january 2010 - volume 1 issue 1

8/14/2019 January 2010 - Volume 1 Issue 1

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January 2010 - Volume 1 Issue 1

The Annual January Dinner Meeting of the BCCC w ill be

held at Dinahs Restaurant on January 14th at 7 PM6521 S. Sepulveda B lvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045

Phone: (310) 645-0456

(Continued on Page 2)

BCCC BAY CITIES COIN CLUB www.baycitiescoinclub.org

January 2010 Volume 1 Issue 1


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BCCC BAY CITIES COIN CLUB www.baycitiescoinclub.org 2

January Dinner Meeting - January 14th at 7 PM (Continued from Page 1)

FROM THE NORTH:

1. Take I-405 S toward LAX AIRPORT/LONG BEACH. 3.9 mi2. Take the JEFFERSON BLVD exit, EXIT 50A. 0.2 mi3. Turn RIGHT onto JEFFERSON BLVD. 0.1 mi

4. Turn LEFT onto MESMER AVE. 0.3 mi5. Turn LEFT onto W CENTINELA AVE. 0.3 mi6. Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto S SEPULVEDA BLVD. 0.0 mi7. 6521 S SEPULVEDA BLVD is on the RIGHT.

FROM THE SOUTH:

1. Take I-405 N toward SANTA MONICA.2. Merge onto HOWARD HUGHES PKWY via EXIT 49A.

3. Turn RIGHT onto S SEPULVEDA BLVD. 0.4 mi4. 6521 S SEPULVEDA BLVD is on the LEFT


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Grandmas Mercury DimesBy Daniel Goevert

One vivid memory of my very early childhood back in the 1960s was of driving to church on Sunday morn-ings with my family. Since my grandparents lived close to us, Dad would always swing by and pick them up,and wed all carpool together. It was the job of Little Danny (as I was affectionately nicknamed back then)to sit in the backseat, wedged snugly between Grandpa and Grandma.

As if some sort of ritual, every Sunday Grandma would fish though her purse to find goodies for me and myolder brother. Grandma almost always carried Wrigleys chewing gum, though once in a while we had to set-tle for a cherry-flavored cough drop. For a bonus treat, Grandma gave each grandson a coin to go in the pig-gybank. There were a few instances when I received a dime featuring a lady who sported a wild-lookinghairdo, or at least thats how it appeared to a 4-year-old. On one occasion, Grandma explained to me thecoin was called a Mercury dime. She was a coin collector of sorts, and I credit her with encouraging my firstinterest in coins. Even though it didnt mean much to me at the time, this was my first lesson on Mercurydimes.With the passage of years, I gathered more knowledge on Mercury dimes. For example, I learned the face

on the obverse really wasnt that of Mercury, the male Roman messenger god, as the public has largely be-lieved ever since the dime was first released in 1916. Instead, the coins designer, A.A. Weinman, intended to

portray a rendition of Lady Liberty crowned by a winged cap, to symbolize liberty of thought. However, theMercury dime moniker stuck, and is still by far the most common reference for this beautiful ten cent coin.The correct name, Winged Liberty Head dime, is used much less frequently. Oh well, at least I can congratu-late myself, for even as a small child, I was able to recognize the person on the dime as a woman, not aman!Another important fact about Mercury dimes worth mentioning is that back when Grandma was coin collect-ing, not much attention was focused on the degree of separation and roundness seen in the horizontal bandsholding together the bundle of rods on the reverse side. Full Split Bands (abbreviated "FSB") resulted fromstriking by fresh dies, and have proven to be much rarer than blended, flattened bands. Generally speaking,if a Mercury dime displays fully separated and rounded bands, it can generate prices far above less distinctivespecimens of the same date, mintmark, and grade. For the last 10-15 years, most Mercury dime value guides

have carried an FSB category for mint state grades.Recently, I decided to chart the value trends of Mercury dimes over a long period of time, for the purpose

of identifying Mercs that have historically demonstrated the best gains. My theory is that coins that have

shown the strongest price increases consistently in the past are the same coins most likely to accomplish the

same in the years ahead. I dont advocate purchasing Mercury dimes or any other coins for the sake of meas-

uring ROI, but speaking for myself, if I ever decide to add to my Mercury dime collection, I want to make se-

lections designed to (A) please my numismatic taste buds, and (B) stimulate competitive bidding amongst

future generations of collectors. (Continued on Page 4)


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PAGE 4 CCCC Journal

Grandmas Mercury Dimes(Continued from Page 3)

To quantify past performance and to evaluate Mercury dimes best positioned to experience strongfuture price advancements, I called upon a mathematical analysis I developed to reach similar ob-

jectives for other coin series.

