Q.David Bowers
Edgar H. Adams, editor of The Numismatist, exhibited pattern pieces, including a set of 1882 "Shield Earring" silver coins, an 1872 "Amazonian" silver set, the beautiful 1879 "Schoolgirl" silver dollar, and an 1883 Hawaiian Proof set struck in copper.
B. Max Mehl displayed $4 stellas of 1879 and 1880, a copper impression of the rare 1877 $50 piece, and a very fine example of the 1884 trade dollar.
Dr. George P. French, of Rochester, New York, showed nearly 200 varieties of large cents as well as his collection of Hard Times tokens. Henry Chapman showed:
... [a] nice line of United States cents from 1793-1857, and a set of silver dollars 1794-1854, two especially rare half dollars of 1796, one of 1797, a very beautiful quarter dollar of 1827; a special series of Massachusetts shillings and threepence; especially fine Chalmers threepence issued in Annapolis, Maryland in 1783.
He also showed the newly discovered (by Howland Wood) Higley threepence with the wheel design on the reverse and the legend, THE WHEELE GOES ROUND, valued at $1,500. He stated that he had bought it for "the highest price ever paid for a copper coin of American issue." Also in the Chapman exhibit were Proof sets of 1864 and 1876. H. O. Granberg, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, exhibited a number of items, including his 1804 silver dollar.
Farran Zerbe, of Tyrone, Pennsylvania, showed monies of the world and his extensive collection of satirical money relating to the presidential campaigns of William Jennings Bryan. Part of the exhibit also included paper money of such unusual denominations as 8c, 12c, 16c, 183J4c, 371/zc, 621/zc, $11, $12, $15, and $30.
Carl Wurtzbach, of Lee, Massachusetts, showed an extensive collection of colonial coins and medals bearing the portrait of George Washington, as well as other early American issues. Also included in the Wurtzbach display were 120 different varieties of Hard Times tokens.
Howard R. Newcomb, of Detroit, Michigan, showed part of his collection of United States regular series coins, including 30 different examples of half eagles from 1795 to 1830, nearly a complete collection of quarter eagles, and a complete collection of gold dollars (with the exception of 1856-D). He displayed his outstanding collection of half cents as well as a wide variety of silver issues. Newcomb was quite interested in die varieties and illustrated many minute variations within the silver series. Several decades later, Howard R. Newcomb wrote the standard reference on United States copper cent die varieties of the years 1816-1857.
In 1913 coin security was considered, but it was not a major factor in the minds of collectors or dealers. While some professional numismatists had electrical systems installed on their premises to announce breakins, most did not consider the precaution necessary. Likewise, most collectors kept their coins at home or stored them in safe deposit boxes. There were occasional robberies and burglaries, the Mickley theft of the 1860s being the best remembered. In the summer of 1913 numismatists were shocked to learn that part of the collection of Waldo Newcomer, a Baltimore, Maryland collector who had one of America's finest cabinets, was stolen from his home on Monument Street. Frederick Holtz, an electrician for the Holmes Burglar Alarm Telephone Co. of Baltimore, was alleged to have committed the theft while installing a burglar alarm system. Also arrested at the time was Otto H. House, an electrician. Some of the coins were put in the Coin Exchange Safe Deposit & Trust Co. vault in New York City. Frederick Holtz paid for the box rental by giving the attendant a $50 gold coin from California. The keeper of the safe deposit boxes, Stanley R. Walker, subsequently showed this unusual coin to S. H. Chapman, the Philadelphia coin dealer, who immediately identified it as one he had sold to Newcomer over 20 years earlier. Holtz was traced and subsequently arrested. Most of the coins were recovered.
A special exhibition of coins from the American Numismatic Society's own collection plus loans from other collections took place in New York City early in 1914. The Numismatist noted that this was "the most important numismatic event in years." Shown were two of the three known 1776 Continental currency dollars in silver, four 1804 silver dollars, a 1787 gold Brasher doubloon, the unique 1783 set of Nova Constellatio silver coins (loaned by Hon. James W. Ellsworth of New York City), and others. Nearly four pages of the April 1914 issue of The Numismatist were devoted to describing the 1783 pattern coins, considered the highlight of the exhibit.
Coins belonging to Carl Wurtzbach, Charles Gregory, Judson Brenner, Howard R. Newcomb, Hillyer C. Ryder, George C. Ham, Farran Zerbe, Charles G. Dodd, Waldo C. Newcomer, Ben G. Green (lately deceased), F. C. C. Boyd, Dr. T. L. Comparette, S. Hudson Chapman, Edgar H. Adams, David Proskey, J. W. Scott, Elmer S. Sears, Howland Wood, William H. Woodin, and others were shown. A special medal was prepared and given to those who participated in this outstanding exhibition, a display which stands unequalled before or since.
S. Hudson Chapman sold on May 27-29, 1914, the collection of William F. Gable of Altoona, Pennsylvania. On June 24th to 27th, his brother Henry sold the George M. Parsons Collection. B. Max Mehl sold another outstanding collection, the Arthur C. Nygren holdings, on November 30th of the same year.
1915 brought with it the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Held in San Francisco, the event commemorated the opening of the Panama Canal as well as the rebirth of the city of San Francisco, following the earthquake and fire of 1906. At the Exposition Farran Zerbe maintained a numismatic exhibit and sales area. Commemorative coins were issued in several different varieties.
Readers of The Numismatist learned that several years earlier $1,100 face value of Kellogg & Co. $20 pieces from San Francisco was found near Alexandria, Nebraska, by two boys who were playing in the woods. It is believed that these were hidden earlier by two men who had been pursued by Indians in 1867. The men had been killed, and at the time the gold believed to have been with them was presumed lost.
A collector reported that he had become interested in the one-cent pieces of 1877, so beginning in the year 1881 he kept a record of how scarce they were in circulation. In the first year of his record keeping he sorted through 1,250 Indian cents from the bank and found only six with the 1877 date. He kept a continuous log, and by 1883 the number of coins he examined had reached a total of 2,950 (including those seen earlier in 1881) with a total of 11 1877 Indian cents. By November 27, 1897, 28,450 Indian cents had been examined, resulting in the capture of just 35 of the prized 1877 pieces. Writing in 1915, the searcher ventured to say that 1877 Indian cents were rarer than ever: "I believe that it would take a very long day's work to secure even one out of a batch of 10,000."