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Vol. 8, No. 5 May, 2009
"Purely Personal Rant" (Jacobs) "Primer of Ancient Coins: Part 1" (R. McMullen) Above: Merchants' Bank of Halifax , $5, 1 July 1871 . With this issue, the " Nova Scotia dollar" was brought into line with that of Canada , previous amounts converted at the rate of 73¢ Canada = 75¢ N.S. In 1901, the Merchants' Bank of Halifax became the Royal Bank of Canada . The Mid-Island Coin Club, Meetings: The second Thursday of every month at 7:00 p.m. ,
President:
Felix Stawski
NOTICE: The next meeting of the Mid-Island Coin Club will be held Thursday, May 14, at 7:00 p.m. , at the A.B.C. Restaurant , Mary Ellen Drive , in north Nanaimo . (Mary Ellen is the next street parallel to Aulds Road northward ).
The April meeting, attended by 26 members and guests, was a quiet one - as MICC meetings go. Part 2 of the grading seminar was our featured infotainment. We also signed up a couple of new members which bodes well for the future. Please remember to note on your calendar: (a) The Great Mid-Island Coin Club Barbecue on Sunday afternoon, July 19, chez Joan Ryan in Cedar (map will follow in this Journal before that date) and (2) the participation of the Mid-Island Coin Club at the Vancouver Island Exhibition , August 21 through 23. Except for reports, there was little in the way of new business that required our attention - but, speaking of attention , there is one huge problem rolling up in numismatics in general that needs a lot of it. Everyone knows how your editor feels about "replicas" and "copys" of coins, even when fully legal; but right now we are starting to be flooded with out-and-out counterfeits from overseas - with our authorities seemingly asleep at the switch. It's something to which we should be applying a lot of consideration. Rather than over-fill this section, your editor has penned a "rant" article as lead-off so that it can be treated at some depth. I very much wish that I found it unnecessary to write. Purely Personal Rantby Wayne Jacobs
In today's world of "going green" and efforts to overcome the dire effects of climate change and pollution, we in numismatics are currently faced with our own serious threat of pollution - one that just could kill the hobby. Counterfeit collectors' coins. At this writing, Canadian Coin News has carried three articles by Mike Marshall intitled " 'Replica' Canadian Coins Plaguing Hobby", his coverage limited to the "products" of H.K. Coin Replicas and The Big Tree Coin Factory, both in China and both selling copies of older Canadian coins, usually unmarked. Mike has gone so far as to photograph some of them and give blowup illustrations of diagnostic marks. He also notes the relative lack of interest shown by the RCMP and OPP in the prosecution of what is actually a crime; these things are counterfeits . Up to the present, the H.K. fakes seem to be limited to 10- and 25-cent denominations Victoria through George V for a number of different dates. The fields are unmarked and the coins purporting to be UNCs but there is a certain graininess to the surfaces and a lack to detail to the features. Even so, can we not suspect that several years down the road these might not show up as offerings from "late state of the die" or "from worn dies" (otherwise MS64 or so)? In a way, the fakes offered by Big Tree Coin Factory are even more insidious since their general appearance is of coins in circulated, but nicely preserved, condition - say, VF or EF. To this time, 36 Canadian denomination/dates have been offered, from provincial cents to silver dollars (including an unmarked 1921 50-cent). Like the H.K. Replicas, close examination reveals a slight overall graininess and weakness on some features. Background information on H.K. Replicas seems to be lacking but the number of "firms" dealing in similar wares on the internet is an eye-opener. Included are those who will produce such coins on order (supply a good photo with notation as to metal, weight and size for quote). But there is a lot on Big Tree. Owned and operated by one Liu Ciyun - who calls himself Jinghuashei on the internet - his factory is located in Fujian Province , China . It employs about 30 people and although Liu acknowledges that he has some 100 local competitors in the field, his is supposedly the largest. He claims that at present, his monthly output is about 100,000 fake Chinese coins, 1,000 of the U.S. and a few thousand of other world types (including those of Canada ). His is definitely a mint but whether he produces his own dies is less certain - although he knows how this is accomplished: using a genuine coin as a model, he downloads digital information by way