Elgin Coin Club Celebrates 500th Meeting

The Elgin Coin Club celebrated its 500th meeting on August 4. After refreshments provided by member Denise McDade, member Mike Metras recounted several points of history since the club was established in 1957. Club members contributed to a display several of the tokens and memorabilia produced by the club over the years.

After the talk each person at the meeting received a souvenir, a bill honoring the meeting and good for one dollar towards club dues. The bill includes pictures and signatures of the officers and a picture of all members present at the April, 1999 meeting. The 3x7-inch bill, designed and printed by member Mike Metras, includes drawings from several obsolete bills. Members were able to buy additional copies of the limited edition bill for $2 each with proceeds going to the club treasury.

Elgin Coin Club 500th Meeting Bill Obverse

In addition, Mike Metras presented a large-sized version of the bill, printed landscape on a 8-1/2 x 11 sheet, to club president Doug Nelson. Member Mike Cerny won a second large version in a special raffle. Both of these were signed by all present at the meeting before being given away. The club is making copies of this large version available for $5. These large ones are being produced as ordered.

The club is making the bill available to anyone desiring it. For the small version, send two dollars ($2) and a stamped (33 cents) self-addressed business-sized envelop to

Elgin Coin Club
Bill offer
Box 561
South Elgin, IL 60177-0561

If you are ordering from overseas, please include sufficient return postage certificates instead of stamps on the envelop. For the large version, send $5 along with a large stamped, self-addressed envelope able to hold the 8-1/2 x 11 sized note. Please make checks payable to the Elgin Coin Club. Allow extra time for the large version as it will be printed only as orders for it arrive.

For more information about the club, visit our Elgin Coin Club web site.

Details

Elgin Coin Club 500th Meeting Bill Reverse

Among other things, this bill includes the following elements:

• Pictures of all officers and the Newsletter Editor

  Doug

  Jim

  Don

  Jennifer

  Mike

• Picture of the members at our April meeting

  

• Picturs of an Elgin water tower, our dog Jessy, and our cat Mr. McTee

• A pre-1839 train from a 1838 $100 bill of Merchannts and Planters Bank of Chicago

  

• A pre-1841 train from an 1840 $100 bill of the Office of the Board Of Public Works of Illinois

  

• Boats from a July, 1844, $1 Marine and Fire Insurance Company Certificate of Deposit.

  

• Liberty and a farm view from an 1860s $5 bill of the Timber Cutter's Bank of Savana Georgia.

  

• Vignettes of the number 1 from several different notes.

The Numbers

• The run was numbered from 1 to 194.

• I made two star notes, 90* and 158*, when I accidentally used those numbers twice and didn't want to destroy the notes.

• I never used the number 159.

• Numbers 22, 23, 135, 138, 180, 181, and 182 were destroyed as errors.

The Tools

I used the following tools to create the bills:

• PKI Pentium 100 computer
• Myota 486 36 computer
• Scan Ace II flat-bed scanner
• Ulead VideoStudeo Image Editor, Version 2 software
• Hewlett Packard Photo Smart photo and slide scanner
• Hewlett Packard LaserJet 5L printer.

Mike Metras, Elgin Coin Club Editor
August 4, 1999