Dr. Michael Bugeja was appointed last year to serve on the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, which advises the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury on U.S. coin and medal designs and themes.

He is also a columnist for Coin World magazine, where he writes the “Home Hobbyist” column, and writes the “Coin Capsule” feature for Coin Update News that deals mainly with graded coins. He is very active in the numismatic arena, and has served as president of the Ames Iowa Coin Club, helped organized Coin-A-Rama,” a large Midwestern coin show, writes a blog about the auction platform Proxbid, and buys and sells coins at a local shop in Iowa.

In addition, Dr. Bugeja is Director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University and a former journalist and editor for United Press International. He is the author of numerous books and articles on issues such as ethics and poetry, among many others.

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Heartland Senior Services Center, 205 S. Walnut Ave., Ames
Officers Present: Tom Beell, President; Merlin Hove, Vice President; Tim Shuck, Secretary/Treasurer;
Scott Nichols, Advisor.
Officers Absent: none
Total number of attendees: 32

Highlights:
• Several adults joined our younger members from 6:30-7:00 for informal discussion and coin
viewing.
• Tim Shuck gave an overview of the Club’s finances. 2012 assets are nearly double those of a year
ago, mostly due to increased Coin-A-Rama fees. Attendees were reminded that there will be no
member dues collected in 2012. Dues collection will resume in January 2013, and will be
calendar-year based.
• There was brief discussion regarding having name tags for the meetings, several speaking in
favor Preference was for paper ‘stick-on’ tags rather than the larger metal buttons with pins that
have been used in the past. Tim noted that many of the existing buttons are for people who no
longer attend meetings.
• Scott Nichols provided several coins for the raffle, which were giving away in quick order as
names were drawn by both youth and adult attendees.
• Sergei Antropov presented on Russian coins, talking about denominations, metal content, Russian
pronunciation of coin names vs. English/American pronunciation, the four generally recognized
eras used by Russian coin collectors, and coin imagery. The presentation was well-received,
evidenced by the many questions during and after the presentation.
• The presentation at the next meeting, which will be after Coin-A-Rama, will be by Thomas Beell
on Roman coins.
• Scott discussed the upcoming Coin-A-Rama coin show at Gates Hall, February 25-26. All dealer
tables are sold, and Scott’s requests for volunteers for specific tasks (such as setup and tear down,
roadside sign placement) were quickly filled. Tim asked those who were willing to help man the
table for visitor name tag distribution and raffle ticket sales to contact him at the email addresses
shown on the printed reminder card and email notices.
• The meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm but, as has become a pattern, many members stayed for
additional interaction and coin viewing.

Secretary-Treasurer Tim L. Shuck of the Ames Coin Club is the creator of Metacoin, featured as the site of the week by The E-Sylum, hosted by the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Metacoin has thousands of followers on Twitter and is maintained daily by Tim, who publishes and references issues concerning coins and bullion.

Click here to visit his site. Click here to visit The E-Sylum featuring Tim’s work!

Better yet, you can congratulate him at this week’s coin club meeting.

Ames Coin Club
Heartland Senior Citizen Center, 205 Walnut
Jan. 25, 2012

6:45-7 p.m. Kids time. Members are encouraged to come early to talk coins with our younger members.
7 p.m. — Call meeting to order (President Tom Beell)
Welcome new members and guests. General announcements. Refreshments.
7:05 — Program (Vice President Merlin Hove):
Russian Coins, by Sergei Antropov.
8:00 – Approval of minutes and Treasurer’s report (Secretary/Treasurer Tim Shuck)
Reminder of dues moratorium
8:05 –Coin-A-Rama, Feb. 25-26, Gates Hall, Nevada (Scott Nichols)
8:15 — Coin news, announcements, open discussion, and other business (any member)
8:30 — Adjournment

Time to restart the Ames Coin Club events! There will be a meeting next week, Wednesday, January 25. Mail and email reminders will be sent soon; look forward to seeing you at our first meeting of 2012.

Reverse of 1991 Mount Rushmore commemorative silver dollar carries E PLURIBUS UNUM twice. Coin World image.

The best thing about our hobby is how it occasionally compels us to do research when we make a discovery, as I did recently in a study of mottoes and coin design.

One of the study’s goals was to document where our mottoes — “E Pluribus Unum” and “In God We Trust” — typically appeared, on the obverse or reverse of U.S. circulating and commemorative coinage.

The inscription E PLURIBUS UNUM — “out of many, one” — usually appears on the reverse; IN GOD WE TRUST more often on the obverse.

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A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,500 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 42 trips to carry that many people.

In 2011, there were 80 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 173 posts. There were 41 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 4mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was June 29th with 39 views. The most popular post that day was Agenda for June 29th Meeting.

For most of December, I was on a long, exhausting business trip in Pune, India. This was my first trip to India and it took a few days to adjust to the fascinating yet contrasting culture. The hospitality I had with my coworkers was wonderful and the trip was very successful.

I had a free weekend to explore India, where we spent Saturday cruising around Mumbai. We saw the Gateway to India and other fascinating sights. We also saw many monkeys on the freeway barriers to and from Mumbai. The traffic makes a drive in New York seem like Ames in the summer.

On Friday before the free weekend, Mandar, a coworker I have known for a few years, remembered my interests and mentioned there was a coin show in Pune during the weekend. From hearing this news, my supervisor was cracking up, and my wife was shaking her head during a Face time discussion. Mandar was also interested in coin collecting, so we went to CoinEx 2011 on Sunday.

The show was at a small convention hall with 50 tables over 3 stories. The facility was congested with dealers and collectors. However, in a country with almost one billion people, crowds were the standard. Most spoke English and were helpful. Most of the coins and currency on display were Indian, although there were several exhibits on coins through the India’s rich history. There was also a fascinating exhibit of world coins with animals.

You can be half a world away, but coin shows are still coin shows. Dealers are dealing with dealers, coffee and refreshments are served in an area of the exhibit hall, flyers and business cards are all about, and lots of enthusiastic folks perusing and buying their favorite coins. I felt right at home looking at coins and enjoying the historic designs.

To remember the trip, I bought a pair of Rupees minted when India was a British colony. I bought two – one minted 1862 (although this is likely a different mintage year) and one minted 1901. The rupees have Queen and Express Victoria on the obverse, who reigned during this time.

Wishing Christmas, holiday, and New Year’s best to all, and looking forward to seeing you in 2012!