The Planchet
A Publication of theIndianapolis Coin Club
April 2009 Issue 503

The next meeting will be Monday,
April 27th 2009
The Meetings of the Indianapolis Coin Club are held
the fourth Monday of each month at theNorthside Knights of Columbus
2100 E. 71st Street in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Meetings consist of a business session, an intermission, educational program,and a numismatic auction. Doors open at 6:00pm, meeting will begin at 7:00pm.

This Months Discussion Topic
The economy and the coin market.

2009 Meeting Dates:
Apr. 27th
May 25thJune 22nd
July 27th
Aug. 24th
Sept. 28thOct. 26thNov. 23rd
December is our banquet there is no meeting.

$$$$ “ALWAYS BUYING” $$$$

VINTON G. DOVE

PAYING TOP PRICES FOR ALL U.S.
COINS

Certified Public Accountant
Collecting U.S. Coins Since 1952

DON’T SELL WITHOUT GETTING OUR OFFER!!!

LARRY HYLTONBROWNSBURG, IN

ANA, ISNA-LM, CSNS-LM 443 Wellington Road(317) 852-8458

Indianapolis, IN 46260(317) 257-1906
Fax( 317) 257-2220

Jim Fuson
Retired Teacher & Coach
ADVERTISE IN THE ICC NEWSLETTER!
Collector of old U.S. Coins
And old Sports Cards
Also have some coins and cards for sale

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ad for 12 issues!
The Monthly Planchet is the official publication of the Indianapolis
Coin Club. It is published monthly in Indianapolis, Indiana. All
inquiries should be sent to ICC, P.O. Box 2897, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46206.

Table Of Contents
The 2009 Indianapolis Coin Club
Officers and Board Members
Letter From the President

President
Vice-President
Secretary
Treasurer
EditorPast President
Sgt-at-Arms
Board Member 2009-2010
Board Member 2009-2010
Board Member 2009-2010
Board Member 2008-2009
Board Member 2008-2009
Board Member 2008-2009

Matt Dinger
Advertisers
Jim Roehrdanz Article
Treasurer's Report
Vinton Dove
Secretarys Report
Don King
Matt Dinger
Mark Eberhardt
Jim Warden
Dave Reid
Bob Bettcher
Don WrayJim Fuson
Charles Alber
Don King

Page 1Page 2
Page 5
Page 4
Page 3

March 23, 2009 - Minutes of the Indianapolis Coin Club Meeting.
Open - The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Club President Matt Dinger. For thesecond month in a row, thirty-five people signed the attendance book. We met at the Northside Knights of Columbus Hall, 2100 East 71st Street.
Visitors – Tom Kellen and Steve Murray were introduced.
The Treasurer’s report and the Secretary’s report were accepted as reported in the newsletter.
Old Business – None.
New Business – Chuck Knapp reported finding what turned out to be a 1795 Cent, which hebought in a “junk box” for a very small price. It was a very rare variety (S-79) and he sold it
for a very large price. Congrats!! Way to go, Chuck!
As President of ISNA, Vinton Dove read a list of upcoming Coin Shows put on by member
clubs of ISNA, and encouraged everyone to attend.
Jim Goaziou, Life Member of the Club, reported that he has obtained space for the Club in thedisplay cases of the Central Library for the months of April and May, 2009. Jim asked formembers of the Club to furnish coins and other numismatic materials for the display areas topromote numismatics and advertize the Club. Several members volunteered.
The Educational Program – Joe Boling, ANA Board member and ICC member, who collects and is very knowledgeable about counterfeit notes and bills, gave a most informative talkon genuine and counterfeit Confederate States Notes and provided a large number of examples
of both the genuine and counterfeit examples. He also displayed a book about ConfederateState Notes, (those issued by the States of the Confederacy,) and spoke about them. Several of
the Club members participated in a discussion on the subject.
After the break, the 50/50 Drawing was run by Don King.
Auction – After the break, Joe Boling ran the Auction. It was great fun and most of the lots
sold. Bob Bettcher, and Vinton Dove assisted.
The club adjourned at 8:35 PM.
Vinton Dove, Secretary

April Auction Highlights!
1996 Slver Eagle
145 Silver Certificate Wholesale Lot

If you would like to have your items included please make sure to EMail Matt at least a weekprior to the meeting at matt@ldrcoins.com

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Military Collectibles

The Barber Half Dollar
By Keith Scott

Barber Half Dollar, once know as the “Liberty Head Half”, was minted from 1892 to 1915. In 1887,Mint Director James P. Kimball noted in his annual report the “inferiority of our coinage” compared toother advanced nations and that in his opinion, the coinage of the U.S. was out of date and should bechanged. At the request of Kimball, Senator Justin S. Morill introduced a bill authorizing the Treasury
Department to redesign coins without first obtaining the permission of Congress, as long as the current
design had been in use for at least 25 years. The bill passed on September 26, 1890 and the dime, quarter and half dollar were targeted for change. The decision of who should redesign the coins eventually
fell to his successor, Edward O. Leech.
Ironically, new designs were submitted by Mint engravers throughout the early 1880’s but the onlychange that occurred was a new nickel designed by Charles E. Barber in 1883. In 1891, when there wasdiscussion of a public competition for new designs. Barber reported to Mint director Kimball that there
was no one in the country capable in assisting him in preparing original designs. Augustus SaintGaudens confided to Kimball there were only four men in the world competent do to such a redesign:
three were in France and he was the fourth. It did not matter. Kimball insisted that rather than goingabroad to find the best design talent available, it would be possible to find able designers in America.
Against the advice of Barber, the Treasury Department organized a competition to produce new designs. A panel of 10 of the leading artist and sculptors of the day were commissioned to judge which
would be the best designs for new coinage. The panel met and instead of discussing the competition,
they instead rejected the terms of the competition as proposed by Mint officials on the ground that thepreparation time was too short and the compensation woeful. The Mint director rejected the panels’ suggestions and threw the competition out to the public. The results were disastrous. Of the more than 300
drawings submitted, only two received an honorable mention by a smaller judging panel. It is interesting to note that two of the judges were Barber and Saint-Gaudens.
When Leech took over as Mint director, he was well aware of the problems his predecessor had experienced. In order to get new designs into production and avoid another disaster of a competition, he simply directed Barber to draw up new designs. This is what Barber had wanted all along has he felt as
Chief Engraver, he, and he alone was responsible for coin design.
The result was not much in the way of originality. That would have to wait for more than another 25years. What Barber did was to modify the large head used on the Morgan dollar by adding a Liberty capand cropping Liberty’s hair shorter in back. She is also facing the opposite direction of the dollar. He
then placed his initial B on the truncation of the neck. This was the design used not only on the half dollar, but the new dime and quarter as well.
The reverse of the coin depicts the Great Seal of the United States and shows an eagle with outstretchedwings, holding an olive branch with thirteen leaves in its right claw and a shear of 13 arrows in its left.
There is a ribbon with the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM being held in the eagle’s beak and 13 stars arein the field.
The half dollar was introduced in 1892 just as the new dime and quarter were. In 1916, no half dollars
were produced and the Barber coinage would give way to a whole new era of coin designs. During thetotal run of 24 years, just fewer than 136 million Barber halves were produced with no mint producing
more than 6 million in any given year. It is interesting to note, that in the first year of the Kennedy half,over 400 million were produced, more than double in one year than the entire series of the Barber half.