Club’s hobby is on the money

Who hasn’t looked through their loose change from time to time looking for interesting coins? Maybe you’ve found a “double die” Lincoln cent, a pure silver Kennedy half dollar, or a Mercury dime. The men and women of the Fremont Coin Club share your interest, and then some.

The Club, founded in 1971, meets at the Elks Club on Farwell Drive. If you ask most members why they belong, the answer is consistent: As 17-year member Herb Miles notes, “It’s a way of meeting like minded people.” Collectors share a basic interest in coins and currency, but usually develop specialties, which they enjoy sharing.

Miles, for instance, collects “good fors,” tokens popular from the 1890s to the 1940s produced by merchants to entice return customers. Tokens could be ‘good for’ five cents off a cigar, a free drink, or in one case, a free stick of dynamite.

Miles also collects an obscure bit of Americana: KKK tokens, coins specially created by the group to raise funds.  Says Miles, “I go around to all the shows and they know what I collect, so they’ll set something aside for me. In the past, though, they didn’t know me; I’d say, ‘you got any KKK tokens?’ and they’d look at me as if I’d lost my mind.” Incidentally, Herb Miles is African-American.

People have collected coins for the value of their metals for as long as coins have been minted; collecting them for their aesthetic value came later. From Mesopotamia to Ancient Rome, scholars and state treasuries collected and catalogued coins. From the middle-ages through the eighteenth century, the hobby was mainly for the well-to-do. Today’s hobby is rooted in the nineteenth century when the new middle class adopted the leisure activities of the wealthy.

Coin collecting is accessible in some form or another to nearly everyone. The wide variety of denominations, conditions, materials, and origins mean that collectors have an enormous spectrum from which to choose. Values run from a few cents to the astronomical. An excellent specimen of one of the first coins to come from the first US mint in Philadelphia, a rare “chain cent,” is worth $750,000!

One of the problems facing the Fremont Coin Club and clubs around the country is the difficulty of finding new members. While the Internet and eBay have seemingly made it easy for less social collectors to enjoy their hobby alone, according to a 2008 article in the Numismatic News by Jim Majoros, clubs were even in decline before the Web. His calculations suggest that in the years between 1975 and 2008, there was a 60 percent loss of coin club membership. California alone went from 173 to 59 recognized clubs. As a result, most clubs are finding ways of getting youth interested early.

Roger Lyles, a charter member of the Fremont club, describes the life cycle of the collector thus: “Kids get introduced to the hobby by an elder, usually someone from the family. As a kid, the young collector might chase a few coins, but then life happens. Only when that person achieves middle-age and attains some discretionary income (and time), the collecting flame is rekindled. Then that collector passes on the interest to a child, or grandchild, thus completing the cycle.” Lyles’ version would account for the preponderance of seniors in the club, as well as the presence of a few kids who act as auction runners or give show and tell talks about their favorite coins.

Visitors to Fremont Coin Club meeting can peruse member displays, participate in a show and tell, listen to a short talk, and bid on items consigned by members, who may keep the proceeds or designate them for club activities such as annual dinners and shows.

A sample of the sort of items auctioned off appears in the club’s May/June 2012 newsletter: 1914 Australian Florin; Eisenhower dollar varieties; tokens from the Western Token Jamboree and Alameda County; Indian cents; uncirculated silver half-dollars; a mint 1910 Liberty nickel; a ten ounce silver bar, and more.

At the January 23rd meeting, Lyles, a retired a real estate broker of 46 years, related his own story: “My father was a collector,” said Lyles, “and in 1952 he gave me a penny that was the size of a half dollar. I said, ‘this is a penny?’ He saw I had an interest.” Roger’s father owned a grocery store, where young Roger would find interesting coins and buy them with his $1.50 an hour wage.

Four years ago he sold the business and devoted himself to his hobby. He’s doing well. “Stuff that I may have paid five bucks for back in 1960,” says Lyles, “I get maybe seventy-five bucks today.” Is that a profit after inflation? “Well, that’s a matter for debate. The risks you take as a coin seller today are substantial.”

Roger spends 2 or 3 days a week involved in coin activities, “visiting different coin shops, buying this and that.” Of course, for any collector, there’s no selling without a little buying. “I tell my wife,” says Lyles, “If I can’t have it to sell, I can’t sell it! If I sell one thing and I do good, I’ll buy another and try again.”

Aside from guest speakers, the Club often hosts other special and fun activities, such as hot dog night, ice cream socials, and their our annual barbeque, to name a few. One of the most interesting meetings is “other hobbies” night when everyone is encouraged to bring a sample or two and talk about what else they collect, aside from coins and currency. “It’s amazing what people collect,” says the Club website (http://www.fremontcoinclub.org/), “and we love hearing about it. And let’s face it, the more people who know you collect it, the faster your collection can grow—coin or otherwise!”

For more information on club dues, meetings, and links to important coin related sites, visit http://www.fremontcoinclub.org/

After 350 years, nobody ‘board’ by this card game

Every Wednesday from the beginning of September to the end of May, if you visit the Round Table Pizza in Centerville, you might wonder what those people in the back are doing. People are playing some sort of card game that also involves moving pegs around a wooden board. Congratulations, you have stumbled upon the Fremont Cribbage Club.

