Status: U Return-Path: Received: from web12706.mail.yahoo.com ([216.136.173.243]) by niles.mail.mindspring.net (Earthlink Mail Service) with SMTP id tqcblj.5s5.37kbi1o for ; Mon, 17 Sep 2001 13:11:15 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <20010917171110.49716.qmail@web12706.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [205.188.209.76] by web12706.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Mon, 17 Sep 2001 10:11:10 PDT Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 10:11:10 -0700 (PDT) From: MPCgram Subject: MPCGram 436/3 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 436 Monday, September 17, 2001 THE FINAL NOTE Harold"MPCKID"Kroll Collecting Military Payment Certificates was something that I had never even thought about doing three years ago. There were several pieces on Ebay auctions but they were of the Series 461, 471 and 481, not much to look at as the first two are the same design with only a color and series number change. The 481 series did not offer much more in looks to get excited over either. You have to think back and remember that three years ago pictures of items on Ebay were slim to none, and you bought things from the description given or e-mailed and asked the seller for more information. Anyway, one day there was a 521 $10.00 note up for auction with a nice full view scan and it caught my attention. I bid and won the lot, thereby acquiring my first MPC note and opening the doors to something I never dreamed would take me where it has over the last three years. I thought to myself that putting together a ninety piece set,(ninety-four with 651 fractionals) of these notes would not be a very hard project and the costs of doing this would not be much over a period of time. After chasing and collecting these notes for several months, the "REALITY" set in that this was not going to be as easy as I had first thought, in fact I could see that this was turning into a major project. I also purchased the MPC catalog By Fred Schwan and read it from cover to cover several times, learning all the terms, not really understanding all what I had read but figured it would all fall into place as time went on. Called Fred one day to ask some questions about this subject and he was very helpful and cleared up a lot of the questions that I had. Over the next few months I kept adding notes to my set and then one day I bid on a lot of four 611 notes uncirculated that had no scans of the notes, 5, 10, 25 and 50 cent. I don't know what made me e-mail the seller but I did asking for the serial numbers of the notes. When I received a reply I liked to have fell out of my chair as there was a serial number with no suffix, the note was a 611 25 center and at that time there were only 7 pieces reported. The wait for the auction to end seemed like it took weeks, finally it was over and I had won the lot for a modest amount. Now I had to send the payment for the lot and wait for the notes to be mailed to me, finally they arrived. After picking up the notes from the post office, decided to take them home unopened, get a fresh cup of coffee and sit down at my desk and look at the notes. I opened the envelope very carefully and took all four notes out of the plastic sleeve at one time. As I looked at the first one, the 5 center, it was a nice note but not uncirculated, slid this note off the stack and looked at the 10 center, it was not uncirculated either. I sat there for a while thinking that I had just bought a group of notes and did not get what I had paid for, I finally slid the 10 center off and there was the 25 center and my heart almost jumped out of my chest. Yes it was a replacement and it was a CHOICE CU note to boot, I was estatic with no one to tell. The 50 cent note was not uncirculated either but by now I was not concerned about the other 3 notes. I phoned Fred and told him what I had and I think he got more excited than I did and he wanted to buy the note. I declined to sell at the time and to this day he would still like to acquire this note. From here Fred and I began to correspond on a regular basis and from this came the idea of having a FEST. MPC Fest 1 or as it was dubbed, "FREDFEST 2000" was held in Port Clinton. Ohio, February 2000 with 12 in attendance. It was two days of cramming so much information into your brain that you became almost numb the second day. One of the interesting items on the agenda, along with many others, was a subject covering the multi-printings of the 481 series. Larry Smulczenski had researched this series and had figured out that there were four printings of this series and gave a very informative presentation on the subject along with a chart covering the breakdown of the printings. It was not known at this time how important that chart was going to be in the future of collecting the multis and assembling a complete set. The rest of the multi-printing information was also presented at the fest and a new collecting challenge was before us. After returning home from Fest 1, I started reading up on the multi-printings and decided to check out what notes I had to see if there were any multis . There were several notes in my set and all the extras I had now accumalated so I decided to assemble a set of these notes. At first it was fairly easy just like collecting the basic set. As time went on this to became a difficult undertaking. There were three of us really pursuing this project at the same time, Doug Bell and Phil Goldstein, and me. Phil had picked up on the multis before the rest of us had any idea about them and he had already put together quite a few of the notes. Bidding on the these notes as they became available became very competitive. It became apparent that the 481/4 .25, .50, 1.00, 521 .25, .50, 5.00 notes were going to be the toughest notes to find. There were singles of some of the notes known to exist but not all of them. The “missing” note was the 472/2 50 center with none reported and all of the second printing thought to have been destroyed by the BEP. This was also reported in a MpcGram last year. The three of us got down towards the end of completion, I stand to be corrected on the following, Phil needed two notes, Doug needed four notes, and I needed three notes with all of us needing the 472/2 50 cent note. In December of 2000 I found the 472/2 50 cent note and was now determined to finish the multi-printing set. Other notes of the ones mentioned were being found but the two I needed were the 481/4 25 and 1.00 notes. At "NextFest 2001" I acquired a set of the 701 first printing notes, 1.00 through 20.00 and this was a great addition to the multis but the two notes I needed were just not to be