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So was Wayte Raymond a true numismatist?
trueblood
Posts: 609 ✭✭✭✭
A true expert?
Don't know?
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If having a thread about him makes him great, then he's great 😉. Certainly quite famous, on the short list of old timey dealers, there are the legendary eponymous albums renowned for imparting gorgeous toning over time, and maybe some price lists and catalogs? All that before going to Google and finding out more.
Edit: okay, found this:
"Wayte Raymond, the gentle giant of American Numismatics, upon whose broad shoulders we are borne aloft."
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
He even had a toning look named after him.
According to Breen he was instrumental in saving rolls of uncirculated coins in the 30's and maybe earlier than that so that they would be available to future collectors. A guy by the name of Pukall did the same, also according to Breen.
He was certainly well known during his era and his name is still remembered. Does that make him a great numismatist?
Published His Standard Catalog of US coins which was considered the premier coin guide of its time. In all, about 75 books or monographs. Tried to partner with B. Max Mehl. Employed John J. Ford and Walter Breen. 69 auctions between 1908 and 1950. In ANA and PCGS coin dealer hall of fame.
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I think the question has been answered
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One doesn't spend a life time in a field ....not to try, and achieve or obtain all the knowlege in said field....!
One cannot change history, or personal politics towards another individual.
You can ask 10 people who know" John Doe" and youll recieve 10 different answers about John.... the 10 opinions recieved can run hot to cold! ....as well be split in many different ways.
Leaving the person who questioned just as confused as they were before asking their question.
Research, and the quest for knowledge to satisfy ones own opinion is your best route.
My only caution is that man or woman are, and have been foulable since time began, that said my judements are always focused on the fact in question,not any other human errors!
"That's why I wander and follow La Vie Dansante"
He is memorialized by his albums.... Of course, many people are known for one specific aspect of their life, while the majority of their history goes relatively unknown. Cheers, RickO
Here is what a lurker and true living numismatist privately told me today:
"Wayte Raymond and Fred CC Boyd were the preeminent professional numismatists and collectors
from 1930-early 50s. Surpassing Max Mehl who was merely an auctioneer.
Unfortunately they didn’t prepare their widows for the value of their estates and Olga and Helen
( respectively) sold millions of dollars of their estates to John Ford for pennies on the dollar."
I believe now my question has been adequately answered,
thanks
I find some aspects of this to be more accurate than others. Certainly none is the Truth.
Late-breaking news !
You have not taken the scholarly time to understand how inadequately you have answered your own question.
(rhetorical)
Your expert's conflation of Raymond and Boyd, without documentation or reference to other texts, might be considered by many as ahistorical and thus is most sadly lacking any intellectual rigor. I used to be what some called a "world-class expert" Why not take my word for it?
F.C.C. Boyd's widow was ripped off by J.J. Ford, whom I met several times decades later. Brilliant and sadistic, a miserable human being who took demonstrable pleasure in inflicting his misery upon others..
B. Max Mehl was both a mail-order retailer AND a mail-order auctioneer, often of his own inventory.
Raymond evidently did not include the historically much lower and less relevant aspects of pricing for estate planning in his numismatic portfolio. Mrs. Boyd got ripped off, in major part, because Mr. Boyd did not perform due diligence.
Anachronistic canceling? Who, among all you might put on a pedestal, did not have feet of clay?
Virtually every American buyer attending, all dealers but one ( J.J. Pittman), carved up the Farouk Sale.
Washington had slaves. Get over it !
edited to add: A bit of confusion about your thread title and first post to it.
"True" most often has various levels of "truth".
"Numismatist" was a bait and switch to "expert", surely to evoke the exalted status of which many here already know.
Your intent from "minute one" was to throw a bomb into the praise to prove you are not only the voice of probity and wisdom, but know better than any of us also.
The most anti-social aspects of your previous identities here have now emerged. Whatever respect you might have (re-) gained is being lost. Again.
Raymond may not have a been a great scholar himself but he understood the value of research to the hobby. He bankrolled Breen's work in the National Archives, encouraged and published Newman's early work, and spearheaded the Standard Catalog at a time when that publication was considered more scholarly than the Guide Book. Ken Bressett recently noted that, at the time, his dream job was to work on the Standard Catalog and not the Guide Book, for which he later became famous.
Thank you for the additional info, it is much appreciated
Looks like the adjective in the title was changed from "great" to "true" 🤔
No matter. He was both.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Correct, it seemed that the word great was a poor choice, so I corrected it.