A heartwarming tribute to the venerable Stack's in the Kolbe auction catalog...

Longacre

In January, Kolbe Fine Books will be auctioning off the library from Stack's, the venerable numismatic institution in New York City. In the catalog, three Friends of the Firm, Bill Anton, Michael Hodder, and John Dannreuther, wrote very heartwarming tributes to the Stack family. I am not embarassed to admit that I got a little weepy as I read these. The catalog also contains some nice pictures of the Stack's office from the 1950's, which, remarkably, does not look dissimilar to its look in the 2000's. High resolution, digital images of the silver fox, Harvey Stack, and the kid in the group, Larry Stack, complete the introduction to this prestigious sale.

Has anyone else read these tributes? What do you think? Will there ever be a firm like the old Stack's again?

Here is a link to the catalogs with the tributes: Auction Catalog

Mark

Longacre:

When I read the tributes, I thought of a firm that initially was an innovator but ultimnately failed to keep up. For instance, did you notice that no one discussed Stack's Internet site or how Stacks easily adapted to 3rd party grading? I think of Heritage as occupying the niche today that Statcks did in the 1930s and 1940s--an innovative, highly successful firm. Maybe in another 55 or so years, one of our kids will be writing sad commentary about how Heritage is departing...

2ndCharter

Maybe in another 55 or so years, one of our kids will be writing sad commentary about how Heritage is departing...

That sounds about right - Steve Ivy, who's about 60, told me last Spring that his goal is to be still active as a coin dealer at the age of 100 so Heritage isn't going anywhere for quite a while. Also, unlike Stacks, I anticipate Heritage will remain on the cutting edge.

And I agree with Mark - I didn't get weepy - instead, I thought of other American institutions that didn't adjust to the changing times and have faded from the scene.

shorecoll

I sincerely wished that I had the good experiences that the commentators had. The two times I physically went to the store I wasn't well treated. By phone and online was fine. By contrast, I never had a bad experience with any QDB/ANR staff.

I thought the tributes were touching and I think it's fine that they didn't "keep up" with the modern firms. I'd be willing to bet that a comparable library does not exist at HA. I know they have a reference library, but I'll bet it's a shadow of Stack's.