| 2003
| ScrapBook
Subjects
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Page
Index
Links
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Link:
[ Send In The Reinforcements! ]
Link:
Nothing Worthwhile Is Ever Easy!
Link:
U.S.S. Daniel T. Griffin 1943-1993
Link:
[ Set Of Four BillZach 1937 Carvings ]
Link:
1796/5 Gold HalfEagle Overdate???
Link:
[ The History Of Money ]
Link:
Museo De La Moneda - PROJECT Segovia
Link:
She Finds A Rare Treasure...
Link:
World Peace Coin Program
Link:
This Makes  400 SBsubjects!
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Enlargement scans available on WWW and ScrapBook CD-ROM.
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Send In The Reinforcements!
Bill (Jameson) Zach's original Turtle Hill Logo carving (left)
never reported in for duty in Dave's Banjo Nickel Carvings collection.
So... Bill had to carve a second replacement carving (right.) If you
ever stumble across our AWOL/MIA turtle carving then please let us
know as there are charges pending. We are seriously considering having
turtle soup!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 4/24
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Ron Landis photographs.
Click for
Indian,
Elephant,
Ron Landis or
Buffalo
enlargement on CD-ROM
SILVER
2003 Elephant HoboToken (left)
SILVER
2003 RonLandis HoboToken (right)
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Nothing Worthwhile Is Ever Easy!
TheGuys have definitely been put through their paces keeping this year's
GMM HoboToken production going. I'm not sure of the exact sequence...
it really doesn't matter anyway ...but they have experienced both clashed
and broken dies.
The 2003 Elephant HoboToken (shown below) was struck from a broken
Indian die. There were specimens struck with no die cracks, one die crack
and two die cracks that I am aware of.
The 2003 RonLandis HoboToken was not without its problems... the dies
clashed so hard that Ron had to lap them. He salvaged the obverse/Landis
die but the reverse/Buffalo didn't take the lapping as well. I was told
that 75 pieces were struck from the repaired dies while the reverse/Buffalo
die was being replaced. The only problem is that history has a way of
repeating itself and those 75 pieces clearly have buffalos with three
legs... sound familiar? Given a bit of time I will eventually
generate a scan of that interesting unintentional creation for you.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 4/23
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U.S.S. Daniel T. Griffin 1943-1993
This Danny T. medal, one ounce of .999 fine silver, was created by
Ron Landis and is particularly appealing to me because it is the
first creation Ron did when starting up business as the Gallery
Mint Museum. Ron told us that only 200 were struck so this makes
this medal exceptionally scarce and difficult to acquire. I showed
you the GMM museum collection specimen in SBsubject:
Link:
The First Thing Produced As Gallery
Mint! which was the first time I'd even seen this rare medal.
The Danny T. was named after AMM1/c Daniel T. Griffin who was killed
at Naval Air Station Kanehoe, Oahu, Hawaii on December 7, 1941.
There certainly are a lot of interesting resources in hyperspace
covering the USS Griffin. A couple nice examples are;
1) Link:
Naval
Vessel Register,
Daniel T. Griffin (APD-38) (ex-DE-54) High Speed Transport and
2) Link:
Guide
for Individual ships histories... WWII combat actions
APD-38 Daniel T. Griffin, USN Fast Attack Transport.
I really love the overhead shot of the Danny T. and the fantastic
detailed ship layout information provided by:
Link:
Destroyer
Escort Central!
An overhead shot of a "factory equipped" Buckley class DE. In this
case, the USS Daniel T. Griffin (DE-54) taken on 17 April 1944, 10
months after she was commissioned and, although she probably didn't
know it at the time, she was just four months away from the APD
conversion to APD-38. The equipment is standard with three 3"/50
calibre dual purpose guns, a hedgehog, a triple 21" torpedo launcher,
four 20mm single barrel guns aft of the stack, a 1.1" machine cannon
in the X-position, eight K-guns, two 20mm single barrel guns on the
fantail, and two depth charge roller racks. The mast contains the
standard SA air search radar and the SL surface search radar.
National Archives Photograph.
Backup Link:Ship Layout
( in case the Destroyer Escort Central webpage
evaporates. )
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An interesting tidbit of Danny T. history is... she was one of four
ships sent to Chile November 15, 1966. The Danny T. was renamed Virgilio
Uribe and is (according to all the references I can find on the Internet)
still in service as a Training Ship while the other ships were
eventually removed from active service and scrapped.
