So who was Colonel Edward Howland Robinson Green (8/22/1868 - 6/8/1936)?
Realone
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When you think of the Eliasberg collection, you think of a great numismatist who succeeded in executing his goal in buying every year and type of every U.S. coin minted. He acquired some of the highest graded, rarest pieces with tremendous eye appeal, and he did it by buying the lesser known J.M. Clapp collection intact in 1942. If it weren't for that acquisition Louis' collection would not be of the caliber it came to be simply because not only were these his best pieces but it was such an enormous collection. As many great coins Louis did have he also had a great many dogs which I assume simply filled the holes like anyone else would be swamped to fill. Was he a great learned numismatist or just a great businessman who had the where with all to be in the financial position to buy all his coins. I submit it was the latter, but being a man of great business acumen who had direction and drive to accomplish what he did is nothing to be ashamed of but he was no D.W. Valentine, Q. David Bowers, Jules Reiver, John McCloskey, Al Overton, Roger S. Cohen, Howard R. Newcomb. H. Bolender, Willian H Sheldon, etc etc. Louis was a great collector but not a noted numismatist like those great numismatists. Louis was a man of means who had the drive to amass the greatest coin collection ever known.
Louis Eliasberg was a successful banker and built a great banking enterprise with his money. He was a great negotiator as we have learned in his coin collecting adventures, he would buy from the greatest dealers and attend the greatest auctions of the times inorder to fulfill his dream goal. He was thought of as a wonderful family man, with a prudent philosophy in business as well as his beloved hobby who had the reputation for doing the right thing, he was well liked and respected and lived by the honorable credo that most of us shoot for. he absolutely lived within his means and didn't really flaunt it off. But this isn't about Louis Eliasberg, this is about Ned Green but I felt it was important to mention Louis when comparing collections of great men of great means.
So what do we know about Ned Green? It seems that on the surface one typically hears only of his mother Hetty aka the Witch of Wall Street and how she became the richest and most hated woman in the nation in the late 1880's and early 1900's. And that she was so frugal that she wouldn't get the proper medical attention needed for her son's leg and when she finally did she tried to stiff the doctors when presented with their bill. We hear how she made millions but spent nothing on herself and her 2 kids, one being Ned. We read that Ned was a flamboyant young man, spending lavishly and womanizing besides later marrying a prostitute. We see photos of a 300 lb man with a series of megamansions and all sorts of vehicles and flair for the extravagance that only a king would have. We basically only hear the main talking points of the times, the Enquirer like messages the media picked up during the times but know little about both individuals or their private side. If Ned wasn't flamboyant and living the incredibly extravagant lifestyle that he was known to lead would we as collectors extoll the same respect on him as we do Louis Eliasberg, a man that also lived well above our standards but still someone we can comfortably relate to and respect as one of us who is truly more similar to us in more ways than not.
Hetty Green later in life was obviously mentally ill, and had so many OCD's to make your headspin but she wasn't lean on smarts. When she was growing up in her wealthy father's home, her family of ole time whaling ship fame, she would be right by her father's side while he conducted the business of running his family's whaling ship affairs learning the art of business hands on. She would later read the financials on her down time. I can tell you this lifestyle and dedication can be equal to or better than attending any higher education university when it comes to gaining hands on real life business knowledge. She would later take her monies ie like selling her clothes for thousands of dollars and investing it by herself in the stock market specializing in the hot stocks of the times, the railroads companies. She would also go on to buying mortgages and took a specialization in foreclosing on them and then taking ownership in the real estate and its future management. She also made loans to brokerage houses, banks and to N.YC. itself and helped save the banks during the Panic of 1907. So the Witch of Wall Street was also the great financial savior of her era while living in N.Y. in squalor with her two kids.
Now when it came to raising her children she raised them the only way she knew. She had them stay close where she maintained ultimate control under extreme frugality, So Ned had to have been right by his mother's side just as she was growing up with her father as she ran her stock brokerage business and managed foreclosures and her real estate holdings. So off he went to St Johns College in the heart of the financial district of N.Y.C., again so she could continue to keep him close by in N.YC. St John's College was founded in 1841 as the first catholic institution of higher education in the Northeast U.S. and with the addition of Law and Medical Schools in 1905 it soon became what is now Fordham University in 1907. Ned obtained a law degree, specializing in real estate law, and immediately was shipped off to Chicago after passing the bar to manage her real estate holdings while paying him literally nothing and continuing to maintain her tight control over the young man.
In 1893 Ned was sent by his mother out to Terrell Texas to manage a foreclosed upon railroad called Texas Midland Railroad which he successfully turned around making it into a model RR company. This was only one of many successful business ventures that would run in the future. Here must have began his interest in technology where he was the first in the State to install electric lights in the coaches. He was also one of the first entrepreneurs to bring the very first 2 cylinder auto to the State of Texas.
