Is Jack Collins as prominent a numismatist as Walter Breen? Does he get the same level of credit?

Longacre

I was taking a look at a numismatic book auction, and a Breen Half Cent Encyclopedia is up for sale. In the description of the book, it quotes John J. Ford as follows: "Walter Breen's Half Cent Encyclopedia... represents the combined efforts of the author and a highly competent four man production team. The result, primarily due to the painstaking labor of Jack Collins, is the FINEST STANDARD WORK that I have seen in my 45 years in the coin business." (From an August 20, 1984 letter to Jack Collins).


Does anyone have any further information on Jack Collins? I tried to do a search here and nothing came up. Was he considered on par with Breen, or did he always play second fiddle? Does anyone know?

dthigpen

I think associating anyone with Breen is rather an insult than a compliment. Aside from having a habit of making things up, well, I'm sure you know the rest.

Julian

Jack Collins will be best remembered for his work on 1794 dollars, which remains unpublished. He was one of the early numismatic photographers, actually mid 20th century. He enjoyed early copper coins and pedigrees and that was where most of his energy was focused.

He was a Breen contemporary and had input into Walter's numismatic works.

Writersblock

One of the major contibutions to numismatic made by Jack Collins was his photography and editor production capacities. In Ford's comment about the Breen Half Cent Encyclopedia, Jack was one of the "highly competent four man production team" and the magnificent images of the half cents in the book was the work of Jack Collins. Before Jack began his photagraphy work for auction catalogs, the images in the typical catalog was so so, but we really didn't know any better. When his imaged started appearing it was like WOW!! and it raised the bar for all of the auction houses.

lordmarcovan

<< <i>Is Jack Collins as prominent a numismatist as Walter Breen? Does he get the same level of credit? >>

Well, I've never heard of Jack Collins, as best I can remember, and almost everybody has heard of Breen. For better or worse, Breen is probably more prominent, if not more popular. I own the Breen Encyclopedia and use it occasionally. Regardless of the giant skeletons in the late Mr. Breen's closet, and inconsistencies in his work having been pointed out by other numismatists, I do think his body of work is impressive- the encyclopedia is an awesome array of information, even if not all the facts stand up to minute scrutiny.

ColonialCoinUnion

It may interest you to know that Stack's sold Jack Collins collection of Washingtonia in their April / May, 1996 auction.

Longacre

Thanks for the info!

1798CentCollector

Jack Collins cataloged the September 1986 Robbie Brown (Sale I) Collection of Large Cents by Superior. Brown had a complete collection of all the Sheldon and Newcomb varieties, including the non-collectible ones. This was the first on two complete sets of large cents he(Brown) would put together. The other was auctioned in 1996. IMO and some others, RSB I, is finest auction catalog of the time and since. It was much more than a sale catalog, it is one of the finest "reference" works (if you will) on large cents, especially the detailed notes on die states. A superb work, that kicked off a several year run of quality cataloging by Superior. Two of my standard LC reference catalogs to this day remain the RSB I sale and the Jack Robinson 1989 sale.

Longacre you must acquire one, if you haven't already

MrEureka

In Ford's comment about the Breen Half Cent Encyclopedia, Jack was one of the "highly competent four man production team" and the magnificent images of the half cents in the book was the work of Jack Collins.

Jack was also the photographer responsible for the classic photo of WB in that book. I have Jack's personal copy of the photo hanging on my library wall. It's one of only four large scale photos on canvas produced. I wonder if the other three still hang on walls or if they have been hidden away in shame.