Jim Benfield Dies

[Larry Calder]

Here is an article on the death of Jim Benfield at age 59 of a brain tumor

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59307-2002Nov2.html

The world is a lesser place without him.

I will miss our telephone conversations, our emails and the many posts that
went back and forth.

Jim and I did not agree on some things but he was always ready to discuss the
merits of the opposing positions.

I hope eyeryone will join in condolences with his family.

Sadly,

PORCOS NON ABLOCAMUS, y'all
Larry
http://www.texascoinstuff.com/

[Bruce Hickmott]

On 05 Nov 2002 21:00:57 GMT, leca...@aol.comn (Larry Calder) is alleged to have
written:

Jim will be sorely missed by all.

Bruce

[Fred Shecter]

I had no idea. I've sent him a couple of e-mails over the last 6 months and did not get
the usual reply, but I assumed he was busy. I will send condolences to his family (I'll
look for a contact/address - maybe even send something to the firm).

-Fred Shecter

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"Larry Calder" <leca...@aol.comn> wrote in message
news:20021105160057...@mb-mk.aol.com...

[Fred Shecter]

Here is info from his firm including a suggestion for sending donations.

http://www.bracywilliams.com/

-Fred Shecter

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"Fred Shecter" <fred.e....@boeing.com> wrote in message news:...

[Bob Flaminio]

Larry Calder wrote:
> Here is an article on the death of Jim Benfield at age 59 of a brain
> tumor
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59307-2002Nov2.html
>
> The world is a lesser place without him.

This is shocking news. My deepest condolences to his family.

-Bob

[Stujoe]

In article <20021105160057...@mb-mk.aol.com>, Larry
Calder spoke thusly...

That is sad to hear and rather shocking too. He will be missed.

--
Stu Miller
ICQ:159336182 AIM:stujoe Yahoo:stujoe
Tour the Virtual Museum at:
http://www.thestujoecollection.com/museum/1900room.htm

[Ed E.]

I'm very sorry and my deepest sympathy to the family.
Ed

[TomDeLorey]

I am so sad to hear this. He was a nice guy and a friend. We happened to share
the same birthday, and he always stopped in when he was in the Loop.
Tom DeLorey
TomDeLorey
.
Pragmatist: Someone who, when putting leftovers in the fridge at work, marks
the bag with his name, the date and the year......

[Deven Atkinson]

In shock. I assumed that he was not around here because of the midterm
elections, etc. I will miss his voice. My heart goes out to his family.
Thanks for sharing this with the group, Larry.

In article <20021105160057...@mb-mk.aol.com>, leca...@aol.comn

Deven Atkinson de...@bright.net
--
Penny Lane Numismatic - Categorized Web Links
http://www.bright.net/~deven/pennylane.htm
ANA Member #1197707

[Paul Anderson]

In article <20021105160057...@mb-mk.aol.com>, Larry Calder

<leca...@aol.comn> wrote:

> Here is an article on the death of Jim Benfield at age 59 of a brain tumor

I'm shocked. I couldn't believe the subject line in Larry's message
this morning.

I only communicated occasionally with Jim via e-mail, but his messages
as well as his appearances on the radio showed him as an articulate man
who cared about the causes for which he was fighting.

I had no idea he was ill and his death leaves us without a visible
spokesman for coin reform. I would like his family to know that Jim
touched many lives and although I never met him, my sincerest
condolences go out to his family.

Paul

--
Paul Anderson
OpenVMS Engineering
Hewlett-Packard Company

[Jerry Dennis]

When I read the subject line, I was in disbelief. I didn't know Jim was ill.

Long before the 1933 Saint auction, when it was first seized and lawsuits filed
to stop its destruction, Jim and I exchanged a few e-mails, since he, like most
of us, were really interested in it.

He was a knowledgeable man, able and willing to justify his stance on those
causes he believed in, the Sacagawea dollar being his latest numismatic
reference. He will be missed by all of us. My personal condolences to his
family.

Jerry

"Larry Calder" provides:

[Dave Allured]

Dang it. That explains why this website seemed to be getting out of
date recently:

http://www.coincoalition.org/

Jim was Executive Director of the Coin Coalition since its inception in
1987. Some of his last efforts before Congress on our behalf:

http://www.coincoalition.org/bulletin.htm

In reading the several obituaries, I find many amazing and admirable
things about Jim that I never knew. He was a fine humanitarian in his
way.

