Tag Archives: Numismatic Society of Nottinghamshire

Coins, Designs and Devil Worship

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Irish 50p – the harp taht was first used in 1928

We had a good meeting a the Numismatic Society of Nottinghamshire last night – Dr Kevin Clancy from the Royal Mint as the speaker. It was an entertaining look at coin designing and one of the few times I have got to the end of the talk and wished there had been more. Julia came with me and even she enjoyed it. I did have a wry smile at one point when he described a committee that included a prince, a couple of museum directors and a peer as being “from all walks of life”.  Not quite my idea of what the phrase means, but there you go . . .

Strangely, for a talk on UK coins design, it started off with the Percy Metcalfe designs for the Irish Free State coinage of 1927. They are an iconic set, with a cohesive feel and excellent modelling of the animals. There was controversy about the set, particularly as Metcalfe was English, but the design also came in for criticism. The best quote is the one from the priest.

“If these pagan symbols once get a hold, then is the thin edge of the wedge of Freemasonry sunk into the very life of our Catholicity, for the sole object of having these pagan symbols instead of religious emblems on our coins is to wipe out all traces of religion from our minds, to forget the ‘land of saints,’ and beget a land of devil-worshippers, where evil may reign supreme“

If there’s one thing you can criticise the Irish for, it certainly isn’t a lack of religion.

Sad to say, although I realise our coinage developed over time and I am very fond of some of our coins, the Irish set is far better than anything we have ever done. Even our new set suffers from things like the presence of a dormouse (most people don’t know what one is) and the Puffin with the ungainly wings. However, it’s the salmon that is the worst – nearly 100 years have passed, we have new technology and techniques, and we still haven’t bettered Metcalfe’s salmon of 1928.

Fascinating stuff. Well it is for some of us.

Irish 50p – Woodcock – originally on Metcalfe’s farthing. It looked better whe it was smaller . . .

Scarborough Attack – 1914

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Scarborough Castle, Yorkshire (with “Dramatic” filter in use.

This is an expanded version of the article that appeared on the Facebook page of the Numismatic Society of Nottinghamshire. I thought it would be quick and easy as away of adding a post without much work, as Julia has me down for various household jobs today. It took longer than I thought. Easy things are seldom as simple as they sound.

Wednesday 16 December 1914. 8 am. Three German warships appear out of the mist and open fire, sending 500 shells into the undefended town of Scarborough. Seventeen people are killed and eighty suffer serious injuries, two of them dying in the next few days. 

The ships then sail off to attack Whitby, killing 3 people and damaging many houses. Three shells hit the abbey, including a direct hit on the West Front. The damage they inflicted on Scarborough Castle and Whitby Abbey can still be seen today. The West Front at Whitby was rebuilt in the 1920s, using pre-war photographs and pictures as a guide. The remains of the barrack block at Scarborough were demolished and removed.

Whitby Abbey

Meanwhile, another group of battleships bombard Hartlepool, which, with three guns in coastal batteries, is better able to fight back. According to research done in 1965, 122 civilians were killed and 443 wounded. Five soldiers and two sailors were also killed and 14 military personnel wounded. German casualties, inflicted by the Hartlepool guns, were 8 killed and 12 wounded.

Private Theophilus Jones of the Durham Light Infantry, killed at Hartlepool, becomes the first British soldier to be killed in Britain for 200 years.

Medallion commemorating the dastardly attack on Scarborough, 1914

In military terms little was accomplished. The Germans had multiple aims – to ambush and sink defending Royal Navy ships, to depress civilian morale, to tie up British troops to defend the coast, and to inflict losses on munitions production. They seem to have failed in every one. Equally, the Royal Navy failed to engage the retreating German ships in decisive action and were unable to demonstrate their control of the North Sea to either the Germans or the British public. Politically, “Remember Scarborough!” became a powerful recruiting slogan, and American attitudes began to harden against Germany.

Government propagandists chose to concentrate on Scarborough as it was the best known of the three towns, being a popular holiday resort, and had no defences or military production facilities. It did have radio stations working with the Royal Navy, but that was ignored at the time.

