The Tacoma-Lakewood Coin Club (TLCC) is a vibrant local coin club serving the South Puget Sound region, including the cities of Tacoma and Lakewood. The TLCC was founded in 1988 by the merger of the former Tacoma Coin Club and the former Lakewood Center Coin Club. The TLCC welcomes all numismatists — persons who study, collect, or deal with coins, paper money, tokens and medals.

The TLCC is proud to present tlcc.info, our home on the World Wide Web! This site is updated at least monthly to bring you accurate and up-to-date information about numismatics in the Tacoma area. TLCC members are also available to help answer your questions about numismatics. Please don't hesitate to ask us a question or to contribute information for possible use on this site!

Upcoming! The TLCC meets one more time before summer break, on June 4. Although we can't promise a rare astronomical event like last year (see below), it should nevertheless be a great meeting! See below or see the TLCC calendar for more information.

Complete!
TLCC coin show and banquet! March was once again a big month for the TLCC!!

• TACOMA-LAKEWOOD COIN CLUB 49th SEMI-ANNUAL SHOW, March 9-10, 2013,
  King Oscar Convention Center, 88th & So. Hosmer Way, Tacoma, WA.

• TLCC 56th anniversary banquet, March 9, 2013 (evening) at facility just above the King Oscar Inn restaurant, next door to the convention center where we have our shows.

TLCC Members give program to Puyallup Cub Scouts - TLCC members Kevin Charboneau, Ron Ahre and Richard Schulz recently finished putting on a program for Cub Scout Pack 505 in Puyallup. They briefly talked to the scouts about why we collect coins and a little bit about coin collecting in general. See the full report and more photos.

TLCC members witness rare event seen by Captain Cook! Solar viewers were available before the Tuesday, June 5, 2012 TLCC meeting so that members and guests could witness a rare astronomical event ... the "transit" of Venus across the Sun! A similar event was observed by Captain James Cook in Tahiti in June 1769, on his famous voyage that led to the discovery of Australia. Despite an unfavorable weather forecast, the skies cooperated enough for the event to be visible before the meeting and during the break! The regular meeting program was about mint errors. (See sample exhibit items for photos.)

See the PNNA calendar for more upcoming coin shows, and see "Club Information" below for regular TLCC club meetings.

TLCC Library List! (PDF file) Members may borrow materials subject to club policies.

At the May 7 meeting, Dan Duncan from Pinnacle Rarities spoke to the club about the "rare coin market and related topics."

There was a TLCC Special Meeting at the PNNA Convention, April 13, 2013 at noon at the Tukwila Community Center in Tukwila, WA. Dave Schmidt introduced the meeting, and Eric Holcomb presented "Best of TLCC Show & Tell," covering about three dozen items from the years 2002 to 2012.

At the April 2 meeting, Brian Wagner was the speaker, giving members and guests some "tips on great cent finds."

At the March 5 meeting, longtime club member Frank Benedict spoke about "Collecting Coins - Start to Finish."

The February 5 meeting program was "The History and Collecting of State Tax Tokens" by club vice president Rick Schulz.

The January 8 meeting featured guest speaker Dick Billings (shown in photo at left) speaking on the topic of "Notgeld," a form of "emergency money" privately issued in Germany during the 1920s in many varieties and materials including paper, metal and porcelain. See the sample exhibit items (then select January 2013) for more photos.

The December 4, 2012 meeting featured the annual holiday party (Holiday Extravaganza by Mike and Bonnie Zagorin - photo at right); also raffle drawings and club elections for two board members. See the club officers list.

The November 6, 2012 meeting featured a member "swap meet" (where members could bring numismatic items to buy, sell or trade).

At the October 2, 2012 meeting, Rick Schulz spoke about "Collecting Canadian Minor Coinage." Rick is an experienced Canadian collector, and has attended coin conventions in Canada.

At the September 4, 2012 meeting, Dave Schmidt spoke about "Norse American Medals," which is one of Dave's favorite topics!

