Status: U Return-Path: Received: from web5203.mail.yahoo.com ([216.115.106.97]) by strange.mail.mindspring.net (Earthlink Mail Service) with SMTP id tbkv13.9dj.37kbi0u for ; Thu, 22 Mar 2001 17:26:42 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <20010322222641.4558.qmail@web5203.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [152.163.206.188] by web5203.mail.yahoo.com; Thu, 22 Mar 2001 14:26:41 PST Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 14:26:41 -0800 (PST) From: MPCgram Subject: MPCGram 288 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 288 Thurski 21 March 2001 Chicago Paper Money Expo Highlights By Larry “Ski” Smulczenski Everytime I go to a major paper money show, there is at least one discovery or purchase that sticks in my mind for quite a period of time and so it was at CPMX. The discovery was a couple of larger than normal chit or coupon books from Ship Service Camp Knox, Iceland. The coupons themselves had been known for some time and occasionally appear on a dealers price list, but I cannot ever remember anyone mentioning a booklet containing some of coupons. You can see the coupons on page 87 of World War II Remembered. This is the only military money issued during World War II in Iceland, although there was very interesting emergency one krona series issued by the country in 1941, that was produced in different shades and colors through 1947. During the last week, I've been looking for information on Camp Knox on the Internet and in old publications. You can find mentions of the Camp but nothing significant. I did however find a short article written by the late Ted Uhl in SPMC's Paper Money. Uhl claimed to have one of the Camp Knox booklets so again my memory was not too sharp. Anyway, after Germany invaded Denmark in May of 1940, the British dispatched troops to Iceland. Their purpose was to protect that country from invasion and to establish a base of operations for the British Navy from which they could protect shipping to and from the British Isles. Construction began on the military facilities, but since the British were short of manpower, they requested the U.S. to build the fuel storage facilities. The U.S. agreed to this request and in October of 1941, the first supplies and equipment were provided. However, the contractor that was hired to do the job found it difficult to find men to travel to this far off land to do the work. Again the U.S. government got involved and at the invitation of the Icelandic government, sent military forces to safeguard the island. President Roosevelt stated that the reason for the move was to safeguard Greenland, the North Atlantic and the shipping routes both in the North Atlantic and the more direct ones to Great Britain. You can bet that Navy Seabees were among the landed troops because shortly thereafter, an airfield, a fuel depot and a 100-bed hospital were completed. Camp Knox was commissioned on May 16, 1942. As was the case on many islands during W.W.II, small change had to be a problem. The influx of a large number of GI's would naturally produce such a currency problem on a location that had a small population. This could have given rise to the Camp Knox coupons. The coupons were printed three to a page with the denominations 10 aurar, 25 aurar, and 1 krona on each page. That gives rise to the question, why were the coupons denominated in as Icelandic currency, if they were to be used on base. Could they also have been used in town? The booklet contained twenty strips of the three coupons. That means that the total booklet was worth 27 Kronur. Now that is a odd denomination for a booklet. I don't know what the value of a krona was during 1942, but unless it was 27 Kronur to the dollar, it makes for an strange value for a booklet. Of course it could be 9 Kronur/dollar making it a $3 book? (By the way if your wondering, the krona is currently worth only a little over a cent, .0117 of a dollar. If you are looking at the coupons in your World War II Remembered, you will notice that the 10 Aurar serial number is a smaller font then the other two, although all three are the same number on a strip. Could be that the printer could not find three numbering machines with the same font. By the way, we have no idea who the printer was. Two varieties of the 25 Aurar coupon exist. The one shown in the book has a suffix A in the serial number but the 25 Aurar is also known without the suffix letter. The other two values always exhibit the suffix A on the serial number. Don't know why. Uhl mentioned that his book had a green cover. I thought that mine has just plain light brown card stock, until I got home and looked at it closer. What it really is, is a faded pink. It is obvious by looking at the inside, that the color originally was a pale pink cardboard that faded over time with possible exposure to the sun or other elements. The covers appear to be an expedient covering made in the field with absolutely nothing printed on them. Mine has the name of the owner, a "Chief Euart" written on the back and except for some doodles, nothing else. It appears that the printer delivered the coupons to the requester in strips of 3 and then that organization, cut pieces of cardboard stock out of whatever was available to make the covers. This is given more credence when we observed that some of the books had 2 staples while others had 3. I doubt if any self-respecting printer would do such a job. Finally I stated above that the serial numbers on a strip of coupons were all the same, but in the booklet, each strip had a different serial number, consecutively number from front to back. That is quite different from normal chit books that have the same serial number on every chit in the book. So you can see, that there are a number of questions that still beg to be answered on this little prize. If you have any thoughts about any of them, let us hear from you. ==================================================== Editorial ---------------------------------------------------- Things continue to be busy here at HQ. Busy? Crazy! Oh well. I expect to put the MPC book to bed (finally) within the week. Then we will work on some other important and behind-schedule projects. Your continued support of the Gram with letters and articles is wonderful and appreciated. The Gram would not be possible with YOUR help. Of course this is particularly true of our regular columnists Joe Boling and Ski! Please take the opportunity to thank them at every opportunity! =================================================== Mail Call --------------------------------------------------- Dear Gram, Could you please tell me how I can get a copy of the Remey Bourne Catalog or contact information for the company? I would like to bids on those books. Thanks... James Dear James, Please contact Remey at remybook@qwest.com. Please be sure to tell Remy that you are writing per the article in the gram and good luck! Editor =================================================== 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 3/5/01. 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. Many donations were received at CPMX and MPCFest. They are being processed and will be recognized very soon. Mr. Anonymous Donor Mike Cummings Sue and Keith Bauman Ed B. Doug Bell Tom Denly, Denly's R. A. Medina Harold MPCKid Kroll Leo "Paymaster" May Mrs. R.C. Matherne Bill McNease Mel and Jeremy Steinberg Marcus Turner Larry Ski Guido Fred PK6 Joel Shafer World Wide Ventures Pam West John & Nancy Wilson Neil Shafer W. E. Yanchick ==================================================== 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. "Buy National Savings Certificates" on side of tin coin tube with "15/" British Crown "15/" above it in one line. Slot at top of tube for inserting 6D (Pence) coins and top brass cap with "30/6D". When full with 30 coins, this tube could buy a 15 Shillings WWII National Savings Certificate. US$25.00 postpaid. Send email to confirm to Howard@SEAsianTreasury.com. I found this today in an antique store run by a Scottish man about 15-20 miles from my Bay Huse. Besides being a very nice piece for someone's collection, it would look GREAT in an exhibit about British National Savings Certificates! Howard Korean Dealers Numismatic catalog for 2001 including Korean MPC coupons for the very first time. Not much to read in English, but some nice color illustrations and an historic MPC literature item. $23.95 postpaid. David Seelye. Contact coinman@rochester.rr.com. WANTED 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. This is a trial, if you like it, send your list. =================================================== Staff: publisher and editor: Fred Schwan - fred@papermoneyworld.com; assistant editor - Phil Goldstein IWANTMYMPC@aol.com 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. Please send all correspondence regarding the gram to MPCgram@yahoo.com. Thank you very much for your participation. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/