Scarborough would be attacked again, though there is no medallion for the second attack. On September 4 1917, a U-Boat surfaced and engaged anchored trawlers in South Bay. They were being employed by the Royal Navy as minesweepers and, being armed, were able to defend themselves. Shots were exchanged – one British sailor was killed and stray German shells killed two civilians on shore. After four years of war, showing how the nation had become accustomed to death, the reporting showed no more outrage at this news than it did to the rest of the local news.

The reverse of the medallion.

North Bay, Scarborough. Looking North.

 

Yesterday and Today

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Yesterday, we got back to Nottingham about 4pm, had a cup of tea, watched TV, toasted some crumpets and planned what we would be taking to Peterborough on our next trip. It is getting more serious now and we will be taking the big mirror and some pictures. Once we get pictures up and the internet connected (which is a long story) it will feel like we have moved.

A decorative touch

I was late for the Numismatic Society meeting, mainly because I had set off late, but also because every set of lights seemed to be intent on stopping me as the minutes ticked by, However, I did make it in time for 95% of the talk on The Coins of the Cimbrian War.  This was quite interesting, as I like Roman history and there is always something to learn.  It was the first paper of four as we were having a short paper night for members. We then had a presentation about a marriage medal given out by a local vicar and one about the coins of Azerbaijan. That turned out to be about much more, including how, just prior to decimalisation he had returned home from work to find that his (first) wife had listened to a radio programme and paid his entire collection of British coins into the bank before they became “valueless”. That must have been an interesting conversation. We didn’t enquire if this was the reason he described her as his first wife as it seemed tactless. The fourth talk was on using the internet to research coins.

Tin Kingfisher

I have, of course, done much more than this over the preceding few days (including listening to Julia spending over an hour on the phone sorting out the internet connection) and did more today, including handing out Christmas cards and doing a morning’s paid work in the shop. Us pensioners can’t afford to pass up on these opportunities to eke out our pensions . . .

Good news – the builder has now done 90% of the jobs he had to do. bad news – we are getting quotes for the conservatory roof, as a succession of temporary repairs has left it looking like a patchwork quilt and it isn’t going to last much longer until something else starts leaking.

Barge at Snape Maltings

Pictures are from December 2017 – our Christmas visit to Suffolk.

Have You Ever Heard of an Aplustre?

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If yes, you are very well read, and a Roman scholar. If, like me, you haven’t, you are about to be educated. It’s the stern decoration of a Roman ship. It’s not a word I’ve ever had a use for before, and, apart from using it as a subject for a post, I have little use for it now.

It appears on the design of a coin of the Roman Republic that is featured on the Facebook page of the Numismatic Society of Nottinghamshire, which is where I saw it. This is the reason that collecting coins, or indeed anything, can be so educational.  If you have nothing better to do, go and have a look. If you can, push a few “Like” buttons – it encourages Steve who does all the work loading things up. He also writes the bits on ancient coins while I try my best to bring the quality threshold down with 300 word pieces on plastic bus tokens, aluminium medallions and things from the junk box.

Admiral Vernon and Commodore Brown. See previous post.

The next talk is Olympic coins – it’s given by one of our more polished speakers, so there will be no equipment failure this time. We have some good speakers this season, including someone talking about the legendary Fishpool Hoard in November. I’m not sure if I will be at that or not as Julia would like to move before the cold weather starts.

Meanwhile, I have just had an email from the final editor of the month. One tanka and one tanka prose accepted. So that’s four submissions sent and four acceptances. I will not lie, it feels good. However, it could be better. There is always the chance of having two accepted, as I have sometimes done, so there is still room for improvement.

My Orange Parker Pen

From the Ashes of Disaster

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So, I hear you ask, how was it? As if the title didn’t give enough of a clue.

The slide show was good. I spent a lot of time on it. Part of this was the time I spent relearning the system because I only use it once every two years, and forget how it works. Another portion of time was spent in the script, because it took me months to sort out what I wanted to say. After that, the text and photography was, as always, tedious and seemed to take forever.

