============================================== T man on Eisenhower's Staff ==============================================
============================================== * * *
* * *
* * *
* So what happened to the special article on Series 591? I thought
we were going to get a specialist's writeup on each series as its gram number
rolled around. Since I don't print the grams, color or bold are not an issue.
But since I get them over AOL, I will not see either the color or the bold
anyway. * * *
* * *
* * *
* Please add me to the list of MPC Fest IV attendees. Looking
forward to seeing everyone there! * * *
* * *
* * *
* Hi! ==============================================
ANA Seminar: 29 June to 5 July 2003 CPMX 9: 20 - 23 February, $$ = Paid ===================================================
Donors to 2002 Scholarship Fund: Dave Amey
Gail
Baker
Keith
and Sue Bauman Ort Cowles FOR SALE BNR Press or PayPal using email: fredschwan@yahoo.com ===================================================
===================================================
MPC Gram
==============================================
Covering the entire World of Military Numismatics
----------------------------------------------
Series 003 - Number 599
Friday - 18 APRIL 2002
___________________
__319 days to Fest IV__
part II submitted and
annotated by Fred Schwan
Comments by Schwan included in square brackets
[].
Well, this legal staff, as I say, was
constantly formulating programs which would both protect assets
of those we
considered our friends and make things difficult for the Axis powers in the
fields of finance and
economics. For example, at one time when Hitler was
taking over 25 million dollars worth of gold that belonged to the Czech National
Bank, we prepared a little plan to try and prevent that gold from coming into
the World Market and make funds available to Hitler. In April 1945 we found the
gold in a salt mine in the middle of Germany.
In April 1940, the Germans invaded
Denmark and Norway. We had another one of these meetings in the
Secretary's
office that was typical when a crisis in the world arose. At the meeting there
were officials from the State Department, Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury
to consider financial and economic matters that we might engage in view of the
Nazi invasion. As usual, I had taken the old documents that had been drafted and
rewrote them to apply to Denmark and Norway. I had the documents all prepared,
the Executive Order, the Treasury Regulations, the instructions to the Federal
Reserve Banks, etc., a whole sheaf of papers in a folder. There they were, all
we really had to do was to take them out of a safe in the General Counsel's
office, make them applicable to the current situation a we had a set of
documents ready for signature. The discussion went on almost all day in the
Secretary's office as to what to do and how to do it. I think the consensus was
that we have to take measures to protect assets in the United States belonging
to Danish nationals and Norwegian nationals. One group thought we could do it in
a sort of voluntary manner by giving some guidance to the banks. The other
group, led by Secretary Morgenthau, said that this could only be done by
executive order and regulations to apply uniformly to all banking institutions
and anyone else who held any kind of property in which Danes or Norwegians had
an interest. It would also be necessary to have a regulatory system in which you
permitted some transactions and you didn't permit other transactions, and you
got reports and so on.
At around 5
o'clock on April 10, 1940, Secretary Morgenthau picked up the telephone from the
wall back of his desk, called the President, very briefly summarized the views
that had been expressed at the meeting, and in almost less time than it's been
taking me to make this statement the President told the Secretary to send over
the Executive Order for the President to sign. That night we issued Executive
Order 8389 and the Treasury Regulation. That was the beginning of the Foreign
Funds Control system. This program got to be applied to every country as that
country was overrun. Then it got to be applied on a broader scale.
That legislation was enacted by the
Congress on May 7, 1940. The German invasion of Holland and Belgium took place
on May 10, 1940. That gives an idea of the degree of cooperation between the
President and Congress in a time of crisis and the prompt recognition by the
Congress, as well as by the administration, of the necessity of protecting all
the assets in the United States belonging to nationals of the countries being
overrun and of foiling Hitler's efforts to use these assets for his aggressive
purposes. Of course, the freezing control program was extended to Belgium,
Holland and Luxembourg upon the commencement of the invasion by Germany.
The invasion of the low countries
took about five days. As soon as the invasion started the Dutch came to the
Treasury and asked could we do anything to help them with these vast amounts of
securities and values that they had in Holland. The American foreign funds
control was being applied basically to assets in the United States.
