Abe Kosoff: Dean of Numismatics

Chapter 3

The Early 1940s

In 1940, the Kosoff family moved to Mount Vernon, a New York City suburb, where they were to remain for most of the decade. Their children, daughter Sonnie and son Steve, would spend their formative years there.

Abe Kosoff's introduction to F.C.C. ("Fred") Boyd occurred about 1940. Kosoff had received a letter from Francis Sears, the son of Elmer Sears, who before his death maintained an active coin dealership in Swansea, Massachusetts. The young-er Sears offered a rare 1830 Templeton Reid $2.50 gold piece and some California fractional gold. The price desired was $300 for the Templeton Reid and $50 for the group of California pieces.

Abe Kosoff thought the price a bit high and countered with an offer of $300 for everything. While he was awaiting a reply, Bill Arthur, a New York City collector, stopped by and was shown the Templeton Reid issue.

"Boy, is that a beauty!" Arthur exclaimed. "You ought to show it to Freddy Boyd!" "Oh, I wouldn't dare call Mr. Boyd-this would seem to be presumptuous on my part," Abe Kosoff replied.

The New York Coin Club, of which Fred Boyd served as secretary for many years, met about the same time, and Bill Arthur had occasion to mention the rare $2.50 Templeton Reid to the collector. Soon thereafter, Boyd telephoned Kosoff:

"I understand you have a nice $2.50 Templeton Reid."

"Yes, I do." "What's the price?"

"Well, actually I am in no position to sell at the moment, but I have made an offer on it-I think it probably will be accepted, and if it is, I promise you the first refusal on it. The price will then be $300 for the coin," Kosoff noted, to which Boyd countered:

"Well,call me when you get a reply."

The afternoon mail brought an acceptance of the offer from Sears, so Boyd was immediately notified that the piece was available. In Abe Kosoff's own words:

"The next day just before noon Boyd came in and said, 'Let's see that coin' -and I showed him the coin and he said, 'Yes, it's a beauty-okay I'll take it,' and took out a check, started to write, stopped for a minute and said, 'Don't think I don't own one' -and he had in his vest pocket another Templeton Reid, although it was not quite as nice as the one he was buying.

"He said, 'Yours is far superior and I would like to have it.' In the meantime he fingered through the California pieces and picked out the best piece in the group-a half dollar with an eagle on the reverse-and said, 'How much for this?'

"I said, 'Well, let's just consider that the $300 covers both of them -and you can have that.'

'Well, he smiled and said, 'Gosh, this has never happened to me in the coin business before-thank you, it is a very lovely little coin-it's worth $15 and I'll be glad to pay for it.'

"I said 'No, it's perfectly all right.' So he wrote a check and said, 'If you get anything nice, let me know-I'll be very happy to have you call me,' and so on. I promised I would keep in touch.

"We chatted for awhile and he then said, 'Say, have you had lunch?' I said, 'No,' and he said, 'Would you like to join me?' I said, 'I'd be delighted,' and so we went to the Netherlands Club, and for about 10 years thereafter on Tuesdays at noon I accompanied Fred Boyd to the Netherlands Club for lunch."

The year 1940 saw Abe Kosoff conduct his first auction sale. Writing in Coin World years later, he reminisced:

The title page of Abe Kosoff's Auction Sale Number 1, Saturday, June 8, 1940. The auctioneer was O. Rundle Gilbert, and the event was held at the Hotel New Yorker.