President's Message by BCCOCO president Eric Holcomb (elected November 2012)

December 2012 — As your newly-elected club president, I would like to make a first reminder about the Bend Coin Club of Central Oregon's last 2012 meeting, on the evening of Tuesday December 18 at the usual location (Grange hall near the Bend airport). This is our annual holiday potluck ... the club will supply a meat item (probably ham), drinks, and plates and utensils ... you supply the rest, including holiday cookies or desserts if desired! It would be appreciated if you could respond stating what you're likely to bring; otherwise I may need to call a few people! The meeting will also feature some excellent raffle prizes, a brief opportunity for "show & tell" or announcements, and possibly a short auction. Please let me know if you have any questions before the meeting, and I'll see you there!

President's Message by BCCOCO president Ted Campbell

November 2012 — Hi folks. What a busy month for everybody. But don't forget Tuesday is our November meeting. Walter will be speaking about toning and grading of Morgan dollars and a couple of other interesting things he learned in Colorado at the ANA Summer Seminar. Some new folks are bringing items they would like to learn more about what they have. We also vote on new officers for January. All officers are running unopposed and we have a couple of new board members. Eric will be the new president and he brings a wealth of experience that should benefit the club a lot. There will be drawings for more prizes and of course cake and coffee. I spoke at the November treasure club meeting and it looks like we will have some visitors from that group at the meeting to. So see you Tuesday. Thanks my friends.

October 2012 — Hey everyone. Don't forget Tuesday is our next meeting. It is also nominations for officers. I am not going to run for president again, and I'll explain in a bit. Everyone else on the board would like to stay where they are. One board position at large will be open and I know Anthony has an interest in being on the board. He is a great guy and would do a wonderful job. But as always, if you have an interest in being on the board, just make it known at Tuesday's meeting. All are welcome and encouraged to run for office. Walter would like to stay in his position as education leader which is an appointed position. Thank you, Walter. I have also spoken with Eric and he would like to run as club president. Eric has a lot of coin club experience and is a past president at some of those clubs. And there is no one I know that knows more about our hobby than Eric. I believe he to will do a great job for the club. So nominations are Tuesday and the election at the November meeting. New officers start their terms Jan 1st.

Tuesday Anthony will be our speaker and is going to talk about buying and selling on eBay. There will be handouts and a lot of good info. Same time: 6:30 pm at the Grange. Looking forward to seeing you all there. I need and want to share a bit of info with you all about me. A couple of weeks ago I started having some seizures. So now everyone wants to test me. They want to make sure the brain tumor I have isn't causing new problems. So lots of tests. I should be hearing more this week. So I am working with the board to make a smooth transition. I will still help out as I can and will be at the meetings, but Eric is going to start playing a bigger part. Personally I think it would be good for the club to have Eric as president so we can advance in some areas where he has much better expertise than I do. But again, if anyone wants to also run for president I wholly encourage you. I don't want to look like I'm trying to stack the deck on board members. Everyone should run for office if they want to. Ok my friends, I'll see you Tuesday. Have my ride all set up. And this time I won't forget the cake! Ted/Theo.

September 2012 — Hey everyone, yes I am still alive. Shoulder is doing great and have finally made it to Spokane to see the kids and grandkids. I will be back on the 16th just in time for our coin club meeting on the 18th. Hope everyone had a great summer and either found or bought or somehow legally acquired a coin they were after. Haha! Gold and silver are on the way up again. Coins are still selling well. And I'm excited to have our meeting. All still the same time, 6:30 pm and the same place at the Grange. I'm really looking forward to Eric's presentation. Free coffee and of course cake. But I'm hoping to also hear about what you did over the summer. Gotta run ... next grandchild birthday party, so see you soon and get excited. It's coin club meeting time. Thanks, everyone! Theo/Ted.

June 2012 — Hey folks, don't forget Tuesday's coin club meeting. That's Tuesday the 19th of June, starting at 6:30 PM. My new shoulder is doing good enough that I will be there no problem. We are having a great speaker, Howard, who will be talking about sales tax tokens. This will be a first for us and I know it will be very interesting. Bring something for show and tell. As always coffee and cake. Drawings for prizes with the raffle tickets. And the 8:00 PM auction if anyone has something they want to auction off. This will be our last meeting until September. I hope you all enjoyed the metal detecting adventure at last month's meeting.

