NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: JULY 17, 2011

Dave Perkins' note about Bolender's advertisements reminded me that there is a full run of Philatelic West in the Nebraska Historical Society in Lincoln, NE (where it was published). As far as I know it has not been numismatically searched. If there are any NBSers in the area it would be great to have a report. The run is significant - from 1895 to 1931, if memory serves. The ANS has a few loose issues which are crumbling. I made quite a mess of it when I called for them a few years ago.

Coin Dealer Robert Lecce of Boca Raton, Florida, died of cancer on Sunday, July 10. He requested there be no funeral but a small memorial service was held on Saturday with several dealers in attendance. Lecce was in business with his son Richard. They specialize in rare date U. S. gold coins and modern commemorative gold.

A memorial fund has been established at the ANA for the YN program. As of Saturday, more than $100,000 had already been pledged.

On U.S. Paper Money Redesign
Regarding Peter Gaspar's comment in the previous issue, Joe Boling writes:

The dollar bill is not "the only American banknote that has not been redesigned." I use $2 bills all the time, and they have also not been changed (the 1976 revamping of the back does not fall in the same class of change as has been executed on the other denominations).

I was surprised by the comments of one of your correspondents on the dollar coin vs. bill. He admits that "Certainly if you ask the public they will say they want to continue using dollar bills." So why shouldn't the public's wishes be respected? Convenience is the issue, and the public's strong preference is my guess as to why the dollar bill is not being withdrawn. I don't think the American public would put up with the nanny-state nonsense as easily as the Europeans and Canadians did, and the politicians know it. Probably equally significant is the fact that the dollar bill now circulates for 40 months, up from 18 months two decades ago, a very significant increase, making the savings even more illusory.

The writer also says that it is obvious that it is the Treasury's intention to discontinue the dollar bill, asking "Why else is the dollar bill the only American bank note that has not been redesigned?" The two hasn't been redesigned either, but I suspect the reason the one has not been redesigned is that it is rarely counterfeited. Therefore there was no reason to redesign it. The redesign of the other notes was because of counterfeiting, and involved expensive innovations. On the coin side, however, there is, as most people know, a serious counterfeiting problem with the pound coin.

In the vein of military challenge coins, country singer Chris Young issued 500 "coins" for the attendees of his fan club's 10th anniversary party.

Dick Johnson's "a penny for your thoughts" brought to mind this story that I remember from a libertarian magazine in the late 70s. I am writing from memory.

A man in Canada had accumulated a vast number of parking tickets. The police finally arrested him. He was taken before a judge to plead his case.

"Your honor" or whatever they call judges in Canada, he said, "the parking meters are asking me to pay for parking with foreign coins. They are asking for nickels, dimes and quarters. Canada does not have nickels, dimes and quarters. We have 5 cent coins, 10 cent coins and 25 cent coins."

Apparently, the meters were made in the US.

Case dismissed. All the parking meters in Canada had to be changed.

I have been repeating this story in the shop for years, claiming this guy is my favorite anarchist.

It would be interesting to know if this story is true, or urban legend!

On Dec. 14, 1966, a green Jaguar belonging to Queen's University law student (now lawyer) Matthew C. Hudson was given a parking ticket by a Kingston, Ont., meter maid. He had received so many tickets he decided to fight one as a matter of principle.

When the case got to trial, the magistrate acquitted Hudson of the charge. The court ruled the city's parking meters bore invalid instructions because they referred to pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. The court ruled that there were no such Canadian coins. Unfortunately, the city of Kingston appealed, and the outcome was closely watched by other municipalities which also had similar inscriptions on their parking meters. Hudson's argument before Justice C. D. Stewart of the Supreme Court of Ontario took more than 40 minutes.

He argued that Kingston's parking meter bylaw prohibited the use of substitutes for coins it defined as one-, 5-, 10- and 25-cent pieces. He noted that the Currency Act did not mention pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, and conflicted with the Criminal Code, which required that only coins designated on meters could be used. The judge, who was obviously amused, questioned Hudson at length on the legal points he was making, and complimented him on an ingenious argument, but said he could not agree with him. The case was sent back to the magistrate and Hudson eventually had to pay the parking ticket. Although a transcript has not survived, the court presumably made its ruling on the basis that the wording on the parking meters was colloquial, and the intention was quite clear.

And that is why, even to this day, coin accepting devices across the country - including those on parking meters and, yes, newspaper boxes - still refer to our coins by the names or nicknames of their American counterparts.

To read the complete article, see: Coins (www.canadiancoin.com/coin_articles.asp?name=documents/
archive/arron_coins_oct_30.txt)