Show and tell: a Pedigreed B. Max Mehl coin

RBEGAHJB

This is one of the few personal coins I own that walked in through the front door of our shop. The long story short is a woman in her mid 60's dropped off a vintage suitcase to us and walked out. Opening it up we found probably one of the freshest collections in the last 30 years. Almost all the coins were in B Max Mehl and Chapman envelopes. The foreign and ancients all from European houses. Highlights included an original 1895 proof set, a 1906 Philippine proof set and many other treasures. This coin is a Louisiana issue 1861-O Seated half dollar. As a liberty seated specialist I new I had to buy it. I was able to convince CACG to give it a pedigree which as far as I'm aware may be only the second or third that exist with this pedigree. My favorite part about this coin is actually the envelope. The original owner pencilled in the date of purchase and cost. February of 1916 for $1.

thebeav

Very cool.
It found a nice home !

Morgan White

Wow, nice!

Mr_Spud

That’s very cool 😎

CaptHenway

Back when I was at ANACS we got in a collection of Proof Seated Dimes, Quarters and Halves, all in B. Max Mehl envelopes. Everything was just graded as "Proof," but they were sorta graded by price.

For example, on common date Proof Seated Quarters, the ones that were kinds meh were priced at 90 cents, the nice ones were a dollar and the really nice ones were a buck and a quarter.

Don't remember if any of the envelopes mentioned date purchased.

TD

lermish

Very neat story and great coin!

Maybe @MFeld will have some insight into his relative's collecting activities, but I'm not sure I understand the pedigree.

Wasn't Mehl primarily a dealer? Why should a dealer have a pedigree? In theory, many coins should be constantly moving in and out of inventory, negating the benefit of a pedigree indicating ownership. It's like giving every coin that Doug Winter sells a "Winter Pedigree" (although plate coins, etc are a bit different IMO).

RBEGAHJB

@lermish said:
Very neat story and great coin!

Maybe @MFeld will have some insight into his relative's collecting activities, but I'm not sure I understand the pedigree.

Wasn't Mehl primarily a dealer? Why should a dealer have a pedigree? In theory, many coins should be constantly moving in and out of inventory, negating the benefit of a pedigree indicating ownership. It's like giving every coin that Doug Winter sells a "Winter Pedigree" (although plate coins, etc are a bit different IMO).

Normally I'd very much agree with you. I think in this case, admittedly because it is my coin and because I am a Mehl fanatic (Even presented with the ANA on the subject) I think a pedigree is more appropriate for the simple fact that Mehl was one of if not the most important dealers of the 20th century. Again, I am heavily biased!

MFeld

@lermish said:
Very neat story and great coin!

Maybe @MFeld will have some insight into his relative's collecting activities, but I'm not sure I understand the pedigree.

Wasn't Mehl primarily a dealer? Why should a dealer have a pedigree? In theory, many coins should be constantly moving in and out of inventory, negating the benefit of a pedigree indicating ownership. It's like giving every coin that Doug Winter sells a "Winter Pedigree" (although plate coins, etc are a bit different IMO).

I don’t have any knowledge of B. Max Mehl’s collecting activities. However, not surprisingly, because he was a major dealer in his time, the envelope is one of many I’ve seen over the years.

I’m happy for @RBEGAHJB (Russ), but surprised that a grading company would include that provenance without additional verification. I have no reason, whatsoever, to doubt the coin’s source. That said, I know of at least one instance decades ago in which a dealer obtained multiple Mehl envelopes, bought coins to match, then sold them as Mehl coins. If I recall correctly, the coins were much more generic in nature and less valuable than the one here.

I thought that someone from Harlan Berk had posted about this or another exciting group of Mehl coins previously, perhaps prior to the founding of CACG.

RBEGAHJB

@MFeld said:

@lermish said:
Very neat story and great coin!

Maybe @MFeld will have some insight into his relative's collecting activities, but I'm not sure I understand the pedigree.

Wasn't Mehl primarily a dealer? Why should a dealer have a pedigree? In theory, many coins should be constantly moving in and out of inventory, negating the benefit of a pedigree indicating ownership. It's like giving every coin that Doug Winter sells a "Winter Pedigree" (although plate coins, etc are a bit different IMO).

I don’t have any knowledge of B. Max Mehl’s collecting activities. However, not surprisingly, because he was a major dealer in his time, the envelope is one of many I’ve seen over the years.

I’m happy for @RBEGAHJB (Russ), but surprised that a grading company would include that provenance without additional verification. I have no reason, whatsoever, to doubt the coin’s source. That said, I know of at least one instance decades ago in which a dealer obtained multiple Mehl envelopes, bought coins to match, then sold them as Mehl coins. If I recall correctly, the coins were much more generic in nature and less valuable than the one here.

I thought that someone from Harlan Berk had posted about this or another exciting group of Mehl coins previously, perhaps prior to the founding of CACG.

I did indeed post about this hoard when we first acquired it. It was very much a wrap shoot on the pedigree and I only tried it as I had good documentation and the fact that this coin has instructions to be buried with me and will never leave my personal collection.

MFeld

@RBEGAHJB said:

@MFeld said:

@lermish said:
Very neat story and great coin!

Maybe @MFeld will have some insight into his relative's collecting activities, but I'm not sure I understand the pedigree.

