Return-Path: Received: from web5201.mail.yahoo.com ([216.115.106.95]) by niles.mail.mindspring.net (Mindspring Mail Service) with SMTP id t5mthb.v9p.37kbi1o for ; Tue, 9 Jan 2001 15:35:55 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <20010109203551.15715.qmail@web5201.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [205.188.200.29] by web5201.mail.yahoo.com; Tue, 09 Jan 2001 12:35:51 PST Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 12:35:51 -0800 (PST) From: MPCgram Subject: MPC Gram 219 (corrected (date only)) To: mpcgram@yahoo.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii ==================================================== MPC Gram ==================================================== Covering the Entire World of Military Numismatics ---------------------------------------------------- Series 002-Number 219 Tuesday -9 January 2001 A Collecting Journey by Joe Boling Fred suggested that I might write about how I got interested in Japanese bonds and what the implications became for him. The more I thought about those early days, the more threads got worked into the story, so this won't be just about bonds. In 1972 there was only one really useful world paper money catalog, a two-volume half-set by George Sten (it was a half-set because he only cataloged the countries A through K before he died). He had earlier published a one-volume work known as the Sten Encyclopedia that covered the world, and he was expanding that into four volumes when he died. His manuscript got tied up in a legal dispute, and the work was never finished. An even earlier paper money author was Dr. Walter Loeb. He had also published a single-volume summary of the known notes of the world. Dr. Loeb lived out here near me, but I wasn't here yet. I arrived in Seattle in December 1971, about the time he died. The next IBNS directory showed me as a new Seattle resident, and I got a call from the fellow who was breaking up the Loeb collection for his widow. By that time there was not much left of interest to me--all the Japanese and Chinese material was gone, but there was still a great collection (about fifty pieces) of NORTH Vietnam, a country whose notes were generally unobtainable in the US. I bought those and a couple of books from the library, and was disappointed that there was not more. It turned out that some of the Loeb material had gone to California, to Gary Snover and Carolyn Frake (anyone know where she is today?). Among scores of notes I bought from Frake were Japan P2-4 in F, F, VF for a total of $15; these had come from Dr. Loeb. She advertised P7 and P8 as well, in G and aG for $16.50. Those turned out to be China M1 and M2 (10 and 50 sen, not yen--she could not read Japanese), and I got a refund of $15 when I challenged the attribution (I still needed them, but knew that they were not worth what ten yen and fifty yen notes of 1872 would be worth). Fortunately, Sten had all of these in his second volume, so I could determine just what I had received. Two months before that transaction I had bought the following from her: MPC series 521 $1, AU for $2 (and her grading was conservative). You thought this story was gong to be about bonds--well, here they come. Get out your SB and follow along. The oriental bonds from Dr. Loeb's collection had been bought by Ben Gorlick, a Seattle antiques and militaria dealer who operated The Bamboo Hut in the heart of downtown. I was in there one day deciding that I could not afford the set of Japanese campaign medals that he was offering me (I have no idea what was in that group, because I did not have a copy of Peterson yet). Among other things I DID buy from him were the three silver Korean coins with the enamel on their backs, in 1-2-3 chon denominations, the set for $79. And he also had some sexy-looking Japanese bonds, all stuffed into a large folder, that I could afford--25 pieces for $25. One of them was the Y1000 China Incident Treasury Bond SB930; I soon framed it and it hung in my home office until I left Seattle in 1976. Another was a Y100 3.5% Public Loan Certificate SB638. The rest were a mixture of large and small bonds, engraved and litho, pretty and ugly, but I thought the price was right. I did not yet know that these had been Dr. Loeb's bonds. It was not until. years later when Jerry Altz and I discovered that we had two bonds with consecutive numbers that I realized their source--Jerry's had been one of Dr. Loeb's duplicates. I continued to acquire bonds one or three at a time, but still did not appreciate the throughline that can be seen on SB pages 544-552. In April 1978, when I was near the middle of a three-year tour in Germany, came the bonanza! Air Weather Service SSgt Nick Halbeisen (anyone know him now?), who was stationed in Korea, decided that, based on my purchase patterns, he had access to just what I wanted; he bought a Seoul stamp dealer's entire stock of Japanese and related bonds and share certificates. This lot totalled 621 pieces, for which I reluctantly paid $500 (Nick had bought the lot before getting my OK). In included 77 Japanese, Korean, and Manchou stock certificates, twenty coupon-bearing Finance Ministry bonds, 53 other FM bonds, and 471 Hypothec Bank bonds--average price 80 cents each. Now I had an opportunity to collect by issue date, something that had never occurred to me before. With the assistance of MSG Shunichi Aikawa, a member of my organization in Heidelberg (remember him, Howard?), I translated all the titles and started a listing of known pieces. Buried in the lengthy texts on the backs of the Hypothec bonds and the faces of the Finance Ministry bonds, we could find what denominations and how many blocks were printed for each issue. By late 1979 I had written a 24-page (double-spaced) manuscript that I sold to Krause publications for serialization in the Bank Note Reporter. They never published it. After picking out all the different dates and special markings, I sold the rest of the lot to Gary Snover and other dealers. Many of these pieces can still be identified, because they had been deposited in a Korean bank for safekeeping during the war. The bank applied a large blue oval rubber stamp to the backs of the bonds. I continue to see these in