Q. David Bowers
From Istanbul it was on to Athens, Greece. Surely many fine coins, particularly ancient issues, were in the offing, Abe Kosoff mused as he drew nearer. Again, he was to be disappointed. although "ancient" gold staters of Alexander were available by the "bushel," as Abe Kosoff later wrote, "they were too good to be true." In-numerable counterfeits greeted unwary tourists. However, with his discerning eye he found a few genuine pieces among the various offerings. Some authentic staters of Alexander, Philip II, and Philip III were acquired as was an example of the exceedingly rare 20-drachma gold issue of 1852. Tetradrachms of Alexander were selling from $12 to $20 in the United States when I left home," Abe Kosoff reported. "We were surprised to find that $25 was the minimum for which one could be obtained in Athens. Tourists were steady buyers."
The next stop was Barcelona, Spain, where Xavier and Fernando Calico greeted the Kosoff family at the airport. At the time, the House of Calico was more than 175 years old, and a special commemorative medal had been struck to acknowledge the anniversary. In 1960 the Spanish Numismatic Society, largely built through the efforts of the Calicos, had 800 members on its roster.
Among the traditional Spanish rarities is the four-excelentes gold piece of Ferdinand and Isabella, minted in Seville in 1475. Until shortly before 1960, only one specimen was known to exist, but in 1957 an important find brought to light many Spanish numismatic treasures, including six specimens of the four-excelentes rarity, making a total of seven known. Interestingly, not all were alike. There were two different obverse die varieties and two different varieties of the reverse in several combinations.
Of the newly found pieces, one went to the British Museum, another went to the Spanish Museum, a London numismatist acquired still another example, a fourth went to Cuba, and a collector in Barcelona obtained the fifth. The sixth was purchased by Abe Kosoff, and upon his return to the states it was sold to the Newport Balboa Savings and Loan Association, Newport Beach, California, for whom Abe had assembled a beautiful numismatic display.
Then the direction of the 1960 tour was reversed, and a stop was made in Rome, where Abe Kosoff found that prices on ancient issues, world gold coins, and other numismatic pieces were substantially higher than in the United States, obviously a bar to transactions. From Rome the journey continued to Zurich, Switzerland, where many buying opportunities finally presented themselves, including the purchase of the Virzi Collection of Sicilian bronzes and Magna Greca, "just about as fine a collection as exists," Abe reported.
Visits were made with Dr. Herbert Cahn, affiliated with Munzen und Medaillen, with Dr. Leo Mildenberg of Bank Leu, and with Jacques Dreifus.
In his later memoirs, Abe Kosoff related the 1960 visit and a return trip a few years later with Jacques Dreifus:
"Jacques had a little box in the corner of his safe.
In it he kept about a dozen choice gold coins, some very rare. These were not for sale, but he displayed them to me proudly. One piece haunted me.
"It was a ducat of Appenzell, a small municipality having fewer than 1,500 residents when the coin was struck. It was the pride of his collection. 'I haven't seen another one in 35 years,' he beamed, and in response to my request that he put a price on it he only chuckled and put the box back into the safe.
"A few years later, however, I had better luck.
Sitting in the same chair, facing him and his safe, I suggested that he let me look at his little gems again. He did not recall my having seen them earlier, but he was happy to put them on display. 'How much for the Appenzell?' I asked, and again he chuckled. 'Go ahead,' I persisted, 'make it high, real high.' 'Oh, that I can do very well,' he replied. 'Go ahead, make it high, I may say no-then I will be satisfied. But, be careful, I may say yes.'
"With that he placed a figure on the coin. He sure could do it very well. It was very high, not staggering, but very high indeed. 'I'll take it,' I said. I think we were both surprised.
"I had bought a few other items, so I drew a check for the total, put the coins into my pocket, and eventually left. The next day I dropped in again. We talked for awhile, and he told me he had never planned to break up that little group of gems. Why he did it he could not explain, and he was almost sorry he had.
"I had expressed the thought that since he had already broken into the group, perhaps he would consider selling the other coins as well. He laughed and realized that I knew he would sell them. That's probably what you had in mind all the time' he commented, and I had to admit the possibility had occurred to me. I bought the coins, and as a lot the price paid, including the Appenzell piece was not exorbitant."
All of the items from the Swiss purchase were subsequently sold to the Newport Balboa Savings and Loan Collection.
From Switzerland the 1960 journey continued to Vienna for a brief stop, then to Amsterdam, where a warm visit was held with Jacques and Leni Schulman. From the house of Schulman many European patterns were purchased. Then it was on to Paris, which Abe Kosoff described as a city which he could "take or leave" -it was not one of his favorites-but he enjoyed the warmth of his numismatic colleagues there, Emile Bourgey prominent among them.
Abe penned some sentiments concerning his son:
"Of course, one of the pleasures of this trip was having Steve with us. He met the leading dealers on the continent and observed their operations.
He was already working with me, having been exposed to coins since his birth. It was an eye-opener for him and the experience cannot help but stand him in good stead now that he and Mike Kliman are active professional numismatists.
"Yes, I am mighty proud of these boys, and know that they are going places. Steve wasn't sure about making the trip when the idea first came up. But those were the years when the Swedish beauties were winning the Miss Universe contest time after time-and Steve was 20 years old-an the itinerary included Sweden-so Steve said he would go."