Coins And Currency Contemplations

2021·9 MB·English

by  James Davis

Coins and Currency Contemplations

A collection of articles from the pages
of the Elgin Coin Club newsletter
2005 - 2010

By James Davis
Introduction
From 2005 to 2017 I served as editor of the Elgin Coin Club Newsletter. One of
the monthly features was a coin or currency of the month. After stepping down
as editor, I continued contributing monthly articles. Subjects included various U.
S. coins and currency, foreign coins and currency, bullion coins, exonumia and
other similar topics. Presented here are the articles I wrote. There are some
months not represented here. That is from some articles being repeated or
articles written by other Elgin Coin Club Members. Lastly all values given were
accurate when the article was published.

Special Thanks
I would like to thank the following individuals for their inspiration,
encouragement, and support.
Charlene Beal Q. David Bowers Don Cerny
Howard Curtis Donald Dool Harold Eckhardt
Bob Feiler John Kent Robert Leonard
Ray Lockwood Pete McCoy Eagle McMahon
Mike Metras Doug Nelson Walt Ostromecki
Arthur Schatke Dave Starling Gerald Tebben
John Wilson Nancy Wilson Carl Wolf
Table of Contents

Title Date Page
$4 Stella Patterns April 2005 10
2005 Jefferson/Bison nickels May 2005 11
2005 Minnesota quarter June 2005 12
Coins of many nations July 2005 13
Mystery Coins September 2005 14
1982 cent varieties October 2005 15
1913-S type 2 nickel November 2005 16
The coins of Edward VIII December 2005 18
1927-D $20 January 2006 20
1776-1976 quarter February 2006 20
1900 Lafayette dollar March 2006 22
1992 Olympic Baseball $1 April 2006 22
1793 Chain Cent June 2006 24
Solid # notes July 2006 24
Women in Military $1 October 2006 26
Where’s George November 2006 27
Jefferson nickels December 2006 28
Twenty cent coins January 2007 30
1947 Red Book Reprint February 2007 31
ECC Internet Search March 2007 32
1970-S SD Cent April 2007 33
10 Worst of last 50 years May 2007 34
Brasher Doubloon June 2007 35
Acid date Buffalo nickels July 2007 36
Sing a song of Sixpence August 2007 37
Elgin Coin Club September 2007 38
Clad Washington 25 c. November 2007 39
Non-Circular Coins December 2007 40
J. S. G. Boggs January 2008 41
Liberty Dollars February 2008 42
2 Cent Coins April 2008 43
Richmond $10 1864 May 2008 45
Presidents on coins June 2008 46
Circulation finds cents July 2008 47
Proof Nickels ’38-’64 August 2008 48
1846 Half Dime September 2008 49
1809 Half Cent October 2008 50
Fractional Currency November 2008 51
Jefferson Proposed Coinage December 2008 52
Bald Eagles January 2009 53
Binion’s Dollars February 2009 54
SBA Dollars March 2009 55
1992 Columbus Coins April 2009 57
Mexican Pesos ’57-’67 May2009 58
1925 Stone Mountain June 2009 58
$3 Gold July 2009 60
1896 Educational notes August 2009 61
Professional life cent September 2009 62
1796 Quarter October 2009 64
Walking Liberty halves November 2009 65
Lincoln C+C Set December 2009 66
Cameo Proofs January 2010 67
Inexpensive Gold February 2010 68
Images of Lincoln April 2010 69
1916 Quarter May 2010 71
1920’s Coins June 2010 72
SMS Coins July 2010 73
Oregon Trail Coins August 2010 74
Fort Knox September 2010 75
Illinois Sesquicentennial October 2010 77
1796-1797 Half Dollars November 2010 78
1967 Canada Set December 2010 79
Gold Silver Platinum January 2011 81
Statues on coins February 2011 81
1848 CAL $2.50 March 2011 83
Web Notes April 2011 84
1955 DDO cent May 2011 85
1936 Canada dot cent June 2011 86
JFK half 2002-2011 July 2011 87
Trade Dollars August 2011 88
Barr notes September 2011 90
3 Key Barber quarters October 2011 91
1933 British Penny November 2011 92
Hobo nickels December 2011 93
3 cent nickels January 2012 94
1971 Chicago Fire medal February 2012 95
1991 Canada quarter March 2012 96
Indian cent ’59-’64 May 2012 97
SWIMS Notes June 2012 99
Interesting ‘60’s coins July 2012 99
Images of Elizabeth II October 2012 100
1950-D Nickel November 2012 101
Columbian Half Dollars December 2012 102
2 Cent Coins January 2013 103
Canadian Gold 1912-14 February 2013 105
Kennedy 50 c. 1965-70 March 2013 106
1858 Flying Eagle cent April 2013 107
Hungarian Currency 1946 May 2013 108
Walton 1913 Liberty 5 c. June 2013 110
1982 Washington 50 c. August 2013 111
Canadian Tombac 5 c. September 2013 112
Fractional Gold Buffalos October 2013 113
1936 Gettysburg 50 c. November 2013 114
1963 Franklin 50 c. December 2013 116
1937-D 3 leg 5 c. February 2014 117
1974 Aluminum cent March 2014 118
