Notice of Meeting

The next general meeting of the PEINA will be held on Monday, September 18^th, 2000, at 7:30 p.m. in the Library of Colonel Gray Senior High School at 175 Spring Park Road, Charlottetown. The executive of the Club will meet at 7 pm, 30 minutes before the general meeting. Parking is available in the teachers' lot, on the north side of the school. Come a few minutes early to browse through the magazines and journals received recently by the club.
 

The June Meeting

We had a grand time together at our June meeting, gathering in the dining room at the Inn on the Hill for various kinds of refreshment. The food was good, the beer was cold, and the conversation very pleasant. As always we had a draw and a number of lucky people won prizes.

Fall APNA Rally

A reminder, that the fall coin rally is taking place in Fredericton in the Regent Mall, just off the Trans-Canada highway, on the weekend of October 13-15th. I have written to the organizer and hope to have more details shortly about this and if not received before the September 18^th general meeting, will include this information in the October newsletter which I'll try to get out very early in the month. The Fredericton Inn is the official hotel of the APNA rally and anyone intending to go should contact the Inn for preferential APNA rates.
 

Monthly Features....

Numismatics on the Internet & the joy of surfing

Anyone not familiar with the Internet may be thrown off by the above expression. Surfing has nothing to do with boards and waves, in this case, but the delightful, time-consuming and occasionally frustrating hobby (or habit) of cranking up the computer, typing "coins" or "numismatics" or "exonumia" into a search engine, and seeing where it will take you. Many of the places revealed by the search engine will contain "links" to other related sites, and so one hops from one webpage to another, soon oblivious of time and, with luck, picking up useful information along the way.

Given this writer's habit of getting lost, I learned early on it is useful to keep a notebook handy to jot down notes regarding the various sites visited and, just as important, those places that were bypassed. Yes, I know, computers can keep track of your wanderings for you, but from experience I know that it is possible to accidentally wipe out files, records, the lot! Baseball star Yogi Berra is credited with saying, "when you come to a fork in the road, take it", but as the numismatic surfer can attest, one can only go to one site at a time. Each site suggests other places, and sometimes we forget to go back. So, keeping a record of places visited and the impressions we gain can be useful six months down the road. Or have I said all this before?

This month I'll mention a couple of places that I like to visit, and where I have occasionally spent the odd dollar to boost my little collection.

The first is the Classical Numismatic Group, CNG, based in Pennsylvania and London, England. Visit them at www.historicalcoins.com for a very tidy site offering auctions of ancient coins, forums for collectors to chat back and forth, and a sales area for coins, reference books, supplies, journals, and much more. Yes, some of the ancient coins run into the thousands of dollars, but I bought an ancient piece of Greek money for $15 and would not part with it for ten times that amount.

A second site to mention has been recently spruced up and has a wider range of material, from ancient to modern including British, American, and Canadian coins, also tokens and primitive money. This is www.calgarycoin.com which is run, when I last checked, by Robert Kokotailo of the Calgary Coin and Antique Gallery located on 1^st Street SW. Anyone interested in primitive money will want to be a regular visitor, and prices in the recent past have ranged from $12 upward. Guess who plunged in and bought the $12 item? This shop has a wide variety of items, and is certainly worth noting for regular visits.

Finally, a site I am just beginning to explore, but which appears to have a huge set of useful numismatic links, is www.cronum.com/siti/uksiti2.htm A wide variety of topics is available for exploring, and there are a number of Chinese coin sites which, in the absence of reference books, could be useful for anyone looking for information on that topic.

If you have any favourite sites, then put pen to paper and let us have your contribution. The Internet has much to offer, and adds a new dimension to our hobby. And remember, if you do not have a computer, contact your local library. Public access sites are now available across the province.
 

Summer holidays....a numismatic expedition overseas

Well, what can I say. It was wonderful. I'm referring to my family's three-week vacation in Britain which, sadly, has recently come to an end. From late July to mid-August, thanks to a lucky house-swap, your editor took up residence in a suburb of London and daily enjoyed The Times, pubs, using pounds and pence, English beer, the crowded London underground, as well as several coin shops and coin displays in a number of museums.

I'm not going to tell you how much money I spent, but I will say I was able to pick up some interesting pieces. These ranged from examples of "primitive money", useful to show students in my high school Economics class, to a super 1813 Wellington token from Dublin, plus a few Wellington "battle tokens", several Breton tokens and a few other pieces that are either Canadian or related to Canada.

