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POLL: Numismatic History - Do You Care?
MidLifeCrisis
Posts: 10,617 ✭✭✭✭✭
Just curious. I'm still gonna post the occasional numismatic history thread. 
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But that may simply be because I haven't developed interest in collectors and dealers just yet.
Actually, I was kind of surprised you equated numismatic history with collectors and dealers.
reading about the Chapman brothers and B. Max Mehl .
U.S. Nickels Complete Set with Major Varieties, Circulation Strikes
U.S. Dimes Complete Set with Major Varieties, Circulation Strikes
<< <i>For collectors anything about Louis E. Eliasberg or John J. Pittman interests me. >>
A lot of information is available about Eliasberg. Pittman too, but not as much...especially if you don't own the catalogs for the sale of his collection. Maybe I'll put together a thread about Pittman. I think he's a very interesting personality.
Ron
<< <i>I find the history quite interesting. My memory fails me at the moment on a name, but the collector I always loved was the guy that would go to an auction to buy a particular coin. When the coin came up he would go down front and hold his bidding paddle in the air and almaost dare anyone to bid against him. I believe he was a school teacher and his wife was a secretary? The two of them put together a very impressive collection.
Ron >>
John J. Pittman
U.S. Nickels Complete Set with Major Varieties, Circulation Strikes
U.S. Dimes Complete Set with Major Varieties, Circulation Strikes
U.S. Nickels Complete Set with Major Varieties, Circulation Strikes
U.S. Dimes Complete Set with Major Varieties, Circulation Strikes
<< <i>
<< <i>I find the history quite interesting. My memory fails me at the moment on a name, but the collector I always loved was the guy that would go to an auction to buy a particular coin. When the coin came up he would go down front and hold his bidding paddle in the air and almaost dare anyone to bid against him. I believe he was a school teacher and his wife was a secretary? The two of them put together a very impressive collection.
Ron >>
John J. Pittman >>
Yes, this was Pittman.
The Statue of Liberty Play
His intense love of coins, which won J.J. Pittman many admirers, proved daunting to at least one fellow collector, Phil Kaufman, the buyer of the boxed 1844 Proof Set, recalled seeing Pittman at several numismatic gatherings. “I never spoke to him,” Kaufman said. “His knowledge was so superior to mine, I felt intimidated about approaching him.”
Kaufman was not alone. David Akers recalls an auction 41 years ago when one of the legends surrounding Pittman was born. “It was April 27, 1956 in Indianapolis,” he recounts as if it were yesterday, “during Abe Kosoff's auction of the Thomas G. Melish Collection. John Pittman came there determined to own all five Proof Indian Head gold dollars on sale—at reasonable prices. How he did so is pure Pittman and explains how he was given the nickname, ‘Statue of Liberty.’
“As Kosoff called Lot 1742, a Proof 1854 Indian Head gold dollar, Pittman stood, walked to the front of the room, turned his back on the auctioneer and faced the crowd. Then he raised his arm and held it aloft through all the bidding. He glared intently at each bidder as the auction continued. He stared them down and made them blink. He did this for all five coins and won them at reasonable prices.”
Source: http://www.learcapital.com/rarecoins/1066/detail.html
Ron
favored dealers of mine are Chapmans, Mehl, Kosoff and any book written by QDB (as a side note, i once owned a neat piece deaccessioned from the ANA Library which was Abe Kosoff's quarterly price list (ca. 1955 if i recall correctly) with the addressee a young Q. David Bowers at his Wilkes-Barre PA address)
collectors would include Eliasberg, Norweb, Garrett, Parmelee and Pittman
there are also other relics and ephemera from indirect players that i seek out.......these would include anything relating to G.G. Wilkins (prolific counterstamper of some infamy) and being from N.C. i would love to some day find a vintage firearm with the mark of C. Bechtler
also, silversmith items of Hull & Sanderson (for the connection to John Hull) and Ephraim Brasher would be nice additions
in short, to me it all about the personalities that have come and gone in this hobby to make it what we have today.......who knows what provenance will be appreciated 50 or 100 years from now (MadMarty? LordMarcovan?)
www.brunkauctions.com
www.brunkauctions.com
While I respect the interest of those who favor studying more modern facets of the hobby and more current issues, without this basic knowledge they are missing out on a vast treasure trove of knowledge.
On this thread I am probably preaching to the choir.
"No dead people on coins" ?
You are pi$$sing on the heads of giants without even knowing you are standing on their shoulders
It probably has something to do with my attitudes toward the mega wealthy. They don’t live and think like most of us, and for that reason their lives really don’t interest me. I could care less what Paris Hilton is up to if you want to know the truth. Mrs. Norweb and I would have had probably very little in common aside from the fact that we were both coin collectors. Her collection was so far ahead of whatever I'll ever amass, and my stuff would be so inferior to her material that we would not have a lot in common.
I have a huge interest in “macro history.” I’m interested in the big national issues and events. As to how some very rich guy lived at that time, I’m only interested in the context of how it might have affected the big events.
The 1792 half disme was not just an economic statement; it had deep political implications for reinforcing our independence from England. Part of Washington's intention was that it propagandize a message to the various States and their citizens that we were no longer a loose Confederacy but an integrated nation. Jefferson's preference for a decimal metric reflected not only his preference for a much less unwieldy method of calculation, but resonated with the concurrent French effort to discard monarchy and take up democracy.
This particular issue has Washington's and Jefferson's karma juice all over it. And their DNA, even if some of it has worn off.
And on and on.
<< <i>I would like to you research and write about Peter Flandin, who was perhaps the first Major collector (as I understand it). >>
That sounds like the perfect Numismatic History thread for you to write ambro! I look forward to reading it.
I'm happy to see most of you care about numismatic history.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
<< <i>I have quite a bit of interest in the history of the United States as well as for the people who forged our nation through the Revolutionary War, and also have strong interest in the history of art, technology and science. However, I have essentially no interest in the personal history of previous collectors or dealers. >>
I agree with Tom...except that I do have interest in the major collectors and collections of the past 100+ years (Garrett, Norweb, Clapp-Eliasberg, Pittman). I have little interest in the dealers, except those who have advanced the hobby.
dealt with Pittman several times when he was an ANA governor, I would love to find out things he
did when he was younger. The Statue of Liberty story is classic Pittman.
How many major collectors were or are anonymous?
Given the interest in past collectors, do you care less about a coin that was owned by an anonymous collector vs. a known one?