The Parmelee Collection
privaterarecoincollector
Posts: 629 ✭✭✭✭✭
I just saw this article of Greg Reynolds and the day before I was reviewing the Parmelee auction catalogue of 1890 myself:
The article:
https://coinweek.com/us-coins/greatest-u-s-coin-collections-ever-auctioned-part-2-parmelee/
The auction catalogue:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=26&AuctionId=513828
https://www.archive.org/stream/catalogueoffines00newy#page/62/mode/2up
Besides the 1796 no stars quarter eagle (MS 65) and the 1831 half eagle (MS 67), I also could trace my 1793 Chain Cent (66) and the 1808 quarter eagle to the Parmelee collection.
Amazing how cheap some coins sold back then, and the most expensive coin, the 1822 half eagle, was a fake coin.
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Comments
While I have not confirmed this, I've read several times that Parmelee's price code was "MENDACIOUS"; used as a reference to coin dealers of the time.
BEGUILED was used prior
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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......
The 1878-1889 proof sets selling for 3 and 4 bucks! Wow.
Cool that you can trace your coins back to this auction. That catalog is really cool.
In the Stacks 00/10 sale, Don Kagin, @MrEureka and I were lucky enough to buy the Parmelee 1792 Silver Disme (J-9-,R--8) for $103,500 (in the days of 15% juice) with Jim McGuigan as our underbidder. I would describe it, slightly embellishing the catalogue description, as "VF details, with (wholesome original) scratches as pedigree marker from its initial public appearance in the 1890 Parmelee sale. One finer is noted by Breen in a New York collection, and a quite inferior piece alluded to by him has not been heard of for decades" , While I haven't checked the NNP, Stacks archives are unavailable. The great cataloguing of the Patrick AU by Heritage tells the story with more detail.
The next day, Stacks customers' man, counterman and cataloguer Tom Panichella, a good friend whom, in this situation, I considered the assigned senior Stacks numismatist not named Stack; , surprised me at lot pick-up by soliciting a quote. To which I truthfully, earnestly and (keeping all options open, even those not considered three seconds before) blatantly manipulatively trolling (as Stacks had partially taught me) replied "Your guy would have had to pay a lot more to buy it last night. I couldn't give you a quote without talking to Dr. K., and I think he's got a customer, but we'd listen. I can wait a or two day to ship".
The next day Susan Stack called and, confirming my negotiating skills, notified me that the coin had been shipped at 2PM the previous day after Don gave her his insurance info. It was really hard to make money from the Stacks when you were selling. OTOH, their virtually all-raw auctions were a turkey-shoot-and-a-half back then.
Don sold the coin for $150,000 the next day and we got paid a week after the auction invoice was due. Being jerked around on payment is something dealers have to tolerate when dealing with others. 90% of it is other dealers anyway.
Collectors usually are higher-quality folks
A dozen years ago, I almost peed my pants when, eyes sparkling, prefaced by the statement "And no, I don't know where the $5 is" as he handed it to me, I received the Parmelee 1844-O $10 from Bob Lecce to admire in-hand. Then NGC PF65UCAM, now PCGS SPBM64.
Cumulatively, after 40 years as a dealer, fondling this kind of stuff is cooler than owning it.
Auction lot viewing has taught me more than anything else in my career.
Thanks to @Analyst for the article and @OJ for re-publishing
Here's one of my ex: Parmelee coins. One of two known, now in the Simpson Collection. The other is impounded at the Connecticut State Library.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
The 1890 Parmelee sale was a great one for sure. @privaterarecoincollector, it is amazing that you have four great coins from this sale!
I have a story about a 1795 Flowing Hair Dollar from this sale.
Lot 702 in the 1890 Parmelee Sale was a 1795 Flowing Hair "2 Leaves" Dollar. This Lot was described in the catalog as, "[1795] Dollar: long nude bust r., light file marks in planchet across head. R two leaves below each wing of eagle, inside wreath: fine, clear impression: mint lustre; barely touched by circulation.
It realized $12.00 per the priced catalog that @privaterarecoincollector provided the link to (above).
Fast forward to 1993 and to the (then) newly published Silver Dollars of the United States A Complete Encyclopedia by Q. David Bowers, pages 198-199, the 1795 H-4, B-4, BB-14 Silver Dollar. Bowers included a number of "Notable Specimens" for each die marriage. The first Notable Specimen for the 1795 B-4, BB-14 Silver Dollar is the Parmelee Specimen. MS-63: "Parmelee:702 (U.S. Coin Co., June 1980), now untraced, appears from the plate to have been a Gem."
