From: "MPCgram" To: Subject: MPCGram 958 Date: Friday, July 04, 2003 10:51 PM ======================= MPCGram ======================= Series 4 Number 958 July 4, 2003 C-Day!! Allied Fest dinar Series 1944 and 1944A were invalidated by conversion on July 3. Military Fest Certificate (MFC) Series 031 replaced the dinar series. The MFC series was first issued at MPCFest IV in March. The notes issued in Colorado were overprinted with the legend Seminar III and have an ultraviolet stamp MPC that does not appear on the original 031 notes. It is not known at this time if the 031 notes without these extra security features are valid in Colorado, but it is believed that they are not. Financing WarBy Warner Talso Happy 4th of July! In keeping with the spirit of this United States historical holiday, I propose and additional facet to the working definition of a war bond. That is volunteerism. Last week, one of the characteristics was patriotism. Volunteer support is closely related. Recall the movies stars that supported the bond drives during WWII. All of Hollywood was eager to support the war effort by going on tour during the bond drives. Additionally, companies and government offices provided free support. Companies provided (and still do) a free payroll deduction plan. There were high profile drives on pay day to encourage workers to purchase E series bonds. The slogan was "everybody every payday." On the government side, bonds could be purchased in Post Offices. The Savings Bond Division of the Department of Treasury had a large contingent of volunteer workers on the staff at least through 1978. Another WWI program that was revived was the use of savings stamps to encourage and supplement bond sales. The Treasury issued stamps in the amounts of 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents, 1 dollar and 5 dollars. When a buyer had accumulated $18.75 worth of stamps (usually in a booklet for that purpose), the buyer exchanged them for a $25 series E bond. Children were encouraged to save "a dime at a time." Schools had a day of the week designated for stamp sales. An estimated 25 million stamps were sold. Young people volunteered to sell as well as buy stamps. Newspaper carriers at the time ('paper boys") were almost universally young people. They participated in a program to sell stamps initiated in 1941 by the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. About 150,000 carriers, representing 900 different newspapers, sold 1,700,000 each 10 stamps or equivalent in bonds. With this kind of spirit, the series E bond became the most widely held security of all times. ======================= editorial ======================= We are very behind on everything! Among other problems, I could not find a copy of the boiler plate info for the Gram so this is sort of a substitute. Have you tried to call me? I am sorry about that too. It seems that the aquatic qualities of cell phone batteries are not well understood nor documented. On the way to Colorado, my cell phone battery fell directly into my (very hot) coffee. It fried the battery. The coffee then hurt my fingers, stained my clothing (and car seat), and possibly contaminated my internal organs. You did not expect me to waste the coffee did you? The battery is dead and I have not had 12 minutes to search for one here. It has been wonderful, but dreadfully busy here! ========================= mail call ========================= Dear Editor, I see from the last few Grams that the Seminar is going quite well. I would like to know, however, what the requirements are for issuance of a paybook. Must one attend a Fest or will a Mini Fest do, and did any of the events in Memphis qualify as a Mini Fest? Roger Urce Dear Roger, Good question, thank you. Basically, you must attend a major fest event to receive a pay book. So far, major events are MPCFests and Military Money seminars. Of course this is subject to revision as new events are created. Editor Dear Freditor,Hope the seminar and other activities are going well- wish I were there too. I just wanted to add a word about the Philippine meeting at ANA on Aug. 1 since I am very much involved. It is scheduled to last at least several hours as there will be several presentations plus some exhibit items, perhaps an organizational type of session too, who knows what good may come out of all this? So if anyone wants to plan other activities they should be aware that most of Friday afternoon is most likely taken with this PI meeting. Ray Czahor, organizer of the meeting, expects at least 75 in attendance, and probably more by now as that was several weeks ago. In any case I hope a minifest can successfully be held as I would like to attend that too. See you at ANA!Neil S. ===== MPC Gram is published by BNR Press and papermoneyworld.com as a free service to the community of military money collectors. 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