Status: U Return-Path: Received: from web5204.mail.yahoo.com ([216.115.106.85]) by hazard.mail.mindspring.net (Earthlink Mail Service) with SMTP id tj01ak.2vd.37kb01i for ; Tue, 19 Jun 2001 22:07:16 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <20010620020715.10181.qmail@web5204.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [64.12.102.168] by web5204.mail.yahoo.com; Tue, 19 Jun 2001 19:07:15 PDT Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 19:07:15 -0700 (PDT) From: MPCgram Subject: MPCGram 369 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 369 Tuesday, June 19, 2001 Memphis and Followups by Joe Boling Recall that I mentioned using some antique film to photograph a few of the lots that I have sent to Gillio for the Hong Kong sale in August. I had pre-paid processing mailers for both rolls, so I tried to send them to a Kodak lab for development and mounting. That turned out to be a real adventure. The closest lab, in Palo Alto, is closed, but I was able to contact a lab in southern California, who told me to send them to Rockville, Maryland. I did that; about ten days later first one, then the other, were returned by the post office, marked "forwarding order expired." I called the number in my nationwide CD phone book, and found that the lab has indeed changed locations in Rockville, but, by the way, "we don't process mailers. Send them to Fair Lawn NJ." Meanwhile the film has been across the country twice, under who knows what environmental conditions. So, back into the mail to New Jersey. The slides are now back. On both rolls, the white bank note paper is pale pink. I have no way to know whether that is because of the age of the film or because of improper filtration to neutralize the incandescent lamps that I was using (though I used two blue filters, so I suspect it is related to age rather than filtration). There was also nothing to indicate why both 36-exposure rolls stopped advancing at frame 26 (the unexposed film was returned, developed, and showed no signs of having adhered to itself in the roll, so I can't imagine why it would not pull out of the cassette). Meanwhile, I also shot all the lots I was sending south with a high resolution (3.3megapixelsss) digital camera, so I have images, of a sort, of all pieces. The problem is that I do not yet know how to organize and display such images as a slide show for lectures, and have only a week to figure it out (and to shoot the notes that did NOT go south) before departing for Colorado Springs for the ANA seminar. It is not too late to register for that seminar (though it might be too late to get housing at Colorado College--I don't know if they are filled up in the dorms). There are only six students signed up (four of whom have been sent on scholarships by you gram readers), so it will be a nice intimate series of discussions about military currencies. Speaking of scholarships, another follow-up: the editor said that attendees of the M2C2 meeting at Memphis would no doubt have reports to make. I can report that the MPC shipping crate that the editor bought at the Fest II scholarship benefit auction was delivered to him at the Memphis M2C2 meeting, and that the donor brought along a carton for 4000 series 691 $5 bills, which was auctioned to benefit next year's scholarship applicants. Bidding was desultory, stalling at $200, so I bid $225 and we went up three more advances to $300 before I dropped out and let the editor buy it (he was up in front trying to convince me that the end labels showed that the carton was filled with position 8 notes--he was not convincing. Memphis acquisitions: being in the process of selling my main Japanese collection, I am moving more deeply into counterfeits (which I have always collected, and will retain from the main collection, but I'm now adding more of them at every show). I acquired four more bogus Italian AMC, all with bank documents attesting to their falsehood (including two 100 lire pieces with identical serial numbers, A32148268B, that did not travel together from manufacture to seizure, as they had different stamps and only one was reported on the transmittal letter from the Papua branch to the main office of the Banca d'Italia). These are the first counterfeit AMC 100 lire notes I have seen. I also bought another post-war Italian counterfeit that seems to be printed on correct paper, but the platework is definitely shoddy. The paper has the correct watermark; it would seem to demand that a paper theft preceded the production of the fake notes, but such a theft is not generally known in the Italian note collecting community. Anyone out there know of one? We are talking about Pick 70a and 72c, the immediate postwar 500 and 1000 lire notes. After buying a choice uncirculated example of Great Britain SB192 for $125, I found that Gary Snover had one too, for only $75. If any of you need that piece, better call him. It's one of the replica one pound notes with an Arabic message on the back. For a long time the Bank of England issues were confined to notes 5 pounds and higher. At the time of WWI it had been over a century since any one-pound notes had been issued, and there had never been any for sums as low as 10 shillings. In 1914, due to a shortage of coin, treasury notes were issued for one pound and ten shillings (P346-347). Known as Bradbury notes, because of the prominent signature of John Bradbury, Secretary of the Treasury, they are hard types to collect. I heard that there were a pair of counterfeits on the floor, and I went after them. Neither has a watermark, though both have a patterned design embossed into the paper to simulate a watermark. The original notes are uniface and plain, with only one or two colors of ink. Since the notes use very simple designs, it is not surprising that someone tried to copy them, and fairly well, too. That's about it for military pieces from Memphs for my collection. =============================================== Editorial ---------------------------------------------------- Preliminary results are in!Carlson Chambliss. He convinced a chemist friend to analyze the two printings of Series 692 $20. He has determined that they are chemically different! This opens up more doors for research. I think that this is an important discovery. We expect to have more information to report on this subject within a few weeks. =========================================== Mail Call ----------------------------------------------- Dear PK6, I may be stepping into an area that could still be classified or at least sensitive, but I am going into it anyway. My first tour in Viet Nam from January 1966 to August 1970 (my second was outside the intelligence community from December 1971 to January 1973) had me working with ALL of the U.S. intelligence activities in the Indochina area and Thailand, and with the Vietnamese and Allied forces in Viet Nam. There were many small groups and individuals working independent of "regular" or "normal" U.S., Vietnamese and Allied operations. To pay for their operations and/or agent networks they were allowed to use whatever currency(s) or commodity(s) wanted by the people who worked for them. Many of the men running these operations were active duty U.S. Army Special Forces in and out of uniform, and for some of them in civilian clothes, you would have never know they were on active duty from their looks. There were also some civilians working for several U.S. intelligence activities working IN uniform, and many others in civilian clothes. First I would like to write that I cannot remember a single operation or network outside of "regular" or "normal" operations that wanted or used MPC! Many used U.S. dollars, but there were also many who had several currencies like Hong Kong dollars, Thai baht, Swiss francs, English pounds, Japanese yen and a few others. But gold, silver, pearls, diamonds, etc, were also used. I can remember a couple of agents who not only accepted currencies and/or commodities, but they also had a few days to a week in a first class hotel with some women and other entertainment as part of their payments. I was always amazed to see all of the above "stuff" whenever I was asked to be a second witness to "inventory" a safe full of all of the above currencies and commodities and more that I cannot remember at this time. So the Special Forces friend of your parents could have easily been only using U.S. dollars! Remember, it was only our U.S. military in uniform who were not allowed to use U.S. dollars in Viet Nam! The Vietnamese, "tourists", foreign merchant seamen, and many others in Viet Nam legally used U.S. dollars and many, many other currencies. Howard A. Daniel III Dear Editor. During my first tour in RVN (early 60s), we didn't use MPC either. I have no idea as to when they were introduced, as I was on (ugh) coins at the time. We did have MPC on my other tours (after the 68 tet offensive). Len ================================================ 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. David Amey, Mr. Anonymous Donor, Mike Cummings, Sueand Keith Bauman, Ed B., Doug Bell, Tom Denly, Continental Coin Invensor, Inc., Denly's, Howard Daniel, 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 WideVentures, 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! For Sale: series 661 50 cents 5 notes in serial number order CH. UNC $90.00 postpaid insured. Series 681 50 cents 5 notes in serial number order CH.UNC $97.50 postpaid insured. coinman@rochester.rr.com 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. 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