However, at about 4pm on Monday (a couple of hours before the talk), I was 90% ready. I’m never 100% ready, and I bet most people aren’t. I had a well-crafted slideshow, the commentary was running round in my head (I don’t use notes, just have a lot of information and use the slides as prompts to bring it out at the right time).

The first presentations I ever did were about the Sealed Knot. Sometimes I would use an old-fashioned show, the sort that actually used photographic slides. They were expensive to produce, there was a delay between taking the pictures and seeing the results, you could load projector magazines back to front or wrong way round, bulbs blew, I even saw a slide melt once (fortunately not one of mine) . . .

Miniature Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM)group to L H Childs – a member of the Northamptonshire Regiment in WW2. The recommendation for his DCM shows that he waded across a canal and tackled two German machine gun nests. Then did it a second time. A newspaper report shows that he was wounded after the war whilst disarming German troops in Italy.

I did talks for history societies, schools, the WI and Scouts. They had varying levels of equipment so i gradually developed what is essentially my current style – I’d take enough items to fill a table, I’d pick something up and talk about it, pass it round or make someone try it on. Whatever I say about modern technology, I do love digital photography, and am quite keen on PowerPoint (or the free ODF equivalent in my case). You can do so much more.

Anyway, back to Monday afternoon.

By the wonders of modern delivery technology, Amazon had delivered a box of USB drives to my door in under 24 hours. I didn’t want his masterpiece of numismatic storytelling to go to waste on my cluttered old drive. I even loaded a second one as I am very much a belt and braces type of presenter, and only the best is good enough for my gem of presentation.

Are you following me? Or have you already deduced the full horror of the precipice I am about to fall off?

Oh yes, despite the care and attention I had taken, the hours of blood, toil, sweat and tears that had gone into my presentation, it wouldn’t show up on the screen in the meeting room. It wouldn’t show up on the screen next door either. But someone else had a USB drive with him and it did show his. It just wouldn’t read mine. Mine, once I got home, functioned perfectly well on my computer. Investigations are ongoing.

There was some muttered discussion about whether any of the others had an old presentation with them as a replacement . . .

Miniature DCM group to Frederick Cowham, once a member of the Royal Artillery, later a prison governor. He won it for mending telephone lines under fire – we didn’t hav e much radio communication in 1914-18 so many medals were given out for telephone-related incidents.

However, cometh the hour, as they say, cometh the man. And that man, after arranging his display cases in the amended order necessary and stood up to deliver the talk. There were no slides, no photos and no prompts, just a man and an audience. And that man, having lived and breathed this presentation for the last panic-stricken week, saw no reason to worry. I missed some things out and didn’t deliver it with the polish I would have liked, but an hour later (it rambled a bit more than the slideshow), it was all done.

Despite everything, people seemed to enjoy it. I was able to pass exhibits round in my new display cases so people all had a look, and I was congratulated several times on the content of the talk, and my ability to stand up and give it without a script or visual prompts.

So, all in all, despite the technological disaster, it went quite well and I was able to carry it off despite everything. If anything, I am now, if anything, a bit too pleased with myself for having kept calm and carried on.

Miniature Medals of Pte Charles Winch, Leicestershire Regiment, with related school attendende medal and picture of his full size medals, which were sold in the same sale. After fighting in the battle of Talana and defending Ladysmith, he was recalled for service in WW1, but did not go overseas. Note the presence of the extra bar “Natal” on the miniatures – this sort of thing, though the fact that the medals have swapped sides is a wild deviation from the main group, even by the standards of strange things that miniature medals get up to.

For a good read, follow this link to the lady in question.

 

 

 

 

3,419

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Visit of the Russian Naval Squadron to Toulon (1893)

It’s not a significant number by any means, but it does mean I’ve written 3,418 previous blog posts. Mostly they have been inconsequential, but that’s not what is important. What is important is that it has enabled me to practice my writing, and I have been able to chat to some interesting people along the way. Nothing in life is ever wasted. The ability to rattle out 250-350 words on nothing of any importance, for instance, would be vital if I were a journalist, and is also quite useful for a man who write haibun.

