MEETING NOTICES 2002

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Date: January 13, 2002
Time: Sunday 1:00 p.m.
Place: Balboa Mission Town Hall, 16916 San Fernando Mission Blvd., Granada Hills.

Program

We will be having our annual installation of officers and also our inaugural festivities:

Officers And Board Members

President: Ken Friedman
Vice President: Richard Baker 
Treasurer: Barry Rightman 
Secretary And Meeting Notice: David Stepsay

Board 
Hugh Kramer 
Ralph Marx 
Paula Reynosa 
Michelle Sheldon 
Mark Westerline

At our last meeting Richard Baker gave another in his series of talks on countermarks or stamps. By now he must be one of the leading authorities on this phenomenon. This time the emphasis was on the word or letters struck into the host coin and their meaning. For instance, on the Tiberius, "FCPA" means to infer that, back from exile, he was adopted by Augustus as his only begotten son. And "PRO" or "PROS", that this counterstamp was approved by the proper authority. And also on one or more coins, "DUP" means that the coin has been downgraded to dupondius. There were many more meanings revealed on his extremely good slides, too numerous to note here. Also Richard passed out a monograph entitled "The Countermarks Found on Ancient Roman Coins: a Brief Introduction", consisting of seven pages, which purports to be a good introduction to this subject.

Announcements

See the list of those who have signed up to furnish food or goods for the banquet which we will enjoy after the installation. Please do not forget to fulfill your commitment. If this is the first notice you have had of this banquet you are welcome to come anyway.

David Stepsay, President

AVE ATQUE VALE

This is by way of being my farewell address to the troops.

I have a dislike bordering on phobia of presiding over a meeting. However, my year of being president of this group has been downright pleasant! You have overlooked so many of my gaffes and faux pas, and have shown such attentiveness to the business at hand, with so little need for correction or discipline; and you have tolerated so well the fact that I am, I believe, the only president of ACCLA who is not a collector of anything, that I accord to you the highest praise for being such an outstanding club.

Also I can rest easy knowing that I am turning over the Presidency of this club to Ken Friedman, who will do an outstanding job. And I will also enjoy continuing to do the meeting notices as your new secretary.

David Stepsay

Date: February 10, 2002
Time: Sunday 1:00 p.m.
Place: Balboa Mission Town Hall 16916 San Fernando Mission Blvd., Granada Hills.

Program

Ken Baumheckel will hold forth on the information contained in his recent article in the publication "shekel", which was on coins in the bible. Ken will show slides and discourse on coinage from Persian, Seleucid, Judean, and Roman times, all of which impacted on biblical history. There will also be a handout.

At our last meeting

We had our annual installation of board and officers under the aegis of Sally Marx who graciously assented to be the installing officer. All the incoming officers were presented with symbols and tokens of their office. I personally wish to thank the club for the handsome copy of "monumental coins", a wise choice because it contains many drawings and photos of coins and other things of interest.

Announcements

This will be the last time the meeting notice will come in this form.  Henceforth, many but not all of you will receive the notice via e-mail, while the rest who may not be online or even nave a computer, will perforce receive a mailed copy of the e-letter sent to those online. It would therefore behoove those of you who are online to clarify your address if you did not receive the e-letter sent out on Monday, January 21, or let me have it if you did not get a chance to submit it at the last meeting.

David Stepsay, Secretary

The next meeting of the ancient coin club will take place on Sunday March 10, 2002 at 1:00 p.m. at Balboa Mission Town Hall, 16916 San Fernando Mission Blvd., Granada Hills.

The program is to be announced.

At our last meeting, Ken Baumheckel presented a selection of coinage found in and pertaining to the bible. Ken, one of our newest members sallied forth on his maiden presentation with the greatest aplomb. He showed a collection of 10 or 15 coins dating from the Achaemenid dynasty in Persia (with a picture of his siglos of Darius) to the early Roman Empire with a sestertius of Tiberius Caesar of 29 CE Ken said that aside from one coin for which he paid $200 none of the rest cost more than $100. If that's the case, I'd like to see what his collection will look like in the future when he can actually afford the more expensive coins which will then become available to him. He said he believes that much knowledge can be gained from a cheap coin that might be overlooked by those in the habit of buying more expensive ones. I know I have been one of those to whom a coin must be in pretty good shape and hence more pricey to be appreciated.

If you are still receiving this notice by USPS and are online, please let me have your e-address forthwith.

David Stepsay, Secretary

The next meeting of the ancient coin club will take place on Sunday April 14, 2002 at Balboa Mission Town hall, 16916 San Fernando Mission Blvd., Granada Hills.

Michelle Sheldon will hold forth on Greek mythology. This woman of many parts is still studying various aspects of ancient history, and lately is applying her scholarly skills to Alexander of Macedon, often called "the great".