Wasn't Mehl primarily a dealer? Why should a dealer have a pedigree? In theory, many coins should be constantly moving in and out of inventory, negating the benefit of a pedigree indicating ownership. It's like giving every coin that Doug Winter sells a "Winter Pedigree" (although plate coins, etc are a bit different IMO).

I don’t have any knowledge of B. Max Mehl’s collecting activities. However, not surprisingly, because he was a major dealer in his time, the envelope is one of many I’ve seen over the years.

I’m happy for @RBEGAHJB (Russ), but surprised that a grading company would include that provenance without additional verification. I have no reason, whatsoever, to doubt the coin’s source. That said, I know of at least one instance decades ago in which a dealer obtained multiple Mehl envelopes, bought coins to match, then sold them as Mehl coins. If I recall correctly, the coins were much more generic in nature and less valuable than the one here.

I thought that someone from Harlan Berk had posted about this or another exciting group of Mehl coins previously, perhaps prior to the founding of CACG.

I did indeed post about this hoard when we first acquired it. It was very much a wrap shoot on the pedigree and I only tried it as I had good documentation and the fact that this coin has instructions to be buried with me and will never leave my personal collection.

@RBEGAHJB said:

@MFeld said:

@lermish said:
Very neat story and great coin!

Maybe @MFeld will have some insight into his relative's collecting activities, but I'm not sure I understand the pedigree.

Wasn't Mehl primarily a dealer? Why should a dealer have a pedigree? In theory, many coins should be constantly moving in and out of inventory, negating the benefit of a pedigree indicating ownership. It's like giving every coin that Doug Winter sells a "Winter Pedigree" (although plate coins, etc are a bit different IMO).

I don’t have any knowledge of B. Max Mehl’s collecting activities. However, not surprisingly, because he was a major dealer in his time, the envelope is one of many I’ve seen over the years.

I’m happy for @RBEGAHJB (Russ), but surprised that a grading company would include that provenance without additional verification. I have no reason, whatsoever, to doubt the coin’s source. That said, I know of at least one instance decades ago in which a dealer obtained multiple Mehl envelopes, bought coins to match, then sold them as Mehl coins. If I recall correctly, the coins were much more generic in nature and less valuable than the one here.

I thought that someone from Harlan Berk had posted about this or another exciting group of Mehl coins previously, perhaps prior to the founding of CACG.

I did indeed post about this hoard when we first acquired it. It was very much a wrap shoot on the pedigree and I only tried it as I had good documentation and the fact that this coin has instructions to be buried with me and will never leave my personal collection.

Thank you and congratulations on a very cool acquisition.

golden

Very cool collection that just walked in the door.

JCH22

@RBEGAHJB said:
This is one of the few personal coins I own that walked in through the front door of our shop. The long story short is a woman in her mid 60's dropped off a vintage suitcase to us and walked out. Opening it up we found probably one of the freshest collections in the last 30 years. Almost all the coins were in B Max Mehl and Chapman envelopes. The foreign and ancients all from European houses. Highlights included an original 1895 proof set, a 1906 Philippine proof set and many other treasures. This coin is a Louisiana issue 1861-O Seated half dollar. As a liberty seated specialist I new I had to buy it. I was able to convince CACG to give it a pedigree which as far as I'm aware may be only the second or third that exist with this pedigree. My favorite part about this coin is actually the envelope. The original owner pencilled in the date of purchase and cost. February of 1916 for $1.

Not sure if they differentiated between Confederate & Louisiana Issues back in 1916. If not--price checks out!

CaptHenway

@JCH22 said:

@RBEGAHJB said:
This is one of the few personal coins I own that walked in through the front door of our shop. The long story short is a woman in her mid 60's dropped off a vintage suitcase to us and walked out. Opening it up we found probably one of the freshest collections in the last 30 years. Almost all the coins were in B Max Mehl and Chapman envelopes. The foreign and ancients all from European houses. Highlights included an original 1895 proof set, a 1906 Philippine proof set and many other treasures. This coin is a Louisiana issue 1861-O Seated half dollar. As a liberty seated specialist I new I had to buy it. I was able to convince CACG to give it a pedigree which as far as I'm aware may be only the second or third that exist with this pedigree. My favorite part about this coin is actually the envelope. The original owner pencilled in the date of purchase and cost. February of 1916 for $1.

Not sure if they differentiated between Confederate & Louisiana Issues back in 1916. If not--price checks out!

Bingo! I am sure that that is it. Well done!

Looking at the pictures in the OP I would say that that is a nice AU by the old time technical grading standards.

RBEGAHJB

@JCH22 said:

@RBEGAHJB said:
This is one of the few personal coins I own that walked in through the front door of our shop. The long story short is a woman in her mid 60's dropped off a vintage suitcase to us and walked out. Opening it up we found probably one of the freshest collections in the last 30 years. Almost all the coins were in B Max Mehl and Chapman envelopes. The foreign and ancients all from European houses. Highlights included an original 1895 proof set, a 1906 Philippine proof set and many other treasures. This coin is a Louisiana issue 1861-O Seated half dollar. As a liberty seated specialist I new I had to buy it. I was able to convince CACG to give it a pedigree which as far as I'm aware may be only the second or third that exist with this pedigree. My favorite part about this coin is actually the envelope. The original owner pencilled in the date of purchase and cost. February of 1916 for $1.

Not sure if they differentiated between Confederate & Louisiana Issues back in 1916. If not--price checks out!

This is actually one of the supporting documents to make my case! I have it blown up with the envelope for display.