Status: U Return-Path: Received: from web5204.mail.yahoo.com ([216.115.106.85]) by tyner.mail.mindspring.net (Earthlink Mail Service) with SMTP id tfpanb.94v.37kbi5q for ; Fri, 11 May 2001 23:15:54 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <20010512031554.5153.qmail@web5204.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [152.163.207.182] by web5204.mail.yahoo.com; Fri, 11 May 2001 20:15:54 PDT Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 20:15:54 -0700 (PDT) From: MPCgram Subject: MPCGram 336 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 336 Saturday, May 12, 2001 Military Payment Certificates used in Vietnam - from a Vietnamese Perspective By Trung T. Nguyen I grew up in Vietnam during the war. First it was the GIs every where in my hometown Nhatrang, then the black market merchandise, then the MPC. We, the South Vietnamese, had a term for MPCs. It was the "red dollars," for the colors were different than greenbacks, obviously known as "green dollars." Illegal as it was to have outside the PXs, there were "red-dollars exchangers" - those who bought and sold MPCs using the local currency. (By the way, the local currency unit was "dong," literally meant "coppers." Whoever invented the term "piastres" must be living in a different world. Even the French's imperial Bank of Indochina printed notes with "dong" denomination, piastres were no where in the Vietnamese currency). The exchangers were wealthy and well connected with the GIs. Beside MPCs the exchangers had American liquids and cigarettes and whatever else. It did not last long. When series 641 was declared obsolete overnight, there were quite a few bankruptcies in Vietnam, and quite a few suicides to go with it. There were literally bags and bags of red dollars, now worthless, underneath someone's bed. There was an economy fed by MPCs. The bars and high end restaurants were happy to accept them. The local prostitutes and brothel houses were happy to accept and collect them. Even the local maids were paid in MPC's. Rent and hotel rooms were paid by MPC's. The wealth of some lucky South Vietnamese was measured by MPCs. Every thing and every thing could be bought with MPCs. Even the Vietcong used MPC's to purchase supplies for their bases. One kid in my middle school received a red dollar from a GI living nearby for a simple chore. Next day he became the richest among us kids. He then simply gave it to the street vendor in front of our school and many kids enjoyed a lot of goodies. The naďve South Vietnamese even saved MPCs, just like people around the world still putting their life saving in US greenbacks hidden somewhere only God and they know. Wealthy individuals in town pulled out MPCs from their pockets to show off their fortune. I had never had a change to even touch a note. A short while after the first series (641?) became obsolete, quite a few prostitutes and madams threw themselves into the river. All the "MPC millionaires" became penniless, or must I say dongless, overnight. Some jumped of the building, some used guns to end their lives, some pulled the pin on a grenade, some took cyanide. A few became homeless. Some kids in my school whose parents were MPC millionaires all of a sudden became one of us poor kids. It was a big mess. The communists were quick to take advantage of the situation. Their propaganda at the time was that the United States became so poor, their dollars were worthless, not just in Vietnam but every where in the world. In no time at all the local economy headed south. MPCs, now worthless, were every where. Shady characters for a long while tried to pass them on, of course some street vendors took in a couple of old red dollars and forfeited days of profits. But before long new style red dollars were again the wealth. Again there was a big black market. Again there were red dollar exchangers. Again prostitutes and madams showed off their MPCs, except no one there ever called it Military Payment Certificates, not even MPCs. All I knew was the red dollars. Best regards, =============================================== Editorial ---------------------------------------------------- We had a nice exchange today with a potential candidate for a scholarship to the ANA WWII Numismatics Summer Seminar. I referred him to the Gram for all of the details that he would need to know. Then I looked at the Gram and see that there is far from all of the info included below. Sure there are details about where to apply and this is great if you are a long time Gramster, so I was wrong. Let’s review, then we will place the following description in the Seminar/Scholarship section for future Grams. The American Numismatic Association offers classes each summer at its headquarters in Colorado Springs, Co. Collectively they are called the summer seminar. For the first time the ANA decided to offer a course in military numismatics. Officially it is called military numismatics since 1930. We have been calling it the World War II Summer Seminar here in the Gram. The ANA and Joe Boling and me (Schwan) to teach (I prefer to think of it as lead or guide) the seminar. Shortly after the seminar was announced, Gramsters decided to accept the task of creating scholarships to send people to this first ever seminar. Marcus Turner took charge of the fund raising and other activities associated with the task. Scholarships pay for registration, room, board, and transportation up to $1000 (for domestic travel almost always sufficient). Applicants must be ANA members or willing to join the association. (A worthy thing to do in its own right and hardly a hardship against a thousand dollar scholarship!) The WWII Seminar will be Saturday June 30 through Friday July 6. Unofficially we are discussing having a mini Fest in Colorado Springs on July 7. You can find more information by consulting the ANA web site http://www.money.org/sumsem2001.html. If you have an interest in MPC, WWII numismatics and that sort of thing you will probably be interested in the program. Heck, if you read the Gram you should be interested! It is for numismatists of all levels. It is likely that everyone will bring some strengths and weaknesses into the seminar. We will try to key on those to make it good for everyone. Joe and I are working toward making it an interesting, fun, and perhaps even educational week! =========================================== Mail Call ---------------------------------------------------- Dear Gram, I thought that everyone would be interested to know that I placed the serial number one (F00000001F) MFC Series 011 for sale on ebay. You may use the link below to look at it or even bid! I obtained the number one note at the Fest. http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1236940088 Marcus Turner Dear Marcus, I am afraid we cannot allow such blatant commercialism as this obvious subtrifuge to avoid Gram advertising policies. If it were not for your underhanded attempt, I would think that this is a really interesting item from several points of view. Obviously as a number one note it is desirable. As a Fest number one note it is likely to be of most interest to Festers, but then maybe not. It is hard to say and would be interesting to watch and report here if it did not violate our advertising policy. Any updates that you might send relating to the number of hits, bids, or price realized will have to be treated in the same way as your letter above. You cannot fool us that easily! 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, Continental Coin Invensor, Inc., 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 AMC yen for sale email, phone, or postal orders accepted, but they will be filled in the order received, with telephone orders integrated into the email orders by date/time stamp (postal orders may not be wasted postage at this point). Persons unknown to me are asked to send payment in advance. Reasonable extensions of payments will be considered (not necessarily adopted). All pieces are one of a kind (note the serial numbers); actual postage will be billed on all orders, with appropriate insurance or registration applied. Unsold lots over $125 will be sent to auction NLT 10 May; don't procrastinate. Any note not satisfying may be returned no questions asked (not after thirty days, please). For your pleasure, the sources and dates of acquisition are given; where the source is unrecorded, it means that I acquired the note before 1981, when I got my first computer. Joseph E. Boling PO Box 4718 Federal Way WA 98063-4718 253-839-5199 fax 253-839-5185 joeboling@aol.com A-yen 50 sen cream paper A07724963A AU $30 source unrecorded 1 yen white paper A02347553A Unc $50 Warmus 1987 10 yen white paper A07603448A AU+ $200 Uhl 1982 20 yen cream paper A00907857A AU $750 Schwan-Kesselman 1988 B-yen 10 sen cream paper H00063158A AU+ $375 source unrecorded 1 yen medium paper B01492974B Unc $60 source unrecorded 1 yen cream paper D01285446D Unc $30 source unrecorded 5 yen cream paper A06637755A AU $10 source unrecorded 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 or 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/