Here are some interesting general specifications for the Danny T.
extracted from Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1940-1945:
1) Link:
DE -- Destroyer Escorts
Buckley Class:
Displacement: 1450 tons,
Length: 306',
Beam: 36'10",
Draft: 13'9",
Speed: 24 knots,
Armament: 2 5"/38, 3x3 21" torpedo tubes, 2.2 40mm, 10 20mm, 1 hedgehog, 2 depth charge traks, 8 "K" gun projectors and
Complement: 12 officers, 192 enlisted.
Turbo-electric drive, 12,000 h.p. and
2) Link:
APD -- High-Speed Transports
Charles Lawrence Class:
Displacement: 1450 tons (full load),
Length: 306',
Beam: 37',
Draft: 12',
Speed: 22.5 knots (max), 12 knots (econ) and
Armament: 1 5"/38 DP, 3x2 40mm, 6 20mm, 2 depth charge tracks.
Turbo-electric drive, twin screws, 12,000 shaft h.p.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
A Letter From A Danny T. Crewman
April 17, 2003
Click for
Enlargement on CD-ROM
U.S.S. Daniel T.
Griffin DE-54/APD-38
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The ship imprint for the medal obverse was taken from the picture
shown here and was done by Lee Ricks of Pleasanton Texas. The medal
reverse was designed by my son Myron. It was for the 50th anniversary
of the launching of the ship as a DE.
She was later converted to an APD(38) for service in the Pacific. I
left before she was decomissioned and she was later sent to Chile and
since has been scrapped.
We made eleven trips across the Atlantic before going to the Pacific -
Okinawa and Japan.
Regards, ( signature )
Frank Repka
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Set Of Four BillZach 1937 Carvings
One often hears a Seller on eBay say that their scan doesn't do the item
being sold justice. I always take that with quite a few grains of salt.
I purchased these four carvings one at a time from Bill Zach based on
the scans he provided. When they arrived this week I couldn't believe
my tired old eyes... each of these carvings shows fantastic detail that
simply doesn't show in the scans. Bill has paid special attention to all
the normally overlooked details on these carvings. These guys all have
shoulder, clothing and fabric detail. Each has exceptionally detailed
hair. They are all different characters which makes them a perfect
set.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
Click for
Zach#188
enlargement on CD-ROM
Late Arrival - He was
hiding when Bill shipped the set.
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| 4/23
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1796/5 Gold HalfEagle Overdate???
Global Certification Services, Inc. slabbed one of Ron's 1796
gold HalfEagle ($5) recreations and indicated that it is an overdate...
1796 over 1795. This is the first time I have ever heard of
such an obverse die for Ron's early gold coin reproductions. If anyone
has... or can create ...a closeup scan of the date area on an overdate
specimen I'd sure love seeing it!
As far as the overdate... ALL of the original 1796 half eagles were
overdate varieties. So keeping true to the originals, most of the
GMM half eagles are also overdates. All of them should be, but I
may have forgotten about it last time I replaced the obverse die.
Ron Landis...Thursday, April 24, 2003 10:17AM
These three GMM gold recreations are presently being offered on eBay
but the Seller has some really rotten scans posted. They told me that
they do not have the ability to generate better scans of the overdate
for us. They also mislabeled the $2.50 piece as the overdate in their
lot descriptions rather than the $5.00 piece so... take care if
you bid on any of these pieces.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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The History Of Money
While on the subject of Segovia and Spanish Mints it would be a good time
to show you a neat resource... website
Link:
EuroMint has a link entitled
Link:
Fun & Games
which has a link entitled
Link:
The History of Money.
If you go to that webpage you will find a sentence; "Now let's go to
our story, why not take a look here?" I'm not sure how their
code works so I can't embed it here for you but if you click on the
last portion of that sentence on The History Of Money webpage
you will end up with a window showing a set of numbers across the top
from 1 through 12. Clicking on those numbers in sequence
shows you a neat comic strip illustrating the creation of coins during
medieval times.
There are lots of more serious numismatic resources available from
webpages
Link:
EuroMint and
Link:
Friends Of
The Segovia Mint. These families of webpages are their English
language versions. Explore and enjoy!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 4/22
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11 January 1989 Coin World
PROJECT
Segovia ".5 Oz Ag" Medal
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Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
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Museo De La Moneda - PROJECT Segovia
Somewhere I must have a good B&W photo of Ron's half-ounce piece, but
I couldn't find it, or more than a zerox copy of the Coin World
article. The few original half-ounce pieces I had were stolen while
they were in Segovia City Hall (thus there are five or six floating
somewhere around Segovia.) I learned my lesson with the larger piece
and never let it out of my hands! Glenn Murray...Monday, April
21, 2003 5:14PM
AGAIN Glenn Murray, in Segovia Spain, comes through for us.
