Loomis, Steven, IC3

My father remarried and my mother wanted rid of us, so, without recourse my father and his new wife inherited the three of us. It was not one of those joyous events, especially for my new step-mother... We arrived with our little bits and pieces, mostly a few items of clothing and a couple of bicycles. We came from Cadillac Michigan to an even smaller town in Wisconsin. We only lived in the village of Columbus for a year, from the late summer of 1960 to the summer of 1961, but it was a memorable time. Being a single year events only took place once. One Halloween, one Christmas, etc.

The date I chose for this item/event: Dec 25 1960...

I started with a penny collection in 1960, age 10. A few years later my father and step-mother got the bug. We joined the local coin club and started exhibiting our collections at shows around the state of Wisconsin. My story:

The date was December 25 1960... it was Christmas and brought my first coin books, a set of Lincoln Penny albums, the standard blue "Whitman". I'd never seen anything like it. Mind you, at this time I'd never walked around with coins in my pockets either. My father gave me some pennies from his pocket change and my collection started taking on life. 

Two blocks over and a block down was a small convenience store, actually, the front two rooms of a house and the old lady/owner who ran the store. One day, while buying some penny candy I asked her if I could bring my Lincoln Penny books over and exchange pennies with her. She was delighted and so on Saturday mornings I would come over and go through the Wheat-backs and occasional new Lincoln Memorial pennies from her cash register. It was a wonderful time and rewarding for me. In fact, she never made a cent from it. I was the one who was making out on this deal. As summer arrived my father packed us up and we moved to another town, locking those memories in place. 

As the years passed my father and step-mother both got into coin collecting. His approach, her choices and my lack of income made our collections entirely different. My father's were more extravagant, hers had 'educational' value. Mine... well I learned early that rare coins were something I would not be purchasing so I tended toward Type Sets and a collection of British Empire coins from all corners of the world. 

Then, about the time I was 14 my father joined the local coin club and we became NOW members, Numismatists Of Wisconsin. A family joke, because my step-mother was also a member of NOW, National Organization of Women... another story. 

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Membership in the coin club immediately drew us into coin exhibiting at coin shows. Within a year we were traveling the state of Wisconsin and winning trophies in US, Foreign, Education and my Junior categories. By the time I was 15 I would request to run in the adult categories because the junior division was crap. Reluctantly, they allowed it. Twice, my father and I were top winners in the same catagory... US Coins. He won Best of Show and I won First Place. From Steven Point, Wausau, the Fox River Valley to Janesville, the Loomis's won. Some people got pretty sick of us.

My Type Collection.
My penny books were just that, pennies from change. There were very few missing in that collection, but, because they are so common and of little value they do not make a good exhibit. Type Collections did. They represent AN example of each type of coin without being every single year. For example, my silver dollar type collection. I exhibited a Morgan Dollar collection, one from each mint (all five of the) and a near perfect example of the (odverse) face. The mint marks were on the back (reverse) at the bottom. CC: Carson City NV; O: New Orleans; D: Denver; P: Philadelphia; and S: San Francisco. What the judges liked were the short write-up on each of the five mints... that is where judging points really come into play. The coins were worth less than $50, back in the mid '60's. Layout (eye candy) and information were the winning combinations. There were times that my silver dollars ran against thousands of dollars worth of gold coins and won because the 'value' of the collection wasn't worth very many points.

My Silver Dollar collection of just six coins, the five mints and a front view, could run in either US Coins or the Education category. I would also rack up points from 'viewer' points, a special category of public opinion by people attending the show and casting a ballot for the People's Choice.

All and all, it was fun, entertaining and educational. Plus, I learned some American History Trivia in the process.

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N.O.W. News, published by Numismatists of Wisconsin serving collectors and clubs throughout the state of Wisconsin. 
From articles published in the summers of 1967 and 1968. Coin Show Trophy Winners:

LOOMIS DISPLAY JUDGED BEST AT BEAVER DAM CLUB JAMBOREE / 1967:
Harold Schultz presented Dennis Loomis his Best in Show trophy. Mrs. Loomis and son Steven were also trophy winners. 
Claudia and Nancy Sturner of Beaver Dam won the Jr. Best of Show award and other junior trophy winners were Steven Loomis in U. S. coins and foreign, Barbara Pearson in Miscellaneous, and Steven Loomis a special award. 

FOX VALLEY COIN CLUB SHOW, Appleton WI / 1967:
Dennis Loomis of Beaver Dam won the Best of Show award with a U.S. type set display. He also placed 1st in the Medals and Tokens class and 2nd in Canadian and Mexican. Mrs. Loomis won 1st in Canadian and Mexican, and Harvey Binder of Beaver Dam won 2nd in Medals & Tokens. Winners in other classes were Theodore Gunderson of Beaver Dam first and Mike Degelow 2nd in U. S. coins. Mrs. Loomis 1st and Gerald Bowman of Fond du Lac 2nd in foreign coins; Ruth Ann Waddell of Madison first and Mrs. Edward Kellom of Beaver Dam second in Paper Money; James Ebben of Appleton 1st, and Marsha Kellom of Beaver Dam 2nd in Miscellaneous and Specialized; and Mrs. Loomis in Education. Richard Anderson of Menasha won a special award. (This is how it was published, however some credited to my father and step-mother were in fact mine. I don't think their club had trophies for a Jr's category and just gave me a thank you for participating. I remember we sorted it out once we got home... by then our mantel was over-flowing with trophies.)

WISCONSIN VALLEY'S COIN CLUB ANNUAL SHOW, Wausau WI / 1967: 
Odd & Curious Excellence Award to: Dennis Loomis, Spanish Pieces of Eight. 
Odd & Curious Outstanding Award to: Mrs. Dennis Loomis, Educational display.
Outstanding Award to: Dennis Loomis for his Mexican Gold display.
In the Junior Division, Junior Excellent Award and Best in Show to: Steven Loomis for his United Kingdom coins; Junior Excellent for his Mexican coin display, 1st place for his US Mints silver dollars, and 3rd place for 20th Century US paper dollar bills. 

BEAVER COIN CLUB, Beaver Dam WI / 1968:
In the Junior Division, Steve Loomis won Best in Show for his Mexican Type Set. Loomis also won 1st and 3rd place trophies with Karen Pearson, Beaver Dam, taking 2nd place. 

STOUGHTON COIN SHOW DISPLAY WINNERS, Stoughton WI / 1968:
1st Place Dennis Loomis, and JR. AWARDS 1st Place Steve Loomis of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.

I joined the Navy in 1969. 

My father was President of the local coin club for several years. He pushed for more appropriate awards such as "coin like" tokens, paperweights, etc., rather than what looked like Drag Racing trophies. Several old members hated the idea, maybe they hadn't had to take theirs to the basement and cut them down to a reasonable size. After I got out of the Navy I donated my box of trophies the local Boys and Girls club. But, once you start collecting coins it gets into your blood. I brought coins and paper bills back from my tour in Saigon and the two years I spent in Saudi Arabia.