A quick story with a valuable lesson. I'm sure you have heard the saying buy the book before you buy the coin. I subscribe to the weekly magazine, Numismatic News. Now I would love to tell you this story of triumph was solely based on my superior intelligence and prowess for a good buy when I see it. Truth is, the success in this story was just past the range of dumb luck. But it does have a good point. About two years ago I read an article in Numismatic News about Eisenhower dollars being such bad over all quality. As the story explained there are less than 100 MS 67 Eisenhower regular business strikes graded between PCGS and NGC. I thought it was interesting and the next week I saw one for sale on the Teletrade auction site. I had no idea what it should go for, but because of the story I read, I paid $700 for a 1971-D MS 67 graded by NGC. The other day I looked up the PCGS web site and they had listed the coin value now at $4,700. Now I wish every coin I bought did this well, but my point is, the more you read and know the more fun you will have in collecting. I am bringing to the meeting a gob of the old issues I have and I am hoping you will take some and eventually sign up for the magazine yourself. Had I not read about the story of the Eisenhower dollar, I never would have bought one.

So see you all Tuesday at the meeting. I'd also like to make time for sharing any info you have on what your collecting is doing in the marketplace currently. Thank you my friends, president Ted.

May 2012 — This Tuesday the 15th we are having our club meeting. But, we are doing something special. We are going to learn about what a metal detector does and we have permission to detect around the Grange. So I and some others are bringing our metal detectors and are going to teach you how to use one and give you the experience of looking for something special you might find. So, if you have a metal detector bring it to the meeting with the intent of showing others how to use it and train them to use your detector for a chance to find a coin. I love collecting coins, but I really like it when I find them for free! Very fun stuff my friends. Also there will be coins for sale that are going to be brought in by other members. As always free cake and coffee and let's talk about the coin show we want to sponsor. Let's also take a look at metal prices and what's going on and what's predicted. Should be a great meeting. Thanks my friends! Same place at the Grange at 6:30 pm. Looking forward to seeing you all, Ted.

April 2012 — Hey folks ... pot luck dinner, come even if you can't bring anything. The club is supplying BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and we are ready to go. I have heard from others and they are bringing macaroni salad, coleslaw, deviled eggs. There will also be soda and water to drink. Bring your favorite chips if you want. We are also having a show and tell, I'm bringing an MS67 NGC-graded 1971-D Eisenhower dollar. There are less than 100 of them graded MS67 between NGC and PCGS. I'm also bringing my 1893-S Morgan dollar. Referred to as the "king of silver dollars," there were between 75,000 and 100,000 minted. And to have a complete collection of Morgan dollars you have to have one. Also a big thanks to Mike at Mountain High Coins for all his support to our club. And he has done a lot for us. We will also have our auction, raffle tickets, and great conversation. Remind me to talk about Canada not making pennies after this year. We can't be far behind. - Theo.

March 2012 — Hey everyone, it's Ted/Theo and I'm back. Been gone for a month and am ready for our March meeting. March 20th, at the Grange, starting at 6:30 pm. Auction at 8:00 pm. As always there will be cake and coffee. I am so looking forward to seeing everyone and hearing some good coin stories. Anyone find anything good in their roll searching or pocket change? I am having a big sale; I will make a list, but if you have some desire to own Morgan dollars, high quality, and VAMs of many kinds, let me know. Ok folks, more soon, but wanted to let you know I'm back and ready to go, talk to you soon. I'll explain the Theo thing at the meeting. While I was on vacation everyone called me Theo, and I liked it. Thanks everyone!

February 2012 — Ted is currently unavailable and will write another message in March.

January 2012 — Hi folks. What a busy month for me, so I will be short. Next Tuesday January 17th at 6:30 will be our next coin club meeting. Have a good speaker lined up. Howard will be talking about "Tax Tokens." There will be examples and I have asked some who have tokens to bring them for show and tell. Here is the agenda: Pledge of allegiance; Old Business reports; Treasurers report; New Business; Show and tell; Break with cake and coffee (of course); Speaker; followed by the 8:00-8:30 auction. If you have coins to sell bring them. If you have coins to auction bring them. Not much new business as far as I can tell. We will have our drawings as usual. if you need a flyer to put up let me know at the meeting. If anyone has some wood again like last year, we could use it. Ok everyone, get excited and see you Tuesday! Ted {Note: Meeting was cancelled due to weather conditions.}

See previous messages: 2011 | 2010.