MONTHLY MEETINGS ARE NOW HELD AT SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER.
JANUARY 2013
NOVUM ANNUM FELICEM HABEAMUS!
The next meeting will be held on Sunday January 13, 2013 at 1:00 P.M. It will take place in the usual venue - the Community Room at the Sherman Oaks Galleria located at 15301 Ventura Boulevard (at Sepulveda Boulevard), Sherman Oaks. There will be no presentation as such, since the meeting is our annual Installation-Cum-Banquet (potluck, of course).
The main purpose of the meeting being the installation of officers and board, the following are those who will be installed:
ACCLA Board of Directors 2013
President: Merrill Gibson
Vice President: Roger Burry
Treasurer: Barry Rightman
Secretary: David Stepsay
Randy Butler
Jared Clark
Michael Connor
Ken Friedman
Paul Ranc
Joe Tooma (Past President)
PRESENTATION
The December meeting featured a presentation by Michael Connor entitled The End of the Parthians. Michael reviewed the rich coinage and history of the last few centuries of the Parthian Empire.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
FEBRUARY 2013
The next meeting of the club will be held on Sunday February 10, 2013 at 1:00 P.M. It will take place in the usual venue - the Community Room at the Sherman Oaks Galleria located at 15301 Ventura Blvd, (at Sepulveda Blvd.), Sherman Oaks. The presentation will be by Bob Effler and it will be called The Joys, Challenges, and Techniques of Ancient Coin Restoration.
BUSINESS
Outgoing President Joe Tooma called the January meeting to order at 1:28 P.M. Condolences were offered to Barry Rightman on the passing of Barbara, his wife. Barry gave his Treasurer's report. Michael Connor, Webmaster, reported that the first photos of coins featuring Women of the Severan Dynasty have been received. Roger Burry went through the up-coming programs for the year.
Introductions and installation of Officers and Board Members for the forthcoming term were made. This was followed by a round robin of members and attendees discussing their acquisitions in 2012. The members then moved on to the well-provisioned pot luck lunch.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
MARCH 2013
The next meeting of the club will take place on March 10, 2013 at 1:00 P.M. It will take place in the usual venue - the Community Room at the Sherman Oaks Galleria located at 15301 Ventura Blvd, (at Sepulveda Blvd.), Sherman Oaks. Professor Robert Cleve will give a presentation on The Constantinian Dynasty. Dr. Cleve is a professor of ancient history at CSUN and his presentations are always interesting.
BUSINESS
The February meeting was called to order at 1:30 P.M. by President Merrill Gibson. Treasurer Barry Rightman reported on the treasury, which is in good order. Michael Connor, Webmaster, said that he has established an ACCLA page on Facebook. He would like a few more photographs of coins of the Severan Dynasty women, especially Plautilla.
The following announcement was made by President Merrill Gibson:
"The Board of Directors has, in a unanimous decision, decided to create an annual award for the most-liked monthly presentation of the year. An important purpose of this award is to encourage the development of presentations that are of maximum interest to our members. But this award has another important purpose. We have decided to name it the Barbara Rightman award, in honor of Barry's wife who has very recently passed away. Barbara and Barry both have served and supportec the club in many ways over many years, and we feel it appropriate to honor the memory of Barbara for her service with the creation of this reward. So thank you for your service Barry, and bless the memory of your wife."
PRESENTATION
Bob Effler gave a presentation entitled Ancient Coin Cleaning, Restoration, Conservation--A Virtual Tour in Technique.
NEW MEMBERS
We got to welcome our newest member, Dylan Channell, who came with his father.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
APRIL 2013
The next meeting of the club will be held on April 14, 2013 at 1:00 P.M. It will take place in the usual venue - the Community Room at the Sherman Oaks Galleria located at 15301 Ventura Blvd, (at Sepulveda Blvd.), Sherman Oaks. Joe Tooma will give a presentation entitled Books, History, and Coins.
