JUNE NEWSLETTER

Next meeting: Monday 1^st July 2013 : An introduction to the Global financial system; is it about to fail? – Mr C Moore. Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, Reading, commencing at 8.00 pm, doors open at 7pm.

NOTICES:

• As of now 11 persons have signed up for the Summer Social visit to the Ashmolean in Oxford. (Tuesday 13^th August starting at 11.00am). This means there are just 4 places left. If you wish to go you must have signed up at the July meeting (or have phoned the secretary) as the list will close on July 2^nd.

The morning will be a guided tour of the new money gallery + a handling session of coins requested by members. The afternoon is free to explore Oxford. Members are to make their own travels arrangements, either singly or in groups.

The June meeting was the club’s Annual General Meeting. Thirty two members attended, which must be a record for any club night; and we had five good entries for the Display Competition.

AGM As most of the committee reports were provided prior to the AGM in the May newsletter this report will focus on the committee comments & subsequent discussion. A more complete record is available in the AGM minutes. The minutes for the 2012 AGM were approved with no amendments.

The Chairman delivered his report as follows:

Since having taken over the role of Chairman on the 1^st January, myself and the former chairman undertook a brief handover period. The primary tasks and discussions undertaken were as follows:

Discussions around hosting a joint BNS/ RNS conference in 2014. This idea (or that of hosting a BANS conference) has been on the table for a couple of years. Due to a lack of enthusiasm from the membership and the inherent cost of such events it was felt this was best left alone.

Discussions around the clubs 50^th Anniversary celebrations. This is still work-in-progress (and various actions were discussed in the last committee meeting). A venue is still to be confirmed and a cost per head will be calculated and circulated to the membership to gauge interest. Ideas for guest speaker/s and venue would be appreciated.

Publicity has been a tough nut to crack and will be covered in more detail later.

Overall a very good 49^th year has been had, and hopefully the 50^th will be even better.

With regard to hosting conferences the secretary added a few comments summarising his conclusions, namely that just like our own club the other societies rely on a volunteering process to progress a venture rather than having a formal system. Thus it would be down to one of us to take on the ‘project management’ role. Furthermore, the committee have discussed the value/ benefits to the club against the high potential workload and the financial liabilities. Hence the conclusion not to proceed with this proposal.

In answer to a member’s recollection of the 25^th anniversary meeting the committee (chairman?) do have the relevant papers and are aware of the previous format & civic dignitaries who attended.

Treasurer The details of the club accounts were as published in May and approved at this meeting. In summary the Treasurer stated we had a surplus of £83.5 thanks to a good auction and monies from donations and the raffle. Consequently the subscription is to remain unchanged at £14 per annum + coffee £2.

The membership confirmed that the Christmas Dinner should continue, but it would be good if the whole group could sit together – if not consider a male rotation after each course. The membership also supported continuation of the skittles evening but commented that it is the same small group who attends.

Secretary

The prior report covered the points of interest. Again a plea was made for members to submit articles for the newsletter, however small.

Programme Secretary

The secretary delivered next year’s programme as follows:

1^st July 2013	Intro to the Global financial system; is it about to collapse	Mr C Moore
13^th August 2013	Summer Social – Visit to Ashmolean Museum, Oxford	M Martin
2^nd September 2013	Countermarks	Mr G Scott
7^th October 2013	Knights of Malta	Mr A Holmes
4^th November 2013	Collecting 17^th Century tokens by feature	Mr D Powell
2^nd December 2013	Christmas Bourse
6^th January 2014	Members short talks
3^rd February 2014	17^th Century tokens of Surrey & Southwark	Mr T Everson
3^rd March 2014	Club Auction
7^th April 2014	17^th Century Suffolk tokens	Mr N Clarke
May 2014	TBA- 50^th Anniversary celebrations
2^nd June 2014	Annual General Meeting & Display competition

The secretary reiterated the ongoing difficulty in securing speakers and how late withdrawals had affected next year’s programme. He requested members to provide ideas for speakers. Suggestions included P West, H Symmonds, A Mackay, P Clayton, C Moore

Library & Publicity

The prior report covers what’s been done in the library and for publicity, as well as covering answers some of the questions raised last year. The secretary reiterated the fact that while the leaflet and website seem ineffective as recruitment tools the most productive recruiting method is by member’s word of mouth. Suggestions from the floor included members bringing along prospective new members rather than they find their own way and engaging the young through schools. The latter idea needs consideration by the committee given the regulations protecting children.

While our club meetings regularly appear in the ‘Coin News’ diary and a submission has been published in the ‘Coin News’ Society Page this activity should continue with periodic submissions by the new secretary as it is very good free advertising. The submission to the Reading Chronicle should also be followed up.

Elections – Committee = James, Peter, Henry, Neil, Frank

Auditor = John; Thanks to past auditor Neil

President = Gavin; VP = Mick

AOB – Michael volunteered to make the membership cards.

Display Competition. There were 5 good entries.

Graham displayed a medal & paperwork related to the 1^st world war Battle of Loos and gave a fascinating commentary on the preparations problems and fiascos.

Jawaid put together a collection of coins that were found in various ways, either metal detecting, dug up, in change or just lying on the ground.

Rachel provided a very novel and amusing display connecting the title of films with various forms of exchange. For example a 5/- piece for the ‘Thomas Crown Affair’, sea shell money for ‘Shell’ and a block of salt for ‘Salt’

Tony displayed examples of Crowns for the 6 Georges and explained how a gift of 1951 & 1953 crowns got him hooked on coins 60 years ago.

Finally Neil had a 2 part display. Firstly 3 recently acquired 17^th century pub tokens, then coins that are reminders of happenings on past holidays.

The winner was Rachel - congratulations

Numismatic Interlude

Always Check the Facts

You have probably heard the expression ‘Don’t believe all you are told’. And yet in the electronic age we seem to have been lulled into the belief that if it comes from a computer then it must be true, and questioning things is old hat. So I will tell you one of my cautionary tales.

For a future talk I have again been researching the details of William Booth, known as the Birmingham forger, who forged mostly Bank of England notes and tokens. He carried out his dubious deeds at Booth’s farm, close where I grew up. Hence my interest in the fellow. In fact, in the 1950’s I and my pals played in his partially abandoned farmhouse where he carried out his forgery business, the farm merely being a cover. The farm was located in the north Birmingham district of Perry Barr, which is adjacent to Handsworth.

So for my research I surfed the internet and found the website of the Handsworth historical society. I could not believe my luck for there was a sketch of Booth and his farmhouse.

In With such a valid source they had to be cosha. Then a discussion with the curator of Birmingham museum brought me back to reality. Have you seen my short note in the BNJ he said? So I looked it up and there were the two same pictures, with a discussion. The sketch is of the raid on the farm where Booth was caught in the act and was created from contemporary accounts for a serialisation of Booths activities published in the Birmingham Weekly Mercury in 1888 – some 76 years after the event. Also the Mercury files contained a rough sketch of Booth, maybe contemporary or again made for the serialisation. In any event the picture I found was in fact done in 1953 by a local artist, possibly based on the rough sketch.

So internet researchers beware, all may not be what it seems.

However, it has not been all bad news. I did find a picture of Booths farm house taken shortly before it was demolished to make way for the M6.

To avoid detection Booth often buried incriminating evidence and in the 1950’s a cache of fake 1/6d tokens and bank note printing plates have been dug up. So next time you are going north on M6, mid way between Spaghetti junction and the Walsall exit you may be very close to some buried treasure - genuine fakes of course.