Gabriele Collection Sale

Zoins

The Tim Gabriele Collection Sale just concluded on Stack's with almost 350 pieces across many states and issuers, with the vast majority grading between MS63 and M67. It was assembled over 10 years from when he started collecting tokens in 2007,

This collection is one of the highlights in my exonumia collecting career, along with the William Sphon Baker Collection Sale in Nov 2019 and the Pennsylvania Cabinet Sale from May to June 2019. Of note, some of Tim's pieces were from the Pennsylvania Cabinet Sale handled by Bob Johnson.

Tim mentions many of his tokens are from Donald Miller, Cheech Litman, Russell Rulau, and John J. Ford, Jr., but interestingly, many that I was following didn't have any prior provenance listed. I wonder if that means it was lost or simply many have no prior notable provenance.

I picked up most of the items I wanted but missed out on a token collection where I think I should have bid more but wanted to conserve my budget.

Post any of your pickups here

Read more here:

• Tim's Intro: https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-NLJJM/the-tim-gabriele-collection-of-us-merchant-and-trade-tokens-begins-on-july-30-at-9am-pt
• Article: https://coinweek.com/auctions-news/gabriele-collection-of-u-s-merchant-and-trade-tokens-so-called-dollars-featured-in-stacks-bowers-july-collectors-choice-auction/
• Lots: https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/auctions/3-NLC59/the-july-2020-collectors-choice-online-auction-the-tim-gabriele-collection-of-us-merchant-and-trade-tokens-lots-93001-93343

Some of my pickups are below, along with a few I missed.

1876 H.G. Sampson. Rulau NY-NY 269, Musante GW-828. Silver. Plain Edge - NGC MS65 - Ex. Arturo

This was my largest purchase from Tim's collection. It's large and silver, and shares the Declaration of Independence die with the HK-75 So-Called Dollar. The obverse was engraved by Abraham Demarest.

Out of my pickups, this is the only one that was showcased on the hero image.

Is there any information on Sampson available?

This previously from the Arturo Collection.

1897 W.P. Buchanan. Rulau-Phl C7. Brass. Plain Edge - NGC MS65

I've been a fan of these tokens for some time and Tim had a great collection, probably the best. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to pick up all of them but did get the highest graded one, and the one I thought was most attractive.

Read more on these here:

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1020230/grover-the-cat

1879 Pennsylvania State Fair - Centennial Building Fairmont Park - NGC MS63

This was an important pick up for my George B. Soley Collection. I have a number of pieces with this Lord's Prayer impression now. I missed one in the Pennsylvania Cabinet Collection sale so was happy to pick this up.

So far I've only seen this Lord's Prayer Centennial Building die paired with dies with the 1879 date so I wonder if that building was still open in 1879 or if this is a mule with an 1876 die.

1892 American Railway Supply Co. Rulau-Nyk 4. Silver. Plain Edge - NGC MS66

This and the next piece are also for my Soley Collection. The obverse has been paired with a Soley Lord's Prayer reverse so i thought it was nice to add. In addition to the bronze, these were also struck in nickel and brass which I still need.

Here's a link to one paired with Soley's Lord's Prayer die:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1892-chicago-illinois-worlds-fair-2069816062

1892 American Railway Supply Co. Rulau-Nyk 4. Bronze. Plain Edge - NGC MS67

A similar piece to the above in bronze.

(1860s) William Idler. Miller-Pa 222B, W-15690. Silver. Plain Edge - NGC MS63

I thought this one was attractive, but passed on it due to budget. I decided to go for the Sampson piece instead.

1867 F. Prentice. Rulau NY-NY 255. Silver. Plain Edge - NGC MS64 - Ex. John J Ford Jr.

I'm a fan of mining scenes and this is no exception. I also passed on this one, but primarily to reserve budget to build out my Soley collection.

(1889-1890) Sinkler & Davey. Rulau Pa-Ph 373. Brass. Plain Edge - NGC MS63 - Ex. Pennsylvania Cabinet

I'm a big fan of the design of this one. It reminds me of the Douglas, AZ In Copper We Trust tokens.

Jimnight

Catbert

Those are quite interesting new pieces! I particularly like the first posted - lots of visual interest. Thanks for sharing your new pieces.

U1chicago

Congrats on the pickups!

I bid on several but didn’t win any. The Cat was one of those I bid on.

tokenpro

I've always enjoyed the adaptation of Shakespeare's words on the reverse of the Sinkler & Davey piece. The two jackass reverse was used on quite a few store cards of the era and on several transportation tokens currently ascribed to New York City but certain to be moved to Philadelphia. See Dave Schenkman's column in the December 2016 Numismatist for much more information on that die plus other discussions in the E-sylum.

