Changes at the Museum

Well I went by the museum to continue my research and found out Mr. Howe has moved on to another position and no longer works there. He still works for the museum system at Fort Jackson, just not he Finance museum so a lot of knowledge went with him. I talked to his replacement Mr. Bob McConnel and he isn't familiar with most of the artifacts at this time but is eager to learn. In fact at the current time he doesn't even have access to the artifacts as the change has not been fully completed. I talked with him for a short period and he is very open to helping me out once he gets all his transition completed and is able to access the museums artifacts.

I have also been made aware that the museum link is no longer working. I am going to keep it posted until I get an answer on if it will be permanantly removed or if it is just a temporary setback or if it was relocated.  No new purchases lately as the holidays approach and life gets busy.

Museum Trip

  A few days back I was able to sit down for about an hour with Mr. Howe, the curator of the Finance Corp Museum. It was a great visit and he shared a lot of information with me about MPCs and the museum. The majority of questions I had for him was about the series 701 and 691 notes that he has on display and on hand at the museum. I learned a lot during the visit. The museum currently houses both series still sealed in the original cases, roughly 350 cases and about a semi-trailer full to put it in perspective. Both series were being stored at Ft Ben Harrison until the late 90's or so. They decided they needed the space so they shipped them to Anniston Army Depot which is the holding center for all Army museums. In the early 2000's the Anniston Army Depot decided they no longer had the space and were going to shred them. At that point the museum said they will find space to store them and they were shipped to Fort Jackson around 2003. The cases have not been inventoried and most are still sealed which would mean that it is impossible to tell how many have been “liberated”. It is also impossible to know how many replacement notes are mixed into the cases.

He has some progressive proofs and let me check those out which were really cool. Each denomination of a series had about 10 notes in a book to show each different layer of printing. Below is a picture of a series 692 $1 with one or two layers (I can't remember). I will be scanning a bunch of these when I go back as well to show the entire progress of the printings...Note that there are no position, serial, or denomitation on this note yet.

Lastly, we mainly just sat around and talked about the current economy and past historical events that have seemed to repeat themselves. Military retirement being a highlight. It was a good visit and he invited me to come back when I have more time and I can get some scans and pictures of the items he has not on display. I am hoping I can talk him into letting me get a picture of the stored MPC notes still in the cases.

If anyone has any questions that they would like for me to ask during my next visit just let me know. I plan on going back in late November .

mtnstyne@gmail.com

Museum trip summary coming soon!

Spent over an hour sitting down with the museum curator at the US Army Finance Corp Museum at Fort Jackson, SC and will post the results soon. I also coordinated a return trip for November-December time frame so again if anyone has questions please send them to me at mtnstyne@gmail.com.

Picked up this new purchase:

Listed all the notes in the trading area on eBay if you are intested in picking any up cheap.

MY EBAY LISTINGS

Next Show

Looks like the next show I will be attending will be right here in Columbia, SC on the 5th of November. That should give me time to both save some $$$ and work on new want lists! The last show in Aiken, SC turned out pretty good but spent way to much.

Future Plans

I have contacted the curator of the US Army Finance Museum to get some reference material from him here in the near future and to also pick his brains if I have any questions that I come up with during my research.

If anyone has any questions they would like answered he seems to be a pretty good resource. You can send me any questions to my e-mail at mtnstyne@gmail.com. Please put MPC in the subject so I know not to discard it as spam.

Weekend Update

I changed the template colors as requested (I hope it is easier to read). I have added about 90% of what I have of my own collection so far and hope to get the rest added this weekend as well as individual scans of what I have for trade.

Still looking for my AAFES POGS (they are in a box from deployment still). I don't have that many, but picked some selective ones while down range. Primarily the super hero ones and some of the holograms. I guess if you collect things it's only natural to adapt to your environment and collect what is available and POGS where the coins of deployment.

I have recently started to collect and research the Military Payment Certificates (MPC) and decided to build a place to catalog my collection as well as share the information I have found. If you know of anyone who, like me, is working on a set or interested in the MPCs send them a link to the site, I would love to hear from them.

On the right side you will see pages as I add them with information and one with notes I may have for trade or for sale.

There are three pages for all the issued Military Payment Certificates series, the first page is for series 461, series 471, series 472, and series 481. The second page starts at series 521, series 541, series 591, and series 611. The last page is the Vietnam War Military Pay Certificates page that has information on series 641, series 651, series 661, series 681, and series 692.

In addition to the Military Payment Certificates I have created a page for the World War II (WWII) emergency notes from North Africa and the Hawaii Overprints.

Lastly I have a page for WWII Allied Occupation Currency that were used in Japan, Germany, Italy, and France. I do not collect these types at this time but as I find information about them I will add it to the site for those who do collect it.

The last thing I will point out is the link for the U.S. Army Finance Corps Museum located at Fort Jackson, SC. There is some good information in there as well and particularly about the unissued Military Payment Certificates series 691 and series 701.

My personal collection is in the infancy stages with several notes that are in not so good condition, but over time I plan on building a nice set and will post as I upgrade notes. All the notes pictured on this page including the background are notes I own unless otherwise stated.

Lastly, I am also new to building this site so if you have suggestions on how to make the site better please feel free to make a suggestion.