Next club meeting - Monday 1^st December 2008.

• Subject - Winter bourse & Members Evening

The activities will be as follows

1. A mini coin fair. Tables will not be charged for and there will be a collective members table.
2. A coin quiz
3. Members to bring along one or two items that for some reason are considered special (e.g. recent acquisition, a long sought after piece, an unusual find, an oddity etc.). A brief written explanation as to why the piece is special to you.
4. Buffet

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

This was a talk on the Siege Coins of Charles I by Tony Travis. Tony loves coins and deals because this enables him to handle more coins than he would as a collector. Charles I was born on 19th November 1600 in Dunfermiline, son of James VI of Scotland (later James I of England). He believed in the Divine Right of Kings which caused clashes with Parliament. During the Civil War Parliament forbade colleges to donate plate to the King and managed to seize some, the rest went to the King, which he converted into coin to pay his troops. Silver pounds were given to Colonels and above, half pounds to other officers and halfcrowns to soldiers.

Tony carried on by particularly looking at the sieges of Carlisle and Newark. Sieges were usually successful because the defenders ran out of food. Carlisl for example, was never assaulted but surrendered when the Garrison was starving. People were instructed to bring their plate to the Castle, where it was made into coin. Some 4000 pieces of 1 shilling were struck, so it is suprising how rare they are today.

The siege of Newark was rather different, it was the key to the battle for the North. In 1643 Parliamentary forces attacked the town unsuccessfully. In 1644 the Scots attacked the North as allies of Parliament. The Royalists then occupied Newark with about 2000 troops and were besieged by about 7000 Parliamentary troops from 1644 to 1645. Again plate was collected and struck into halfcrowns, shillings, ninepences and sixpences. Some coins were struck on gilt plate, some even bear the original hallmarks (leopard’s head) and there is evidence that the coins were still being made after the siege ended. It is very difficult to determine what may be designated contemporary forgeries and genuine coins. It may be that many described as contemporary copies are in fact originals. A couple of years ago the prices of these coins rose very rapidly but have fallen back a bit recently.

The end came when the French got involved in peace negotiations and Charles surrendered to the Scots. The Scots handed him over to Parliament who tried and executed him in 1649. Parliament then abolished the Monarchy.

Members then put several questions to Tony, many asking about how the coins were produced. It appears they were cut using large shears. Despite this, very good quality control was maintained, especially with regard to weight. Thank you to Tony for a very interesting talk.

Annual Subscriptions

Will the few persons yet to pay their club subscriptions please do so at the next club meeting.

Autumn Social

The Autumn dinner/ social evening is on Saturday 22nd November at the Round Oak on the Burghfield Road (Telephone 01189 970 0365 e-mail www.theroundoak.co.uk) for members and partners 7 for 7-30pm. The cost will be a fixed price of £25 per person for a three course meal, coffee, mince pies and wine. The menu is as follows:

Starters:	Tomato and red pepper soup, Prawn Filo basket, Smoked salmon tartar, Deep fried camembert with cranberry compote
Main	Roast turkey, Beef bourguignon, Casserole of pheasant, Saddle of lamb, Sea bass with chilli, lime and coriander butter, Wild mushroom and walnut roast, Gnocchi with spinach and gorgonzola
Dessert	Christmas pudding, Chocolate cake, Lemon drizzle cake, Creme Brulee with fresh berries, Eton mess, Selection of British cheeses

If you have not already signed up and wish to come, please contact Peter.

Future meetings

The subject for the January meeting is short talks by members and we need volunteers. Will members willing to give a talk please contact a committee member either at the December meeting, or by phone so that the committee can schedule the agenda for the evening. The talk can be on any numismatic related topic and need only last for 10 - 15 minutes.

The club auction is due to take place at the beginning of February. This may seem a long way off but you will need to start thinking about pieces you wish to include in the sale. The auction commission charge will be 10% of the hammer price.

• Monks Coin fair, Jury's hotel Great Russell St – 6^th December
• London Coins –Bracknell – 6^th and 7^th December
• Morton and Eden Auction – London - 11^th and 12^th December
• Birmingham Coin Fair - National Motorcycle museum - 14^th December
• Bonhams – Montpelier St. – 18^th December

In November 1978 the annual auction took place....

... as it did in November 1988, however....

In 1998 Steve Album talked on “The Coinage of the first Anglo/Afghan war”