Next
club meeting Monday 5th February
2018.
·
Subject - Bitcoins By Chris.
Meetings are held
at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.
Notices
·
Please bring your Auction lots for March along to the
next meeting and give them to Ian, together with a list of the items, any
reserves and – most importantly – some form of identification and an e-mail
address if you’ve got one, so Ian knows who the lots belong to. Close of play at the February meeting is
the deadline for entering lots into the auction, they must be handed to Ian by
then.
·
There will be a maximum of 200 lots. Poor specimen, junk
lots and lots with unrealistic reserves will be reviewed by committee to decide
if there is a realistic chance of their sale so be aware such lots may not make
it into the auction. Reserves will be shown. Lots will not be graded – it is up
to the buyer to determine the grade. It is buyer beware when bidding for the auction lots and no responsibility is
accepted by the club or auctioneer.
January Meeting
At January’s meeting, five
members volunteered to give short talks.
Michael
Michael’s interest in coins
arose initially from gifts from Dunkirk evacuees and various WWII participants.
He bought a Festival of Britain 5/ piece which led to a lifelong interest in
crown-sized coins. This choice led to a world-wide collecting interest from Thalers to Morgan dollars.
But being hooked on history and geography, Michael’s
attention was drawn to antique maps – this providing his second abiding
interest – especially of Berkshire. He showed five maps from his collection.
The first was by John Speed, dated to the Stuart period, arguably the most
famous English cartographer. The Reading town plan was copied by a Dutch map
maker, Rutger Hermanides,
circa 1661 and shows little change until the early-Victorian railway arrival.
The third map was roughly the same age and drawn by Philippe Briet. It depicts Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
The fourth map of Berkshire was by Thomas Bowen, better known as an engraver –
but like many map-makers died in poverty. The last map was by ‘Victorian’
Thomas Maule who first published his highly decorative county map in the early
1830s, finding its way into an atlas in Victoria’s reign.
Michael
Michael has a long-standing interest in the quality of
the minting process of British coins. He had brought two coins from his collection which were of particular interest – earning the
title absolutely unique. The first
coin was a (slightly) double struck James II Maundy 4d. The double striking
only appears to affect the eyes, which gives James a strange look. Following
James II reign, there were enormous pressures on the Royal Mint. Located in the
Tower there was barely room to work with their new steam-processes and in 1805
it was agreed to move to Little Tower Hill, The Keys were delivered in 1812 and
an ambitious production of gold started in 1813.
The major task was the silver
output, especially small denominations to replace the circulation silver and
silver tokens. Between 1811and 1816, 1.5 million silver coins were made, with
the mint working 24 hours a day. Distribution started in 1817 and the period
for demonetisation of existing silver was three months. Now, there was
tremendous pressure on die engraves and production staff with the result that
there were several anomalies. The second coin, a George III 1816 6d, was, as
far as can be determined a unique mint product. On this coin the engravers used
lozenges -♦- instead of stops -■-, in colon separators. In
Michael’s view, there will never be another one like this.
Neil
Neil’s affection for yachting
is well known and the development of ‘yachts’ can be followed through their
portrayal on medallions. The term
originates from the Dutch word jacht
"hunt", and was originally a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch
navy to pursue pirates. Pepys records that the Dutch pleasure-boat, the yacht Mary, was presented to King Charles
upon his departure from Holland. These vessels became important during the wars
with France under William III.
Neil illustrated his
talk with eight medallions, showing the evolution of yachts. Illustrated were
an early C18 French medal showing faster, larger yachts as revenue cutters; an
1842 Regatta medal showing an association with Neptune; a Plymouth Regatta
medal; a French medallion showing a cutter shaped boat, but sleeker and bigger;
a Pinches piece for the Upper Thames Sailing Club; an Americas Cup medal – and
a comment about the snobbishness of yachting clubs a century ago, and a French
plaque showing a vessel with taller masts.
