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Celebrity Numismatist Harry "Parkyakarkus" Einstein

ZoinsZoins Posts: 34,116 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited March 6, 2021 4:17PM in U.S. Coin Forum

In researching coins for Garrett and Robison, I've come across Harry Einstein and thought he was worthy of mention.

Is he known as an astute collector? Some of his coins ended up with Brent Pogue as shown below.

Harry Einstein (May 6, 1904 – November 23, 1958), known professionally as Harry Parke and other pseudonyms, most commonly Parkyakarkus, was an American comedian, writer, and character actor. A specialist in Greek dialect comedy, he became famous as the Greek chef Nick Parkyakarkus on the Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson radio programs, and later on a program of his own. He appeared in eleven films (as Parkyakarkas or a close variant) from 1936 to 1945.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_"Parkyakarkus"_Einstein

From E-Sylum:

CELEBRITY NUMISMATISTS
[...]
Some names that come to mind immediately are Buddy Ebsen, Jascha Heifitz, Hoagy Carmichael, Gary Burghoff ("Radar" on M.A.S.H.), Moshe Dayan (from Israeli politics), Harry Einstein ("Parkyakarkus" from old radio days), and from more recent times John LaRocquette. I'm sure you will receive many more names of the famous or infamous who were collectors. A couple of more collectors of note come to mind. Adolph Menjou (Movies) and Wayne Gretzky (Sports - albeit more of an investor than a collector)."

https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v03n21a02.html

Here's a photo from the Stack's 1986 catalog:

Here's one of his performances:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAKNFIMT24w&feature=emb_logo

**NOTE: **These two coins were in the Einstein Collection sale but not actually owned by Einstein, so I've "hidden" them under a quote. They are here for posterity.

And two of his coins, the 1804 and 1802 Bowed Liberty Dollars:

1804 Bowed Liberty Dollar - Class III - Restrike - Double Struck - PCGS AU55 - Ex-Berg, Garrett, Einstein, Pogue

1802 Bowed Liberty Dollar PCGS PR64 POP 0/4/0 - Ex-Robison, Einstein, Pogue

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