In 1896 he became active in politics and joined the political faction called the Black & Tan of the Republican Party. And in 1910 was made a Colonel on the staff of the Governor of Texas. How odd that the Governor of Texas who was also a Democrat would ask Ned a Republican to join his staff, one can only assume that the Governor needed Ned's experience and wisdom not withstanding having a similar education/experience as the Governor did, Thomas Mitchell Cambell (Governor from 1907-1911 ) a former lawyer himself until he became involved with the troubled Int'l Great Northern RR in 1889 and becoming its court appointed receiver in 1891, and the next year after lifting the line from bankruptcy remained on as its general manager.
Probably around 1912 is when Ned was summoned to return to N.Y.C. where he became a master at protecting his mother's assets and to manage her financial affairs. Hetty tolerated his extravagant lifestyle and later he went on to inherit her enormous wealth when she died in 1916.
One of Ned's estates in Dartmouth Mass. was also an ideal location for the lab he built on the grounds besides using his radio towers and manned blimp to conduct experiments this was a place where he could conveniently stop by and keep up with the latest advances the technology in which he financed to be used by Dartmouth College and M.I.T to conduct experiments and perform research that was at the forefront in radio communication, aircraft navigation, high voltage generators and meteorology, including the prototype for atom smashers.
Getting back to what we are all interested in here and the true subject of this thread, Ned probably started getting interested in collecting coins and stamps as early as 1893 as Eric Newman suggests during a trip he took to the Chicago Fair but Ned most likely started actively buying coins and stamps when he had the money of his own which would logically be in the early 1900's. By 1920 his spending habits were akin to the kings and queens of another long bygone era. Remembering that this is the man that purchased all five of the 1913 Liberty Nickels and the 100 stamp sheet of the upside Jenny all go to show that he was an absolutely shrewd entrepreneur. But in viewing the great amount of coins that we now see residing in Eric Newman's collection, some of the best there is and some of the dogs there is a similarity to the Eliasberg collection not only in individual comparison of great coins but also to Louis' intellect as a businessman. So the question begs are these two great collectors really very different, both amassed great collections that were also composed of great individual coins, neither were exceptional numismatists in their own right but both were obviously highly motivated. Mr Stack describes his meetings with Ned as those instances where Ned would take the whole tray home to review and return with a check. So maybe Ned was less picky and less goal oriented than Louis but in the end their collections fetched millions and neither wrote any numismatic text books. I see a lot of similarities in the two.
Louis Eliasberg was a successful banker and built a great banking enterprise with his money. He was a great negotiator as we have learned in his coin collecting adventures, he would buy from the greatest dealers and attend the greatest auctions of the times inorder to fulfill his dream goal. He was thought of as a wonderful family man, with a prudent philosophy in business as well as his beloved hobby who had the reputation for doing the right thing, he was well liked and respected and lived by the honorable credo that most of us shoot for. he absolutely lived within his means and didn't really flaunt it off. But this isn't about Louis Eliasberg, this is about Ned Green but I felt it was important to mention Louis when comparing collections of great men of great means.
So what do we know about Ned Green? It seems that on the surface one typically hears only of his mother Hetty aka the Witch of Wall Street and how she became the richest and most hated woman in the nation in the late 1880's and early 1900's. And that she was so frugal that she wouldn't get the proper medical attention needed for her son's leg and when she finally did she tried to stiff the doctors when presented with their bill. We hear how she made millions but spent nothing on herself and her 2 kids, one being Ned. We read that Ned was a flamboyant young man, spending lavishly and womanizing besides later marrying a prostitute. We see photos of a 300 lb man with a series of megamansions and all sorts of vehicles and flair for the extravagance that only a king would have. We basically only hear the main talking points of the times, the Enquirer like messages the media picked up during the times but know little about both individuals or their private side. If Ned wasn't flamboyant and living the incredibly extravagant lifestyle that he was known to lead would we as collectors extoll the same respect on him as we do Louis Eliasberg, a man that also lived well above our standards but still someone we can comfortably relate to and respect as one of us who is truly more similar to us in more ways than not.
Hetty Green later in life was obviously mentally ill, and had so many OCD's to make your headspin but she wasn't lean on smarts. When she was growing up in her wealthy father's home, her family of ole time whaling ship fame, she would be right by her father's side while he conducted the business of running his family's whaling ship affairs learning the art of business hands on. She would later read the financials on her down time. I can tell you this lifestyle and dedication can be equal to or better than attending any higher education university when it comes to gaining hands on real life business knowledge. She would later take her monies ie like selling her clothes for thousands of dollars and investing it by herself in the stock market specializing in the hot stocks of the times, the railroads companies. She would also go on to buying mortgages and took a specialization in foreclosing on them and then taking ownership in the real estate and its future management. She also made loans to brokerage houses, banks and to N.YC. itself and helped save the banks during the Panic of 1907. So the Witch of Wall Street was also the great financial savior of her era while living in N.Y. in squalor with her two kids.
