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We Shall No Longer Hear of Missing Stack's Catalogs

CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,614 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited April 10, 2017 12:23PM in U.S. Coin Forum

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.

Comments

  • shishshish Posts: 1,098 ✭✭✭✭✭

    A big Thank you to whomever is responsible for the Newman Portal and did this monumental task.

    Liberty Seated and Trade Dollar Specialist
  • BoosibriBoosibri Posts: 11,841 ✭✭✭✭✭

    That is awesome! Glad these were finally added.

  • TomBTomB Posts: 20,697 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Fabulous work! This should help many of us quite a bit.

    Thomas Bush Numismatics & Numismatic Photography

    In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson

    image
  • OriginalDanOriginalDan Posts: 3,713 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This resource is incredible, many thanks to all involved.

  • RockyMtnProspectorRockyMtnProspector Posts: 754 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Just looked at the first auction catalog and prices realized from 1935.

    Jaw--->floor.

    GSAs, OBW rolls, Seated, Walkers. Anything old and Colorado-focused, CO nationals.



    Gonna get me a $50 Octagonal someday. Some. Day.
  • shorecollshorecoll Posts: 5,445 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Funny, I feel sorry for the guys who paid $4,000+ for their own original sets.

    ANA-LM, NBS, EAC
  • earlycoinsearlycoins Posts: 282 ✭✭✭

    A HUGE thank you to all involved!

    This is extraordinary news.

  • roadrunnerroadrunner Posts: 28,303 ✭✭✭✭✭

    And fast too.

    Barbarous Relic No More, LSCC -GoldSeek--shadow stats--SafeHaven--321gold
  • coindeucecoindeuce Posts: 13,471 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Holy Cow !

    "Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything." - George Malley, Phenomenon
    http://www.americanlegacycoins.com

  • 1630Boston1630Boston Posts: 13,772 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Interesting, thanks :smile:

    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

  • SonorandesertratSonorandesertrat Posts: 5,695 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @shorecoll said:
    Funny, I feel sorry for the guys who paid $4,000+ for their own original sets.

    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?

    Member: EAC, NBS, C4, CWTS, ANA

    RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'

    CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
  • dbldie55dbldie55 Posts: 7,717 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This site has become a real go to site for research. It is amazing the things you find on there.

    Collector and Researcher of Liberty Head Nickels. ANA LM-6053
  • okiedudeokiedude Posts: 643 ✭✭✭

    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.

    BST with: Oldhobo, commoncents05, NoLawyer, AgentJim007, Bronzemat, 123cents, Lordmarcovan, VanHalen, ajaan, MICHAELDIXON, jayPem and more!
  • shorecollshorecoll Posts: 5,445 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Sonoran...I think the hardbounds might retain some value and some of the very early collectibles...the others would be bupkis.

    ANA-LM, NBS, EAC
  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,891 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @shorecoll said:
    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.

    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • JustacommemanJustacommeman Posts: 22,847 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 10, 2017 6:39PM

    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

    Walker Proof Digital Album
    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......
  • RichieURichRichieURich Posts: 8,359 ✭✭✭✭✭

    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.

  • TheRegulatorTheRegulator Posts: 1,215 ✭✭✭

    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...

    The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. -Thomas Jefferson
  • AmazonXAmazonX Posts: 680 ✭✭✭✭

    You have opened Pandora's box for this coin nerd. Thanks?

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thank you for the link/information... what a fantastic resource. Cheers, RickO

  • Wabbit2313Wabbit2313 Posts: 7,268 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Justacommeman said:
    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

    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!

  • tyler267tyler267 Posts: 1,233 ✭✭✭✭

    Thanks for posting this.

  • tommy44tommy44 Posts: 2,190 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @okiedude said:
    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.

    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

  • CoinRaritiesOnlineCoinRaritiesOnline Posts: 3,638 ✭✭✭✭

    I feel like a guy on a horse who just saw his first automobile.

  • AthenaAthena Posts: 439 ✭✭✭

    @CoinRaritiesOnline said:
    I feel like a guy on a horse who just saw his first automobile.

    I usually feel like the gal who has to clean up for the guy on the horse ;)

  • cheezhedcheezhed Posts: 5,669 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Bookmarked.

    Many happy BST transactions
  • kazkaz Posts: 9,052 ✭✭✭✭✭

    That's a load my bookshelves will never have to bear. Amazing!

  • Aegis3Aegis3 Posts: 2,896 ✭✭✭

    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)
  • CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,614 ✭✭✭✭✭

    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.

  • numismanumisma Posts: 3,877 ✭✭✭✭

    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!

  • JJSingletonJJSingleton Posts: 1,400 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Wonderful News! Thanks to all involved. B)

    Joseph J. Singleton - First Superintendent of the U.S. Branch Mint in Dahlonega Georgia

    Findley Ridge Collection
    About Findley Ridge

  • tommy44tommy44 Posts: 2,190 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Any plans to include the Coin Galleries catalogs?

    it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide

  • jerseycat101jerseycat101 Posts: 1,341 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Awesome resource!

  • AnalystAnalyst Posts: 1,438 ✭✭✭

    Mr. Eureka: 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.

    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

    "In order to understand the scarce coins that you own or see, you must learn about coins that you cannot afford." -Me
  • Aegis3Aegis3 Posts: 2,896 ✭✭✭

    @Coinosaurus said:
    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.

    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)
  • CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,614 ✭✭✭✭✭

    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.

  • DCWDCW Posts: 6,935 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @CoinRaritiesOnline said:
    I feel like a guy on a horse who just saw his first automobile.

    Lol! Could not have said it better myself.

    Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
    "Coin collecting for outcasts..."

  • desslokdesslok Posts: 310 ✭✭✭

    This is an amazing reference. Thank you @Coinosaurus for posting this!

  • Aegis3Aegis3 Posts: 2,896 ✭✭✭

    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)
  • CoinosaurusCoinosaurus Posts: 9,614 ✭✭✭✭✭

    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.

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