What is the Largest US Coin Collection Ever Assembled?
JBatDavidLawrence
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This is a sincere question that probably would be worth some research, but maybe the educated folks in here like Andy Lustig would have some feedback on this.
What is the largest privately held collection of US coins ever assembled? I'm not looking at value, there's enough debate on that, but in quantity of coins.
Any thoughts?
John Brush
President of David Lawrence Rare Coins www.davidlawrence.com
email: John@davidlawrence.com
2022 ANA Dealer of the Year, Past Chair of NCBA (formerly ICTA), PNG Treasurer, Instructor at Witter Coin University, former Instructor/YN Chaperone ANA Summer Seminar, Coin World Most Influential, Curator of the D.L. Hansen Collection
President of David Lawrence Rare Coins www.davidlawrence.com
email: John@davidlawrence.com
2022 ANA Dealer of the Year, Past Chair of NCBA (formerly ICTA), PNG Treasurer, Instructor at Witter Coin University, former Instructor/YN Chaperone ANA Summer Seminar, Coin World Most Influential, Curator of the D.L. Hansen Collection
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Virgil Brand
Check out some of my 1794 Large Cents on www.coingallery.org
That's an interesting question, but you might need to define 'collection'.
I suspect there are quite a few vast but essentially unknown accumulations of coins out there.
By collection I assume you mean that the set of coins has various coherent subsets--not just buckets and buckets of coins sitting in a basement somewhere.
If @compromonedas is still adding to his 50 gallon drums, I would say he may have one of the biggest "hoards" or "collections":
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/819143/my-wheat-cents-hoard#latest
Regarding specific type of coin, it would have to be @compromonedas vast wheat cent hoard....As far as other hoards of mixed type coins, I have not heard of one to equal the quantity of the cited hoard. Cheers, RickO
John,
your main guy should be getting close.
What about newman, didn't he have an awful lot of stuff. (not necessarily all high value) but quantity.
If your talking every individual coin, who knows, I have a customer that has 15 million wheats.
Louis E. Eliasberg has been the only person to date that had a complete collection of every United States coin ever Minted with Quality for price coins, someone from Utah is getting close for the largest collection which we will have to see. I would want to remain anonymous in this day and age and just enjoy it myself. It must take a special person to do something this Special if he or she is willing to share with the World. I hope that I live to see it someday.
I think "WE" all have the largest collection and it is stored at the Smithsonian
National Numismatic Collection
The National Museum of American History
The National Numismatic Collection is comprised of approximately 1.6 million objects and is thought to be the largest money collection in the world. Its diverse holdings represent every inhabited continent and span more than three millennia.
The collection has grown from a few thousand objects in the mid-19th century to its present size through donations from public institutions and private collections.
The National Numismatic Collection is unrivaled in its holdings of American material. It is the U.S. monetary system's collection of record and includes the extraordinary collections of the U.S. Mint, Treasury, and Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
That's not quite true. Eliasberg was missing a few things.
Virgil Brand.
I'll toss the Redfield hoard into the discussion.
Hard to compete with today’s whales on value, or the hoarders on quantity. (15 million Wheaties???) Maybe a more interesting question: Who has built the most complete collection of US coins including varieties, colonials, patterns, pioneer gold, etc? Can we come up with a name for Hansen’s next challenge? 😂
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Eureka Challenge?
Pacific Northwest Numismatic Association
Did Virgil Brand exceed Col. Green with his 5 1913 liberty nickels and i think it was 4 1838-O halves? I know brand was massive with all sorts of numismatic associsted items as well. Looks like a question for Q. DAVID BOWERS.
i thought there was a list here at one time or another with who was who on major collection? ill take a look see to see if i find it.
Col. Green was a bit more of a hoarder, and he also had to be more restrained until his mother finally died in 1916. After Hetty died, the Colonel went on a big spending rip. Although also having a tendency towards hoarding, Virgil Brand had much better numismatic credentials, but his health and income declined the last several years of his life (Prohibition affected his brewing business, but Brand made a lot of his money in real estate speculation too). Brand certainly had some big coins (note that he did do a lot of important World coins), see the Bowers book and auction catalogs.
Not sure exactly how you separate the hoarders from the collectors. (As noted, there is a certain amount of overlap).
But if you DON'T negate the hoarders, then the U.S. Mint on any given day has a pretty significant "collection".
Anyone think the "Tyrant" collection that has been shown at the Long Beach (and other?) shows in incremental amounts might qualify as one of the largest? Certainly pretty impressive, anyway....
Added: Nevermind. I re-read the topic, and it specifically says, "U.S.". Haven't seen that the Tyrant collection delved deeply into U.S. coins....at least not to the point of being the largest, anyway...
What kind of collection did Farouk put together?
Farouk was a genuine numismatist, but it seems he thought that Crowned Heads of State should collect gold. Farouk did lots of World stuff too. My understanding is that Farouk was decently educated in England. He came to the throne at an early age.
Farouk did not have near enough assets tucked outside of Egypt- foolish.
The Great Pyramid is composed of 6 1/2 million large stones of nummolithic limestone. ! Each contains hundreds or thousands of nummolites. "Nummolites" are fossilized sea animals shaped like a disc and which lent their name to 'numismatics" and, perhaps, even to "heads" and "tails" for obverse and reverse.
The pyramid might just be the largest collection of "coins" that will ever be assembled.
Here is a snip from a 1982 NY Times article about a then impending sale of Brand's coins:
Mr. Brand's collection numbered 368,000 coins when he died in 1926, and included examples from virtually every coin-collecting area from ancient Greece and Rome to Europe, Asia and America. Among the rarities in the assemblage were two of the seven extant Brasher Doubloons ...
If you read about half-way down in this article, Littleton has a brief write up of a "Mid-West Megahoard". They purchased 7.6 tons of coins which had been stashed in the walls of a collector, including 1.7 million Indian cents, Liberty and Buffalo nickels. I remembered hearing about it in both the numismatic and mainstream press at the time:
Littleton Famous Hoards
Sean Reynolds
"Keep in mind that most of what passes as numismatic information is no more than tested opinion at best, and marketing blather at worst. However, I try to choose my words carefully, since I know that you guys are always watching." - Joe O'Connor
Virgil Brand was a hoarder too and IMHO well beyond Col. Green.
John J. Ford, Jr. was one to the extreme if 1 was good, 50 were better.
Every time I hear that number of bocks it took to make the great pyramid, I have to wonder how they did it. I’ve heard it was about 2.3 million blocks. 1.5 to 15 tons each.
If it took 20 years to build. They had to have put a finished block in place EVERY 5 MINUTES , 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for the whole 20 years. No beaks, no stopping.
D'oh!
I keep doing that. You're right that it's more like 2 1/2 million (the exact number can only be estimated based on what's visible) and they weigh an average 2 1/2 tons each making the total weight about 6 1/2 million tons.
There are certainly a very large number of the nummulites in it though.
This is what I was thinking. There isn't a more comprehensive US collection than Hansen's without expanding outside of circulation coinage (including proofs) and adding specialization such as die varieties and errors.
That's an insane amount of pennies!
Yes - Virgil Brand! His collection was auctioned off over MULTIBLE DECADES!!!
Well...technically, so was Eliasberg’s.
From a collector standpoint Virgil Brand is absolutely the answer.
What is the Largest US Coin Collection Ever Assembled?
I would think whomever had the most Pan-Pac fifties.
--Severian the Lame
Col. Green apparently had 51,000 coin, medals and tokens according to an article in numismatc news in 2017. Sounds competitive with Brand. Still like the five 1913 liberty nickels and for 1838-O halves!
Col. Green was very important to the coin dealers he patronized, and the Stack's family heirs wrote favorably about him years later. Green was a strong buyer even after 1929, when many others had no money. But I have this vague feeling that Green was even more important as a philatelist than a numismatist. Green also funded some important early research/development efforts in Radio and Electricity and in Historic preservation.
What would anyone do with all of that?
Anyone collect Yap Island stone money? I guess that wouldn't qualify as it's not a U.S. collection, but large, yes.
Wholesaler Educational Coin used to advertise that they had 300,000,000 coins and bank notes in stock. Again, not U.S.
I think the answer of Brand is certainly correct. I wonder if there's been an entire inventory or if it's known what all existed in the Newman collection?
President of David Lawrence Rare Coins www.davidlawrence.com
email: John@davidlawrence.com
2022 ANA Dealer of the Year, Past Chair of NCBA (formerly ICTA), PNG Treasurer, Instructor at Witter Coin University, former Instructor/YN Chaperone ANA Summer Seminar, Coin World Most Influential, Curator of the D.L. Hansen Collection
Mr. Newman had one safe deposit box that simply held the keys to all of the other safe deposit boxes!
Scrooge McDuck.
Brand would win on volume. Eliasberg on completeness.
Hansen on completeness and quality. I'm not sure how
complete Hansen is now, but the quality overall is second to none.