;-) If here were still here I would like to tell him that he was part
of the national self-delusion about daylight savings time. Americans,
stop wasting time with clock games, and get your lazy butts out of bed
when the sun comes up. (Me included!!) ;-)

One of Jim's last predictions was that the US Mint would find
justification to resume business production of 2002-dated Sacagawea
dollars in fiscal year 2003, which actually started Oct. 1, 2002 I
believe. Alas, they decided otherwise. Let's hope for resumption in
2003.

I will miss him.

--Dave )-:

[Fred Shecter]

I will take an extra 100 of each of the 2002-P and 2002-D from the bags I bought and spend
them this coming week. I have a trip to MI next week and some will be sprinkled several
places there and at O'Hare and maybe at LAX. I will spend the 'normal' large number of
regular GDs as well.

I think I'll go get an extra box full at the bank on the way home tonight.

-Fred Shecter

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"Dave Allured" <dall...@nospam.indra.com> wrote in message
news:3DC953...@nospam.indra.com...

[Michael G. Koerner]

I, too, am quite stunned at that news. I had not communicated with him
this past spring/summer. I had only assumed, like Fred, that he was
simply too busy.

My last correspondence with him was in February of this year. It was
regarding the progress on the very good news of a local game machine
owner here in the Appleton, WI area who is refitting his 400+ bar pool
tables to $1 coin ONLY operation ($1/game).

I agree, too, in that he will be hard to replace as an advocate towards
badly needed coinage/banknote reform here in the USA.

--
___________________________________________ ____ _______________
Regards, | |\ ____
| | | | |\
Michael G. Koerner May they | | | | | | rise again!
Appleton, Wisconsin USA | | | | | |
___________________________________________ | | | | | | _______________

[Barney]

I'm very sorry to hear the news. I always looked up to him and Jim was always
willing to help me when it came to issues involving the Golden Dollar.

At one point, I was working with my local Drive-in to use Golden Dollars
instead of paper ones and Jim's only request was that I did not tell the
Drive-in that he founded the Daylight Saving Time Coalition, a situation that
the Drive-ins were very against!

You will always be remembered,

Barney

[TomDeLorey]

I hate to say this, but I honestly feel that any chance of the Sacagawea dollar
making it died with Jim.
When he testified before Congress last Spring, he offered them a suggestion I
had given to him to have the Treasury merely announce a recall of the Susan B.
Anthony dollar, which would immediately cause them to be hoarded out of
circulation at no cost to the Treasury, so that the Sacagawea could circulate
by itself.
It might have worked, but they ignored the suggestion.
.
Tom DeLorey

[Fred Shecter]

I'm still sorting my SBAs from the GDs, to some extent as time permits. I open my two to
three boxes a week. Those rolls with GDs showing on both ends are left alone for spending
as is. Those with SBAs showing on one or more ends are opened and sorted. I re-load them
in "GD-only" and "SBA-only" rolls and I write on the SBA rolls "RARE FROM THE 1900's". I
spend the GD-only rolls everywhere and exchange them with folks who want them at work or
at play. The "RARE" rolls are spent selectively - I prefer to spend them as far from home
and work as possible to increase the possibility that the 'hoarding' message will spread
far & wide. About 80% of the cashiers comment on the "RARE" message and I let them know
that the Mint is working on developing the machinery to sort the Golden Dollars from the
Susies so that they can melt the Susies down - so the Susies could become rare soon.
Almost all of them say "that's a great idea".

I picked up an extra box of dollars last night and standing at the next bank teller window
was a guy from the post office there to pick up 5 boxes of dollars. It was nice to see
them roll out 6 boxes of dollars from the vault.