On Sunday night a meeting was called
at the residence of Secretary Morgenthau. There were Treasury, State Department
and Federal Reserve people there. I had prepared a plan and had worked on it
with Adolph Berle, who was at the time Assistant Secretary of State. Basically
the idea was that the Dutch Government would go into its banks, open up the
vaults, open up the safe deposit boxes, take out all of the securities, anything
of value, money, etc., and make lists and affidavits of what was taken out. Our
consuls over there would verify the lists and affidavits and these valuables
would be destroyed and not allowed to fall into German hands. The currency would
be destroyed, the securities would be destroyed, etc. This was applying for the
first time the scorched earth policy to money and securities and comparable
valuables.
There was a long meeting
that night at the Secretary's home. All of the representatives of the United
States Government strongly supported the plan. The Dutch were very tense. Not
only was the Dutch ambassador present but he had with him some of his
colleagues, including a lawyer who made a good impression. He was a tall,
imposing looking man, able, and spoke English well. The Dutch said they would
have to take it up with their government. The lawyer's name I think was von
Saher. He came to my office the following Tuesday morning to say that the Dutch
Government was unable to go ahead with the proposed program. He then broke down
in tears. Within another 24 or 48 hours the fighting was over--the Germans had
overrun Holland.
The next great step
in foreign funds control was in about June 1941. We had been arguing for a year
at the Treasury that the foreign funds control should be applied to all of
Europe, to Germany and to Italy, Russia, everybody in Europe, and should be used
not only as a defensive instrument, to protect the assets in the United States,
but as a strongly offensive instrument to try and interfere with Hitler's plans
in which he used money and financial assets to wage his war.
The State Department had opposed
this all the time. Interestingly enough I saw in Acheson's book that, Acheson
was sympathetic to our view all the time, but he was overruled at the State
Department. It wasn't until June 1941 that foreign funds control was applied to
all of Europe.
Incidentally, I think
it's interesting to note that when Russia invaded and occupied the three Baltic
countries, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, we just automatically applied the
foreign funds control to those three countries and wouldn't allow the Russians
to touch the assets in the United States belonging to nationals of those three
countries. We treated the Soviet Union exactly the same way as we treated Nazi
Germany, in terms of protecting assets in the United States of nationals of
countries that were overrun. There was just no question about it. I prepared the
documents; they were approved by the various divisions in the Treasury; the
Secretary and the President signed the documents, and the documents were issued.
We also began in June 1941, as I said, the great census of foreign-owned
assets. There was very extensive and painstaking preparation for it, and
preparation of the forms and instructions. With the help of the Federal Reserve
system and the banking system of the United States, we obtained this information
which was invaluable to us and to our allies.
There was a very famous press
conference, a conference that President Roosevelt held in I think December of
1940, in which he first developed the lend-lease idea. He said in substance that
when your neighbor's house is on fire, you lend him your hose, you don't ask him
a price for it, and you just let him use your hose. The President said that is
what we have got to work out, to help Britain and France and the other
democracies. Again he turned to Morgenthau for some ideas. Morgenthau turned to
Ed Foley, his General Counsel. Ed Foley, Oscar Cox and I sat down and worked
almost over a two-day period and produced a draft of the lend-lease bill that
came to be known as HR-1776.
I think
Arthur Krock sometime in 1943 had a column in the New York Times in which he has
the story of the origin of this lend-lease legislation, and mentioned various
names, including names I just stated, and how the President got all the
departments concerned to review it immediately. Dean Acheson, who at this time
was in private practice, was called in by Morgenthau to assist on the proposed
legislation, reviewing it and tightening it up. Colonel Stimson, the Secretary
of War, reviewed the bill. The State Department, of course, reviewed the plan
and a lend-lease bill was presented to Congress. This was another product of the
Treasury and of the Treasury Legal Division and a result of this unusual
relationship between the President of the United States and the Secretary of the
Treasury, and the encouragement that the President and the Secretary of the
Treasury gave to new ideas, to creativity, to new approaches to the solution of
problems. However, I feel bound to say that in all fairness the real credit for
lend-lease belongs to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
You can understand that I may be a
little biased about Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was a great force in the world and
in my life. I remember a few years ago at a dinner meeting at Columbia Law
School I said I felt that he was the greatest man who lived in my lifetime. It
was obviously a marvelous experience and a wonderful opportunity to work in his
administration.
