Status: U Return-Path: Received: from web5201.mail.yahoo.com ([216.115.106.95]) by walker.mail.mindspring.net (Earthlink Mail Service) with SMTP id tegjnp.2mqi.37kbi73 for ; Thu, 26 Apr 2001 12:38:17 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <20010426163815.23029.qmail@web5201.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [152.163.201.193] by web5201.mail.yahoo.com; Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:38:15 PDT Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 09:38:15 -0700 (PDT) From: MPCgram Subject: MPCGram 321 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 321 Thurski, April 26, 2001 Dutch Show Report--Continued by Larry "Ski" Smulczenski Ukraine, Egypt, Singapore, Australia, Hungary, Croatia, Guernsey, Romania, Norway, Finland, Indonesia, South Africa, Lithuania, Russia, Italy,Turkey, Jordan, Japan, Bosnia and Denmark. Does that sound like a geography class? Well, maybe, but what it really represents are some of the countries from which the dealers at Valkenburg came. Some of their names were familiar, others I had never heard of, but it was a pleasure meeting each and everyone that I had a chance to visit with. In some cases the conversations were quick and interesting, at other times communication was difficult and resulted in a pointee--talkee session using World War II Remembered. One of the first dealers, the three of us, Marcus, Harold and I, met was John Pettit and his trusted assistant Tony James. John had put out a fabulous catalog of notes a couple of months ago with some entries that watered our eyes. Marcus and I had made some purchases from the catalog, but we wanted to see what John and Tony had brought from down under. It wasn't long until the mutterings of "wow, look at this" and "golly" and "gosh, how about this one" were resounding from both sides of the table. One of the first things I put my hands on was an unbisected copy of the Fanning Island Plantations Currency One Pound Note. If you arr unfamiliar with this issue, Fanning Island is one of the Gilbert and Ellice Island chain in the central Pacific south of Hawaii. There was a relay station for the Cable and Wireless Company on Fanning during the war which was a critical link between Australia and the U.S. Troops were sent there to protect the installation, and naturally absorbed the available supply of Australian currency in circulation. The manager of the Fanning Island Plantations Limited, R. O. Garrett made arrangements to have token One Pound notes printed in Hawaii. Supposedly, one thousand of the notes were to be printed, but serial numbers in excess of 3000 are known. The notes state that they were good for One pound Australian currency redeemable only at the office of the Company at Fanning Island. After the currency shortage abated, the notes were redeemed and cut into halves and used as movie tickets. Pairs of the bisected notes are available on the market from time to time, but the complete note has always been quite scarce. So I was impressed to find one in John's stock. I looked at it for a while then at the next note in the box and found myself looking at another of the complete Fanning Island notes. WOW. Then I found another,--- and another,---- and another.... I believe there was a total of seven or eight of these rare beauties in that box. John said that he had bought these not too long ago from a gentleman who had the small hoard. Marcus and Harold were looking over my shoulder by now, because of my heavy breathing and uncontrolled drooling. I had to have one of them and I knew that Harold and Marcus felt the same way, but since I found them I wanted first pick. One was a real cherry. That one was mine even though it had a pretty hefty price tag. I'm going leave the perusal of the Pettit stock and fast forward to that evening when the three of us were in the Hotel reviewing the notes that we had purchased during the day. I pulled out the World War II Remembered and turned to the Fanning Island section. After rereading some of the information that I plagiarized above, my eyes scanned the illustrated example of the intact Fanning Island Plantations note. I did a double take There was my note. It was the plate note in World War II Remembered. I asked Harold and Marcus for the serial numbers of their notes and found that they also had serial numbers listed as recorded notes. World War II Remembered lists eleven serial numbers of complete notes and here we had purchased three of them. The listing of serial numbers in the book must have come from the gentleman who John Pettit had purchased the notes from. Checking the rest of the notes the next day, we did find two more serial numbers that were not in World War II Remembered. So at least 13 complete notes are now known. Back to