| 2003
| ScrapBook Subjects
|
Page
Index
Links
|
Link:
After Slight Delay...
Link:
Regalo A La Asociación
Link:
Will That Be Five Or Eight Strikes Sir?
Link:
ANA Delivers Medallic Sculpture Award
Link:
First United States Mint Issues COMPLETED!
Link:
An Abrupt Stop!
Link:
Now That's A Splitting Headache
Link:
[ WinoSanta's Reindeer ]
|
|
Enlargement scans available on WWW and ScrapBook CD-ROM.
|
|
|
Gallery Mint Museum Growth Fund
Benefit Auction
...Part I
|
|
|
| 12/31
|
After Slight Delay...
After Slight Delay First GMM Benefit Auction
Is Now A Reality.
It's the moment so many of you have been waiting for. Mike Ellis, who
conducted the first "unofficial" GMM Reproductions Auction with great
success in 1999 has agreed to conduct an auction for the sole benefit of
raising funds for the new museum project. There will be at least 3 parts to
the sale, the first, consisting of 150 lots of very special items, will open
and possibly close this month. You may participate in three ways: If you do
not have online access you may write us requesting a printed catalog or you
may go online using somebody else's computer. We encourage as many as
possible to use the internet to save us in printing costs. To participate by
internet, log on to our official website at;
Link:www.GalleryMint.com
and select the link to the auction which will be prominently displayed
the moment the online catalog is available. You may also log on to Verne
Walrafen's most excellent GMM Scrapbook site;
Link:www.GMMnut.com/gmm.html
for up to date details and a link to the catalog as soon as it is available
online.
Mike Ellis not only photographed and cataloged the entire sale, he will be
managing the bids for us as well. He has agreed to take phone and email
bids. All rules will be included in the catalog. To make sure you receive
word the moment the catalog is posted online, send us an email at
gmm@arkansas.net requesting your email address be placed on our electronic
newsletter list. We will never sell or share your email address with anybody
else. To contact Mike Ellis directly you may email him at
mikelellis@access4less.net or call him between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and
5:00 p.m EST at 229-861-3299. Written bids may be sent to either Mike (2707
Ed Hall Lane, Donalsonville, GA 39845) or us; preferably us if accompanied
by an order for in stock items, and we will relay bidding information to
Mike. GMM will handle all invoicing and shipping of auction lots upon close
of the sale.
Mike states the sale is full of one of a kind items, all of which are
currently the property of GMM, and that he will go out of his way to
encourage continued bidding even though none of it will be real time. He
adds, "The sale will not end at an exact moment as I will not close it until
I am certain active bidders are satisfied with their bids." This is a fund
raising event for the new museum which will serve the collector and GMM
alike well.
Currently we plan to offer at least two more of these sales approximately
two months apart.
Mike Ellis... Monday, 12/29/2003 10:03AM
IMPORTANT NOTICE
The official
Gallery Mint Museum Growth Fund
Benefit Auction
online catalog will be the one on the GMM
website
Link:www.GalleryMint.com.
|
I will provide that official catalog link for you on my main index webpage
Link:www.GMMnut.com when it becomes available. It will
get too confusing if we post multiple copies of the actual online catalog.
Nothing posted in this GMM ScrapBook
is meant to be anything other than commentary and unofficial information
from informed sources.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
|
|
As a special bonus to all who purchase ScrapBook CD-ROMs...
... here's a complete set of scans for Auction1 lots:
Link:329 Auction Lot Photos.
|
|
|
| 12/30
|
Regalo A La Asociación
El socio número 199, Verne Walrafen, de Kansas, EE.UU. ha mandado
acuñar tres medallas en plata como regalo a la Asociación. Las
medallas han sido acuñadas con los antiguos cuños grabados a buril
por Ron Landis, en 1988, de las medallas que se acuñaron en su día
para vender y financiar las primeras gestiones para rehabilitar la
Ceca.
Las medallas originales pertenecientes a la Asociación desaparecieron
del despacho del Alcalde en 1989, donde habían sido depositadas como
muestras, por lo que estamos muy agradecidos a Verne por su reemplazo
con estos tres ejemplares. El socio mantiene una página web con
noticias sobre el maestro grabador, Ron Landis, y su casa de moneda
artesanal en Kansas, en la que incluye noticias sobre la Ceca de
Segovia: http://www.GMMnut.com/gmm.html.
¡Gracias Verne! - AMIGOS de la casa de la moneda de segovia -
Boletin De La Asociación 2004
I've got to get a decent translation of this article for you. The BabelFish
version was really laughable. Be patient...
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
Finally! Here you go...
