Status: U Return-Path: Received: from web5205.mail.yahoo.com ([216.115.106.86]) by hazard.mail.mindspring.net (Earthlink Mail Service) with SMTP id tf404o.cnt.37kb01i for ; Thu, 3 May 2001 21:06:32 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <20010504010629.25070.qmail@web5205.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [205.188.199.38] by web5205.mail.yahoo.com; Thu, 03 May 2001 18:06:29 PDT Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 18:06:29 -0700 (PDT) From: MPCgram Subject: MPCGram 328 To: MPCGram@yahoo.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii ==================================================== MPC Gram ==================================================== Covering the Entire World of Military Numismatics ---------------------------------------------------- Series 002-Number 328 Thurski, May 3, 2001 Mixed commentary By Larry “Ski” Smulczenski In Gram 325, Fred mentioned that he had received his Bank Note Reporter. Well, most of us get ours a week or so after he gets his, but this one came in yesterday, so three days isn't too bad. The article that caught my eye was the piece written by Neil Shafer. If you haven't read this super article, don't hesitate. If you don't subscribe to Bank Note Reporter, you should, but for now, beg, borrow or steal a copy and read this article. It reviews all the early history of the AMC notes for Germany and tells how the myth of certain serial numbers for various occupied zones was perpetuated. This theory was published in several of the early works on military currency and even as recently as a year ago reared its ugly head. A novice collector got hold of one of these early catalogs and without researching any further reinvented the wheel. Joe Boling had to straighten out the fledgling author. But if you want to know the whole story read the article by the man who helped uncover the truth. When I think of Neil, I immediately think of his monumental work on Philippine Emergency and Guerrilla Currency of World War II. This book is over 25 years old, and the pricing in it is long outdated, but most of the information is still valid and correct. This book, long out of print remains the only source of information on the municipal notes of the Philippines during WWII. Also after 25 years, its amazing that only a small number of notes have been discovered that were not cataloged in this book which is a tribute to the thoroughness of Neil's work. One of the Guerrilla issues that has always interested me is the Cagayan series with Revenue Stamps. Cagayan is a Philippine province in the northern part of Luzon. These notes have several distinct features. First of all, they were printed on a porous type paper that I like to compare to the poster paper kids use in grade school art class. The paper is so soft that it tears very easily when folded repeatedly. The notes were typed and printed using a mimeograph machine. The face and back were typed on the same stencil, the back right below the face and then they were printed onto a sheet of paper. The note is then folded between the face and the back and an array of thin strings placed between them. The face and back were then glued together giving the paper a little more strength. You will find many of these notes being held together just by these strings. This manner of producing the notes resulted in what appears to be a note with an inverted back, since when you turn the note to see the back as you do a normal note by rotating around the vertical axis it is upside-down. The left side of the face of the note has a large colored revenue stamp affixed to it with value the same as the printed noted. These revenue stamps were printed by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing and probably were placed on the note as an anticounterfeiting device. Each stamp is numbered, but there does not appear to be any correlation between the number on the stamp and the note serial number. Runs of notes have been found where the serial number and stamp number have some agreement, but then that agreement changes and no other correlation appears. Apparently, sheets of the stamps were torn apart and indiscriminately used. A large denomination stamped in purple ink on the back of the note agrees with the value of the revenue stamp. The serial number of the note is stamped in purple ink on both the face and back of each note. These notes were issued in twelve values, from 10 centavos through 200 pesos. Besides the 200 peso note, unusual values of 2.50 and 4 peso were included. The total number of each value of these notes is relatively small. The five peso note was issued with the largest number--2,995 notes while the 200 peso had only 46 issued. Five other values have issued totals of less than a thousand with the remaining five at less than two thousand. Considering the poor paper used for these notes, and the severe conditions in which they were circulated, these are very small population totals. One other note must be mentioned with this series. The note printers must have run out of revenue stamps for the 50 centavo value, because notes are known with a facsimile revenue stamp. The facsimile stamp is purple while the 50 centavo revenue stamp was greenish-gold. The serial numbers for the revenue stamped notes run from 14001 to 15256 while the facsimile stamped notes run from 15257 to 15680. That's a total of 323 notes. These have to be considered quite rare notes. ==================================================== Editorial ---------------------------------------------------- The current “buz” is still the “surprise” listing of notes from the Boling collection. We hope that you got something. Beyond that we hope that you learned from that what a great place the Gram is to buy and sell military notes. If you have something for sale, send us a listing! =================================================== Mail Call ---------------------------------------------------- Dear Gram- I am ecstatic to be having the opportunity to work with part of Joe Boling's collection. It is certainly among the highlights of my numismatic career. As Joe stated, please contact me at grbaypa@uswest.net to ensure that I have all of your relevant information once the time comes to produce the list. