Who were the coin messiah's of the 20th century?
Coinstartled
Posts: 10,135 ✭✭✭✭✭
Were there any in the hobby that carried unchallenged esteem?
I got in in 2002 so much of this is history to me.
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Off the top of my head, William Woodin, B. Max Mehl, Louis Eliasberg, Eric P. Newman, John Jay Pitman, Harry W. Bass, Jr., and Q. David Bowers. There are many more in reality, these just happen to be some of the more well known. I'm also going to throw John Willem on there as a Trade Dollar guy.
Was Mehl that much of an expert or more of a promoter? The two are rarely the same.
Walter.....um..... wait.... no, lemme think some more.
Promoter and a good one, but he sold his share of sliders as Mint State coins. I remember seeing coins in Mehl envelopes that collectors of my father's generation had in their collections. The concept of "Unc." was sort fast and lose.
Bingo....Walter Childs. He owned the finest known 1804 dollar.
Nice save.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Who were the coin messiah's of the 20th century?
"Were there any in the hobby that carried unchallenged esteem?"
"I got in in 2002 so much of this is history to me."
How about Jules Reiver as a collector (and author) of all early silver and copper die marriages / varieties. His collection was sold at public auction by Heritage Auctions in January 2006, but the collection was formed pretty much in the 20th Century. He was a great collector, and was always willing to share his knowledge with other collections.
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By the way, this catalog is THICK!!!
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Photo courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
W. David Perkins Numismatics - http://www.davidperkinsrarecoins.com/ - 25+ Years ANA, ANS, NLG, NBS, LM JRCS, LSCC, EAC, TAMS, LM CWTS, CSNS, FUN
Yes. Thank you for refreshing my memory, too.
RS Yeoman belongs on the list.
Poor Tom DeLorey. Not even mentioned in the NEW BIG REDBOOK.
A travesty of the first order.
Norweb should be on any such list
The levels of "Messiah" and "unchallenged esteem" are hard to meet on this earth and especially in Numismatics.
An interestng note. My mother and Jules Riever were classmates at the University of Delaware. They didn't date or anything like that, but she knew him.
I think you need to define the question further. Messiah is too ambiguous.
Dealers? Collectors? Authors? Editors? Cataloguers? What are you looking for?
One good guy I would like to mention is John McCloskey, who ran the Liberty Seated Collectors Club and edited their magazine for over 40 years. I never heard an unkind word said about him. Another Editor worthy of mention is Harry Salyards of the Early American Coppers club. Another is Barb Gregory of The Numismatist, its longest-serving Editor. She was there when I left the ANA staff in 1984.
Fred Boyd also
B. Max Mehl was mostly a promoter and not very careful with grading among other things. Then there was shyster Farran Zerbe......for whom the ANA named its higest award... ?
FCC Boyd deliberately undervalued much of Green's collection for the purpose of buying large portions cheaply.
You defined it better than I could. Enjoy the fourth, Tom.
@Coinstartled posted, "One good guy I would like to mention is John McCloskey, who ran the Liberty Seated Collectors Club and edited their magazine for over 40 years. I never heard an unkind word said about him. Another Editor worthy of mention is Harry Salyards of the Early American Coppers club. Another is Barb Gregory of The Numismatist, its longest-serving Editor. She was there when I left the ANA staff in 1984."
All three of these Numismatists are worthy in my book! Good choices. Thanks.
W. David Perkins Numismatics - http://www.davidperkinsrarecoins.com/ - 25+ Years ANA, ANS, NLG, NBS, LM JRCS, LSCC, EAC, TAMS, LM CWTS, CSNS, FUN
I object to messiah being used in this context
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
IMO, including editors and publishers may not have been the intention of the OP. Otherwise, Yeoman, Krause, Roger Burdette, and R.W. Julian are/ were very important. While I love her to death, Barbara does not belong on the list. And folks like Ed Rochette, should count less than a Grover Chriswell.
I take the OP to mean experts in their fields, rather than the great contributors to the advancement of our hobby. For these men and women a search of past members of the ANS and ANA Hall of Fame should help.
I remember numismatists such as Lester Merkin, Henry Grunthal, Charlie Panish, and Eric Newman.
may not make our list although he is deserving. There are several Large cent dealers - authors and experts still alive that should make my cut. Dennis Loring is one.
Even Ken Bressett
Laugh all you want at these nominations, JD and Andy Lustig are 20th Century giants in my mind.
Wow, names keep popping up - hope I spell them correctly.
Many of the great ones are dead.
Just thought of Clyde Hubbard and Ponterio. Plus
Overton
Kam Ahwash
Anthony Terranova for sure!
Ken Lee
Roger Cohen
Sheldon
Richard Picker
Julian Liedman Possibly
George Fuld
Natalie Halprin
Alan Herbert
Abe Kossoff possibly
Fred Weinberg for sure!
Arnie Margolis
Anthony Swiatek perhaps
Then we have all the ancient dealers. I'm not going to go there as surely I will forget many of the important ones.
Would be nice to break a list of nominees down by dealers: ancient, foreign, U.S., and editors/ writers ...(Barbara Gregory)
...Just remembered David Akers makes the list.
I can switch it to Grand Poobah if you like.
Why not just ask for a list of 'Eminent Numismatists of the 20th Century'?
Your pretend flamboyance is not endearing.
Messiah was intentionally selected. Noteworthy forum members decided to broaden that to included many respected names. Thread worked out better that way.
The traditional meaning and what is reasonably contemplated by the term Messiah just does not fit in with your question and how it is being used in this instance.
While I am a huge fan of The Flinstones, Gran Poobah, seems to miss the mark.
How about asking for the great 20th Century numismatists within categories of Dealers, Collectors, Authors and Researchers?
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Could you give, "Who's the Pontius Pilate of 21st century numismatics" a shot?
I could vote in that poll really really easily.
That would be a great title line for your next thread.
It's your thread... Have fun with it
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
@BillDugan1959 said: "Why not just ask for a list of 'Eminent Numismatists of the 20th Century'?
I agree that would have been easier to understand and allow many deserving numismatists to be recognized.
Then @BillDugan1959 added: "Your pretend flamboyance is not endearing."
Hey Bill or whatever your name is, I see you are a fairly new member. Just a suggestion as I disagree with this part of your post. It rubbed me the wrong way. I cannot believe the OP brushed it off so graciously. I can learn from his example the next time I read crap here.
I've only been on CU a year myself. Except for ignorant trolls and opinions you strongly disagree with (by posting reasons to refute the member you disagree with) IMO, it is not classy to punch the disagree button or write about "pretended flamboyance" unless you are trying to be as UNPOPULAR as I am around here! While it appears that you are on your the way; you have a lot of stuff to sling to reach my level of disagreeable behavior.
There are many, highly qualified experts here on the forum. As such, I consider the forum to the the oracle of numismatics...
When I need information, I simply ask the question here.... Voila'... answers appear. 
Cheers, RickO