April ~ May ~ June 2007

ECI Store - the Wrangler - ShowCase - WebMaster - Letter To The Editor

Elaine Rexdale #94 Editor

EDITOR'S NOTES

Letter to the Editor: I recently noticed, with interest, two sales that took place on eBay.  One was for the 1946 "Greenies Barbecue Stand/Wind Cap", PA (in new condition). This item sold for $16.51 with seven bids from five different people. This same encased (in new condition) can be purchased from our ECI store for $3.99…and we have many more of the same piece, for sale, in new condition too! MORE

LET US KNOW HOW WE'RE DOING. If you have comments or observations to contribute about any portion of this newsletter please let me know. Of course you are always invited to send me anything for publication that may be of general interest to our members. Elaine

NEW FOR 2007

 1979S Proof Susan B. Anthony & 2007P President Washington Dollar DETAILS

NEW MEMBERS

Perry Victor #340 - Robert C. Smith #341 - James Millard #342 - George M. Deibler #343 - Michael Tostenrude #344 - Stephen Bartley  #345 - Lloyd Knight #346 - David Plowman #347 - John R. Wollett #348 - Duane Foster #349 - Evan Cerasoli #350 - Roy Allen #351- Frank E Habegger Sr. #352

~Recruiting new members this quarter are: Cecil Starcher #01 - Jerry Adams #334 - Steve Swingenstein #123 - Jerry Ferrell #93. California with 28 members remains in first place with Pennsylvania being a close 2nd with 25. Florida continues hold a tight grip on third at 21 members - Ohio stays in fourth place with 16 with Texas elevated to 5th with 14 members. States with 0 members: Alaska - Delaware - Montana - New Mexico.

~We had to remove 9 more members from our mailing list due to non-functioning e-mail address. For us to be in touch we need to be kept up-to-date when you change your email provider.

~George Boughton #158 died January 25th at the age of 75. With Norm's death, the ECI supply store has closed as he was the proprietor. Not only will Norm be missed at ECI but also by the members of the International Organization of Wooden Money Collectors where he edited their newsletter Bunyan's Chips. Our prayers and best wishes go out to his family and friends.

PLASTIC HORSESHOE ENCASED WITH PAPER INSERT By Jim Lawniczak #17

SECRETARY'S DESK

~My wife, on the occasion of her recent birthday, reminded me that, "On the inside of every older person is a younger person who is wondering 'what happened!' ". So True.

~An interesting note. We average about 100 hits on our website each week and not all of them are made by members. I field about a half dozen inquiries every month from visitors who have "Googled" their family name and have come across an encased listed on a check list that was issued by a family member of long ago. Some want to buy the piece, most want to know what it is. having never seen an encased before. One such inquiry came about the FL-Tam-011 1963D Gillette Tackle Co. Our correspondence (I do reply to every inquiry) led Pierre Gillette to write THIS: It is a great story and I wanted to share it with you.

EDITORIAL

As we begin our fourth year I pause to wonder what lies ahead for ECI. Our membership enjoys a steady growth in the U. S. while efforts to increase our international membership is up against a stone wall. While Canada has a rich history in encased coins, we have been unable to make any great headway in attracting more members. A great failure of ours is one of not being able to interest someone in assembling a much needed Canadian Catalogue.

It appears that for the rest of the world, encased coins have not been issued in any quantity significant enough to take them out of the realm of being more than an curiosity. With the emergence of bi-metal coins in everyday commerce becoming more wide-spread, there is hope that this may lead to a greater appreciation of encased coins in those regions which could, hopefully speaking, encourage new issue to be struck. One can dream, right? WBCC is exposing it's international members to encased coins thru their encased USA State Quarter Series and their recent 10th Anniversary encased coin project. I hope that our members took advantage of their special offer featured in the last newsletter. I further encourage our members to support WBCC by joining their ranks as several ECI members have.

Another disturbing fact is there seems to be little interest for modern encased coins. If there is no interest for newly encased coins, why go to all the trouble and expense to produce them. If PPM had not agreed to add encased coin minting to their line at the encouragement of ECI, encasing coins would have stopped with the closing of Northern Mint. Hats off to all those brave souls who have encased coins struck and to those who have seen fit to add them to their collection.

