The Staples Strawberry Leaf large cent

Mission16

With nothing else going on this weekend, I've been catching up on threads and links I've saved.
My fantasy coin is the Strawberry Leaf cent.
It occurred to me that spending $2,750 on a coin for his wife for a wedding present seems odd. In all of the articles I've read about this particular coin, not much gets said about Roscoe Staples, the unknown coin collector. What do we know about him? What else did he collect? How big was his collection? Why and how did he choose such an esoteric and rare coin to purchase?
I'd love to read more!!

LanceNewmanOCC

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to get the ball rollin'



The finest known Strawberry Leaf Cent resided in the Staples family for more than six decades, after Roscoe Staples, a collector, was killed in World War II. - 2014 article



strawberry leaf aka cotton leaf



2 of the 4 are in museum collections (last i checked)



out-of-date info/images.



a good read per the op inquiry?



google

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Mission16

Originally posted by: Hydrant
Roscoe Staples was a Marine. He was killed while serving our country. That is his legacy. Pennies be damned. SEMPER FIDELIS

God Bless him and keep him. But his legacy is also part of numismatic history and therefore worthy of discussion on this forum.

Mission16

A line in the coinlink article linked by Lance caught my eye. The family owned it until 2004 but likely didn't comprehend its significance.

Did Roscoe Staples himself realize it? I would think he did being as he shelled out about $45,000 in today's dollars for it. Clearly he was an intelligent and successful man to be able to pay that amount for that coin. What else did he collect?

LanceNewmanOCC

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is this how we view old stacks lots or did we already know about prior? seems familiar.



auction lot - note the description.



excerpt for provenance via the auction lot of stacks.



"First identified by David Proskey; Scott & Co.'s sale of October 1877, Lot 201 (at $77.50); purchased on the floor by H.G. Sampson, acting for Lorin G. Parmelee, outbidding Joseph N.T. Levick's $75 commission for Sylvester S. Crosby; New York Stamp and Coin Co.'s sale of the Parmelee Collection, June 1890, Lot 671 (at $79); purchased by Charles Steigerwalt and resold to Dr. Thomas Hall in October 1890 for $90; sold as part of the intact Hall Collection to Virgil Brand on September 7, 1909; Brand estate; consigned by Armin Brand to B.G. Johnson along with 16 other important 1793 cents on February 7, 1941; to James Kelly in May 1941 for $2,500; to Roscoe E. Staples for $2,750; Staples family."

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sparky64

The Strawberry Leaf Large Cent has always captivated my imagination too.

Good reading, thanks.

Danimoody

The reason the coin was sold is my great grandmother passed away and my grandmother took the strawberry leaf to be appraised. She had no idea of it's rarity.

Zoins

Glad to have you on the boards @Danimoody! Thank you for Roscoe's service. It means a lot.

Here's the CoinFacts photo of the coin, known as the Parmelee-Staples specimen, taken by Phil, aka @PCGSPhoto. The coin will be forever associated with Roscoe.

• https://www.pcgs.com/cert/12952855

Walkerguy21D

Thanks for resurrecting this, and adding that photo - wow - just an unbelievable large cent!

RichieURich

Thank you, Danimoody, for posting this! What a great coin!

Thank you to Roscoe Staples for your service to this country! My father also served in World War II.

Treashunt

Great piece, I only wish...

Staircoins

I recall when this coin appeared in one of our local coin shops here in Maine. What a splash it made at the time!

Here's the story...
https://www.aboutcoincollecting.com/1793strawberryleaf.htm

The store owner, Dan Cunliffe, helped get the coin authenticated and slabbed, then consigned to an ANR sale in Wolfeboro. As I recall, Dave Bowers, Frank Van Valen and John Kraljevich were involved. There may have been others I'm sure.

It was big news for certain!

yosclimber

More about Roscoe E. Staples II as a US Marine:
From the 2009 lot description by John Kraljevich @Pistareen :

The Staples family has held the coin since 1941, but its original purchaser enjoyed the piece for all too short a period of time. Roscoe Staples, a successful businessman, joined the Maine National Guard in 1934 as a second lieutenant and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1940, then captain in 1941 as a great world war approached. As a member of the 103rd Infantry, Staples embarked for the Pacific theatre in fall 1942 after having already been away from his Maine home for a year— it appears by the time he purchased this coin from James Kelly he had already left for training elsewhere in the United States. In early 1943, Staples' regiment was part of a force that left for Guadalcanal and received further training in jungle warfare on the nearby islands. A few months later, in the summer of 1943, orders came down the chain of command that Staples was to help command the regiment as it worked to secure the Munda airfield in the Solomon Islands, then under the control of the Japanese. A young naval officer from nearby Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, captained a PT board off the coast of Munda (now New Georgia) to patrol for Japanese destroyers during the same action. Kennedy was famously injured when a Japanese vessel collided with his PT-109 off the coast on the night of August 1, 1943. A few miles away the next day, while his troops were actively engaged in taking the Munda airfield from the remaining Japanese forces, then-Major Staples was shot and killed by a Japanese sniper who paid for his actions with his own life. Staples was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for bravery, and he was noted for being "a brilliant officer who had the respect of his men and his superiors." The airfield was secured soon after, after a month of incredible difficulty, on August 5, 1943. His citation noted that 'although his duties as a regimental S-3 did not require him to expose himself to enemy fire at the front lines, Major Staples repeatedly visited the companies at forward areas to check the progress of operations and to make suggestions to company commanders in an effort to save lives and to bring the battle to a decisive finish. Major Staples' courage and devotion to duty were an inspiration to the troops and contributed immeasurably to the success of operations.'

https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-B08QN

More on the New Georgia Campaign (New Georgia is the next large island group NW of Guadalcanal):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Georgia_Campaign

and his wife Beulah, who raised their 3 children alone after Roscoe's death:

Beulah Wilder Staples, July 13, 2004
As noted in the 1935 Mirror, Beulah “Bunny” Wilder Staples “was the one member of the class who had her thesis finished long before deadline.” The conscientious student went on to earn a master’s degree in library science from Simmons College and was later employed at both the Library of Congress and the Maine State Library. She served as Oxford town manager in the 1950s and raised her children alone, after the death of husband Roscoe E. Staples II. He was killed by a sniper in the Solomon Islands in 1943, after which he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. Another piece of valuable metal figures in the Staples’ marital history. As an anniversary gift, Roscoe Staples had purchased a 1793 Strawberry Leaf large cent, an extremely rare coin. After Beulah’s death last summer, the coin was auctioned for $360,000 on behalf of the Staples family, and during the auction she was applauded for recognizing the coin’s “significance both as family heirloom and numismatic rarity.” Survivors are sons Roscoe and Everett and daughter Mary A. Gatchell; six grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

https://www.bates.edu/magazine/back-issues/y2005/spring05/departments/vital-statistics/obituaries-10/

Mission16

Whoa! It's weird (to me, anyways) to see a thread I started 3-1/2 years ago pop back up!

Thank you, danimoody , for the resurrection. It has prompted me to reread my file on it.

Icollecteverything

When true rarity overrules condition.

Zoins

@Icollecteverything said:
When true rarity overrules condition.

Well, it is also the best condition piece.