For a good while,
the Treasury had an active hand in the administration of the lend-lease program.
I myself didn't work on it, I was working so much on the foreign funds control
and other international financial matters. Oscar Cox was working on lend-lease a
good deal as well as the Secretary and Ed Foley. Then lend-lease was lifted out
of the Treasury and set up as a separate administration. I think it was first
turned over to Hopkins to run and I think Oscar Cox was a big driving force in
the development of the lend-lease administration. But Secretary Morgenthau was
the one who sat on top of the problem of how were the British and the French
going to pay for purchases in the U.S., and he drove a tough bargain in
protecting American interests. He made the British sell their securities in some
big American companies in which the British had a big direct investment.
Morgenthau, with the backing of the President, forced the sale to produce cash
to pay for war supplies that we were selling to the British.
But the impact of that program was
greatly to stimulate war production in the United States at a time when our war
production situation was very weak. I think that men like Secretary Stimson and
General [George C.] Marshall give credit to Morgenthau and to the friendship
between Morgenthau and President Roosevelt for the stimulation of the war
production facilities in the United States in the period of 1939 to 1941. When
we got into the war in December 1941 war production was moving ahead and we did
not have to start from a standstill.
Well, throughout this period we were
working closely with Latin-American countries. We had a conference with all the
Latin-American countries to persuade them to adopt a financial and economic
control program comparable to our program. Of course, we knew there were a great
deal of Nazi German and Japanese interests down there that were working against
us, and trying to get goods and supplies and financing to aid the Japanese and
German war machines. We were eager to stop such things and it took a lot of hard
work. A considerable amount of progress was made.
[In this part and
future parts we see many hidden actions of the Treasury Department beyond
creating and selling bonds and printing various monies. Of course I wonder if we
will ever find numismatic (or other) documents relating to these actions so that
we can add them to our collections. Recently, documents have been found relating
to securities held in Switzerland during the war. I believe that these have been
discussed here in the Gram, but if they have not, they will be. In the Swiss
case, certificates were attached to the securities making a numismatic World War
II item. I love it.]
EDITORIAL
The above letter marks a milestone in Gram history: This is
Fred's first contribution as a weekly columnist! Now that he has some spare time
on his hands, as I run things here at the gram, I did to him, what he liked to
us: "Right an article!" I gave up Phil's Phridays, as I usually pull
something from my experiences and use that to fill in on days with no regular
column.. It didn't seem right for me to have a regular column AND fill in
the off days. (Besides, I would run out of things to right about
quicker!)
MAIL
CALL
I received two issues of MPCGram 597. I only read one,
so don't suppose I have to pay for two, but if useful to you, I did get two.
Bill
Joe
Warner Talso
I have been collecting and dealing in coins, paper money,
stamps, and related items 40 years. Using "black lights" and "UV lights" one can
find "stamps" as well as "paper money" come in "experimental" as well as just a
variety of papers. When using a "Black Light" on my MPC, I noticed that series
#641 fractionals as well as "ALL OF" series #651 and some of the fractionals of
series #692 come on "High Bright Paper!" In stamps, this can change the value
and is considered a different variety. I also have a "lone" series #461
$10, 'not from the pack of 100 that was broken up in the 70-80's', that exhibits
this quality! I have about 5-20 of most all notes in CU I used to compare,
except the rarer issues. I noticed this paper variety on as many as half the
notes in a given group from series #641 fractionals and a few of #692
fractionals I can't explain why I only have seen one "lone series #461 $10" on
this "high bright paper" as no other notes exhibit this quality until the 600
series. Does anyone else collect or study these varieties???
Guy Araby!