of a computerized coin sculpting system via laser beam input, the laser system scanning the coin at thousands of different points by a triangulation method. The result is a three-dimensional model that is extremely accurate. Unlike the spark erosion process (which produces an accurate but unalterable model), his method allows the cleaning up of the original coin's dings, scratches, etc on the image. Using the 3-D computer file, a laser die-cutting system "engraves" the negative image into a steel die face; once attached to a die shank, it is ready for the press. He acknowledges his greatest challenge is obtaining proper planchet stock, which he has to buy from others. Apparently his "silver" coins are not silver at all but rather "white metal" (probably a lot of zinc). Sometimes such stock is of an off-colour - but more importantly, it is frequently of an incorrect thickness, meaning that his "replicas" would be of the wrong weight, heavier or lighter than the genuine coin. Nevertheless, he is working hard to overcome these problems, his ultimate goal to produce "wares" that are absolutely indistinguishable from the genuine. Some of his marketing methods is worthy of comment. Although his cost for a "replica" "silver" coin is about 50¢, he frequently sells them at auction on eBay with an opening bid of only 5¢ or 10¢ - and it may bring only a single bid of that amount. His profit is in the shipping charge which may be sky-high (one customer on the internet who bought quite a number at one time was charged roughly $2.50 per coin shipping). This serves two purposes: first, the fee to eBay is based on the actual bid (which is next to nothing) and, secondly, the shipping charge is non-refundable even if the coin is returned for whatever reason. Big Tree is quick to point out that they are doing nothing illegal since there is no law in China prohibiting the replicating/copying/counterfeiting of any coin prior to 1949, the year of the Communist takeover. If others use his products for illegal purposes, that is of no concern to him. The U.S. Hobby Protection Act states that all non-genuine numismatic items manufactured after 1973 have to be permanently and conspicuously counterstamped with the word COPY. Big Tree's offerings frequently are incuse stamped with the word REPLICA (which is not exactly in conformance with the Act) but, as Coin World found out as an experiment, the stamping would also be omitted upon request. In one Big Tree photo (closely examined), the background showed what seemed to be fake ANACS slabs, each containing a "replica" 1877-CC U.S. Trade Dollar. An ANACS spokesman pointed out that the slabs had what appeared to be black gaskets, something the real ones do not have. When queried, Liu became very wary: "They're not mine". But he cheerfully admitted that Big Tree produces sets of Trade Dollars, Morgan Dollars, Barber halves and the like in "replica" Dansco albums. As dangerous to our hobby as these are, there are others - some even products of North America . On the internet will be found other "locally-produced" replicas, some of them very well done indeed. Unlike Big Tree, great care has sometimes been taken to get the metal content and weights exactly right. Practically every U.S. rarity, for instance, is available in this form, nearly all of them brilliant proofs and selling for prices up to $30. In accordance with the U.S. Hobby Protection Act, all are "indelibly" marked with the word "COPY". However, it would seem that this word is sometimes raised rather than being incused in the field. This could raise a problem. If the copy really is very well done, how easy would it be to engrave away the COPY word and by tumbling and artificially toning turn the "brilliant proof" into a more believable Fine or VF, a genuine example of which might easily bring tens of thousands of dollars? Real experts might not be fooled but a lot of us in the ranks and files might be. Back around 1970 or so, a well-equipped "mint" in the Near East (supposedly Lebanon ) was releasing numbers of fake unmarked collectors' coins. Since the bullion price of gold at the time was quite low in proportion to the market value of some series, there was some activity in these, one series of which was the Canadian $5 and $10 pieces of George V. The dies were produced from genuine coins by the spark erosion process which is extremely faithful in reproducing the dies but also allows for very little change to be made in them aside from polishing out a scratch (which would be a raised line on the negative die); minor "pimples" on the genuine coin would remain. In the 1970s, Virgil Hancock of the A.N.A. wrote a continuing column in the Numismatist on fake