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Henry Cook one of America's first Rare Coin Dealers
Broadstruck
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1861-62 Henry Cook - Coin Dealer “Civil War” Store Card, Boston, Miller MA-BO19 / Fuld F-115Aa-1a, 43mm Copper Planchet, Dies by George H. Lovett.
This is one of only 4 copper examples which has come to market since 1989 and although examples struck in white metal are rated Rarity-8 in copper composition it's seen less frequently. Previously considered a U.S. Trade Token this has just been assigned a Fuld number F-115Aa-1a and is included as a new Civil War Token in the 2014 fall release of the new reference book on the series. This is the second example I've owned and is very visually pleasing with balanced slightly faded red proof-like surfaces and beautiful deep blue patina which appears when rotated under a light source.
The method of usage with store cards was that when any merchant gave change one was substituted in exchange of a penny. All other merchants would also accept them as face value of 1 cent and this was a good way to advertise at the time. However most all store cards were struck on cent sized planchets for ease of commerce, earlier ones the diameter of a large cent. By the time Cook had this struck other dealers such as John Curtis, Edward Cogan, William Idler, etc had switched to Indian Head Cent sized small cent store cards. So although Cook decided to go gigantic in diameter at 43mm these didn't function well for the advertisement route of store cards. It’s the largest of any merchant advertising cards ever stuck, as large is considered 32mm. Cook might have very well had a good amount of these re-melted as the copper weight far exceeded the face value intended.
Henry Cook who would become one of America’s first rare coin dealers was born in Maine in 1821, a seventh-generation Mayflower descendant. He moved to Boston when he was 16 years old and gained employment with a company in the export trade. At the age of 21 he was sent to South America to handle the firm’s interests on the west coast there. Later he served as mate aboard a sailing vessel which traded along that coast and with islands in the Pacific. By the 1840s he was an avid coin collector. In the 1850s he relinquished seafaring for the security of an on land occupation in Boston, and entered the boot and shoe trade at 74 Friend Street. He was fond of looking through copper half cents and cents in circulation and picking out scarce dates which he displayed in a counter in his shoe shop. It seems that he was active in the rare coin business by the mid-1850s. Circa 1861-62 he commissioned a selection of patriotic medals to be struck from his own designs with dies cut by George Hampton Lovett. Another smaller 28mm copper Cook store card exists muled with the reverse die from a circa 1850's Haviland Stevenson & Co. Druggists from Charleston, South Carolina, Miller SC-3. It was written about in the pages of The American Numismatic Journal in July 1889 and April 1892 by Horatio Storer who stated these had not been struck to the order or knowledge of Mr. Cook. In the September 1880 Jenks sale is was mentioned Mr. Cook has no information and never having heard of it before and it's believed that not more than two or three were struck. Now it isn't uncommon for merchants to have forgotten about their store cards as some Lyman Low interviewed couldn't provide any valuable information either. So this may very well be a tentative non completed prototype for a token design Mr. Cook rejected. In 1866 still located in his shoe shop with coins at 74 Friend Street, Cook advertised as “Numismatist and Antiquarian” rare and antique coins, medals, autographs, books, bought, sold and exchanged with cabinets arranged and cataloged for public sale in Boston or New York. Also purchases made at all the coin and book sales in either of the above mentioned cities on commission. On April 6 of the same year he was elected treasurer at the founding meeting of the New England Numismatic and Archaeological Society. In 1869 Cook issued a 12-page listing coin and medal circular containing a few remarks on the American series of Coins and Medals.
This is one of only 4 copper examples which has come to market since 1989 and although examples struck in white metal are rated Rarity-8 in copper composition it's seen less frequently. Previously considered a U.S. Trade Token this has just been assigned a Fuld number F-115Aa-1a and is included as a new Civil War Token in the 2014 fall release of the new reference book on the series. This is the second example I've owned and is very visually pleasing with balanced slightly faded red proof-like surfaces and beautiful deep blue patina which appears when rotated under a light source.