The Club of approximately 25 members began meeting in May of 1987. One of more than 200 “Grass Roots Clubs” under the jurisdiction of the Western Region of the American Cribbage Congress (ACC), the official Club name is Christopher’s Crusader’s, named in honor of departed long-time club member, Bob Christopher.

The game itself is more than 350 years old. According to biographer, natural philosopher, and pioneer archaeologist John Aubrey (1626-1697), English poet Sir John Suckling (1609-1641) invented cribbage in the early 17th century. It is derived from the game ‘noddy’ which gets its name from the noddy, or knave, also known as the jack, which bears an important role in both games. The objective of cribbage (one of the most popular card games in the English-speaking world) is to be the first player to score a target number of points, typically 61 or 121. Points are scored for card combinations that add up to fifteen, and for pairs, triples, quadruples, runs and flushes. The board itself is simply a point-tallying device.

The ACC supports local, or ‘Grass Roots,’ clubs all across the country. These clubs meet once a week or every other week and conduct 6-game or 9-game tournaments that last between 2 and 3 hours. It’s a great way to meet new people and play cribbage without needing to travel very far. Playing in a local club “is a way for us to enjoy a game that many of learned playing with our families when we were young,” says current club president Craig Rothbach. He moved into his role a few years ago when the previous president resigned. “Someone had to do it,” he says. “I’m retired so I figured I had the time.”

One of Craig’s jobs is to transmit to the American Cribbage Congress’s website points tallies for the players. The ACC keeps track of points and statistics, and players are awarded prizes and honors according to the point tallies they accumulate over the years. Annually, the Fremont Club holds a dinner and award ceremony (spouses invited) to honor the high scoring players. Each club crowns its own local champion who is then eligible to play in a Tournament of Champions at the yearly ACC gathering in Reno. Though the ACC sanctions dozens if not hundreds of tournaments across the country every year, Reno is the big one where the National Champion—the player who earns the most points in a season—is crowned.

Cribbage holds a special place among American submariners, serving as an ‘official’ pastime. The wardroom of the oldest active submarine in the United States Pacific Fleet carries the personal cribbage board of World War II submarine commander and Medal of Honor recipient Rear Admiral Dick O'Kane on board. Today, the honor of carrying the cribbage board belongs to the nuclear-powered attack submarine, USS Los Angeles (SSN 688).

The story is that while aboard the USS Wahoo patrolling in the shallow waters of the Yellow Sea during WWII, O'Kane was dealt a perfect 29, the highest possible score for a single cribbage deal. The crew felt that it was a lucky omen and indeed they sank two Japanese freighters that night. Three days later, while patrolling off the Korean coast south of Chinnampo, O'Kane received a 28-hand, the second best possible score. When the crew sank two freighters that day and another one the following day, the cribbage board became a talisman of good luck.

In Theodore H. Sweester’s memoirs, published as ‘Cribbage in the Dugout,’ by Richard E. Hage and‎ Anna M. Meleney, the WWI physician recounts that while on the front near Ypres, he spent a year tending to the wounded as shells burst overhead, even surviving a gas attack. For relief he and his fellow officers played cribbage. A search for ‘trench art’ on eBay turned up a couple cribbage boards, including a rifle with a cribbage board inlaid into the stock.

Cribbage finds it way into English literature by way of Charles Dickens’ ‘Old Curiosity Shop’ character Richard Swiveller, who teaches a young lady cribbage, guaranteeing thereby his ticket to everlasting marital bliss. Speaking of the English and cribbage, it is the only game that can be played in a pub for money.

To ensure that new and would-be members are welcomed, the ACC has devised a Code of Congeniality, which, among other pledges, promises to

• Welcome new players warmly and make them feel wanted.

• Not make new players feel inferior if or when they miss points or make a bad play. (They will, instead, let them know that all cribbage players do this and that it is part of the learning process.)

Those interested in learning to play have a variety of books to choose from: Titles such as ‘Cribbage Made Easy’ by George Walker, ‘Play Winning Cribbage’ by DeLynn Colvert, and ‘Hand Book of Cribbage’ players of all levels instructions, strategies, and caveats. The tongue-in-cheek guide, ‘How to Cheat at Cribbage: With Quotations from William Shakespeare’ by Jeffrey O. Haseltine seems a promising read for those interested in cribbage’s mischievous side.

Anyone wishing to learn on their own can find rules and online gameplay at https://cardgames.io/cribbage/

How much of cribbage is skill, and how much is luck? “That’s always a good question,” Rohrbach laughs. “When you’re winning, it’s skill, when you’re losing it’s luck. I have learned tricks from players that I never would have thought of. Skill is definitely involved, and some players are clearly better than others.”

In February 2017, The ACC announced that Sir John Suckling's birthday, February 10, is the official date of National Cribbage Day. “Take the day to celebrate,” reads the ACC website, “take time off work, be with family, make a cake, organize a local parade, but most of all play cribbage!

If you’d like to contact the Fremont cribbage club Christopher’s Crusaders, ACC Grass Roots club #43, email accgr43@gmail.com.