Notice of Meeting

The next meeting of the PEINA will be held on Monday, April 17, 2000, at 7:30 pm in the library of Colonel Gray Senior High School, 175 Spring Park Road, Charlottetown. Please park in the teachers' parking lot on the north side of the building.

April Programme

The C.N.A. Library has kindly loaned us two excellent slide presentations made by the A.N.A., one on "Coins With Special Significance" [46 colour slides] and "Crowns Of The World", part one, [61 colour slides]. Our thanks go to Mike Bell for his help in securing this material for us.

To complement this subject of world coins and crowns, members are welcome to bring along and display a special coin or crown or two from their own collection.

Ralph Dickieson's promised presentation on the PEI one cent copper coin of 1871 will be on the programme in May. Again, bring your coin(s)!

The March Meeting

Two important topics dominated our discussion, namely, hosting the APNA fall rally which had been first raised in February, and the matter of the revised PEINA constitution.

The decision to host was unanimous, and discussion of the details will be held next time. An e-mail message was sent to the APNA President to inform him of our offer. Because every October weekend at Confederation Centre is booked, we opted for the dates of Friday November 3 and Saturday November 4. The Charlottetown Hotel would be our hotel site. Discussion also touched upon a speaker for an evening dinner and the format of the weekend.

Since then, we have heard back from the president of APNA. The Fall 2000 show will be going elsewhere, but our interest and enthusiasm is appreciated. We have been asked if we will host APNA in

2001, either the spring or fall meetings. This will be discussed by the club executive in April

and a recommendation will be

Contents

1 Notice of Meeting

1 April Programme

1 March Meeting Review

2 Internet Review

5 Ewen McLeod's Token

REMINDER - next meeting scheduled for April 17th

7 PM Executive Meeting

7:30 PM Membership Meeting

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presented to the membership. Meanwhile, thought could be given to an appropriate activity for our club, to mark the Canada Coin Month in October.

The revised draft constitution was presented at the March meeting and briefly reviewed by the president. Members present seemed happy with the revisions, which attempt to more closely mirror current club practice. A final decision on the constitution will be taken in April. Meanwhile, any member wishing to have a copy of the revised draft is welcome to write or telephone the president.

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Reminder: next meeting, April 17^th, Election Day in P.E.I. !

Do we talk too much?

Can we make more efficient use of our meeting time? Reference was made to the practice of other clubs, and to the recommendation contained in the CNA guidebook for coin clubs, where the club executive meets before the meeting of the club's general membership. It is interesting to note, too, that our draft constitution of some years ago also made provision for such regular meetings of the club executive. Administrative matters can be settled quickly, without imposing upon the time of all members.

So, as an experiment, and beginning in April, the PEINA executive will meet 30 minutes before the general meeting. The executive meeting will be held in the Colonel Gray library, at 7 p.m. on April 17th.

Long-Range Planning

Two important matters were raised during our March discussions, and both require our attention. First, attracting new members to our organization and second, attracting young members. These issues need to be addressed. One wonders if we can somehow link this to October, which is "Coin Month Canada". This requires everyone's careful consideration, followed by action. If any members want to take either of these on as a project, we will all be in your debt.

Internet Review

Why read reviews of Internet sites when you don't have a computer? Easy!

Computers with Internet access are available in Charlottetown at the Confederation Centre Public Library. Other Island libraries have similar resources available to their patrons. If you want to check any of the sites mentioned in this or previous Internet articles, try your local public library. Perhaps you'll be tempted to consider getting a computer of your own.

If you do "get connected", you might want to treat yourself to a visit to some online coin shops. Two will be mentioned here. One is in Britain, the other is in the United States. Both are reputable establishments and you may find it hard to keep your cash in your pocket!

Why? Each site presents on-line images of some of the coins and tokens it has for sale. Even if you are just browsing, those coins are a visual treat. What is even more interesting is the written commentary that often accompanies each coin or group of coins.

The shop in Kansas is www.shawneecoin.com, run by Paul Tadlock The focus is on American material and the section devoted to American tokens is certainly worth a look. The reproduction of the coins is very good, the text clear and legible, and the coins themselves are a pleasure to look at. Do not overlook the section of "hard times" tokens, or the patriotic tokens that sprang up during the American civil war years of 1861-65. Occasionally in the "World" section some Canadian coins will be listed. Of particular interest to the collector unfamiliar with American history is the informative background explanation which helps place the coins or tokens into context.

Not too long ago, this writer purchased a hard times token from the Tadlocks, a coin showing on each side a three-masted sailing ship. This is a common enough subject on North American tokens of that vintage, but this was a lovely example of the ship as a national symbol rather than, as on PEI's "Ships, Colonies & Commerce" tokens, the ship as a symbol of commerce, prosperity and technology. The transaction went smoothly, and this ship token is now at anchor here in Charlottetown!

The second virtual coin shop is in the village of Great Missenden, in Buckinghamshire in England. Accessible to you via www.users.globalnet.co.

uk/~brcoin is S &B Coins, run by Simon Monks and Brian Reeds. These two gentlemen, who post impressive numismatic credentials on their home page, lead us on a visual tour of a tasty sampling from the coins and tokens which they have available. If you have "Adobe Acrobat", which is a programme for reading text, you can read all the descriptions in their Bulletin which includes English and Scottish hammered and milled coins, plus medals and tokens.