The method of usage with store cards was that when any merchant gave change one was substituted in exchange of a penny. All other merchants would also accept them as face value of 1 cent and this was a good way to advertise at the time. However most all store cards were struck on cent sized planchets for ease of commerce, earlier ones the diameter of a large cent. By the time Cook had this struck other dealers such as John Curtis, Edward Cogan, William Idler, etc had switched to Indian Head Cent sized small cent store cards. So although Cook decided to go gigantic in diameter at 43mm these didn't function well for the advertisement route of store cards. It’s the largest of any merchant advertising cards ever stuck, as large is considered 32mm. Cook might have very well had a good amount of these re-melted as the copper weight far exceeded the face value intended.
Henry Cook who would become one of America’s first rare coin dealers was born in Maine in 1821, a seventh-generation Mayflower descendant. He moved to Boston when he was 16 years old and gained employment with a company in the export trade. At the age of 21 he was sent to South America to handle the firm’s interests on the west coast there. Later he served as mate aboard a sailing vessel which traded along that coast and with islands in the Pacific. By the 1840s he was an avid coin collector. In the 1850s he relinquished seafaring for the security of an on land occupation in Boston, and entered the boot and shoe trade at 74 Friend Street. He was fond of looking through copper half cents and cents in circulation and picking out scarce dates which he displayed in a counter in his shoe shop. It seems that he was active in the rare coin business by the mid-1850s. Circa 1861-62 he commissioned a selection of patriotic medals to be struck from his own designs with dies cut by George Hampton Lovett. Another smaller 28mm copper Cook store card exists muled with the reverse die from a circa 1850's Haviland Stevenson & Co. Druggists from Charleston, South Carolina, Miller SC-3. It was written about in the pages of The American Numismatic Journal in July 1889 and April 1892 by Horatio Storer who stated these had not been struck to the order or knowledge of Mr. Cook. In the September 1880 Jenks sale is was mentioned Mr. Cook has no information and never having heard of it before and it's believed that not more than two or three were struck. Now it isn't uncommon for merchants to have forgotten about their store cards as some Lyman Low interviewed couldn't provide any valuable information either. So this may very well be a tentative non completed prototype for a token design Mr. Cook rejected. In 1866 still located in his shoe shop with coins at 74 Friend Street, Cook advertised as “Numismatist and Antiquarian” rare and antique coins, medals, autographs, books, bought, sold and exchanged with cabinets arranged and cataloged for public sale in Boston or New York. Also purchases made at all the coin and book sales in either of the above mentioned cities on commission. On April 6 of the same year he was elected treasurer at the founding meeting of the New England Numismatic and Archaeological Society. In 1869 Cook issued a 12-page listing coin and medal circular containing a few remarks on the American series of Coins and Medals.
To Err Is Human.... To Collect Err's Is Just Too Much Darn Tootin Fun!
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<< <i>Very nice token and history behind it. I'd be proud to own that too. >>
jpcienkus, Thanks and I am proud to own this example!
years! Nice token!
bob
I have another Cook Store Card to compliment yours. Below is from the auction
2013 Chicago ANA Stacks Auction Ford Collection
Chestnut-brown with hints of violet. Possibly bronzed during manufacture.
The identity of the variety is somewhat obscure as the reverse inscription is given by Rulau as: "HENRY COOK, MONEY BROKER,"
perhaps following a description in an 1886 Woodward sale. The piece offered here has a 10-line inscription on the reverse;
the first two lines being the same as represented by Rulau, and hence this may be identical with Rulau Ma-Bo 20.
Rulau writes further that there are "only 2 pieces known" for the Ma-Bo 20 variety.
A specimen of the more common variety with the Constitution obverse exceeded $2,000 in our (Stack's) July 2008 sale.
From the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection.
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coinsarefun, Thanks for posting your smaller diameter Cook.
