WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: OCTOBER 16, 2016

Tuesday October 11 was back-to-work day after the Columbus Day holiday. It being the second Tuesday of the month, it was also the meeting night of my Northern Virginia numismatic social group, Nummis Nova. We were meeting in Alexandria at Vaso's Mediterranean Bistro on King Street. Ron Abler and Joe Esposito were our hosts. In the invitation they wrote:

We suggest a space exploration theme, because on Oct 11, 1984, Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan, part of the crew of Space Shuttle Challenger, became the first American woman to walk in space AND on the same day in the year 2000 NASA launched its 100th Space Shuttle mission.

I was perplexed because I couldn't think of anything in my collection to bring. I think I have a couple Apollo 11 moon landing medallions from back in the day, but they're buried in a massive "everything else" box. I'd sold my blue and brown U.S. Mint packaged Eisenhower dollars years ago, along with their eagle moon landing reverses.

I arrived around 5:30 and walked around King Street a bit to see the neighborhood. I saw Ron on the street and we chatted a bit. I made a phone call then went inside and up the steps to the second floor dining room.

Howard Daniel was already there and I sat across from him and Ron. Tom Kays came next and sat to my left. Other attendees included Eric Schena, Joe Esposito, Steve Bishop, Dave Schenkman, Gene Brandenburg, Jon Radel, Mike Packard, Wayne Herndon and Roger Burdette.

The first piece I brought to the Nummis Dinner is a political piece from the Vietnam War era. It appears to be brass or bronze and weighs 4.4 grams with a 26mm diameter and 1mm thickness. It is quarter-sized in diameter but less in thickness and made to appear like a US military club token to be used in a slot machine. I would very much like to know who made it.

The second piece I knew as "cancelled" but Wayne told me at the dinner the word to use is "waffled". I did not remember that word from numismatic articles or dictionaries. I was told by Richard C. Taylor, an advanced numismatist in France, that the waffling is not like anything done by the Paris Mint. It weighs 20.0 grams with a 35mm diameter and a 2.5mm thickness, which is correct for this piece.

I am thinking that it is one of the 16,000,000 minted that were sent to French Indochina. After WWII started with the Japanese attacking China and the German attack on France looming in the future, the French in Indochina started pulling silver coins from circulation. They needed the silver to buy opium from the highland tribes to supply the government's opium parlors. The profit from these parlors often supplied more than 50% of the government's budget!

The highland tribes refused to take paper money for their opium. During WWII, the government was running out of silver coins acceptable to the highland tribes. Low weight and low fineness coins, along with silver from other sources, were melted and made into silver bullion rounds to pay for the opium.

I am thinking that this coin was waffled in Hanoi and was to be melted for the silver rounds, but someone grabbed it out of the melting pot and took it home. If anyone has any information about this waffled coin, please contact me at HADaniel3@msn.com.

As fate has it I often end up sitting near Dave Schenkman. This time was different. I didn't get to speak much with Dave, but he passed around these great notes.

Dave noted that this advertising piece is especially interesting because the issuer mentions using "Trade-Checks" (a.k.a. tokens). He would be interested in knowing if any reader has an example of a token from Cole and Son of Perry, NY.

Joe Esposito showed me photos of a numismatic item he'd seen in a bookstore recently. He writes:

The Rulers of Britain Coin Collection is on sale at Barnes and Noble and presumably elsewhere. Each sealed issue includes a brief magazine on a monarch and reproduction coin. I saw a double issue, with two coins, for sale at $12.99

Jon Radel brought two examples of this gold-plated medal. The two sides fit into each other, but to avoid scratching the surfaces Jon left them inside their plastic packaging. Heavy!

Kauko Räsänen created this medal in 1977. He is well known for pioneering work with multi-part medals and won the Saltus Award from the ANS in 1986. As such, he was only the second non-American to win the award, and the first Finn.

The medal itself honors the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Finnish Virkamiesliitto (Civil Service Association), and was commissioned by that organization. 80 mm, in 2-parts, bronze with gold plating on the inside surfaces, and an edition of 600 pieces. Cataloged in J. Hackl and D. Klose, Kauko Räsänen: Neue Wege in der Medaillenkunst, as #86.

Unfortunately, the photos aren't very good, as I've for the time being sealed the 2 halves in plastic. A fair number of the 600 instances grade as, to paraphrase, "pristine, except for the contact marks on the gilding," so unfortunately, when I take it around for show-and-tell I feel a need to protect the surfaces, which is a pity as the meshing of the two halves is much of the point to the medal.

Around 8:15 I had to go outside to feed my parking meter. On the way back in I ordered a single malt and talked with Eric a bit at the bar.

Before long the party was breaking up. We realized that our regular November meeting night would be election day, and most were in favor of changing the date. Later I followed up with November's host, who turned out to be Roger Burdette. He later made a reservation for the following Tuesday.

It was another good night of numismatic fellowship, although I regret not mingling more - I'd been a bit trapped against a wall by the seating arrangement in the small dining room. But it was fun as always. And I don't think I saw a single piece of space-related numismatica.