Member 199, Verne Walrafen, of Kansas,USA, has had Ron Landis specially
strike several medals for the Friends of the Setgovia Mint Association. The
medals were struck by Ron Landis, from the old dies he hand engraved back in
1988 as an early fund raiser for the proyect to restore the Mint. These
medals were replacements, as the Association's original medals disappeared
from City Hall while on loan. The member maintains a webpage with news and
events related to Ron Landis and the Gallery Mint Museum in Kansas, as well
as news about the Segovia Mint: http://www.GMMnut.com/gmm.html.
THANKS VERNE! Glenn Murray... Tuesday, 1/6/2004 6:34PM
|
|
|
| 12/18
|
Click for
Left Token
or
Right Token
enlargement on CD-ROM
Will That Be Five Or Eight Strikes Sir?
I have no clue what these two little pewter planchets did in a former
life to deserve such harsh treatment but these puppies got the tar
beat out of them in Florida in 1997. TheGuys' MiniMint really got a
workout creating these two tokens. These fun creations sold recently
on eBay for a pittance but I figured I had my share of GMM pewter tokens
already and I ought to give the other guy a chance to acquire and enjoy
such interesting and unique tokens. Besides... I get to show them to all
y'all here and that is almost as good as owning them for myself.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
|
|
A Ron Landis photograph.
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
ANA Delivers Medallic Sculpture Award
On my most recent trip to Eureka Springs Ron proudly showed me his
gold medal from ANA which he had finally received. While it is not
a great piece of art in and of itself... the honor behind receiving
it is undiminished. I think Ron should have had to make the medal
himself and then it would have had both artistic and social merit.
It is a shame when the medal given for "Medallic Sculpture" does
not measure up to the medals Ron created as Exhibitor's medals for
several ANA conventions. Oh well... such is life! This is the medal
that we mentioned in two previous SBsubjects:
Link:Numismatic Art Award for Excellence in
Medallic Sculpture and
Link:ANA Honors Ron Landis With Medallic
Sculpture Award.
Now then, if I were in charge of the medal selection committee at
ANA... and I couldn't get Ron to create his own award ...then you
can bet that we would have picked a medal more like the one shown
here below that Steve Adams displays on his webpage
Link:SGA
Sculpture Engraving ~Sculpture~.
As my friend Cliff Kraft said, in a word... WOW!
A Steve Adams photograph.
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
Steve Adams tells us a bit about bas-relief sculptures on his
afore-mentioned webpage and that is about the limit of my knowledge on
the subject. I trust someone will correct me if I get anything wrong
while I am babbling about Ron's wonderful Leonardo da Vinci bas-relief
sculpture shown here below. It is a plaster original that Ron did as a
class project a number of years ago. Strictly from my leaky old memory
and without having taken measurements... I'd say this plaster sculpture
is roughly 10-12" in diameter. This has nothing to do with Ron having
received the above ANA Medallic Sculpture Award but I felt this was a
good excuse to show you his sculpture.
I wondered if a nickel carving could be created using his sculpture and Ron
told me there were several reasons why this was not possible. Primarily...
a nickel planchet is not thick enough to recreate Leonardo without cutting
through to the reverse side of the nickel. Additionally... a more durable
model would have to be cast from this plaster sculpture because plaster is
too soft to work directly from in a reduction machine. Finally... GMM does
not have a restored working reduction machine that would be necessary to
accomplish such a task.
I knew going in that any nickel carving attempted using a reduction machine
would obviously require blowing away ALL the original coin detail in the
duplication process. There would go my beloved coin date and LIBERTY legend.
That would never do!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
A Ron Landis photograph.
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
This model was created at the Art of Engraving course taught by
Virginia Janssen at the ANA in its first year. That course is
underwritten by the Gilroy Roberts foundation, and is the same
one I teach steel engraving every other year. I was proud to be
included in the first year the course was offered and wanted to
learn the "modern" method of coin sculpting. I haven't done any
other plaster models since then, but may one day if we ever get
the reduction lathes running. Ron Landis... Friday, 12/26/2003
10:38AM
|
|
| 12/17
|
A Ron Landis photograph.
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
First United States Mint Issues COMPLETED!
Back on October 19th we hoped for the completion of this Wright quarter
recreation in SBsubject
Link:First United States Mint Issues.
I am pleased to be able... thanks to Ron Landis ...to show you this
wonderful recreation here in the ScrapBook before it is even posted
on their own GMM website. I think that Ron has moved his already
superlative engraving up another notch while creating this elegant
recreation... both the Lady Liberty and the Eagle are now among my
favorites of Ron's engravings.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
Ron Landis photographs
|
|
|
| 12/1
|
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
An Abrupt Stop!