found. There was a collector/dealer who reported finding a 481/4 1.00 and I contacted him to ask about purchasing the note. He did not know if he wanted to sell the note at the time so it stayed in limbo for the time being. Another 481/4 25 cent note was found at CPMX this year in Chicago by another dealer so now the two notes I needed were known but the big question was, could they be bought. I could make no progress in acquiring the 1.00 note but the 25 cent note was quoted at a figure more than I wanted to pay. I was getting anxious to get these two notes to complete this set but another collector friend talked me out of paying the asking price for the 25 cent note saying another would come up for sale. Another 25 cent note was found out west by the same person who had the 1.00 note and I contacted him again and made an offer on the two notes he had but he still had not decided to sell. This made me more anxious to purchase the 25 cent note that was available and get me down to one last note As the months passed I was getting frustrated not being able to find these last two notes. The owner of the both notes had made a decision to put the .25 and 1.00 notes on ebay and auction them off. I decided to go for the the 1.00 note as I knew that the 25 cent note was available from another source. The reserve was not met on the 1.00 note so I missed out on that one also did not get the 25 cent note either. My offer for the 25 cent note was more than it brought on the auction but not enough for the 1.00 note. Now I was really down and frustrated and decided I would go for the .25 cent note that was available and worked out a trade for that one. Now all I needed was the 1.00 note, I again contacted the owner of the 1.00 note about purchasing, but we could not come to an mutual agreement so there I was, one note away from completion of the multis, frustrated but determined to finish this set. Then out of nowhere another 481/4 1.00 comes up for auction on ebay. It was a "buy now" and it had been bid on before I was aware of it being available. Again I missed that last note needed, you talk about being frustrated, I was really dejected. However a few days later this note was offered to me through another source and I was able to purchase the last note needed. It now resides in a fine southern collection and I finally completed the FIRST set of Multi-Printings assembled by one collector. It has been a real challenge with all the ups and downs to complete this set but it has also been an very exciting and learning experience. I would like to thank all those who supported and helped along the way with putting this collection together, it would not have been possible without your considerations. ============================================== Editorial ----------------------------------------------- It was exciting to uncover (some/most?) of the secrets of MPC multi printings. It was fun to look for examples of the various printings for my own collectoin. I was also surprised at the speed and enthusiasm with which the collecting community climbed on board the multi train. When we first started working on the multi data, I was not sure than any one collector would ever assemble a full collection of multies. Of course at that point there were far more questions than answers. It is exciting to see the first collection completed and several others on the verge. It is wonderful! ============================================== Mail Call ----------------------------------------------- Dear Gramsters, I don't know who in the London Chapter aside from myself who gets the Gram, so, for info on Congress, renamed The World Paper Money Fair. October 6/7 at TUC Congress Centre, Great Russell Street, London, near British Museum. Free admission on Sat 10.30am Free admission on Sun 10am IBNS members early admisson 9am £10 non members £15. Preceded Thursday by Phillips Auction Preceded Friday by Spinks Auction Thursday night, IBNS meeting and small bourse, in conjunction with Bond & Share Society at Victory Services Club, Edgware Road, London. IBNS 40th Gala Dinner on Saturday night - a worthy event to atttend - we have a superb buffet laid on at Jury's Hotel, next door to TUC. You do have to confirm to Laurence Pope your place as it is limited. Usual large selection of International dealers at the World Paper Money Fair. Regards Pam Dear Gram, For Joe Boling - 25 dinar notes of Iraqi - You have to read the IBNS Journal more carefully. You are talking about the "blurry" notes produced in Saudi Arabia very early in the war. I illustrated and translated the four notes in Volume 33, No. 2, 1994. Because these note were frowned upon by our Saudi allies, very few are offered for sale. I have seen the set of four for about $100 from time to time. That is going to seem outrageous since the very common six propaganda banknotes produced by our PSYOP forces in Turkey can be bought for a fraction of that price. Herb F. Dear Herb, You are right, it was a 25 dinar note, not a 20 as I said in my column - I was looking at the Arabic numerals 2-5 and reading the second as a zero (which is what it looks like, of course). But you have to forgive me for not remembering a seven-year-old article. The fact remains that I had not seen this note before. But you talk about it appearing "gray rather than green." There was not a hint of green in the one I saw at the coin club meeting - it was brown and red or maroon. So, are we talking about the same note? And, back to the basic question - do you have a singleton of this issue available for me? Joe ================================================ Departments ------------------------------------------------- Calendar of events for Gramsters maintained by Howard Daniel, Nancy and John Wilson and Gram staff, last updated September 7, 2001 show reports are requested on all events. Even if it was not a great show, there must be something to report. What and whom did you see? Market activity? Share your observations and thoughts with Gramsters everywhere. ---------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- 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 Steve Feller Harold Kroll R. A. Medina Guido Crapanzano David Seelye Leo May Warner Talso Marv Mericle Mark Watson ==================================================== 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 distribution manager - Brad Peacock bp22@swbell.net 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. __________________________________________________ Terrorist Attacks on U.S. - How can you help? Donate cash, emergency relief information http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/US/Emergency_Information/