The ACCLA Monthly Meeting Notice is sent to Club members at the beginning of each month. The Notices include upcoming meeting information, a recap of the prior meeting, and other items of interest. Digests of theSE Notices are provided here.
MONTHLY MEETINGS ARE NOW HELD AT SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER.
JANUARY 2003
The next meeting of ACCLA will take place on Sunday January 12, 2003 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. It will be the Annual Installation of Officers and the traditional good-time-pot-luck.
At our last meeting, the undersigned gave a presentation on The Celts. The emphasis was on archaeology, and primarily that of the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures of around the fifth to fourth centuries BCE. A monograph consisting of maps and pictures was passed out and comment was made on each picture by the presenter. A moderate number of questions were asked by the listeners, who seemed to be quite interested in the talk. There is a scarcity of coinage from that time and place, but plenty of artifacts and art surviving.
Note Bene: This is a reminder that dues for the coming year should be paid at the next meeting.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
FEBRUARY 2003
The next meeting of ACCLA will be held on Sunday February 9, 2003 at Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills at 1:00 P.M. The presentation will be by Ken Baumheckel on Ancient Oil Lamps of Israel. It should be quite illuminating.
Our last meeting was the traditional good-time-potluck-cum-installation of officers and the Board. For the record, the officers are as follows: President, Ken Friedman, Vice President, Richard Baker, Secretary, David Stepsay, Treasurer, Barry Rightman, Historian, Paul Ranc, Celator liaison, Roger Burry, and Webmaster, Michael Connor. The Board consists of the following persons: Ralph Marx, Michelle Sheldon, Mark Westerline, Hugh Kramer, and Paula Reynosa.
At the last meeting, we accomplished something we should do more often, to wit, we each stood up and introduced ourselves at some length to the group. We have a lot of new members who do not know the other members and this was a good opportunity for all and sundry to get to know each other. Welcome to new member Chris McKinney.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
MARCH 2003
The next meeting of the ACCLA will take place on Sunday March 9, 2003 at Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills at 1:00 P.M. Ken Friedman will talk on Introductions in Roman Republican Coinage.
LAST MEETING
We have received an additional $1,000 installment from now-defunct COIN. Barry Rightman read a letter of thanks he had written to the ex-treasurer of COIN.
Ken Baumheckel gave a presentation on oil lamps from the Middle Bronze period to the Byzantine Age. Ken demonstrated actual specimens and books as an adjunct to the slide show. The presentation was greatly appreciated and the questions elicited even further information on this interesting subject.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
APRIL 2003
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday April 13, 2003 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. Dr. Larry Adams will hold forth on The Golden Electrum Coinage of Carthage.
At our last meeting we were treated to a very professional presentation by Ken Friedman on Introductions in Roman Republican Coins. The subject matter had to do with the innovations which the Romans applied to their coinage. There was no evidence for usage of coins in Rome in the late 4th century BCE but in the Twelve Tablets in around 450 BCE are found the standardized weights of metal. The aes was the standardized metal weight which evolved into coinage. By 406 BCE there were weights of metal but as yet no money. However, the censors had to have standard weights for their purposes and the first coin minted was in 312-308 BCE to pay for the construction of the Via Appia. Drachms and didrachms were the first Roman coins. There was much more to Ken's presentation, but too much to recount here, including a monograph and key to plates.
Respectfully submitted
Roger Burry for David Stepsay, Secretary
MAY 2003
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday May 11, 2003 at 1:00 P.M. the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. Barry Rightman will present a slide show entitled The Age of the Soldier Emperors: 244-284 A.D. Also we will have a show-and-tell session concerning women on ancient coins, it being Mother's Day.
At our last meeting Michelle Sheldon kindly agreed to step after Larry Adams had to postpone his talk. Beginning with the voyage of Aeneus in which the women burned his ships to end the voyage and settle down, Michelle traced the evolution of the social and political roles of Roman women. In the early Republic a woman's role was basically to stay at home. Women could not own property, were not well educated, and very much subject to the whim of the family patriarch. Marriages were usually political and only the man could initiate a divorce. Largely due to the anti-Etruscan reaction, affection was not displayed in public. The only public role played by women was as seen in the duty of the Vestal Virgins to guard the fires of Rome and keep the wills.
