Notable collections in specialized fields
Boosibri
Posts: 12,107 ✭✭✭✭✭
Per @KingOfMorganDollar request, here is the start of a list of some of the notable collections which are known to collectors in the specific fields of interest. Im focused in Latin American and Spanish Colonial for my collection so that is where this list is focused. Please add on for your collecting area.
Collections known to many US collectors
Clapp/Eliasberg - World gold
Norweb - Mexican, Chilean, Colombian, Brazilian, Central America
Virgil Brand - Everything
John Jay Pittman - Americas
Eric Newman - Bit of everything
FCC Boyd - Sold in the 1975 ANA sale. Lot of everything.
John Story Jenks - Chapman sale. Big world coin collection
Garrett Family - Sold in three sales by Leu
Irving Goodman - Latin American, Russian
Jasha Heifetz - Bit of everything. Nice Latin American
Amon Carter - Nice group of world coins in the 1984 Stacks sale
Farouk - Everything
Waldo Newcomer - Everything sold by Morgenthau in 1935
Latin American / Spanish Focused
Emilio Carles Tolra - 1936 gold collection from Barcelona documented in a two part book
Jose Toribio Medina - Prolific Chilean author who used his collection in his works. Chilean and Colonial America. Many old enough to be in the public domain.Emilio Ortiz - Mexico UBS Sale
Fonrobert - Amazing collection which populated Ulex/Peltzer and likely Brand and others. Sold by Adolph Well 1878. Still the documented reference on proclamation medals.
Ernesto Sellschop - Peru UBS sale "Coins of Peru"
Ulex - German collector who bought heavily from Fonrobert. Sold by Adolph Hess in 1908.
Oscar Salbach - Great collection sold by Schulman in 1911
Peltzer - Glendining 1927 -https://archive.org/details/catalogueofpeltz00glen
Archer Huntington - Spanish Colonial
Guttag - Type set of Latin coins
Howdy Herz - Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay - 1984 ANA
Pablo Gerber - Mexico
Caballero de las Indies - Aureo & Calico sale of amazing Spanish gold
Don Canaparo - Collector/dealer. Collection partial sold in a Ars Numismatica sale
Gabriel Calbeto de Grau - Collection shown in his landmark book
Ray Johnson - Freeman Craig sales in 1981-1983. Many from Calbeto
Lissner - 2014 sale of one of the best type collections ever covering everything
Millennia - 2008 Goldberg sale of world type
Clyde Hubbard - Mexico
Alexander Patterson - Pillar coinage and countermarks
Thomas Faistauer - Henry Christensen sale of Spanish Colonial collection
Mortimer Hammel - World gold
Paul Karon - Great type
Richard Stuart - Preeminent Central American collection
Pat Johnston - Recent Stacks sale, heavy in 4R's
Lazaro - Royal coinage
Viceroy Amat - Chilean
Sigfried von Schuckmann - Two Renaissance sales of Colonial issue. Some major rarities.
There is a start...
Comments
I would one from many of these collections. Really want a Stuart coin.
I'm BACK!!! Used to be Billet7 on the old forum.
Richard Stuart?
DOn't forget Norweb's fabulous Great Britain collection in 4 volumes sold by Spink.
Well, just Love coins, period.
Norweb had a great Canadian collection, Scottish communion tokens and just about everything in between. I only focused on Latin American/Spanish Colonials as I mentioned in the upfront. If you want to build out the Great Britain have at it.
Latin American Collection
Ha! I blame autocorrect 🫣. Fixed it!!!
I'm BACK!!! Used to be Billet7 on the old forum.
This is great thank you very much for taking the time to provide such a list much appreciated!!!
Thanks Brian for compiling that list.
Also a Big LOL for the bolded text
Gabriel Calbeto de Grau - Collection shown in his landmark book
Charles III Album
Charles III Portrait Set
Charles IV Album
Charles IV Portrait Set
Spanish Colonial Pillar Set
I could be wrong, but I don't think the plated coins were his. They belonged to a variety of collectors and he just used the best ones as plates for the book.
That is true, many arent. He notes the sources helpfully. For the ones he owns, he notes where he purchased them.
For the Calbeto plate coin I own, the 1764-G 8R, it was his and he noted buying it in a 1952 German sale.
Latin American Collection
Ortiz is pretty good Latin collection.
unless I missed it, would liked to have seen James Ten Eyck on there
www.brunkauctions.com
Hyman Montagu is a pretty famous UK collector I've heard mentioned a lot. I really wish I knew more important UK collectors but I'm not sure a good place to learn. Only UK collector I have a pedigree for is Richard Terner who did seem to have some nice coins. I also mentioned in your other thread about Archbishop Sharp who seems to have had a nice collection.
https://numismaticmuse.com/ My Web Gallery
The best collecting goals lie right on the border between the possible and the impossible. - Andy Lustig, "MrEureka"
Many famous UK collectors - there is a pretty good list floating around here someplace.
I've made some decent progress enhancing my library with some of the auction catalogs from this list.
Charles III Album
Charles III Portrait Set
Charles IV Album
Charles IV Portrait Set
Spanish Colonial Pillar Set
How about Bidask collection Mexican 8 Reales 1824 -1897 ? 🤓
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
Great progress.
I think I failed to mention the 1975 ANA sale which was JJF selling the FCC Boyd collection of world coins. Some great Latin America
The 1966 Howard Gibbs (Schulman) and 1975 Ray Byrne (Jesse Peters) sale.
The Paramount 8/1975 sale is a special sale which had many of the proof known today from the Birmingham mint.
Virgil Brands 1964 Schulman sale is a reference I check often as his the 1951 Schulman which had Brand and Gibbs Latin American.
A few more to check out.
Latin American Collection
@bidask
A worthy collection to include!
Latin American Collection
Which reminds me to add Superior’s sale of the J.B. Parker collection.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Richard Cyril Lockett. Everything. His collection was sold at multiple auctions in the 1950s-1960s.
Pacific Northwest Numismatic Association
What about the Mike McCormick Mexican Republic 8Rs sales via Ponterio? There was 3 of them (IIRC) and his name was not used. The coins were arguably better than the Parker coins as he was able to pick what he wanted from Parker.
Hmm. How long is a piece of string?
As for British, there were good collections going back centuries.
For the 18th century, Archbishop Sharp has already been mentioned, but there is also the Earls of Bridgewater who stopped adding to the collection in about 1730, even if the collection wasn't sold until 1972. The Earl of Pembroke died in 1733, but the coins not sold until 1848 and again compiled over generations. Sir Hans Sloane's collection of British coins and other things was used to create the British Museum in 1753.
Moving into the 19th century, you start with Tyssen in 1802, but the list of top notch collections is endless. Randomly, Durrant 1847, Thomas Thomas 1844, Duke of Cavendish 1844, Cuff 1854, Bergne 1873, Simpson Rostron 1892, Shepherd 1885, Wigan 1872, Webb 1894, Hollis 1817, Trattle 1832, Dimsdale 1824, Marsham 1888, Martin 1859, York-Moore 1880 and many more. All of these collections were generalist rather than specialised, because the sheer volume of quality material available at the time at reasonable prices, meant it was possible to collect on an industrial scale.
I haven't mentioned Montagu because he was one of the first to refine his collection, deciding to stop collecting anything from George I onwards and limit himself to the Greek, Roman, Celtic and earlier British etc. To this end, he sold his essentially complete collection of milled currency and proofs from 1715 onwards through Spink in 1888. A few of these are also illustrated in the catalogue. I guess you could say vaguely specialised. His proper collection was sold post-mortem in 1895-7 and these were among the first sales to have illustrated catalogues. His main competitor was J G Murdoch who died 7 or 8 years later and that collection sold through Sotheby's in 1903-4.
The first consciously specialist collection that springs to mind was Barron (1906), who collected crowns, but he was a solitary beacon amongst the generalist collectors who seemed to limit their specialisation to Roman, Greek or British etc as broad areas.
In the first half of the 20th century, you are again spoilt for choice. Rashleigh 1909, Hamilton-Smith (3 collections), Carlyon-Britton (father and son), Cumberland - Clark, Bliss, Roth, Bruun, Wheeler, Clarke-Thornhill, Drabble, Watters, Walters, Burstal, Nobleman, Lockett milled, Parson, Lord Grantley, Naish, Paget, Platt-Hall, Morrieson, Francis.............. However, you do get a few more refined collections, e.g Hamilton-Smith favoured Charles I and had 2 of the 3 sales dedicated to the reign.
1950 marked a watershed, as the then three major collectors of British coins died at roughly the same time. A rule of thumb says if you can't find a coin in Lockett, you look in Ryan, and if it isn't there either, it must have belonged to Carter. These three had the pick of the trays. Lockett was sold 1955-1961, Ryan in 1952 and Carter's collection was bought by Baldwin's.
After the First World War you also saw the demise of the 'everything' collections such as Bruun (mentioned in another thread) with more focus applied. There were still plenty of good collections - it was just that being refined, you didn't have to hire a truck to move the collection!
Post-war, Raynes, Parsons, Elmore-Jones, Doubleday, Norweb, Brooker, Snellenburg, Lingford, Foster, Farquhar, Peck, Freeman, Schneider, Mass, North etc. Even the ongoing Cope sales and the recent Hulett sales are notable collections, albeit for different reasons - the first for the quality, the second notable for its completeness. Although the number chasers wouldn't be interested, John's wants list of hammered coins from 973-1662 only ran to 6 sides of paper, and that was collecting by die variety in the case of Charles I along with the multitude of Saxon/Norman options. Even his milled coins (that he didn't really collect) was broadly complete for type.
For those interested in pursuing provenances, I highly recommend Manville & Robertson (3 volumes). The one which lists auction catalogues from 1710-1984 is invaluable, with the other two listing references for papers in various periodicals and numismatic lists. Less helpful, but I still use it quite frequently..
One could add the upcoming L.E. Bruun Scandinavian collection.
It's been documented through @JohnnyCache's images, but the F. M. Rose Collection is still considered the gold standard among chopmark sets, which is interesting because we don't know the details of most of the coins in the collection, which apparently numbered in the thousands of pieces but was sold in parts through several venues with few records beyond what was featured in his book. Recent research has revealed that most of the rarities in the Rose Collection can be traced back to the little-known Kriz Collection, which Rose purchased wholesale, and an inventory of that set does exist, dated to the early 1970s.
The Hal Walls Collection, also featured in one of the images above, is probably the best single chopmark collection that has been sold at auction, though the 2023 Stack's 'New York Gentleman' Collection gives it a run for its money. The Ed Murphy Collection is likely the largest and most comprehensive collection currently extant, and a catalog of that set was published just last year.
Nice comprehensive listing. Only additions I’d suggest are Hunter for 18th century and maybe Lawrence and Blunt for 20th c. For modern collections, I’d give Stewartby and maybe Lessen a nod.
There have been many wonderful collections in every era!
You guys know your stuff 😄
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
I picked up a couple more that have been suggested.
Charles III Album
Charles III Portrait Set
Charles IV Album
Charles IV Portrait Set
Spanish Colonial Pillar Set