Zoins

@tokenpro said:
I've always enjoyed the adaptation of Shakespeare's words on the reverse of the Sinkler & Davey piece. The two jackass reverse was used on quite a few store cards of the era and on several transportation tokens currently ascribed to New York City but certain to be moved to Philadelphia. See Dave Schenkman's column in the December 2016 Numismatist for much more information on that die plus other discussions in the E-sylum.

Great info!

Here's the E-Sylum article:

https://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n04a27.html

Click through to read and see more images.

johnny9434

Lotta nice stuff there I like

Harlequin

Nice coins and info in this thread! I enjoyed reading it! Thanks for posting!!!

Zoins

@Catbert said:
Those are quite interesting new pieces! I particularly like the first posted - lots of visual interest. Thanks for sharing your new pieces.

It is very detailed. It's also nice and large at 42mm diameter. I'm amazed you can see the faces on each of the people! It's interesting that there's several variations of the obverse with people in different positions.

Check out comparison from John Raymond:

HK74 to HK79: The images of HK74 through HK79 in the newer 2nd edition of HK show all three varieties of the rectangular painting of Congress by Trumbull as found on so called dollars. Two of these images were missing in the 1st HK edition. For a close-up of these differences, Click Here. HK75 - HK77 has "Demarest. SC." below in tiny lettering. This is the variety that is not pictured in either the 1st edition of HK or Rulau/Fuld. The other two varieties have "Demarest. SC." omitted. I combined my tallies of HK78 - HK79 with HK75 - HK77, as the two were often not distinguished from each other in auction catalogs. Also, I have combined tallies of HK76 and HK77 as the difference between white metal and pewter might be negligible. Lastly, click (HERE) to view "John Hancock" varieties of HK74 and HK75.

Ref: http://www.socalleddollar.com/notes.html

Zoins

@U1chicago said:
Congrats on the pickups!

I bid on several but didn’t win any. The Cat was one of those I bid on.

Thanks! And sorry you weren't able to pick up any.

Tim’s collection of cat tokens is amazing. The condition is through the roof compared to what I've seen elsewhere. It's one of those situations where I question whether I should have bid more on them.

I wonder who picked up the rest?

U1chicago

@Zoins said:

@U1chicago said:
Congrats on the pickups!

I bid on several but didn’t win any. The Cat was one of those I bid on.

Thanks! And sorry you weren't able to pick up any.

Tims collection of cat tokens is amazing. The condition is through the roof compared to what I've seen elsewhere. It's one of those situations where I question whether I should have bid more on them.

I wonder who picked up the rest?

I'm fairly new to the world of tokens (have just been dabbling the last year or two), so I wasn't fully in the know on the rarity of some of these. Also, Stacks adds 10.25% sales tax for my state of Illinois-which puts a further dent into my bidding.

Luckily I'm more of a type collector when it comes to tokens (as well as my general collection), so I'm sure other interesting examples (even if it's not a cat) will come along in the future.

And hopefully someone else here was able to pick some up.

DCW

R. Chamberlaine. Miller Va-10, Musante GW-687, Baker-525. White Metal. Plain Edge. 27mm. NGC MS-63


This is a duplicate, but I just could not watch this rare bird fly away. It is one of a handful of storecards Merriam struck for Chamberlaine around 1864, using his Washington stock die. Restrikes are seen muled with some of Bolen's dies, and they are rare in their own right.
But nothing beats an original.
It is just the second example Ive ever seen at auction.

Zoins

Awesome pick up @DCW! Sometimes you just have to go for a rare piece like that. It's great that we can trace Richard Chamberlain and his business as an oyster packer.

Here's the Stack's photos using my new layout software. I hope Stack's considers laying out their photos like this themselves one day. Until then, I'm having fun with these.

coinsarefun

I love each and every one @zoins and glad you were able to pick up so many of them.
After you explained in another thread who he was I am almost positive I have one of the nicest,
if not the nicest example of the Jockeys members medal In copper.

Zoins

@coinsarefun said:
I love each and every one @zoins and glad you were able to pick up so many of them.
After you explained in another thread who he was I am almost positive I have one of the nicest,
if not the nicest example of the Jockeys members medal In copper.

You picked up a beautiful piece Stef! Definitely the cream of the crop.

That thread was great for figuring out the origins of the Mobile Jockey Club too!

Here it is for everyone reading this thread:

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/comment/12676370

coinsarefun

Looks great @zoins thanks