April 21st. 2000.

Next club meeting Monday 30^th April 2001

• This will be the (delayed) talk by John Keyworth whose subject will be "Banknotes". This should be an interesting talk being something outside our normal subjects..

Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.

April meeting

Yet again our speaker failed to show, Joe Bispham having a heavy cold. We hope by now that he has fully recovered, no doubt we will rearrange his visit for a future date. We have had more speakers failing to turn up this year than for any other year in the club's existence.

However, all was not lost because Michael stepped in at 12 hours notice and spoke to us about a particular aspect of the Cartwheel coinage. He started the talk by saying that he was suprised that there were so few varieties of the Cartwheel coinage, considering the large number (34 million) that were made. He went on to explain how he thought this had come about.

In the first place, the number of varieties is related to the number of separate dies that are used for the coinage. So Michael went back to discuss how dies were made. In early times, dies were made individually, probably by building up the design using several individual punches, perhaps one for the portrait and several simpler ones (beads, crescents etc..) and this led to a high degree of variability. Matthew Boulton, with his manufacturing background, knew that he couldn't produce enough dies to make the millions of coins required if they were made one by one - he needed to be able to turn out the dies at a high rate. Michael believes that Boulton employed a 'hubbing' process, where a master punch (or matrix) is made, which can be used to produce working dies, much the same process used to produce dies today. These working dies would then be 'finished' before they could be used, such finishing being a much smaller job than that of making the whole die. Michael produced a handout explaining the process. The use of a master punch would explain why so few varieties have been found. The finishing process could involve very fine details, such as harp strings, and there are known varieties for this feature on coins produced for use in Ireland and possibly also for the ship on the Cartwheel coinage, which is reported with many different numbers of portholes.

Michael then asked why no one had thought to do this before? The answer he gave was related to advances in technology. In simple terms the quality of steel required to make the dies had never been available before, so trying to produce dies from a master punch would not have worked. Lack of consistency in the metal meant that working dies would not uniformly take the strike, whilst impurities meant that the dies so produced would crack and split.

Thank you to Michael for a very interesting talk given at such short notice. Once again it demonstrates the depth of knowledge available from members of the club.

There were four dealer tables at the meeting. The member's display was given by Maurice, comprising a testoon and gold halfcrown (1529) from the reign of Henry VIII, together with a selection of halfcrowns from Edward VI.

Skittles Evening

The club skittles evening is on this coming Saturday, 28th April 2001. As last year, it will be at the Red Lion at Theale from about 7-30pm onwards. The cost is £8 per head, which includes a buffet (liquid refreshments not included!). The buffet will consist of

We need to have a firm commitment from members who wish to attend the skittles evening to give the people at the Red Lion an idea of numbers. Members who wish to come along to the skittles evening, need to let a committee member know as soon as possible, if they have not already done so.

British Museum Trip

As previously announced, a visit is being arranged to the British Museum and the Bank of England Museum. The British Museum part of the trip is expected to include a 'handling session' in the student's room. The date proposed is Wednesday 25th July 2001. Your committee is making arrangements with the powers that be, we will keep you posted - in the meantime please pencil the date in your diary. A form will be available to sign up at the next meeting.

Michael Broome Memorial Fund

The Royal Numismatic Society has announced that a memorial fund has been set up in memory of Michael Broome, who was a founder member of the Reading Club. The purpose of the fund is to encourage the study of numismatics in areas reflecting Michael's own interests, including Islamic coinage, Maria Theresa thalers and medals. Details are in the latest CCNB newsletter, which will be available at the next meeting.

Committee member

Tim will be coming off the club's committee at the end of the season and we will need a replacement for him. Would all members please give serious consideration to standing? The club cannot continue without a full committee.

Future Events

Coin Fair. Saturday 19^th May. Commonwealth Institute. Kensington. London W8.
RNS 15^th May. Ten Days That Shook the British Currency: the Monetary Crisis of 1797 Graham Dyer
BNS 24 ^th May. The Medallic Works of Neil MacPhail Donal Bateson

30 Years ago

On the 4^th May 1971 Mr. B.H. Grove spoke to us about Roman Coins and their Relation to History