Another Notable Specimen included was the Carter Specimen. MS-61 (PCGS). I had the catalog for the Amon Carter, Jr. sale and knew what this specimen looked like without the catalog as it has a series of light adjustment marks on Liberty's face, somewhat like a "star burst."
I live about an hour from the ANA and the ANA Library in Colorado Springs, CO. One day I visited the ANA Library and asked Librarian Lynn Chen if I could see their copy of the Parmelee Sale catalog (with plates). Sure enough, as I suspected, Lot 702 was a definite plate match to the Amon Carter, Jr. Specimen (Stack's, January 1984 - the Carter Specimen is also included under Bowers Notable Specimens). This 1795 B-4 Dollar was no longer "now untraced."
I plate matched all 8 of the Notable Specimens for the 1795 B-4 Dollar that day, one of which I owned (The Jenks Specimen in the Bowers book, but I could never prove that this specimen was from from the Jenks Collection). I discovered that day that the Parmelee Specimen is also the John G. Mills Specimen (by plate match).
This 1795 Flowing Hair Dollar realized $21.00 in the Mills sale. Interestingly, copies of the catalog with plates sold for $5.00, almost 25% of what this Mint State 1794 Silver Dollar realized in the sale!
I also learned that it is the same as the George H. Earle specimen, by plate match and later also from the Earle sale bid book which I viewed at the home of Charles Davis in early 1997 when he was offering in a public auction the Library of Henry Chapman. [I'd placed what I thought was a strong bid on this Bid Book but was unsuccessful in winning the lot.]
One day I was at dealer Chris Napolitano's table at a Minneapolis area coin show. I was chatting with Chris about early dollars, my specialty as a collector (then) and collector / Professional Numismatist (now).
Chris told me that he had a high grade 1795 Silver Dollar with him at the show. I looked at this 1795 Dollar and immediately said, "I know where this coin came from." Chris replied that he did too, "the Amon Carter, Jr. Collection sale." I said yes, but I can trace it to three prominent auction sales in the late 1800s / early 1900s. I then told Chris that it traced to the Parmelee, Mills, and Earle sales.
Chris told me that the coin was owned by a client of his, but the client will want to talk with you.
I eventually met the client, and got to see this coin "in person." And shared my findings on the pedigree and Condition Census for the die marriage.
Today I believe that the "Parmelee Specimen" grades PCGS MS62+.
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Lot 702 in the Parmelee sale:
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Photo courtesy of the Newman Numismatic Portal.
W. David Perkins Numismatics - http://www.davidperkinsrarecoins.com/ - 25+ Years ANA, ANS, NLG, NBS, LM JRCS, LSCC, EAC, TAMS, LM CWTS, CSNS, FUN
GREAT POST PRCC. Historical importance cannot be overstated in numismatics. And, of course, everyone today would love to have a Parmellee coin intheir collection. But given the extent of his collection, there is the probably we might have one of his coins in our collection.
But if he assembled this collection baking beans, I would really like one or two of his bean recipes........
OINK
from the Newman Numismatic Portal:
https://archive.org/stream/65thanniversarys2000stac#page/48/mode/2up
What an amazing story, thanks for sharing !
The 1890 Parmelee sale was a great one for sure. @privaterarecoincollector, it is amazing that you have four great coins from this sale!
--> @WDP: it might be even more, its annoying a bit that we cant trace the coins really, the pictures are not good enough and the descriptions (very fine means MS 67 sometimes) not very helpful.
I believe this is the 1st post you have written I have read that was in pure layman's speak!
Very interesting thread.... although not personally a fan of coin provenance, being able to trace the history of individual coins for well over a hundred years is certainly intriguing. One wishes that could be done with a lot of coins... not through catalogs, but through personal possession.....unfortunately, that cannot be done. However, the imagination allows for what is likely a more colorful history of most coins... Cheers, RickO
Actually, I think it was George Clapp, not Parmelee.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
The guy who nailed this one on "Wheel of Fortune" is my reference.
Your alternative fact? Other than those noted in the three embarrassing PM's I've received in the last hour...... ?
One of them neglected to tell me I also misspelled "Partrick"
At least everyone has Parmelee spelled correctly here. It is one of the most misspelled names in Numismatics, often spelled as Parmalee vs. the correct Parmelee.
W. David Perkins Numismatics - http://www.davidperkinsrarecoins.com/ - 25+ Years ANA, ANS, NLG, NBS, LM JRCS, LSCC, EAC, TAMS, LM CWTS, CSNS, FUN