What was the most astounding mini-hoard of coins in all of the Virgil Brand collection?
SethChandler
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We all know the dude liked coins, he had everything in mutiples. But what is the coolest hoard he had? Roll of 93-S Dollars? Ten 1895 Proof Sets in the original packaging?
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Collecting since 1976.
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He was also rumored to have had a few dozen peeing minute-man state quarters.
roadrunner
It's not known where Atwa ter got the coin from, so it's possible it came from Brand.
Here is further info:
Virgil M. Brand: Information of a more factual nature comes to us from the meticulous records kept by Virgil M. Brand. This well-known Chicago collector owned five specimens, purchased as listed below. These are given provisional designations A through E, with the hope that someday they can be reconciled with the 10 specific specimens given later under the registry of extant 1884 trade dollars:
•Brand Specimen A: $50 from Stephen K. Nagy (partner with Capt. John W. Haseltine in various numismatic deals) on July 1, 1907. This was before the existence of the 1884 trade dollars was made publicly known. Surely, Brand would have bought more had he been given the opportunity. I can only surmise that he was allowed to buy just one coin at the time, and at a price which surely represented a bargain.
•Brand Specimen B: $150 from Capt. John W. Haseltine on September 17, 1908.
One can speculate that out of idle curiosity Brand might have consigned this coin, with no intention of selling it, to Ben G. Green’s 44th Sale, which took place on November 27, 1908. This is the coin mentioned by Zerbe in the article quoted above.
This conjecture has some logic to it, for Green was located in Chicago and was a close acquaintance of Brand. As all other specimens were being marketed out of Philadelphia at the time, why would Haseltine or Nagy have sent one to Chicago, when they could have more easily consigned a coin locally to S.H. Chapman or Henry Chapman? Green’s catalogue description follows:
"TRADE DOLLAR 1884 Brilliant Proof. Of excessive rarity, and its existence appears to have been entirely unknown to collectors until quite recently. From the best obtainable information there were not over 10 specimens struck, and 5 of these are said to have been destroyed. If this is correct, there are only 5 left and hence of greater rarity than the 1804 dollar. The Mint Cabinet does not contain one of these pieces, and it has never been offered before at auction."
The preceding coin is said to have sold for $280.
It is also possible that Haseltine and Nagy consigned an 1884 trade dollar to Green with the expectation that it would bring a high price, possibly to a reserve bid, thus impressing their Chicago customer, Brand, and confirming that the ones he bought the month before for $150 were indeed bargains. As incredible as it may seem to the present-day reader, it was about this time that certain dealers in Europe are believed to have created "auction sales" specifically to attract bids from Brand, who was far and away the world’s largest coin buyer.
•Brand Specimen C: $150 from Capt. John W. Haseltine on October 12, 1908. This or the following (Specimen D) was Brand’s inventory No. 44965 and was given to Virgil’s brother Armin in the split of Virgil’s estate. By September 6, 1938 the coin had been sold through Burdette G. Johnson as agent. (Information concerning the specific date of sale and the buyer may be in the Brand papers in the American Numismatic Society.)
•Brand Specimen
•Brand Specimen E: $260 from B. Max Mehl’s sale of the Henry O. Granberg Collection, July 16, 1919. This coin was described by Mehl as follows: "The Exceedingly Rare 1884 Trade Dollar: 1884 Beautiful brilliant Proof, perfect in every respect. Only ten specimens coined! Exceedingly rare. One of the rarest of all U.S. coins. Outside of my sales I believe that only one other specimen has been offered at auction in the past twelve years. The specimen in my sale of the [B.W.] Smith Collection in 1915 brought $525.00."
How each of these five pieces fits into the registry of 1884 trade dollars given below is not known at present. Brand was very secretive during his lifetime, and he did not reveal how many specimens he had of a given rarity. A hoarder par excellence, each of these 1884 trade dollars was kept by Brand until his death in 1926, after which his estate was disposed of over a long period of years, with Burdette G. Johnson and Henry Chapman selling many items in the 1930s, followed by other disposals by beneficiaries through the 1980s.
B. Max Mehl: Mehl’s offering of the Granberg 1884 trade dollar in 1919 saw Brand as the buyer, as noted above. This leaves offerings by Mehl in 1913 and 1915. P. Scott Rubin, consultant to the present volume, believes these are one and the same coin as both illustrations show the same coin. The July 14, 1913 sale of the Henry O. Granberg Collection offered trade dollars of 1884 and 1885. The 1884 is said to have sold for $765, but it may have been unsold and simply recycled into the 1915 sale. The 1913 description follows:
"Lot 391. 1884 Trade dollar. Perfect brilliant Proof. Exceedingly rare. Only ten specimens reported to have been coined. This is, I believe, the second specimen of this great rarity ever offered at auction. See plate."
The same coin reappeared in Mehl’s 35th Sale, the B.W. Smith Collection, sold to mail bids on May 25, 1915. The description follows:
"Lot 749. The Exceedingly Rare 1884 Trade Dollar. 1884 magnificent brilliant Proof, sharp and perfect in every respect. Exceedingly rare. Only ten specimens coined. In point of number coined it is as rare as the dollar of 1804. From the Granberg Sale. See Plate IV." The coin sold for $525.
Granberg liked 1884 and 1885 trade dollars and had multiple specimens, including one of each exhibited at the 1916 convention of the American Numismatic Association. It is likely that he had at least two 1884s, the one appearing in Mehl’s 1913 and 1915 sales, and the other (different, as shown by the catalogue illustration) being that sold to Brand in 1919.
Granberg sold several collections over a period of time. He was a prime customer of Stephen K. Nagy and John W. Haseltine, according to conversations I had with Nagy in the 1950s. Nagy and Haseltine had a nice supply of rare 1836, 1838, and 1839 Gobrecht dollar restrike mulings in silver and copper, and a dozen or more of these were sold to Granberg.
Virgil's finest one sells this week ...
Betts medals, colonial coins, US Mint medals, foreign coins found in early America, and other numismatic Americana
From the book Virgil Brand The Man and His Era-Profile of a Numismatist- by Q. David Bowers.