A visit to Coincraft on Great Russell Street, almost directly opposite The British Museumn, yield pleasant conversation with the staff and a Wellington medal struck to commemorate the opening of the Royal Exchange and the unveiling of an equestrian statue of the Duke. Coincraft has two side-by-side shops in an old, historic building which they are not allowed by law to alter. So, there are two shops, conveniently connected by the sidewalk out front! Coincraft is known for a number of its publications including its annual "Standard Catalogue of English and UK Coins, 1066 to Date" (I paid 20 pounds for mine) and a monthly illustrated newspaper entitled "The Phoenix" detailing coins, tokens, medals and paper currency for sale. Coincraft also deals in small antiquities, like many British dealers I noticed. You can get a subscription to the monthly Phoenix for free, provided you make reasonably regular purchases. From my experience, there is always something tempting on offer. You can go there yourself, via www.coincraft.com and contact them at info@coincraft.com

With a sunny afternoon at my disposal I asked Coincraft staff if there were any other shops within walking distance and was given directions to a number of them.

With the sun beating down and bravely ignoring several tempting pubs, I made my way to a small shop run by David Pratchett, at 7 Witcomb Street located a short walk away. One of his activities is to buy and sort coins left in charity boxes in airports, etc., so as we sorted coins into piles -- Dutch here, French there, German in another pile -- we chatted about coins and collecting. As he watched me join in with the sorting, he said that visitors will stand and talk with him for a while but eventually almost everyone will gather up a handful and join him in sorting coins! No, he didn't have any Wellington tokens but did invite me to look through several wooden boxes of mixed coins. One box was marked One Pound each, the second box Two Pounds, a third was Five Pounds, and so on. Well, did I have fun! A 1918 Canadian half in fine condition, and a five cent piece dated 1882H in VF, were found in the wooden boxes along with some Breton items of 1814 and 1838. The price was right!!! You can have a look at some of David Pratchett's stock by going to his website, at www.coinsonline.co.uk There is some great stuff there, including paper money and coins from around the world. One item from his shop that cost me very little, but pleases me a great deal, is a 1945 1-cent piece issued by the Malaya Commissioners of Currency, a square coin but with rounded edges. Still with traces of lustre, this piece will demonstrate to my students that coins don't have to be round! And one other gem from the wooden bins: flat on the bottom and round on top, this brass token was issued by the "Long Buckby Co-Op Society Ltd." for a "small loaf". There were several in the bin, and for one pound I bought one. Imagine my surprise and delight a few days later when I saw the same token in the British Museum's "History of Money" gallery! One more treasure: a bimetallic Polish coin, dated 2000, but tip it a little and the date changes to 2001. Fascinating, and in mint condition.

Another shop within a short walk of the British Museum was the Robert Johnson Coin Co., at 15 Bury Place. Tucked away in this little corner shop was a wonderful range of numismatic material, at a wide variety of prices. Something for everyone! Robert Johnson is an articulate 30-year veteran of the coin trade and as he worked at his cluttered desk appeared willing to chat with the casual visitor. This casual visitor was looking for tokens and was not disappointed: three handsome 18^th century pieces, each in wonderful condition. Also found was a southeast Asian cast silver bar, probably from Laos, probably 18^th century, and a wonderful piece of numismatic history. Again, a similar bar was spotted in the British Museum display a few days later. Also acquired, on a second visit to this shop, was a mint condition banknote bearing the portrait of the first Duke of Wellington.

Like every British coin shop I visited, the collector "from away" is warmly welcomed and, once the trays of coins come out, sorely tempted! Robert Johnson's shop is no exception, and it's one I'll most certainly return to on my next visit. I was also able to find some good books on British tokens here, and they have been useful in identifying a number of my "mystery" pieces.

At 16 Charing Cross Road, just up from the National Portrait Gallery and a very short walk from Trafalgar Square, is Malcolm Bord Gold Coin Exchange, a dealer in a wide variety of numismatic material. "Do you have any Wellington tokens?" "Sorry, no," replied Mr Bord, "only this piece." This was the 1813 "Wellington & Erin Go Bragh" [Wellington & Ireland for ever] penny token issued by Edward Stephens of James's Street, Dublin, designed by Halliday and probably struck by Edward Thomason, the gentlemen who produced the so-called "battle tokens" for J. K. Picard which now bear Breton numbers, among others. This coin was in almost uncirculated condition, with considerable lustre, a very tempting piece indeed. Please do not ask me what I paid for it! Mr Bord's shop, in addition to gold coins, has an interesting variety of other pieces and again, this is a shop worth browsing in.

