The Award Winning
Monthly Newsletter of the Anchorage Coin Club
Volume 14, Number 2 February, 2001
February Membership Meeting:
Wednesday February 7th, 2000 Central Lutheran Church 7:00 PM Open, 7:30 PM Meeting
"Should You Save Those Sac Dollars"
FROM YOUR EDITORS
This is the start of a new year. When Bill Hamilton took over as President of the club last year he said we needed more numismatic education and, thanks to Mark Nagy, we have learned more about coins. Now Bill says we need more coin shows with member participation- not just helping set up tables- but members out there selling their surplus coins. Bill wants to continue as our club President. John Larsen, our club Vice-President, has taken over some of the paperwork that goes with running a nonprofit organization and would like to stay on as our club Vice-President. Larry Nakata, who has done more than any other member for this club, is willing to stay on as club Secretary.
The position of club Treasurer is open. Roy Brown will be staying on for his second year as Board member. But we still have one Board member position open. If anyone in the club feels that things could be done better or differently they are encouraged to join the Board of Directors and have some direct influence on the club’s direction. Elections will be at our March 7th membership meeting. If someone else is elected President, then Bill will become a Board member and if Bill is re-elected, then Loren Lucason will stay on as Board member.
Last month’s membership prize, a 1987 US Constitution Dollar in BU, was won by Greg Samorajski and last month’s door prize, a 1977 Great Britain Silver Jubilee set, was won by Jonathan Samorajski. Perhaps it is time to get this family more involved in the club’s operations.
There is a coin show at the Cottonwood Creek Mall in Wasilla January 27th and 28th. There is nothing like a coin show to pick up the spirits of a numismatist in the dead of Winter. We are beginning to get more daylight by the end of January so everyone is encouraged to make the trip north to attend the show.
Bill Hamilton contacted the lady who won our Christmas raffle prize, a complete set of Buffalo nickels. She bought the ticket at one of the Northway Mall coin shows. At the time she received the prize, she was not a member of the club and may not realize how valuable the set is. Another reason to join the Anchorage Coin Club…..
Our next raffle prize is a set of two US large size paper currency notes
in XF condition. The first is a 1923 $1 Silver Certificate with Speelman
and White signatures. The second is a 1914 $5 Federal Reserve Note with
White and Mellon signatures. Paper money is popular now and plans are in
the works to increase our knowledge of paper money and paper money grading.
Incidentally, there is a copy of Pick’s World Paper Money for sale
at the Loussac Library...Your Editors.
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MEMBERSHIP NEWS
Schedule of Events for the Month of February
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Minutes of the January 17th Board Meeting
The Board meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM.
Bills were reviewed as first order of business. Following this review, the Board addressed the issue of endorsements for ANA (American Numismatic Association) Board of Governors and ANA President nominations. Several senior ANA members have requested such endorsements from our coin club. Since these endorsements are not required until March, the decision was made to defer any endorsements until our next Board meeting on February 21st. At that time it is expected we will have gotten more requests for endorsements and can make decisions accordingly.
The ANA has also made a request for club donations to the 2001 National Money Show in Salt Lake City/ March 8-10. The Board made the decision to donate $25.
Next order of business was yearly elections for Anchorage Coin Club Board officers. Our club by-laws require that elections occur at our March membership meeting. March 7th will be our election day. The positions of President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and one Board seat will be decided that evening. Members interested in running for any of these seats can do so by contacting Larry Nakata/ Secretary, mailing us a letter stating your intention to run, or by making your intentions known at our February 7th or March 7th membership meetings. At this time, the following members have decided to run:
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The third Board seat, as per our club by-laws, is filled by the previous President of the Anchorage Coin Club. This seat is presently filled by Loren Lucason.
We need people to get involved and encourage our members to “toss their hat in the ring”.
Final order of business was planning of programs for this year. Our February 7th membership meeting will feature a presentation by member Robert Hall on “US Commemoratives” with a contest for our members in attendance as part of that evening’s presentation. The winner of that contest will receive a free membership to the US Commemorative Coin Society.
Two days later, on February 9th, our YNs will meet. Larry Nakata will give a presentation on “Grading Paper Currency”.
As there was no further business, the Board meeting was adjourned at
8:10 PM.
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Well…the Year 2001 is now upon us with our January 12th YN (Young Numismatists) meeting covering the subject of “Collecting Ancient Coins for the YN”.
