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Sports owners and coin collecting
Gazes
Posts: 2,315 ✭✭✭✭✭
As I read about the Larry Miller coin collection (during his life he owned the Utah Jazz), it occured to me that many major collectors owned sports teams. Miller, Hansen, Simpson and Jerry Buss. Have i missed any others?
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Bruce McNall.
https://vault.si.com/vault/1991/05/13/the-collector-bruce-mcnall-is-an-acquisitive-owner-whose-tastes-run-from-antiquities-to-the-priciest-athletes
I wonder how many of them meaningfully collected or just accumulated as a display of wealth? I listened to Kevin Lipton talk about that level of “the game.” His assertion is that for many it’s simply a show of wealth no different from buying a rare painting or antique.
You would have to add George and Joan Steinbrenner. I think Mrs. Steinbrenner was the big time collector.
My 20th Century Gold Major Design Type Set ---started : 11/17/1997 ---- completed : 1/21/2004
The Hunt brothers owned sports teams (KC Chiefs, for example) and at least one collected ancient coins. If I recall, they also tried unsuccessfully to corner the market on silver.
Some people 'collect' things to display wealth, others may be true collectors that also are wealthy. The same applies to paintings, cars, houses etc.. Wealth does not necessarily disqualify one from collecting coins out of true interest in the hobby. Cheers, RickO
I think it's probably a decent split between the two types. Guarantee there are plenty of rich owners or very wealthy people in general who like many of us collected as kids and got the bug later in life and just happened to have all the resources in the world at that point. Also I'm sure there are many who think "how can I possibly spend all this money I have" and expensive coins is a good outlet for them.
Amon Carter, Jr. was instrumental in getting the Washington Senators to move to Texas and was a minority owner of the Rangers. (He accomplished a similar feat in moving the American Airlines headquarters from NYC to Fort Worth - he was the 2nd(?) largest shareholder in the airline for some time. He was a down to earth nice guy who attended and even set up at many coins shows and never missed Memphis if at all possible. HIs currency holdings were WOW. Here's a link to a StacksBowers commentary & biography: https://stacksbowers.com/News/Pages/Blogs.aspx?ArticleID=carter-family-collection-3
I own several ant farm league soccer teams, and own a collection pushing well into the four figures, if you count the cents as figures anyway.