pieces as they showed up, his subject of one issue being the Canadian gold fakes. In enlarged photos, he showed the small diagnostic "pimples" and nicks that identified the coin as a fake, specific gravity tests proving them to be full weight .900 fine gold. How did he know they were fakes?: Because he would have two or more pieces of the same date/denomination, all of which had identical "bag marks" (hairline scratches, tiny nicks &c) consistent with MS60-something pieces - and that cannot happen in nature. Both must be fakes, even though by all other criteria they would appear perfectly genuine. Their production seems to have ended when gold bullion rose in price much faster than collectors' market value did - and then Beirut got pounded into rubble as well. No one ever found offers to sell in quantity by this spurious "mint" and it seems probable that the wares were released singly through the markets as genuine coins. Where are they today? Chances are good that after all this time most are happily slabbed and third-party graded. And it's doubtful if many owners want to discover that their high-priced treasure is really an old Lebanese fake. But this illustrates what can happen. Despite Mike Marshall's good work in bringing our attention to the fakes, it will pass from our attention after a while, the fakes will be sold as genuine here and there, and a lot of people will leave the hobby because of the bad odour these things carry. Mike wonders why Canadian authorities appear to see little reason in enforcing a federal law against counterfeiting (for that is what the unmarked copies are). So do I. But if they do wake up, I wonder what degree of over-reaction is likely to follow, most probably with the Canadian numismatic community bearing the brunt. After all, as reported by a recent Canadian Coin News , in April 1969: "The City of Calgary introduced a bylaw to license coin dealers. Among the provisions was that a log of all coin purchases be kept and made available for police inspection. Dealers were to track not only the name of the seller, but the address, telephone number, occupations and grade of the coin." I remember when this was first announced. The usual comment: "Are they nuts?!" A Primer of Ancient Coins - Part 1.Submitted by R. McMullen
Q.: Just what are ancient coins? A.: Generally, ancient coins are any coins minted from the beginning of coinage to the Middle Ages, or roughly 500 BC to about 1200 AD (although some of the Byzantine coins really fall into medieval times). Most collectors focus on three general areas, each with subspecialties. They are: 1. Greek coins. These include the coins of the Greek city states like Athens and Corinth, the coins of Alexander the Great and his successors, the coins of the smaller kingdoms after Alexander's death, the coinage of the non-Greek areas such as Carthage, Celtic and Jewish coins, and areas of the East that were under Greek influence, such as India and Parthia. Greek coins are among the most beautiful examples of ancient numismatic art ever created. There are many rare and extremely expensive types, but there are also very pleasant common coins priced anywhere from $35 to $750. They are generally catalogued according to geographic area.
Left: Ancient Greece . AR Stater Right: Roman Emp. AR denarius Tarentum , Calabria . ca 280-272 BC Augustus (27 BC - 14 AD) from Samos(?) Coined 21 -20 BC 2. Roman coins. Roman collecting includes coins of the Roman Republic , the coins of the transition period known as "Imperatorial" (between the republic and empire - Caesar's coins fall here). There is also an interesting and under-studied series of coins known as the Greek Imperial (or Roman Provincial) coins, thus named because they were minted during the time of the empire outside Rome , in the smaller cities and towns; they often had Greek inscriptions. Roman coins tend to be the most popular series with collectors, generally because they can be so specifically tied to emperor and events in history, 3. Byzantine Coins. When the western Roman Empire fell to the barbarians in 476 AD, the part of the old Roman Empire that remained strong and would grow to a mighty empire of its own was the branch centered in the city of Constantinople , located on the site of the ancient city of Byzantium (thus the name " Byzantine Empire "). Constantine the Great founded the city named after him in 330 AD, and after that the actual city of Rome became a shadow of its former self. The Byzantine coinage is vast and extremely interesting, with a fine run of emperors who produced gold coinage, and a selection of bronze issues which tend to be struck very crudely, but are inexpensive and popular with collectors.
