December 20th. 1999.

Next club meeting Monday 10th. January 2000.

At Reading Library, King's Road. Entrance off Abbey Square.

Meeting commences at 7.00 pm.

December meeting

Excellent short talks were given by 6 Club members.

John. Reading Bank

John had come into the possession of a white £5 issued by Reading Bank. One of the signatures, J.B.Monk, seemed familiar so he decided to investigate. Until after the Civil War there were no Banks. The Bank of England opened in 1694, followed by the Bank of Scotland the following year. The first Berkshire bank opened at Abingdon in 1780 and then another in Reading in 1790. Brewers were the main investors in banks as they had lots of cash and little to invest it in. They were not allowed to own public houses as they are today. Mr. Monk, a lawyer living on Coley Park estate, with two partners, Mr. Blandy and Mr. Simmonds, both brewery owners, opened Reading bank in 1790 at No l, Market Place. The bank issued a gold 40/- token in 1812 and silver tokens valued at 1/6 and 2/6. In 1816 the partner Mr. Simmons opened his own Bank. Mr. Monk was Liberal MP for Reading 3 times and died in 1834.

Graham. Attention to detail

Graham had spent some holiday time in Scotland and bought some souvenirs from museums. The first was a mouse mat with part of a lady's anatomy on it. It was a photograph of part of the Three Graces statue. There was also a photograph of a beggar's token. This was issued by the local authority to the beggar who was then allowed to beg and could prove it by displaying the Token. Following were slides from the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland. James I, imprisoned in the Tower of London.; James II, died by an exploding cannon; James III; James IV, died on Flodden Field; James V, only on the throne for 17 months; James VI, who united the two crowns; James VII and II, a Roman Catholic. Lastly there was a pack of cards with pictures of coins on them.

Michael. Unlisted and unrecorded varieties

Michael's talk is to be published in the near future and a report will appear here when it has been.

Tony. A Curate's Egg

Near to where Tony lives are the ruins of Waverly Abbey. When the abbey was occupied and flourishing it owned property in Yarmouth. This property was involved in the herring trade. In 1237/8 the price of herring collapsed bringing panic to the Baltic fishing fleet.

Tony also displayed a Mongol silver coin. This is in the format of a Chinese cash, round with a square hole. It is rare for a number of reasons. There are very few silver cash pieces, there are also very few Mongol coins, as paper money was in vogue during this period.

Mick. A Statue

A statue of a young queen Victoria unveiled by the queen for her golden jubilee in 1887. There is a plaque on the statue and this gives the sculptress' name as Princess Louise, one of the Queen's daughters. The princess was a talented artist and after the death of her father, Prince Albert in 1861, she sought solace in painting. In 1870 she caused consternation by stating that she was to be married to a commoner. The marriage was opposed but eventually went ahead. It was not a happy union and her husband, now the Marquis of Lourns, was made Governor of Canada while she stayed in England. There was further scandal when she was alone with a friend and he dropped dead. He was Sir Joachim E. Boehm designer of the portrait of the Queens head which appeared on the new coinage of 1887.

Louis became well know as an artist and sculptress and she received many commissions. This statue is the only statue in the world of a monarch by her offspring.

Maurice. 2000 years of Calendar

In 54 BC Julius Caesar started the first calendar and it became known as the Julian calendar. Unfortunately the year will not divide exactly into 365 days causing a problem for all those who would issue a calendar and various additions to the calendar have been used to rectify this problem. The English Calendar was again adjusted, now being known as the Gregorian calendar, in the middle ages but trying to satisfy all parties and being as accurate as possible proved a very difficult task. At times England was using different calendars at the same time, how contusing. Eventually we arrived at the position we are in today.

Seventeen members attended and there were three dealer tables.

January Meeting

This is a talk by Mr. William Spencer entitled "The Public Record Office and the First World War" This should be an interesting talk, especially to the medal collectors who attend.

Muriel

Muriel has kindly donated some Krause catalogues to the Club. These catalogues will go into the Club library and those that are already in the library will be auctioned to the Club members. As soon as we have decided what is available I will issue a list and you can give your bid to and committee member. I expect that this will be in the next newsletter.

2000 Venue

We have to vacate the library for our monthly meetings, because the library no longer has a night janitor. January will be our last meeting there. We are currently negotiating with the Baptist church for the use of their premises. The church entrance is 50 yards past the Library entrance. The church has most of the facilities of the library except that the lighting may not be as good. It is fully heated at all times. We are on the first floor and there are stairs to climb but a lift is being installed and will be in use April/May. They also have a car park opposite which will hold a dozen cars. This facility may disappear at some time in the future. Price is slightly more than the Library but the committee feels justified in recommending the hire of the church. I will give more information in the next news letter.

I have now spoken to the church and they have confirmed that we can hire the room from February 7th 2000.

Website

The club is now on the www, world wide web.

In there you will find newsletters, Club logo, constitution, library list, tape list and other items. Any comments or suggestions to John please. John will be the site administrator and hopes to increase the volume of information on there as time passes.

Future Events

Coin Fair. Saturday 22nd. January Commonwealth Institute. Kensington. London W8.

Coin Fair Sunday 9th January. National Motor Cycle Museum Bickenhill Birmingham.

20 Years ago

Mr. James and Mr. Davies, the Constable and ex Constable of Hungerford gave a talk entitled "The Hungerford Court Leet." They covered from 1120 when John of Gaunt granted the freedom of the land and rivers to the people of Hungerford up to the present day.

Illustrated were part of Hungerford Official's regalia and 17th century tokens of Hungerford.

Finally the committee wish all members and their families a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.