As Todd Lammers #206 pointed out in one of his "Pondering", its a bore to keep looking at the same old common encased that so often grace the pages of eBay. I am familiar with most all user names of the major bidders and sellers of encased on eBay. Bidders that were so active five years ago aren't there anymore; even the most active bidders of 18 months ago are gone as well. Truth is I see very few of you bidding as often as you once did. I seldom do either - with the exception of bidding on large lots for the ECI Store and on the occasional West Virginia piece that comes up. WHY YOU ASK? Because it is the same old stuff week-after-week! Only during the last couple of weeks of March and early April did several non run-of-the-mill encased get offered for auction, and bidding was active. From time-to-time Jerry puts some the ECI encased up for auction in an effort to keep our name in front of the bidders. Very seldom do more than 25% go off as sold. No interest in modern encased even though he touts the low mintages. We know that the quality is there. We know that the design is superior to those pieces of the last 50 years. We know that these pieces are the rarities of the future with never more than 50 pieces being struck; the average is 20 - 25. We know all this and yet we don't know why they are treated like a bastard child at a family reunion. Less than 5% of ECI members subscribe to our issues at any one time. PPM's average order is for 300 pieces, not even enough for 1 each for our members, given they wanted one.

All my ranting boils down to one thing. If we are to continue into the next generation, we need to keep our hobby alive today by supporting all those who are having encased coins struck. Not only that, we are obligated to keep what we have in good condition for those who are to follow. Now of course if anyone of you has found a way to the take them with you when you go let me know, I'm definitely interested.  Cecil

POTPOURRI: With Jerry Ferrell #93

~A TREASURE HUNT: For those of you who purchased the 1943 encased cents set this is a must read. Last year HP acquired one roll each (P-D-S) of what was advertised as UNC 1943 cents. To his chagrin there were too many EF/AU pieces which we did not encase - leaving us with several AU pieces at BU prices. He bagged them up to sell as a lot on eBay at a later date. Now for the interesting part. In the later part of February Cecil, HP and I was going thru our inventory deciding what to encase in the year to come. None of us had looked at the bagged cents after the first sort. To see if any could be salvaged for possible encasing Cecil began looking at each under a glass. I noticed that he had dug out his 8x loop and was studying one of the cents really carefully. He muttered, "I'll be damned!" and handed me the loop and cent. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary so I handed everything to HP. He gave it the once over before leaving the room. Returning with a Red Book, he turned to a certain page, looked at a small picture then again at the cent. "You're right!" he said to Cecil, then handed me the book pointing to what I should look for. What Cecil had found was a 1943D/D RPM. Giving everything back to Cecil I asked what it was worth. Isn't that the first question someone always asks? HP left us again to return with the latest Numismatic News price guide which he tossed to me. As I hunted for the listing Cecil exclaimed, "You won't believe this!" That's right, he found another with even a bolder strike. Out of 22 1943D cents he found 2 rare coins worth; according to the price guide, in AU - $250.00 for the pair.

The moral of the story is: Get your Red Book and loop, then give your ECI 1943D encased cent a good once over. There may have been more than the two in the roll. We looked thru ours; but no such luck. You may have better.  If you do, please let me know.

~Internet auction fraud remains the most frequently reported online crime, but complaints over online purchases that are never delivered are on the rise, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Auction fraud complaints made up about 45 percent of the 207,492 complaints received by the IC3 last year, but that number is down significantly from 2005, when auction fraud was cited 63 percent of the time. Overall, the number of complaints received by IC3 was down 10 percent from the previous year, when the IC3 logged 231,493 complaints. But the total dollar losses reported were up in 2006, totaling US$198 million for the year. In 2005 that number was $183 million. Complaints for non-delivery of merchandise represented 19 percent of complaints. They made up 16 percent in 2005.

~Are you adding rolls of the State Quarters to you lock box? Are you expecting a decent return on your small investment in the future? I knew that there were a lot of them being minted but had never taken the time to really think about it until HP showed me the attached chart he prepared, 1999 thru 2006. Beginning with the fewest coins struck by each mint to the most. I took mine to bank and cashed them in. SEE WHY.

