The gray heads had a meeting of C-5 (Colonial Coin and Currency Club of NJ and PA) on October 16, 2025, at the Town and Country Diner in Bordentown, NJ. In attendance from left to right around the table were: Leo Shane, Ray Williams, Bill Liatys, Wayne Shelby, Mike Brooks, John Louis, Don Hartman, Roger Siboni, and Roger Moore. After a brief period of exchanging condolences on our latest medical challenges, we moved on to showing interesting coins, etc.

The talk was non-stop, showcasing many treasures. Luckily, there weren't too many other diners because the noise levels reached pretty high decibel ranges. Roger Siboni blew everyone away with his magnificent Washington Before Boston medal. The details and the depth of strike were exceptional, as was the size of the medal. I must add, the photo doesn"t do this medal justice.

Ray Williams had a Lion Dollar that was passed around to obtain opinions about a very enigmatic date. Was this a double strike error, some sort of odd damage, or a blunder by the engraver? Most agreed that a drunk engraver was the most likely cause.

Roger Moore was given leniency for showing a non-numismatic item-a Danish bayonet sold to the British, for use during the French & Indian War, and available to the Patriots during the War of Independence. Though hand-to-hand conflict is rarely considered during the Revolution, it was often necessary since reloading a flintlock rifle was a slow and cumbersome process, especially when an enemy was charging. Tomahawks were also widely used.

Wayne Shelby brought a New Jersey variety 34-J (Deer Head) with a Nova Constellatio copper undertype. This is evidently the only 34-J with that undertype presently unknown.

Leo Shane also brought a non-numismatic object - a 12-pound British cannonball - along with some great currency. It was mostly used by the British navy with cannons positioned on the main decks of their warships. The arrow mark indented into the cannonball indicates it to be of British origin.

Both Bill Liatys and Mike Brooks shared large collections of colonial currency. Bill had just had all his notes slabbed, and Mike had a collection he had just received from a friend to sell. John Louis showed a large collection of coins and artifacts he had metal-detected, and Don Hartman provided an update on his ongoing project of gathering metal-detected New Jersey coins, which is now almost at 2000.The discussions simmered down for a short period when the food arrived, but returned to the high decibel levels once plates were removed. The discussions went on for three hours until stern looks from our waiter finally made us leave. However, everyone stated how much they were looking forward to the C4 Annual Meeting in a few weeks.

For more information on the Colonial Coin Collectors Club, see:
https://colonialcoins.org/

To read an earlier E-Sylum article, see:
THURSDAY LUNCH CLUB REPORT APRIL, 2024(https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n15a17.html)