Next club meeting - Monday 4^th. October 2009.

• The Knights of Malta and their Coins by Tony Holmes

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

Once again the new season’s speaker program kicked off with a talk from one of our members. Maurice Bull spoke about the creation, trials and tribulations in producing his five volume work on the varieties of Charles I half crowns.

Having given a brief insight into his collecting career Maurice related how he later focused his collecting interests on half crowns, and in particular those of Charles I. Having realized there were few books or published works covering the detailed varieties of Charles I half crowns, Maurice began compiling his own detailed rerecords covering types, variations, current & past market appearances, prices and pedigrees. It is these records that later formed the basis of his books.

Maurice then spoke about the computer systems/ hardware he had used and his learning experiences leading to various upgrades and changes in other to achieve the desired layout and picture quality. He next covered the most complex part of the subject, namely how to record and identify the myriad of varieties and their combinations. He further explained the numbering system adopted and the meaning of the intelligent suffixes. The numbering system also caters for the combination of dies since their issue by the keeper was somewhat random. To complete this aspect of the work Maurice’s identifications are cross referenced with other principle works.

Having laid out the basis of his work Maurice the covered several other aspects, namely:

• - all the collections he had been privileged to study and photograph
• - the difficulty of grading the series where eye appeal is just as important as strike quality & workmanship
• - the foibles of publishing which he eventually financed himself
• - the process of proof reading & getting the picture quality correct
• - the subject of copyright
• - the challenges of producing the Scottish series
• - the additional information in the book such as cross references & estimated value of coins struck

In conclusion it is noticed that Maurice has produced a single summary volume with prices for publication shortly. Also one would have thought 12 years of studying Charles half crowns is enough for anybody; but no… for Maurice is now embarking on the crowns!!

Many thanks to Maurice for a very different and entertaining talk

Past Events

30 years ago, Roger Quetch was the speaker with his subject of “Numismatic Mishaps”.

10 years ago, John Orna-Ornstein gave a talk on “Illegal Tender Counterfeit Money Through the Ages”

1 year ago, Ken Peters gave his talk “The Cheat in your Change – Fake £1 Coins”

Croydon Coin Auction - 7^th September

Lockdale Coin Auction - Ipswich 19^th September

Baldwins Coin Auctions - Adelphi Terrace 28-29^th September

Spink Auction- 29-30^th September

DNW - Coin Auction 28-30^th September

Coinex 1-2^rd October