~Here is one of the first steps in recognizing ECI's impact on the hobby of collecting encased cents. The following was seen recently in a auction by "wheniwas6" on eBay.

"Auction is for one 1909 Encased Lincoln Cent grading Choice Extra Fine. Beautiful glossy brown. Aluminum has some light wear but is all original in excellent condition.

OBVERSE: "KEEP ME AND NEVER GO BROKE" on Horseshoe with Four-Leaf Clover

REVERSE: "THE COLONIAL TRUST CO. / PITTSBURGH PA. / WHERE / SAVINGS ARE SAFE"

Listed on Encased Collectors International state list for Pennsylvania as # PA-Pit-053... http://www.encasedcollectorsinternational.org"

~Charleston Mint has a special offer on encased mirrors or key chains for our members, click HERE

~The Bid Boards that ended on Saturdays were won in their entirety by Tom Cain, Jr. #28.

~We are now down to only SOLD OUT complete up-to-date (1999-2006) encased State Quarter sets left. There will never be more than 20 complete sets ever. If you want to own one these sure to be rare sets don't hesitate. You can review the different years HERE.

~Charter Member Tom Cain, Jr. #28 has been kind enough to share photos of four new additions to his exceptional encased coin collection. Although Tom collects various kinds of encased coins, his passion is for pieces that encase Indian Head Cents. To view more of Tom's collections click HERE.

1902 Souvenir Of Cedar Point	1906 Tagg Bros. Livestock Commission Co. - MO
1901 H. Sarner & Son - N.Y.	1905 Hallett Table Water Co. - CT

CLIFF MISHLER #189

STANDS FOR ELECTION TO THE ANA BOARD OF GOVERNORS

“Having contemplated and pondered over the past several months the possibility of becoming a candidate for one of the seven American Numismatic Association board of governor positions to be filled in the 2007 election cycle for the 2007-2009 term, I have arrived at the determination to do so. “In standing for election to the board, I am doing so with a fair measure of reluctance. Throughout my first 50 years of ANA membership I had never aspired to do so. I do so now, with a single purpose in mind, as I have become convinced that the management and direction of the organization is badly off track. “I firmly believe that membership input where the ongoing development of the organization is concerned has been effectively removed from their hands and knowledge. My objective, if elected, will be to return the membership, which has been lost in the shuffle of management and board initiatives over the past four years, to the organizational equation. “My philosophy holds that the American Numismatic Association board and management must recognize and respect that the organization is owned by the members. “The board must serve, first and foremost, as the membership conduit establishing beneficial policies and guidelines to be executed by management staff. “The board in turn has the responsibility of overseeing the implementation of those policies and guidelines to the benefit of the membership, and in turn the organization. “Many specific issues that are of concern relative to policies, practices and programs need to be carefully considered and worked through on prudent bases in implementing changes that are fiscally responsible and fruitful. “These ends can be achieved only if the ANA board and management are willing to interact with the membership and the identified universe for membership gains. “Change for change’s sake is not progress.”  Sincerely yours, Clifford Mishler

eBay Action with Steve Swingenstein #123

Me & New Friend	$327.89 16 bids 3 different bidders - eBay Winner bt3764	This went for $178.50. eBay Winner  yoclock  .  13 bids	$130.39  13 bids - eBay Winner - jgalstmd8tg6
		This piece was recently put up for auction on eBay at a starting price of $100.00 by "mroktoken". The piece is poorly cast - not struck. To the seller's credit, he did not claim it to be a rare original piece. High bid of $228.50 - Didn't met reserve.	The ugliest encased ever  auctioned on eBay.
Auctioned by "doktorij" both pieces with a 1948D cents - the original coins of issue were 1948...no D's		Auctioned by "Faithycoins" - obvious replaced cent - Must have taken lessons from "equillink"   Steve
THE ANSWER MAN		Have A Question?

