Autographs of classic coin designers

Overdate

How difficult is it for a collector to obtain autographs or signatures of historically important classic coin designers? The internet does not appear to have very much information on this topic (or maybe I'm looking in the wrong places).

coindeuce

Chuck Daughtrey is a very talented artist who has created some excellent lithographs of classic U.S. coin designers. Forgot his member name here.

Pen signed autographs might be very difficult to acquire. Try the major auction house archives: Heritage, Bonham's, Goldberg's, Stack's. There are probably many originals on documents in The National Archives, but obviously they aren't obtainable, except maybe as scans.



cdaughtrey.com - coin designer lithographs

cmerlo1

I thought I'd try collecting these, but they're really hard to find. A few years back I missed a Hermon MacNeil album page on Ebay. I think it went for around $250. I also remember seeing an Augustus Saint-Gaudens letter on Ebay once with a BIN of over $1k. I still check for them from time-to-time, hoping someone puts one up cheap not knowing who it is. I'd really like to have one of the Felix Schlag numbered certificates he mounted proof 1938 nickels to and signed...

Overdate

Originally posted by: coindeuce
Chuck Daughtrey is a very talented artist who has created some excellent lithographs of classic U.S. coin designers. Forgot his member name here.
Pen signed autographs might be very difficult to acquire. Try the major auction house archives: Heritage, Bonham's, Goldberg's, Stack's. There are probably many originals on documents in The National Archives, but obviously they aren't obtainable, except maybe as scans.

cdaughtrey.com - coin designer lithographs

He's "coppercoins", and I do have one of his excellent lithographs.

I browsed some of the auction houses you suggested, coin designer autographs appear to be few and far between. I wonder if it's lack of availability or lack of interest.

Booger9989

I have a most of the modern people. I have all types of things signed. Mint COA's , rolls , programs. Will they ever be collected? Hummmm

Depending on how the future collectors see our current coinage!

smallchange

Just ordered a couple lithographs from Coppercoins, anxiously awaiting the delivery
Jim

bkzoopapa

There are two St. Gaudens letters coming up in the Oct HA manuscript sale

Nysoto

Chief engravers Robert Scot, William Kneass, Christian Gobrecht, and James Longacre all have extensive signed copperplate engravings for book illustrations. The books can be purchased by searching through Abe Books, some are reasonable in price. All of these engravers/designers were copperplate engravers before their commissions as chief engraver at the US Mint.

During my research in writing the biography of Robert Scot, I acquired around 200 copperplate engravings by Scot, most of them still intact in 18th century books, the majority for Thomas Dobson's Encyclopædia. This has turned into a very interesting side hobby, and some of these antiquarian books are extremely rare.

Overdate

I became interested in the topic after recently acquiring an Adolph Weinman signature (on a non-numismatic item). A web search found very few handwritten signatures by him and several other classic coin designers. Signatures of many modern coin designers appear to be much more readily available.