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 Wednesday, June 13, 2007
New Modern World Paper Money edition released !
Posted by george
The Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Modern Issues, 1960-date is now available in a 13th Edition from Krause Publications. That has been my winter project at the office from December thru March. It is always nice to have a product back from the printer.
Continuing in the familiar large 8-1/2 x 11 size format, this edition totals 1032 pages of modern world bank note listings, 32 pages of helpful information on collector terms, advertisements and historical information and an eight-page color section. 
This is the 13th edition of the Modern Book that I have been involved with. We once again rely on correspondence and submissions from over 80 worldwide experts for price updates and new issue reports. Signature varieties, replacement note and specimen listings continue to be expanded.
For those who have been concerned and following the editor’s three-year-long trial and tribulation about image quality, Cuhaj is pleased to report that this edition is the first of the paper money volumes to be produced entirely in a digital format, thus all images have been electronically re-processed, enhancing their quality over past editions which were produced by the old format of screened half-tone veloxes.
This digital endeavor will continue into future volumes of the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money series – Volume 1, Specialized Issues and Volume 2, General Issues – in addition to the online version of all the world paper money catalogs soon to be available at Numismaster.com.
What this all means is that to move the product - all three paper money products, our KP image library has had to be inspected, photos sized and given computer ID numbers, so that they will appear along with the data base test (which also had to be re-edited), and flowed into the computer image publishing program. This book went directly from computer to printing plate. A hugh advancement in book prodcution technology from what we did last year, when we spent over 200 hours of staff time transfering velox images onto the new past-up page for the book.
The book is available from the publisher direct, or major hobby distributors. Krause Publications, 700 East State St. Iola, WI 54990 USA. 1-800-258-0929, or on the web at
www.krausebooks.com
. ISBN #978-0-89689-502-7; at $50.00.
George Čuhaj
KP News
6/13/2007 1:07:22 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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Monday, June 11, 2007
Early June Travel Report
Posted by george
Greetings
Well, George's appearance at the Ypsilanti Orphan Car show was enjoyable, however, I was traveling without my Chekcer, which did not make it out of the shops properly repaired (I was having tie rods and break pads replaced). As I was leaving the mechanic's property, I blew a break line, and left a puddle of fluid in the street. I came to a halt, and had to be pushed back into the mechanic's shop. Not a good sign at the start of a 600 mile trip, so the car stayed home and I took my daily driver on the adventure.
This was my first trip to Ypsilanti, the city is the location of the home of Preston Tucker, the Michigan Firehouse Museum and the oldest Hudson dealership - all sites worthy of a visit. The restored downtown is an interesting study in how a planed restoration can revitalize old buildings and bring folks back into the area for lunch, dinner and events.
My travel from Wisconsin to Michigan always includes a round-trip on the S.S. Badger, a 1950s car ferry. It is a coal fired steam ship (the last in operation in the U.S.) And overnight visits with a sculptor friend of mine, James MaloneBeach. He is an art teacher at Big Rapids High School, and an end-of-term day with high schoool students is always interesting.
The second part of the adventure was a long weekend to Little Rock, Ark., at the invitation of Tom Dodson and the Central Arkansas Coin Club. I gave a slide talk on new technologies of world bank notes at a special meeting of the club. It drew a varied attendance of current and prospective members as well as professionals from the banking council. Tom and I have been working at the Coin Collecting Merit Badge Midway Booth at the National Scout Jamborees of 2001 and 2005. We are already planing the 2010 event, celebrating the centennial of scouting in the United States.
The leasure part of my time in Little Rock included visits to the National Park Service Historic Site of Central High - the site of the 1950s school interegration events, the William Clinton Presidental Library, which also includes a restored train station, and a Arkansas Traveler's baseball game. The Razorback, a WWII submarine, is docked on the river, and in town for the day was the venerable paddlewheeler the Delta Queen. All said and done, it was a great trip.
Now, I've got plenty of voice-mail and e-mail to tackle.
George Čuhaj
6/11/2007 8:43:05 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, May 29, 2007
June Travels - Catch George on the road
Posted by george
June will have some time away from the desk split between vacation and business trips. You can catch George on the road!