This is a known piece and 1929 is the right date.  The cent is nice and is in the encasement properly oriented.  It does look though, from the picture, that the cent might not be in flush with the encasement.  This is one where a 10 second look at the piece would be enough, but it’s very hard to be sure from the picture.  Interesting, I have two references to this piece being sold with cent that the seller thought was replaced (one old 2000 NTCA auction and then an even earlier Steve Alpert auction).  I wonder if that might have been the same piece, and maybe even be this piece??  Jim Lawniczak #17

Intercepted message from the Answer Man to the Wrangler: The piece for the Denver office of the Occidental Life Ins. Co. of California is a Denver Colorado piece. The place that the piece is advertising is the key. Thus, for example, the general Leyse Aluminum pieces are from Kewaunee Wisconsin. However, there are some specific pieces for Priscilla Ware, Leyse salesmen, with the location of the place where the salesman did business. Those are properly attributable to the place listed on the piece where the salesman was from.

Another example is a chain of stores, where just the general name is listed, like the 1948 J.C. Penney Co., Inc. piece. That is attributable to NYC, the headquarters of J.C. Penney at the time. It would be wrong to try to attribute it to any one store (and that's what we've seen with these types of pieces, like the Askins piece, where there are attributions to all sorts of places where Askins had stores). However, the Moskins pieces list a specific address for a specific store -- those pieces are attributed to the store that is identified on the piece (which requires work as the pieces are mavericks -- only street address is given, not city and state).

Here, this piece itself says it is for the Denver office, and so that is the attribution of the piece. By the way, it is not clear that the Occidental Life Ins. Co. of California was headquartered in Calif. It is possible that an insurance company was incorporated in a certain states, but headquartered elsewhere. Jim

A COMMENTARY by Todd Lammers #206

WHY DID I JOIN ECI? Have any of you asked yourself that question? Was it because membership is dues free? Did a member tell you about ECI and invite you to join? Did you learn about ECI in a member's eBay description or "Me" page? Maybe you learned about ECI in an article found in Numismatic News? Or maybe like me, you learned of ECI while doing a search about encased coins on Google. For whatever reason 352 of us did. We now have 341 "active" members. (I disagree with the work "active" since I see only a handful actively participating.) Five have passed away, 4 have resigned and 1 was expelled. MORE

NEW ENCASED from PPM

Two New Adverting Pieces For Penny Press Mint

$3.00 each pp.

Concerning the recent contest we sponsored asking members to submit a design possibility for a new PPM dollar reverse die that we were working on, there were only two people who submitted designs. None were chosen. I will be sending out an encased dollar of the design I am using along with a PPM encased dollar to each of the entrants. I'm sorry we didn't have more involvement. Kelly

E - CUBED with Elaine Rexdale #94

Here’s some really great news.  Our club is introducing personal ECInet E-Mail and ECInet WebSite services.  The introduction of these two services is quite exciting.  Since ECI was founded to bring collectors together and to provide a forum where members could exchange information and ideas about the hobby, it is so appropriate that ECI now creates an inexpensive way for this to happen.  Now ECI members can have an e-mail account with three megabytes of storage for a one time registration fee of $5.00.  So, after help from our Secretary, my personal e-mail account has been established.  It works like a charm and there are no dreaded “pop-ups” bothering my communications. MORE

~ And Finally with HP ~

Police Comments: The following 15 Police Comments were taken off actual police car
videos around the country. So they say.

#15 "Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch out after you wear them awhile."

#14 "Take your hands off the car, or I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document."

#13 "If you run, you'll only go to jail tired."

#12 "Can you run faster than 1200 feet per second? In case you didn't know, that is the average speed of a 9mm bullet fired from my gun."

#11 "So you don't know how fast you were going. I guess that means I can write anything I want on the ticket, huh?"

#10 "Yes, Sir, you can talk to the shift supervisor, but I don't think it will help. Oh! Did I mention that I am the shift supervisor?"

# 9 "Warning! You want a warning? O. K, I'm warning you not to do that again or I'll give you another ticket."

# 8 "The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?"

# 7 "Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy, and step in monkey DOO."

# 6 "Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife get a toaster oven."

# 5 "In God we trust, all others we run through NCIC."

# 4 "Just how big were those two beers?"

# 3 "No sir we don't have quotas anymore. We used to have quotas but now we're allowed to write as many tickets as we want."

# 2 "I'm glad to hear the Chief of Police is a good personal friend of yours. At least you know someone who can post your bail."

And... THE BEST ONE!!!

# 1 "You didn't think we gave pretty women tickets?... You're right, we don't. . Sign here please.