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CALIFORNIA STATE SYMPOSIUM ENJOYED BY ALL

By Dr Thomas Fitzgerald

The 33rd annual California State Numismatic Association’s Southern Educational Symposium was enjoyed by a full house on St Patrick’s day, March 17, in Fullerton. The audience came from as far away as the San Francisco area in the north to San Diego in the south, to enjoy a day of numismatic sharing and conversation. As has been the custom since the first symposium , two speakers presented programs before lunch and two immediately after. In addition, there were five exhibits including two placed by the speakers.

The program opened with a welcome from CSNA President, Ruth Phillips. Then Dr Tom Fitzgerald, the chairman, introduced the president’s of various numismatic organizations, guests and the young numismatists that were present.

The first speaker was Michael Stanley, from Concord. Mr Stanley retired from the United States Navy as Radioman First Class. He had spent 8 ½ years aboard the Nuclear Aircraft Carrier, the U S S Enterprise. He talked about the many medals and other exonumia that may be collected concerning this ship. His exhibit featured many varied items. A floating city with all the support of any city, Mike recounted life aboard the carrier, a number of incidents during his tour of duty including 72 days off the 38th parallel after North Korea has seized the Pueblo. He included many tales of life on board and on shore that made each member of the audience feel as if they were reliving those days in the past.

The next speaker was H Robert Campbell, the President of the American Numismatic Association. Mr Campbell, from Salt Lake City, Utah, discussed the grading of coins. His presentation entitled, “Technical vs Market Grading” pointed out the changes that have occurred, particularly since the advent of the grading companies. In the past, he said, one could count the number of letters of “LIBERTY” on Indian Cents, for example, to grade them (technical grading). Now other factors such as appeal, striking and luster play a more important role. This, he said, was “market grading”. To illustrate his point, Bob passed a number of coins around the audience. Campbell believes that, in spite of efforts to quantify grading, it is still a very subjective area and one where even the experts often disagree.

The young numismatists in attendance were hosted at lunch by the Numismatic Association of Southern California. The respite, hosted by Mo Fitzgerald, was a bit of an Irish party with green being the dominate color and the dessert reflecting St Patrick’s Day.

Exhibits were placed by CSNA Members Phil Iversen (Mt Rushmore), Virginia Bourke (Bison & Indian on Currency) and Kay Lenker (Two Ming Notes) .

Tim Todd, born in Ireland, was the first speaker following lunch. Mr Todd told the story of the troubles in England in the 17th century when the throne had become a battle between Protestants and Catholics. James the 2nd had been denied the crown because he was Catholic and was forced to flee to France. He returned to Ireland in 1689, as this was a predominately Catholic country, in order to lead an army to regain the Crown. In order to finance his war, money was struck from cannon, bells and other scrap metal. This money, called “Gun Money” was to be redeemed after James was victorious. It was most interesting because it included not only the year but also the month, on the coins. Tim illustrated his talk with slides and had put together an exhibit of “Irish Gun Money”

The 4th and last speaker was Bob Evans, from Zanesville, Ohio. Mr Evans had joined the team put together by Tommy Thompson in 1983 to locate and recover the gold from the S S Central America. This ship, carrying the largest and most valuable treasure of United States gold, had been lost off the North Carolina Coast in a hurricane in 1857. The gold bars, coins and dust, all from the new fields of California and the first United States Mint in San Francisco, had been shipped to Panama, loaded on a train across the Isthmus and reloaded on the S S Central America for the banking houses of New York.

Mr Evans, illustrating his talk with slides, recounted the story. He included a number of antidotes about the personalities on board, including the heroic captain who is memoralized with a monument at the Naval Academy. He discussed how the gold was recovered, the efforts to protect the treasure and its marketing. Bob passed around a recovered gold bar, worth $834.20 in value then, and in excess of $84,000 on today’s market.

The very enjoyable day ended with each of the speakers sitting as a panel. With Phil Iversen, acting as a moderator, the panel answered many questions from the audience.