| 2002
| ScrapBook
Subjects
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Page
Index
Links
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Link:
The Case Of The Traveling Die
Link:
[ Clifford "Scruffy" Kraft Is Learning The Craft ]
Link:
Do They Have Cows In Arkansas... Or Just Chickens?
Link:
[ Postscript About Detroit Coin Club Meeting Medals ]
Link:
Reducing Machine On The Road To Restoration
Link:
Do You See A COPY Stamp??
Link:
Visiting With The Master
Link:
Double Your Pleasure... Double Your Fun
Link:
Wisdom Faith Courage
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Enlargement scans available on WWW and ScrapBook CD-ROM.
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An Ed Kucia photograph.
Western Reserve Numismatic
Club
80th Anniversary Counterstamped 40.6mm 2001 Silver Eagle
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Click for
obverse
or
reverse
enlargement
on
CD-ROM
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The Case Of The Traveling Die
Here is WRNC's latest addition to their series of "Anniversary Medals".
The club contracted with Silver Towne Mint to counterstamp as
many 2001 Silver Eagle's as the members collected orders. Oddly enough
the total produced based on those orders turned out to be 80 pieces...
and for an 80th Anniversary Medal that was really a fortuitous happenstance.
Yes... we have seen this counterstamp die before! It is one half
of Ron's die pair used to counterstamp the Western Reserve Numismatic
Association 75th Anniversary coins in 1996. This is the first time I
have found where a die created by Ron Landis has been used by another
mint to make non-GMM numismatic creations. You may recall that we have
visited the subject of WRNC counterstamps previously in
Link:Western Reserve Numismatic Club Counterstamps,
Link:WRNC 1996 Counterstamps Inventory and
Link:Isn't That Double Jeopardy?
Ed has asked me to show you the neat 1978 Tri Lakes Coin Club silver
medal below. He is looking for information about it and wondered if
it might be an early Ron Landis creation. I don't think Ron was doing
this sort of work as early as 1978 and it just doesn't look like a
Landis creation anyway. You probably can't see the level of detail to
tell but the chain of three lakes have a swimmer, a sail boat and a
fish in each successive lake.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
An Ed Kucia photograph.
1978 Tri Lake Coin Club Medal
Struck on a 22.9-23.6mm Irregular Silver Planchet
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Can anybody tell us about this
1978 TLCC medal?
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Click for
obverse
or
reverse
enlargement
on
CD-ROM
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Click for
1913,
1927 or
1934 enlargements on CD-ROM
Clifford "Scruffy" Kraft Is Learning The Craft
Hey! I didn't pick his Moniker but I admit to liking it and I haven't
even met the guy. What I like is the peek it gives us into his sense of
humor. His EMails are a joy to read but one has to pay attention or he
will slip one right by you. Enough of that.. back to business!
The three carvings shown above showed up in my SnailMail not long ago
and I had to get on the telephone immediately to see if this new carver
would sell me the group. Sure enough... mission accomplished. I hope you
find these as COOL as I do. Trust me on this... I know it is often said
...but the carvings are a LOT NICER than these scans would make them
appear.
On we go to something even MORE interesting than the set of three carvings.
Shown below are an original 1914 dated carving Scruffy traded for sometime
ago... don't worry, I'll relay the story before I quit ...paired with his
rendition of that carving. If you want the 1938 dated carving come bid
against me on eBay. If you want the first carving you will have to argue
with Scruffy on that one and you may well find out he should be called
Scrappy. He is justifiably proud of that piece and I expect he figures on
being burried with it.
I got my original Leprechaun Bo from a lady for two
marbles, no joke. It was found in a Van Nuys, California garden in the 1970's
and given to her son, who in turn gave it to her a couple of years ago. She
did not think it would right for her to sell a gift from her son, but to
barter for marbles was O.K. I think this carving shows some fantastic
imagination. I enjoy it, and hope you will also. Clifford Kraft...Wed,
30 Jan 2002 13:42:58
Cliff told me what it cost him to purchase the two marbles and I am here
to tell you that he was horse trading with one sharp old lady. While this
carving was a GREAT acquisition, it certainly didn't come cheap!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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Do They Have Cows In Arkansas... Or Just Chickens?
Maybe I should have said "Or Just Diamond Mines?" but the rows and rows
of chicken houses come to mind when I think of traveling Arkansas. In
fact I passed several BIG chicken houses just being constructed on this
last trip to Eureka Springs and Springdale.
