Q. David Bowers
6. Stickney Specimen. VF
• Matthew Adams Stickney (per Walter H. Breen). Apparently, sold privately, for it did not appear in the Stickney Collection sale conducted by Henry Chapman in June 1907. Rim spot below 7, below foot, and above STA. "May have been cleaned to avoid identification," Walter H. Breen notes. Stickney, one of America's pioneer numismatists, achieved renown in the hobby when he became the first collector to obtain a specimen of the 1804 silver dollar (by trading with the Mint Cabinet in 1843).
• Col. Edward H.R. Green (not certain). Green, like Virgil M. Brand, believed that if to own a great rarity was a good idea, then to own multiple specimens was a better idea yet. Green was a numismatic pack rat, in a nice way. More about Green can be found in my book, Coins and Collectors. Sold to the following sometime c. 1942-1943.
• James Kelly. Kelly, a Dayton, Ohio jeweler and numismatist, was very prominent on the professional numismatic scene from the 1940s through the 1960s. He handled many important items, including the Andre DeCoppet collection of silver dollars. In 1960, when]. Oliver Amos (owner of the Sidney Printing & Publishing Co., Sidney, Ohio) founded Coin World, he tapped Kelly to compile the "Trends" pricing feature, which soon became Coin World's most read column. In 1964 he was a founder (with Michael V. DiSalle, Max Humbert, James F. Ruddy, and me) of Paramount International Coin Corporation, in Englewood, Ohio. Perhaps Kelly's finest moment was the auctioning in 1967 of the J.V. MacDermott specimen of the 1913 Liberty Head nickel, which went for $46,000 to Aubrey Bebee, the Omaha dealer.
• Jack V. Roe, Texas collector. Not included in the sale of Roe's collection sold by B. Max Mehl, June 1945, an offering of silver dollars which lacked just the 1804 and 1870..,s to be complete. Resold to the following.
• James Kelly, Dayton, Ohio.
•Clint Hester. Hester was a major collector who remained behind the scenes and made most of his purchases from the Numismatic Gallery and from Cincinnati dealer Sol Kaplan. Many of Clint Hester's coins appeared in the Menjou sale (below) but were not identified as such.
• Adolphe Menjou, well-known Hollywood film actor. His collection, an impressive holding of United States coins in nearly every category, was consigned to the Numismatic Gallery, a firm owned by Abe Kosoff and Abner Kreisberg. Numismatic Gallery had been formed in New York City in 1937 by Kosoff, who later took Kreisberg as a partner. The company achieved great fame for handling important collections and rarities in the 1940s through the early 1950s. Included was Frederick C.C. Boyd's holding of silver and gold coins, billed as "The World's Greatest Collection" when it crossed the auction block in 1945 and 1946 (see below). In the early 1950s the company was dissolved, and Abe Kosoff set up his own business in Encino, California (later moving to Palm Springs), while Abner Kreisberg operated the Coin Gallery in Beverly Hills, later in association with Jerome L. Cohen (who came to California from Tucson, Arizona, where he had operated the Old Pueblo Stamp and Coin Shop). This 1870s was sold at the Numismatic Gallery sale of the Menjou Collection in 1950, Lot 2181, $1,675. It is uncertain whether Menjou or Clint Hester was the actual owner or whether it even sold at all.
• Abe Kosoff inventory; fixed price list, 1955.
•Fairbanks Collection (Ben Koenig), Stack's, 1960. Lot 617, $9,000.
• Samuel Wolfson Collection sale, Stack's, 1963. Lot 1431, $12,000.
• RL. Miles, Jr. The coin later appeared in Stack's sale of the Miles Collection in 1969. (Either Miles or Miles' secretary cleaned many of his coins. He hoarded 1914 and 1915 Proof half dollars and acquired large numbers of both dates. This hoard was later dispersed, accounting for the appearance on the market of many cleaned 1914 and 1915 half dollars today. (Per letter from Walter H. Breen to the author, February 12, 1992; also per the author's recollections.) Lot 1612, $19,000.
• Stack's 1978 Autumn Sale. Lot 345, $39,000. Sold to the following.
