Who is/are the most famous coin collector(s)? Who's your favorite?
LochNESS
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Augustus Caesar? What about 20th and 21st century collectors. Who do you like? USA fans have Eliasberg. Who do we have on the darkside?
I know the actor who played the engineer on Star Trek: Enterprise collects coins. I bet MagikBilly could add some interesting names to this list. He's hob-nobbed with many interesting folks.
Maybe we should make a trading card deck of famous numismatists. I bet the kids would enjoy them. Could spark future hobbyists.
I know the actor who played the engineer on Star Trek: Enterprise collects coins. I bet MagikBilly could add some interesting names to this list. He's hob-nobbed with many interesting folks.
Maybe we should make a trading card deck of famous numismatists. I bet the kids would enjoy them. Could spark future hobbyists.
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Only died last year, the book Heads I Win was about him.
First off, with regard to Emperor Augustus: we don't know that he actually "collected coins" in the conventional, modern sense of that word. The idea that he might have been comes solely from the following line in "The 12 Caesars" by Roman historian, Suetonius:
<< <i>...On the Saturnalia, and at any other time when he took it into his head, he would now give gifts of clothing or gold and silver; again coins of every device, including old pieces of the kings and foreign money... >>
So Augustus is more of a "wealthy eccentric" or maybe an "antiquarian" than a "coin collector"; obsolete and foreign coins were just a small part of the "weird" stuff" he liked to give away for fun. Nevertheless, it is one of the earliest records of anyone doing anything with coins (other than using them as money) that we have.
Back on topic: Buddy "Jed Clampett" Ebsen is another famous actor who collected, though again I think he was mainly American coins. For world coins, a famous modern collector would have to be King Farouk of Egypt; the 1933 Double Eagle was just one of his prize possessions.
Coin collecting didn't become "mainstream" among the rich and powerful until the dawn of the Renaissance. The "father of the Renaissance", the Italian poet Petrarch (1304-1374), collected coins and wrote in detail about his hobby. The collection of Pope Boniface VII (pope from 1294-1303) still forms the core of the Vatican's coin collection. The collections of the late mediaeval Holy Roman Emperors, Kings of France, Tsars of Russia and Electors of Brandenburg all form the cores of the national coin collections of Austria, France, Russia and Germany respectively.
One does have to be cautious when one hears about "famous people", particularly actors, sportspeople and similar celebrities, being collectors; in many such cases, they are simply allowing their wealth managers to buy a coin investment portfolio with some of their spare money, rather than actually having a personal collector interest as Mr Ebsen did.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
Jerry Buss
Andre Dawson
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At some point, the family apparently marked all of the coins in the collection with a tiny inlaid silver imperial eagle, as shown on this sestertius (borrowed from the above referenced page):
Virtus Collection - Renaissance and Baroque Medals
Kooky celebs with weird passions
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Sapyx, excellent thoughts. King Farouk, of course! My dad told me all about him when I was growing up. I remember reading about him often during the St. Gauden circus. That was a really exciting time for my dad, who is a litesider. Knowing that I preferred world coins, he would talk to me all day and night about Farouk and his collection. Somehow the name escaped me when I was writing this thread in the wee hours last night. But now that you mention it, I believe he is arguably the singularly most famous collector of the 20th century. Definitely in the same class as Eliasberg.
David Gee sounds like a third member of this elusive club. Gonzaga estate, too. To answer Sapyx's question though, I am looking for singular individuals. Eccentric, even. Collectors who seemed to devote their entire lives to "the hunt." So technically "both" are eligible candidates, but I doubt many actors and athletes would fit this description as they have clearly devoted their lives to becoming famous actors and athletes (not famous collectors).
worldcoinguy, that article was beyond stupid. Kidman wasn't even mentioned in the version I read (it must cycle through a list of mini articles everytime someone clicks because you saw Kidman and I saw Angelina Jolie and George W. Bush).
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Pinterest
<< <i>Andre Dawson
>>
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WRITERS OF THESE "NEWS" WEBSITES?!?!?!?
That article is horribly written. Only the first third is about Dawson's collection. Then it suddenly changes topic to Israeli coins (with incorrect grammar, I might add). Then it switches topic again to Carson City dollars? Who is paying these people to write this shlock?
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Walt Disney, an American working in France just after World War I.
He kept the items in a bag which was still in his possession when he died in 1966.
On display at the Disney Family Museum at the Presidio of San Francisco.
For more please visit Walt Disney's Coin Collection at:
http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=26&threadid=922642
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
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worldcoinguy, that wasn't a criticism against you in the least - but I think you knew that the Pinterest link was actually very cool. And it includes the Kidman blurb. And something about Petrarch, of whom I've never heard before, but apparently he's known as "the father of humanism" and "the first and most famous modern coin collector." So that's cool. Let's all add Petrarch to our lists.
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LochNess and ProfHaroldHill
Thanks for the input, SmEagle! Your contributions as always are much appreciated.
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Michael Ruettgers, the billionaire CEO of EMC, has a fantastic ancient collection which is on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Joseph J. Grano, the CEO of BusinessWeek, has a great collection of ancient coins, part of which is being sold in this upcoming NGSA sale.
David Walsh, the owner of a large museum in New Zealand, sold some of his ancient coins at NAC - he's a collector of modern and ancient art and has both types on display alongside each other.
I think we should re-shift focus to timeless names (like monarchs who were publicly known to collect, or that humanist guy Petrarch).
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