Q. David Bowers
Harry Remembers J. Grove Loser
Let me say a few words about J. Grove Loser, who was very active in the silver dollar market in the 1950s. Later, after he died, I did business with his son.
J. Grove Loser had the same connections that Charlie Dochkus had. Both had good contacts in Washington to get silver dollars long before they were released in 1963. They were getting quantities of Carson City dollars out of the Treasury Building in the mid-1950s. I know that 1879-CC, 1882-CC, 1883-CC, 1884-CC, and 1885-CC were involved.
And at the same time that I was buying my dollars from Dochkus I was paying Dochkus $1,500 a bag which translates to $1.50 per coin. I believe that I am the only dealer who ever advertised the 1885 Carson City dollars by the 1,000-coin bag. This was done in Numismatic News in the late 1950s. I had a full page ad selling the CCs at $1,600 a bag, and I think I got lucky and sold three bags then.
J. Grove Loser also comes to mind because he had at least two bags of 1879-CCs, which was a tough date. Dochkus offered me a bag at one time, and I believe he wanted $2,000 for it. I only bought 500 coins from him, and this was at the same rate, $2 apiece. I remember selling Irving Davidoff of Klondyke [sic] Coin Exchange a bunch of 1879-CC dollars for $60 per roll of 20 coins. Robert Edwards, another active dealer at the time, bought 1879-CC rolls from me. I believe that Aubrey Bebee also had a bag of 1879-CC dollars.
Other Dealers
I only vaguely remember S. Hoffman of the Silver Dollar Exchange in Washington. However, I remember Ben Douglas, of Washington, well, and his friend Tom Warfield, who told me he was a cousin of Wallis Warfield Simpson, who became the Duchess of Windsor. I remember that Steve Ruddel was into silver dollars early and used to go to the Treasury Building every day and hound the people there. He was a big player and handled many important bags.
Robert Edwards was a big dealer in used silver dollars by dates. He used to run ads offering coins in all grades from Good to Uncirculated. Edwards was primarily an investor the man behind the scene-and he had his niece, Margaret Capua, run his business. Edwards made a lot of money with his stock in a company called Agnico. He was a big shareholder, and was involved in owing the Agnico silver mine and the Eagle gold mine. Later, the two mining companies were combined, and the stock was traded over-the-counter. I remember that the stock was something like a quarter a share, and then went to $16. It was called Agnico Eagle. When I was making silver bars, I sent Don Taxay to look over the Agnico Eagle operation, as one of their people approached me and offered silver for sale. Later, Edwards turned the entire silver dollar business over to his niece.
I also remember Harry Warner, of Mill Valley, California. He used to sell me rolls of 1878 silver dollars containing lots of seven over eight tail feathers' coins-good ones with lots of feathers showing under the seven feathers. Either Harry did not know about this variety, or didn't care, and charged me just the regular 1878 price. Harry was very well connected with the big silver dealers in the West, who were Robert R. Johnson, Arnold Rosing, and Johnny Serpa. Johnny Serpa was in San Jose. In one sitting Johnny Serpa sold me some good S-mint rolls of such dates as 1896-S, 1901-S, 1902-S, and 1904-S, all of which were tough to find. The 1903-S was the really hard to find date, and I never saw them offered by the roll.
In answer to your question, I never heard of any bags or even rolls of 1895-O dollars coming out of the Treasury. Single pieces of this and 1894-S could sometimes be found mixed in bags of worn dollars.
I remember Harry D. Heaps, who lives here in Philadelphia, and who used to deal in dollars. Ruth [Bauer] and I had dinner with him the other day. He is 93 years old, going on 94. His main business years ago was installing bookkeeping systems for Remington Rand. He installed a system in the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia.
I also remember Gerald Zaid, who is a medical doctor today. The last time I visited with Gerry he had an insurance company in California and had 60 doctors working for him. He was a neighbor of singer Bobby Vinton. He told me he used to play tennis with Bobby Vinton every morning. Ronald Reagan lived about two blocks away, and he took us to Reagan's home. Gerry told me if he took his company public he would probably be worth quite a few millions.
Well, he was going to medical school at the time he was dealing in silver dollars, and he was very, very energetic. He used to get up in the morning as soon as the Philadelphia banks opened. He would make the rounds. I liked him, like I had him under my wing. He was a genius. I liked Gerry, and I would give him information when I knew that dollars were being released. He would sell coins to me, and I would sell to him. He was a good customer of mine until he finally became a doctor and opened up offices in California and, later, formed his own insurance company.
More About Las Vegas
Let me also mention Ben Stack. I told you earlier that I bought rolls of 1889-CC dollars from him. He told me that at one time he had three bags of this date. This is when he owned the Imperial Coin Company. I think he sold one bag to Klondyke Coin Exchange.
Ben Stack got his share of stuff when he had his company out in Las Vegas, because silver dollars were used extensively in the slot machines. There were many,many collectors in the town, and most of the casino owners knew which dates were rare. A lot of dollars came out of Las Vegas. That is where Curly Stansbury got many of his coins. He had hundreds of bags of silver dollars.
I remember Mike Brown, who was a cashier at the Tropicana in Vegas. I remember Mike called me up. He had a bag of 1878 eight feathers dollars, and he told me Stansbury offered him three bucks apiece for them, and asked me if he should sell. I told him that it was a good deal, a very fair price.
I also remember B.A. Brown, from Fallon, Nevada. His main customer was LaVere Redfield. I remember selling him 40 rolls of 1878-CC dollars when I had three or four bags of 1878-CCs that I had bought from my connections in Las Vegas. The casinos there used to send tractor trailer trucks to San Francisco and take 1,500 or 2,000 bags of dollars at a time. One guy that was very active in dollars was a friend of Amon Carter, Jr. His friend owned the California Club. He used to take CC dollars and put them in holders and give them out to good customers. The owner of Binion's Horseshoe Club also used to give out silver dollars as gifts. I remember that when silver dollars finally became scarce in Vegas in the late 1960s, I sold Binion a bag of Bermuda silver crowns. I explained to him that the Bermuda crowns were the same size and they would work in the slot machines. He took a bag for whatever the price was at that time. Binion was a coin collector-I don't think most people know that. But, all of the casino owners were coin collectors in Vegas; the whole town knew about coins. It was probably one of the biggest towns for collectors. At the casinos, they would always look at the silver dollars for dates, because half of the workers were part-time coin dealers.