The quality of the material offered is high and the range is extensive. Some of the coins offered would be right at home in a museum, and even the "ordinary" (if one can call them that) tokens are handsome pieces.

There are many other coin shops and dealers available on line. I have yet to encounter a printed directory, but for browsing purposes you would not go wrong to begin with the "Penny Lane" site, mentioned in this newsletter last month, which has an extensive list of numismatic links.

Many of those links will take you to coins for sale, and even if you're not buying that day, it costs nothing to stop by and have a look. Add the site to your bookmarks, and become a regular visitor.

Book Review:

Aspects of The Numismatics of North America; proceedings of a Symposium held in Regina, Saskatchewan, 16 July 1985. C. F. Gilboy, editor. Regina: Regina Coin Club, 1985. U.P.E.I.CJ/27/A76/1985.

Here's another interesting volume culled from the stacks of the Robertson Library as UPEI. This book contains the text of several presentations given at an international symposium organized by the Regina Coin Club many years ago. However, even though this book is 15 years old, it points out two useful lessons. The first, the UPEI library has a small but very interesting collection of books for Island numismatists. Many are from the library of the late Mr. Tom Rogers, a collector of PEI and world coins and for many years a member of this Club. The second, is that many of the volumes contain very useful pieces of numismatic research. And for proof of this, read the opening section of Aspects on "The Current Status of Numismatic Research and Literature in North America", the text of a round-table discussion with R. C. Willey, Q. David Bowers, and C. Hubbard. Back in 1985 there was much to research and write about, and that still holds true fifteen years later. And many of the topics dealt with ten or more years ago have not been revisited or updated. But there is good news: for any collector interested in expanding numismatic knowledge and exploring new areas, there is certainly no shortage of subjects and suggestions.

There are over a dozen articles here, leading off with four applicable to North America. This is followed by more focussed pieces with seven devoted to Canada and one each to the United States and Mexico.

Of particular interest to this reviewer, who has been collecting tokens for a number of years, is C. J. Faulkner's "Out Of The Past - a History of Breton 999", a most interesting piece of detective work applied to one specific token from the Ships, Colonies & Commerce series that has so long been associated with this province. In a nutshell, the research aims at uncovering as much information as possible about the coin or token, then sharing this with interested numismatists in a informative and entertaining article. This is a method of research illustrated elsewhere in this newsletter, as Ralph Dickieson applies his detective skills to the Ewen McLeod token.

This Regina Coin Club book covers a wide variety of topics, including the influence of classical period numismatics on present-day coins, oddities and varieties and errors, early banks and paper money, military campaign medals, and colonial and modern coinage in the USA and Mexico. Throughout, and especially in the articles on Canadian paper money, there is a wealth of useful illustrations and information.

This book is another reason why the collection of the Robertson Library, U.P.E.I., should not be overlooked.

Displays

Subscribers to Canadian Coin News will have seen writer and collector Chris Boyer's article in the March 7 issue, "It is time to work on an exhibit".

Remember, the APNA spring show and sale is not far away, and anyone thinking of attending the Dartmouth event should also give some thought to a display. Boyer's article gives us some useful advice, and a few points will be touched on here.

One of the points that Boyer's article makes is talking with other numismatists, to obtain constructive comment about a display and to pick up ideas and suggestions regarding presentation. Boyer's article is full of useful tips: always, always, avoid the temptation to crowd a display with too many coins. Put a border around text so it will stand out; consider using some device that will make the coins stand out, like a pedestal. This writer used disks of black felt at the fall APNA show and this seemed to work quite well. The article also mentions the use of sections of dowelling, painted black to minimize distraction.

Boyer goes on to talk about using three-dimensional letters for the title, mirrors so viewers can see the back of the object being displayed, coloured cardboard and postcards or other visual materials to add some eye appeal.

His final word on the subject: a display is what he calls "the harmonious combination of the three main elements: the written information, its background and arrangement, and the numismatic material itself."

There is no shortage of material to be presented. A glance at last October's APNA displays confirms that there are lots of high quality coins and tokens ready to be worked up into a display, and one is limited only by one's imagination. Boyer is quite right to stress background, where the "arrangement should be eye-pleasing, have balance between free space and artifacts, and should have a balance of colours which are not distracting yet should emphasize" the items displayed.

So, here is grist for our mill. The PEINA has a number of standard-size display cases available for loan at no cost to prospective exhibitors and at present carefully stored by our past-president. I'll be using one; what about you?

Next Month (if the editor can find the time): the tokens of Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. Also, numismatic reference books in the Confederation Centre Library.

Please, if you have not already done so, send us your year 2000 membership dues which are $15 per member, $20 for couples and $10 for student membership. Otherwise, this newsletter is your last.

Congratulations to Ralph Dickieson for his well-researched article on the Ewan McLeod token.

Finally, our thanks to those who brought in PEINA books, letters, newsletters, photographs and other archival material. If you have PEINA material, please bring it along to our meeting on the 17th.