Status: U Return-Path: Received: from web12705.mail.yahoo.com ([216.136.173.242]) by osgood.mail.mindspring.net (Earthlink Mail Service) with SMTP id tt09uh.t3r.37kbi1v for ; Fri, 19 Oct 2001 09:17:05 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <20011019131703.21955.qmail@web12705.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [129.1.31.28] by web12705.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Fri, 19 Oct 2001 06:17:03 PDT Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 06:17:03 -0700 (PDT) From: MPCgram Subject: MPCGram 463/3 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 463 Friday, October 19, 2001 An AMAZING Conclusion by Joe Boling Well, since my column for 9 October did not get published until the 15th, I have not received any feedback from you readers yet. I did note that I made two errors in that column, to wit: Referring to the curved line entering the base of the first N in England of the watermark, the sentence "The other alleged Bernhard pieces I have seen have it only modestly offset to the left" should have said "The genuine pieces I have seen have it only modestly offset to the left." The point here is that the Bernhard piece I bought that I thought was good has that line almost all the way off of the base of the N to the left, much farther offset than the genuine pieces I examined in London. The other error was that I misspelled Bryan Burke's name (as Brian Bruce), the author of one of the principal books on Operation Bernhard. Now that I am home and have that book at hand, I see that the reference to "St. James" notes at the end of my previous column probably should have referred to "Operation Andrew" notes. Operation Andrew was a predecessor to operation Bernhard, and also created passable white notes. It's possible that my 10 pound note with the watermark line far to the left is an Operation Andrew note. One other oddity appeared in last week's column: each use of the symbol for "pound" was preceded by a capital A, as if I were talking about Australian pounds. That is an artifact of the special character for sterling being brought over to ASCII in the email submission. Having studied the illustrations in the Burke book, with four counterfeits and two genuine notes, I find no printed feature to be more reliable than the one that I mentioned last week - the small nipple coming off of the leaf at the lower right of Britannia. What interests me more is that, even though we have always talked about the Sachsenhausen counterfeiters duplicating the "engraving" of these notes, and the word "engraving" is used extensively in discussions of them, the notes were actually printed by letterpress, not intaglio. You can see this under a microscope and by looking at the photos of the reconstructed plates in the Burke book. Let's hear some reports of the notes you readers are holding. ============================================== Editorial ----------------------------------------------- I find it an eleytryinging conclusion that the Bank of England "white" notes were printed by letterpress rather than intaglio. Joe and I have exchanged several letters on this and remains steadfast in his conclusion. First, I must comment on two statements made by Joe. What we collectors, authors, and other have called the processes does not have anything to do with the matter. Furthermore, I would not be at all surprised that many/most people in the above groups would get the terminology wrong. The technology used by the counterfeiters has little to do with proving what was done at the Bank of England. Yes, Joe, I know that especially for Bernhard, the counterfeiters wanted to basically duplicate/recreate the notes rather than simply imitate (closely) the notes as more counterfeiters do. However, having said all of this, these points mean nothing if examination of genuine notes shows them to have been printed by letterpress. Not only has Joe done this, there are few better than he at making such an assessment so for the moment, I will accept his analysis, but I am still skeptical that we are overlooking something. After writing the above, I decided that I really should be able to find an answer to the question of printing technology of the English white notes. As part of the recent trip to England, I visited the Bank of England museum. Coincidentally, there currently is a special exhibition on counterfeiting. I consulted the free hand out from the museum "Forgery, the Artful Crime." The fortunate part is not so much that this is a great resource, but that becuase I have only had it about two weeks, I could still find it! The pamphlet actually provides some good and nearly conclusive information. The white note design was introduced in 1855 and included two important characteristics. One was the intricate watermark. The other was the LETTERPRESS technology used! Further discussion through WWII is not nearly as explicit, but it seems that the same technology was used. The discussion includes some very interesting observations. The major problem with English notes (and probably most others also) before 1855 according to this article was an almost inherent inconsistency in an issue. Since any sample of even the same issue and denomination could be expected to have variations, how was one to tell an acceptable variation in a genuine note from an unacceptable one in a counterfeit? Here is the solution as described by the Bank of England in the Pamphlet. "The new notes, however, were printed from electrotypes, and as new plates could be produced ad infinitum from a single master (which unlike the Plate Transfer Press method suffered no wear in the process) the new notes were uniform." Wow, this was an argument that letterpress was superior to intaglio at least for manufacturing large quantities of notes. I tip my hat to Joe for his analysis. I also think that we have more to learn and think about here. ======================================= Mail Call ----------------------------------------------- Dear Gramsters, I see that the "USA today" article about propaganda in Afghanistan has come to my doorstep for the second time in a duplicate MPCGram. By coincidence, we did take military action yesterday. I am happy to say that I did predict that we would probably drop small radios to the illiterate peasantry, and according to CNN that is exactly what we did. Perhaps I will buy a lottery ticket today. From CNN - "The United States planned to drop some 37,000 pre-packaged meals and medicines in the first stages of the operation, he said, though he refused to speculate how much of that might actually reach the people for whom it is intended. Aid packages were also to include leaflets asking people to remain in their villages, and small, transistor radios." Herb Freieman Dear Editor, Yesterday I received two Series 002-Number454. Today I received Two 455/3 which read surprisingly like 454 -- identical. Please do not charge me for the extras. Bill Murray MPC GRAM Ed: I did not receive MPC Gram 458/???. Can you please resend it? Thanks. Don Bailey ================================================ 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. ---------------------------------------------------- Special "MPC" events 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, Nick Schrier, Tom Koch, Mark Watson, Bill Yanchick, Doug Bell, Sam Feeback, Bruce Potter, Elmer Smith, Marv Mericle, Fred Schwan {running total 19}] 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, 2002) --------------------------------------------------- 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 Leo May Warner Talso Marv Mericle Mark Watson Gail Baker ==================================================== 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 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. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals. http://personals.yahoo.com