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REPORT ON THE FIRST ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM IN THE NORTH

By Ruth Phillips and Theresa Lund

The First Annual Northern California CSNA Symposium was held in the Alumni House of the University of California in Berkeley and hosted by the Pacific Coast Numismatic Society. Attendance was light because of an unfortunate conflict with the Sacramento Coin Show, but those 30 who attended were treated to a day of unequaled numismatic enjoyment. Each presentation was immediately followed by a question and answer period while the presentation was still fresh in one’s mind.

Back , l to r, Wendell Wolka, Donald Kagin, H Robert Campbell and Stephen Huston in the front

The first speaker was Stephen Huston of San Francisco, past President of PCNS, a former Vice President of CSNA, and a classical numismatic dealer specializing in ancient and medieval coinage. He is the author of numerous articles in his area of expertise.

His topic “Ancient Egyptian Numismatics: Political Scoundrels and Civil War” chronicled Ptolemaic Egyptian succession and related bronze coins from each period. Huston described some of the cultural differences between Greek Alexandria and the natives in the rest of Egypt. His related slide program pointed out the many pattern idiosyncrasies that the ancient coin collector faces in his search for the material relating to each ruler in Egyptian history. Attendees learned that ignorance and misinformation abounds, that there are many hundreds of varieties and that only a few specialists pay any attention to the coins. Huston advanced some new theories on this topic that will be published in the near future. He successfully reduced a complex subject to interesting and informative levels that even the novice numismatist could understand and enjoy. It was a superb presentation from beginning to end. Stephen concluded his presentation with the statement that “it’s a very complicated but rewarding series with discoveries still being made by the average collector.”

The second speaker in the morning session was H Robert Campbell , the current President of the ANA and a Salt Lake City, Utah coin dealer. Campbell is a specialist in his topic “Mormon Gold” having researched these elusive gold coins for many years. After gold was discovered on the American River in California, members of the Mormon Battalion returned to Salt Lake City with gold . Nuggets and dust were difficult to handle as money, so the gold was melted down and crude coins were made. The Mormons first produced dies to make the $10 gold piece and struck some 46 pieces in December 1848 before their crucibles broke. Later they made other pieces and in other denominations. Very few of these coins remain today as most were spent once and then melted down. Those that remain are very collectible and desirable, worth many thousands of dollars. Some Jubilee tokens were struck in 1897 as souvenir pieces.

Calling it “history in your hands”. Bob passed around gold nuggets and four pieces of Mormon gold worth more than $200,000. He also had some samples of commemorative restrikes that are available today.

When we broke for a box lunch at noon, we gathered around a huge Board Meeting table where informal conversations continued on the topics that had been presented at the morning session. What a great experience!

After the lunch break, ANA President Campbell asked to introduce the third speaker, Dr Donald Kagin of Sausalito. Before he did so, however, he presented the coveted ANA Presidents Award to him in a surprise ceremony. Bob and Don have been friends for years so it was a very emotional presentation for both men. ( left,Campbell and right, Kagin)

Dr Kagin spoke in March at the Southern California Symposium about his efforts with the City of San Francisco to preserve the old Mint. He holds a doctorate degree in numismatics and is well known for his research on US Gold coins, The topic he chose to speak on at this symposium was his doctorate thesis. Discussing “The Treasury Notes of the War of 1812: Our Nations First Circulating Currency”, he told of the desperate need of the government to obtain funds to finance itself and the many innovative methods they used to accomplish their goal. There are 75 notes of all denominations known today, held in museums and private collections. Kagin showed many examples and described how they were presented to the public who bought them. Attendees learned that there were numerous paper currency and notes, that they were not viewed “as good as gold or silver” and that officials were paid 1 1/4c to sign each note. It was a very enlightening subject on the early problems our emerging country faced and how they solved their monetary problems.

The last speaker of the day, was Wendell Wolka of Dublin Ohio, Vice President of the Society of Paper Money Collectors and an authority on obsolete currency and broken bank notes of early US history. Wolka, known as “Rag Man” was the “clean up” speaker, and he kept every one in stitches with his glib repertoire of anecdotes relating to his topic “Dysfunctional Commerce—1850s Style”. Asking his audience to imagine themselves to be a merchant during this period at the mercy of every type of counterfeiter of printed currency. Wolka said not only did banks print their own currency but other companies like railroads and land companies did too. Some we solvent and others were not, so it was up to the discretion of the merchant if he would accept the paper in payment for merchandise or not. Some currency was out and out “bogus paper” and it was interesting that the companies who printed the currency required their payment in gold. Other businesses grew up around the paper money such as newspapers purporting to list what issuers were good and which were not. However, in many instances the reporters were paid to list erroneous information. Another area the merchant had to contend with, was the exchange broker. Since people accepted paper they knew about, usually that issued within a fifteen mile radius of the merchant, exchange brokers gathered up notes and redeemed them taking a cut each time they did so. These original “carpet baggers” did a booming business! Wendell had slides of the genuine bills and fakes and had us determine whether we thought they were genuine. He pointed out what to look for on the fakes, some obvious and others very cleverly duplicated. His teaching methods were hilarious but very effective. We learned that a merchant in those days would rather accept a counterfeit on a good bank than a good note on an unknown bank. The logic was that they could always "pass the note along”!

CSNA is indebted to the officers and members of PCNS for all the hard work they put into making this symposium a success. President Michael Wehner served as Master of Ceremonies with great dignity and was thanked by CSNA Vice President Ruth Phillips , on behalf of President Bill Grant who was not able to attend. Michael presented medals of appreciation to the speakers for a job well down. Members of host club, the Pacific Coast Numismatic Society (PCNS)