Q. David Bowers
How many silver dollars did New Netherlands handle at the time? I remember at one point we figured that we handled about 140,000 1881-S dollars alone, and nearly all of these were prooflike. This amounted to 140 bags. I had to laugh a few years ago when some guy told me how rare 1881-S prooflikes were!
I estimated that we handled about 20 bags a day, five days a week, for about a month and a half. We handled a lot of other coins besides 1881-S, but I have forgotten the dates.Many were shipped by us, but many were' sent out by Amelingmeier, who had a Ford car dealership in Lynbrook, New York, called Ted Rowland, Inc. We were doing a tremendous business, but after about two months, the thing tapered off 'to next to nothing because everybody was in on the act.
In fact I had just gotten rid of the last of the 1893 dollars that I had bought with Ralph Lathrop in 1952. That was the bag I found when I was walking downtown with Ralph J. Lathrop. He always carried a large amount of cash in his pocket. We were going down Broadway, and there was an Eisenhower campaign procession coming and some motorcycles, and so we ducked in a side street and found Wt; were in front of the Federal Reserve Bank, I said to Lathrop, "Let's go in and see if they've got any coins."
And we went in and Lathrop said, "Hey, got any silver dollars that are brand new? I'll give them as gifts." The guy said, "Oh, we got lots of silver dollars; I think some of them are brand new." So, he came back with a bag, and Lathrop gives him $1,000 cash. I give him a $5 tip for carrying them upstairs and everything. This was from the cash room at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. We took them back to Ralph's apartment, we opened them up and spread them out on the floor, and they're all 1893-Ps. So we went through them, and I found recut dates, I found a couple of die varieties, and I called up Wormser and said, "How many do you want for stock?" And Charles said, "How much are they going to cost me?" I said, "A dollar apiece." Charlie said, "I'll take 100," or 150, whatever. I took out nice gemmy ones, rolled them up in paper towels or napkins, and took them to the office. We were selling them for years afterward for $2, $3, $4 apiece. Whenever I see some guy rave about how rare the 1893-Ps are I have to laugh because I had 1,000 of them. And who cares?
I didn't go after any other coins at the Federal Reserve. There was not enough demand for the coins at the time. Besides, we had just bought the Roebling estate, and we had six 1796 silver dollars, 25 '98s-we had coins allover the place. Our capital was stretched beyond belief because there were so many rare coins and collectible coins available. To buy Morgan dollars in 1952, even for face value, and beg people to buy them for $2 was a pain in the neck. They were so common ....
Now I will tell about the Hilton Hotel in Denver and the ANA Convention held there in August 1963. After the show, Harry and I went to Las Vegas with our wives-the first trip in what became a yearly tradition for a summer vacation. In 1963, Charles Wormser came along. The 1880-CC dollars over 1879 were new discoveries then, and were very hot on the market. In Las Vegas you could get all the silver dollars you wanted just by going up to the cash window in the back and ask the guy if he had any brand new silver dollars. I got all kinds, all I wanted. A dollar apiece; silver dollars. Who cared? One day I got a whole bunch of '80-CCs. I found some over '79s and I think I sold them to John Skubis or someone for $4 or $5 each-and used the profit to buy cigars.
John Skubis Remembers
John Skubis, a San Francisco area rare coin dealer who has been active since the 1950s and who was prominent in the silver dollar field during the Mint and Treasury releases of the 1950s and early 1960s, shared his recollections with me in an interview.(Interview conducted February 19, 1992.)I have known John since August 1958, when after the American Numismatic Association Convention, held that year in Los Angeles, I visited him in San Francisco. In John's words, here is what happened:
The Beginning
Let me tell you how I got started with silver dollars and the San Francisco Mint. It was an accident which happened when I made a silver deposit. Years ago I was in the silver and scrap gold business. I sold the silver scrap to the Mint, and I got paid in silver dollars. The cashier's department paid me. This was around 1951 or 1952. I had a permit at one time to buy gold. Years ago you had to have it to do it as government regulations would not allow citizens to buy, sell, or trade in bulk gold.
When I found these dollars at the Mint, I met the cashier. His name was [Isaac J.J. Coontz. He was the Mint cashier in charge of paying out silver dollars that had been stored by the government ever since they were made. In my first transaction, I got 16 silver dollars. I asked him if I could buy more, and he said I could.
I saw a potential for doing some business, and I contacted Charlie Green. You probably remember him-he and his wife were dealers in Chicago, and he used to advertise in the Numismatic Scrapbook. I also found a silver dollar dealer in New York City; I think his name was Lender or Leader. I also contacted Leonard in Seattle, Norman Shultz in Utah, and Hirschhorn in New York. I asked them if they could use silver dollars. Most replied that they could.
So, I started to supply the dealers with silver dollars. I was charging them $1.40 each for very selected pieces. I would go to the Mint and find out what dates they had, and if I thought the coins could be sold, I would go ahead and pick up 200, 300, or 400 coins and send them to my customers.
San Francisco Silver Dollars
I can tell you which dates turned up and which didn't. For example, I never bought any Uncirculated 1884-S dollars. I never saw even a roll of these offered to me at the Mint, or on the street, or anywhere. The 1892-S never turned up in Uncirculated grade either. I never saw any at the Mint or in any place outside of numismatics. The same goes for 1904-S and 1893-S.Every other San Francisco Mint dollar turned up by the sack full.
Once I had a bag of 1903-S dollars, and I had others, too. I don't know if I sold a whole bag to Norman Shultz, or if I sold him just a half a bag. I was selling these to different dealers. I think Norman paid me $9 each.
Arnold Rosing and I jointly owned a bag of 1896-S dollars which we bought from a bank in Oakland. You know, these bank guys were all in the business too, in the cashier's department. They knew what to look for. This must have been sometime between 1952 and 1956. In fact, that is when there was the greatest action in bags of San Francisco Mint dollars.
The 1883-S was a scarce dollar, and I once had a bag of these. I sold 200 coins to Charlie Green in Chicago, and I shipped Leonard-a dealer in Seattle-100 or 200, and perhaps 100 or 200 went to Toivo Johnson in Maine. In fact, I saved one of these 1883-S dollars and still have it. I sent it to ANACS and they rated it as MS-64 or MS-65 a few years ago. I don't know how they would grade it now. It is in my vault, and I haven't looked at it for a long time.
Another rare dollar was the 1895-S. I remember that K.O. Cunningham in Nevada had a bag of '95-Ss. He was conducting his silver dollar business from a trailer court. I think he wanted $5,000 or $6,000 for the bag. This was probably around 1953 to 1955. I saw it. I came back to San Francisco without buying it, as I was afraid that 1895-S dollars were going to come out of the Mint in quantity. I waited for a while, and didn't hear anything about any more 1895-Ss. I telephoned him and said, "Listen, how about selling me a half a bag?" He said, "Gee, sorry, John, I sold part to Norman Shultz and now they're all gone."
I remember getting a nice bag of Uncirculated 1894-S dollars from the San Francisco Mint. I'm going to tell you how my process of buying dollars worked in the Mint. In the cashier's department, they used silver dollars in payment for silver and gold and forwhatever other thing that might come up in the Mint.
Coontz, who was in charge of paying out silver dollars, was not a coin collector, but he was sharp enough to have a nice selection of different dates on hand, because he always had people off the street looking for different dates. So, the net result was he would have probably 15 different dates among whatever he kept, and if you asked for an '88-S, if he had it, out would come a roll or 10 pieces, or 15 pieces. So this is how I used to get different dates. I did not have to pay a premium or any tip. In fact, he was glad to do it for anyone who asked.