Q.: How were ancient coins made? A. Unlike modern coins, which are produced using sophisticated machinery at lightning speed, ancient coins were produced by hand. There are two general methods of minting: casting and striking . When a coin is cast , a mold was made in stone or wood, or sometimes in a softer medium such as clay. The metal was melted and poured into a mold, producing coins which were usually very crude. (Roman Republican bronzes were cast as were coins of the late third century of the empire). Sometimes another coin was used to make a mold; it would be pressed into clay and the resulting coin would lose some of the detail of the original and be slightly smaller (metal contracts as it cools). The other method used to produce ancient coins was by striking with a sledge hammer. In this method, a coin blank (produced in any number of ways, including by mold) was heated and placed between two engraved dies, then struck. Usually the bottom die (fixed to an anvil, called the pile ) was used to produce the side of the coin with the highest relief - the portrait, or obverse . The reverse die was affixed to a trussel and held in the hand. The blank was placed between the two dies, the hammer would hit the trussel and "strike" the coin. The dies themselves were made of iron or bronze. The mint workers were slaves - usually Greek - and considering working conditions, they produced coins that are generally pleasing and sometimes extraordinarily beautiful.
Q. : Are ancient coins rare? A.: Yes and no. One would think that anything two thousand years old would be rare, but age alone does not make it so. Rarity is based on a number of factors, such as the number of coins found in hoards , which are groups of coins excavated from ancient times. Many times the scholarly catalogues (such as The Roman Imperial Coinage , a vast study in ten volumes) will list a coin as rare because it seldom appears in large public museum collections. One should take these rarity listings with a grain of salt: these coins may fail to appear in quantity because they are in fact common, the museums have chosen not to possess an example for study. Finally, just because a coin is rare does not necessarily make it expensive. Supply and demand take over here; if collectors don't care much about a particular rarity, the price will drop; other rarities are in great demand and therefore very expensive.
Q.: Are ancient coins ever counterfeited? A.: Yes, they are. But so are modern coins. You should only deal with a reputable dealer or experienced collector when buying or trading for your coins. They will guarantee the authenticity of the coin and offer money back if the coin is ever proven to be a fake. Trusted dealer/collector aside, your best defense is to begin to educate yourself by looking at as many coins as you can; the more you see, the more you'll learn. Examine the well-illustrated auction catalogues and web site offerings of the most reputable dealers. There are also a series of counterfeit coins minted in ancient times, known as fourree . These coins have a base metal core with precious metal on the outside. They are collectible in their own right.
Q.: Are ancient coins a good investment? A.: This is a controversial area. If one measures an investment by comparison with the dollar return of the greatest Bull Market in history, then probably not. If one measures investment in terms of the joy, pleasure and excitement returned, then I would say ancient coins are one of the best investments in the world. But some collectors do put together a group of coins that they hope will appreciate in value (and many collections do appreciate). It has been my experience that if you buy nice-looking coins - the best grade you can afford - then generally speaking, you will do better when the time comes to sell. But who ever wants to sell?
Q.: What about condition and grading? A.: Most coins that come out of the ground are professionally cleaned before they ever get to you. And it should be noted that unlike modern coins, cleaning is commonly accepted in the ancient coin hobby, provided it is done correctly. (For those of you who want to try it, I would suggest seeking out dealers who sell "uncleaned coins". These are coins that have generally had some cleaning but have a ways to go. They shouldn't be more than a few dollars each, and don't expect much. Many are junk, and will always be junk. But they can be a lot of fun and many collectors enjoy them, sometimes finding coins with very nice eye appeal). The following terms are used to describe the condition of ancient coins: poor (or fair), good, very good, fine, extremely fine and mint - or as the Europeans say, fleur de coin (FDC). What these terms actually represent is another matter; some dealers grade in a conservative fashion, others vary wildly. The grading standards have changed a great deal in the last ten years! One had best develop their own standards, and buy the coin based on a visual examination, either by photo or scan or holding the coin. If you buy over the internet, be sure the dealer allows a return after you actually see the coin; sometimes you just can't tell until it's in your hands. The 1911 Silver Dollar.
On May 6, 1910 , King Edward VII died of heart failure brought on by bronchitis. As normal, this automatically brought to the throne his son, known as George V, and just as automatically an entirely revamped coinage for Canada depicting the new monarch. Still, with nearly seven months at go before New Year's, 1911, there seemed adequate time for Canada to be supplied with the new master tools (mostly for the obverse only) by the Royal Mint in London . At the time, the Ottawa Mint was unequipped to manufacture such basic tools on their own.
