Status: U Return-Path: Received: from web12707.mail.yahoo.com ([216.136.173.244]) by runyon.mail.mindspring.net (Earthlink Mail Service) with SMTP id tobmm3.6mn.37kbi7f for ; Fri, 24 Aug 2001 00:40:34 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <20010824044029.46197.qmail@web12707.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [208.191.148.16] by web12707.mail.yahoo.com; Thu, 23 Aug 2001 21:40:29 PDT Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 21:40:29 -0700 (PDT) From: MPCgram Subject: MPCGram 423/3 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 423 Thurski August 23, 2001 Counterfeiting for Fun and Profit by Larry "Ski" Smulczenski I don't know how many of you got to see the History Channel's presentation of "Making a Buck." I thought it was a very well done program and appeared to me to be pretty factual. It started off by telling a recent story about a guy that needed some money to promote a production in his home town. Instead of going out and getting sponsors to help finance the event, he decided to print the money himself. A company supplied a color copier on approval and this guy goes off and starts producing 50's and 100's. He then went off and started passing them at fast food outlets and convenience stores, buying only a small amount and getting change for the bogus bill. He passed a couple of thousand worth before a sharp teller marked one of the bills with one of those pens that checks the paper of the bill and if it isn't the proper rag content, the mark turns up black. She got his license plate number and the cops picked him up pretty quickly. The part that I didn't understand, was that he got off with a minimum sentence because he hadn't spent any of the money he got in change and therefore was able to reimburse the people that he cheated. Does that mean that we can pass counterfeit bills as long as we have money in the bank to pay back the people that realize they were duped? I think not. The program went back in history to review some of the early counterfeiters and attempts to foil them, like Franklin's Continental notes with the leaves imprinted on them. There was an interesting segment on a house that was built by a counterfeiter so that he could covertly peddle his products without actually being seen by the purchaser. This was from the era where we now get our broken bank notes or prior to the our national currency being printed. The coverage of the Germans use of Jewish Prisoners to copy and print the Operation Bernhard notes at Sachsenhausen concentration camp is quite good. There are interviews with one of the participants and the story is told from the inception to the final discovery of a cache of the notes and printing equipment in an Austrian Lake. Mention is made of the follow on program to print $100 United States currency. Another interesting tale is the story told by a U. S. citizen that was instrumental in helping Scotland Yard capture a counterfeiter in England known as the Magician. I don't remember hearing this story before, and found it quite interesting. The program went on to describe some of the new methods being used by nations to foil the attempt of counterfeiters to copy their currency. Of course as new security features are developed, new methods will be produced by the criminals to copy that feature. It is similar to the military. If a new weapon on tactic is developed, as soon as it is identified, the other side will work on a countermeasure for that device. Needless to say, I enjoyed the program. If you didn't get to see it last Monday, you still have another chance. It is being replayed on History Channel this coming Saturday, August 25th at 12 o'clock noon Central. That should be 1 PM for you gramsters on the east coast. You folks on the west coast will have to look for it in the TV Guide. Might be a good idea to set up your VCR to copy it so you can view it later. That was a super response by Flemming Lyngbeck Hansen in Gram 419 to my question on the "Grl Adm" chits. It gave all the answers to the questions that I had. And it shows that if you have a question, there is someone out there that can give you a good answer to it. Thanks again Flemming. A reply to Warner's Seminar Proposal by David Seelye As a non attendee (a major error in judgment in retrospect) of this year's ANA Summer Seminar Military Numismatics, I read Warner's options to improve the next session with great interest. I have talked to several of the sessions alumni (via telephone and email) to obtain information about the seminar. Of all the options presented, the several that stand out as my top choices in order are Option 1C,3C, 1B. One of the major reason for choosing not to attend was the time element. I have a "real" job that consumes a minimum of 45 hours a week with the commute. There is a "family" time requirement as well as hobby time. Trying to squeeze another week off costs vacation time from work, would be direct trade from attending a Paper Money Show. Warner aptly describes the possibility of choosing the "wrong" session to attend. Clearly a two session plan is out for me, and I suspect most of the rest of "us" that are not retired. If participation is a major driver, then remaining at one week is best. As a possibility to consider is to alternate between years a concentration on WW2 Remembered for 2002, and a have MPC be the focus of 2003. If most of the attendees are Gramsters, most of us are up to date with regard to many of the current topics in both areas. A formal refresher course every two years on the "new aspects" might be just the thing. The time between concentrations would give the teachers time to develop a clear course outline. Another consideration is the MPC FEST's that are held in March. While there a few "formal" lectures, clearly there was a major amount of information on many different aspects of military collecting exchanged. This event should