Fest 25 One-Case Exhibits
by Marcus Turner
This year's MPC Fest saw its first attempt at exhibiting. It was not the full-fledged competitive exhibiting like we are used to seeing at ANA and other large shows, rather it was an invitation for festers to utilize a single case to show off their emerging collections. This first attempt resulted in two festers filling up a case:
Fred Schwan filled his case with a collection of US war savings stamps including full panes of 10 cent through $1 denominations. Hopefully Fred will provide some background in his commentary.
The other entry was my recently completed collection of Vichy French Bon de Solidarite donation receipts. I had acquired a couple of the 1 franc pieces from Fred back in the late 1990's as nothing more than a curiosity of these colorful issues. They began to catch my eye on a regular basis as I attended the Maastricht show in the early 2000's. In 2005 at Maastricht, I finally gave in, purchasing a beautiful (and large) 5000 franc piece. Slowly but surely, I filled in the gaps over the years until I needed only the elusive 500 and 1000 franc pieces. Those were finally obtained in February of this year when I bought a complete collection out of France. My intention was to sell off the duplicates but now find myself with a decent starter set of the variations, some serial numbering variations, overprinted pieces and ... It really is a sickness. Now that I have the one-case fest exhibit under my belt, hopefully I can expand it to about 5 or so cases and be ready to exhibit at shows sometime next year.
The Bon de Solidarite program was the French State's (Vichy France) response to the German mandate to privatize/politicize social relief programs similar to Germany's Winterhilf program. Henri-Philippe Petain (leader of the French "rump state") transformed France's Secours National (National Relief program) to help civilians and French POW's being held outside of France, in their struggle against deprivations brought about by war. Fifty million francs were allegedly reattributed to civilians in need, in the space of the four years of the war. As with most of the winterhilf mandated by the German occupiers, the program was plagued by poor accounting and the amount of relief delivered to its intended recipients is largely unknown.
Now that I have the one-case fest exhibit under my belt, hopefully I can expand it to 5 or so cases and be ready to exhibit at shows sometime next year. It really is a great opportunity to share your collection and tell the story of the pieces you are passionate about. Hopefully we will see several more one-case exhibits at Fest 26. Please let Fred know if you would like to participate in 2025.
— Marcus Turner
Commemorative Coins and Medals
by Bill Myers
D-Day is a very common subject for coins and medals. Most are inexpensive but there are some gold issues that are of course more expensive and even some of the inexpensive items can be difficult to locate. We are pleased to add D-Day coins as a feature of the Gram D-Day issue.
Editorial
Joe forwarded to me some interesting information from Dim Litvak who is doing research on Operation Bernhard and other counterfeiting. The info was from 1947 some of it from the New York Times. Most of it was about the case of the "Russian plates" for printing AM marks.
The most interesting part to me was in the very last paragraph which quotes A. W. Hall of the BEP giving the cost of printing the marks. Many years ago I read the war time BEP annual reports so I may have known and forgotten, but I was still pleased to see the information. The total cost was $844,429.52 of which Britain bore half. The cost of material supplied to the USSR was $60,000 which was not billed.
Mail Call
The MPCGram welcomes letters from readers. Letters should be relevant to military numismatics. Letters may be edited. Senders must be known to the Gram and names (actual or "Internet") will be used.
Dear Editor,
I completely enjoyed this D-Day issue. The articles are fantastic. I like the idea of making it a two part issue from now on.
Thanks,
— John C.
Dear Editor,
I was reading the D-Day MPC gram and the picture of General Eisenhower speaking to the 101st airborne before D-Day sparked a memory. There is a D-Day POG. It is 7A5. It is not the same image that Fred had in the gram but is the same location and was probably taken within minutes of Fred's photo. The biggest difference is that Eisenhower has his right arm bent 90 degrees at the elbow on the image on the POG.
— Myers
Dear Gramsters heading to Colorado Springs,
This is my advisory column for persons coming to the ANA Summer Seminar -- what to pack.
As of now, vaccination records and masks will NOT be required for the 2024 Summer Seminar. But it won't hurt to be ready for that to change.
If you are staying in the dorms, you will be provided with bath towels and slivers of soap, but NOT face cloths. If you are one who uses a face cloth to bathe, shower, or shave, bring a couple and a plastic bag to pack the wet one in on the last morning. If you want to use a hand towel for those trips to the sink between showers, bring them also.
Only a very few (or no) hangers are left in the closets when the Colorado College students leave for the summer. Bring a good supply of hangers for your shirts or blouses and trousers.
If you are driving, and want to work at your desk in the evenings, bring a desk lamp. The overhead lights in the dorms are not very bright. Even if you are flying to Colorado, bringing a Tensor lamp (or equivalent) might be possible.