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
2002
W.W. II
numismatics seminar at ANA Summer Seminar, July 2002
Session I
Session II (Sunday, 7 July
through Thursday, 11 July, 2002)
general events will return
WESPMEX: 27 - 28 July
Westchester Paper Money
Exposition - 175 Dealers
Westchester County Center, White Plains, NY
WESPMEX: 11 - 13 October
Westchester Paper Money
Exposition - 100 Dealers
Westchester County Center, White Plains, NY
WESPMEX: 29 November - 1 December
Westchester
Paper Money Exposition - 160 Dealers
Westchester County Center, White
Plains, NY
MPC Fest
IV: 28 Feb - 2 March, Port Clinton, OH
Jack Lippincot, Kevin Maloy, Leo May$$, Fred
Schwan, David Seelye, Nick Shrier, Larry Smulczenski,
Warner Talso,
Marcus Turner, Tom Warburton
ANA: 19-22 March, Charlotte, NC
SCHOLARSHIP DONATIONS
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
or contact
Marcus at:
maturner@indy.rr.com
Guido
Crapanzano
Howard
A. Daniel, III
Steve
Feller
Gary
Hicks
Ed Hoffman
Harold
Kroll
Tim
Kyzivat
R.
A. Medina
Leo May
Marv
Mericle
Mr.
691
David
Seelye
Joel Shafer
Neil Shafer
Warner
Talso
Mark
Watson
John & Nancy Wilson
Bill
Yanchick
===================================================
POST / BASE EXCHANGE (PX/BX/NEX)
471/1 10 Dollars
xf-au
481/4
5 Cents
ch cu
481/1
10 Cents cu
481/1 25 Cents
cu
481/2 50
Cents ch cu
481/3 1 Dollar
gem
481/1
5 Dollars au
481/2 10 Dollars
cu
521/2 5
Cents cu
521/3 10 Cents
cu
521/1 25
Cents cu
521/1
50 Cents cu
521/1 1 Dollar
gem
521/1
5 Dollars gem
521/1 10 Dollars
ch au-unc
541
5 Cents
ch cu
541
10 Cents
ch cu
541
25 Cents
cu
541
50 Cents
cu
(leo may)
541
1 Dollar
cu
541
5 Dollars
vf
(leo may)
541
10 Dollars
au
591
5 Cents
cu
591
10 Cents
ch cu
591
25 Cents
cu
(leo may)
591
50 Cents
cu
591
1 Dollar
cu
591
5 Dollars
cu
(sold as ch cu)
591
10 Dollars
gem
611
5 Cents
ch cu
611
10 Cents
ch cu
611
25 Cents
ch cu
611
50 Cents
ch cu
611
1 Dollar
cu
611
5 Dollars
gem
611
10 Dollars
unc
641/3 5
Cents ch cu
641/1 10 Cents
ch cu
641/3 25
Cents ch cu
641/3 50 Cents
cu
641/1 1
Dollar ch cu
641/3 5 Dollars
cu
641/3
10 Dollars cu
651 5,10,25,50 Cents cu
651 1 Dollar
cu
651
5 Dollars
ch cu
651
10 Dollars
cu
661
5 Cents
ch cu
661
10 Cents
ch cu
661
25 Cents
ch cu
661
50 Cents
ch cu
661
1 Dollar
ch cu
661
5 Dollars
ch cu
661
10 Dollars
ch cu
661
20 Dollars
ch cu
681
5 Cents
ch cu
681
10 Cents
ch cu
681
25 Cents
cu
681
50 Cents
ch cu
681
1 Dollar
ch cu
681
5 Dollars
ch cu
681
10 Dollars
cu
681/1 20
Dollars cu
691/1
$1, $5, $10. $20 ch cu
691/2 $1,$5,$10,$20
ch cu
692 5 Cents
cu
692
10 Cents
ch cu
692
25 Cents
ch cu
692
50 Cents
cu
692
1 Dollar
gem
(leo may)
692
5 Dollars
gem
692
10 Dollars
cu
692/1 20
Dollars gem
701/2
$1,$5,$10,$20 ch cu
duplicates:
481/3 - .05 -
ef
481/1 - .05 -
ch.cu
481/1 - .25 -
au
481/1 - .50 -
au
481/1 - .50 -
au
481/2 - .50 -
au
481/1 - 1.00 -
au
481/1 - 1.00 -
vf
481/1 - 10.00 -
xf-au
521/2 - .10 -
ef
521/1 - .25 -
gem
(yellowed paper)
521/1 - .50 -
ch.cu
(yellowed paper)
521/1 - 10.00 -
ef-au
541 - 10.00 -
ef
591 - .05 -
unc
591 - .25 -
au
591 - 5.00 -
au
(leo may/lyn knight, lot below)
591 - .05
unc
591 - .10
unc
591 - .50
au
591 - 1.00
au
641/2 - .05
vf
641/1 - 10.00
au
681 - .05 -
au
681 - .05 -
cu
692 - .05 -
ch.cu
has dog-ears
692 - 1.00 -
unc
with mark on face (planchet)
692 - 1.00 -
unc
with corner fold
692 - 1.00 -
unc
with 2 very small rust stains in margin
(leo may/lyn knight, lot below)
692 - .05
gem
692 - .10
gem
692 - .25
gem
692 - .50
gem
for sale as one lot. please email offers to marianne
ades, mdades@pacbell.net.
