December 21st 2017.
Next
club meeting Monday 8th
January 2018.
Notices
·
Please let me or another
committee member know if you wish to give a short talk.
·
Please continue thinking about Auction lots for March.
All lots should be given to Ian, preferably at the January meeting or the February
meeting at the very latest.
December Meeting
The December
meeting was given over to our Xmas bash, thanks go out to Mick and Henry for the buffet
as well as members who donated food . It
was a very good turnout, and with many members having selling tables there were
a lots of coins to see and purchase. Also with no speaker this month there was
ample opportunity for members to chat to each other and seek advice on various
coins that were a bit of a puzzle.
Two
members bought along items of interest, which mid way through the evening they
spoke about for a few minutes:
Gavin
showed 4 coins with counter marks which are normally found on other coins but not
on these 4 coins. The first countermark was BRADFORD WORKHOUSE, usually found on
Birmingham Union Copper company penny tokens.
This (unpublished) is on a Birmingham and Neath
penny token. Secondly we had PEARS SOAP, usually found on French 10 and 5 centimes coins, mainly
of Napoleon III. This is on an Italy 10 centesimi
1866 T. Thirdly we had S.A.D. CO L, usually
found on French, Italian or Spanish 10c-sized coins. This is on an Argentinia
2 centavos 1894. Lastly we had LE PICOTIN APERITIF, usually found on Great Britain bronze pennies of Queen
Victoria. This is on a Luxemborg 10 centimes 1870.
In a talk called ‘Little and
Large’ Graham showed two very different coins he had purchased during the year.
The first being a Lesbos electrum from Mytilene,
the most important city on the island. It was minted somewhere between
375 and 326 BC. A tiny coin coming in at only 10 mm wide.
In
contrast we had a crown of Charles I with a first horseman type. With mintmark Lis for the Tower mint this was 43mm wide. The horse had a
‘crupper’ which had Graham scratching his head until he found a meaning for it in
his dictionary (just under crumpet) which was ‘a strap buckled to the back of a
saddle and looped under the horse’s tail to hold the harness back.
Thanks
to both members for sharing their interesting finds with us.
Gavin had produced a slightly
easier version of his Devilish quiz with just a fewer hard questions than other years. This
year’s winner with 19 out of 20 was Neil.
Overall it was a very
pleasant and convivial evening.
Xmas Dinner
The December dinner
was a return to the Cunning Man where 19 members and partners enjoyed a
sumptuous meal, accompanied by fine wines and plenty of entertaining
conversation, though eagle eyed members and partners spotted the missing
vegetables. Well done to Peter for organizing such an excellent event and who
would bet against us going back there next year?
Gavin’s Quiz (answers
in the next issue)
1.
What
is Brass?
2.
What
is Bronze?
3.
What
do Berlin and Paris have in common as a mintmark?
4.
Which
country uses the Cruzeiro?
5.
Which
country uses the Kurus?
6.
Ceylon
used coins worth 1/3840 of a pound, True or False?
7.
Where
were coins worth 1/52 of a shilling used?
8.
What
coins or tokens have the reverse legend “in
memory of the good old days”?
9.
Which
British base metal coin has a face value of 1/960 of a pound?
10. What was the
date of the first British silver florin?
11. Who designed the
obverse of Edward VII coins?
12. In whose reign
did some coins have VIGO below the bust?
13. What is the date
of the “Northumberland shilling”?
14. No gold Third
Guineas were issued after 1813, True or False?
15. What is the
scarcest date of the George VI nickel brass Threepence
coins?
16. When was the
British farthing demonetised?
17. Which coin
designer’s initials were B.P.?
18. When did English
coins have LIMA below the bust?
19. Copper farthings
were issued dated 1860 – True or False?
20. What motto
appears on the decimal 2p and what does it mean?
Future
Events.
Past Events
Finally a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to
All Our Members.
Club Secretary.