I wonder what the election results will do to coin legislation currently in the pipeline
as well as future efforts?
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:h.r.04903:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:h.r.02528:

-Fred Shecter

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"TomDeLorey" <tomde...@aol.comknowspam> wrote in message
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[BobbyShaw]

You don't have to be ill for long to be struck down by a brain tumor. My
grandmother just had a brain tumor removed three weeks ago. It started with a
little trouble walking, the next week, she needed a walker, week after - bed
ridden and completely paralized on her left side. The tumor went from quarter
size (when they first discovered it) to baseball size in about 3 weeks. When
they operated, they said she would not have lived a couple more days at the
rate it was growing. She's recovering well from the surgury. Some movement is
coming back on the left side, but her short term memory is still very bad.

I didn't know Jim, but I wish his family well in dealing with their loss.

Robert Shaw
PS I just got back from vacation, so have a LOT of catching up to do. I may
be responding to some of these old threads if I have someting to contribute.

[D Carr]

I was very sad to hear this.
When I first proposed my Astronaut design for the new "Golden" dollar,
Jim assisted me in promoting it. This was before Secretary Rubin announced
that the coin would feature a woman.

I met Jim in 1999. The Dollar Coin Advisory Committee met in Philadelphia
in the summer of 1999 to determine what woman to portray on the coin. A
handful of citizens were allowed to make five minute presentations before
the
committee. Jim gave the first presentation, and he made an excellent
argument
for a "Liberty" design. Later on, I presented the idea of Bessie Coleman
(early African-American aviator). My idea was tied foir second place in
the committee's voting at one point. Eventually, the committee chose
Sacagawea.

After the proceedings, Jim took several of us out to dinner, including Ron
Landis
(Gallery Mint), Anne Merck ? (Statue of Liberty design), and myself.
Jim insited on paying the tab !

He was a greay guy, and I think he was right. We should completely replace
the paper dollar with a coin.

"Larry Calder" <leca...@aol.comn> wrote in message
news:20021105160057...@mb-mk.aol.com...

[Fred A. Murphy]

On 11-Nov-2002, bobb...@aol.com (BobbyShaw) wrote:

> The tumor went from quarter
> size (when they first discovered it) to baseball size in about 3 weeks.
> When they operated, they said she would not have lived a couple more days
> at
> the rate it was growing.

Which begs the question, why didn't they do something with it when it was
quarter size instead of waiting until it was 3 weeks larger and she almost
died. Not to mention the possibility of it metathesizing.

Glad to hear she's coming along well.

--

'If I don't reply to your post it doesn't mean you won the argument,
it means my time is valuable.'

[Fred A. Murphy]

On 6-Nov-2002, Dave Allured <dall...@nospam.indra.com> wrote:

> ;-) If here were still here I would like to tell him that he was part
> of the national self-delusion about daylight savings time. Americans,
> stop wasting time with clock games, and get your lazy butts out of bed
> when the sun comes up. (Me included!!) ;-)

I agree. They claim it's for the farmers. I always heard farmers got up
when the rooster crowed and worked when the cows needed milking, not
according to what some timepiece said.

[Fred Shecter]

I've got the T-shirts (without slogan) and Tank Top (with slogan) on eBay again.

-Fred Shecter

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"D Carr" <dca...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:ar0q3m$pnm$1...@slb2.atl.mindspring.net...

[BobbyShaw]

>> The tumor went from quarter
>> size (when they first discovered it) to baseball size in about 3 weeks.
>> When they operated, they said she would not have lived a couple more days
>> at
>> the rate it was growing.
>
>Which begs the question, why didn't they do something with it when it was
>quarter size instead of waiting until it was 3 weeks larger and she almost
>died. Not to mention the possibility of it metathesizing.
>
>Glad to hear she's coming along well.
>
>--

They were still planning/deciding what to do about the tumor. It's not an easy
decision to do brain surgury on an 80 year old woman. I don't think they
expected it to grow at that rate. The first I heard, they were planning on
using the least invasive method, drilling small holes enough to get a scope,
and tools in an burn it out. Once it grew that big, they had to open her up.

Her prognosis is mixed for the long run. The doctor that did the operation
said he got all the tumor. The oncologist (?) said that he couldn't have got
it all, since that type of tumor always metathesizes. They tested the tumor
and it was malignant. So, we've heard the outlook could be up to a year if the
tumor comes back, or a complete recovery.... We tend believe the doctor that
was actually inside her head.

Robert Shaw (thinking positive!)