• Howard Queller Collection.
7. Carter Specimen. VF
• Waldo C. Newcomer. Newcomer was a prominent Baltimore collector whose cabinet was consigned for sale at fixed prices to Texas dealer B. Max Mehl. With light pitting on the lower obverse. One of two owned by Newcomer; see No. 1.
.B. Max Mehl.
• Col. Edward H.R Green.
• Burdette G. Johnson.
•Jerome Kern Collection, B. Max Mehl sale, 1950. Lot 941, $1,500. Kern, one of America's best known musical composers, wrote many songs, including those for the Broadway show Roberta in 1933 (Smoke Gets In Your.Eyes, from this show, is among many of his songs still remembered today).
• Amon Gamaliel Carter. Carter, of Fort Worth, Texas, was a newspaperman, oilman, and co-founder of American Airlines. Carter, a member of the Fort Worth Rotary Club, first became interested in numismatics in the 1930s when fellow member B. Max Mehl learned that 1879 was his birth date and gave him as a present an 1879 $2.50 gold piece. Carter's interest was piqued, and before long he bought a rare 1879 $4 gold Stella from Mehl. The rest, as they say, is history. Carter began acquiring a Vast holding of United States silver and gold coins. Whenever Mehl conducted a sale (always of the mail bid type, never a floor or public auction) he would recommend that Carter buy certain coins. In addition, at the conclusion of each sale he would make Carter a package price on all lots which had not attracted satisfactory bids.
• Amon Carter, Jr. After Amon Carter's death his collection passed to his son, Amon, Jr., who took up the numismatic reins with a relish and expanded the cabinet to include paper money, coins of Mexico and Canada, and other specialties. Amon, Jr. enjoyed coin collecting and the people involved and was a familiar figure at conventions for many years. After his passing, John N. Rowe III, of Dallas, was enlisted to sell the Carter Collection. Many of the bulk items, the remarkable collection of paper money, and other holdings were sold privately by Rowe, while the impressive holding of U.S. and world coins was consigned to Stack's, who distributed the pieces in a series of auctions spanning several years. The 1870..,s dollar was sold in January 1984. Lot 285, $46,750.
• L.R French, Jr. Family Collection, Stack's, January 18, 1989. Lot 56, $66,000.
• Stack's, November 1989, Lot 546, $77,000. Catalogued by Carl W.A. Carlson.
8. Shultz Specimen. Fine
• Norman Shultz, sale of December 4, 1935, Lot 1302, $500. Shultz, who began his trade in professional numismatics in King City, Missouri, before 1920, soon developed a specialty in silver dollars. Later, he moved to Utah, where he remained in business through the mid-1980s, by which time he was the dean of American coin dealers. Shultz was particularly well known as a specialist in Morgan and Peace silver dollars and was one of the main sellers of these in the 1940s and 1950s (at which time these series were not particularly popular with collectors; widespread popularity would not occur until after the great Treasury releases beginning in 1962).
• B. Max Mehl, purchaser from Shultz.
• Unknown intermediary(ies).
•King Farouk Collection. This coin was part of the Palace Collection sale (Farouk Collection) sold in Cairo, Egypt in 1954. Lot 1676, $1,729.50 (after currency conversion). Farouk, the playboy king of Egypt, used the Egyptian treasury to pay for his collections of stamps, coins, art, pornography, and other interests. He was exiled in the early 1950s, and the ruling military junta put his coins and other holdings up for sale through Sotheby's of London. The auction was attended by a coterie of prominent American numismatists including Abe Kosoff, Sol Kaplan, Ambassador and Mrs. R. Henry Norweb, James P. Randall, and Maurice Stord.
• 1960 ANA Convention sale held by the partnership of Arthur Conn and Harold Whiteneck, Massachusetts dealers. Lot 1168, $3,700.
• Kreisberg-Schulman sale held in New York City, April 1967. Lot 1253, $9,600.
• Private collector, anonymous. Sold as the property of an additional consignor in Stack's Herman Halpern Collection Sale, March 1987, Lot 1203, $39,600.
• Private collector (member of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club)