First, I researched Mercury dime retail values for individual coins as they were reported in the year1950, covering a wide range of conditions, and entered this data on a computer spreadsheet. Mov-ing forward in time, values from the years 1980, 1995, and 2000 were similarly captured. Finally,estimated selling prices in 2005 were placed adjacent to matching data from those earlier years. Be-cause grading terminology has evolved over the 55 year period, certain assumptions were made toprogressively track price movements throughout the time spectrum (e.g. an Uncirculated value in1950 is equivalent to the MS-60 of today). The highest grade inserted into the analysis was MS-65, for which I was able to list relatively complete data starting in the 1995 data column. Because Ideemed FSB data to be somewhat sporadic, I elected not to include it in this study for the sake ofstability.For each date and condition, compounded annual return rates were computed from 1950 to 2005.

Return rate computations were likewise made from 1980 to 2005, 1995 to 2005, and 2000 to 2005.For each Mercury dime, the data was placed in tabular format. Next, I calculated a compositescore for each date by averaging all the compounded return rates computed for that date. I thenranked all the composite scores. The Mercury dimes with the top five highest scores are: 1916-D7.71, 1942 (2 Over 1) 7.64, 1921-D 4.90, 1945-S (Micro) 4.58, 1942-D (2 Over 1) 4.39It should surprise no one that the kingpin of the Mercury dime series is the 1916-D. Long consid-

ered one of the classic rarities of the 20th century and a favorite of collectors, we now have somestatistical evidence to support this claim. Experienced Mercury dime collectors probably would ex-pect to see the other dates making the Top Five, though the 1945-S (Micro) will cause some headscratching. At the opposite end of performance, there is a logjam of dimes crowded into the 2.50-

3.50 range. The value of these coins is dominated by their silver bullion content and merit only smallnumismatic premiums, with the exception of higher grade specimens.Okay, lets say youre fascinated with the history and style of the Mercury dime. Youve decided itstime to add a few to your coin gallery, yet at the same time, youre afraid of spending money onsomething doomed to stagnate in value over time. Bottom line solution: purchase a member of the

Top Five ranked above. Yes, theyre a bit pricey, but instead of buying many of the less expensiveMercury dimes, save your cash and get a single example of a proven winner. You will be pleasedwith this strategy as the years roll buy. Buy the absolute best grade you can afford, and always, al-ways obtain coins that are problem-free and CERTIFIED by a reputable grading service. Sadly, manyfakes and alterations exist.Thinking back again to those childhood days, I cant begin to remember what happened to most of

the coins Grandma gave me on our Sunday morning drives. Somehow, over the decades, Ive man-aged to keep preserved in a special place a tiny handful of Grandmas Mercury dimes. All commondates, theres not a 1916-D in the bunch, but their sentimental value to me is incalculable. Thesecoins were a heartfelt gift from someone close to me who departed from this world long ago andthey helped inspire in Little Danny a lifelong enchantment with a wonderful hobby.You know, come to think of it, let me add one more bit of advice: while youre bagging a TopFive Mercury dime, you ought to stop by the Bargain Bin and pull out a few 1944-Ds for your chil-dren and grandchildren. You just never know what you might get started.



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The December meeting was called to order at 6:44 PM with 30 people present, including one oldguest. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Clint McG. Tyler Gobble won the membership drawing of

$3, which he took in the form of a COINO card. The Treasurers report was approved, followed bythe approval of the November minutes.

ANNOUNCEMENTSBernie M.Told us about a local coin show in Westchester on Jan. 30-31 along with the flyers for

the show. He then showed us a coin grading book the he purchased called, Making the Grade.The book has photos of coins in each grade, making it very simple to place your coin on the pageand selecting the matching photo.

George G.Showed us two gold coins for us to choose one of for our annual gold drawing to beheld in January. One of which was selected by a member vote later in the evening.Scott G.Stated that they had small bags of mistletoe for sale for $4 each. The proceeds of which

go to support the troops in Iraq & Afghanistan.Richard N.Thought the video he watched was excellent also.Rob P.Checked one out but hasnt viewed it yet.Garn A.Mentioned that you can go to www.xerox.com to send an e-card to our troops also.Garn A.Opened up nominations for 2010 club officers. A motion was immediately made to close

the nominations and then a motion was made to keep the same officers as last year. The vote wasunanimous.

Steve D.Coin Show announcementOntario Coin Show is coming up and he is going to attend.Steve D.Attended the Ellen Degeneres TV show. He was given free tickets to The Twelve Days

of Christmas where he received a bunch of gifts-$500 gift cards, airplane tickets and more. Then

there was a discussion about whether or not we will be able to get separate checks at our annualdinner meeting.Jack vB./George G.Displayed various sample logos for our new club. Later on we voted on them

and two of them had votes. Perhaps we will use the one with the most votes for the obverse of acoin and the other one for the reverse. Sounds good to me!