In the late Republic the roles of women changed. The first feminist movement occurred before 100 BCE, when a group of Patrician women demonstrated in the streets and blocked the Forum. As a result Roman laws were changed and the image of women became stronger. Now women could initiate a divorce. They had considerably more freedom and could move about without a male escort. They became more educated. They could dine with the men and recline while eating. They had considerable political influence without actually holding political office.
In the time of Augustus the government was concerned about the Roman birth rate and the 'loose' morals. Augustus passed numerous laws encouraging marriage and having children. He also passed laws punishing promiscuity which altered the role of both men and women.
So throughout the years, the role of the Roman woman changed. The net result was that women became more independent and self sufficient. There was a more equal marriage relationship and a better life for women. Michelle showed slides of Roman ruins, statues, and paintings, thus greatly enhancing her talk.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
JUNE 2003
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday June 8, 2003 at 1:00 P.M. the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. The presenter will be Robert Effler, who will talk on The Cleaning and Preservation of Ancient Coins.
At our last meeting Barry Rightman presented a slide show entitled The Age of the Soldier Emperors: 244-284 A.D. This covered coins depiocting the many short-lived Emperors beginning with Philip I who succeeded Gordian III and was his Praetorian Prefect in 244 CE and ending with Carinus the son of Probus whose army went over to Diocletian in 284 spelling the end of the era of the Soldier Emperors. Subsequently, Diocletian established the rule of the Tetrarchy and stabilized the Empre.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
JULY 2003
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday July 13, 2003 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. The presenter will be Hugh Kramer on The Economic Collapse of the 3rd Century A.D. and its Effect on the Coinage.
LAST MEETING
Ken Baumheckel passed out a Julius Caesar Trivia Quiz and announced that the inaugural meeting of the Orange County Ancient Coin Club had occurred. Sally Marx presented the Archivist with the first constitution of the club together with other memorabilia concerning the club.
At the last meeting, Bob Effler presented his well researched talk on The Cleaning of Ancient Coins, ranging from when to keep hands off to the other extreme - electrolysis. He puts great store in just soaking the item in distilled water. His philosophy on electrolysis is "If it looks like trash, wottaya got to lose?" He passed out a two-page monograph on how to do electrolysis and the equipment and materials you will need. Bob introduced us to a reverse patination. This is where you reverse the polarity and put the dirt back on the coin, only not so heavy. He passed around a book filled with cleaned coins showing the evolution (or stages) of cleaning. Some members, added their favorite techniques to Bob's.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
AUGUST 2003
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday August 10, 2003 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. Raymond Sidrys will give a talk entitled Imperial Roman Coinage: Along and Beyond the Northern Limes Frontier.
LAST MEETING
Our presenter at the last meeting was Hugh Kramer, who held forth on The Economic Collapse of the 3rd Century A.D. and its Effect on the Coinage. Hugh expounded on a number of the technical aspects of the Roman economy and conditions. He also passed out a copy of the very good tables in the slender volume he was using as his source. By the time of Gallienus (235-285), The economy of the Roman Empire was battered by outside invasions, epidemics, and high taxes and the coinage had deteriorated. There were definite cracks in the fabric of the Imperial System. The bureaucracy was eating them out of house and home. There were no rules for who was to succeed as Emperor (the job was being purchased on a regular basis by the army leaders). There was plenty of extortion, debasement of the coinage, and counterfeiting to go around, and was devastating inflation. Things reached rock bottom in Gallienus' reign. There was a prevalence of barter, and the flight of the peasants from the farm to the city went from a trickle to a flood. The Empire limped along for several hundred years despite the bad economic conditions. The miracle is that it took so long to fall apart.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
SEPTEMBER 2003
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sept. 14, 2003 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. Our next presenter will be Dr. Robert Cleve, Professor of Ancient History at CSUN, who will present a slide show on the Roman port city of Ostia. Dr. Cleve has spoken to us on several occasions previously and you will find his talk very interesting.
