coin series called the small cents which escalated into what we use now. The Flying Eagle Cent gave birth to a new metal used in minting coins. This new metal was Nickel, and it began the basis of coins today. The new copper-nickel coins are what a majority of our coins today are made of in some facet or another. Many of the most popular and famous coins were struck in silver. Silver coins were what the United States Mint primarily produced and are very popular in the collecting community. Many denominations of silver coins have been struck including the three-cent piece, the silver half-dime, the twenty-cent piece, quarter dollar, half dollar, and the one dollar coins. All of these coins, whether short lived or here to stay, brought some importance to the economic structure of the United States. The Silver Coins were without a doubt one of the most regarded collectible coins minted by our United States Mint. Our US Gold coins were minted in 1795 in denominations of the 5 and 10 dollar pieces. These are a very desired collectible among coin collectors all over the world, and the are as rare as they come. The United States Mint produced gold denominations of $1, $2.50, $5, $10, and the 20 dollar gold piece. A $4 Gold piece was struck as well as a $50 Gold, but these were merely pattern coins for the upcoming new coins and were never released into the economy. Owning gold coins today, isn't really to spend them as actual circulat-ing currency, but to regard them in the same effect as collectible coins—only knowing that they are worth their weight in gold. JvB

 
 CCCC Journal  April 2009
PAGE 2 CCCC Journal
Numismatics are for Collectors, Not Investors
By Matt Martin
 As a precious metals investor, you may heard much about numismatic and "semi-numismatic" coins, par-ticularly the St. Gaudens $20 double eagle gold coin. While coin collecting can be an interesting hobby, it is not necessarily related to metals investing. Coins of this type vary in value with the ebb and flow of the col-lector market and are not strictly tied to metal value. Also, these coins often go for much more over spot price than bullion coins. One of the concepts that gets bandied about quite a bit is the idea of U.S. government confiscation. While it is true that the U.S. government did have a gold recall in 1933 by executive order of FDR, gold coins of a sig-nificant value over gold value were not subject to this recall. Many dealers use this to imply that in the event of another confiscation these older coins would fall in this category in order to sell these types of coins to the unsuspecting or newer metals investor. However, the confiscation issue is a red herring for several reasons: . The dollar was backed by gold in 1933 and the recall was designed at least in part to stop the run on banks; the dollar no longer has any metal backing. . St. Gaudens $20 coins in almost uncirculated to mint state conditions are still very common even consider-ing their age due to decades of mass storage in European bank vaults. . There is nothing that states that numismatic items could not be confiscated in the event of another recall; the original executive order no longer has any force of law. . Gold is no longer used in regular-issue U.S. coinage (the American Eagle gold coin, although it has a face value, does not count) and is typically used only in jewelry and privately-held investment vehicles such as bars and bullion coins which would be harder to recall and account for. The majority of recalled gold coinage in 1933 was housed in bank vaults. . As gold is no longer used as a monetary instrument by the U.S. government, confiscation is unlikely in any event. Now, you may be wondering about silver in regards to this as well. Silver held sway as coinage for longer than gold, and some silver coins can still be found in circulation. However, silver has never been subject to confiscation, and its status as an important industrial metal gives good reason to believe that there will never be a silver recall. 90% and 40% silver U.S. coinage is still widely available, and although it sounds contrary to what I stated above, these coins are a good value - as long as they can be bought at near silver spot or less. This is an im-portant distinction to make, as old silver coinage (often referred to as junk silver) often carries very little to no value as a collector item over the metal value. These coins, if anything, are semi-numismatic, but don't bank on collector value. In short, if you approach this from the perspective of a metals investor never look at a coin for collector value. Collector markets are often hard to get a pulse on, and numismatics are much more illiquid than their bullion counterparts. If you're paying more than spot plus a modest premium, you're paying too much. JvB
 

 
 April
2009
 
CCCC Journal
PAGE 3 CCCC Journal
7 Most Common Coin Collecting Themes
By Cindy Heller
Coin collecting has been the hobby of many people for many years. If you refer to history, the first coin collectors were kings and emperors of different kingdoms all over the world. Some of the first known coin collectors are the Roman Emperors and King Farouk of Egypt. Nowadays, instead of simply collecting coins, modern coin collectors collect coins according to a theme. Some of these themes are: 1) Country Collection 2) Year Collection 3) Error Collection 4) Subject Collection 5) Type Collection 6) Composition Collection 7) Period Collection
Country Collection
Country collection is one of the favorite coin collecting themes. Coin collectors who collect coins from different countries do their best to get their hands on current or past coins from as many countries as possible. This type of coin collecting would most likely be never ending since many countries keep on changing their currencies.
 Year Collection
 Year collections focus more on a specific coin and denomination. Under year collection theme, a coin collector will collect his coins by year. For example, an enthusiastic collector of the Lincoln cent may collect all Lincoln coins from the date it was first created in 1909 up to the present. The challenge in year collection is to complete the collection in terms of year. Once a collector has completed the set of Lincoln cents, he will move on to another type of coin and start over again. Many enthusiastic coin collectors who collect coins by year will be able to complete several sets of coins during their lifetime.
Error Collection
Error collections are coin collections that are more focused on coins with mistakes on them. The mistakes on these coins may be either be very obvious or not at all. Older coins will usually have more mistakes because coins were minted by hand before the 19th century. Common errors are found on coins are double dies, overdates, double strikes, repunched mint marks, off metal coins, displace coins and clipped coins.  Another very interesting error is mule. These coins are very interesting because each side of the coin has a different denomination. Coin collectors usually desire coins with errors because they are very unusual. These kind of coins can seldom be found them nowadays as minting has become fully automated.
(Continued on Page 4)