On June 3rd, the Ypsilanti Orphan Car show will feature cars of Kalamazoo. This event will be held in Riverside Park, Ypsilanti, Mich. (there is an admission charge). As this is the 25th Anniversary of the end of production of the Checker Marathon, the car marque that I collect, and as editor of the Checkerboard News, the club publication for the Checker Car Club of America. The show is a must attend for me.
I’ll be visiting a meeting of the Central Arkansas Coin Club in Little Rock, Ark. on June 7. The meeting will be at 6:15 PM, at the Parkway Place Baptist Church off Chenal and Markham near Kohl's. My slide talk will be on innovations in world bank note production technologies. It will also give me a chance to visit the William Clinton Presidential Library and adult bookstore.
The end of the month will see my attendance at the American Numismatic Association’s Summer Seminar. The first week, June 24-29, I’ll be teaching a class with Emmett McDonald on World Coins from 1600-present. There is still time to register at the ANA site. The second week, June 30-July 6, I have been accepted as a student in the Gilroy Roberts Sculpture Fellowship program. Medallic Art has long been a passion of mine, and I've been active in the American Medallic Sculpture Assocaition since its founding nearly 25 years ago. Follow that link for a view of some of my medals.
That brings me home to Iola, the Sunday before my summer visit from mom, my annual rummage and the Iola Car Show, when 125,000 people visit our small town for four days.
George Čuhaj
5/29/2007 10:01:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, May 21, 2007
The Currency of War? Some Memorial Day Thoughts
Posted by george
For whatever reasons the nation is in our current war (and I think it will be a very long time before we get to understand why), various media pundits have said that since most of the members of the general public or American industry is not bearing the burden of it, there is not major support for it.
The burden of the war is being born by the families of our service men and women. We in Central Wisconsin have no shortages, our production plants still produce in abundance with all the raw materials they require to put food on our tables and produce new car models each year. We have not done without. I do not have a victory garden, I barely recycle aluminumn and newsprint. We common people have not suffered. 
However, it is mostly the “little people” - the neighbor’s son and daughter next door who are fighting this war. There are very few sons and daughters of the members of congress who are in the armed services. (Britain will truly set the example should Prince Harry get sent into the war zone with his regiment).
The face of local effect of a war came home to me while doing research on a medal I recently acquired.
It is a Gold Star Medal from the town of Lowell, Mass. Presented by the city in 1922 to the mother of Albert W. Palm. 169 citizens of Lowell gave their lives in the service of the nation during World War I. Using some generally available Internet genealogy sites; I was able to piece together his story.
Albert Palm’s parents were immigrants from Sweden. He was the third of four children, with an older sister and brother, and a younger sister. Born on Dec. 8, 1896, he registered for the draft in the second registration of June 5, 1918. 
He reported to Camp Devens in Ayer, Mass. about 18 miles from home on Sept. 3, 1918. He was assigned as a clerk in the 1st Company, 1st Training Battalion, 151st Depot Brigade; part of the 26th Division – The Yankee Division.
The first case of influenza was diagnosed at Camp Devens on September 8th. On the 14th there were 2000 cases, and on the 15th there were a total of 3000 cases. By months end there were over 14,000 cases and of those 764 would die, including on Sept. 19th, our medal’s subject Albert W. Palm.
To see how the epidemic spread, this is a great timeline map from the PBS American Experience program.
He answered the call of his nation; he was in uniform for 16 days. He never left the county in which he resided. What did his mother, father, brothers and sisters think of the irony in all this?
The Gold Star Mothers
of America
were formed formerly after the war, the name taken from the use of a gold star replacing a blue star on the service flag, denoting the change in status from a family member in service to one killed while in service.
Camp Devens
after the WWI becam Fort Devens, remaining active until the mid-1990s. See their site for more history, photos and information.
So thank a member of the military this Memorial Day!
George Čuhaj
5/21/2007 11:56:54 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, May 15, 2007
New $100 bill to include Motion
Posted by george
The BEP has told us long ago that the $1 and $2 will not be redesigned. It has already been announced that 2008 will see a new design for the $5. matching the 10-20-50 with color and a off-center, larger head. That just left the $100 for a make-over.
