Current Currency with George S. Cuhaj - Saturday, June 30, 2007

ANA Summer Seminar week one over, week two about to start!
Posted by george

The 39th Annual Americn Numismatic Assocaiation Summer Seminar is in full force. Week one participants have enjoyed a week of learning on a variety of numismatic topics as diverse as Roman Republican coins, Hammered coins of England, and the clas I was involved with - Coins of World, 1500-present, to those of US Currency, Counterfeit banknotes, and intaglio engraving.

Chris Madden of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was the teacher of the intaglio class. It is offered as a two year scholarship program, and this was the second year in the cycle. His six students displayed their work before the closing banquet.

Two favorite events during the week are a duplicate sale from the library, which for the first week raised over $2,500 dollars, and the donation auction for the YN scholarship fund which took in over $13,000 on 250 or so lots. (The YN's learn the auction business, but accepting, inventoring the material, then writing the descriptions, printing and distributing the catalog, all on a very tight schedule.)

As week two starts off, Friday - Sunday is a 100+ dealer coin show which many of the participants take an extra day in their travel schedule to attend.

Classes this week include Building an award winning educational display, US Paper Money, the milled coins of England, coin photography, and of course the ever popular coin grading classes. I am here this second week as a first year participant in the two-year Gilroy Roberts Fellowship program for engraving. It starts off with a gallery art show of items from the six participants on Sunday Night with a wine and cheese reception.

It is truely a who's who of the hobby, with a bunch of past and current ANA officials in attendance, and access to many of the Association's staff.

Yes, there is plenty of after hours discussions about the ANA election and the recommended changes to the by laws, and how that will affect the "membership" participation in their organization. Much of that is discussed at a social gathering not to be found on any schedule, but open to all, with the outdoor after dinner and evening classes meeting of the Luna Cafe society in the commons area overlooking the soccer field, with a fine vew of sunsets (or impending thunder clouds) over Pike Peak.

More as the week progresses.

George

6/30/2007 12:16:29 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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ANA Summer Seminar, day one report
Posted by george

Greetings,

About 200 eager ANA members have gathered in Colorado Springs this week for the 39th Annual Summer Seminar. This is a program where volunteer instructors from all over the country have gathered to teach courses on coin grading, US paper money, ancient coins, coin photography or intaglio engraving.

Emmett McDonald of Long Island, NY, and I are co-teaching 11 students of varied ages and backgrounds a survey class on world coins.

I had a great three-day drive from central Wisconsin, mostly traveling on routs 35, 70 and 76, but I did get off to do some blue line touring on old state roads mostly 6 in Nebraska, and 71/24 in Colorado.

On the good side was a memorable breakfast at Gary Nebraska, and sadly the worst stop was just a few more miles down the road at the saddest BP station on the tour.

More about the class and other classes during the next two weeks.

George Cuhaj

6/25/2007 11:21:57 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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A vist to Central High School
Posted by george

In early June I had the pleasure to accept an invitation of the Central Arkansas Coin Club to speak at a special meeting of the club. As it was my first visit to the city, I asked to make a long weekend out of it.

A very pleasurable three days was spent with Tom Dodson out and about town.

High School has been on my mind a bit this spring. April was my 30^th reunion of the class of ’77 from Brooklyn Technical High School. I was the coin club vice president while a student, and I am now the Alumni Foundation’s archivist. It was a great school experience for me, and still is a fine NYC Public High School.

So, with the recent congressional gold medal for the “Little Rock Nine” and this year’s silver dollar commemorative, I asked Tom to include a visit to the Central High National Historic Site – it turned out to be Tom’s alma mater. It is a Most impressive building, and as school was still in session, active with student life. The NPS has restored a nearby Mobil Station to serve as the interpretative center, and is constructing an even larger facility across the street.

I’ve given some thought to other sites depicted on coins that I have visited – the list continues to grow, and that is a nice subtle way to tie our hobby into other interests. As a scout I got to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Lexington and Concord, Independence Hall, Mount Vernon, Monticello, West Point,Jamestown, the DC sites of the Capitol, White House, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, the Smithsonian, Civil War battlefields of Gettysburg and Antietam. If you include the circulating 50-state quarter program, I have even been over the New River Gorge Bridge. Now only if I can find a way to get me to Diamondhead.

So there are many ways to include numismatics in trips!

George Čuhaj

6/18/2007 4:41:36 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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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 13^th 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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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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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 3^rd, 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 25^th 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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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 1^st Company, 1^st Training Battalion, 151^st Depot Brigade; part of the 26^th Division – The Yankee Division.

The first case of influenza was diagnosed at Camp Devens on September 8^th. On the 14^th there were 2000 cases, and on the 15^th 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. 19^th, 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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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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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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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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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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