BUSINESS
The meeting was called to order at 1:25 P.M. treasurer Barry Rightman reported that the treasury is up from beginning of year. Michael Connor reported that the annual returns had been with the IRS and FTB. The Club Facebook page now numbers 12 likes. New member Dylan Channell was present at the meeting. His area of interest is ancient Greek, particularly early Hellenistic. Under Old Business Michael Connor headed a discussion on promoting new membership. Jared Clark is taking a new job in Lompoc so this was his last meeting for a while. There was a discussion of new coins and auctions, and show and tell featuring a variety of rare coins.
PRESENTATION
Dr. Robert Cleve gave a presentation on The Constantinian Dynasty. He covered the history behind the rise of Constantine, Constantine's rule and impacts, and his successors.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
MAY 2013
The next meeting will take place on Sunday, May 12, 2013 at 1:00 P.M. in the Community Room of the Sherman Oaks Galleria. The presentation will be under the auspices of Quiz-Master Roger Burry and is entitled "Who is Artabanos?".
BUSINESS
The April meeting was called to order at 1:30 P.M. by President Merrill Gibson. Treasury report given by Barry Rightman. Mike Connor, Webmaster, reported that we now had 13 likes for the facebook page. He is playing around with designs for new membership materials.
PRESENTATION
Joe Tooma gave his presentation Books, History, and Coins. He gave a list of some of his favorite coin-related books with coins to illustrate the connection. His book list included:
- Rome's Wars in Parthia: Blood in the Sand by Rose Mary Shelton
- The Defeat of Rome in the East by Gareth C. Sampson
- Tigranes II and Rome: A New Interpretation Based on Primary Sources by Hakob Manandyan and George A. Bournoutian
- Mithridates the Great: Rome's Indomitable Enemy by Philip Matyszak
- Rome and Persia in Late Antiquity: Neighbours and Rivals by Beate Dignas and Engelbert Winter
- Great Women of Imperial Rome by Jasper Burns
- Caesars' Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire by Annelise Freisenbruch
- Roman Provincial Coins: An Introduction to the Greek Imperials by Kevin Butcher
- Sasanian Coins and History by Andrea Gariboldi
- From Persepolis to the Punjab: Exploring the Past in in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan by Elizabeth Errington and Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis
- The Age of the Parthians by Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis and Sarah Stewart
- A Numismatic Journey through the Bible by Richard Plant
- Byzantium by John Julius Norwich
- Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization by Lars Brownworth
- Confessions of a Numismatic Fanatic: How to Get the Most Out of Coin Collecting by Frank S .Robinson
- Coins as Living History by Ted Schwarz.
- Carnage of the Realm by Charles Goodrum
- Double Daggers by James R. Clifford
- Sicilian Hoard by David Weimer
Joe’s talk was very well appreciated and presents a new side to coin collecting, the value of being able to consult a book for attribution or merely pleasure reading.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
JUNE 2013
NOTE: The next meeting of the club will not be held at the usual venue, but instead at the Getty Villa in Malibu. There is a group reservation number that you will need at the kiosk, and it is 452405. Contact Roger Burry for information. The program will of course be the current exhibit of Sicilian art and artifacts, including a nice selection of museum-quality coins.
LAST MEETING
Called to order by President Merrill Gibson at 1:40 P.M. Barry Rightman gave the Treasurer’s report and the info that a new person is running the operation of the Community Room. This was followed by a general discussion of recent acquisitions and issues. It was brought up that because Wi-Fi is available in the Community Room we may be able to include members unable to attend in person via Skype.
PLANNED UPCOMING PROGRAMS
Roger promulgated the upcoming programs and solicited entries to fill the vacancies:
- June: Getty Villa visit.
- July: Israel Coins and History
- August: Seminar on coins of Sicily.
- September: Argeid Dynasty and Coins of Alexander III
- October: Open
- November: What Happens to My Collection….?
- December: I, Claudius Part I.
