Q.David Bowers
On January 16, 1883, Cogan wrote:
I arrived home last evening, and we have had such poor weather the plates will not be ready for a day or two, so I send you the approximate prices of coins you have seen. [This apparently refers to the practice of using sunlight to take coin photographs at the time; correspondence with the Chapman brothers also indicates this. Cloudy skies forced postponement of photography on numerous occasions.] I give you what I think is the highest and lowest. I will buy for you as cheap as I possibly can.
To this was appended a list of estimates, including $100 to $125 for a 1794 dollar, $45 to $50 for an 1838 dollar, $35 and $55 for a 1797 half dollar, $135 to $175 for an 1827 quarter, and $100 for an 1802 half dime, as well as evaluations for many others.
Throughout this period Cogan was an active bidder for Garrett in numerous sales. During the same time numerous approval invoices were submitted. Cor-respondence mainly dealt with bids in auction sales and the results thereof.
On February 9, 1883, Cogan wrote:
In regards to the 1852 dollar, in the sale it sold for $68. I was offered the one I sent you at $60, it being a better piece, and as your order with the commission added was $57.75, I thought you would rather give a little more and secure a better piece.
Would you like to purchase one of the finest sets of cents and half cents in the country?
On February 16, 1883, Cogan wrote again:
Sickness has prevented me answering your kind favor of the 12th before. The owner of the cents and half cents asks $2,000 for the set. I will let you know more about it in a few days. Do you refer to Maris on 1794 cents? [This is in reference to the monograph by Dr. Edward Maris.]
I am getting along with the Aulick Collection, and I expect to place it in the printer's hands next week. I want to send them abroad and not circulate them to dealers for some time. I will send you one but do not let anyone know of it or see it. I will also send such pieces as I think you would like to see. I expect to have a sale sometime in April, and if you have any duplicates that you would like to sell, send them to me and I will put them in the sale.
On February 23, 1883, Cogan wrote Garrett:
It will be impossible for me to send purchases from Sampson's sale until tomorrow as I hurt my foot yesterday and am unable to leave the room. I will forward tomorrow morning. I send in the packages a set of 1877 pattern half dollars for your inspection at $150. This is the first set that I have even seen, and I will give you a letter stating that only 15 sets were struck. They will not be sold in any sale.
On March 5, 1883, the following letter was sent on the same subject: The pattern 1877 half dollars I don't think can be purchased any cheaper. I will write to the party and see what he says about them. I do not think a set will ever be offered at auction.
I have the set of cents I wrote to you about and it is one of the finest in the country. Do you want me to send them to you?
The original invoice dated March 18, 1883, enclosing a set of 1877 pattern half dollars at $150 was paid in full. On the same invoice were such items as an 1872 pattern commercial dollar at $85, a 1796 half dollar at $85, a Proof 1850 dollar at $13, and a Longacre pattern dollar of 1870 at $30.
During the next several months Cogan purchased literally hundreds of individual lots of coins in various sales for Garrett. Correspondence mainly reports on sale results.
On May 16, 1883, Cogan wrote:
I saw the owner of the $20 goloid piece and can get it for you at $185. [This is in reference to an 1879 pattern $20 gold piece struck in gold metal; the "quintuple stella. "] Please let me know. He guarantees that only three were struck.
On June 7, 1883, the subject was discussed again:
Will you kindly let me know if you want the $20 goloid pattern at $180. If not, the owner desires me to return it.
Haseltine's 68th sale, an event which featured the Berg Collection was coming up on May 23 and 24, 1883. Among the items was a great American rarity, the 1804 silver dollar. On May 19, 1883, Cogan wrote:
If you order on the 1804 dollar in Haseltine's sale and I buy it for you I will not charge you 5"70.
This was subsequently done, and at the sale Lot No. 568, the 1804 silver dollar, was purchased for $765.
In a letter of May 26, 1883, Cogan refers to the sale purchases:
Correspondence with Thomas S. Collier
On March 5, 1879, Thomas Collier, of New London, Connecticut, wrote to T. Harrison Garrett with some offers and advice:
I am sorry that my coin figures seem, high to you, but in reality they are not so. Take, for instance, the four rare dollars you wrote for, and compare my prices with those that these pieces have brought at the Clemens & Root sale's last autumn. These are the figures:
1797 with six stars facing Clemens Sale, Poor $3, Root's Sale, Fine $15, my price Fine $5; 1836 Clemens Sale Proof $11.50, Root's Sale Fine $9, my price, has been Proof $9; 1839 Clemens Sale Proof$42, Root's Sale Proof $37.50, my price Uncirculated $30, 1851 Clemens Sale Proof $45, Root's Sale $43, my price Fair $15.
These coins are very scarce. The number of 1836 dollars is about 150; of 1839, about 125; of 1852 about 100; and of 1851 about 90. There are but 60 1858 dollars, and an Almost Uncirculated 1797 such as I offered you is a rarity. If you will notice I put prices for cheaper ones.
If you are desirous of filling your sets you had better do so now. Not that I say this to make you take mine, but putting my coins out of the question, you will never get them cheaper. I have authentic news that the dealers will advance on the prices of all rare coins next fall and perhaps some of the 1836 dollars will be advanced to $15, $18, and $20, and other rare ones in proportion. If coins in these times of little cash sell at the auction prices I have given, will they be lower in better times? Dealers, you know, buy up all the scarce coins and set their prices. Not being a dealer, but a collector, and my coins being simply such as have come to me in large purchases, I prefer that collectors should have them at the same prices I gave. Had you taken the entire lot I mention my profit would not have been $2, and some of the coins were bought when prices ranged much lower than they do now.
Sincerely then, and caught by my own experience which led me to pay $2.75 for an 1846 half dime I might have bought for $1, I advise you to buy copies of all the rare coins you need now. Don't buy them of me if you think I write this to induce you to do so, but I will give you my experience with that 1846 half dime. I bid for it 50 cents. It sold for $1.
Then I told my agent to buy it, he would have got it for $1.10. At the next sale Ibid 75 cents; that coin went for $1. I increased my bid 25 cents each sale, and yet they kept from me, until getting vexed, and being tired of such work, I told a friend who was to attend the sale to buy me one. He did, paying as I said $2.75. That coin has since been sold for $4, and could I get it today, I could get $5 for it.
Experience has told me to buy a coin I need when it first comes up for sale. It never grows any cheaper. I foolishly let a chance to buy 1796 and 1797 half dollars at $20 each go by me. I would give $50 each for those same coins now.
If you desire any of these coins I will give you the memoranda I use in such cases. My first man for cheapness is H. G. Sampson, corner of Fulton Street and Broadway, New York.My next W. P. Brown, 145 Nassau Street, New York, and next J. Colvin Randall, of Philadelphia. Mr. Randall will be more apt to have the coins than either of the others, and I have always found his prices reasonable. You can see by this that I have no desire to inflict my prices upon you, but simply a collector's friendly wish that you may be able to fill your sets.