 
 CCCC Journal  April 2009
PAGE 4 CCCC Journal
7 Most Common Coin Collecting Themes
 
(Continued from page 3)
Subject Collection
Subject collections are the collections where collectors collect coins which have a specific subject like a ship or animals marked on the coin. To expand the subject collection, the collector would have to do a lot of research to find out which countries have coins with the subject of his collection.
Type Collection
Sometimes coin collectors collect coins which are designed in a particular way. For instance, a coin collector may collect certain coins which have a hole in the center. There are some countries which create coins with a hole in the center. This collector will collect coins from different countries but with holes in the center.
Composition Collection
Even the coin composition can be a coin collection theme. Some coins are created with a combi-nation of 2 or more metals. There are international coins which are composed of different kinds of metals. Some countries make their coins bimetal and some may use more than two combinations of metal for their coins.
Period Collection
Period collections are collections based on the period from which the coins were created. Some collections consist of coins from the Victorian era. Other collectors may go as far down history as the Byzantine or Greek period for their collections. There are several periods which can be the bases for period collection. Initially, coin collectors might have started collecting coins because of having extra coins after a holiday trip overseas or because they like the design of a certain coin. As the collectors' interest in-crease, so will his appetite for more variety or more specific coins.  Although there are different kinds of coin collecting themes, most coin collectors are generalists and they simply prefer to have a little bit of everything. In reality, coin collecting preference is all up to the collector and does not have to depend on a certain theme. Whatever a collector fancies in a coin can be the basis for the collection. Many collectors strive to surpass each other by procuring the most sought after coins available. Coin collecting has now become a sort of competition for the collectors. Most collectors wish to out-wit and outshine others with their collection of coins. However, there are also coin collectors who are just proud of having a unique set of coins not found in any other collector's collection.

 
 CCCC Journal  April 2009
PAGE 8 CCCC Journal
2009 OFFICERS
President Garn Anderson  Vice President Richard Navarro Secretary/Editor Jack von Bloeker III Treasurer George Gill
 Any items of interest for this newsletter can be mailed or emailed to: CCCC Journal c/o Jack von Bloeker III 5714 Apia Drive Cypress, CA 90630 Email: jvonb3@ca.rr.com The Culver City Coin Club normally meets on the second Thursday of every month in the El Segundo Library on Mariposa  Avenue, West of Sepulveda, South of LAX. Next meeting Thursday,  April 16
th
@ 6:30 PM Take the 105 Freeway West to the end, go about a mile or so to Main Street, turn left, the Library will be after you make a right turn on Mariposa. We will be in the Meeting Room downstairs.
 
REFRESHMENTS
 April——Lou Block
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
 April—Anthony Lynch May—George Sobodos
COIN SHOWS
 Apr 24-26 Oceanside
Oceanside Coin, Currency, Jew-elry & Stamp Show. QLN Learn-ing Center, 1938 Ave., Del Oro. (5 miles E. of I-5, 2 blocks N. of Oceanside Blvd.) Hrs: Fri. 11AM-6PM, Sat. 10AM-6PM, Sun. 10AM-5PM. ADM
May 8-10 Pasadena
PASPEX. Pasadena Hilton Hotel, 168 S. Los Robles Ave. Hrs: Fri. 11AM-6PM, Sat. 10AM-6PM, Sun. 10AM-5PM. ADM
DID YOU KNOW???
 —The Shield nickel from 1866 to 1883 was the first nickel to have "In God We Trust" on it.
 
 —That the first time E PLURI-BUS UNUM appeared on a coin made by the US Mint was on the 1795 Liberty Cap-Heraldic Eagle gold half eagle.  —That more examples of the Kennedy half dollar were pro-duced during its first eight years than the combined production of half dollars in the previous 170 years.  —That the public and the Treas-ury Dept. did not like the large cents; the public because of it's size and weight, and the Treas-ury, because it was so expen-sive to produce.
DID YOU KNOW???
 —The first coinage struck spe-cifically for the English-American colonies was called the "Hogge Money" of Bermuda and was minted in London. The name was derived from the fact that hogs were very plentiful on Ber-muda.
 
 —The first regular issue cent, struck in 1793, is referred to as a "chain cent". It derived its name from the reverse design which is a circular chain of 15 links.
  — 
James Longacre was the de-signer of the Indian Head cent. The initial "L" is on the bonnet ribbon of the headdress, right below the last feather. The ini-tial is on the coins from 1864 and after.