PRESENTATION
This month featured our popular Who Is Artabanos? quiz. The attendees were divided into three groups. Betty Eiseman was the scorekeeper. The quiz was made up by Roger and was very instructive and interesting.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
JULY 2013
The next meeting will be held Sunday, July 14, 2013 at the Community Room of the Sherman Oaks Galleria. The presentation will be by the inimitable Randy Butler and entitled Israel: Sites and Coins.
LAST MEETING
The last meeting was held at the Getty Villa. After touring the Villa and watching the demonstration of celators at work we held a brief business meeting in the Getty Villa cafeteria. The meeting was chaired by President Merrill Gibson and was perforce abbreviated by the length of time absorbed by the exhibit and demonstration. Treasury same as before, according to Barry Rightman. and he picked up a few more books. Mike Connor announced that Bill Puetz was back at the helm of V-Coins. We were joined at the meeting by ancient coin enthusiasts Larry Schwimmer from San Francisco and Yusuf Fakhouri (who joined the Club) who by chance were at the demonstration.
PROGRAM
The club met at the Getty Villa to take in the outstanding exhibit on Sikiliote arts and artifacts. The coin exhibit was well attended by our members and the museum in their inestimable attention to details even furnished magnifying glasses for the viewing of the specimens in their cases. The pottery was of such quality that it was hard for this onlooker to detect the usual lines where it had been restored, if at all. And needless to say, the metallic objects were of spectacular character. The viewing in the gallery being concluded, our group repaired directly to the little courtyard where the coin-making demonstration took place. It was a tremendously well-suited place to have such a demonstration, as it was a hot day and most of us were sitting in the hot sunlight and it was quite easy to identify the site with a contemporary shop. The demonstration participants were dressed in garb contemporary with the period of the coinage and were led by David Michaels of the Legion Six Historical Foundation. His assistants at the forge - Ron Glass and Laurie Michaels (who was recently married at the Getty Villa to David) - added to the atmosphere.
The striking of the coins was a 3-man job, but due to a labor shortage, was being done by only David and Ron. David explained in detail what was going on at the forge while the re-enactors struck lead examples and passed them around for our delectation. An added treat was the passing out of plats of paper so that the spectators could get the feel of actually designing a coin a la Kimon and Eukleiades, mint masters of the time. And in addition, the re-enactors demonstrated the magnifying glasses of the time: magnifying crystals, and how they worked. The dies were made out of either bronze for small coins or iron for large coins. You tempered the iron hot and the copper you let cool down for a long period of time. The original coin engravers were gem engravers. Also the mint had a vault for security. After the demonstration we repaired to the restaurant for our meeting. Photographs of our trip can be viewed on the ACCLA facebook page.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
AUGUST 2013
The next meeting will be held on Sunday August 11, 2013 in the Community Room of the Sherman Oaks Galleria starting at 1:00 P.M. The meeting will feature a seminar lead by Roger Burry and entitled Coins of Sicily. Please bring to the meeting or e-mail photos to Roger of Sicilian and Sicilo-Punic coins that you would like shown at the meeting.
LAST MEETING
President Merrill Gibson called the meeting to order at 1:35 P.M. Barry Rightman reported on the condition of the treasury. Webmaster Mike Connor reported on the webite. We now have the website stats back: 25 downloads per day on Ken Friedman’s article on Julius Caesar. Bob Lattanzi passed around an info sheet soliciting coins for his presentation in September, of the Argead Dynasty up to and including life issues of Alexander III (the Great), including a list of the members of said dynasty.
A round robin gave praise to the late Ken Baumheckel. Randy Butler and Bob Effler attended the funeral service. Mike Connor reminded us of the many articles written by Ken Baumheckel on the ACCLA website for which there is much demand including an articles on Titus and on ancient oil lamps.
PRESENTATION
Randy Butler gave a presentation entitled Israel: Sites and Coins Randy dedicated his talk to Ken Baumheckel. It was a very comprehensive, illuminating, presentation in which Randy showed various archeological sites in Israel and coins from those areas.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
OCTOBER 2013
The next meeting of the club will take place at 1:00 P.M. on Sunday October 13, 2013 at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, 15301 Ventura Blvd. in the Community Room. The presentation will be by Ian Garcia on The Twelve Greatest Coins of History. He is one of our newest members and this is his maiden effort in giving a presentation. Let's accord him a warm welcome in this venture!
