WBCC Newsmail 84, Vol. 3, March 21, 1998 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Composed with help of members of the Worldwide Bi-metallic Collectors Club and published by Martin Peeters, The Netherlands, Focal Point of the WBCC, martinp@concepts.nl or martinp@westbrabant.net -------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear members, This week was very hopefull to me. Several WBCC members offered me some Bi-metallics to start a new collection. Thanks to all of you, it gives me hope for the future. Still there is somethink to celebrate. We have now 90 members from 27 countries! I also hope you will enjoy reading this weeks WBCC Newsmail. 1. New members..............by Martin Peeters, WBCC Focal Point May I introduce 3 new WBCC members to you: Name: Christian Dolt (WBCC member #88), France E-mail: No Internet connection Name: Patrick Guillemet, (WBCC member #89), Canada E-mail: pguillem@teluq.uquebec.ca Age: 55 Profession: Specialist in Education (Distance-teaching University) Hobby: Numismatics (World Coins and Bi-metallic Coins, India-Native-States Coins), Music, Trucks and Trains, Computing and Surfing a lot ! Against: Uncirculating Coins, NLTCs and those coins issued by countries which don't even use them (Andorra, San Marino, Vatican, Isle of Man and the same) Goal: To explore the diversity of the world Name: Kari Hurskainen (WBCC member #90), Finland E-mail: khurski@icenet.fi Age: 36 2. First Bi-metallic of Sri Lanka............by Jeff Timmons, USA The nation of Sri Lanka is supposedly releasing their first Bi-metallic coin, this year, in honor of their 50th aniversary of independence. The denomination is 10 Rupees. Further details are unknown at this time. 3. Bi-metalic Canada 2 Dollar 1998...........by Frans Woons, Canada This week I received in the mail a brochure from the Royal Canadian Mint concerning some of its 1998 products. This brochure gives me the impression that the Bi-metallic $ 2 coin dated 1998 is available in three versions: a. Sterling silver ring / gold-plated sterling silver centre (part of the "Proof Set"). b. In base metals with a tiny W (for Winnipeg) (part of the "Uncirculated Set", "Oh! Canada! Uncirculated Gift Set", or "Tiny Treasures Uncirculated Gift Set"). c. In base metals without the W (part of the "Specimen Set"; I assume this set is struck in Ottawa). At this point in time it is not clear to me whether the coins intended for circulation will have the W. 4. The Santa Clara Coin Show......by Joel Anderson, USA Some observations on the recent Santa Coin, Stamp and Card Show (March 13-15), from the dealers side of the table: Overall the show was quite busy and very successful for me. It helped that there was a competing show in Chicago the same weekend, so many world coin dealers attended the Chicago show. Those of us left at Santa Clara had an excellent show, as few if any of our customers went to Chicago. Anyway, Chicago suffered a blizzard and freezing temperatures, while it was about 72F (22C) under sunny skies in Santa Clara. That should be reason enough to pick Santa Clara over Chicago. There is increasing interest in Bi-metallic coins. I had about 4 collectors specifically ask for them, and had many more pick out bimetal coins from my stock or my bimetal "junk box". I picked up three interesting Bi-metallic pieces. The first two were 41mm aluminum-bronze German Zodiac medals with an aluminum insert on one side. The insert had a sign of the zodiac. One medal was for cancer and the other for Capricorn. The other was a 36mm ringed bimetal piece. The piece was labeled Hong Kong, though I suspect it may be from the United States. The aluminum inner circle contained four Characters, the brass outer ring had just "1.00". The obverse and the reverse were the same. I saw, but was unable to acquire, some brochures and attractive Bi-metallic sample tokens offered by the firm Deutsche-Nickel. Deutsche-Nickel offers coin blanks and coining services. There were 4 varities of the sample tokens. Perhaps most interesting was that one of the brochures pictured a bimetallic Venezuela 20 Bolivar coin. Thus far the coin has not been issued, and with the inflation Venezuela experienced, it is unlikely to be issued unless they revalue their currency. Now the question is, how many were made and where are they now. For those that want to research this further Deutsche-Nickel has an uninformative web site at http://www.deutsche-nickel.de Their e-mail address is