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Harmer Rooke's 'A Million Dollar Sale' of November 17, 1969

ZoinsZoins Posts: 33,811 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited April 8, 2020 3:18AM in U.S. Coin Forum

I posted this in @DCW's Sutler token thread but. wanted to posts here for more readers.

Anyone remember or attend this sale? What was it like?

Does anyone have the realized price list?

Are any of the coins on the cover traceable today? Anyone know about Baldwin, Clark Gruber and Mormon territorial coins?

Session 4 was Virgil Brand's Civil War Tokens and Masonic Pennies. Does anyone know what happened in the sale? Was there a big buyer for Brand's collection? Can pieces be traced to Brand today?

Also, what happened to Harmer Rooke as a company? I've seen sales as late as 1987.

The catalog is on the Newman Numismatic Portal thanks to the ANS.

Comments

  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 33,811 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 8, 2020 3:02AM

    I've never seen the El Salvador coin on the cover and liked the look. I just looked it up and apparently only 200 of these were struck. Here's one I found on Heritage, though not traceable to this auction.

    https://coins.ha.com/itm/el-salvador/world-coins/el-salvador-republic-gold-20-pesos-1892-cam-/a/458-50912.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 33,811 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 8, 2020 3:58AM

    Here's a coin that can be traced to this sale where it sold for $9,000.

    1793 Chain Cent - S-3 AMERICA - PCGS MS62BN - Ex. Virgil M. Brand, Walter J. Husak

    PCGS Coin Facts Provenance:

    Malcolm N. Jackson - United States Coin Co. 5/1913:1226, $140 - Carl Wurtzbach, 1919 - Virgil M. Brand, 2/1941) - B.G. Johnson - Dr. J. Hewitt Judd - Abe Kosoff (Illustrated History , 1962 FPL), lot 16 - Kreisberg & Schulman 5/1966:753, $6,750 - Jake Browning - Harmer, Rooke 11/1969:807A, $9,000 - RARCOA 8/1970:1602A, $8,500 - Stack's 10/1990:1590, $33,000 - Anthony Terranova, Kenneth M. Goldman, and Martin Paul - Denis W. Loring, 7/1994 - John B. MacDonald - Denis W. Loring - Walter J. Husak Collection - Heritage 2/2008:2002, $253,000

  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 33,811 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 8, 2020 3:37AM

    Are any photos of Hallie Daggett's "Ice Cream" 1894-S Proof dime known? This is also a coin that sold in this sale.

    Burd-8. Ice Cream Specimen. Good 4. Robert Freidberg (Gimbels Department Store, New York, 1957); Art Kagin; New Netherlands Coin Co. (51st Sale, 6/1958) lot 581, $3,200; Art Kagin; Harmer Rooke (11/1969) $7,400; James G. Johnson; 1980 ANA (Steve Ivy Numismatic Auctions), lot 1804 $31,000; 1981 ANA (Bowers and Ruddy), lot 2921 $25,500; Bowers and Merena (3/1989), lot 191, $33,000; private collector. Johnson-7, Breen-10, Encyclopedia-11, Lawrence-9, Stack's-10.

    Some discussion on the ice cream coin:

    James Johnson presented the Presentation Specimen theory in his Coin World article of September 13, 1972. He reported that his information came from Earl Parker who purchased two examples from Hallie Daggett in 1950. Hallie was the daughter of John Daggett, the superintendent of the San Francisco Mint in 1894. These details reportedly came directly from Hallie Daggett via Parker. It seems that seven banker friends of John Daggett were visiting the San Francisco Mint in 1894, and desirous of a souvenir, each received three freshly minted Proof dimes. The remaining three went to Daggett, who gave all three to his daughter. Why were dimes the coins of choice for this presentation? Why not special presentation gold coins or silver dollars? Also, why did Daggett give all three dimes to his middle child and not one to each of his three children? Perhaps he distributed them among all three and Hallie eventually received the others from her siblings. If she did spend one on ice cream, as the story is told, perhaps that was her only example, leaving just two coins in the family. The Johnson report provides the most credible theory about these coins, although even this is based on the memory of Earl Parker, two decades after the fact, with Parker relying on the recollection of Ms. Daggett, who was 72 years old when she met with Parker. Today, this is the production theory that is taken as fact, and is the theory that Walter Breen published in his various encyclopedic works.

    More info here:

  • DCWDCW Posts: 6,935 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Stack's 10/1990:1590, $33,000 - Anthony Terranova, Kenneth M. Goldman, and Martin Paul - Denis W. Loring, 7/1994 - John B. MacDonald - Denis W. Loring - Walter J. Husak Collection - Heritage 2/2008:2002, $253,000

    That is one great return on investment

    Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
    "Coin collecting for outcasts..."

  • PreTurbPreTurb Posts: 1,182 ✭✭✭

    [Does anyone have the realized price list? ] - one source:

    brycebooks.squarespace.com/storage/Lit-PRL-display.htm

  • goldengolden Posts: 9,018 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I remember the sale and still have the catalog and the prices realized. What do you need?

  • boiler78boiler78 Posts: 3,045 ✭✭✭✭✭

    What was the catalog grade for the Baldwin Horseman?

  • goldengolden Posts: 9,018 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The Baldwin $10 was lot 595. Graded " Almost Uncirculated, a beautiful coin retaining much of its original mint lustre together with a pleasing light iridescent toning. There is a hairline scratch and a tiny nick behind the horse together with a small edge dinge which is visible only from the reverse, above the IN. The surfaces are otherwise quite clean, especially for a coin of this size. We know of only a couple of comparable specimens, and none superior! Ex a Mayflower sale where it was purchased by the consignor for $12,500. "
    It sold for $9500.

  • shorecollshorecoll Posts: 5,445 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 8, 2020 2:46PM

    One of you OG's will have to clarify this, but I believe that Harmer was sold to Greg Manning and eventually ended up as part of Bowers then Stacks Bowers, but it lost it's independent identity in the US in 2004 or 2005. Harmer (not Harmer Rooke) still exists in England, which is where it originally began.

    ANA-LM, NBS, EAC

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