Tampa Collection of Civil War Tokens - One of the Best?
Zoins
Posts: 34,186 ✭✭✭✭✭
Did anyone here pick up any tokens from the Tampa Collection? At its height, it had about 3000 slabbed patriotic and civil war tokens.
How does this compare to other notable Civil War token collections? Is it one of the best?
Here are two pieces I recently picked up. These both fit my Civil War token collection and growing Washingtonia collection.
I've wanted an equestrian First in War / First in Peace token for a while and couldn't resist this in silver. Silver is unlisted in Fuld.
I also got this one because I collect tokens by William Henry Bridgens and I thought it was neat. It's like a Justice is Blind theme.
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Comments
I was watching the First in War / First in Peace toke. It looks like it’s a pretty piece in silver.
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CoinsAreFun Toned Silver Eagle Proof Album
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Gallery Mint Museum, Ron Landis& Joe Rust, The beginnings of the Golden Dollar
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More CoinsAreFun Pictorials NGC
Very nice tokens.... I know nothing of the Tampa collection though...Cheers, RickO
I'm not sure the collection was given the name "Tampa Collection" for any reason other than marketing. And it certainly was nowhere near intact when it landed at Stacks. That kind of diminishes the importance of it all in a way. When you saw the Zabriskie Collection or John Ford. Jr. or Dice-Hicks...you were looking at the whole set.
He certainly built a very fine collection and an extensive variety of states. I dont know anyone currently putting away 3000 high grade Civil war tokens. It is just too expensive now not to specialize in one part.
I really like the piece you picked up. @Zoins It is a stunner!
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Nice tokens
Didn't David Bowers have a rather extensive collection of these at one time?
Of course! I know you are being funny here, but the Bowers Collection was undoubtedly (along with Tanenbaum as he acquired all of Steve's sotrecards) one of THE BEST collections of Civil War tokens put together in our lifetimes.
The Tampa Collection had many recent purchases from Bowers himself.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
I think:
It's amazing that these were sold intact to QDB.
I wonder how many pieces were in QDB's Reference Collection and even many more that he never slabbed.
And yes the Tampa Collection had many QDB pieces - I was lucky enough to get a few, but what's even mor amazing is how many non-QDB pieces he had which now have his provenance.
I think the Tampa Collection was added relatively late. Searching Stack's shows that they still call the second sale the "Parkoff Civil War Tokens" collection in places:
He started collecting in the 1960s so this collection was over 50 years in the making and still growing until recently as he had picked up a few pieces in the William Sphon Baker sale that I had bid on. Some he sold at Stack's some earlier.
It would be great to have a full catalog of his!
It's not too expensive if you slab them yourself, but top pops are pretty pricey now and he certainly had some great rarities too.
Thanks! I have a number of pieces from the Tampa collection. That's definitely one of my favorites!
@Zoins and @DCW . I wasn't trying to be funny. Just trying to add some information
to @Zoins question on how it compared to other comparable collections. Have a good day.
Sorry about that @Tibor !
QDB's collection is one of the most well own and talked about here. A off the nice pieces posted here are provenanced to him.
I think one reason the Tampa collection is impressive is because of how many great rarities are in the collection that didn't come from QDB's reference collection.
There was a geographical reason for the name "Tampa Collection". Was it notable? Yes, on a par in its own way with a selection of other collections sold publicly and privately over the past 10 - 12 years , Was it one of the best? Not to my reckoning, even with the many pieces not in the two auctions if my information is correct. If you're looking for a major collection (probably the last of the known classics?) pay attention to Heritage in early 2021. Rarities as opposed to "scarce rarities" if you follow.
Bottom line - there is a lot of high end CWT product, especially back door product, out there right now with more to come. Things change.
How do you define rarities and scarce rarities?
The one in the OP is a R9 with 2 certified by NGC? Is that a rarity or a scare rarity? Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings either way
What do you mean by backdoor product? Do you mean things that aren't slabbed or in the census?
I do see a lot of top pops on eBay.
Will do. I'm waiting for some R10 unique items and hope they come available!
So, this thread spurs a number of questions for me.
I Am also curious as to what backdoor product refer too?
I would be interested in thoughts on where people feel the cwt market will go in the future? I focused on patriotic tokens, with what I feel had superior eye appeal for the grade and looked for bargains. I just sold 11, which was about 25% of what I had, as I thought prices were pretty good, and my taste has evolved, and those didn’t meet my improved taste. Originally, I was trying to get one of each fuld number , but began to realize that some don’t usually have good strikes, some are virtually identical to others, and I am not dedicated enough or driven enough to track down each one. That said, I still enjoy this area of collection, like to find nice raw tokens and sometimes slabbed, but have noticed prices for top pops or raw(that might make top pop) seem to be climbing. So,
Do people feel r1-r4 type cwt’s in ms65 or top pop area, vs, r6-r9 tokens, or some of the rarer “ wealth of the south” type will do better in the future. I struggle because the R9 type may seem to appeal to a very small collector base, so there is risk in re-selling, but the common top pops seem to be going for too much money these days. Does anyone have thoughts on which area has more potential?
As threads are not as good without pics, here are two of my better cwt that I bought raw and had slabbed
@SimpleCollector Those are beautiful tokens! I can't really say whether high rarity pieces or condition rarities will do better, but I dod think you're right in that the copper ones have a stronger base of demand. Both areas are reasonably mature. I do think overstruck coins do better than both.
Here's a condition rarity that I was following and would have bid on aggressively if I wasn't over extended already. This is a great theme and very sharp. This is a NGC MSS66PL. It ended up selling for $1600.
@Zoins
Wow, NGC is capable of taking quality photographs? For years this service has been completely, and I mean COMPLETELY worthless. I'm glad to see the improvement
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
@Zoins , I love the design on the token you showed. I have bid on one or two of those before, but was out of my range at the time. I never registered at Stack’s , so I didn’t follow or bid on any of the recent auction. I may need to add them to the list.
They do look a lot better than before! I believe David Lange does all the PhotoVision photos now.