I’ve just done another post for the Numismatic Society of Nottinghamshire, and am just getting into my rhythm. At the moment I am actually able to write more than we need for my contribution to the Facebook page. The President write something nearly every week, on classic numismatic items – mainly ancient coins, and I do something nearly every week on the less serious side – plastic transport tokens being one of the more recent ones.

Centenary of the railways in Britain (1830 – 1930)

having had another reasonably industrious day, I am feeling better about things, even if I have had to write an entirely new outline for the Miniature Medal talk. The ideal talk, to my mind, avoids assuming that everyone is as fascinated by the subject as I am, it does not batter people with facts, and it falls short of being an hour long. Forty minutes is plenty. You can then have questions, a chat and all get home still feeling like you have the use of your legs.

The chairs in the meeting room are hard plastic and an hour is usually long enough for me to start feeling numb, at which point I find my legs feel old for the rest of the evening. You want to atlk for an hour – you provide me with a chair that has a cushion.

Miniature Medals – the subject of my next talk

Adventures with Amazon

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View from the office

My printer finally arrived today and I was allowed to have it.

On Thursday Amazon delivered some display cases and sent me an email with a one time pass code that I would need to take delivery of my new printer. In the evening  I had another email telling me that there was a problem with my delivery. It was, to say the least, short on detail.

So, my free next day delivery was not “next day”.

Garden harvest – yes, baby carrots

On Friday the printer arrived whilst I was on the phone to the company that delivers my drugs. I call them that because it sounds more exciting than “the company that delivers my medication” and it’s easier than learning to spell Imunimulab. I have found over the years that if I put any effort into learning spellings they change my medication. It’s like when I finally learned to spell eczema: they changed the diagnosis to psoriasis.

They asked for the OTP. I gave it to them. It didn’t work so they took the printer away again. At that point I checked my emails and found they had sent a new OTP. They hadn’t told me I’d need another one.

Finally, today, I received the printer and managed to give them a correct code. I haven’t tried to set the printer up yet as I feel it is bound to be a disaster after all that has already happened. Maybe tomorrow . . .

Wasp exploring a knife smeared with jam

Meanwhile, I finished my piece on Nottingham Transport Tokens for the NSN Facebook page and added the finishing touches to the one of the medallions commemorating the opening of the carillon in Loughborough. I will probably add a few extra bits and post it on the blog. It’s much more interesting than you think once you start researching.

 

Nettle Soup

Pictures are from August 2015. Time flies.

A Sudden Panic Begins to Grow

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This morning I made a special effort – omlette for breakfast, made Julia’s sandwiches, did the washing up . . . then I tailed off. Finally, i managed to write the prose section of a haibun. As I made lunch (cheese on toast with tomato relish) I was struck by more inspiration and my lunch went cold as I typed two more. It’s hardly comparable to actual work, but I did feel that I’d made a breakthrough, and celebrated by falling asleep in my chair as I watched the news on TV after eating cold cheese on toast.

Considering  that I haven’t written anything new in the poetry line for three months, two of my recent acceptances date back to last October, and some are probably older than that, this is a promising  move forwards I have written some Facebook pieces for the Numismatic Society and quite a few blog posts, though even there I have been far from firing on all cylinders.

Visit of the Russian fleet to Toulon

Centenary of the Railways

I am also trying to do some longer pieces on collectables for the blog. It’s practice for magazine articles, which I intend to write when I retire.

Reverse of the Boy Scout Medal

Then there’s the presentation in September. That’s actually very close now and I have done nothing for the last two weeks. I am now feeling scared about that – it’s only about three weeks now and I’ve been frittering my time away without noticing. Three weeks is nothing, considering that I’ve changed the emphasis of the presentation several times and still don’t have a proper idea of the way I want to do it.

Miniature medals of Superintendent Tacey – Nottinghamshire City Police

Better finish this and get working again . . .

The Presentation Looms

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George Medal group awarded GM for gallantry under fire in Iraq when he defused a mutiny by Iraqi troops.

