Our Next Presentation

TThe Civil Warriors Civil War Round Table of the San Fernando Valley/Los Angeles will hold its next meeting of 2026 in-person at 7:00PM Pacific Daylight Time on Wednesday, August 12. We are pleased to be hosting a presentation by collector Roger Burry entitled:

"The End and Beginning of the Humble American Penny"

The humble American penny or cent has moved into history with the end of its mintage in November of last year. But the story began over 250 years ago with colonial coins and eventually United States coins around 1790. The new country needed to start mints, engage engravers and settle on politically acceptable designs. Mr. Burry will describe the events describing this basic unit of day-to-day exchange through the country’s earlier years. The Civil War posed challenges to not only the Union’s but particularly the Confederacy’s need to supply coinage during a time of shortages, priorities and citizen hoarding of metal species. The peace of 1865 relieved many of the problems as society regained a sense of normalcy. Eventually the penny matured into the Indian Head design period – older members will recall seeing these in circulation in their childhood! And then the final act, the Lincoln cent, entered production in 1909 and billions were produced every year with a variety of designs.

Roger Burry grew up in a small town on the Florida east coast. At 12 years he read a book, “The Conquest of Space” that set his career goal of rockets and space travel. After graduating from the University of Florida, he came west to Canoga Park to work for Rocketdyne.  After 46 years of challenging but satisfying work, he retired from Boeing in 2003.

For some time, Roger accumulated American pennies that were in circulation. In the early 1990s an impromptu visit to Malter Galleries resulted in the purchase of his first ancient coin, a Vespasian denarius. Shortly thereafter he joined and then led the LA Ancient Coin Club in a number of roles. His primary coin collecting has been in the area of denarii minted in the ancient Roman Republic and, after a trip to China, ancient Chinese coins. Today his interest is more USA.

Miller is a writer, filmmaker, and photographer based in Los Angeles. He is best known for writing and producing the popular independent documentary “When Stand Up Stood Out,” about the “gold rush” of the 70s and 80s Boston Comedy scene, and for writing and editing the documentary “Bettie Page Reveals All,” which won “Best Feature Documeouglas Miller is ale President of The Center for Military 

We will be meeting in-person at the Chatsworth Olive Garden, 19724 Nordhoff Place. We meet in the back room (“the 80’s Room”) of the restaurant; the doors for the room open at 5:30 at which time you can order from their extensive Italian menu. There is a $5 attendance fee to support our CWRT plus it gets you an entry to our book drawing. If you’re a first-time visitor to the Civil Warriors and wish more information, please contact us at cwrtsfv@gmail.com . Guests, new members and returning members are always welcome to join us for this and future meetings! If you can’t make this meeting, please consider one of our exciting upcoming meetings noted on our Future Presentations page.

Future Presentations