2014 Maundy Set April 2014 119
1861-C $5 Gold June 2014 120
1885-CC Morgan $1 July 2014 121
$100,000 Note August 2014 122
1997 Jackie Robinson September 2014 123
1893 Elongated Cents October 2014 124
Maui Trade Dollars November 2014 125
1966 Australia Set December 2014 126
Pan Pacific $2.50 January 2015 127
Hawaii Overprint Notes February 2015 128
1974-80 French 50 Francs March 2015 129
Canadian cents 1902-10 April 2015 130
1779 Rhode Island token May 2015 131
1963 $5 U. S. Note June 2015 132
British 20 pence July 2015 133
A box of cents August 2015 134
1903-O Morgan $1 September 2015 135
Canada Devil’s Face notes October 2015 136
1986 Statue of Liberty $5 November 2015 138
1960 large + Small date 1 c. December 2015 139
Heads and Tails January 2016 140
Musical Instruments February 2016 141
Box of Nickels April 2016 141
Horses on coins May 2016 142
Rare Canadian coins June 2016 143
Arkansas Centennial July 2016 144
Two heads one side August 2016 145
Bridges on coins September 2016 146
Foreign Phrases October 2016 147
Planes Trains Autos November 2016 148
Coins of 1908 December 2016 149
Coins of 1957 January 2017 150
Living persons on coins February 2017 152
1937 Roanoke Half March 2017 153
Coins of 1932 April 2017 154
1921 Morgan $1 May 2017 155
1857 Large Cent June 2017 156
1916 Panama 2 ½ cent July 2017 157
Other Lincoln Cent DDO August 2017 158
Million-dollar notes September 2017 159
Canada Toonies November 2017 160
1957 Silver Certificate December 2017 161
1849 $20 Gold January 2018 162
Guns on Coins February 2018 163
Liberty Nickels March 2018 165
1921 Walkers June 2018 166
Proof Dimes 1936 – 1942 July 2018 167
1924 Jack Dempsey Medal August 2018 169
1854-S $5 Liberty September 2018 170
Cams and Wams October 2018 171
British Alphabet 10 Pence December 2018 173
Shield Nickels January 2019 174
1968-74-S BU Cents February 2019 175
1899 $5 Silver Certificate March 2019 177
Newman Numismatic Portal April 2019 179
Mercury Dime Short Set May 2019 180
Member Request June 2019 181
$1 Star Notes September 2019 182
1884-1885 Trade Dollars October 2019 184
Gold Tribute Coins November 2019 185
Coins of 1820 January 2020 187
Barber Half Dollars February 2020 188
Canada Cent 1937-1952 March 2020 190
Bears on Coins April 2020 191
Covid Collecting May 2020 193
Half Dimes 1860-1872 June 2020 194
American Arts Medals July 2020 196
Funny back Dollars August 2020 197
Coins of 1970 September 2020 199
Dude, Where’s my mintmark October 2020 200
British 2 Pounds November 2020 202
2020 Circulation Finds December 2020 204
$4.00 STELLA Patterns
Stella! More than a character in a Tennessee Williams play the stella was a
failed gold coin proposed in the late 1870’s. According to Breen the
denomination was brought about in a failed attempt to reconcile the ‘Rivalry’
between gold and silver and create a trade coin to be used in Europe to compete
with the ducat and similar gold coins. There are two varieties of stellas. The first
shows liberty with shoulder length flowing hair as designed by Charles E.
Barber. The second one designed by George T. Morgan depicts liberty with
coiled hair wrapped on top of her head.
Circling the portrait on both varieties is the metallic composition of the coins in
grams. The composition of the coin consists of 6 grams gold, .3 grams silver and
.7 grams copper. The reverses of both coins are identical. The center device is a
5-pointed star with the legend one stella and 400 cents. Written around the edge
of the coin is united states of America, four dol., e pluribus unum and doe est
gloria. This gives the stella the unusual feature of having its denomination
written three different ways.
Being technically patterns all stellas are rare. The most common variety is the
1879 flowing hair variety. Various sources list the mintage anywhere from 400
to 600 pieces with 425 being the generally accepted total. The other three
varieties are generally believed to have mintages between 10 and 25 pieces. All
stellas were struck in proof condition at the Philadelphia mint and most were
given to politicians in Washington. When collectors at the time discovered they
could not obtain the coins from the mint they soon found out that several dozen
specimens were being worn as jewelry by ladies managing brothels in
Washington that were frequented by the members of congress who received the
coins in the first place. To this day those coins can be identified by the repair
marks caused by the removal of loops or other means of mounting.