LAST MEETING
At our last meeting Raymond Sidrys gave a talk entitled Imperial Roman Coinage: Along and Beyond the Northern Limes Frontier. This was an extremely erudite talk accompanied by a comprehensive handout with the same general title as the talk. The Limes of the title is not a misprint, as I had thought, but a Latin word meaning track way, which came to mean a military road with a line of frontier forts and later a frontier zone. The purpose of the talk was, inter alia, to explain the inflow of denarii among "barbarian" tribes through the history and geography of limes related images on coin reverses, and certain problems. A map accompanying the talk showed the various hoards found with over 81,000 denarii across the area under discussion. Some of the interesting bits of information gleaned were that generally at this time a defaced coin was a sign of dissatisfaction with the emperor, there was a scarcity of pocket coins in distant Barbaricum territories, and that the market-based "buffer zone" was only out to 200 km. Raymond also dispensed a couple of interesting bar graphs that purported to show issues by emperor and the dating of the hoards by yearly clusters. Also a page of photos of the various coins found was passed out.
The import of the talk was to point out some of the anomalies connected with the coins of Barbaricum as demonstrated in the various hoards. Incidentally Barbaricum comprised the territory east of the Rhine and Danube rivers and as far east as Poland apparently. Raymond has a Ph.D. in archaeology from UCLA, so a lot of scholarship has gone into this talk.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
OCTOBER 2003
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday, October 12, 2003 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. Dr. Lawrence Adams will talk on Gold and Electrum Coinage of Carthage.
LAST MEETING
Ralph and Sally Marx who are leaving to live up north in California, were given a send-off with several very lovely going-away gifts and thank-you plaques. By acclamation they were made honorary life members of the club.
PRESENTATION
Professor Robert Cleve held forth on Ostia, Port City of Ancient Rome. Ostia and Pompeii are the two best preserved cities of antiquity. Ostia is on the Tyrrhenian Sea and was founded in the 4th century BCE. Pliny lived there and commuted to Rome. All imports were via river boats and on two roads. The audience was given a stroll down the main street of ancient Ostia, with the various trades and skills being in view. Also the theatre with the back-drop, orchestra in front, and four small temples with altars in front. As always, this presentation was first-rate and extremely enlightening.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
NOVEMBER 2003
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday, November 9, 2003 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. Our presenter will be Paul Andre, who will have a slide show on Architectural Reverses on Roman Coins.
LAST MEETING
At our last meeting Dr. Lawrence Adams talked on the numismatic history of Carthage focussing on the gold and silver issues. In 814 BCE it was founded by the Phoenicians as a trading center and then it became a great city. The silver kept to the Attic standard and began around 350 BCE. The head of their city goddess, Tanit (sometimes called Astarte), was most always placed on the obverse, with varying reverses. Dr. Adams reviewed the chages in the gold content of the gold coins as the fortunes of Carthage waxed and waned during the Punic Wars, illustrated with photographs of coins from his collection. At the co0mpletion of his talk, he was presented with a certificate of appreciation.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
DECEMBER 2003
The next meeting of the club will be held on Sunday, December 14, 2003 at 1:00P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. Our next presenter will be our President, Ken Friedman, who will hold forth on The Romanization of Samnium.
LAST MEETING
Lenore Donald was in attendance and we held a brief memorial for Harold, who died two days before. Lenore was given an honorary life membership by a unanimous vote of those present. Paul Ranc said the next meeting of NASC will be held the next week.
At our last meeting the presenter was Paul Andre, who gave a talk and slide show on The Architectural Reverses on Roman Coins. We were shown a selection of coins demonstrating the subject matter of the talk. Some examples were the Augustus commemorative showing the Ara Pacis (Alter of Peace); the Claudius sesterce showing Etruscan statues; the Temple of Janus with the doors closed, a Nero issue; an Antoninus Pius with the Temple of Venus at Rome; two Elagabalus showing a statue of Zeus at Berytus and the Temple of Astarte; a Tiberius Merida showing the city-gate and walls; two Caracallas: an Emesa showing a temple with six columns and the Zeus Hagios Temple in Tripoli; and a Severus Alexander showing an altar. There was generally a lack of perspective on these coins, with no vanishing point seen. The presentation was very interesting and bore out Paul's point that the coins were used for promotional or propaganda purposes.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary