Q.David Bowers
On June 17, 1907, Robert Garrett postponed considering any additional purchases until the autumn, as he was leaving Baltimore for the summer the same day he received Henry Chapman's letter.
On December 18, 1907, Henry Chapman inquired whether Garrett had" ... secured the $20 by Saint Gaudens with the date in Roman numerals?" Chapman went on to relate that these issues were already scarce. A specimen was acquired by Henry Chapman and invoiced on December 23, 1907 to Robert Garrett at $31. At the same time a 1907 Saint Gaudens double eagle of the later design with Arabic numerals was sent at the face value of $20. "I spent nearly all day Saturday trying to get these pieces," Henry Chapman related.
On February 28, 1908, Henry Chapman furnished Robert Garrett with information concerning the 1907 gold issues:
I wish to give you some information. If you will act quickly upon it I think we will secure for you a couple of coins which are worth large sums. In fact, I have paid $150 cash for one of them myself. The director of the mint, Mr. Frank A. Leach, at Washington, has in his possession, and is distributing at face value, to collectors or public museums, to the latter he writes me more especially than to the former, special $10 gold pieces of the Saint-Gaudens design, 1907.
If you will write him and ask him to send you a specimen of the $10 gold piece, Saint-Gaudens design 1907, from die No.1 without any border, and die No.2, with a wire or thin edge, you might say to him that you have been informed that he has a few of these for distribution to collections which are exhibited to the public. I would tell him that your collection is on exhibition at Princeton College and that you would like to have him send you them. Send him $20 in gold notes and 12c in postage stamps, and I think you will succeed. Do not mention my name or your source of information.
On March 31, 1910, Henry Chapman gave the following progress report:
I have been working on the catalogue of Princeton and have the gold about completed.
This will leave the section of foreign silver coins to be done, as my brother S. H. Chapman has the medals nearly completed. I have a large and fine stock of large gold coins which I think would add greatly to the collection and would like to know if you would like to see some of them with a view to purchase.
I noticed in the collection at Princeton that you lacked the 1909 and 1910 silver and gold Proof sets. I have not the 1909 gold Proof set in stock at present but can supply the others if you wish them. Also, did you get the Proof cents of 1909?
There were several issues of which two turned out to be rare. Robert Garrett replied on May 11, 1910:.. .I shall be glad to have you furnish the 1910 silver and gold Proof coins, and if possible to secure those of 1909. I presume that the premium is very slight, if any. I did not get the Proof cents of 1909 that you speak of.
With this assurance, Henry Chapman invoiced to Robert Garrett a 1910 gold Proof set ($37.50 face value) for $38.50, and a 1910 silver Proof set for $1.50 on December 13, 1910. One year later, on December 15, 1911, gold and silver Proof sets of the 1911 year were sent by Henry Chapman at the same figure, which he noted as "exact cost at the mint." The 1909 Proof set remained elusive:
I have not yet been able to get you the 1909 gold Proofset, but will be on the lookout for one and as soon as I secure it will let you know. I have made inquiries in every direction.
Henry Chapman reported quite a remarkable situation in his letter dated February 6, 1912:
The word has been given out by officials that no gold sets will be struck for 1912. I have taken the matter up with the director of the mint at Washington, and have at last got their consent to strike off five sets in June, when the two new states are added to the Union, when they will add two more stars on the [edge of] coins. I will watch them carefully for you and will put them with the others ...
There has come into my possession, and it is the only specimen I have been able to secure, [a piece] which I consider one of the greatest American gold coins as it marks such an utter departure in the coinage of the United States. I allude to the $20, first design by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1907, the one with the deep hollowed out field, which comes up to a thin knife edge all around. There were eighteen of these struck, of which one was presented by [President Theodore] Roosevelt to the king of Italy, one was deposited in the Mint Cabinet, one given to the family of Saint-Gaudens, and I have heard it stated, but I am not able to substantiate it, that some seven or nine were rolled out and destroyed. At all event, it is of the utmost rarity, and strange as it may seem to you, it is not a pattern but a legitimate, authorized coin and the specimens which had the wire edge and were in high relief and afterwards flattened down are really the patterns, as it was a sample of this piece that was submitted to Congress and authorized by them. The specimen which I have is in brilliant Uncirculated condition, price $1,500.
He then invoiced at $40 on May 7, 1912: " ... gold and silver Proof sets for 1912 which I will place with your collection [in Princeton]"
Garrett received a letter from S. Hudson Chapman also in May:
I have been working on a monograph of silver coins of Massachusetts from 1652 for about two years and propose now to complete it and publish it. My intention is to illustrate it by direct photographs of the finest coins known, and I write to ask you to allow me to remove the Massachusetts silver coins from your collection at Princeton for, say, about two weeks to use them in my illustrations. I guarantee that they will not be injured and they will be returned to you safely.
There are some of the finest examples known among those you purchased at our sales of the Mills and Smith collections.
In the meantime, the completion of the Garrett Collection catalogue was still being delayed. Robert Garrett registered his dissatisfaction in a letter to S. Hudson Chapman:
About seven years have elapsed since your brother undertook to prepare catalogues for sections No.4 (foreign gold) and 5 (foreign silver and other coins) of our collection at Princeton.
During this time all that I have been able to get from him has been promises. It is true that on several occasions he claimed to have practically finished section No.4. Under the circumstances I believe you will agree my impatience has been entirely justified ... I should therefore like to ask whether you feel competent to undertake cataloguing the sections mentioned...