On Monday night at the Numismatic Society of Nottinghamshire AGM the list of talks for the new season was announced. I am officially listed as making my presentation in September. That is just 59 days away. The time has flown by. I have written a rough script and the first few slides and am currently relearning how to use the Presentation part of my Apache Open Office suite. It’s similar to PowerPoint for those of you who aren’t familiar with it and Open Office is similar to Microsoft, but has fewer features, much lower costs (it’s free) and doesn’t fence you round with a variety of restrictions. I would love the features of PowerPoint, but I prefer the feeling of using Open Office.

We had 14 members attending, which is good for what is universally accepted to be the most boring meeting of the year. Sometimes we have over 20 if the talk looks interesting. Sometimes I fall asleep, so perhaps some meetings are more boring than this. Other societies, from what I hear, have varying memberships. Some are larger and seem a bit more active. Some are smaller, which is a comfort to us as it makes us feel more viable. What is certainly true is that membership of coin clubs is down to about 50% of what it used to be and most of our members are 60 and over. Sometimes well over. there are younger collectors but they tend to use social media.

A pre-war railway specialist who, became a Lt Colonel in the Royal Engineers and was decorated three times for efficiency in feeding troops and Dutch civilians

We had one place available on the committee and, we thought, one person wishing to join. As it turned out someone rang during the afternoon and expressed an interest. One space, two enthusiastic volunteers. What do we do? I’d have accepted both, but we seem to have rules about that. However, as they are both younger than me and both good candidates, I volunteered to step down and make another vacancy. I was planning on stepping down next year after we move so it wasn’t a problem. We now have two new and enthusiastic committee members, which is good.

A railway signalling specialist working for a British firm in Argentina. Decorated with the Military Cross for rescuing a train under shell fire in WW1 and a civilian OBE for services to railway engineering. Both his sons died flying with the RAF in WW2 

One of my previous incarnations on a committee was Nottingham Outlaws where I was the Volunteer Coordinator. This is the ungrammatical title given to the person who coordinates the club volunteers, rather than the person who volunteers to coordinate. That’s how I know Rule Number One – never turn a volunteer down.

Anyway – 59 days to go. Just over 8 weeks. I need to research and write approximately ten slides a week so I don’t have time to spend chatting, I’d better get on . . .

DSO, DFC & bar to a pioneering night fighter radar expert. He wrote a book after the war telling of his exploits. As a pre-war actor he was Robert Donat;s understudy and was actually given leave from the RAF to play  a Gestapo officer in a film.

The photo at the top originally belonged to a multiply decorated war hero. Then someone got hold of it and used it as the basis for making up a fraudulent group. In fact he had an active service career with the Royal marine Light Infantry lasting about 4 months before being wounded in the battle for Gavrelle windmill in April 1917.

A Blink of an Eye

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Boy Scout gallantry Cross – awarded for rescuing a child from a canal.

Suddenly a week has gone. I have posted five times in that week, once managing twice a day. It isn’t just a week that has gone, my enthusiasm, energy and organisation all seem to have departed too.

Briefly I could feel them returning after a couple of acceptances, but it all seemed to fizzle out again.

Factory ID disc for Chilwell Shell Filling Factory

If anyone else had written this I would now be shouting at the screen about showing some self-discipline or making the NHS sort things out, but in real life the solution is seldom as simple as that. Added to that there are all sorts of things happening such as a request to display medallions at the Numismatic Society tonight. They would like me to take down the  medallions I have used as the inspiration for the Facebook posts I have done.

The 1982 Chilwell medallion – end of an era

I really have enough to do without searching them all out and working out some sort of display, but that’s life isn’t it – a succession of tasks, often requested by other people, that have to be done before you can do what you really want to do.

I’m going to call an end to this post now. It has reached a natural finishing point. Three times I managed to get over 250 words, and three times I have pruned it drastically because I didn’t like the way it was going. It’s near enough 250 words and will be even nearer by the time I have concluded this ending. Pictures are the medallions that I have written about on Facebook.

Chilwell Tank Fund badge – raising money to fight WW2