Status: U Return-Path: Received: from web5203.mail.yahoo.com ([216.115.106.97]) by niles.mail.mindspring.net (Earthlink Mail Service) with SMTP id the0o3.qlb.37kbi1o for ; Thu, 31 May 2001 22:50:43 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <20010601025041.24908.qmail@web5203.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [172.153.110.72] by web5203.mail.yahoo.com; Thu, 31 May 2001 19:50:41 PDT Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 19:50:41 -0700 (PDT) From: MPCgram Subject: MPCGram 352 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 352 Friday, June 1, 2001 Book Review of; "The Overseas Targets, War Report of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services)," Volume 2 By Howard A. Daniel III Bruce W. Smith is not known to many of you who collect and research military financial instruments, but he and I have been assisting each other for almost thirty years. He is very much into anything concerned with Chinese numismatics, but that includes the Chinese pieces made and/or used in Southeast Asia, so there is some overlap in our interests. He recently acquired a book published on September 5, 1947 about the OSS, with an introduction by Kermit Roosevelt. This book was prepared within the Strategic Services Unit of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War by Serge P. Karlow, so you might see it listed somewhere under one or both names. Many years ago, I sent in a Freedom of Information Act letter to the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency, a predecessor of the OSS) about counterfeiting the monies used in World War II Japanese-held territories in Southeast Asia. They responded with several hundreds of pages of correspondence. Much of it was written by Captain (later Admiral) M.E. Miles, U.S. Navy, who was a senior OSS chief in China and Southeast Asia, and he is mentioned in this reference. Bruce photocopied the Far East pages for me to add to my library. In a quick review, I found information about the OSS CMA medals awarded to Kachin guerrillas operating in China, Burma and India. There were several areas in it where printing facilities were located and that some of them were for printing propaganda leaflets. I know that Joe Boling's research has their Calcutta, India printing plant responsible for printing some JIM notes. One item also described the capture of a Japanese postal unit document that allowed the OSS to identify many units and their locations. There is also detail information on the names, numbers, and locations of the OSS teams and some of names of the team personnel too. I hope he finds Volume 1 and it has the information about the OSS JIM counterfeiting operations! Bruce's email addresses are chinasmith99@hotmail.com and smithbr@bytehead.com. His mailing address is P.O. Box 941, Sheboygan, WI 53082. He and his wife are in the book business, so it might pay for you to contact them about your wants and needs in books. [aside to Joe, you might want to follow up on how we used the documents that Howard found in preparation of Remembered—Editor] =============================================== Editorial ---------------------------------------------------- Yesterday’s editorial was short, ill conceived, and poorly executed! Hm, did I get anything right? First, it short changed the Smythe catalog. Even though it does not include much MPC, I think that it is the company’s most beautiful catalog to date. It may also be its largest. In addition to the few MPC is a nice selection of North Africa and Hawaii notes. The editorial just begged to discuss the ANA elections currently being conducted because we chose to run John Wilson’s campaign letter. We should not have run that without mentioning that we will run other similar letters from other candidates. However, we suggest that the senders specifically discuss their candidacy and paper money or even better military paper money. =========================================== Mail Call ---------------------------------------------------- Dear Gram, Thanks for putting me on the list to receive the gram. Not recently, but many years ago, I tried unsuccessfully to locate the regular serial number MPC for which I had the replacement. I advertised for a 5 cent series 541 with serial number J00354906J and realized that I was looking for a needle in a haystack. To your knowledge, has anyone ever found the same serial number as the replacement note that they have? If so, I would love to see a scan of the pair! Happy collecting! Don Dear Gram, This is Ken K and I am curious, What are Voids and are they collected separately or what.? I have seen them offered by David Seelye and Denly and one or two other places. Are they listed in your book? I looked but could not find them. thanks for any help. Also i noticed that in Joe Boling's for sale list were pieces that stated that the paper was cream or white. Why are they not listed by these varieties in your book or will they in the next edition? Ken K Dear Gram, Shortly after my trip to Vietnam (June 29 - July 22, 2001) I will write an article about MPC era in Vietnam. This will require data collection, evidence collection, picture taking, talk to those whose life were changed and changed again because of MPCs. If you decide to use any information that I will bring back from Vietnam for the next edition of your book, I will be on the honor roll. Here are my highlights:  Visit shops where MPCs and related items are sold. I will take some pictures of the showcases and the stores. These stores are souvenir, antique, war-related items, etc.  Talk to the people who had saved "worthless red dollars" for years. I want to know their logic, their thinking, their lives after MPCs became worthless. My wife told me about one relative, who was MPC rich. She owned a bar that was famous among the GI. My wife said the relative used to have bags of MPCs after the bar was closed every night. I want to know how she converted the MPCs to Vietnamese currency and how she disposed them. There must be a network or a system in action at that time.  Talk to the local communist official. My grandparents' neighbor, as it revealed after the end of the war, was a financial officer of the Liberation Front (communist South) during the war. The communist financial officers were known for dealing with MPCs. * Of course I will hunt for all items related to MPCs. I have no idea where to start, but will figure it out once I'm there.  Visit a building formerly used for PX. Take pictures if allowed.  Search for items that could be purchased only with MPCs back during the war. Items that were sold only in PXs. I like to add more to this agenda. Please give me some ideas. If the readers of MPCGrams can give me some ideas, that would be great too. I speak native Vietnamese with an almost-authentic Hanoi accent (born in the South, never been to the North) thus interviewing, direction seeking, and data collection are not going to be a problem. Best regards, Trung T. Nguyen Hello Nguyen, Thanks for the wonderful letter. I am sorry that I did not respond earlier. I got confused and thought that it was a letter that I had read (and answered). We sure look forward to your report! 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, Marv Mericle, 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 Your items for sale will be listed in the Gram for FREE. Send your listings now. You items for sale support the gram by making it more interesting for everyone! "Republic of Viet Nam Coins and Currency" by Howard A. Daniel III (Howard@SEAsianTreasury.com) describes, illustrates and values overstamped notes for POW camps and a propaganda leaflet using the design of a 5 Dong note among the legal tender pieces. The publisher and author is out of stock of this book, but 9 copies were recently found in Scott Seman's stock. His address is P.O. Box 2347, Issaquah, WA 98027 and email is SSemans@aol.com. Please directly contact him for your copy. Howard A. Daniel III 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 Tuesday columnist Joe Boling – JoeBoling@aol.com Thurski columnist 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!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/