At the August 7, 2012 meeting, guest speaker Bill McKivor (photo at left) spoke about "British tokens and medals," as well as items from the American Colonial period. There was no TLCC meeting in July.

The June 5, 2012 meeting program was "Mint Errors," presented by Todd Hughes. We also had our usual raffles and auction, and solar viewers were available for a rare astronomical event ... the "transit" of Venus across the Sun! (And, yes, there were enough sun breaks to witness the event!)

The May 1, 2012 program was the Show & Tell that we didn't have in April. Attendees were asked to bring their World's Fair memorabilia along with memories of experiences at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair or any other World's Fair. Any World's Fair artifact (even non-numismatic) was welcome.

The April 3, 2012 display (Show & Tell) topic was "Seattle World's Fair (50th anniversary)," and the speaker was Steve Fisher from the Federal Reserve Bank. However, because there wasn't actually time for the Show & Tell items, the club is doing it again in May (see below).

See sample exhibit items from TLCC regular meetings.
These are items members bring each month for "show & tell."

See previous TLCC news headlines. | See the TLCC memorabilia catalog.

What is our charter? — Per the TLCC bylaws, Article II, Section 1, "The purpose of this club is to promote interest in numismatics, through a sound program of education and fellowship, as a non-profit association." In doing so, the TLCC contributes to the mission of the Pacific Northwest Numismatic Association (PNNA) to "promote, extend, and protect the interests of numismatists and numismatic activities throughout the Pacific Northwest and to foster and encourage the study of numismatics in all its forms."

What do we do? — In addition to maintaining this web site, the TLCC publishes a monthly newsletter, has monthly meetings, holds two annual coin shows, and promotes numismatics through special programs, activities and awards. TLCC members participate in the numismatic display at the Puyallup Fair Hobby Hall each September.

• See our calendar for upcoming club events.

• Our TLCC information index includes links to everything you need to know about the TLCC!

• See the PNNA reference section for information about buying and selling coins, a list of speakers for your coin club meetings, and a variety of other numismatic topics.

• See the Young Numismatist (YN) activities page.

Current and Upcoming Club Events:

• TLCC Regular Monthly Meeting, June 4, 2013. Program: to be announced. Also see the TLCC calendar for more future club meetings.

• TACOMA-LAKEWOOD COIN CLUB 50th SEMI-ANNUAL SHOW, August 24-25, 2013,
  King Oscar Convention Center, 88th & So. Hosmer Way, Tacoma, WA.

• Also see the TLCC calendar.

• See the PNNA Homepage and PNNA Calendar for information about such exciting events as the PNNA annual conventions in Tukwila and Portland, National Coin Week, ANA Summer Seminar, and the two annual ANA conventions (National Money Show™ and World's Fair of Money®).

Completed Club Events: (See "News Items" for regular meeting programs)

• TLCC annual grant program – The application deadline was April 16, 2013. Congratulations to winners Dave Schmidt and Todd Hughes.

• TACOMA-LAKEWOOD COIN CLUB 49th SEMI-ANNUAL SHOW, March 9-10, 2013,
  King Oscar Convention Center, 88th & So. Hosmer Way, Tacoma, WA.

• TLCC 56th anniversary banquet, March 9, 2013 at (or next to) the coin show location.

• Puyallup Fair – September 7-23, 2012 – The PNNA sponsors the annual coin exhibit in the Hobby Hall, with assistance from several local coin clubs including the TLCC. No volunteer is knowledgeable about all aspects of numismatics — if your question wasn't answered or if you were unable to attend the Fair, please e-mail your question to info@pnna.org or info@tlcc.info, and it will be directed to a local expert. The PNNA's Hobby Hall coordinator is our own Rick Schulz!

• TACOMA-LAKEWOOD COIN CLUB 48th SEMI-ANNUAL SHOW, August 25-26, 2012,
  King Oscar Convention Center, 88th & So. Hosmer Way, Tacoma, WA.

Please visit the TLCC memorabilia catalog!