dealers' stocks, and to recognize them as bonds that I once owned. In October 1978 I started a ten-year correspondence with Hitoshi Kozono, who filled many date- slots in my collection as I tried to collect all issues of every bond series. I continued to buy from him and to buy whatever I could find where I was living until I got to Japan for two years 1983-85. While there I bought everything I could find that was not already in my collection, and compared notes with Haruo Kobayashi, an IBNS member in Osaka who has the only bond collection I have seen that rivals mine. By 1989 I was in Reston, Virginia, and Fred and I knew that a second edition of SB was going to happen some day. By then we had decided that, since I had already written up the Japanese bonds, and they were paper, and they were directly connected to WWII, that they belonged in that next edition (we had not yet been foolish enough to decide that coins and medals would be in the next edition). In the DC area, Inauguration Day is a holiday. In 1989 that was a Friday, the same week as Martin Luther King, Jr., day on Monday. By taking three days of leave, Tuesday-Thursday, I could put together a nine-day break (15-23 January). I spent that nine days completely immersed in Japanese bonds, using the published Finance Ministry records (which Kozono had acquired for me) to list all the bonds types that we had never seen, and to determine all that arcane information that is included about every release, such as what its purpose was, what the original sale discount was, what portions of each release were sold to the public and to various public finance institutions, and so forth. In nine days I wrote a 48-page (single-spaced) listing of all the Japanese bonds related to WWII. Now Fred had a real problem; Japan's bonds were going to be presented in a comprehensive listing supported by a collection in depth; what were we going to do about the rest of the world? He already had an interest in US bonds, and owned a few, but now we had to determine who else had issued bonds (we assumed everyone had), and to find enough of them to be able to list them. I'll let him tell the story of his trials and tribulations in acquiring bonds, but I was there when the listings were written, and we discovered that there are incredible complexities in some of the series (such as the Canadian war savings certificates and Chinese Thrift and Reconstruction Savings System bonds). In the five years since SB was published, he has continued to acquire WWII bonds from all over the world (and MPCSki is keen on them too, working on many of the series in depth), but new stuff shows up all the time. To quote the late Daniel K.E. Ching, "Isn't this fun?!" One last comment on a bond-moment; when the late Eric Boone asked me to identify SB1261 (the piece illustrated on the top of page 579), I had never seen it before. I was able to go into my 1989 manuscript and find that I had it there, and that no more than 1300 pieces (likely fewer) had been sold to the public. Needless to say, I strove (successfully) to induce him to sell it to me. What a thrill to find out that a listing written blind, depending only on documents in Japanese, was supported by a live collectible. Isn't this fun?! ==================================================== Editorial ---------------------------------------------------- Among other things at the Orlando MPC show, we picked up lots of new Gram Subscribers. Welcome! We are certainly delighted to have you on board. We also look forward to your contributions. If you do not have a story or discovery to report, you can send your questions, comments, and just about anything else to Gram HQ. Others will be happy to hear from you! ==================================================== Mail Call ---------------------------------------------------- Great news from the Fun Show. You lucky dogs! Wish I was there. Say hello to all the Grammers! See you in Memphis. RA Medina =================================================== Departments --------------------------------------------------- WWII numismatics seminar at ANA Summer Seminar 2001 --------------------------------------------------- Not only does the scholarship fund have an official identity but also has a bank account! Any further donations should be paid to the order of "Military Numismatists Scholarship" and sent to: Military Numismatists c/o Marcus Turner 8103 East US Highway 36 Suite 163 Avon, IN 46123 THE UPDATED LIST OF SCHOLARSHIP BENEFACTORS 11/22/00. These folks have generously provided money or material to finance scholarships to the ANA WWII Numismatics seminar. Your contributions will help promote collecting WWII material and be greatly appreciated. Mike Cummings Ed B. Doug Bell R. A. Medina Harold MPCKid Kroll Bill McNese Marcus Turner Larry Ski Fred PK6 Joel Shafer World Wide Ventures John & Nancy Wilson Neil Shafer ----------------------------------------------------- MPC Fest II ----------------------------------------------------- MPC Fest is the annual feast of MPC. After some difficulties of coordination we have not changed the dates and tentatively scheduled 9-11 March 2001 for MPC Fest II. If these dates cause a problem, please write the gram immediately. ==================================================== Post/Base Exchange (PX/BX/NEX) Dump your dupes! Your classified advertisement for items for sale 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. Send in a list of items for sale and we will list them here in the gram. In all cases confirm your order via email first. MPC Series 521 5c replacement (second printing), f-vf $300. Ian Marshall, please e-mail for confirmation. iam@total.net. MPC Series 641 $10 with flipper serial number (the number is still a number when held upside down) f-vf, $22. verify at fred@papermoneyworld.com. =================================================== Staff: publisher and editor: Fred Schwan - fred@papermoneyworld.com; assistant editor - Phil Goldstein critic: Harold Kroll - MPCKid@papermoneyworld.com; index manager: Ed Beaman webmaster & technical advisor: Doug Bell - (Wiz): doug@papermoneyworld.com; 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. 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