At our last meeting Brian Geeslin read a paper on serpentine reverses. He went into the background of snake symbolism and gave some examples, to wit for instance the Pythian serpent (Apollo slaying the Pythian dragon); Aesclapius (caduceus which represents healing vs. evil); blending of sky gods with serpents; the mysteries (reaching back to the darker corners of legend and earth's revitalization via the snake. Several other examples were given, but suffice it to say the snake has a prominent part in human history. Brian says the Celator wants to publish the article. He also passed out an outline of his paper, together with depictions of some of the coins he was talking about.

We received another $1000.00 from the dissolution of COIN, and the check was brought to the meeting by Sally and Ralph Marx. There will probably be a bit more coming.

A group purchase on the latest David Sear book "Roman Coins and Their Values" volume 2 is being contemplated. Further word will be forthcoming from Barry Rightman.

David Stepsay, Secretary

The next meeting of the ancient coin club will take place on Sunday May 12, 2002 at Balboa Mission Town Hall, 16916 San Fernando Mission Blvd. Granada Hills. Time 1:00 p. m.  Hugh Kramer will engage upon one of his delectable presentation/demonstrations of roman cookery.

Michelle Sheldon did her talk on Greek goddesses, concentrating on Athena and Hera particularly. Athena was taken up by the Romans as Minerva and Hera as Juno.

Athena was the goddess of cities, heroes, civilization, wisdom, crafts and skill, particularly weaving. She won her place as Athens' patron by winning a contest with Poseidon, who gave Athens the horse. However, Athena trumped him by giving Athens the olive tree. She is also famous for springing forth fully grown and armed from her father Zeus' forehead. She helped Herakles and Perseus in their labors, causing some wit to say that while she did not help women with their labor, she did help men with their labors. The slides were great. Michelle is the Ansel Adams of our club.

Hera was married to Zeus and is the model scorned wife. Her portrait is more common on roman than Greek coins. And she became sacred to empresses with her symbols, the peacock and the cow. And she was the goddess of cleanliness, good order, and child birth.

A sign-up sheet was passed around for the group purchase of David Sears' volume II on roman coins. Contact Barry Rightman if you missed the meeting. The price is as yet unknown.

David Stepsay, Secretary

The next meeting of ACCLA will take place on Sunday June ninth, two thousand two at Balboa Mission Town Hall, one six nine one six San Fernando Mission Blvd., Granada Hills, time one o'clock p.m.

Our speaker will be Richard Baker, who will present material some but not all of us may be familiar with, i.e. legio decima fretensis, exercitus romanus. As you know. Richard is an inveterate collector of countermarked coins and this talk will have to do with the involvement of the tenth legion of the roman army in the fall of Jerusalem and Masada.

At last month's meeting Hugh Kramer, our resident chef, gave his talk on roman cookery, with a collation of his baking in the form of libum, or offering cakes, and savillum, which is a cheesecake as the eminent Cato would have cooked it. Meat was not big with these folk because their cattle were used as work animals and their meat was perforce very stringy. They specialized in many other kinds of meat, fish, and poultry, a lot of which we do not today enjoy due to the over- harvesting of many species now scarce as hens' teeth. Or even extinct. Hugh also went into the preparation of the various foods the Romans enjoyed (which is perhaps too strong a word)--which the Romans had the benefit of. And he brought up the interesting word from which we derive "vinegar": garum, or oenogarum.

In other news the Long Beach convention is coming up very soon. And on a more serious note, Sally Marx suffered another fracture of her leg and is currently in a nursing home we all wish Sally speedy recovery from her fall and look forward to seeing her at future meetings.

David Stepsay, Secretary

JULY 2002

The next meeting of the ACCLA will be held on Sunday July 14, 2002 (Bastille day?) at Balboa Mission Town Hall, 16916 San Fernando Mission Road, Granada Hills. Time 1:00p. 

Our speaker will be David Michaels, who works with Rob Freeman of Freeman & Sears and he will be accompanied by two associates dressed in the garb of the Roman sixth legion. Also he will be bringing roman coins from Freeman & Sear for your delectation. David will be speaking on Roman arms and armor. Let's have a really good turnout for this unusual and highly interesting presentation.

At our last meeting we heard from Richard baker with his interesting slide show on LFX (the tenth legion) and he did a thorough discourse on the history of it from beginning to end.  It started as one of the ordinary legions formed from the citizenry consisting of citizens who "volunteered" for duty with them mostly for homeland defense. These "volunteers" got no pay and had to outfit themselves. Of course their ultimate goal was rape, pillage, and plunder, which they did mightily. After a while Marius began taking in paid volunteers from all classes of the society, citizens and non-citizens alike. His nephew Gaius Julius doubled their pay and gave numbers to the legions. Of any Legions that were destroyed by the enemy in battle their numbers were retired and never used again. The legion was made up of ten cohorts, each with six centuries of sixty men each, for a total of about five or six thousand men each. Each legion was headed not by the dux, who was commander of the army, but by a legatus, or lieutenant general. And this worthy was assisted by a laticlavius, who was usually ignorant of how to command soldiers. The most important officer was the praefectus castrorum, or quartermaster. And next was the primus pilus, or centurion of the first division.  The tenth legion was stationed in Jerusalem during the time of the revolts. It helped destroy the Temple in 70 AD under Titus and came home to Rome in triumph.  Richard showed a slide from what appeared to be a renaissance or middle ages painting of the triumphant march together with the slaves and the menorah of Judea Capta. It was an exciting talk and for my part I will say it was a pleasure for a change not to see all those beautiful coins mutilated with those countermarks (ha ha just joking)

Ralph Marx says that Sally is now in a nursing facility and feeling much better. She should be at the next meeting.

Don't forget about our really great show coming up at the next meeting.

Erratum

The program announced in the last e-letter has had to be revised due to the unavailability of the speaker who had a time conflict with our meeting. Instead, we will be pleased to hear from Michelle Sheldon again in one of her excellent slide presentations. This one will be entitled "The Coinage of Philip II and His Son Alexander the Great".

David Stepsay, Secretary

The next meeting of ACCLA will be held on Sunday August 11, 2002 at Balboa Mission Town Hall, 16916 San Fernando Mission Rd., Granada Hills. Time 1:00 P.M.

The last notice announced that our speaker would be David Michaels, and he had to postpone his presentation to this meeting. So David Michaels will be our presenter this meeting. His talk will be entitled "Roman Arms and Armament". As explained in the last notice, he and one or two associates will show up dressed in authentic Roman regalia appropriate to the occasion. Also he will be bringing a selection of coins and antiquities courtesy of Freeman & Sear for sale. Let's have a really great turnout for this unusual presentation!

At our last meeting, our resident Greek scholar Michelle Sheldon graciously stepped up to the plate to fill in for David Michaels -- on very short notice. Her talk was illustrated with slides, as usual, and was about money and banking in Macedonia. It all started with Phillip II, who developed silver mining around his capital of Pella. Conquered Illyria yielded even more (silver and gold). The gold stater became the standard of that era, being reduced from 12:1 to 10:1.When preparing for the attack on Persia, it was necessary to reduce the weight to 8.6 grams, the same as the Attic standard, with a 14.4 silver stater to compete with Attica. Phillip established a full monetary system in parity with the richest country. His son Alexander borrowed heavily, which his gold and silver coins helped to liquidate. In fact there are more than 100 variations of Alexandrian tetradrachms. And Alex upped the weight of the silver stater to 17+ grams. Since coinage had propaganda as part of its purpose, all of the obverses and reverses had to really get out the message, which was very starkly represented. Such was the case with the medallion struck to celebrate the victory over Poras, the Indian hegemon, who characteristically was treated magnanimously by his victor as a king.

Don't forget about our really great show coming up at the next meeting.

David Stepsay, Secretary

The next meeting of ACCLA will take place on Sunday September 8, 2002 at Balboa Mission Town Hall, 16916 San Fernando Mission Rd., Granada Hills. Time 1:00 P.M.

The last meeting was, according to my informant, Richard Baker, very interesting, with David Michaels, Kip Friedman, and Kelly Ramage, all showing up in Roman military garb of various provenance. The predominant material being worn, I understand, was wool and it was one of the hottest days of the year. So it must have been a lot of fun for the "soldiers". (As far as I'm concerned, that was the day that Paula Reynosa and I were plodding up Mount Lassen, and there were times that we would gladly have changed places with the "soldiers"). The various accoutrements were explained by the wearers. and a slide show was presented showing other details of Roman military armaments and clothing.

At the next meeting we will be graced with a presentation by the aforesaid Richard Baker, called "Caligula's Failures: The Hellenization of the Roman Monarchy". There will be a slide show.

At the meeting in October Kip Antonelli-Friedman will expound on "The Archaeology at Arbeia". Arbeia is an excavation in the north east of England, approximately 4 miles east of Hadrian's wall. Hope to see you all at these meetings.

David Stepsay, Secretary

OCTOBER 2002

The next meeting of the ACCLA will take place on Sunday October 13, 2002 at Balboa Mission Town Hall, 16916 San Fernando Mission Rd., Granada Hills. Time 1:00 P.M.

