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We Shall No Longer Hear of Missing Stack's Catalogs
Coinosaurus
Posts: 9,614 ✭✭✭✭✭
The run of Stack's auction sale catalogs, more than 800 sales from 1935 to date, has been scanned and posted on the Newman Portal at https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctioncompanydetail/3.
The Newman Portal uses Internet Archive (IA) as its document repository. IA, among the world's largest 300 websites, has multiple copies of its document store in multiple locations. IA is well-known as the creator of the "Wayback Machine," which has archived nearly 300 billion web pages to date. IA is a non-profit dedicated to preservation of the world's online knowledge. While nothing is permanent, these folks will have as much staying power as anyone.
Many thanks to Stack's Bowers for granting permission to share their back catalogs in this way.
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A big Thank you to whomever is responsible for the Newman Portal and did this monumental task.
Wow!
What a resource! I was able to trace back a lot I purchased, that they sold four decades ago and find out what they graded it and how much it brought. When I saw the price, which was less than a tenth of what I paid recently, I was not upset.
First of all, I would have had no interest in the item at that time. Second, if I had bought it, it would have put a big hole in my budget which would have prevented me from buying one of the two items a purchased at the same show, 1909 Proof set and an 1800 Bust Dollar, which is the tied for the finest known if its variety. I sold the Proof set, at a nice profit, to put toward the down payment on my first house, and the dollar is still in my collection.
That is awesome! Glad these were finally added.
Latin American Collection
Fabulous work! This should help many of us quite a bit.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
This resource is incredible, many thanks to all involved.
RE: "A big Thank you to whomever is responsible for the Newman Portal and did this monumental task."
First. Thank Eric P. Newman, his family and EPNNES for originating and funding this massive project.
Second. Thank the original project team of Len Augsberger, Wayne Homren, Roger Burdette and John Feigenbaum.
Third. Thank Len Augsberger for heading the current project team, along with Wayne Homren's extensive contributions.
Fourth. Thank Washington University of St. Louis and the Library Department for supporting and interfacing with the project team on a long-term effort.
Just looked at the first auction catalog and prices realized from 1935.
Jaw--->floor.
Gonna get me a $50 Octagonal someday. Some. Day.
Funny, I feel sorry for the guys who paid $4,000+ for their own original sets.
A HUGE thank you to all involved!
This is extraordinary news.
And fast too.
Holy Cow !
"Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything." - George Malley, Phenomenon
http://www.americanlegacycoins.com
Interesting, thanks
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
I've spent that much for a partial original set (hardcover editions). I am wondering what they are now worth---somewhere between zilch and bupkis?
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
This site has become a real go to site for research. It is amazing the things you find on there.
Thanks to everyone who took part in this project. Just took a brief scan. Where do you find the prices realized? I was looking at a later catalog from 09.
Sonoran...I think the hardbounds might retain some value and some of the very early collectibles...the others would be bupkis.
The common stuff was already of little commercial value. The rarities are worth less now, but they'll bounce back. Bibliophiles will be bibliophiles, even if they can no longer justify their purchases as "valuable research material". In other words, they must now face their addiction head on, but that doesn't mean they will kick the habit.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Amazing, a hardly thanks to all!
Good to see they were hyping commems even way back in 1936."Many issues are becoming so rare they are almost unobtainable".
mark
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......
Nice! And a big thank you to all of those who contributed to making this happen!
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
looks like commems have returned to 1936 pricing
Excellent! A big thank you to Eric P. Newman, the people at Stacks, and all involved. What a great resource and thanks for sharing! I think I might leave the Dice Hicks catalog permanently tabbed...
You have opened Pandora's box for this coin nerd. Thanks?
Thank you for the link/information... what a fantastic resource. Cheers, RickO
Looking at the Grant Star, in relation to say the Lafayette, the Grant should be selling for 12X more. It sells for roughly the same today. Very interesting stuff!
Thanks for posting this.
In the catalogs I looked at yesterday the prices realized were right after the cover page.
FWIW I had a almost complete run of these catalogs from the late 60s to the early 90s boxed up in toms-world (the basement) and sold them all on eBay about two years ago, WHEW!
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
I feel like a guy on a horse who just saw his first automobile.
Coin Rarities Online
I usually feel like the gal who has to clean up for the guy on the horse
Bookmarked.
That's a load my bookshelves will never have to bear. Amazing!
I see at least two catalogs missing.
But really, the NNP is an amazing and sometimes overwhelming resource. And they've been adding some cool stuff recently. Stack's sales, ANR is coming up, looks like John Reich Journal will be soon. EAC and C4 sales.
And we get to find out things we didn't know. A Katen sale has a Robert Ingersoll medal I've never head of.
Ed. S.
(EJS)
There are actually five catalogs missing, of which two are being done at ANS, leaving three we are looking for (12/18/1948, 12/7/1951, and 12/8/1993). If anyone can loan these, PM me, and we'll send a set of Eric P. Newman personal tokens as a thank you.
Thank you to all involved in this magnificent project. And this is coming from a guy who has lugged my large numismatic and auction catalog collection from home to home several times in two states over the past 10 years. It is actually faster to use the online resource than to refer to my own library 10 feet away from my desk now! Well, at the least my customers are impressed with my library!
Wonderful News! Thanks to all involved.
Joseph J. Singleton - First Superintendent of the U.S. Branch Mint in Dahlonega Georgia
Findley Ridge Collection
About Findley Ridge
Any plans to include the Coin Galleries catalogs?
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
Awesome resource!
Mr. Eureka:
Invariably, advances in technology and changes in cultural environments lead to some people incurring financial losses. In this case, the financial losses are minimal and the cultural gains are tremendous. Moreover, it would not be optimal for buyers who demand rare numismatic literature for information to be competing against buyers who demand the same items as collector's items, with the idea of touching them to a minimal extent. Given advances in technology, the hard work by Augsburger, Burdette, Feigenbaum, etc., and the generous funding from the EPPNES, it is logical for the rare items in physical reality to be acquired by people who desire such items as part of collecting plans, and for information-seekers to achieve their goals without depriving collectors of rare items.
As I have said before, some of the plates in recent PDF files are inferior to very fine grade original plates in physical reality. Particular Chapman and Elder catalogues have plates of amazingly high photographic quality, including images that are of tremendous value for pedigree research. There is no need to scan the TEXT in a Chapman catalogue at a high resolution. It might make sense for the NNP to post separate PDF files featuring just high resolution images of original plates from epic sales like Stickney (1907), Earle (1912) and Jenks (1921).
The Marvelous Pogue Family Coin Collection, Part 22: Epic Sales in the Same League
Don't have any of those. I was waiting for their May 2009 sale (which, granted, I do have a physical copy of but online catalogs are more easily enlarged than print is) and their part of the 2011 ANA sale.
BTW, are the Bowers and Ruddy sales going to become unrestricted sometime?
Ed. S.
(EJS)
Re Coin Galleries - we'll get to it eventually, but we wanted to do all the frontline sales first. Stack's also had a short-lived trade style known as "Expo Auctions." The situation is similar for the Bowers & Merena "Kingswood" brand.
Bowers & Ruddy, Bowers & Merena are still under copyright, we are hopeful they will be opened up for scanning but there is nothing to report at this time.
Lol! Could not have said it better myself.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
This is an amazing reference. Thank you @Coinosaurus for posting this!
How complicated is the copyright situation re Stack's-Bowers and predecessors?
I would have thought that if you can put up StB, you would also be able to put up predecessors too. Apparently that's true for St (both pre- and post-ANR merger) and ANR. So what about the other side, B&M and B&R? Is there a difference as to who has the copyrights now?
(And as for B&R, my concern is that they are already up on the NNP, under restricted material. So it just would be an issue of opening access to them, not scanning them in.)
Ed. S.
(EJS)
The succession of Bowers & Merena, Collector's Universe, ANR, Stack's, etc., is somewhat tangled. Suffice it to say that the digital rights to the pre-2004 Bowers & Merena auction catalogs are held separately.
We sometimes scan things into our restricted collection "on spec" with the idea that we'll eventually get the rights worked out. Once the copyright is resolved it's just a matter of flipping the switch. The B&R catalogs are one such case.
We also use the restricted collection as a source for indexing. So, for example, certain NNP searches may identify something in The Numismatist (which is restricted). Our search results direct the user over to the ANA site, but we don't show the actual content. We've agreed to work with the ANA in this way, and it's good for both sites - we get additional search results, while they still control full-view access and receive additional traffic, redirected from NNP.