I had been trying to find out who struck the 1850's Haviland Stevenson Druggists, Charleston, South Carolina (Miller SC-3) tokens which is the reverse die used on your Cook. I think Henry Cook may have commissioned more than one die sinker for his store cards? Or another engraver tried to get Cook’s business by presenting him with a prototype of their work? As the script information of both Cook tokens is just about exactly the same I feel Henry did consult more than one engraver and ultimately went with George H. Lovett of New York for his store card.
Now Jarvis Edgar Ellis worked as an engraver and die sinker for Scovill Manufacturing in Waterbury CT. His Abraham Lincoln “Rail Splitter of the West” obverse Dewitt AL-1860-41 obverse was also mulled with many other score card dies Scovill had designed. Dewitt lists mulling "A through M" and "K" is with the reverse of the Haviland Stevenson as your Cook. Although die sinkers like Lovett, Key, Merriam swapped dies between one another for special collector mules. All the low mintage mules Scovill Manufacturing did by request to create rarity for collectors as the likes of J.N.T Levick had all been done with dies they had in house.
So I’m now very confident that your Cook is a Scovill Manufacturing creation.
<< <i>Fascinating reading, and some superb tokens, Broadstruck and Coinsarefun. >>
Thanks Kaz... Nice to have you back!
I wish more coin dealers would make pieces like that today. Imagine collecting pieces from CRO, DWN, Legend, etc.
In the modern era, I have a Bowers & Morena piece done by Frank Gasparro that I'm a big fan of.
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
<< In 1869 Cook issued a 12-page listing coin and medal circular containing a few remarks on the American series of Coins and Medals.>>
Do any of the forum members know about the contents of this "listing"? What kinds of coins and medals were being offered? Does information regarding the details of Cook's coin business survive?
Nice too that your thread drew out CAF's smaller diameter Cook. Fantastic eagle!
<< <i><< In 1869 Cook issued a 12-page listing coin and medal circular containing a few remarks on the American series of Coins and Medals.>>
Do any of the forum members know about the contents of this "listing"? What kinds of coins and medals were being offered? Does information regarding the details of Cook's coin business survive? >>
Here's a bit of info on the circular...
The E-Sylum: Volume 10, Number 50, December 9, 2007, Article 14
HENRY COOK'S COIN AND MEDAL CIRCULAR
I won a couple lots in George Kolbe's 104 numismatic literature
sale. One is lot 623, a rare little pamphlet by Boston coin
dealer Henry Cook published in 1869. COIN AND MEDAL CIRCULAR,
CONTAINING A FEW REMARKS ON THE AMERICAN SERIES OF COINS AND
MEDALS, WITH A LITTLE BRIEF ADVICE TO THE INEXPERIENCED
COLLECTOR. The 12-page pamphlet is interleaved with lined
paper. Kolbe describes it as "A scarce early introductory
guide with interesting tables of large cents and half cents,
giving degrees of rarity and selling prices at the time. A
major early Boston coin dealer, Cook left little beyond
several auction sales and a similar pamphlet or two for us
to remember him."
Here is the opening passage, and it applies just as well
today as it did in 1869:
"It is quite unnecessary here to expatiate upon the pleasure
and information to be derived from the study of coins and
medals; the desire to obtain information concerning the
identity, value, etc., of such pieces as may fall into our
possession, being almost universal.
"Scarcely a day passes but calls are made upon me for a
list of prices that are paid for coins; and in a general
reply I would state that it is impossible for a coin dealer
or an experienced collector to determine upon the price of
coins without seeing each individual piece of which his
opinion is asked. As this may appear strange to the
inexperienced in coin collecting, I will explain that
everything depends, regarding the price of a coin, upon
its rarity, and the good or bad condition in which the
piece in question may be."
Wayne Homren, Editor
<< <i> I will explain that
everything depends, regarding the price of a coin, upon
its rarity, and the good or bad condition in which the
piece in question may be. >>
Hey that answer is used all the time. "It depends......"
"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