The presenter will be Kip Antonelli-Friedman, who will give a talk entitled "Archaeology At Arbeia". If this sounds familiar, it's because it was in the September meeting notice. Arbeia was a Roman fort located near the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall, and Kip has recently returned from doing excavations at Arbeia. 

At our last meeting, Richard Baker showed slides and spoke on "Caligula's Failure: The Hellenization of the Roman Monarchy". It seems Caligula (a.k.a. Little Boots) got a bad rap from history. (Most of the mistakes are from the historian Suetonius). Caligula was born Gaius Julius Caesar and was the son of Germanicus, who was the son of Antonia of Marcus Antonius fame. Caligula's mother was Agrippina, the daughter of Agrippa, of Augustan fame. He was brought up by Antonia and Livia, along with numerous foreign royal princelings.

He came under the evil influence of Sejanus, but did many good things when he acceded to the Emperorship at age 24. However, it was a strange illness that betook him at the end of 7 months that might have accounted for some of his bad deeds. He developed a distaste for the Senate. He tried to make his court into a Pharaonic institution. Isis became the official goddess of the court. Caligula had his sister deified. (She was the first woman in Roman history so honored). He dreamt of a Hellenized Rome and arranged for the mantle of the Ptolemies to devolve upon him. He ordered a statue of himself erected in holy places, although this was rescinded when he feared a revolt. Caligula had four years at the helm and then he was assassinated.

In the way of news, the club now has a historian who will keep our archives. He is Paul Ranc.

Hope to see you all at the meeting.

David Stepsay, Secretary

The next meeting of ACCLA will take place on Sunday November 10, 2002 at Balboa Mission Town Hall, 16916 San Fernando Mission Rd., Granada Hills. Time 1:00P.M. 

The presenter will be Michelle Sheldon and the topic is "Egyptian Medicine". She will discuss treatments for all different types of diseases and demonstrate how similar our own modern medicine is with them. She will even put together a love potion prescribed by physicians during the Ptolemaic period. So share the joy, bring your mummy! (Editor's interjection). 

At our last meeting the presenter was Kip Antonelli-Friedman who spoke on archaeology at Arbeia. He was on a dig sponsored by Earthwatch, involving an old fort on the South Shields River in Northumberland. It was built in first century CE under Hadrian. It had a strong room where the soldiers' pay was kept, lots of granaries, and headquarters which supplied provisions to the Roman troops. On Hadrian's wall (the fort was a satellite to the wall) there was an officers' villa, and barracks which have been reconstructed. People have been living there even after a large fire in the 3rd century destroyed the site, until 1875, when it was finally abandoned. But at least it was saved from being used for Victorian houses when it was excavated in that year. There's a free museum on the premises run by the British Heritage Trust. A sister site, Segedunum, had cavalry stables, where both horses and their riders slept not far from each other. Servants slept in the attic. Walls made of daub and wattle (cow manure and straw), whitewashed with lime. The rooms had windows and 8-man bunks (4 on top and 4 on bottom). Kip showed a bit about how reconstitution of the masonry was done and rubble was recorded and he showed some of the tools used in the restoration of the site and some of the artifacts he found. Interestingly enough in those days and in that army, the soldiers would leave the fort to meet the attackers instead of letting themselves be besieged. All in all it was a very interesting presentation and well worth attending. 

We really need to do something to solve the light problem in that meeting room. We are really not able to see the slides that the presenter has gone to the trouble to assemble to their best advantage.

Hope to see you all at the upcoming meeting.

David Stepsay, Secretary

The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday December 8, 2002 at Balboa Mission Town Hall, 16916 San Fernando Mission Rd., Granada Hills. Time 1:00 P.M.

The presenter will be David Stepsay and the talk will be on the Celts in ancient times and will be entitled "These are a few of my favorite tribes". I will endeavor to explain the background history of the western European Celts, their art, and other features of particular interest to that area's history.

At our last meeting Michelle Sheldon held forth on Egyptian medicine. That country was ideal for the development of medicine due to their written language (hieroglyphics) and the area where this practice was performed (Egypt).  Imhote was the Aesclapius of Egypt. His temple was a sanitarium. Hessy-Ra was the first recorded physician and dentist. Pesheset was the first recorded female physician or overseer of female doctors. One tomb was found to have a false door showing the specialty of the interred to be that of ophthalmology. There was a practice similar to triage of the modern day. As far back as 1825 BCE there was the practice of gynecology, fertility, birth control and obstetrics. There was something of a pharmacopoeia, showing the various treatments for various forms of trauma. Surgical tools that have been discovered reveal various types of surgery that they practiced. They had suturing and circumcision. But they had few anesthetics. They had drug therapies and 4 methods of administering them. Michelle's presentation was, in short, most interesting.

Hope to see you all at the upcoming meeting.

David Stepsay, Secretary

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