postmaster@deutsche-nickel.de 5. Bi-metallic Italy error?..........by Philip Chang, USA I went to one of my regular bidboard and I was looking thru her foreign coin box. There happen to be alot of Italy Bi-metallic 500 Lire with various dates. I figure it was a good chance to pick up the missing dates I needed so I separated the ones I wanted to purchase. Lo and behold, I came across one with no date! It look to me to be an minting error. It might caused by a grease glob in the minting process that happen to fall on the date. If one looks very carefully, the bottom half of 1992 can faintly be detected. Have any of you heard anything like this before on this type? 6. Piedfort Bi-metallics...............by Martin Peeters, Netherlands There are several Piedfort Bi-metallics struck in the past of different countries. BTW Piedfort means double thickness as an usual circulating coins. The following Piedfort ringed Bi-metallics are struck and issued: Canada: * 2 Dollar 1996, Polar Bear Bi-metallic in Gold (ring) with Silver plated Gold (center). Mintage 15,000, in Proof quality and it is in a box with 2 pieces of the 2 Canadian Dollars bill. Great Britain: * 2 Pound 1997, Bi-metallic in Gold plated Copper (ring) with Silver/Gold alloy plated Copper (center). Mintage 10,000, in Proof quality. Israel: * 10 New Shekalim 1995, Palm Tree Bi-metallic in Nickel plated Steen (ring) and Bronze plated Steel (center), Mintage unknown, in Brillant Uncirculated quality and is in the Medicine Mint Set. Struck at the Dutch Mint * 10 New Skelalim 1996, Palm Tree Bi-metallic in Nickel plated Steen (ring) and Bronze plated Steel (center), Mintage 8000, in Brillant Uncirculated quality and is in the Jerusalen 3000 Mint Set. Struck at the Dutch Mint. * 10 New Shekalim 1997, Palm Tree Bi-metallic in Nickel plated Steen (ring) and Bronze plated Steel (center), Mintage unknown, in Brillant Uncirculated quality and is in the Zionisme Mint Sets in 2 varieties: Blisterpack and Plastic Case. Struck at the Dutch Mint. Liechtenstein: * 20 Euro 1996, 190 years sovereignity Liechtenstein, Bi-metallic in Silver (ring) and Bronze (center). Mintage unknown, Proof quality, packed in a wooden box. This pieces is in another way special. The Liechtenstein Mint used per accident the die of the 40 Euro 1996. Officially the 20 Euro 1996 doesn't excists but was distrubuted to some collectors. * 40 Euro 1996, 190 years sovereignity Liechtenstein, Bi-metallic in Silver (ring) and Bronze (center). Mintage 500 pieces and Proof quality, packed in a wooden box. If you know more Piedfort Bi-metallics please let me know. 7. EMK's new Tradelist...........by Martin Peeters, Netherlands In EMK's (Erftstadter MunzKabinett) latest list (March '98) I saw the following Bi-metallics: Andorra: * 20 Dinar/Euro 1997, Goddess Europe with Child, non ringed Bi-metallic in Proof quality, 5000 pieces made, pice 172,50 German Marks * 50 Dinar 1996, Angel, non ringed Bi-metallic, price 325 German Marks Germany: * 5 Euro 1997, Gochsheim, 8000 pieces made, price 24,50 German Marks * 1 Euro 1997, Gadebusch, 500 pieces made, price 159 German Marks * 1 Euro 1997, Gadebusch, Design Bi-metallic, 50 pieces made price 360 German Marks Italy: * 1000 Lire 1997, with wrong Europa depicting, UNC, price 17,50 German Marks Netherlands: * 10 Euro 1997, Oldenbarnevelt, 10.000 piees made, price 21,00 German Marks * 10 Euro 1997, P.C. Hooft, 25.000 pieces made, price 21 German Marks * 10 Euro 1996, Huygens, 50.000 pieces made, price 25 German Marks Austria: * 250 Euro 1997, Gustav Klimt/The Kiss, 25.000 pieces made in Proof quality, price 428 German Marks These Bi-metallics can obtain at: EMK, Erftstadter MunzenKabinett Postfach 2108 50355 Erftstadt Germany E-mail: Rainer Barthel R.Barthel@t-online.de or M. Bach M.Bach-EMK@t-online.de Phone + 49-2235-9273747 Fax: + 49-2235-9273748 8. The World of Bi-metallics catalog.by Martin Peeters, WBCC Focal Point In the next issue of 'The World of Bi-metallics' catalog there will be removed what each WBCC member has in his collection. This is for privacy and security reasons. "See" you next week, Martin Peeters, Focal Point of the Worldwide Bi-metallic Collectors Club martinp@concepts.nl or martinp@westbrabant.net ------------------------------------------------------------ The Worldwide Bi-metallic Collectors Club has established September 14, 1996 and is the very first Worldwide Collectors Club using Internet. -----------------------------------------------------------