Thanks go to club member Richard Bilak for volunteering his time and effort in giving that Friday evening’s presentation to YNs who attended. Thanks also go to Loren Lucason for helping out at that Friday evening session.
The evening saw the YNs cleaning and authenticating a number of ancient coins with the help of Richard and Loren. Ancient Roman and Byzantine coins were identified and taken home by the lucky YNs who attended that session. Richard provided these ancients to the YNs…thank you.
For YNs, collecting ancient coins over a thousand years old can be fun, filled with history, and very affordable. We trust you had an enjoyable evening.
So…we will be going into our next series of YN meetings for this new year. At our next YN meeting on Friday/ Februrary 9th / 7 PM/ Central Lutheran Church, we will be covering the subject of “Grading Paper Currency”. This will be a follow-up to last year’s session on “Collecting US Paper Currency for the YN”. It should be a very good and informative meeting for YNs.
Also…YNs should keep in mind that the first Wednesday of every month is also our club’s regular membership meeting. Everyone (including you YNs) are welcomed to attend those sessions. We usually feature a short coin auction and give away coins as door prizes. Our next regular membership meeting will be on Wednesday/ February 7th/ 7:30 PM/ Central Lutheran Church…with our YN meeting two days later on February 9th.
Hope to see a bunch of YNs at both meetings . Welcome to the new year……Larry
Nakata.
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Editors Note: In the November,
2000 edition of ANA’s magazine, The Numismatist, member Ben Guild
got the following article published. We called Ben on the matter and got
his permission to print this article. For your enjoyment:
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“A PENNY SAVED” by Ben Guild (Member # 102)
When I was a child, my grandfather told me, “See a penny, pick it up, and all the day you’ll have good luck.” He also told me that a cent saved could lead to nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars; pretty soon I would find I had a dollar.
I had a newspaper route when I was 6 years old. I added a magazine route (delivering three, different publications) when I was 7; and at age 8, I worked any odd jobs I could get- ones that no one else wanted- after school, on weekends and in the summer, for 10 to 25 cents per job. In 1934 or’35, the minimum wage for adults was raised to 34 cents an hour, but that excluded farm labor, and, of course, kids.
I received most of the payment for labors in coins, which included an abundance of Flying Eagle and Indian Head cents, Shield and Liberty Head nickels, Barber quarters and half dollars, some of the earlier Bust and Seated Liberty coins of all denominations, and even half dimes and 3-cent pieces. I took them all at face value.
Every coin went into my hidey-hole strongbox that only I knew about.
Since I was a “working man”, my mother charged me 50 cents per week for
room and board. (I thought it was a raw deal, until I found out she had
opened a bank account for me.) I allowed myself 10 cents a week for incidentals.
In the ‘30s, you could buy a lot for 10 cents. At the local five-and-dime,
I could get an ice cream cone or a hot dog with all the trimmings for a
nickel. For a dime, I could catch a double feature at the local movie theater,
and a big bag of popcorn was a nickel. A package of Twinkies cost 5 cents,
as did a really big candy bar. Or 10 cents could buy a 1-pound wedge of
old cheddar cheese (the crackers were free).
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I guess it was in Autumn 1935 or ’36 that my mother was thumbing through Sears & Roebuck’s big “wish-book,” and I heard her remark (to no one in particular) that if she had $100, she could make that Christmas a good one for me and my five siblings (the oldest was 11). I cleaned out my “stash” (which had a different meaning in those days), took it to the only bank in town and cashed it in for face value. (What did I know about coin collecting?) There was $133.65, not bad for three years’ work! I asked for a $100 bill and put the remaining $33.65 back into my strongbox for “seed.” I asked the teller to put the hundred in a special gift envelope.
When I presented it to my mother, she was flabbergasted. Then I got the third degree. How did I get $100?! I took a lot of explaining before I finally convinced her that it was not stolen or otherwise ill-gotten. We had a wonderful Christmas, even if the presents were primarily new clothes for all us kids.
I wonder what those coins were worth? What if I had kept them and all
the others I saved in the 1930s and ‘40s? I can only imagine their value
in today’s market…..Ben Guild.