COINOGame 1Anthony L.-Large Cent TokenGame 2Steve D.-2009 American Eagle $1Game 3Art W.-Wright Bros. $1 commemorativeGame 4Art W.-Lewis & Clark $1 commemorative

Game 5Jack vB.-2009 Presidential $1 Proof setGame 6Anthony L.-Peace $1Game 7George G.-1999 SBA Proof $1Game 8Gordon W.-Christmas tree and all the coins

(Continued on Page 6)

December Club News



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We had a terrific spread that was put on by Bernie M., Art W. and Rob P. that included hot lasagna,rolls, sodas and orange juice. Art W. brought the dessertsGeorge W. added some snowball cook-iesClint McG. brought lemon cake, popcorn, chips and salsaJack vB. brought carrot cakeEricP. brought two plates of cookiesChristmas sugar cookies and oatmeal/raisin cookies. Thanks toallit was more food than we could eat.

Our Grand Prize Winner of COINO BlackoutGordon Wilvang

Meeting adjourned at 8:37 PM.

December Club News-Continued



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January 2010 - Volume 1 Issue 1Presidents Message

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderfulChristmas with your families and friends. I spent Christmas inSan Diego and enjoyed a relaxing and fun time with friends. Af-ter Christmas, I drove to Arizona and met a group of friends. Weall piled in my car and drove to Laughlin for a few days beforereturning to Arizona for New Years, then it was back home toCalifornia. I think in all I put a couple of thousand miles on mynew car. A lot of driving but it was fun seeing all my friends andspending time with them.While in Laughlin, I visited a little shop there that is part Pawn

Shop, part Jewelry Store and part Coin shop. I spent an hour orso pouring over their coins but didnt find anything I needed toupgrade my Type Set. I did find a couple of Silver Strikes that I liked so ended up buying them.

One of my friends went with me and he ended up buying a nice looking but inexpensive ring for hiswife. It was an interesting little shop that I plan to visit again during future trips to Laughlin.After returning home, I contacted Dinahs Restaurant and booked our dinner reservations for Janu-ary 14th. Again, we will essentially be taking over the back room of the restaurant. I gave them anestimate of 50 to 60 people as Im hoping most members will bring their spouses, significant othersor friends. I understand that Sue Demmer will be contacting everyone to get a head count of peo-ple planning to attend. So hopefully you can bring someone with you. Aside from having dinner,the only activities for this meeting will be installing the officers for 2010, having the annual atten-dance/gold drawings, and holding our normal coin raffle. Several new members were asking at thelast meeting whether we would hold an auction at the dinner. Unfortunately, we wont have the fa-cility or time to conduct an auction, so that will have to wait until our February meeting.

As a reminder, all our membership cards expired on December 31st so we need to buy our newcards at the dinner as well. They are $7.50 for the year. You want to be sure to get your card atthe dinner because the Long Beach Coin Show will take place before our February meeting. Yourmembership card will get you a discounted admission to that show as well as to most other localclub shows that charge admission. So, please remember to pick-up your membership card at thedinner.It has been a few weeks since I have spoken with Phil Iversen about our merger with the Bay Cit-

ies Coin Club. He had begun the process of filing paperwork with the IRS and the California Secre-tary of State to reinstate their exempt status. So I will hopefully have an update for the dinner onwhere things stand with the merger. It would be great if we can make that official at the dinner to

start the New Year off as the newly combined Bay Cities Coin Club from the beginning of the year.I look forward to seeing you all at the dinner. Until then

Collect Early and Often

Garn



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2010 OFFICERSPresident

Garn AndersonVice Presiden tRichard Navarro

Secretary/EditorJack von Bloeker III

TreasurerGeorge Gill

Meetings are normally held at the El Segundo Library, 111 West Mariposa Avenue,El Segundo, CA. Next meeting is on Thursday, January 14th@ 7:00 PM

@ Dinahs Restaurant.


Items of interest for this newsletter

can be mailed to:The BCCC Journalc/o Jack von Bloeker III5714 Apia DriveCypress, CA 90630or emailed to: [email protected]

Coin ShowsJan 2-3 San BernardinoDamus Bldg., National Orange Show Fairgrounds, Mill Street & Arrowhead Ave., Free parkingHrs: Sat. 10AM-5PM, Sun. 10AM-4PM FREJan 30-31 P laya del ReyWestchester Elks Lodge, 8025 W. Manchester Ave., Play del Rey, Free parking

Hrs: Sat. 10AM-6PM, Sun. 10AM-4PM ADM

Member SpotlightJanuaryN/A February???

RefreshmentsJanuaryN/A FebruaryJack von Bloeker III

OUR NEW LOGO VOTING RESULTS

If or when we make a medal we could use the left design for the obverse and the right one for the reverse.

First Place Second Place

january 2010 - volume 1 issue 1

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