February 2026 Newsletter
Click here for a PDF of the full newsletter.
Tuesday, February 17, 7:30pm, YN Program 6:30pm
Presentation:
Oklahoma Goldbacks - Brian S
Display Case:
Seattle Worlds Fair Million Silver Dollar Display - Russ F
Refreshments:
Jeff P
Future:
Mar - History of US Cent
President's Message
Jeff M
It is time for all of us to begin thinking about how we can support the club show this coming June. We will need volunteers to help with a myriad of tasks from set-up, attendee registration, manning the club table, to tear down. You will hear more about this over the next few months. The success of the show pays for all the things we do as a club, so it is important that we all pitch in to make the show go well. Dues only cover a small portion of our expenses. Due to expected travel plans Tim will not be able to be the show chair for 2027. We need someone to step up and fill this important position. Tim and the other show leaders will be available to help, so you would not be alone in making the show happen. Sadly, due to the skyrocketing price of silver and gold we can no longer afford to give the speaker at our club meetings a silver eagle. We will be getting a substitute award, probably a silver half dollar. We are in need of a lawyer or accountant that is familiar with non-profit organization approval and/or IRS rules. If anyone has contact information for a person who has this kind of experience, please let me know. There is potential to save the club a bunch of money if we can get the right paperwork done. Due to the cancellation of some coin shows in our area between now and our show, we are behind schedule in the sale of raffle tickets for the big raffle at the show. If you plan to get tickets, please do so as soon as you can. Finally, dues were due in January for 2026. Please bring your $7.00 (exact change appreciated) with you (or $3 for YNs and $10 for families) and check in with our treasurer, Steve. The board has approved dues being increased for 2027 to $10 ($5 for YNs and $15 for families). This is still one of the best bargains around considering it includes snacks at meetings and the Holiday dinner for two.
What to Do with Grandpa's Coins?
A new travelling class from Jeff M
Bob S
President Jeff M has developed his estate planning presentation for numismatists to include those who have inherited a collection. It is aimed primary at people who know little about numismatics. Rather than focusing only on liquidating a collection, he has now included fundamentals about the hobby aimed to start the education of an inheritor who might be interested in nurturing a collecting passion, or just wants to more knowledgeably sale the material.
Jeff adapts the program for different audiences and time availability. He has already offered the program to a couple of retirement communities, with another scheduled. He is presenting a three-session program March 23 and 30 and April 6 for OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, https://learnmore.duke.edu/olli), associated with Duke University. A single session class is scheduled for the Apex Public Library on March 3. Jeff also distributes his slides on request.
The Shared Learning Association of Chapel Hill (https://www.sharedlearning.us/) is currently hosting an in-person three-session (total 4 1/2 hours) class. As I write this, he has completed two sessions, after a week's delay because of the sleet and ice storm of January 25. I am attending.
The first class defined numismatics, demonstrated some of the tools of the hobby, and stressed two fundamental principles: Don't clean coins and buy the book before the coin. The second class focused on issues of selling.
The first sessions were lively with an engaged group of students. Jeff is providing a valuable public service to those wondering what to do with their new collections, and possibly also recruiting some new members for RCC.
NCNA Journal Honored with ANA Award
Bob S
The American Numismatic Association honors numismatic publications with a variety of annual awards. In 2025, the North Carolina Numismatic Association Journal was bestowed third place for regional publications. Credit is due to Journal editor and NCNA president Greg Cheek, who is supported by numerous authors, many regular contributors. The most recent issue is 52 pages.
The Journal is worth preserving and making generally available.
The Journal began in 1973 as the N.C.N.A. News with only 16 pages, including covers. By 1975 it became the NCNA Journal. It was then and is now a quarterly publication.
Interested in seeing past issues? A decade or so of recent NCNA Journal issues can be found online on the NCNA’s website, https://ncna.club/journal/. The Journal is sent to NCNA members as a privilege of membership. They are added to the website after a year.
There is a near-complete set of the Journal in Wilson Library, the Special Collections Library at UNC Chapel Hill. See https://catalog.lib.unc.edu/catalog/UNCb4181176. Bound volumes can be read onsite. NCNA donated a set that Halbert Carmichael, past NCNA president, treasurer, bourse chair, and editor, preserved.
Halbert amassed two near-complete sets of Journal issues. The second collection currently resides with your RCC Newsletter editor. I am scanning these issues, as well as a few issues only found in the Wilson set. I’ll prepare a PDF of all extant issues that can be read, and perhaps more importantly, searched for words of interest. (The words “Halbert Carmichael” first appear in 1973, in the first issue of the N.C.N.A News, in an article about exhibitors at a Winston-Salem coin show.)
NCNA is considering contributing the electronic volume to the Newman Numismatic Portal (NNP), where all could access it. The Newman Numismatic Portal at Washington University in St. Louis is a web-based resource for numismatists. It is a “growing database of all numismatic literature and documents we can digitize”. See https://nnp.wustl.edu/
The NCNA warrants our support for its Journal, annual convention and show, and its promotion of our hobby. Consider membership: https://ncna.club/new-member/.
Coin Hawks Young Numismatist Program
Last Month… we took an all-too-brief look at mint sets and proof sets. Mints sets are sets of coins, one of each circulating denomination from a certain year, that are contained in a plastic film for preservation. The Philadelphia and Denver mints make these sets. Sometimes a mint set includes the series from a single mint, Philadelphia or Denver only. Sometimes the mint sets combine the two mints’ series into a single package. Easier for collectors that way. Then there are the proof sets. These are coins struck twice with special dies that give them a polished look with sharp details. Proof sets are an interesting wing of coin collecting because I’ve known people who don’t collect any other coins but do collect the proof sets. I guess people just like that mirror shine and those extra fine details. We briefly talked about mint set exclusives-like the 1996W dime-and reverse proof strikes.
This month… time for a look at the Oklahoma Goldback series. For the benefit of any who are new to the Coin Hawks, Goldbacks are a series of hyperfractional gold notes issued by certain states as an alternative voluntary currency. I’ve been collecting them for a few years, and now it’s time to examine Oklahoma, the seventh series in this growing movement. We will talk about the artwork, history and meaning behind each of the eight different notes in the series. And also some of the changes and new developments Goldback will see in 2026, because every time I check, there is something new in the Goldback space. If you enjoy this topic, please stick around for the senior meeting, in which I will be presenting a full educational program on the Oklahoma Goldbacks.
I like to do this at the start of each new year, feel free to provide topics of interest you would like me to cover throughout this year.
Take care Coin Hawks,
Brian S
