Anonymous Pedigrees
Zoins
Posts: 34,117 ✭✭✭✭✭
For all the anonymous pedigrees out there, has anyone ever become public after selling off their collection or passing away?
I can understand being private while collecting, but has anyone who was private decided to become public afterwards?
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Lilly
It would be great is more anonymous collectors would consider this.
Is there any downside?
Does being dead count?
If you mean "provenance" of a collection, or one sold under a pseudonym then later associated with the owner's real name, I can think of a few....just not at the moment.
I love it when a big dealer picks a name out of the hat and uses it to sell his coins at inflated prices. Try a few for yourself. I'm tired and rusty at this but...
The Tennessee Home Collection
Old Oak Bridge Hoard
Sundance Property Collection
The Purple Sagebrush Collection
The Black Cat Collection Oops, that's already taken!
Did the Saddle Ridge people ever go public?
@RogerB Is it correct / appropriate to say a number of the Blue Ridge Glass patterns have your (the Burdette) provenance if you owned them during your research?
I have never cared about provenance in coins... at least as far as collections go. I do care about some challenge coins I have received from individuals. I would (and do) care about coins given to me by a friend or relative. Provenance to prior collections would have zero influence on my decision to purchase a coin. Cheers, RickO
Wasn't World's Greatest Collection (WGC) actually F.C.C Boyd? Off to the NNP
On a different note, the late "Mr. 1796" who was identified publicly as John Whitney, actually was named John Whitney Walter. When his coins were sold (12 years ago?) I heard barely a mention of what he did for a living, just that he bought with superb taste and deep pockets.
I have no insight into his personal or corporate need for privacy. Quite a while after his recent passing I learned he was a key executive in the Trump Organization and a trusted cousin of its owner.
I placed a set of "O"-mint $20's in a Stacks-Bowers a while back from a Southern Gentleman who manages (pure guess) maybe $100 billion of "private" money. He had a slight drawl. I knew he had bought coins in England, and got the expected chuckle when I brought up the geographic soubriquet as an alternative to "The Property of a Lady".
Several Jewish collectors sold world class collections under gentile names a half-century or more ago, back when the seller couldn't, by Gentlemen's Agreement, stay in certain hotels. Methinks Stacks and Superior up thru maybe 1960'ish. Both were run by astute Jewish businessmen who knew their customers' preferences and prejudices. IIRC Jake Shapiro became J.F. Bell or somesuch.
I would say 'passing away' a downside. Other than that, none that I can see!