WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: NOVEMBER 20, 2022

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V25 2022 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 25, Number 47, November 20, 20222022, Article 22

On the afternoon of Tuesday November 15, 2022 it got "end of days" dark outside, and the rain began. It rained throughout my evening commute. But rather than going home, my GPS routed me toward J. Gilbert's steakhouse in McLean, where the monthly dinner of my Northern Virginia numismatic social group Nummis Nova would be held.

The rain was relentless, and the traffic and darkness didn't help, but I did reach my destination safely and found a parking place near the door. I still needed an umbrella against the downpour. I was early, and our table wasn't ready yet. I found some of our members waiting in the bar. Wayne Herndon, Jon Radel, Daryl Haynor and our host Roger Burdette were seated on barstools. I ordered a glass of wine and chatted with Jon and Wayne before greeting my guests Jonas Denenberg and Kellen Hoard. Both had been guests in the past. Jonas is in 11th grade, a Fairfax Coin Club member and a budding coin dealer with a booming business; Kellen is a freshman at George Washington University and writes a column for The Numismatist. They'd made it here on public transportation.

2022-11 Nummis Nova Wayne Homren salmon dinner

Soon we were seated in a narrow private room. Along the way we were joined by Julian Leidman. I grabbed a chair near the middle and soon Steve Bishop was seated beside me with Kellen and Jonas across from us. I remarked to my guests that I'd never had a bad meal here, and the night kept the streak alive. Here's my salmon dinner.

Clockwise from left: Kellen Hoard, Jonas Denenberg, Daryl Haynor, Wayne Herndon, Roger Burdette, Julian Leidman, Jon Radel, and Steve Bishop.

Jonas's Silver Ticket
The day was historic for Northern Virginia, but I'm not talking about the recent election. It was the long-awaited opening day of the Metro's Silver Line extension to Dulles Airport and beyond. My own neighborhood, Ashburn, is a distant suburb of Washington D.C. and it's the terminal stop on the new line. After three billion dollars and four years of delays, the Metro was finally open.

To celebrate the occasion, the transportation authority held a drawing for Willy-Wonka-style "Silver Tickets" for the inaugural run, and Jonas had managed to snag one. He rode the initial trip and brought home a bag of swag and other souvenirs. Here he is showing us his Silver Ticket and banner. Below, as a numismatic tie-in is the Metro's version of a commemorative transportation token - a special Silver Line Opening SmartTrip card. Congrats, Jonas!

Counterfeit Detectors

2022-11 Nummis Nova Wayne Homren Counterfeit Detector binder cover

As I often do, I brought along one of the many binders housing my numismatic ephemera collection. Since I'd recently added the Eastman MONEY! title at the October Baltimore show (a purchase from Charlie Davis), I brought along my binder of counterfeit detectors. In response to Kellen's question, these are only counterfeit detectors in pamphlet form; my hardbound detectors from Laban Heath and other publishers remained at home. The pamphlets were a periodical, typically produced monthly and heavily used at businesses and banks. Today individual issues are quite rare, as most were discarded once they became outdated. This group is the result of some 40 years of collecting.

ANA Money Talks
I also brought some more modern numismatic ephemera - cassette tapes of the American Numismatic Association's Money Talks radio program. The audio segments were what today might be a podcast, providing listeners with a short daily narrated talk on different numismatic subjects. I bought two of the tapes to the meeting - here's a group that I came across in storage recently. If the ANA agrees, the Newman Numismatic Portal will digitize these.

Crystal City, Texas Internment Camp Token I mentioned that I'd contributed one of the Money Talks scripts myself. It was on the WWII Japanese internment camp tokens, specifically those from the Crystal City, Texas camp. As it happens, one of the tokens is on offer in the Stack's Bowers December 2022 Tokens & Medals Collectors Choice Online Auction.

Undated (1942-1945) Crystal City, Texas (Family) Internment Camp Token. 1 Cent. Aluminum. Plain Edge. Mint State.

17 mm. Obv: Denomination 1 (cent sign) in with center with another expression of the denomination ONE / CENT above and below. Rev: Inscriptions DEPT. OF JUSTICE / I & N SERVICE around periphery and INTERNEE / CANTEEN in center.

Steve's Slabs
Steve Bishop displayed a couple of nice slabbed U.S. type coins.

"Here are images of the coins I brought to Nummis Nova. The coins themselves are nothing particularly special, although they appear undergraded, and the Mercury has nice toning. What is interesting about these two are the holders. Increasingly, the holders are commanding a premium over the value of the coin. These are PCGS OGH (Old Green Holder) Version 2.1, used only between October and December of 1989.

"There is a website for PCGS Holders and the dates they were used. Another article of interest is "Buy the Holder, Not the Coin – 10 Certification Slabs to Look For."

Wrapping Up
Given the recent election day, politics and the election outcome colored much of the non-numismatic conversation, as did Elon Musk's Twitter makeover.

It was another fun evening, albeit with a smaller (and younger!) crowd than normal. The rain was still coming down as we straggled out of the building. Next month will be our annual holiday dinner with our spouses. Looking forward to it already!