LAST MEETING
Called to order at 1:30 P.M. by President Merrill Gibson. Treasurer Barry Rightman gave the Treasury report. Roger Burry and Merrill reported that there will be no more Celator issues due to the ill health of the publisher. David Stepsay announced the completion of the minutes and meeting notices for the duration of his occupancy and Paul Ranc said he has a full set dating from his membership and he will bring them to the next meeting for incorporation into the corpus. Ken Friedman offered to high-speed scan them all for better storage. Roger announced that the November meeting will be on What Happens After Death? (Collection-wise, that is).
PRESENTATION
Bob Lattanzi, who is now teaching Paleo-Zoology at California Lutheran University, gave a presentation on Aegead Dynasty and Alexander the Great Coins. He began with Alexander III and went back to study the previous dynasty.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
NOVEMBER 2013
The next ACCLA meeting will be held on Sunday, November 10, 2013 in the Community Room at the Sherman Oaks Galleria. The presentation will be by Roger Burry and Ken Friedman and entitled What Happens to My Collection If….?
LAST MEETING
President Merrill Gibson called the meeting to order at 1:00 P.M. Webmaster Mike Connor reported that during September the Club website received its half millionth visitor. The page on the Emperor Galba was the most popular in September. The business reports were by an open discussion of recent coins and books, and show-and-tell .
PRESENTATION
The presentation was given by Ian Garcia with assistance from Greg Thompson and was entitled Greatest Coins of History…What are they? They proposed twelve coins as contenders but welcomed Club members to nominate alternatives - with appropriate justification of course.
Mr. Garcia and Mr. Thompson's selection was based on criteria including importance in world trade, international use of the coins, length of circulation and other factors. Their list included: the Lydian stater, Athenian owl tetradrachms, Macedonian tetradrachms of: Alexander the Great, the Roman denarius, Parthian drachms, Roman antoninianus, Sassanian drachms, the Byzantine solidus, Islamic dirrham, the German penny introduced by Charlemagne, the Venetian ducat, and the British sovereign.
The presentation was followed with a lively discussion. Members voted to remove the German penny and Antoninianus off the list and voted to add in the Aeginetan turtle staters, the Persian siglos, and Chinese cash.
And with that there was an end to the presentation, which was very interesting and illuminating.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary
DECEMBER 2013
The next meeting will be held on Sunday December 8, 2013 starting at 1 P.M. in the Community Room at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, 15301 Ventura Blvd., (at Sepulveda Blvd.), Sherman Oaks. The presentation will be by Randy Butler and entitled The Coins of Claudius. Part I—Claudius' Birth to the Accession of Tiberius.
LAST MEETING
Called to order by President Merrill Gibson at 1:15 P.M. Barry Rightman gave the Treasury report. Webmaster Mike Connor said that the Women of the Severan Dynasty page has been added. Merrill Gibson discoursed on treatment of bronze disease. Roger Burry reported that the January meeting will include highlights of the past year. Bob Effler showed a rare Augustus countermarked coin.
Nominations were taken for the elections to be held next month. all current Officers are willing to serve again. The slate of candidates for the Board of Directors is: Joe Tooma (Immediate Past President), Randy Butler, Bob Lattanzi, Mike Connor, Ken Friedman, and Paul Ranc.
PRESENTATION
What Happens to my Collection If… was presented by Ken Friedman and Roger Burry. Roger displayed a drachma of Medusa, the denomination used to pay Charon, the ferryman of the River Styx and passed out a glossary of 44 euphemisms for death. The two discussed disposition options, giving definitions, tax issues, consideration of gifts, and so on. The presentation was greeted with wide interest and was the first of its kind. Much appreciation to Ken and Roger for their effort.
Respectfully submitted
David Stepsay, Secretary