In early 1910, M.P.s from British Columbia requested that the new currency include a silver dollar and after parliamentary debate in March and April, the "Dominion of Canada Currency Act of 1910" was passed, receiving Royal Assent on 14 May 1910 and including the requested silver dollar. It was specified as weighing 360 grains of .925 "sterling silver" (officially designated as "a standard fineness of thirty-seven-fortieths fine silver, three-fortieths alloy") Evidently, the order for the new tools were made to the Royal Mint by the Canadian government at once. Additionally, it seems that the denomination-range was originally expanded beyond the silver dollar to include $2.50, $5.00, $10.00 and $20.00 gold pieces. Only the $5.00 and $10.00 gold eventually appeared, and then not until 1912. Circumstantial evidence indicates that the $2.50 and $20.00 was dropped almost at once, judging by surviving cases that we believe were intended for the 1911 coinage. Because the whole project was marked by tardiness, it seems rather odd that the Royal Mint seems to have quickly moved to manufacture a reverse master die for the proposed silver dollar. Shown above left is the face of such a die, its image reversed for readability, that today reposes in the British Royal Mint Museum. Dated 1910, it must have been made some time in the latter part of that year. Royal Mint documents indicate that a wax impression was made of its face which was submitted - and approved - by the Canadians. So far as we know, no other impression in any other material was ever made. Above right is the face of yet another master die, again in the Mint Museum , again in reversed image. In the size of the silver dollar, it uses the Canadian legend - but of the "Godless" variety (lacking the "Dei Gratia" [by the Grace of God]) just like the general run of the Canadian 1911 coins when they did appear. So far we know, no impression of any kind was ever made from it. Nor was such a dollar-size die sent to Canada . Even so, Canada went so far as to acquire a heavy-duty coining press from Taylor & Challen of Birmingham expressly to strike coin of the dollar size. But 1911 came and was halfway through without the new George V coinage appearing in Canada . To this day we can discover no real reason for this tardiness, except that the Royal Mint at one point stated that they were having trouble with the new obverse dies. At this time (and until 1931), the Canadian mint was actually "The Royal Mint - Ottawa Branch" and completely under the orders of the Mint in London . Without orders to the contrary, the Canadian coins could not strike coins dated 1910 after December 31 of that year, even with a special mark as they were able to do in 1937 and 1948. Yet they had no new dies. With gold piling up, the Canadian threatened to continue to strike the sovereign with the old Edward VII dies; this at least had the result of London sending out a set of master dies for the new 1911 sovereign coinage - after all, they were the same as the British except for the mintmark "C" being punched into the design base on the reverse. A total of 256,946 of these pieces were struck in 1911, nearly as many as all the rest of the years 1908 to 1919 inclusive.
William Fielding, Dr. James Bonar, Minister of Finance, 1896-1911 Deputy master, Ottawa Mint, 1907-1919 We should note what was going on in Canada during the summer of 1911. Canada was in the midst of an election campaign, called by Laurier's Liberals as a sort of referendum on a reciprocity treaty recently negotiated with the U.S. and passed by their Senate on 22 July. Although the terms were much more favourable to Canada than the one we now have, the Opposition - the Conservatives under Robert Borden - were successful in portraying the treaty as a sellout to the U.S., aided in no small part by the odd jingoist statement from the south that chortling pronounced that this was so. On 22 September, the Liberals were turned out of office 134 to 87. Some time in July, with Finance Minister Fielding shuttling back and forth between his Nova Scotia riding and Ottawa office, the obverse design for the new coinage arrived for approval. Fielding apparently scribbled "approved" without paying too much attention, something in the spirit of "Yes, yes. Get on with it. We're desperate for the dies". After all, they were anything up to a year late already! A few weeks later, the actual master dies arrived and the government was chagrined to note that the legends lacked the normal "Dei Gratia" (or its contraction) for "By the Grace of God". There was nothing to do but use them - the purposely overlarge mintages of 1910 (struck as a stockpile, just-in-case) were gone, orders starting to come in and no time for yet another change. The government was even forced to an amended Act making the offensive legend legal. As the "Godless" coins appeared while the campaign was still in progress, they were regarded as still more proof of Laurier's anti-monarchical dislike of Britain by the Conservatives. Unavailable until so late in the year, some of the projected denominations were dropped, the need greatest for the "ordinary" denominations, large cent through silver 50-cents. One that went was the silver dollar, even though Royal Mint records show that a pair of matrices and two pairs of punches for it were sent to Canada on 19 October 1911 , their receipt acknowledged by Dr. J. Bonar, Deputy Master of the Ottawa Mint on 3 November. The tools were received late enough that the obverse was the "corrected legend" that would appear in 1912. However the dollar disappears at this point, Dr. Bonar merely noting in his 1911 Report that "... the dollar piece was not struck".