One other London coin dealer deserves mention. This is Spink, at 69 Southampton Row and a five minute walk from the British Museum. In business since 1666 and publisher of the Numismatic Circular since 1892, Spink has recently occupied a restored building that was once a central London post office. Did I mention the place was huge? Sharp-eyed readers of Canadian Coin News may remember an article that appeared earlier this year about Spink's move to their new quarters. This building is grand, appropriate for a firm that has a worldwide reputation for its trade in coins, banknotes, medals, stamps and related areas. I was directed by a receptionist to the third floor and was formally received and directed to a private booth where, once I was seated in a very comfortable chair, one of the staff looked after me. The Numismatic Circular, with scholarly articles and book reviews, also highlights forthcoming auctions with reproductions, some in colour, of a breathtaking range of material. The cover of the August 2000 Circular features an Edward VIII matt finish Pattern Florin, 1937, by T. H. Paget (think HP on Canadian George VI coins) with an estimate of 25,000 pounds. This is serious collecting, yet the Circular also lists coins without those three zeros. You can get to Spink yourself at www.spink-online.com

Not all my coin-hunting was confined to London. I was able to visit dealers in other places, and sometimes came across coins by chance as I did at an antiques market one day in Oxford. A gentleman had set up a small display of British coins, ranging from early hammered coinage to modern milled coins. What a smorsgasbord!

In Cambridge I deliberately sought out Granta Coins & Antiquities, 23 Magdalene Street, having seen their advertisement in the Coincraft annual. Proprietor Alan Fordham cheerfully gave me the tour of his shop and unlocked several cases so I could have a better look. I left with several wonderful tokens for about 7 pounds each and, paying somewhat more, an 1825 American half dollar in VF, possibly EF condition. It was a lovely coin and I couldn't pass it by. I was told that prices were often cheaper outside London, and in this case, regarding tokens, that comment was true. One token found at The Coin Centre, run by Giuseppe Miceli in Wellingborough Road in Northampton behind his Italian grocery, was only 5 pounds, although a 1936 Canadian silver dollar for 25 pounds (a pound is roughly $2.25) was a little high I thought. Still, it was fun to browse and have a chat.

Granta Coins does have a page on the Internet, http://members.aol.com/

coingranta/index.html although right now the focus is on stamps, which Granta also sells.

Two other places are surely worth mentioning. The first, the Museum of the Bank of England. Wow! Don't go in the main doors in Threadneedle Street, go around the corner and down a bit and you'll see the sign. Once inside, and admission is free, you encounter a magnificent display regarding the political, social and economic history of the Bank as well as its numismatic past. I spent about two hours having a good look about, admiring the artifacts from the Bank's history and chatting with a monneyer, dressed in the clothing of the 11^th century and striking coins the old way, one at a time with a hammer. His was a most interesting demonstration of how early coins were made, and cheerfully he struck off an example for me.

The Museum of the Bank of England dazzles the visitor with a remarkable collection of artifacts, some very old (like their very early bank notes) and some not so old and other, like a pile of gold bars, recently made. Upon closer inspection the gold bars, save for one, were fake, a useful lesson for anyone in the collecting mode. But the gold bars from ancient Rome....wonderfully rare!

One last stop: the HSBC coin gallery in the British Museum. This was heaven. A history of money from earliest times to the present, profusely illustrated with the finest examples from throughout the Museum's many separate departments.

I'll say more about the British Museum and its publications next time, and on the 18^th I'll show you colour slides and some of the coins. Let's hope the slides turn out all right.

Treasures from the Earth

One of the pleasures of living in London is the choice available every morning at the "newsagents", a.k.a. the corner store, where a wide variety of newspapers and tabloids are available. The news contained in the papers we bought daily was enough for a solid one-hour session every morning.

On Thursday, August 17^th, the Times of London reported "Cousins get L265,000 for Roman pennies". At the approximate exchange rate of $2.25 that's a windfall of about $600,000 in Canadian dollars. Out in his field learning how to use a metal detector, Kevin Elliott used the information given to him a few moments before by cousin Martin to locate some coins in a gateway. Thirty minutes later, after striking a trail of coins, they hit the jackpot with a find of some 9,213 silver denarius coins. According to The Times, this is the biggest coin find in Britain since a hoard of about 3000 coins was found in the 1890s in Essex. Dating from 31 BC to 224 AD, the find included some very rare pieces found in Britain for the first time. The coins have been purchased and will eventually be displayed in a museum once a suitable display case is built. Wonderful!
 

On-Line auctions

E-bay and Empire and many others, what's your view? If you are a regular (or even a not-so-regular) user/patron of on-line auctions, why not write up your thoughts for the next newsletter?
 

The Royal Canadian Mint

Regular readers of the Canadian Coin News will have noticed in the August 22 - September 4 issue the announcement regarding the continuing series of millennium quarters. This coin series continues to put very attractive pieces of money into our hands with a wide variety of designs. The August 2000 coin is devoted to the theme of Family with a double wolf design by Wade Stephen Baker. Striking in its simplicity and unity of design, I am looking forward to seeing lots of them in my daily change.
 

And that's all for now....

Don't forget out meeting on September 18^th, and don't forget we are always looking for material for this newsletter. I was impressed with the design of Britain's bimetallic 2 pound coin. Is anyone game to write a piece on bimetalic coins?
 

mbh