Commemoratives, Public and Private

The threads here about "100 Famous Rulers" and the query about putting
Ray Kroc on a coin raise a couple of issues. (And there is an open
question at the end of this jeremiad.)

To lay some foundation, let me digress. One problem with public
institutions is that everyon has a right to control them. The fights
(there is no other word for it) for control of the public schools is
an undeniable case: sex education, evolution, job training, the
importance of sports and orchestra and art, and many other hot
headlines. Everyone wants the schools to teach their values to the
exclusion of other ethics. One reason that librarians can be hard to
approach when you want to donate Red Books or Breen is that people
come to them all the time wanting the library to shelve their idea of
important books. So, too, do the Mint and BEP get attention.

The BEP can do a lot with postage stamps. I have a sheet of Ayn
Rands. My wife has a sheet of Alfred Hitchcocks. The paper money of
the Treasury is less open to constant change (gratefully), though now
there is talk of Commemorative Paper Money.

Mint commemoratives start in Congress and we all know what that
involves. Some people get honored; others do not. We have Huguenauts
but not Hungarians. Preparing to run a seminar called "Capitalism for
Kids" I have been reading about Robert Morris and J. P. Morgan.
Forbes Magazine calls them heroes. Libertarians left and right have
other views. If you think that putting Ray Kroc on a federal coin
would be a stretch, imagine the outcry against a series of "Famous
Capitalists."

One solution for me has been to keep an eye out for private medals.
The Franklin Mint created a series with Morgan, Rockefeller, and other
others. (I gave my wife a Franklin Mint J. P. Morgan bronze medal --
$3 at an MSNS bourse.) Silver art bars also carry these famous
people.

And you can always make your own.

The wider picture here is that as numismatists, we tend to look to
government issues as being the officially collectible moneys and we
tend to delegate all others to a second tier. Those lower levels
include scriphophilly -- stocks, bonds, checks, warrants, etc. -- as
well as Hard Times Tokens, Civil War store cards, coal mine tokens,
and so on.

Numismatics is the art and science that studies the forms and uses of
money. All money forms and all uses of them are valid. We get stuck
on one small part of it. Reading about J. P. Morgan, large
corporations of his time issued GOLD BACKED BONDS. Think of that.
How many articles have you read about Education Notes and Fractional
Currency compared to what you have read about commercial paper?

Numismatics delivers "history you can hold in your hand." It would
seem to me that all of it is valid for study. So, I have accumulated
many examples of so-called "exonumia." Among these is an unused
booklet of McDonald's Halloween Coupons from 1999. How about you? As
a collector of numismatics, does your inventory extend beyond 19th and
20th century US Type?

Michael
"inquiring minds want to know"

(Michael E. Marotta) wrote in
om:

The threads here about "100 Famous Rulers" and the query about putting
Ray Kroc on a coin raise a couple of issues. (And there is an open
question at the end of this jeremiad.)

To lay some foundation, let me digress. One problem with public
institutions is that everyon has a right to control them. The fights
(there is no other word for it) for control of the public schools is
an undeniable case: sex education, evolution, job training, the
importance of sports and orchestra and art, and many other hot
headlines. Everyone wants the schools to teach their values to the
exclusion of other ethics. One reason that librarians can be hard to
approach when you want to donate Red Books or Breen is that people
come to them all the time wanting the library to shelve their idea of
important books. So, too, do the Mint and BEP get attention.

The BEP can do a lot with postage stamps. I have a sheet of Ayn
Rands. My wife has a sheet of Alfred Hitchcocks. The paper money of
the Treasury is less open to constant change (gratefully), though now
there is talk of Commemorative Paper Money.

Mint commemoratives start in Congress and we all know what that
involves. Some people get honored; others do not. We have Huguenauts
but not Hungarians. Preparing to run a seminar called "Capitalism for
Kids" I have been reading about Robert Morris and J. P. Morgan.
Forbes Magazine calls them heroes. Libertarians left and right have
other views. If you think that putting Ray Kroc on a federal coin
would be a stretch, imagine the outcry against a series of "Famous
Capitalists."

One solution for me has been to keep an eye out for private medals.
The Franklin Mint created a series with Morgan, Rockefeller, and other
others. (I gave my wife a Franklin Mint J. P. Morgan bronze medal --
$3 at an MSNS bourse.) Silver art bars also carry these famous
people.

And you can always make your own.

The wider picture here is that as numismatists, we tend to look to
government issues as being the officially collectible moneys and we
tend to delegate all others to a second tier. Those lower levels
include scriphophilly -- stocks, bonds, checks, warrants, etc. -- as
well as Hard Times Tokens, Civil War store cards, coal mine tokens,
and so on.

Numismatics is the art and science that studies the forms and uses of
money. All money forms and all uses of them are valid. We get stuck
on one small part of it. Reading about J. P. Morgan, large
corporations of his time issued GOLD BACKED BONDS. Think of that.
How many articles have you read about Education Notes and Fractional
Currency compared to what you have read about commercial paper?

Numismatics delivers "history you can hold in your hand." It would
seem to me that all of it is valid for study. So, I have accumulated
many examples of so-called "exonumia." Among these is an unused
booklet of McDonald's Halloween Coupons from 1999. How about you? As
a collector of numismatics, does your inventory extend beyond 19th and
20th century US Type?

Michael
"inquiring minds want to know"




I have a Christian Gobrecht/David Rittenhouse commemorative medal(?) made
in 1973 for the Hanover (Pa) Numismatic Society. I won it when I went to
a meeting with my aunt and uncle around '73-74...maybe '75...not sure
because I haven't been able to ask uncle Dave about it yet.

There's a pic of it at

http://www.coinpeople.com/forums/alb...php?pic_id=391

I think it's either bronze or brass and the relief on it is like a mile
high. It's quite beautiful.



anita