Now when it came to raising her children she raised them the only way she knew. She had them stay close where she maintained ultimate control under extreme frugality, So Ned had to have been right by his mother's side just as she was growing up with her father as she ran her stock brokerage business and managed foreclosures and her real estate holdings. So off he went to St Johns College in the heart of the financial district of N.Y.C., again so she could continue to keep him close by in N.YC. St John's College was founded in 1841 as the first catholic institution of higher education in the Northeast U.S. and with the addition of Law and Medical Schools in 1905 it soon became what is now Fordham University in 1907. Ned obtained a law degree, specializing in real estate law, and immediately was shipped off to Chicago after passing the bar to manage her real estate holdings while paying him literally nothing and continuing to maintain her tight control over the young man.
In 1893 Ned was sent by his mother out to Terrell Texas to manage a foreclosed upon railroad called Texas Midland Railroad which he successfully turned around making it into a model RR company. This was only one of many successful business ventures that would run in the future. Here must have began his interest in technology where he was the first in the State to install electric lights in the coaches. He was also one of the first entrepreneurs to bring the very first 2 cylinder auto to the State of Texas.
In 1896 he became active in politics and joined the political faction called the Black & Tan of the Republican Party. And in 1910 was made a Colonel on the staff of the Governor of Texas. How odd that the Governor of Texas who was also a Democrat would ask Ned a Republican to join his staff, one can only assume that the Governor needed Ned's experience and wisdom not withstanding having a similar education/experience as the Governor did, Thomas Mitchell Cambell (Governor from 1907-1911 ) a former lawyer himself until he became involved with the troubled Int'l Great Northern RR in 1889 and becoming its court appointed receiver in 1891, and the next year after lifting the line from bankruptcy remained on as its general manager.
Probably around 1912 is when Ned was summoned to return to N.Y.C. where he became a master at protecting his mother's assets and to manage her financial affairs. Hetty tolerated his extravagant lifestyle and later he went on to inherit her enormous wealth when she died in 1916.
One of Ned's estates in Dartmouth Mass. was also an ideal location for the lab he built on the grounds besides using his radio towers and manned blimp to conduct experiments this was a place where he could conveniently stop by and keep up with the latest advances the technology in which he financed to be used by Dartmouth College and M.I.T to conduct experiments and perform research that was at the forefront in radio communication, aircraft navigation, high voltage generators and meteorology, including the prototype for atom smashers.
Getting back to what we are all interested in here and the true subject of this thread, Ned probably started getting interested in collecting coins and stamps as early as 1893 as Eric Newman suggests during a trip he took to the Chicago Fair but Ned most likely started actively buying coins and stamps when he had the money of his own which would logically be in the early 1900's. By 1920 his spending habits were akin to the kings and queens of another long bygone era. Remembering that this is the man that purchased all five of the 1913 Liberty Nickels and the 100 stamp sheet of the upside Jenny all go to show that he was an absolutely shrewd entrepreneur. But in viewing the great amount of coins that we now see residing in Eric Newman's collection, some of the best there is and some of the dogs there is a similarity to the Eliasberg collection not only in individual comparison of great coins but also to Louis' intellect as a businessman. So the question begs are these two great collectors really very different, both amassed great collections that were also composed of great individual coins, neither were exceptional numismatists in their own right but both were obviously highly motivated. Mr Stack describes his meetings with Ned as those instances where Ned would take the whole tray home to review and return with a check. So maybe Ned was less picky and less goal oriented than Louis but in the end their collections fetched millions and neither wrote any numismatic text books. I see a lot of similarities in the two.
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Comments
This was a brilliant post! Did you write it yourself? Regardless, it was truly eye-opening and thanks so VERY much for posting it!!
<< <i>Realone:
This was a brilliant post! Did you write it yourself? Regardless, it was truly eye-opening and thanks so VERY much for posting it!! >>
+1! That was an excellent read!!!
<< <i>
<< <i>Realone:
This was a brilliant post! Did you write it yourself? Regardless, it was truly eye-opening and thanks so VERY much for posting it!! >>
+1! That was an excellent read!!! >>
Great write up!
I think I once read that he could not spend money as fast as he was making it.
A very entertaining read. Thank you.
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Coin collecting is not a hobby, it's an obsession !
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-Steve
<< <i>Wikipedia has a good article on Hetty, that mentions Ned's world class stamp collection but not the coin collecting: Text >>
Ha, that's the first place I looked after reading the original post. Tried to have her son treated at a free clinic for the poor. Classic.
In the coin world, Colonel Green might be the closest American approximation of Egypt's King Farouk.
Colonel Green died in 1936.
Did he get one also?
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
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"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
The wiki for Colonel Green is pretty thin.
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
If I had it my way, stupidity would be painful!