going through the Pettit stock. I had always liked the Australian Canteen Orders. If your not familiar with them, I would refer you to Page 191 of World War II Remembered. I had the 2/ (not listed in the book) and the 5/ but had never had offered to me the 3/. There in the box was my choice of three. How could you ask for anything more. I asked about the Fiji Merchant Tokens. These are little cardboard chits issued mainly by Hotels on Fiji during the war to alleviate the small change shortage. The tokens from the Grand Hotel are moderately common and can be seen from time in dealers stocks, but John had one from the Club Hotel which World War II Remembered lists as a "known issuer, but no details." Well the next issue of the book will show the 3d as having a red value with black printing on manila card. I then asked John if he had any of the Token money from East Africa Command. The 5 shilling note from this issue had been on my ten most wanted list for a long time. Not only did he have the 5/ note, he had both varieties, with and without the serial number. If you care to read about this note, its on page 209 of the book. John also had such rarities as the Fiji overprint on the 5 pound New Zealand note (page 212) and the typewritten Gilbert and Ellice Island note (pg 215). I had to excuse myself as I had spent most of my available money and hadn't visited any of the other dealers at the show. But it sure was an exciting morning and I had to thank the folks from down under for making it so. ==================================================== Editorial ---------------------------------------------------- The sick hard drive is coming home today, but not for long. It is being sent to a far away specialist for expensive and possibly experimental treatments. The good news is that it lead a healthy life: no smoking or fatty foods. The bad news is that it hung around a bad crowd—MPC collectors! =================================================== Mail Call ---------------------------------------------------- Dear Gram. I am able to shed a little light on the Schwann cells recently mentioned in the Gram...... They are named after a german anatomist, Theodor(no e)Schwann1810-1882). Last name is pronounced "shvonz." Schwann cells comprise the neurilemma, a thin membranous sheath covering a nerve fiber. I fear that the reference to some sexual disease is not correct. Of course there is a relation from Schwann cells to the pudendal nerve.....Ah, but that's another story. Regards, webfootbob, GMA, PHARM TECH, almost a doctor, etc. Dear Bob, Well, you may have a point, but the Schwan disease is clearly a disease that I have and have spread! Editor I've enjoyed the MPC Grams, and am waiting to send you some photos of a few notes that I have. My RVN unit was down in the Delta. and "recovered" a few notes printed by the VC to be paid after the "takeover." Pretty copies are available, but the originals I will defend to the death. Keep up the good work, and I'll be back to you soon. Buoi doi, Greg Dear Greg, We will be happy to receive copies of your notes, but we would be even more pleased if you can post scans somewhere on the web and send us links so that everyone can have a look at them! This goes for everyone! Scan and post your favorite notes and send us the link! We would be delighted to have a story to go with the note, but it is not necessary! I guess that we better figure out a common place to post the scans and make that info available. Wiz, are you listening? (grin) 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 3/22/01. 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. 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 and Nancy Wilson, Neil Shafer, W. E. Yanchick, Mark Watson, Al Glaser, Phil Goldstein, Rod Hardy, Wesley Hardy, Gary Hicks, Jack Lippincott, Ian Marshall, Kevin Maloy, David Seelye, Nick Schrier, Elmer Smith, Dan Swartz, Tom Warburton, Dick Freyser, Tim Kyzivat ==================================================== 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. FOR SALE Here is what is available from MPCFest II: Souvenir card $25 (50 produced) Bronze “challenge coin” $5 Copper “challenge coin” $25 (silver sold out, only one of copper available) In addition to the above souvenirs, the following MFC Series 011 notes are available at face value. Note, these are NOT souvenirs as they are still current and spendable. Series 011 $1, 2, 5, 10, and 20, total face value of one set $38. Payment can be accepted by all of the traditional means including paypal using fred@papermoneyworld.com. Traditional paper payments may be sent to Fred Schwan, 132 E. Second St., Port Clinton, Oh 43452. 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!? 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