December 16^th 2001.

Next club meeting Monday 7^th January 2002.

• This is our annual auction. This auction has well over 200 lots, which must be a record for the club. This means we are going to be very tight for time in order to finish by 10 o'clock. Members are therefore encouraged to come early for the view, which hopefully will start about 7.15pm. The auction will begin promptly at 8pm and with a good pace set by our trusty auctioneer (Frank) and prompt bidding we should finish on time. Looking over our past records the policy for charging (or not) for unsold lots has been variable. This year the committee decided that there would be no charge for unsold lots for this auction. However, this decision will be reviewed by the committee in the light of the auction results, and the policy determined accordingly for next years auction. Dealers tables will be permitted at the January meeting, but only after the auction has finished. However, in view of the large number of lots in the auction the time available for dealing will most likely be minimal.

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

November meeting.

The scheduled talk was expected to be given by W Spencer on medal research at the PRO. Unfortunately, the speaker called off at the last minute, leaving the chairman with yet more worries. However, in the hour of need we were once again able to depend upon the resources within our club. Graham, a very long time member filled the gap with a highly entertaining talk on items in his collection. Graham is no stranger to entertaining audiences, having given some 10 talks and 9 displays to the club since 1973.

In the hour or so available, Graham captivated the members with much information and many humorous anecdotes expertly woven around his collection of medallions, tokens, coins and paper money. In particular he linked some happenings of the past to current news stories.

To begin with we were informed how the well known travel company 'Thomas Cook' had its beginnings in providing tours to Temperance Society meetings. Continuing the theme of transport we learnt about the early payment policy of the London Underground and the Staffordshire Potteries Street railway.

The focus then change to that of public works, linking the ancient works of Probus, whose bust can be seen at the Vine near Basingstoke, to those of more modern times, particularly the Victorian period. Moving on to religious matters Graham talked about Scottish Communion tokens, Sunday School attendance medals and medallions of John Wesley. One piece was of particular interest, namely a wooden medallion of John Wesley. This is reputedly made from the Sycamore tree planted in 1703 in Epworth church yard by his father to commemorate John's birth.

On a lighter note we were shown some examples of unofficially engraved coins, including both Kruger and Edward 7th wearing a hat and smoking a pipe. In the final part of the talk we heard about Toy money, Inflationary money, primitive money and Bank $'s, concluding with what else but a taken for the Thickston brewery.

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Future Events

Davidson Monk Coin Fair at Commonweafth Institute - 19th January

Birmingham Coin Fair at National Motorbike Museum, Birmingham - 13th January

Croydon Coin Auctions - 8th January 2002

Past Events

30 years ago a members evening was held that included a mini auction, a short talk on Arabian coins by Michael Broome and a short quiz.

20 years ago the guest speaker was Mr M Hibbit, a freelance coin and medal designer who talked about coindesigning from the planning stages to production of the master dies.

10 years ago a long standing club member Vincent West gave an illustrated talk on a little known series of coins of the Axumite kings of Ethiopia.