Q.David Bowers
The New Century Begins
In June 1903 young B. Max Mehl, of Ft. Worth, Texas applied for membership in the American Numismatic Association. In the December 1903 issue of The Numismatist the first of hundreds of Mehl advertisements that would be printed in that publication over the next 50 years made its appearance. The initial advertisement was a mail auction containing less than $50 worth of coins, including five separate lots of circulated Columbian half dollars which Mehl undoubtedly had taken from circulation. Soon his advertisements offered the Hub Coin Book for sale. Then the Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia made its appearance. The latter book sold millions of copies over the years and was vigorously promoted by direct mail, newspaper, and even radio advertising. By 1952 the 55th edition had been published. This particular volume contained 208 pages of information. An overview of the history of money was given, together with a description of terms, information concerning mints, and related items. Then followed a listing of United States copper, silver, and gold coins, including commemoratives, together with prices paid, usually stated in a range such as $10-$30. For the famous 1913 Liberty head nickel he offered $500, and for the unique Templeton Reid $25 gold piece (the only known specimen was stolen from the United States Mint in 1858) he was quite safe in offering $2,500, knowing that no one would take him up on the offer.
Throughout the book were sprinkled articles on various topics as diverse as encased postage stamps, Canadian issues, foreign and ancient coins, and other essays-including a lengthy dissertation on the 1877 $50 gold pattern. Here and there throughout the Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia were pictures of B. Max Mehl himself, his offices, a huge stack of mail, and related things. At the end of the catalogue was an invitation for the reader to become a coin collector by ordering special sets for beginners.
Mehl, born in Lithuania in 1884, came to America in 1893. Years later he gave a view of how his business started:
I discovered that my then meager earnings as a clerk [in a shoe store] went into my equally meager coin collection, which I must have started during my cradle days, as I do not recall my ever not being interested in coins. I heard of and read about the great rarities, which I did not even hope to see, much less to own. I thought that by dealing in coins it may be possible for me, if not to add to my earnings, to at least add to my numismatic joy.
An initial small advertisement brought fair results. I worked at the store during the day, and at numismatics during the evening and late into the night. Within two years I made sufficient progress and felt safe to take a chance and "resign" my clerkship and venture out as a full-fledged "numismatist."
In 1903 my first coin circular appeared; in 1904 my first fixed price catalogue, the Hub Coin Book, made its appearance, and in 1906 my first auction sale made its debut. I was the cataloguer, typist, secretary, mail clerk, etc. My establishment consisted of a second-hand desk at home. It was then that I observed that the numismatic business was still being conducted in ruts made 30 or 40 years before. I noticed that no effort was being made by anyone to popularize coin collecting and create new collectors.
The idea occurred to me to try advertising in general publications. My first "large" advertisement appeared in Collier's, a five-liner, at the huge cost, at least to me then, of $12.50. The results were gratifying. In the same year, 1906, I felt sufficiently warranted and financially able to move out of my "home office" into a small rented desk space in a downtown office. A year later, 1907, I' experienced the thrill of moving into a real office; of course, only a single room, but nevertheless a real office. I could even afford the luxury of an assistant then ...
I continued to expand my advertising in general publications so that in a few years I felt justified and able to plunge and pay $1,000 for a single advertisement, a quarter page in Collier's. By 1912 my business had prospered to the extent that it required an entire half floor of office space in a downtown office building, and a staff of 10 assistants.
During the next half century the name of B. Max Mehl became a byword on the American scene. His Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia achieved such a wide circulation that one municipal authority complained that the progress of streetcars was being impeded while conductors stopped to look through their change in hopes of finding a rare 1913 Liberty head nickel, for which Mehl offered to pay a fantastic price.
In addition to dealing with the public, Mehl was active with the collecting fraternity. A frequent visitor to annual conventions of the American Numismatic Association, he soon learned the names of important buyers. Col. E. H. R. Green, Waldo Newcomer, John Work Garrett and other prominent numismatists became his clients. Collectors and estate administrators favored Mehl with their selling business. The Ten Eyck Collection, auctioned in 1922, was a landmark, as were the Dunham, Geiss, Atwater, Neil, Olsen, and Royal (King Farouk) sales of years later. Mehl' s colorful advertising methods and winning personality made him a favorite with collectors and dealers alike. On several different occasions the American Numismatic Association commended him for the contributions he made to the hobby.
In the first decade of the 20th century prices of rare coins increased steadily. The collection of John G. Mills, of Albany, New York, was sold in 1,848 lots on April 27, 1904, by S. H. and Henry Chapman, at the auction rooms of Davis & Harvey, Philadelphia. Many pieces had come earlier from the Parmelee Collection. The catalogue noted:
Nearly all came from famous cabinets, and Mr. Mills has in nearly every case preserved the pedigree of previous ownership... [The collection] contains specimens of the highest rarity and the finest state of preservation in every series represented. The greatest rarity and the chief piece in the collection is the 1776 Continental currency dollar in silver. Many of the prize pieces went into the cabinet of James W. Ellsworth, an art collector who quietly assembled one of the most dazzling displays of rare coins ever gathered. At the Harlan Smith sale, held in May 1906, a $5 gold piece of 1822 sold for the record-breaking price of $2,165. The collection, for which Smith had paid about $15,000, brought him $8,000 profit. At the end of the same year, 1906, S. H. & Henry Chapman dissolved their partnership which had been in effect since the late 1870s. Both pursued the coin business independently from that point forward.
The Brasher piece fetched $6,200 and was subsequently advertised as "the world's highest priced coin." An 1804 silver dollar in the same sale fetched a record $3,600.
Around this time Edgar H. Adams began to devote an increasingly large amount of his time to numismatic research. In 1912 and 1913 these efforts were to bear fruit in the form of standard reference works on the subject of United States territorial gold coins and patterns of the Philadelphia Mint. In addition, Adams found time to write "Current American Numismatic Notes," a column for The Numismatist, and other articles.