If you are staying off-campus, the last three paragraphs will not apply to you.
If you are planning to make the trip up Pikes Peak, bring a jacket, and maybe a hat. The weather up there is usually very different from what is down below. For the week in the Springs, casual wear. The staff members have been known to castigate folks for appearing in a tie and jacket.
Bring an umbrella -- it is not uncommon to have a thunderstorm every afternoon of the session.
If you will be sunning yourself on the patio (or just playing poker out there in the afternoon), bring sun screen. At 6000 feet elevation, the sun burns much faster than at low elevations.
If you have some numismatic white elephants, consider donating them to the YN auctions. The YN contingent will be soliciting donations of material to be sold (there is a YN auction in each week). Auction lots will be accepted starting at the registration site Saturday, and Sunday evening. Bring your check book also, so that you can buy items from the auction. $50 bottles of water have been known to find new homes during those events. You won't want to miss bidding on that Australian delicacy, Vegemite, should any Aussies show up.
If you are already a fester or a returning seminarian, bring that pay book. The penalties for appearing for pay without a pay book can be severe. Don't forget your challenge coin also, and keep it close by. If you attended Fest XXV, bring your current MFC (Series 241).
Bring both World War II Remembered and the 4th and 5th editions of the MPC Comprehensive Catalog, if you own them. If you do not own them, there may be copies to borrow, but only the 5th edition MPC is still in print.
If you have any military currencies (particularly of the years covered by the seminar class, 1930-date) that are mysteries, bring them. If we can't unravel the mysteries, we will at least get to see your treasures and record them for the next edition of SB. You are welcome to bring as much else of your collection as you desire to share, but there is limited security capability (space in the ANA museum, subject to restricted hours of access). I've not heard of anyone losing material from the dorm rooms, but there is only minimal security there.
If you collect fest certificates, consider bringing that collection so that researchers can record serial numbers and you have your material close at hand for trading.
If you own a UV lamp and a good loupe or hand-held microscope, bring them (and mark them with your name/phone number). Bring a millimeter scale. Bring your digital camera for recording images of notes and ancillary material (and your classmates).
You can see from this list that the seminars tend to the very practical side, dealing with the actual materials as much as possible, rather than catalog listings of them. And if this brief message makes you wish that you were coming, start planning for 2026.
Class hours are 0900-1145 and 1315-1600. Class days changed in 2014. Now that classes start on Sunday morning, the Colorado Springs coin show no longer has Sunday hours. If you are coming for only week two, and you want to go to the show, you will have to get through registration Saturday and hustle up to the show venue. The seminar opening ceremony is 1800 Saturday; take a bus back from the show in time to attend.
To accommodate as many arriving seminarians/festers as possible, any minifest conducted Saturday might want to be scheduled for 1630 or later. If one is planned, let Fred know so that he can announce it in the Gram before you all head to the Front Range.
See you in Colorado.
— Joe
Dear Editor,
Maybe we finally have a date -- and it looks like Fest could be either of the ones you said. Looks like the spring MSNS convention is going to be April 10-12 -- Thursday, Friday, Saturday before Palm Sunday.
— Kathy Freeland
Training Schedule
2024 shows
- ANA Summer Seminar, week one 15-20 June featuring: Boling -- detecting counterfeit world paper money
- ANA Summer Seminar, week two 22-27 June featuring Schwan and Boling -- Military Numismatics
- ANA World's Fair of Money -- 6-10 Aug, Rosemont
2025
- ANA Spring Show Atlanta, 27 Feb-1 March
- Proposed Fest 26 dates -- 4-6 April
- Michigan State NS -- April 10-12
- ANA World's Fair of Money -- 19-23 Aug, Oklahoma City
Please help us fill in the dates for events listed and give us any additional events that might conflict. Thank you very much.
Resources
MPC Boot Camp by Fred Schwan https://youtu.be/ReL-dBk2cPk
MPCFest Sponsors
Joe and Louise Boling, Steve and Ray Feller, Dave Frank, Al Glaser, Dave Hunsicker, Brett Irick, Harold Kroll, Mike Marcil, Bill Myers and Warner Talso.
MPCFest is possible because of the generous support of its sponsors.
Gram Exchange
Do you have something for sale (or trade)? Are you looking for something for your collection? You can offer items here in the Gram or list specific items that you need.
FOR SALE
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WANTED
Wanted to Buy [WTB] / In Search of [ISO] $10 Series 1934A North Africa silver certificate with the altered blue seal discussed in October 2022 MPCGram by Larry Smulczenski (Saturski #13) and covered in May/June 2008 SPMC article written by Peter Huntoon and Jim Downey. Please contact Andy Conroy (andyqconroy@gmail.com)