But the dollar was certainly intended to be struck in 1911 - as was the new gold $5 and $10 pieces. The very size of the sovereign issue of 1911 seems to indicate that a major part of the bullion was intended for these new gold pieces dated in that year. There still exist cases manufactured for the inclusion of these coins. The "large" set was made for 9 coins: large cent, 5-, 10-, 25- and 50-cent, silver dollar, gold sovereign and $5 and $10. A case for a set omitting the gold was also made. Both cases had to be jettisoned in favour of a "minor" one for 5 coins, cent through 50-cents and later joined by a larger one for 8 coins: cent through 50-cents and sovereign (all dated 1911) plus gold $5 and $10 pieces dated 1912. The sets were for presentation purposes as well as sale to the public, mostly to Mint visitors at their "gift shop". For those collectors who knew about the sets and the procedure to get them, such sets could be purchased by mail. At the Mint, the "short set" was priced at $2.00, the "long set" of 1911/12 at $24.00.
Above: The cases (never used) for the 1911 "long" and "short" sets.
At this point, the Canadian silver dollar disappeared so far as collectors were concerned; only a few were even aware that such a coin was proposed in 1911. For this reason, the Canadian numismatic world was all abuzz in 1960 when it was revealed that such a coin was in the possession of the British firm of B.A. Seaby's and would be offered for sale. Research revealed that two such pieces existed, one ensconced in the Royal Mint Museum in London and this one in private hands. Apparently it had been handed down in the estate of a mint official, the possession of such patterns and trial pieces in "official" private hands held to be legal. Although the dollar was brought by Seaby's to Canada in 1960 and offered at the C.N.A., the asking price was not met. With the Convention over, it changed hands at a negotiated price to a dealer and displayed again at the 1961CNA Convention in Sherbrooke , P.Q. There it was sold to an American for $17,000 and exhibited at the ANA Convention in Houston , Texas , during that same year. Over the next few years, it changed hands several times at increasing prices in sometimes secret transactions. Its purchaser in 1965, John McKay-Clements of Haileybury , Ontario , was forced to do a certain amount of detective work in order to even locate the coin before making a successful bid for it of an "outlandish" sum of $60,000 - and insured for 50% above that. At McKay-Clements' death in 1975, the coin was auctioned off by his executors at the Ontario Numismatic Association that year when it was bought by Doug Robbins, a dealer from Corvallis , Oregon , for $110,000. Robbins promptly sold the dollar to Gene Henry (Rare Coin Galleries of Seattle , Washington ) for $135,000. By August 1979, the dollar again appeared at auction at the ANA Convention in St. Louis , Missouri where it was bid in by Anthony Caratto (Eagle Coins, Niagara Falls , Ont) for $188,000 ( Can. ). Exhibited at the 1981 O.N.A. Convention at Niagara Falls (April 24-26), it had recently been purchased by a U.S. firm, Carleton Numismatics, for $325,000. The transactions go on and on, few owners keeping the dollar long. Today, one would have to be talking seven figures to buy it.
On 20 November 1977 , a third 1911 dollar was discovered, this example in lead. It was discovered in a vault wrapped in a brown paper parcel during the preparations of a move of the Dept. of Supply & Services out of the East Block. It was apparently a trial strike made in Ottawa with the master dies in very late 1911 and had subsequently lain unnoticed for more than sixty-five years. It is now in the Bank of Canada Numismatic Collection. But the obverse of the 1911 dollar, at least. did not disappear. It was used for the obverse of the 1936 silver dollar, the second year the denomination was issued. The previous Jubilee Year obverse was adapted from another Colonial portrait used by several other members of the British Commonwealth over the previous few years.
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May 2009"Primer of Ancient Coins: Part 1" (R. McMullen)
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