Does anyone remember PAK? The Full Step Nickel Club.
MWallace
Posts: 4,223 ✭✭✭✭✭
I was looking for something this morning ( for @KellenCoin ) and came across this lapel pin given out by PAK after 5 years membership.
6
Comments
I have #32 set of the silver nickels, a copy of the Jefferson Nickel Analyst (Nagengast), and a couple of the club magazines from 2002. Might be interested in it if the price is right.
I remember it, but have no interest in the pin. Let Bolivar have it.
with the advent of TPG's and the Full Step designation that club seems to have slipped into irrelevancy. that doesn't mean they shouldn't be relevant, just that step counting and the like has sort of been forgotten except by one particular forum member. Maybe he will show up.
Al H.
You are thinking of the Full Step Nickel Club, which is different from PAK.
@keets said: "with the advent of TPG's and the Full Step designation that club seems to have slipped into irrelevancy. that doesn't mean they shouldn't be relevant, just that step counting and the like has sort of been forgotten except by one particular forum member. Maybe he will show up.
Perhaps you didn't make yourself clear. While I'm not the forum member you refer to, I assure you that counting the steps on Jefferson nickels has NOT been forgotten!
You are thinking of the Full Step Nickel Club, which is different from PAK.
PAK started around 1971 and FSNC came along later
after all the progress we've made, please don't spoil it by thinking too much of yourself.
PAK was formed on April 1, 1977 by Philip Petrillo, Adolf Weiss, and Karl Nenninger. It was the first club devoted to the collection of full step nickels. The club had about 100 members within the first two years of existence. Adolf Weiss was the main contributor to the club, whom I met in 1977 at a coin show in the Polish Community Center of Albanay, N.Y and became one of the first founding members. Only a couple of dealers that I can recall dealt with FS Nickels, Greg Rohan of Heritage being one of them.
PAK published its Full Step Grading Guide in 1979 which defined the grading of full steps in the market place. (The "1983" on the cover was a forwarding looking price guide.) Current grading standards have drifted and are now somewhat different.
@keets said: "after all the progress we've made, please don't spoil it by thinking too much of yourself."
OP's Question: "Does anyone remember PAK? The Full Step Nickel Club."
Actually not, I was thinking of PAK. I think it has been confirmed that members of PAK counted steps! I was never a member but one of the graders I worked with was and he had a very advanced set of FS Jefferson's. I learned a lot about "steps/dates" on these coins from him before the info became so available.
BTW, I'm
not interested in "progress" w/anyone, just useful information or misinformation posted as fact. Note, I've been corrected a few times and I always THANK the knowledgeable members 
that correct me. Perhaps I'll get to thank you for something one day. 
at PAK and FSNC the idea seemed to be counting Quarter-steps, hence things like 6-5-5-6. when the TPG's started to grade and assign the step designation anything short of complete wasn't counted. that meant different things at each TPG. strangely, at NGC they would assign either five or six steps: PCGS required only five steps until around 1990 dated coins, when they decided six steps were required.
the Hobby tends to agree with the TPG's in how steps are counted although some of the tougher dates are worthy of the older style.
The coin BUSINESS MUST AGREE with whatever the two major TPGS decide.
BTW, one thing I have always considered to be absolute stupidity was to eliminate a coin with 6 FS from getting that designation due to a tiny hit across the steps, Contact marks on coins and the strength/quality of its strike are two different things! Unfortunately, IMHO, the "Ex-Pert" professional coin dealers running the asylum were not properly potty trained!
Furthermore, changing the way steps were counted all those years is pure nonsense. Look what also happened to bell lines. As the commercial grading standards continue to evolve who knows what the "powers-that-be" will come up with next to dumb down the standards so more (below par) coins will qualify for the designation.
PS While at PCI we counted 1/2 steps. So 4 1/2, 5, 5 1/2, and 6 were done as I remember.
Very cool pin! Yay for Jefferson Nickels
http://www.pcgs.com/SetRegistry/publishedset.aspx?s=142753
https://www.autismforums.com/media/albums/acrylic-colors-by-rocco.291/
TNG on CoinCommunity.com was a PAK member and posted some good info on PAK.
It sounded like a fun group:
He mentioned that PAK and founder Adolf Weiss disappeared in the early 1980s and he didn't know what happened to the 2 other founders: Philip Petrillo and Karl Nenninger. There's much more on the thread linked below so please go there to read more.
Anyone know what happened to the founders?
Is TNG on these forums?
https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=301479&whichpage=44
Here are some tokens TNG posted there:
Seems like PAK disappeared in the 1980s.
Is the Full Step Nickel Club still around? This 2014 post asking for information on the Full Step Nickel Club got no responses:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/full-step-nickel-club.252289/
Furthermore, changing the way steps were counted all those years is pure nonsense
maybe I can explain it better.
as far as I know:
--- NGC had from the start required Six Full Steps(FS) for the designation. sometime in the late 90's - early 2000's they began to designate Five Full Steps(5FS) as well.
--- PCGS had always required only Five Full Steps(FS) for the designation, but around 2003-2005 they changed that to Six Full Steps(FS) for coins dated 1989-1990 forward. the reasoning is that the Mint had reworked the Master Die at that time and virtually all coins struck had the sixth step showing.
Thanks, must have still been a little out of it this am. I would not have been collecting in the 80's as I was in the middle of raising a family. Sounds like the FSNC adopted the step counting from the PAK group?
That’s an awesome low serial number. Did you get yours from the original sale? I have a set and a half from the secondary market, but with much higher numbers.
Secondary, Mike/Illini
After finding the Adolf Weiss token online from The Nickel Guy, I couldn't help picking one up, this one with a die crack. I thought it was neat that these were struck on blank planchets for nickels.
Any idea what 8DR3 stands for? Sounds like a Star Wars droid name.
DR is Del Romines initials. He made the dies, presumably in 1983.
Great info! Love all the information you provide here Tom!
Just found out he was author of a 1982 Hobo nickel book and did the following token. Certainly has a similar style. Love the history.
Maybe coins like these? (Right click to open image in new tab)
https://youtu.be/V0fkCnFqkoU
Photos were/are too bright/white so I've upgraded them. It's not very often, if ever, one sees a proof-like 1944-S. And I'll humbly admit, I'm not 'the man' behind all these PL Jeffersons I been posting.
A very short video of a proof-like 1941-D.
Leo
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection
TTT
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection