At the bottom of the General Information page of the WINS Web Site, you'll find a Site Link Button entitled "Join WINS". The button is accompanied by brief verbiage that's intended to encourage a visit to our site and hopefully entice new members to join our club. The button and companion verbiage are available for use by all WINS members. The button may be utilized at such places as members' web sites or members' auction listings.

The requisite HTML is pre-written. All you need to do is copy and paste, and the "Join WINS" button will appear. Please visit the General Information page HERE and consider making use of this club tool. Thank you.

It's good to see several new faces and the accompanying short hobby bios noted on the Member's Collecting Interests Page of our web site. Welcome aboard to the newest four members on that page - Richard Barnes, Robert Evans, Rick Beitler and Richard Goodstein. Thank you, guys, for submitting your information and photos.

Susan and Cregan, you both promised a photo. Ian, Ernie, Robert, Fred, Mike, Vern, George and Robert (there are lots of Roberts) ... come on, guys, you've all sent collecting-interest information but no photos yet. We'd really rather see your intelligent faces than the stick-figure smiley faces that are there now.

And to all the other active members who have yet to submit anything to the Member's Collecting Interests Page, please consider doing so. We're all interested in reading a little about your numismatic interests. And we'd certainly love to be able to put a face with your name in our email communications. Give it a try. It's fun!

Simply go to the WINS Member Collecting Interests page HERE and follow the brief submission guidelines at the bottom of the page. Thank you.

I just finished reading an interesting article in the January 21, 2005 edition of Coin World. The story centers on a shipment of missing U.S. coins. It seems that load of coins belongs to the United States Federal Reserve Bank and was being transferred from New Jersey to Louisiana when the entire shipment disappeared. The transport vehicle, an eighteen-wheel tractor-trailer, was located in Florida abandoned at a truck stop. The ignition keys were locked in the tractor. Missing from the truck are the driver and the coins.

The most interesting aspect of the mystery is that all of the missing coins are U.S. five-cent pieces - $180,000 worth; that's 3,600,000 nickels that were stored in 900 bags, at a total weight of 45,000 pounds. Seems that nobody saw anything suspicious.

Now that's a bunch of nickels, folks! It was no easy task carting those coins away. That's a lot of bulk and a tremendous amount of weight. The theft certainly wasn't perpetrated quickly or easily. I wonder where one would hide such a stash. It's not exactly pocket change. Even more, I wonder what one would do with all of those nickels. Paying for items in bulk nickels would likely draw even more attention than spending too many $100 bills. Maybe someone now has a lifetime supply of parking meter or toll booth change. Or maybe someone likes playing the nickel slot machines.

I hope that if/when whoever perpetrated this is caught, that we hear the rest of the story. It should prove to be very interesting.

It's time for another hearty thank you to Joe Garbarini for his 'Hat Prize' donations in each WINS Auction. Joe has donated free-of-charge hundreds of coins to WINS Auction participants. Thank you, Joe, for sharing your lifelong collection with the membership. The goodwill you spread with each auction is truly appreciated by all.

Thanks, as well, to several other members who have contributed to Joe's auction hat-prize drawings, including Jason Craton, Terry of GBIE, John Reese, Doug Prather and Walt Southward. I apologize if I've failed to remember/mention any contributor.

Another reminder about the WINS Flyers/Brochures ... they're available at or through the following WINS Web Site links - WINS FLYER 1   WINS FLYER 2   WINS FLYER 3

Thanks, again to WINS Treasurer Ken Hughes and the Flyer Committee for their outstanding job in creating the brochures. And thanks to all of our WINS members who have already distributed the brochures at coin shows and club meetings. We encourage everyone to continue to do so.

Best Regards,

Ralph J. Huntzinger
WINS President