Q.David Bowers
In the Beginning
When the infant Philadelphia Mint produced pattern coins for the first time in 1792 and copper cents and half cents for circulation in 1793 there was no collector interest in America. The Mint did not set aside samples of its own coinage, nor was there a government museum. In England, however, there was an intense interest in coinage. The enthusiasm for coins, tokens, and medals bordered on a mania and was fueled by thousands of different varieties of copper tokens, mostly of halfpenny size, issued as a substitute for royal coinage in circulation and also to whet the appetites of collectors. The Virtuoso's Companion and Coin Collector's Guide, published in England in 1795, contained engravings of many different pieces and helped the numismatists of the day to arrange their tokens in sequence. Pictured on these copper pieces, called conder tokens, were a seemingly endless variety of subjects ranging from Lady Godiva to serpents and rare animals. Certain of these tokens, primarily issued circa 1787-1796, bore legends relating to America or to George Washington.
While the interest of the typical British numismatist of the 1790s was apt to be confined to tokens, early coins of England, and classical issues such as Greek and Roman pieces, a number of collectors became aware of the new coinage of the United States. As a result, many select pieces minted during this era found their way into British cabinets. One British traveler visited the Mint in 1795, procured numerous examples of the new coinage, including two Uncirculated silver dollars minted in 1794, the year before, and upon his return incorporated them into his cabinet of specimens. Nearly 170 years later this illustrious group of American coins, by that time long forgotten, came to light in a Yorkshire estate. The pieces were auctioned in London, much to the delight of numismatists who paid record prices for them.
As a result of collecting interest by British numismatists, many fine specimens which would have otherwise been lost to history were preserved for posterity. In the intervening time since then England has been an important source for early United States coins. In the 1920s, for example, Spink & Son, Ltd., London coin dealers, ran advertisements in The Numismatist proclaiming the firm as an important source "for coins, tokens, and medals of the American colonies and the United States."
One of the earliest collectors in America was Joseph J. Mickley. Born in 1799, Mickley was about 17 years old around 1816 when he sought a one-cent piece of his birth year. The 1799 cent, recognized today as the rarest issue of the entire 1793-1857 large cent series, was scarce at that time. Considerable effort was expended by young Mickley before an example was finally secured. His interest piqued, he went on to assemble a date sequence of other cents.
A serious fire damaged many facilities at the Mint in 1816. After the conflagration, excavations revealed a small subterranean vault which held two dozen or so dies of earlier United States coins. These were sold to a scrap iron dealer who in turn sold them to Mickley, a resident of the city.
Mickley's collecting interests expanded. His cabinet grew to include coins of the world and ancient issues as well as pieces of his native country. An often-told story relates that in 1827 Mickley visited the Philadelphia Mint. Seeking to obtain an example of the current year's quarter dollar, he was informed that no pieces had been made for circulation but that specimen or Proof pieces were available. In exchange for a dollar he received four Proof pieces at face value. Later these were to be recognized as some of the rarest United States silver issues.
Mickley engaged in trade as a piano maker and repairman. In addition he repaired other types of musical instruments. Of an intellectual turn of mind, Mickley spoke French and German fluently. His library was well known among his friends and contained many rare volumes.
In 1867 coins valued at $16,000 were taken during a burglary. This attenuated his interest, and shortly thereafter he sold the balance of the collection for a similar amount.
In 1869 Mickley went to Europe, where he spent several years. While there, he learned to speak the Swedish language fluently. In Sweden he particularly enjoyed his acquaintance with Madame Leah Ahlborne, a young engraver who followed her father's position in the Mint. The admiration was mutual, and after Mickley's visit Leah Ahlborne engraved a medal of him.
William E. DuBois, who, following Mickley's death on February 15, 1878, wrote his obituary for The American Journal of Numismatics, commented on the wide diversity of Mickley's interests:
[Coin collecting] proved a great incentive to the study of languages, history, and antiquities, as a diversion from the daily labor of making pianos and repairing violins. Here I may say, his linguistic appetite was remarkable ... He took pains to pick up a vocabulary in almost every country in which he visited during three years' travel. I once asked him for the various renderings of railroad; he gave it to me in Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, and modern Greek. He could not answer for ancient Greek, although he was not without the classic touch. He said he had trouble keeping his Italian and Spanish from running into each other. In the entertaining manuscript journal of his travels, to show how the Russians are given to the study of other languages than their own, he states that at Nishni-Novgorod, a town well on to the border of Siberia, he went into a restaurant, where there were two young ladies, one of them smoking a cigarette. Supposing he might safely soliloquize in German, he said, "What a pity for such a nice girl to be smoking." Quickly she took out the cigar, and gave him to know that she understood women's rights and German besides. With his usual naivete, he adds, "how careful we should be." He seemed bound to see everything in Europe, as well as the borders of Asia and Africa. He was almost stifled in the crypt of an Egyptian pyramid; needed his overcoat in Lapland, where he went in June to see the sun go all around without making a dip; fell down the ancient well of Cicero at Rome, and was knocked down by a careless driver in Constantinople, and taken up for dead ...