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More Editors Notes: Thanks go to member, Mike Nourse, for submitting this article for this month’s newsletter:
“SHOULD YOU SAVE THOSE Sac DOLLARS?” by Mike Nourse (Member # 94)
Why on earth should I spend my nice new Sacagawea dollars? Look how rare they are! I can not even get a single one at the bank! And look how much the US Mint and the large national dealers are selling them for! By late next year, I should be able to sell my 40 BU rolls of Sac dollars and buy a vacation condo on the beach in Rio with enough left over to send the kids through college.
Not very likely. You really do not want to quit your day job and put the retirement fund in Sac dollars. In the last two years there has been a great deal of interest in modern coinage issues. It is a safe bet that this is the result of finally getting some new coins in circulation in the form of the state quarter program and the new golden Sacagawea dollars. Many new people are entering the hobby and they seem to be starting their collections with these new coin issues.
We all know that price is a function of supply and demand. In the case
of the state quarters, the supply is absolutely enormous but the demand
is also enormous. A little bit of speculation came in and drove the price
of the first few state quarter issues up as high as $75 for a $10 face
value roll. When the price stopped going up, some people started dumping
their rolls on the market sending the prices down to $50 or less. Are they
going to continue dropping? I think so. The demand seems to have stabilized
and supply on the market is increasing as more people cash out to preserve
their profit.
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How does this relate to the Sacagawea dollars. Again, we have to look at supply and demand. Supply is easy to quantify. At this time, the Mint has reported that a total of 1.12 billion 2000 dated Sac dollars have been produced. About 65 percent of that total is from the Philadelphia Mint and the remainder came from Denver (we are just looking at circulation strikes). No matter how you slice it, the production number is immense! You don’t think so? Well, for comparison, the entire mintage of all Morgan and Peace dollars over the course of 58 years and five mints amounted to a grand total of 847 million coins struck. This is 273 million less than the one year mintage of Sac dollars so far.
Now that we know that supply is huge, in order to get a significant price increase we will need demand to be even larger. So is the demand larger than the supply? While demand certainly is huge, it does not appear to be larger than the supply.
Because this is not just a one year issue (or just a ten week issue as in the case of the state quarters) people seem to be willing to wait to get these coins at the bank for face value. Therefore, at this time, Sac dollars do not command any premium other than the normal dealer markup needed to cover expenses and make a little profit. There are no dealers advertising in the back of the weekly coin publications to purchase Sac dollars at any premium above face value.
What will happen next to the price of 2000 dated Sacagawea dollars next year when you can no longer get them at the bank? My guess is….not much. The premium that dealers charge may increase slightly and you may even see an ad or two looking to buy them at a very slight premium above face value. But the price will not skyrocket. The supply of 1.12 billion coins is simply too huge. And remember that most people in the non-collecting public do not really care whether the shiny new golden dollar they give to the grandkids is dated 2000 or 2001 or whatever.
There is one more large difference between the state quarters and the Sac dollars that allowed the quarters to achieve a healthy premium above face value while the dollars are not likely to be valued substantially above face value for quite some time into the future. That difference is cardboard. Say what? Yes, cardboard, in the form of inexpensive folders that have been produced in staggering quantities to house collections of the 50 state quarters. Because of the multitude of different designs and the frequency which they are issued (a new one every ten weeks) it has become incredibly popular to try and get one coin from each state, and the folders (or sometimes maps) are sued to house the coins. Folders do exist for Sac dollars but with only two coins so far, a P and D, it does not make the most impressive display at this time. Another difference is that there is a defined end to the state quarter program in the year 2008 with 50 designs while there is no way of knowing how long the dollars will be made. The quarter program may be extended slightly but it will not go on forever. If you have any doubt about this, just ask you local dealer how many state quarter folders have been sold, and how difficult the folders were to get last year when they could not be produced fast enough.
So, back to our original question: should you save your Sac dollars or spend them? Well, we are coin collectors, and as such we should certainly save whatever we need for our collection. Usually at a minimum this means one each of the Philadelphia and Denver issues. Many of you are building roll sets of coins, and by all means put aside a roll of each. But those 40 rolls? My advice is to spend them and watch the different reactions you get from the store clerks. All of the evidence points to no significant price increase in the near future. But the evidence could be wrong…Mike Nourse.
Club Archivist/ Photographer
Robin Sisler
DUES
The Anchorage Coin Club is a non-profit organization formed to provide information, education, and a meeting place for individuals having an interest in numismatics.
Correspondence Address: Anchorage Coin Club, P.O. Box 230169, Anchorage,
Alaska 99523
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