Back to the subject at hand! I think Ron could come up with some REALLY
COOL club tokens/medals using leather. Shown above are leather pieces
struck for: 1) 47.0mm 150th meeting of the Detroit Coin Club,
August 21, 1930, 2) 30.5mm 300th meeting of the Detroit Coin Club,
October 15, 1936 and 3) 39.4mm 1964 Cresent City Coin Club (New
Orleans) COINIVAL.
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Does anyone know what historical reference is being made with the legend
"The City Care Forgot"?
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I think these are really neat creations and we all need to try and
convince TheGuys to do unsual stuff like this. Perhaps some of you
are active in your coin clubs and you could discuss an order of
something similar with GMM. If you should do this then PLEASE
be sure and save a couple pieces for the old FatMan!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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Postscript About Detroit Coin Club Meeting Medals
In the same offering with the two Detroit Coin Club Leather Meeting Medals
shown above was a whole series of DCC Meeting medals. I was fortunate enough
to purchase the two shown below and I think they make a nice set along
with the Leather creations. The silver medal is one of only one hundred
struck.
I was pleased to find a WONDERFUL bust of Abraham Lincoln on the obverse
of the 1928 bronze medal. I absolutely love the expression on his face. The
details of this bust remind me of the very best carvings on nickels being
done by our currently active Hobo Nickel carvers. Perhaps I can convince
Ron Landis to carve this bust on a Buffalo nickel to add to my midden heap!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
More Traditional Detroit
Coin Club Meeting Medals
Struck in Bronze and Silver
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Click for
1928
37.3mm
BRONZE
100th
(obverse)
or
1936
30.5mm
SILVER
300th
(obverse)
on
CD-ROM
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Abraham Lincoln Bust
1928 Detroit Coin Club Meeting Medal Obverse
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This is what Joe Rust started
with!
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Click for
enlargement
on
CD-ROM
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Reducing Machine On The Road To Restoration
Above is the Reducing Machine I showed you in
LinkA Pantograph For The Guys?.
Below is where the restoration project is as of this writing.
Joe was BUSY while Ron was at the FUN show in Florida. You are just
going to have to excuse the clutter all around and behind the machine
shown below. It is sitting in the loading area of the GMM workshop
with a canvas thrown over it. They weren't expecting to have some
NUT show up to take pictures of it so it wasn't on public display.
I just couldn't believe the brilliant steel and brass surfaces that
Joe dug out from behind the corrosion, dirt and old paint! The bearings
stick out with wonderful HEAVY brass surfaces showing. The gears have
brilliant mirror surfaces on the teeth and all other surfaces. What a
wonderful machine and display piece... I hope the pictures shown here
give you some small taste for what GMM has rescued from obscurity!
My photographer had some sort of failure on his only other view taken of
the restored machine. There are spots that look like dried up water drops
all over the picture. I've cropped the worst of them out of the shot but
the only thing we can think of is that the flash bounced off dust particles
in the air of the workshop like you see when the sun shines brightly into
a room. Anyway... if you are looking at this using one of our ScrapBook
CD-ROMs then here is the
Linkdamaged picture just in case you are
willing to ignore the rather poor results in order to see more details
of the restoration.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
This is where TheGuys are now!
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Full Picture on
CD-ROM
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Do You See A COPY Stamp??
This GMM Chain Cent just sold for $65 on eBay
from "ArcadeTokenMan". I don't see the COPY stamp on it. Has
it been artfully removed, or was it a piece that snuck out ot the Mint
before it's time? Clifford D Bolling...Sun, 27 Jan 2002
08:42:06
I had seen this GMM chain cent before Cliff wrote me and I wondered
the same thing. Of course I only saw it after somebody else had snapped
it up with BuyItNow for $65... :-(
Anyway... I wrote the Seller and he was a very pleasant person. It turns
out he had a ObvCOPY and a RevCOPY pair of chain cents and he took the
easy route of shooting the pair together in one photograph with the COPY
turned down on both creations. It sure gives a fella a shock when these
things happen... at least for those of us silly enough to be watching
carefully for just such things.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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Click on any photo for enlargement on CD-ROM
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Ron Landis - 26 January 2002
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Visiting With The Master
I caught Ron at home in Eureka Springs this weekend. He was between
trips... having just come back from Florida and in the midst of preparing
to leave for California. He stopped long enough to visit with me... a lot
longer than the paultry amount of goodies I purchased from him warranted.