be considered as another "course." This should be on everyone's schedule for 2002. ============================================== Editorial ----------------------------------------------- The new mailing system is helping me alot but it still includes some bugs to be worked out. One is the learning curve for the new mail room (Brad Peacock, thanks Brad), another is coordinating the work of two people. This problem has created some editorial mixups like Guido Crapanzano and David Seelye being deleted from the scholarship donor list and some Fest III reservations being dropped. We will continue to work on these problems. Thanks to those of you who have submitted letters and articles that may not have yet appeared. We have some great stuff in the hopper. We try to coordinate the subject matter and length of the various submissions and the new system of creating and mailing has also made this a little more complex. In spite of all of the great material waiting to be published, we need and want more! We have seen evidence of interesting and important news in our hobby. We need reports! ============================================== Mail Call ----------------------------------------------- Greetings Grammeister: Please thank Richard Lobel for me, and I send him a hearty hello from "Olde New England." Really enjoyed reading the story, and it doesn't surprise me that the balance on the lot remains unpaid. Richard Balbaton Doric C&C Dear John etall - Some of us would find it helpful if, when new events are added to the calendar, that some way to highlight them could be found. This would alert us to 'something new' as we flash by on our way to the PX. Possibly the calendar should be the last item in the Gram MPCeley yours, Paymaster Gramsters, I recommend that the summer students themselves select their areas of interest. There will always be an introduction with "new" things, then the classes will go into what the students selected. If there is time for more, the instructor(s) could select their areas of interest, but I would especially like to see areas discussed that have a lot of holes in the information and/or pieces and challenge the students to fill in the holes before next year's classes. I also like the idea of evening "bull sessions" but I would reserve them for an area(s) brought up that day that needed further discussion/ideas/input from the students. I hope this is useful. Howard P.S. Larry mailed an MPC Challenge "Coin" to me so I now always have one in my possession. Howard A. Daniel III Dear Howard, At the seminar I explained that only two types of questions would not be answered: 1) those that were beyond the scope of the course, and 2) those that were beyond the scope of the instructor(s). Editor ================================================ Departments --------------------------------------------------- Calendar of events for Gramsters maintained by Howard Daniel, John Wilson and Gram staff, last updated August 17, 2001 ---------------------------------------------------- Calendar of events for Gramsters maintained by Howard Daniel, John Wilson and Gram staff, last updated August 17, 2001 ---------------------------------------------------- Calendar of events for Gramsters maintained by Howard Daniel lll, John & Nancy Wilson and Gram staff ---------------------------------------------------- August 23-26, 2001 - CSNS Fall Convention hosted by the MSNS in Dearborn, MI, Auction by NTL/Scotsman Coins, Hyatt Regency Dearborn August 23-25, 2001 - New England Coin Expo, Holiday Inn, Mansfield, MA, 130 tables August 25-26, 2001 - Golden State Coin Show, CSNS 109th Convention & NASC Masonic Temple Arcadia, CA August 31-Sept 1-2, 2001 - Ohio State Coin Show, Columbus Ohio Host CNS/COINS, Marriott North September 13 - 16, 2001 - Strasburg Currency and Stock & Bond Show, Lancaster Host Hotel, Lancaster, PA.,100 Booths, Exhibits and Educational Programs, Auction by: R. M. Smythe & Co., Inc., Contact Kevin Foley (414) 421-3498 September 15 - 16, 2001 - Red Rose Coin Club 43rd Annual Fall Show, Lancaster, PA., Exhibits CPMX, Chicago Feb 28- Mar 3, 2002 - Contact Kevin Foley, Chairman, Lyn Knight auction of Leo May collection March 2002 8-10 - MPCFest III [reservations in order received: Guido Crapanzano, Harold Kroll, Larry Smulczenski, Gary "Got any fours" Hicks, Tom Warburton, David Seelye, Jack Lippincot, Phil Goldstein, Warner Talso, Nich Schrier, Tom Koch, Fred Schwan {running total 12}] W.W.II numismatics seminar at ANA Summer Seminar, July 2002 -Session I (Sunday, June 30 through Thursday, July 4, 2002) -Session II (Sunday, July 7 through Thursday, July 11)--------------------------------------------------- Donations are now being accepted for scholarships to the 2002 "Military Money" course at the 2002 ANA Summer Seminar. Inquiries and donations should be sent to: Military Numismatists c/o Marcus Turner 8103 East US Highway 36 Suite 163 Avon, IN 46123 Donors to 2002 Scholarship Fund Steve Feller Harold Kroll R. A. Medina Guido Crapanzano David Seelye ==================================================== 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 Series 661 $5.00 GEM Crisp Unc $25.00 insured postpaid. Series 481 $0.25 1st printing Crisp UNC $60.00 insured postpaid. 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 or sale in the above section. This is a trial, if you like it, send your list. =================================================== Staff: publisher and editor: Fred Schwan - MPCGram@Yahoo.com; assistant editor - Phil Goldstein IWANTMYMPC@aol.com Tuesday columnist Joe Boling – JoeBoling@aol.com Thurski columnist Larry “Ski” Smulczenski –skifla@prodigy.net critic: Harold Kroll - MPCKid@AOL.com; index manager: Ed Beaman webmaster & technical advisor: Doug Bell - (Wiz): doug@papermoneyworld.net; 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!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/