'First Coinvestors Presents The Walter Breen U.S. Rare Coin Portfolio'

cmerlo1

McBride's here in Austin picked this up last week. It's basically a binder, with pages with pockets for a coin in a 2X2 flip, and a 3X5 index card. It has tabbed pages for each coin type, with a write-up by Breen about the type on each one. Some of the coins in it were really nice, but the majority of them were cleaned or had problems. They all had to have an acetone bath- the date on the binder was 1973, and I suspect the coins had been in the PVC flips in the PVC pockets since then. The 1819 Large cent shown in the pics was fantastic, a gorgeous, problem-free XF-45. The 1889 proof 3c Nickel was a knockout as well. Anyone ever hear of this of have any additional info to offer? I think it's kind of neat, but do think whoever bought the coins did get taken on some of them, despite the wins on others...

ProofArtworkonCircs

I remember First Coinvestors advertising that to contact Walter Breen, you had to go through them. It turned out not to be true.

golden

I know a doctor who bought coins from them back in the day. Most of the coins were nice and one of them was very nice. The prices were high but not overly so. I think that he may still have the coins.

CoinRaritiesOnline

My father and I bought from them in the 70's. The quality was pretty good, and I say that based on a less than 40 year-old memory (since I pulled the stuff from an SDB in the late 1990's and later slabbed much of it).

rhedden

I bought a blue Coinvestors page off eBay several years ago that was identical to that pictured. The coin enclosed was an 1839 WD Seated half that was described a choice AU. I sold the Coinvestors "slab" to a curious forum member for $0 plus shipping. The coin was covered with slimy PVC residue and needed a good acetone bath, which it got. Here it is in its PCGS AU58 holder. This story had a nice ending, but watch out for possible PVC on these.

JBTurner

Isn't that a coincidence.. I just purchased that binder with the pages (no coin) last Wednesday for $20.... thought it was interesting.

CaptHenway

<< <i>I bought a blue Coinvestors page off eBay several years ago that was identical to that pictured. The coin enclosed was an 1839 WD Seated half that was described a choice AU. I sold the Coinvestors "slab" to a curious forum member for $0 plus shipping. The coin was covered with slimy PVC residue and needed a good acetone bath, which it got. Here it is in its PCGS AU58 holder. This story had a nice ending, but watch out for possible PVC on these.

>>



Dang! That's a nice coin!

shorecoll

The binders and some other written material trade in numislit auctions, I can't remember the value but I will say that JBTurner got a deal at $20.

DeliaBug

Here's some info on the binders themselves. There are two volumes to this 'Rare Coin Portfolio', each housed in a different binder. Volume 1 included half cents through trade dollars and Volume 2 includes type coins, commems, silver dollars, colonials, gold and misc.

The program that this binder was to support never came to be and these binders are pretty rare. Yours is the rarer Volume 2 and it's worth several hundred dollars. Volume 1 is a bit more common and usually trades for about $100.

A very nice pickup, congratulations.

kimber45ACP

What happened to Breen's core collection after he died? Was it auctioned off? Did he even have one?

ProofArtworkonCircs

<<What happened to Breen's core collection after he died? Was it auctioned off? Did he even have one? >>

My understanding is that he did not have one. Years before he had some that were stolen.

cmerlo1

<< <i>Here's some info on the binders themselves. There are two volumes to this 'Rare Coin Portfolio', each housed in a different binder. Volume 1 included half cents through trade dollars and Volume 2 includes type coins, commems, silver dollars, colonials, gold and misc.

The program that this binder was to support never came to be and these binders are pretty rare. Yours is the rarer Volume 2 and it's worth several hundred dollars. Volume 1 is a bit more common and usually trades for about $100.

A very nice pickup, congratulations. >>



Thanks for the info!

Unfortunately, I can't afford it... Joan at McBride's wants to try to keep it together and sell it as a collection. I'll send her a link to this thread- some great info from everyone.

BillJones

I was young collector back in the early 1970s when First Coin Investors was active. The company really went through two phases during its life. During phase 1, they were truly a dangerous operation. They sold coins that had been cleaned or plated with stuff like rhodium, whizzed, you name it.

Circa 1974 I gave a class a local community college. One night one of the students brought in a group of "investment coins" that they had purchased from First Coin Investors a few years before then. If they are gotten a far value (Mint State coins for the then current price of Mint State coins) for their money, they would have been okay financially, but they hadn't. What they got was cleaned and plated damaged coins that were worth a fraction of what they had paid.

The second phase for First Coin Investors was marked by the hiring of Walter Breen to their staff. Breen brought them "legitimacy," and the owner, Stanley Applebaum, acknowledged that his company had been bad in the past, but they had "reformed" from their previous transgressions. They even doubled down on their investments in experts and hired Don Taxay who was the other big numismatic expert of the period. I don't think that Breen and Taxay were on the staff together for very long.

As a collector I don't have fond memories of First Coin Investors. I saw too many collectors who got hosed during "phase 1." Toward the end Applebaum ran ads in Coin World where he presented himself has an honest expert who was there to give advice. Sorry, I never bought it. It tended to make me puke.

BillJones

<< <i>What happened to Breen's core collection after he died? Was it auctioned off? Did he even have one? >>



It was my understanding that Breen didn't have much of anything, at least not during the time when he was offering his expert services on a free lance basis. I remember that I once heard him make a comment about how he didn't know much or care that much about the (unreasonable) prices at the time. If the stories are to be believed that I heard from dealers at the time, Breen spent a lot of his money on what we might politely call "recreational drugs."

Don't get me wrong. In person Breen was an approachable, affable person when you met him, and he was a wonderful numismatic writer who had a photographic memory. The trouble was his demons were many and significant, and they brought him to his downfall.

Rollerman

Back in the 70's I took a chance to see what their (First Coinvesters)silver dollar investment program was like. I was sent an 1884 cc Morgan that was a 62 at best. Since it was on approval, I sent it back saying I couldn't see how the cc Morgan with the highest mintage and in this condition would ever be a good investment and asked to be dropped from the program.

Turns out, they increased in value nicely, but not as rapidly as some of the tougher Carson City Dates. I think they were right to assume that most people would be tickled to get a "CC" dollar. If the coion had been a 64 or 65 (which was not differentiated back then) I would have kept it.

That folio as pretty cool!
Pete