For the second meeting in a row, the Weatherperson (gotta be politically correct here) dealt us a zinger, this time in the form of wet snow that froze after being nicely padded down. Nevertheless, we had an attendance of 16 members and guests.

The January meeting was Election Night and we're happy to announce that our President is now Phil Harris, having moved up from V.P. Like all presidents and their executives, Phil will leave his mark on the club. This has also been true of our outgoing President, Jeff Ross, who ably filled the chair for two terms. Jeff has consented to be our new V.P., so he hasn't really retired from the executive at all and we can continue to benefit from his experience.

 

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The evil news of the month is that on the night of January 2, Nanaimo Stamp & Coin suffered a major burglary with a considerable quantity of coins stolen. The thieves smashed the front window, kicked in a door and helped themselves. Details of the lost coins are too extensive for this column but included were a fair lot of ICCS-graded silver dollars. Readers might note the fact if such a lot is offered to them.

Inso far as possible, all coin dealers in the west have been alerted with descriptions of the stolen stock and there will coverage in Canadian Coin News .

As of this writing, the case remains under investigation by the R.C.M.P.

 

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Jeff's loss serves as a kind of nasty wakeup call for all of us. Although we do everything to keep our members' activities anonymous, there is always the chance of our being "visited" by the creepie-crawlies. For those less than fully protected, it should be noted that one of the benefits of membership in the C.N.A . is coin collection insurance from the firm of Hugh Wood Canada Ltd at the annual premium rate of 60-cents per $100 coverage (minumum premium $50). This is one of the lowest rates going and is the result of negotiations with the C.N.A. In the event of loss, they have also settled without a whole lot of humming and hawing. Think about it.

 

Wayne Jacobs is numismatic expert. He is the award winning author of numerous articles. He is the secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.