Question for JHF

Typetone

JHF:

Congratulations on the purchase of your 1894-S dime. In the thread you mentioned several of your other sets. Could you talk about your experiences with your SLQ or Philippine set. What made them such difficult achievements compared to the dime? Why did they take more than money?

Greg

Justhavingfun

Dear Greg:

I actually answered this on the original thread, but I've copied it below ...

Warm regards. Just Having Fun

Could you talk about your experiences with your SLQ or Philippine set. What made them should difficult achievements compared to the dime? Why did they take more than money?

Great question, Mr. Typetone. When I started the collecting the US Philippine coins about 6 or 7 years ago, it was almost impossible to find certified business strikes in unc. They just weren't available in the states.

You could go to a major show in the states and probably walk away with an almost complete set of Mercury dimes. But if you went looking for the equivalent 10 centavos at the same show, you'd be lucky to find two coins in unc. I know: I had a dealer here looking for me.

And in the Philippines, it wasn't much better. So I had to look through hundreds, sometimes thousands of pesos to find one in uncirculated condition. And I did it. I went to Manila four times a year and each time spent an evening with each of the main dealers looking through their inventories. I went to dozens of auctions in the Philippines.

I ran an ad in the Philippine Inquirer offering a $10,000 reward for a rare peso. About 7,000 people responded and I had to hire a Philippine dealer to sort through the respondants for me. I got about 4 nice uncirculated coins -- from that enormous effort.

I studied the coins. Learned which coins were weakly struck; which were well struck. I likewise had to learn the pricing. The Red Book and Lyman Allen's catalog were useful in many ways, but hopelessly inept in pricing the uncirculated specimens I was so interested in.

I bought thousands of these coins raw, imported them into the states, and slabbed them. At one time, probably 40% of the slabbed coins in the PCGS pop report were coins I slabbed. And coin by coin I pieced together the first complete set of these coins in unc -- and in proof. A lot of these coins, even the Philippine dealers had never seen in unc, and now I had them.

And this doesn't even count all the interesting varieties I discovered and have catalogued myself. It's been a mammoth undertaking; an enormous challenge; and one of the most fun things I've ever done in my life. And out of it has come the finest collection of the US Philippines coins ever assembled.

What eliasburg did in the US coins, I've done in the US. Philippine coins. A complete collection, including the 1903-S 50 centavo (2 known); the gold Wilson dollar (5 coined); the 1918-S 5 centavo mule in MS64 (far and away the finest known); the 1906-S Peso in unc (extremely rare); the 1914-S Large S and 1916-S Large S centavos (certified by PCGS and to the best of my knowledge unique), and the unique Wilson Matte Proof bronze dollar.

Check out the registry sets and look the US Philippine coin sets, there are 18 of them. Two for each of the 7 denominations (biz strikes and proofs); two type sets (biz strikes and proofs), and two universal sets (again biz strikes and proofs). In each of those registry sets, my hard-fought-for collection of business strikes is almost complete in unc. Noone else is close. They're that hard.

So this was an enormous feat -- accomplished with great difficult over 6 or 7 long years).

By contrast, buying the 1894-s was a matter of half a day. I returned to the states last Thursday. A day or two later, Mr. Wondercoin blew into town to deliver some coins I'd bought through him while I was in Asia and to chat about my future plans. While talking over things, he told me the 1894-S dime was coming up for sale the next day. Did I want to buy it?

Of course, I did but I didn't think I'd be able to. So I went back to my office and looked at what coins I could sell to raise the money to buy the coin. I saw I had enough to bid comfortably to $1,150,000 plus the three vigs (David Lawrence Rare Coins and vigorishes for Mitch Spivack and David Schweitz). So I said yes, let's go for it. The next morning, David, Mitch, and I strategized our bidding, and in about 90 seconds, the bidding was all over.

So, do you see why I'm more proud of the collection of US Philippine coins that I've built, than of ownership of the 1894-S dime?

I love the 1894-S dime and it's a great the coin -- the most important dime of the 19th century. But I bought it in a flash, with no extraordinary effort on my part. Anybody with a million-four (and there are dozens of them on the boards) could have out bid me and won the coin.

By contrast, what I did in the US Philippines is unique, just like what Eliasberg did in the US coins was unique. Noone else ever did it and a person could set out with ten times what I spent for the 1894-S dime and not duplicate what I accomplished in my 7-years long labor of love wtih the US Philippines.

Does this answer your question, Mr. Typetone? And as it said, it was one of the funnest experiences of my life. I wish you could have as much fun as I did, putting that collection together.

Warm regards,



Just Having Fun

dbldie55

JHF,

That is an awesome story. I would love to see your Philippine collection. (this summer's ANA would be perfect ) Just trying to do a type set of these coins proves to be a task as they are not that common.

cosmicdebris

Great story and question. Thanks for sharing.

cladking

Fascinating.

Now it's off to find the other thread.

Typetone

Typetone

Thank you JHF. I have been working on a collection of French Walkers, and find it incredibly difficult.

Greg