Last summer... 2003 ...Ron created the neat Saint Gaudens' Indian Head
obverse token die shown here. In Colorado Springs, Colorado, at the ANA
Summer Seminar Ron combined this Indian obverse die with his previous year's
Creative Errors Mini Seminar for his first class. Suddenly Ron... or
somebody ...noticed that the pewter tokens being struck had no date. DATELESS
TOKENS! This would never do! So the Indian obverse die was paired with the
2003 ANA Summer Seminar reverse die for the next class. These undated
tokens were only struck for the one class and thus are quite scarce.
It took a while to acquire an example of this particular token. I mentioned
that it existed in SBsubject:
Link:MiniMint At 2003 ANA Summer Seminar.
Something else to keep your eyes open for!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
|
|
|
| 12/1
|
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
Now That's A Splitting Headache
A GMM client obviously felt... as I do ...that Ron's BurchCent high relief
obverse die would be impressive struck in some other metal than copper.
Timothy had a couple extra silver BurchCents laying on his workbench. When
I spotted them I could see one had a large planchet split so I asked if I
could buy the pair. Normally TheGuys melt down...
GASP!
...any creation that is less than perfect. Generally only pièces de caprice
are the exception to the goal of production perfection. I'm "pickled tink"
to have had the opportunity to acquire such an interesting pair... one
cracked and the other perfect!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
|
|
Bull
AKA Bullwinkle Alces Americanus
-by Clifford Kraft
|
WinoSanta
AKA Hugo H. Horowitz
-by Lee Griffiths
|
WinoSanta's Reindeer
Bullwinkle is what his Dad named him but he says... "Just call me
Bull!" Bull wants it clearly understood from the get-go that he
is a full blooded Yukon Moose (Alces americanus) and not some pansy
Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus)... otherwise known as a Caribou. You'd
best not call him "Alice" either if you know what's good for you.
The story starts with the following narrative by that world renown Northern Minnesota wildlife guide and restaurateur-chef Clifford Kraft:
Even for a Yukon Moose, "Bullwinkle" is huge... pushing 74". He not only dwarfs his Canadian neighbors, but his own kind as well. "A real chunk"... not the kind of animal you would take for eating, unless you had an awful lot of chili mix that you needed burger for. Pack this out, across a swamp? No thanks! Healthy looking, with a belly and a beautiful rack, he is impressive. "Bullwinkle" is in a class by himself. Remember... that recipe for "Jellied Moose Nose" will work just as well next year.
I just couldn't let Bull continue to subject himself to the company of folks who viewed him simply as a huge pile of walking steaks, roasts and hamburger. When the opportunity presented itself I paid off his stack of misdemeanor tickets and sent him enough money so he could travel here to the Kansa Territories. We won't discuss here why he was on the wrong side of the law but suffice it to say that it was just for being a moose and doing what a moose does naturally... hardly his fault since (wait for it) he's a moose!
He wasn't here long before he had to get out of the house to "stretch his legs" and I'm here to tell you he has some really long legs. Anyway... the first I knew that he was back in trouble again was when John Law showed up at my front door with Bull in a Sanitation Department dump truck. Apparently Bull did some minor structural damage to the Police Paddy Wagon that they first tried to transport him in.
When I read the police report I got "the rest of the story!" Hugo H. Horowitz... a local 'colorful character' who lives out of his 1985 Yugo under the Kaw River Bridge just north of First Street and Kansas Avenue ...had just finished his shift as one of Santa's helpers at the WestRidgeMall in Topeka when he discovered his B&B on wheels wouldn't start.
Hugo quickly determined that he had made a poor judgment call when he had gotten his last paycheck. It had been a choice between Thunderbird and Unleaded and had seemed like a "no brainer" at the time. Anyway... Hugo had been sitting in his Yugo polishing off his last Double Magnum and listening to Pete "Big Dog" Fetters' Thunderbird Wine on his Walkman. When what to his wondering eyes should appear but one big honking reindeer!
Bull had... through no fault of his own ...wandered into a really bad situation while on his constitutional/walk-about. Hugo ran after Bull and tried to herd "Rudolph" over to his Yugo. Nobody can guess what was on Hugo's mind since he didn't have any harness to hookup Ol' RedNose to the Yugo. Bystanders only saw the results of Bull taking out his frustration on Hugo's rolling B&B. They reported that Hugo was wandering around muttering incoherently to himself about Rudolph not being nearly as nice as he had always been led to believe.
I could have told Hugo that Bull REALLY doesn't like being mistaken for a reindeer! For those of you that don't recall your history: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration judged the Yugo to have the worst crash performance of any car it had tested. Hugo is now looking for an old Pinto so he can move out of the refrigerator box behind Sears.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
|
|
|
Ready To View!
Link:Go there NOW!
Growth Fund Benefit Auction
...Part I
|
Just Finished!
Link:Go there NOW!
Treasure Trove
...Pages ONE and TWO
|
|
