Q. David Bowers
"Why that price? Well, anything at $100,000 nd over seemed to take forever before the remittance was received. Under $10,000 a different outline was used at the palace, and one could expect a remittance within six weeks or so. Eventually we got paid, and I again offered to pay a higher price commensurate with the selling price, which I disclosed to the Boyds. No, $1,500, that was it. Fred made a point of having the check drawn to Helen, as it was 'her coin, she paid $1,500 or it and doesn't want to show any profit.'
"Coming to Cairo for the auction, I carried a favorite client's bid of $12,500 to buy this same coin, now coming up for sale once again. This was equivalent to somewhat more than 4,000 Egyptian pounds. As I recall, the bidding started very low, a couple hundred pounds, I think. Competition drove it to 1,250 pounds, at which price it was sold to me-$3,750 and I was prepared to go to $12,500.
"During our intermission one of the underbidders remarked that he thought I had paid a pretty steep price for the item. I replied that I was prepared to go almost four times as high-that I had bid for a client, at my recommendation, at $12,500. He asked how much I charged for handling the bid. I told him that I would receive 10%. 'Then,' he remarked, 'you will get $375 instead of $1,250 if you had gone your limit. That doesn't make sense,' he stated.
"It made sense to me; commissions can be figured in dollars and cents, but goodwill cannot be bought, it has to be earned. I learned that a technique employed by some was to have a colleague compete up to a certain point. In this in-stance, a colleague would have been alerted to compete up to about 3,900 pounds so that the selling price of 4,000 pounds, or $12,000 would be recorded and that a correspondingly higher commission would have been 'earned.' Well, I delivered the lot to my client who, of course, was delighted to own it at $3,750 plus 10%.
"Dr. John Wilkison, a pattern specialist, had also been interested in the piece, but others had reported to him that its condition was not desirable. In speaking to him at a later date, I assured him that the photograph in the catalogue did not do justice to the coin. He expressed a desire to own it. I proposed to the owner that I could get something quite acceptable to him if he would relinquish this piece. He agreed to do so, and I then delivered the 1907 Indian head double eagle pattern to Dr. Wilkison."
In the 1970s, the Wilkison Collection was purchased by Paramount International Coin Corporation. The 1907 Indian head pattern double eagle was the key item in the collection and was featured at several conventions and exhibits. Reportedly, this single coin was insured for a million dollars. A few years later, by which time the coin had come into the possession of Maryland dealer Julian Leidman, it was consigned to an American Numismatic Association convention auction sale con-ducted by Bowers & Ruddy Galleries, at which event it sold for $475,000-thus establishing its current value at the time and setting a high water mark for the price of any pattern coin ever sold in public competition.
"Why that price? Well, anything at $100,000 and over seemed to take forever before the remittance was received. Under $10,000 a different outline was used at the palace, and one could expect a remittance within six weeks or so. Eventually we got paid, and I again offered to pay a higher price commensurate with the selling price, which I disclosed to the Boyds. No, $1,500, that was it. Fred made a point of having the check drawn to Helen, as it was 'her coin, she paid $1,500 or it and doesn't want to show any profit.'
"Coming to Cairo for the auction, I carried a favorite client's bid of $12,500 to buy this same coin, now coming up for sale once again. This was equivalent to somewhat more than 4,000 Egyptian pounds. As I recall, the bidding started very low, a couple hundred pounds, I think. Competition drove it to 1,250 pounds, at which price it was sold to me-$3,750 and I was prepared to go to $12,500.
"During our intermission one of the underbidders remarked that he thought I had paid a pretty steep price for the item. I replied that I was prepared to go almost four times as high-that I had bid for a client, at my recommendation, at $12,500. He asked how much I charged for handling the bid. I told him that I would receive 10%. 'Then,' he remarked, 'you will get $375 instead of $1,250 if you had gone your limit. That doesn't make sense,' he stated.
"It made sense to me; commissions can be figured in dollars and cents, but goodwill cannot be bought, it has to be earned. I learned that a technique employed by some was to have a colleague compete up to a certain point. In this instance, a colleague would have been alerted to compete up to about 3,900 pounds so that the selling price of 4,000 pounds, or $12,000 would be recorded and that a correspondingly higher com-mission would have been 'earned.' Well, I delivered the lot to my client who, of course, was delighted to own it at $3,750 plus 10%.
"Dr. John Wilkison, a pattern specialist, had also been interested in the piece, but others had reported to him that its condition was not desirable. In speaking to him at a later date, I assured him that the photograph in the catalogue did not do justice to the coin. He expressed a desire to own it. I proposed to the owner that I could get something quite acceptable to him if he would relinquish this piece. He agreed to do so, and I then delivered the 1907 Indian head double eagle pattern to Dr. Wilkison."
In the 1970s, the Wilkison Collection was purchased by Paramount International Coin Corporation. The 1907 Indian head pattern double eagle was the key item in the collection and was featured at several conventions and exhibits. Reportedly, this single coin was insured for a million dollars. A few years later, by which time the coin had come into the possession of Maryland dealer Julian Leidman, it was consigned to an American Numismatic Association convention auction sale conducted by Bowers & Ruddy Galleries, at which event it sold for $475,000-thus establishing its current value at the time and setting a high water mark for the price of any pattern coin ever sold in public competition.
Back to Cairo in 1954 and to Abe Kosoff's commentary...
"We had to start thinking of shipping some of our purchases back home from the Farouk sale. Among the many early rumors was a serious one that, after we did purchase coins, we would be refused an export license. This could hardly be true, I reasoned, but it was worth checking.
"After a few days of trying to get things done, like examining the coins, for instance, I realized that anything was possible, considering the lack of organization prevailing at the time. However, the matter of export licenses proved to be no problem at all. The paid invoice authorized the exportation of the listed items. Actually, this was the one problem that was handled very efficiently.