Gavin
Gavin’s talk was about want a
strange, countermarked cartwheel penny and what you can learn from it. The
countermarks were HARVEY TABAC and 1823, Head of Side, and 1 DRAM. Research
showed that The Side was a medieval
road in Newcastle upon Tyne and this road had been illustrated in a local
paper. John Harvey was a tobacconist and appeared in the trade journals, burial
registers and (in the case of his son) in litigation with Player’s over a
copyright infringement – Harvey’s Navy Cut and Harvey and Davy’s Nave Cut
looked similar to Player’s own brand.
The family business can be traced to 1762 with a
tobacco shop run by John Harvey. He died in 1770, and the business carried on
under John Harvey (junior). He moved to larger premises in Hanover Square 1783.
Continuing into the C19, the business had a serious fire and Court appearances
related to assaults as it passed to John Harvey’s godson when John (senior)
died at the age of 90. The name continues into the C21 as collectors buy
tobacco tins and cigarette cards along with other Newcastle tokens issued by
tobacconists, such as John Davison.
Mick
The study of a practically worthless medal-et, smaller than a 5p coin, dated 1856,
brought history and the C21 Berkshire/ Hampshire border together. Depicted are
two figures on the left and a baby. The French medallist has depicted Napoleon
III, his wife and son and dated it 14 June 1856. The baby is Prince Imperial, the only child of Emperor Napoleon III of France
and his Empress consort Eugénie de Montijo. After his
father was dethroned in 1870, he relocated with his family to England. On his
father's death in January 1873, he was proclaimed Napoleon IV. In England he trained as a soldier and served in the
Anglo-Zulu
War. In 1879, serving with British
forces, he was killed in a skirmish
with a group of Zulus.
The family lived in
Chislehurst and father and son were buried in the churchyard. Eugénie, in the meantime, had become respected and well
known in England and bought Farnborough Hill House. She went on to found
Farnborough Abbey (St Michael’s), were she, her husband and son were reunited
in death. All three rest in
granite sarcophagi provided by Queen
Victoria. Eugénie also founded a
Benedictine monastery in the grounds.
After five excellent
presentations, the Marc Myhill memorial shield was
awarded to Mick for his talk about French royalty and Farnborough Hill House.
Answers
to Gavin’s Quiz
1.
What
is Brass? An alloy of copper and zinc.
2.
What
is Bronze? An alloy of copper and tin
and sometimes also lead and zinc.
3.
What
do Berlin and Paris have in common as a mintmark? The letter A.
4.
Which
country uses the Cruzeiro? Brazil.
5.
Which
country uses the Kurus? Turkey.
6.
Ceylon
used coins worth 1/3840 of a pound, True or False? True.
7.
Where
were coins worth 1/52 of a shilling used? Jersey.
8.
What
coins or tokens have the reverse legend “in
memory of the good old days”? Imitation Spade Guineas of George III.
9.
Which
British base metal coin has a face value of 1/960 of a pound? Farthing.
10. What was the
date of the first British silver florin? 1849.
(1848 pattern and proof.)
11. Who designed the
obverse of Edward VII coins? G. W. de Saulles.
12. In whose reign
did some coins have VIGO below the bust? Queen
Anne.
13. What is the date
of the “Northumberland shilling”? 1763.
14. No gold Third
Guineas were issued after 1813, True or False? True.
15. What is the scarcest
date of the George VI nickel brass Threepence coins? 1949.
16. When was the
British farthing demonetised? 30th
December 1960.
17. Which coin
designer’s initials were B.P.? Benedetto Pistrucci.
18. When did English
coins have LIMA below the bust? 1745 - 46.
19. Copper farthings
were issued dated 1860 – True or False? True.
20. What motto
appears on the decimal 2p and what does it mean? Ich Dien - I serve.
Future
Events.
Past Events
·
In January 1978
members heard a talk by Graham Kirby entitled “Numismatic Miscellany”.
·
In January 1988
Michael Fulford talked on "A Clergyman’s
Collection of Roman Coins”.
·
Since then the January meeting
has been given over to short talks from members.
Club Secretary.