Status: U Return-Path: Received: from web5202.mail.yahoo.com ([216.115.106.170]) by strange.mail.mindspring.net (Earthlink Mail Service) with SMTP id tj2km0.bs5.37kbi0u for ; Wed, 20 Jun 2001 21:49:52 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <20010621014950.12726.qmail@web5202.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [206.233.12.3] by web5202.mail.yahoo.com; Wed, 20 Jun 2001 18:49:50 PDT Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 18:49:50 -0700 (PDT) From: MPCgram Subject: MPCGram 370 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 370 Wednesday, June 20, 2001 Dealer Robbery in Memphis ---- It Only Takes Twenty Seconds ... Yet another dealer robbery, this time after the International Paper Money Show in Memphis this past weekend, and this time the victim was ... me (and my tablemate)! [Preliminary details of the missing inventory, with links to some images, available at ttp://www.kenbarr.com/stolen.html ] My tablemate (Chuck Woodruff) and I left the show Sunday afternoon, drove about 15 miles towards Nashville, stopped for gas and then some cold drinks at the usual Unnamed Fast Food Joint. Rather than use the drive-through [insert sound effect: ringing alarm bells], I parked the car about 25 feet from the entrance with a direct line of sight to the counter and we stretched a bit before walking in and ordering. I placed and received my order, then waited by the door while Chuck placed his. When the van stopped between me and the car and the side door slid open, I dropped my order, yelled to Chuck to call the cops and (probably stupidly) ran out the door yelling and screaming towards the van, hoping to scare them off before they could get anything. [Had I been armed, I would have had My Choice of Shooting Distances to pick.] The driver calmly watched me as I approached his door, opened it, grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out into the parking lot. [Or so it seemed at the time ... given the subsequent events, he most likely came out on his own accord.] I had his wrist with both my hands, so tried to swing him down onto the ground, hoping to immobilize him until help arrived. He was a dark-complexioned Hispanic, about 20 years younger than I, though, and undoubtedly a bit stronger, so he broke free from my hold and gave me a two-handed shove in the chest. Flat on my back (with two scraped elbows, a bruised arm and a badly shattered ego), I was able to scramble back to my feet, but by then he was back in the van and backing away at high speed, making a K-turn at the end of the parking lot, back onto the highway headed back to the Interstate, his accomplice having screwdrivered the trunk and extracted my briefcase and Chuck's duffel bag in the interim. The son of a local deputy sheriff witnessed the incident and gave chase, but was unable to catch them or get a license plate ... My best guess as to timeframe is that it was about twenty seconds from the van's pull-up to its departure ... I'm frankly amazed that we were even targeted. My stuff is Extremely Esoteric, with a high "RETAIL" value but practically NO "RESALE" value. Both the souvenir card and MPC hobbies are quite focused, and I'm sure that I will be contacted immediately if anything gets back into the normal collecting channels -- more than likely, unfortunately, it'll probably all end up in a dumpster somewhere. Chuck's material is more mainline, but mostly was obsoletes and Confederates at this show, not something that I suspect would be high on most thieves' "want lists". Had I "ranked" the Memphis dealers in terms of theft-worthiness, Chuck and I would have certainly been in the bottom half, probably in the bottom third. Apparently only the guys with 50,000 pounds of stock certificates are safe these days ... I'll save a little bandwidth by pre-posting responses to the expected flurry of followups: YES, We Know That We Were Stupid. NO, I don't know if The Guy was A Columbian or not. YES, I Know That *I* Was Quite Lucky, All Things Considered ... NO, neither of us was insured. YES, We Know That We Were Stupid. With regard to weapons, all that I will say is that neither of us is authorized to carry concealed weapons in the state of Tennessee. (Thieves: You May Draw Other Conclusions At Your Own Risk.) YES, We Know That We Were Stupid. [Off to the Post Office and the Bank ... more later ...] -- Ken Barr Numismatics ken@kenbarr.com P. O. Box 32541 http://www.kenbarr.com San Jose, CA 95152 (MPC, souvenir cards, Hickey Bros. tokens) 408-272-3247 =============================================== Editorial ---------------------------------------------------- Ken Barr's sobering news should serve as a warning to all of us. It should also put us on the lookout for MPC from his inventory. Ken, first and foremost, stupidity aside, we are thankful that you and your friend were not hurt! Very thankful! Hopefully we can all learn something from this terrible event. Thank you for the information. You can count on the Gram for rapid dissimination of any and all news that you send. =========================================== Mail Call ----------------------------------------------- Dear Editor, Got a nice surprise yesterday when I received a phone call from a nearby coin shop that a "big deal" had gone thru and that there were some foreign coins left over in the deal that I might be interested in checking. "Any foreign bills?" No..... but there is some German silver from WW II. So I drove over and checked it out. The collection was from an older German woman. She had traded over $40,000 in gold and this was the "leftovers." Found a nice "Gut fur ein glas bier" token with a mug of beer on the front and bought the 2 Mark and 5 Mark pieces for $3.00 each. Not bad!!. But I kept looking. Finally I shook out one of those old manilla, colored coin envelopes and out drops a folded up bill. Not in great shape but a bill anyway. My heart speeds up a little as I unfold this funky delight and I find I have a 5 YUAN (dollar) Note from 1935 and the Bank of Commerce in the Republic of China. It also had a funny looking purple stamp on the face.... but I took it anyway along with 15 other coins for $45. On returning to my house I pulled out my favorite tomb (book) "W.W.II Remembered" page 58, and there is mentioned a similar bill of the One YUAN variety from the same bank and date with the mention of purple rubber stamp that says "Resist the Japanese, Save the nation" (pick 209) but no stamp on the back of my bill. It doesn't get any better than that! The nice thing is that it almost paid for all the other coins. Having resource materials cannot be stressed enough when participating in this hobby and this was a prime example. Thanks Fred and Joe for taking the trouble to write down and document your knowledge! (Is the fiver worth more than the single YUAN?) Your Obedient Servant Gary Lee "Who Has Fours?" Hicks Dear Editor, Can you please send me MPCGram 368 again because below is literally all I got. Cheers, Mark Dear Mark, You should have received another copy. Ask again if you did not. 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. David Amey, Mr. Anonymous Donor, Mike Cummings, Sue and 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 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! 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. 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 http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/