Fourth edition Comprehensive Catalog of Military Payment
Certificates by Fred Schwan shipping about March 5. Order yours now:
Standard Edition (400 pages!)
$ 50
Collectors’s Edition (432 pages!)
$ 95
Researcher's Edition (432 page, 46 produced, limited
to availability) $125
All orders plus $4 shipping
per order (NOT per book). Send snail mail payment to:
132 E. Second Street
Port Clinton, OH
43452
WANTED
WANTED
Souvenir Card 'MPC Fest I' from the first MPC Fest. (4/18)
Collector wants All USAFFE and AUSA Free Samar notes All 125th Infantry
Regiment and Markings Guerrilla notes. I am also interested in any and all
Guerilla Municipal issues. (4/18)
WANTED TO
BUY: Bulk quantities of Afghanistan propaganda leaflets or related. (4/18)
Looking for a Series 641 MPC, any denomination
with the serial number J02283151J. (4/18)
MPC CATALOG CORRECTIONS & ENHANCEMENTS
Page 18, Bottom - Users of Military Payment
Certificates
Check marks were omitted from production copies of books.
Please check off the following:
Australia:
641, 661, 681, 692
Canada:
461 through
and including 591
Korea:
641,
661, 681, 692
New Zealand: 641, 661, 681, 692
Thailand:
641, 661, 681, 692
United States: All
Page 207, #833/4 - Series 481 .25 4th
Printing (table listing serial number breakdowns) line 5
Start
Number is incorrect. It appears as:
(start) D14784001D (end)
D14784000D
Correct start number should be: D09408001D
PK6 (date listed: 03 APRIL 2002)
Page
214, #855/r2 - Series 541 $1 Replacements,
Ending serial number is
incorrect
Correct number is F1112000
(date listed: 02
APRIL 2002)
Page 220, #884/2r - Series 641 .50
Replacements
On page 284, it is broken down into 2 printings. That's
correct, BUT, on page 220 he lists only (1) printing reported. It should "list"
both first and second printings.
Guy Araby (date
listed 04 APRIL 2002)
Page 287, Series 661 Series Summary,
25 cent note: the "list" shows "#CU as 10(7) . It should read, 8(7). As only 8
are known in CU. Just recount P.289.
Guy Araby (date
listed 08 APRIL 2002)
Page 398, Series #541 $10 on
"UNC." price is $2500, on P.214 the UNC. price is $3500. Also the rest of
the prices don't match all the way to "VG" on this issue. They should be the
same price.
Guy Araby (date listed 08 APRIL 2002)
Staff:
Publisher:
Fred
Schwan -
MPCGram@yahoo.com
Editor:
Philip
M. Goldstein -
IWANTMYMPC@aol.com
Tuesday
Columnist :
Joe
Boling -
JoeBoling@aol.com
Thurski
Columnist:
Larry
"Ski" Smulczenski - skifla@prodigy.net
Friday Columnist:
Fred
Schwan -
MPCGram@yahoo.com
Critic:
Harold
Kroll -
HARBONS@aol.com
Distribution Manager:
Brad
Peacock -
bp22@swbell.net
Scholarship
Coordinator:
Marcus
Turner -
maturner@indy.rr.com
Fact Checker:
Warner
Talso -
Calendar Coordinator:
John
& Nancy Wilson -
Index & Back Issue Manager:
Ed Beaman -
ebeaman@sprynet.com
Webmaster & Technical Advisors:
Doug Bell "Wiz" -
doug@papermoneyworld.net
Russ
Walsh -
russ.walsh@gte.net
The Boss:
Judy
Schwan -