I had my friend and fishing Buddy Kenny with me and he GOT BUSY with his
camera. I've been trying to get some good pictures of Ron for a long time
now and I believe I can honestly say; "Mission accomplished!"
Ron told me lots of current GMM news; they hosted the Johnson County
Numismatic Society again and created a token for their visit, their
roller mill broke at FUN so they only got a few hundred show tokens
created instead of several thousand, they have their Reducing Machine
almost totally restored, they have a new Collector's Update publication
on hold in hopes of creating more of a products catalog this time around,
a 1794 Dollar obverse die shattered, a 1796 Half Dollar reverse die
cracked... you get the picture ...business as usual at a working mint.
Anyway, lots of new subjects for my ScrapBook!
I learned one more thing that isn't "meaty" enough for its own SBsubject,
but is really nice to know! The word "piedfort" (which means
a coin or medal that is struck on a planchet that is double the normal
thickness for the piece being struck) is pronounced... follow closely now
...PEA AH FORE. Joe told me this last trip and Ron had to correct
me again this trip... so I am determined to GET IT RIGHT from now
on! Do you suppose I can really do it? For a much more detailed definition
check out
LinkPiédfort.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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A Clifford Bolling photograph.
2000 "Statue Of Liberty" Con$ept
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Click for
Full Picture
enlargement
on
CD-ROM
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Double Your Pleasure... Double Your Fun
The doubling on the reverse of my 2000 "Statue
Of Liberty" Con$ept is a result of die movement between strikes. I have
only seen a single reverse die used for all the pieces I've handled,
and this is the same die, which is not doubled. Most of the doubling
is visible as 'Flat Field' doubling, that is, some of the raised
devices of the first strike were smashed back into the field by the
second strike being slightly misaligned, making a 'shadow' outline
in the field. This is the hard part to photograph, but the word PEACE
is incuse and the doubling was much more visible there, hence... the
good picture. Clifford D. Bolling...Wed, 23 Jan 2002
17:54:17
Cliff tells me that there is no doubling evident on the obverse so
that would mean that the reverse die would have to have been loose
enough to move between strikes. I recall discussing this sometime
back because it seemed odd that the reverse die... what we would have
expected to be the anvil die ...would have moved. I found out that the
dies could have been inserted into the press with the reverse die as
the hammer die. There apparently is nothing in GMM's minting process
to constrain which die is placed where in the press. Thanks for
sharing what you continue to learn about your GMM collection Cliff.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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400th Anniversary
Medal
Elizabethan Renaissance Era 1589-1620
-by Royal
Mint (RonLandis)
26.9mm width by 27.7mm height and 4.1mm thick.
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Click for
Dragon
or
Knight
enlargement
on
CD-ROM
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Wisdom Faith Courage
Publishing this ScrapBook has finally paid off... after working
at it for well over a year now. These two hot struck silver medals were
offered to me and I almost broke my arm reaching for my checkbook.
These medals were struck in 1989 as I understand it. I wonder where
these two strikes have been for the first thirteen years of their
lives? Bet I know where they will be for the next decade or two!
After all... we are simply custodians of these wonderful creations
and are just safeguarding them for the next collector to enjoy.
I had seen an example of the first medal (shown above) previously
and had published it in my
LinkProperty of GMM
MintMaster ScrapBook subject. I had never seen the
second medal (shown below) although I think I have seen the reverse
die used on a different medal somewhere in my midden heap. I am never
certain whether I should call this bird a Phoenix or a Rampant Eagle.
Maybe somebody will educate me on this and help me avoid future
faux pas. Oddly enough the singular and the plural of faux pas are
spelled the same way but pronounced differently... "fo pa" and "fo
paz". I never seem to experience a day where I fail to learn something
new ...or... perhaps I am down to "relearning something old" since my
memory keeps misplacing things. Ron Landis tells me this is a
heraldic eagle.
Speaking of attempting to educate the old FatMan... Does anybody
know if the two headed dragon has a specific name or not?
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
400th Anniversary
Medal Dragon Die
Paired With Eagle Die
-by Royal
Mint (RonLandis)
24.4mm width by 29.7mm height and 2.8mm thick.
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Click for
Dragon
or
Eagle
enlargement
on
CD-ROM
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