Book Review—Virgil Brand: The Man and His Era, by Q. David Bowers
Longacre
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The title of this book best describes exactly what this book is about. It is a hybrid book containing a biography of Virgil Brand, and it is equally a book about numismatics generally during the lifetime of Brand. The book contains several chapters. The first chapter is entitled “The Life of Virgil Brand”, and it gives a concise history of the Brand family, such as Brand’s parents and brothers, and it tells a nice story about Brand’s early years and his entry into the brewing business. As usual, QDB provides great insight into the man, and the surrounding circumstances that shaped him as a numismatist. Although Brand never married, he is portrayed in the book as a caring and trusting person, almost to a fault, and devoted a significant amount of time not only to his collection/hoard, but also to numismatics generally by being active in various coin clubs. The book certainly did not portray Brand as recluse, which is what I thought prior to reading the book.
The following six chapters of the book break out Brand’s life into approximately ten year segments. In these chapters QDB details Brand’s acquisitions, which were based on the detailed ledger books that Brand kept to track his collection. However, because Brand “collected collections” as some have said, the entries in his books were sometimes broad and did not list every coin. For example, in a particular year, there might have been 7,000 line item entries. However, a majority of those individual line items contained groups of coins, resulting in many, many more than 7,000 individual coins acquired in a particular year. At the end, it was estimated that Brand’s collection consisted of close to 400,000 coins, many of which were great rarities. It is said in the book that it is difficult to own a rare coin today that does not have the Brand pedigree attached to it.
In addition to providing a great amount of detail about the coins that Brand acquired, QDB interspersed historical background about numismatics in general during each year analyzed. For example, we learn a lot of background about dealers of the time, such as B. Max Mehl, and generally what was going on with various numismatic clubs throughout the United States, such as the ANS. I tended to like this background and how it put Brand’s collecting habits into context. The period of time that Brand collected was not really a high point in numismatics, and there was not much in the way of competition. Therefore, this fact, along with Brand’s frequent use of “unlimited orders” at auction to acquire pieces, resulted in a fast and fairly easy accumulation of coins in his vast collection. On a sad note, it is mentioned that some European auctions were rigged (and some were even fictitious) because of Brand’s penchant for putting in unlimited orders for coins that were up for “auction”.
The latter part of the book deals with Brand’s death, and the ultimate dispersion of his collection. There was some controversy as to whether Brand had a will, but there is speculation that the will might have been destroyed. In any event, upon his death, Brand’s two brothers, Horace and Armin, acquired the collection. The last chapter or two reads like a sad tale of a bunch of rich brats who are greedy for even more money. For a few years, the brothers had correspondence back and forth about how to best sell the collection, or possibly donate it to the Smithsonian. They went through various interviews with dealers (some of the correspondence with dealers is included, which is somewhat funny, especially Thomas Elder’s repeated reference to the Chapmans as being OLD MEN and unfit to handle the sale of the collection). In the end, the correspondence between the brothers got quite heated, and separating the collection between the two brothers included a quirky process of piling coins into separate piles and flipping a coin to see who gets what (under the observation and assistance of a hired dealer). Lastly, Horace got divorced, and as is frequently the case, his ex-wife acquired some choice pieces herself.
In all, the book is very good. I would rate it as a “6” on a Longacre scale of 1-10. I bought the book on Alibris for about $30. It is generally readily available.
The following six chapters of the book break out Brand’s life into approximately ten year segments. In these chapters QDB details Brand’s acquisitions, which were based on the detailed ledger books that Brand kept to track his collection. However, because Brand “collected collections” as some have said, the entries in his books were sometimes broad and did not list every coin. For example, in a particular year, there might have been 7,000 line item entries. However, a majority of those individual line items contained groups of coins, resulting in many, many more than 7,000 individual coins acquired in a particular year. At the end, it was estimated that Brand’s collection consisted of close to 400,000 coins, many of which were great rarities. It is said in the book that it is difficult to own a rare coin today that does not have the Brand pedigree attached to it.
In addition to providing a great amount of detail about the coins that Brand acquired, QDB interspersed historical background about numismatics in general during each year analyzed. For example, we learn a lot of background about dealers of the time, such as B. Max Mehl, and generally what was going on with various numismatic clubs throughout the United States, such as the ANS. I tended to like this background and how it put Brand’s collecting habits into context. The period of time that Brand collected was not really a high point in numismatics, and there was not much in the way of competition. Therefore, this fact, along with Brand’s frequent use of “unlimited orders” at auction to acquire pieces, resulted in a fast and fairly easy accumulation of coins in his vast collection. On a sad note, it is mentioned that some European auctions were rigged (and some were even fictitious) because of Brand’s penchant for putting in unlimited orders for coins that were up for “auction”.
The latter part of the book deals with Brand’s death, and the ultimate dispersion of his collection. There was some controversy as to whether Brand had a will, but there is speculation that the will might have been destroyed. In any event, upon his death, Brand’s two brothers, Horace and Armin, acquired the collection. The last chapter or two reads like a sad tale of a bunch of rich brats who are greedy for even more money. For a few years, the brothers had correspondence back and forth about how to best sell the collection, or possibly donate it to the Smithsonian. They went through various interviews with dealers (some of the correspondence with dealers is included, which is somewhat funny, especially Thomas Elder’s repeated reference to the Chapmans as being OLD MEN and unfit to handle the sale of the collection). In the end, the correspondence between the brothers got quite heated, and separating the collection between the two brothers included a quirky process of piling coins into separate piles and flipping a coin to see who gets what (under the observation and assistance of a hired dealer). Lastly, Horace got divorced, and as is frequently the case, his ex-wife acquired some choice pieces herself.
In all, the book is very good. I would rate it as a “6” on a Longacre scale of 1-10. I bought the book on Alibris for about $30. It is generally readily available.
Always took candy from strangers
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
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