Well, slowly, information on that makeover is coming to light.
Some background:
Our nation’s currency paper is supplied by just one firm – Crane & Co. of Dalton, Mass. That manufacturer several years ago, purchased the printing and paper company AB Tumba Bruk in Sweden.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing – the sole printer for US Currency, located in Washington D.C. and Fort Worth, Texas, had a most unsuccessful attempt at introducing web fed technology for bank note production in the late 1980s. It has continued with sheet fed production with presses that currently handle 32 subjects per sheet. They have recently purchased new presses that will handle 50 subject sheets. (One new press already in use still prints notes on 32 subject sheets, the change to 50 subject sheets will not take place until most of the new presses are operational.) 
The new security feature that Crane has developed is called Motion™. One the Crane sample note at right, the item is visible as the wide security strip vertically near the center of the note. The feature has recently been introduced on the new circulating Swedish 1000 Krone note issued this year. You may view it at the Rigsbank website:
http://www.riksbank.com/templates/Page.aspx?id=20647
The Motion™ technology can be found at the Crane AB website: http://www.crane.se/site.aspx?id=570
We think that the Benjamin Franklin and Independence Hall designs will remain on the 100, but what will be the emblem of freedom, or the object in the Motion™ security device…that is not public information yet…
George Čuhaj
Bank Note Technologies
5/15/2007 2:43:44 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, May 09, 2007
High (Face) Value Bank Notes
Posted by george
Last week the Canadian Mint unveiled their 22-inch pure gold coin with a face value of one million dollars (Canadian, of course), which they sell for about three million (Canadian). They have already nearly ten orders for it in just the first week. That follows by a year the Austrian Mint’s introduction of a gold 100,000 euro coin.
So I’ve been wondering what current high value bank notes are out there for the public. (Not counting inflationary issues).
The winner happens to be Thailand. In 2000, the Royal Bank of Thailand commemorated the King's 50th Wedding Anniversary with a 500,000 Baht face value note to raise money for the King’s Charities. The note features profile portraits of the King and Queen. The size is impressive too, at 126 x 205 mm. Only 1998 pieces were issued. I was unable to secure an immage from the Royal Bank, sorry. For those who did not wish to participate in the nearly $20,000 dollar price tag (The note was sold above face value) the same design was made in a 50 Baht denomination, which comes in a very handsome discriptive folder.
For now…
George Čuhaj
Currency Notes
5/9/2007 11:47:31 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, May 01, 2007
New Bills or Old Bills
Posted by george
Who is responsible for the currency in use?
Well, if you listen to the banks, we are. If you request $2.00 bills, then the banks will order them, and you will get to use them, (along side your one dollar coins.)
If you request paper dollars, well then, the banks will give you those. If you request dollar coins, then you should get those.
So, do you bother to request NEW paper bills, or do you just take what they give you?
For now…
George Čuhaj
Currency Notes
5/1/2007 4:57:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007
George Washington Dollars - Which one?
Posted by george
Since mid-February we have had the opportunity to use our third incarnation of a circulating small size dollar coin since 1978.
The three standard problems with the Susan B. Anthony were the similar color and reeding to the quarter, and the continued distribution of the paper dollar. The 1999 Sacagewa fixed the color and reeding part with its golden tone and smooth edge, but the distribution of the paper dollar continued. Now we will be faced with issues of four presidents a year, plus a continued minting of the Sacagewa for the next twelve years. But wait, why are there no dollar coins in our pocket, because we are still using the familiar paper money.
So, what will make the success of the dollar coin a reality is the withdrawal of the paper dollar, the re-introduction of the $2.00 bill as the low denomination workhorse of America’s currency system, and extended use of the five dollar bill.
No, you are not going to be carrying around ten “heavy” one dollar coins, you’ll be carrying around just one or two, and having a stock of $2 and $5s paper in your wallet.
Get used to it.
George Cuhaj
Currency Notes
World Coin Stuff
4/24/2007 12:07:47 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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