He sent us a scan of a portion of a January 11, 1989 Coin World
article which shows another Ron Landis medal... one which I have never
seen previous to this. A half ounce of pure silver would make this medal
roughly the size of a U.S. Half Dollar. So... now we have another
treasure to search for and to learn about. The mystery and the
fun just never ends!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 4/21
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| 4/20
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Preview Of A Very Special Peace Coin
From ANA President
Kenneth Bressett And Artist Ron Landis
July 21, 1997
The Peace 2000 Coin Program is now moving forward with great vigor. In
the United States, several artists have submitted designs worthy of
consideration. One of particular merit is that engraved by artist
Ron Landis. It so well captures the spirit of the theme that I have asked
him to produce a small number of examples for distribution to others
interested in the program.
Mr. Landis has produced dies for his "concept coin" by hand engraving
directly into steel. He then struck the pieces on a screw press. A
limited issue of only 100 were made.
We hope that you will enjoy this unique trial piece, and be inspired
to compete with other world mints in producing similar coins for your
country. What better way can there be to pass the message and ideals
of peace throughout the world in a way that everyone can see and
appreciate.
Peace, ( signature )
Kenneth Bressett, President ANA
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World Peace Coin Program
All of these 1998 Landis Concept Dollar pieces were given out in blue
plush cases. The manufacturer donated them to the Peace cause as I
recall.
These Concept Dollars were given to Mint Directors, Mint Officials,
and Government Officials from around the world. They were intended to
promote the Peace Through Coinage program by having them use a
Peace theme on their coinage. Most of the 100 pieces were given out at
the ANA convention, at a time when the Mint Directors were meeting
there in conjunction with the ANA convention.
Additional pieces were given to the ANA Board of Directors, and members
of the Citizens Commemorative Coin Advisory Committee, to gain their
interest and favor in the Peace Through Coinage program.
This 1998 piece had nothing to do with the Coin Coalition. I think I
did give one of the pieces to Jim Benfield, the head of the group, but
they never were involved with the Peace program other than saying it
was a good idea. Ken Bressett...Saturday, April 19, 2003 5:25PM
The blue plush case that was used in the distribution of this wonderful
Landis creation didn't protect it very well. Unfortunately this specimen
has toned rapidly and unevenly. However it is certainly obvious now why
an example of this 1998 Con$ept is so difficult to acquire... they were
scattered around the world to folks who probably will never insert them
back into the collector community.
On a related subject I found an article in the January 1996 issue of
The Numismatist which told me that the mintage of the Pobjoy
Peace Through Coinage medal was 8 gold, 150 silver and 8,000
copper-nickel.
You may recall that we have visited the subject of Ken's Peace project
twice previously in;
1) Link:Peace Through Coinage and
2) Link:MORE Peace Through Coinage Stuff.
Now that we understand that there was a direct tie between the Peace
tokens discussed in the previously referenced SBsubjects and the 1998
Con$ept Dollars... it is appropriate to point out those SBsubjects that
I could put my fingers on that are 1998 Con$ept related;
1) Link:Rings From Resizing Planchets,
2) Link:Modern Small Dollar Patterns,
3) Link:Still Counting... Con$ept Dollars That Is... :-),
4) Link:CoinFlip Inserts: After The Fact Confusion,
5) Link:Wax Con$ept Hub And Die Impressions,
6) Link:The "One Concept" Dollar "PEACE" Reverses,
7) Link:1998 GMM Concept Dollar (Not Piedfort) and
8) Link:Dragon Blood In Con$ept Family Tree.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 4/19
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This Makes
400
SBsubjects!
Actually the number of different subjects captured in our ScrapBook exceeds
400 by quite a bit since I don't count in this total the non-Landis/GMM
sidebar subjects that I wander off into with great regularly. I want to
pause a moment here and thank all those Landis fans who have helped me
construct all these SBsubjects over the past three years. I'll refrain from
listing you folks here in fear of leaving somebody out and hurting their
feelings... but you ALL know who you are and I love each and every
one of you!
I will give special thanks to Joe Rust and Ron
Landis for their continued friendship and support... not to mention their
inspiration and hard work which makes all this possible.
I am confident that I can get away with mentioning TheGuys specifically
without any risk of diminishing my heartfelt expression of appreciation
for all the help you Landis fans have provided.
Thank You Everybody!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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