From: mpcgram-owner@papermoneyworld.net on behalf of MPCgram [mpcgram@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 9:39 AM To: mpcgram@papermoneyworld.net Subject: MPCGram 1475 ------------------------ / MPC Gram News Letter / ----------------------- =========================================== MPC GRAM =========================================== Vol 7, no 1475 Tuesday July 4, 2006 Seminar Opens, Gramsters Everywhere The 38th annual ANA summer seminar finally got going with classes yesterday although many collectors, celebreties, and Gramsters/Festers had been in attendance for several days. Partially this is according to plan with other planned activities including a reception, library books sale, and oh yes, class preparations. The first week has only one class direcetly related to military numismatics (MPC boot camp) held Saturday and Sunday nights, but many other classes are of interest to Gramsters. This week Wendell Wolka is teaching a class on world paper money. Joe Boling has his long-anticipated full week class on detecting world counterfeits. Fred Schwan has a program (formerly called a bull session) on Wednesday called Adventures in Collecting. A controversial mini seminar starts tonight with Wendell Wolka and Lane Bruner as instructors--grading paper money. The subject of this class is causing quite a stir. Notes from the Eastern Front A Column by Steve Feller Ration books are poor cousins to bank notes. Yet they formed a crucial part of the WWII experience for tens of millions of people. While at the Cabinet War Rooms in London last weekend I bought a few books on the subject. These books were written during the war by those who created the system of rationing in England. I will be giving some excerpts to launch this column. The first book is entitled "The Market Square" and it details the Brisitsh ration system with details on the ration books themselves. Indeed the subtitle is "The Story of the Ration Book 1940-1944." The book is by "Impresario." I hope you enjoy the arcane and esoteric as I do. Ration books for over 40,000,000 people cannot be printed and distributed overnight. Generally speaking, we have to allow 9 to 12 months between going to print and bringing them into operation. ..We learned also that it was a great mistake to issue any instructions printed in the book ,there being very little likelihood of their remaining accurate by the time the book came into operation. The first set, designed for six months were produced and stored away some time before the war began?There were four different sets when they first came into use—R.B. 1 for those over 6, R.B. 2 for those under 6, R.B. 3 for travellers, and R.B. 6 for weekly seamen. Various other sets of books and cards were held in readiness but not in fact introduced. The essential features of R.B.1 and R.B. 2 (had) pages of coupons for each food (meat; bacon and ham; butter and margarine; cooking fats, including lard and dripping; sugar; three spares),and each page contained a counterfoil with which the holder could effect registration with a retailer. There was a space also on each page for noting the holder's name if he should decide to leave the page permanently with his retailer. Each book contained a postcard called a reference leaf with which the holder applied later on for the next book; its name may seem curious seeing that its function was one of application. At a later stage it was due to form the basic record of the holder in the Food Office.   ********************************************************** Championship Question Corner Question: What war time Philippines coin has an overdate? Question 133, difficulty 3. Yesterday's Question: What denominations were added to the United States War bond program after the porgram started. Question 132, difficulty 3. Comments from the field: Bill Myers wrote: $10 & $200. Bill Myers. ========================================== Editorial ========================================== I am writing this report from the seminar mess hall, er dining facility, er, cafeteria. One thing that the summer seminar never lacks is food. For me the problem is that the main social gatherings are in the mess hall so it is really hard to avoid all of the food. This is my fifth year at the summer seminar so it is my fifth 4th of July in Colorado Springs. I think that in my adult life I have spent more Independence Days with my ANA collecting friends than in any other activity. Of course, there are folks here who have been here for more than 30 years (this is the 38th Summer Seminar and I think a few folks have been to alll of them). Yesterday was a full day of studying world counterfeits with Joe and today is the same. I have been trying to save my voice for next week. Tonight I am giving a talk for the assembled throng entitled Adventures in Collecting. That means that sometime today I have to figure out what to talk about. The first year that I gave one of these talks, I actually prepared three stories to tell with slides and all. I only got one of the stories finished. The next year I did one of the missed topics. Now I can only remember one of the topics that I covered so I will be starting fresh. ========================================== Mail Call =========================================== I got one of the Iceland token books from David Seelye. I looked for information concerning Mar-Matic Sales Co. but could find nothing of significance other than a few English tokens also made by Mar-Matic. A company by the same name also apparently made bingo cards and other novelty games. I could find no location for them other than the address on the tokens. The "forbidden" text on the tokens is curious. My initial gues was that these were slot machine tokens. When I was in the service only the overseas clubs had slot machines. There are two problems with this analysis, howver. First, I have never encountered a 10 cent slot machine although it is conceivable that they existed. Second, many of the tokens that carry this text