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CoinHusker

The 333 patterns in the Byron Reed Collection are the brightest stars in the entire collection, carrying a value representing 40.6 percent of the holding's total value, recently assessed at nearly $7.9 million.

Lawrence F. Lee, curator of the Reed collection in Omaha, Neb., said July 19 that the pattern collection was assessed at a value of $3.21 million. The U.S. coin portion of the Reed collection, including the patterns, is valued at $6,447,000, Lee said.

The collection is owned by the city of Omaha and housed at the Durham Western Heritage Museum. The collection of coins, paper money, exonumia, literature and historical documents was willed to the city in 1891 after the death of Byron Reed, whose reputation and standing as a 19th century numismatist has been underestimated, Lee believes.

The assessment of the Reed collection's value took nearly two years to complete, twice as long as expected, Lee told Coin World July 19. The collection totals 6,781 objects ranging from an 1804 Draped Bust silver dollar to letters written by writers Mark Twain and Charles Dickens.

The value of the Reed collection would have been even greater had the city not sold portions of it in 1996 to raise funds for various municipal projects (the sale raised about $5.6 million). The decision to sell portions of the collection was a controversial one, pitting city officials who saw the collection as a revenue source against others who wanted to maintain the collection intact.

Lee, who is leaving his position as curator in August to become curator of the American Numismatic Association Money Museum and its collection, said he is confident that the collection is safe from future sale. He said, however, that had he remained as curator of the Reed collection, he would have liked to have been able to have sold some of the hundreds of duplicate numismatic items and use the money to purchase coins the collection lacks.

The assessment, which will not become a public document until the Omaha City Council formally accepts it, gives the collection a total value of $7,894,013. Lee categorized the collection into five sub-collections: U.S. coins, 1,163 pieces, valued at $6,447,000; world coins, 693 pieces, $95,000; exonumia (medals and tokens), 1,400 pieces, $322,000; paper money, 673 pieces, $54,000; and books and documents, 2,850 pieces, $975,000.

Lee categorized the U.S. coin collection into five sub-collections. The most valuable section is the pattern collection, totaling 333 pieces. Lee notes that the pattern collection has 13 duplicates, valued at $40,000.

The U.S. coin sub-collection comprising federal coins totals 602 pieces valued at $2,844,000, Lee said. That includes a specimen of the 1804 Draped Bust silver dollar, with a value of about $2 million, the single most valuable object in the collection.

The Colonial coin collection, totaling 139 pieces, is valued at $266,000, Lee said.

The 51 pioneer gold coins in the collection are valued at $116,000, Lee said.

The commemorative coin collection, totaling 38 coins, is valued at $10,000. Lee notes that all of the commemorative coins date after Reed's death in 1890, fulfilling Reed's intentions that the collection continue to grow after his death. Many of the commemoratives in the collection date from the 1920s.

The paper money collection yielded a major surprise - a unique note that no one knew the Reed collection contained. The piece is an 1835 75-cent note issued by the Republic of Texas and signed by Samuel Houston, then president of the republic. Researchers knew that the note had been printed but no specimen had been recorded in any collection, Lee said, until one was found in the Reed collection.

Lee said the note had been attached to a $15 engraving of Samuel Houston in the collection, explaining why it had not been recorded previously. The unique note has been valued at $10,000, Lee said.

Many of the notes in the collection are low-grade, low-quality pieces.

The exonumia collection, however, rates more highly. The sutler token collection totals 150 pieces and probably represents one of the better holdings of these pieces anywhere. Sutlers were merchants who sold merchandise to soldiers and often followed the soldiers from location to location - during the Civil War, for example.

Lee said that the all of the sutler tokens are Rarity 6 or higher, indicating that all are scarce to rare. Thirty percent of the tokens in the sutler collection are duplicates. Lee notes that collectors have long shown an interest in some of the duplicate sutler tokens.

Another major grouping in the exonumia collection is Reed's collection of U.S. Mint Assay Commission medals. The Assay Commission met every year from the 1790s until the mid-1970s to judge the intrinsic value of the nation's coinage. The Mint held back examples of its silver and gold coins every year for Assay Commission members to weigh and test for their bullion content. From the mid-19th century and until the commission was disbanded, the Mint struck special medals for Assay Commission members. Reed's collection of Assay Commission medals was complete from the 1860s to his death, and contained some metallic varieties of certain medals.

The collection of George Washington medals is another star portion among the exonumia. Particularly valuable are three medals issued by Peter Getz; the one silver medal and two copper medals are valued at $100,000 total, Lee told Coin World.

Another rare medal is an Indian peace medal of King George III; three are known.

The world coin collection contains ancient, medieval and modern pieces, with low-value, noncirculating, legal tender coins donated to the collection every year.

In the books and documents category, numismatic literature dealer Charles Davis appraised that portion of the collection and found two books not listed in any of the standard numismatic bibliographies - a book on Vermont coinage and an 1865 offprint on the joys of coin collecting.

Lee noted that the collection has 237 auction catalogs. Reed generally bought two copies of every catalog, Lee said. He would cut up catalogs to obtain the lot listing when he won that lot from the auction, but would keep an intact copy with the prices realized written in by hand. Lee said most of the catalogs in the collection have the prices realized.

According to Lee, Davis said the numismatic library is probably the last one formed in the 19th century to remain intact.

Currently, 410 objects from the Reed collection are on display, Lee said, representing 6 percent of the total collection. While 6 percent might seem small to the layman, Lee said that 6 percent is actually a high number by museum standards.

Even though 94 percent of the collection remains unseen, Lee said that visitors to the Durham Western Heritage Museum would see the best material from the collection on display. In some categories, significant portions are on display, including 37 percent of the pioneer gold pieces and 29 percent of the Hard Times tokens. In contrast, just 1 percent of the modern world coin collection is on display.

Just as the late Harry Bass can be considered one of the greatest collectors of the 20th century, Byron Reed was one of the greatest collectors of the 19th century. And, Lee believes, Reed's reputation as a numismatist is largely unrecognized. Reed's life was one story he had hoped to be able to tell in a biography of the collector, but now that he is leaving Omaha, he plans to turn over all of his notes to a Reed relative.

Lee's tenure at the Reed collection is coming to an end. It is clear from his voice and words that he liked doing what he did in Omaha, and looks forward to his new responsibilities and challenges at the ANA museum in the coming years.

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