Next club meeting - Monday 3^rd. November 2003.

• This will be a talk on The Image of the Emporer on Byzantine Coinage by Barrie Cooke.

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

Earlier this month 22 members and 4 guests were privileged to hear Michael Marsh give an illustrated talk on the life and works of Benedetto Pistrucci. Michael, who last spoke to Reading coin club in 1982, is perhaps best known for the publications on the Sovereign and Half Sovereign. However, Michael has had a long time interest in Benedetto Pistrucci , the results of which are also published in a very fine book.

To begin with Michael spoke on the history of the Pistrucci family. Benedetto was born in 1783 and was one of three children born to a high court judge based in Rome. His father wished Benedetto to follow in his footsteps and pursue a career in the law. However, Benedetto had other ideas and at first became an apprentice to a notable painter. This did not work out and after a series of other appointments Benedetto found his forte in the engraving of gems and stones. He became so good at this form of engraving that some of his cameos and intaglios were later sold as genuine antiques. To prove they were not antiques, and that he had in fact made them quite recently, he reproduced another copy that was greatly admired by the influential Sir Joseph Banks. This meeting with Sir Joseph eventually led to BP becoming an engraver at the Royal Mint. His career spanned many decades, during which he earned the well-deserved accolade as one of the finest engravers of English coinage. Not only is the work of BP outstanding, but also that he mastered the art of engraving in steel so very quickly is quite remarkable.

For the next part of the story Michael showed many slides of Pistrucci's work, talking about each piece in turn. In general terms they were:

1. The waxes produced by Pistrucci. He was masterful in sculpting in wax and his head of Napoleon is most impressive.
2. Some medallions, including the portrait plaque by Voight and the famous Waterloo medal. The depth of detail in the Waterloo medal is breathtaking and probably one of the finest medals ever conceived. Other medallions displayed were that of the Royal Humane Society and the memorial to J Chetwynd commissioned by Charterhouse School.
3. The cameos of Victoria, a young child, a Roman Emperor and his very famous Flora.
4. The coronation medallions of George 4th and Victoria.
5. The cameos of the coinage of George III for the Sovereign, half crown and shilling, together with the coins. The reverse of the sovereign is the famous George and Dragon design that has been used for decades and must rank amongst the finest and most recognisable designs of all time.
6. The long service and good conduct medal Michael was pleased to show his recently acquired example of this medal, the William 4th version, which is extremely rare compared to the later Victorian issue.
7. An example of his work as a sculpture. Benedetto was a very accomplished sculpture and the illustration shown was a bust by Benedetto of himself.

To conclude this talk we were shown a picture of Pistrucci's last residence in Egham, appropriately named Flora Lodge after his famous cameo no doubt, with Benedetto's great grandson standing outside. The final slide was of the great man's gravestone that confirmed his birth as 1783, and not 1784 as previously documented.

It is very difficult to write a synopsis that covers the wealth of information given in this talk. We can only thank the speaker, who travelled many miles to be with us, for giving such a memorable talk.

There were 26 members and 6 dealer's tables.

The straw poll taken at the last meeting indicated a good level of interest in holding an informal meal to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the club. The officers of the club will therefore discuss the subject at the next committee meeting.

The club auction is due to take place at the beginning of February. This may seem a long way off but with Christmas quite close to the sale date we will need to start collating the auction lots in mid-December. Thus we will need to receive some material on or before the December meeting. So please begin thinking about finding the bits and pieces you wish to enter in the sale.

Davidson Monk Coin Fair at the Commonwealth Institute 15^th November

Croydon Coin Auctions - 4^th November

Baldwins Coin Auction - 8^th November

Coin Fair. Sunday 9^th November. National Motorbike Museum, Birmingham

Spink Coin Auction - 8^th November

30 years ago Paul Withers spoke on the early coinage of Denmark.

In October 1983 the club held its annual auction. Concern was expressed that prices realised were generally very low. How times change compared to the current scramble for anything over a few years old.