indicate they are mess tokens. This suggests they were used to purchase meals in the mess rather than gambling tokens. It is possible that they were used for both purposes. Finally, did you notive that the booklet has a listing of MPC? It is on the inside back cover. There are two anamolies in the listing. First, it does not include Series 471 and 472. (Neither does the chart in WW2R although the MPC catalog identifies these series as having been issued in Iceland.) Second, it has a space for $20.00 denominations. None of the series issued in Iceland had a $20.00 note. Jim Downey ========================================== Calendar =========================================== 2006 The London Paper Money Fair has moved to: Victory Services Club, 63 Seymour Street, off Edgware Road, Marble Arch London and the dates are: July 2 and Nov 26. see: www.britishnotes.co.uk or www.londonpapermoneyfair.co.uk 1-14 July ANA summer seminar Colorado Springs Coin Show on July 7, 8, & 9 with lots of folks from the seminar and probably a mini Fest on Saturday afternoon. 16-20 August ANA convention, Denver September 14th-16th, Long Beach, mini fest to be annuonced The World Paper Money Fair, organised by the London chapter of the IBNS will be September 30/October 1 at the new venue: Hotel Russell, Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London.  see: www.ibnslondon.org.uk Oct/Nov Pcda St Louis ========================================== for dealer Hot Contact list, ANA MPC museum holdings and other static information please click this link: http://www.papermoneyworld.net/Gramattichments.htm ========================================== 2006 scholarship fund Donations of cash and numismatic material will be gladly accepted. Generally the numismatic material is auctioned at MPCFest, but might be sold via ebay or other places. Your scholarship donations help the hobby by sending qualified individuals to the ANA summer seminar military money class. Except for unavoidable charges like ebay fees, 100% of your donation goes to scholarships. Donations are now being accepted for the 2006 scholarship fund. Applications are also being accepted for the 2006 scholarships. Donors to 2006 scholarship fund: Sue McCarty (list pending) Contact me at: "Marcus Turner" mail to: maturner@indy.rr.com Checks should be made out to the "Military Numismatists Scholarship." or Marcus Turner Marcus Turner PO Box 191 Danville, Indiana 46122 USA Contributors to the 2005 scholarship were: Ed Hoffman, Warner Talso, RA Medina, John & Nancy Wilson, Keith & Sue Bauman, Dan Freeland, Tom Koch, Doug Bell, Cuneyd Tolek, David Seelye, Brian Giese, Larry Smulczenski, Joe Boling, Dick & Loretta Freyser, Mark Watson, John Cheney, Roger Urce, Harold Kroll, Al Glaser. (also Memphis Belle note purchasers and summer seminar participants. irie Harris, Robert Connell, William Benton, Ed Beaman, Frank Clark, Howard A. Daniel III, Dick and Loretta Freyser, Dan and Kathy Freeland, Jack Hunter, Harld Kroll, Tim Kyzivat, Leo May, Robbie Robinson, Joel Shafer, Neil Shafer, Larry Smulczenski, Steve Swoish, Roger Urce, Ron Waddell, Pam West, John and Nancy Wilson, Adolf Witzke, Wendell Wolka. IMPORTANT SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION Additional information can be found at the link below. We encourage everyone to print copies of this information and distribute it to those who might be interested. Further you are encouraged to e-mail the pdf document to anyone you see fit. Thank you http://www.papermoneyworld.net/news/Military Numismatists Scholarship Fund 2003.pdf Scholarships from the ANA: See the following location for an application for financial aid to the summer seminar: http://www.money.org/sumsemfin.html ========================================= POST / BASE EXCHANGE(PX/BX/NEX) Dump your dupes! Your classified advertisement for items for sale, purchase or trade will be run here for free. Send your ads to the gram. This service is for everyone, most humble dealer or most advanced collector. The point is to make the gram more interesting. In all cases confirm your order via email first. WANTED SECTION: Collectors may submit lists of items wanted for their collections for listing here. Dealers and collectors who have these items, are then encouraged to list them for sale in the above section as a reply. Wanted listings will run for a period of 1 month. ============================================= MPC Gram Staff: Publisher, editor: Fred Schwan fred@papermoneyworld.net; Subscription Manager:Doug Bell- doug@papermoneyworld.net Tuesday Columnist : JoeBoling- JoeBoling@aol.com Friday Columnist: Warner Talso: wtalso@aol.com Fest Auctioneer: Larry "Ski"Smulczenski - skitex@cox.net, Critic:Harold Kroll - HARBONS@aol.com Scholarship Coordinator: Marcus Turner- marucs@papermoneyworld.net; Webmaster and Technical Advisors:Doug Bell "Wiz" - doug@papermoneyworld.net Russ Walsh - russ.walsh@gte.net Fact Checker: Warner Talso -Calendar Coordinator: John and Nancy Wilson -The Boss: Judy Schwan MPC Gram is published by BNR Press and papermoneyworld.com as a free service to the community of military money collectors. Your suggestions, criticisms, complaints, editorial contributions, letters, and even praise are very welcome. The entire contents including linked illustrations are copyright protected by the publishers. In the case of contributors, the copyright is protected on behalf of the creators. Please send all correspondence regarding the gram to MPCgram@yahoo.com. Thank you very much for your participation. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com mpc gram mail list To subscribe to a list, send a mail message to "imailsrv@papermoneyworld.net" at this address with the following in the body of the message: subscribe mpcgram your_full_name To unsubscribe from a list, send a mail message to "imailsrv@papermoneyworld.net" at this address with the following in the body of the message: unsubscribe mpcgram if you have any problems please report then to doug@papermoneyworld.net