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you. Joel Shafer Dear Joel, We are happy for you and Joe. We hope that you will list many, most, or all of the items here in the Gram. The Gram is a proven way to sell material—fast. Editor Dear Gram, I just opened a “new” book in my library. "World War II Military Currency" by C.Frederick Schwan and Joseph E. Boling. As it turns out it is a dual autographed copy, dated 1985 Cherry Hill, NJ to a Mr.Waszilycask. It's late so I will read this book with great relish over the next few weeks. What was Box 9, Camden, SC 29020? Joe's address at the time? David The 1978 book is now a collector’s item in its own right. I do not think that you will find much in that book that is not in the 1995 WWII Remembered, but that is not to say that it is not worthwhile reading. Among other things, reading old editions helps answer the important question “what did we know when?” The Camden address was of the Bank Note Reporter owned at the time by Austin Sheheen. We look forward to any reports that you might want to make on “discoveries” while curising Schwan-Boling I! Editor =================================================== Departments --------------------------------------------------- WWII numismatics seminar at ANA Summer Seminar 2001 --------------------------------------------------- Not only does the scholarship fund have an official identity but also has a bank account! Any further donations should be paid to the order of "Military Numismatists Scholarship" and sent to: Military Numismatists c/o Marcus Turner 8103 East US Highway 36 Suite 163 Avon, IN 46123 THE UPDATED LIST OF SCHOLARSHIP BENEFACTORS 3/22/01. These folks have generously provided money or material to finance scholarships to the ANA WWII Numismatics seminar. Your contributions will help promote collecting WWII material and be greatly appreciated. Many donations were received at CPMX and MPCFest. Mr. Anonymous Donor, Mike Cummings, Sue and Keith Bauman, Ed B., Doug Bell, Tom Denly, Denly's, R. A. Medina, Harold “MPCKid” Kroll, Leo "Paymaster" May, Mrs. R.C. Matherne, Bill McNease, Mel and Jeremy Steinberg, Marcus Turner, Larry Ski, Guido, Fred, PK6, Joel Shafer, World Wide Ventures, Pam West, John and Nancy Wilson, Neil Shafer, W. E. Yanchick, Mark Watson, Al Glaser, Phil Goldstein, Rod Hardy, Wesley Hardy, Gary Hicks, Jack Lippincott, Ian Marshall, Kevin Maloy, David Seelye, Nick Schrier, Elmer Smith, Dan Swartz, Tom Warburton, Dick Freyser, Tim Kyzivat ==================================================== Post/Base Exchange (PX/BX/NEX) Dump your dupes! Your classified advertisement for items for sale will be run here for free. Send your ads to the gram. This service is for everyone, most humble dealer or most advanced collector. The point is to make the gram more interesting. Send in a list of items for sale and we will list them here in the gram. In all cases confirm your order via email first. FOR SALE Here is what is available from MPCFest II: Souvenir card $25 (50 produced) Bronze “challenge coin” $5 Copper “challenge coin” $25 (silver sold out, only one of copper available) In addition to the above souvenirs, the following MFC Series 011 notes are available at face value. Note, these are NOT souvenirs as they are still current and spendable. Series 011 $1, 2, 5, 10, and 20, total face value of one set $38. Payment can be accepted by all of the traditional means including paypal using fred@papermoneyworld.com. Traditional paper payments may be sent to Fred Schwan, 132 E. Second St., Port Clinton, Oh 43452. WANTED Collectors may submit lists of items wanted for their collections for listing here. Dealers and collectors who have these items are then encouraged to list them for sale in the above section. This is a trial, if you like it, send your list. =================================================== Staff: publisher and editor: Fred Schwan - fred@papermoneyworld.com; assistant editor - Phil Goldstein IWANTMYMPC@aol.com Tueseday columnist Joe Boling – JoeBoling@aol.com Thurski cloumnist Larry “Ski” Smulczenski – ski@papermoneyworld.com critic: Harold Kroll - MPCKid@papermoneyworld.com; index manager: Ed Beaman webmaster & technical advisor: Doug Bell - (Wiz): doug@papermoneyworld.com; The Boss: Judy Schwan ===== MPC Gram is published by BNR Press and papermoneyworld.com as a free service to the community of military money collectors. Your suggestions, criticisms, complaints, editorial contributions, letters, and even praise are very welcome. The entire contents including linked illustrations are copyright protected by the publishers. In the case of contributors, the copyright is protected on behalf of the creators. Please send all correspondence regarding the gram to MPCgram@yahoo.com. Thank you very much for your participation. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/