From: "MPCgram" To: Subject: MPC Gram 613 Date: Saturday, May 04, 2002 9:58 PM ============================================== MPC Gram ============================================== Covering the entire World of Military Numismatics ---------------------------------------------- Series 003-Number 613, Saturday, May 4, 2002 Great MPC in Chicago II By Fred Schwan Currency Auctions of America (CAA) is selling an important group of MPC at its May show in Chicago. We have known about this for at least a few weeks. A short notice appeared in the Bank Note Reporter and a few days ago in the Gram. The listings for the auction appeared Monday on the Heritage (parent of CAA) website (www.heritagecoin.com/auctions). To say that I was surprised is an understatement. This is far more than a group. It is a collection—and a good one at that. I am quite sure that the material was submitted by a small group of people rather than a single collector, but it is nonetheless a very nice collection! Basically, we knew that the sale was going to include a large group of Series 651 50c pieces (111!) and two fabulous specimen sets. We (I) did not know that a high-grade regular issue set and over 30 replacements would also be included! Wow. I spent Monday evening studying the replacements. Most have been reported and are in the inventory list in the new MPC book, but a few were not reported and a few others were missing data such as position number and condition. Therefore it was good (and fun) to be able to fill in some of those holes in the survey. Actually (beware, this is a plug) we like to have reports of notes that are in the survey for purposes of confirmation. Unfortunately when we started the survey, we did not keep the date of each report. We keep that information now and we also keep the dates when each replacement has been verified by an independent report. There was a little humor in the replacement catalog. One lot includes a circulated Series 541 5 and 10c replacement. The illustrations of these notes are overlapped. All of this make sense because the notes are certainly not rare. The humor is that the 5 cent overlaps the 10 cent so that the serial number of the latter does not show. That is all that matters and it is covered! What a hoot. While this sounds like a criticism, and I guess it is, overall the cataloging is very well done. There are no great rarities in the replacements, but with over thirty different there must be some good ones. The best one is probably the Series 611 $10. I could hardly believe it when the survey showed 19 reported. This replacement appears much less frequently than that report would indicate. I expect strong competition for this replacement. Heck, I expect good competition on most of the reps. On the whole, the regular issue collection is better than the May notes (no the 591 $10 that was the surprise star of the May sale is not uncirculated as it was there). This is a very nice collection. Frankly, I have not looked at most of these pieces yet because it is too slow to study them on line. I am really looking forward to the printed catalog! The 651 fractionals certainly are an amazing. For someone who lived through the times when we just assumed that no 651 fractionals existed, it is amazing just to see them. Initially, the report was that all 111 pieces would be in one lot. Well, that was not done. They appear in several lots with from one to ten or so pieces per lot. Here is what the catalog says about the very first lot of 651 50 cent certificates: Series 651 50c Gem New. This is the lowest serial-number note from this incredible offering of 111 pieces. The serial number of this note ends in -699, and it is the only note from its pack (the "600 pack"). The great majority of the MPC notes in this run are from the 700 pack, and the highest number from the entire group ends in -861. Estimating these notes is a challenge, as their appearance on the market will clearly change the existing price-structure. Up to this point, with only a handful of 651 50c notes known, they traded at about $500 for well-circulated examples, and realized upwards of $1000 for pristine pieces. Clearly, these desirable MPC notes will fall short of those prices. And the experts that we have spoken to predict that the new price will be somewhere around $300. We'll be conservative and venture our guesstimate for singles at . . . Est. 250-up. The real highlight of the sale is two lots of specimen notes. They are complete sets of Series 641 and 661. These sets were reported indirectly many years ago, but were not confirmed until a few months ago. From that first report, we infer that these two sets have not changed hands in at least two decades. These sets are interesting for many reasons besides the obvious. First and foremost, they are not mounted in a booklet and appear to never have been so mounted. However, they have been mounted somewhere, possibly a scrapbook, because they all have glue stains. Obviously, these are two interesting items. On the one hand it is amazing that such an important “collection” would come onto the market so soon after the Leo May sale, but on the other hand it is not surprising. After all, success breeds imitation. Once the May/Knight sale was finished it was altogether likely that more MPC would show up in the market and probably at auction. It is likely that there will also be more in other sales soon! I expect that there will be lots more about this sale in the Gram in the next few weeks and of course after the sale too! I will be at the sale and will not only render a report, I will try to coordinate a Gram Extra to go out within a few minutes of the close of the MPC section. ============================================== Editorial ---------------------------------------------------- Well the situation has gotten real mixed up here at Gram HQ. As Phil explained, Doug is out of town so our mailing connection has been broken. The substitute system is not working nearly as well. Phil sent the draft yesterday for me to send, but it did not go out correctly as you certainly noticed. I was and am at a loss to how to send the Gram out. This morning when I sent 612 out, I elected to eliminate some of the standing features that lost their format in transmission to me. Hopefully, you at least receive the bulk of the important editorial material today and tomorrow we will be back to the “old system.” ============================================= Mail Call ---------------------------------------------- Dear Gram, I was interested to read the review of the M*A*S*H episonde about the conversion. I have seen the conversion episode once, I think. The description hardly sounds familiar, but then my memory is not what it used to be. My point today is that the episode is the result of a keen MPC collector! Edd (yes, two Ds) Page submitted the story idea to the producers. Furthermore he is acknowledged at the end in the scrolling credits. I believe that he was also paid something like $200 for the idea AND for lending the show a 611 $1 for use as a model. Edd also received a few of the MASH dollars and one is illustrated on page 185 of the MPC book where Edd is again given credit. Is there any MPC topic about which I do not have a story? Thanks for a great issue of the Gram! Fred =================================================== 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 – ski@prodigy.net critic: Harold Kroll – HARBONS@aol.com scholarship coordinator – Marcus Turner maturner@indy.rr.com fact checker: Warner Talso 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!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.yahoo.com