Byron Reed's 1838 Gobrecht Pattern

TN024_030:Layout 1 3/6/08 3:50 PM Page 27 S I LV E R D O L L A R S Ⅲ N E I L S . B E R M A N Byron Reed’s 1838 Gobrecht Pattern Omaha collector’s proof copper dollar pattern sets price record at Florida auction. ANUARY 7, 2008, wit- Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and went moved to Omaha, Nebraska. By 1856, nessed a remarkable to a Gobrecht dollar collector in New Reed had established a real-estate numismatic event in York City. (The underbidder was a office in Omaha and started buying Orlando, Florida, as pattern collector in Texas.) property. Within six years, he was the Stack’s, the venerable The copper coin probably was made area’s largest landowner. Later, he New York City auction at the Philadelphia Mint in 1876, served as Omaha city clerk, council- house, sold the late Byron along with those struck in silver, and man and council president. Reed’s 1838 proof copper privately traded or sold out of the Mint Reed married Mary Melissa Per- dollar pattern for $529,000 in Part shortly thereafter. It was purchased by kins, a local beauty and the daughter II of its Franklinton Collection sale. Byron Reed (1829-91), a land devel- of a hardware store owner, in 1862. “And that’s in dollars, not pesos, my In 1875 he built a home that later friend,” quipped Florida numismatist would become part of Boys Town. He Larry Demerer. Auctioneer Harvey was appointed to the U.S. Assay K Stack, who had sold the coin once be- Commission in 1890. R O fore, said that it was “a most remark- Reed bequeathed land for a public Y W able price for the coin,” and I concur. library, to which he left his collection: E N , The piece, listed as J-87 in J. Hewitt 6,395 coins; 474 patterns (including the S ’ K Judd’s United States Pattern, Experi- 1838 copper dollar); 2,136 U.S. notes; C A T mental and Trial Pieces (ANA Library 607 Confederate bills; 1,280 medals; S . 8 Catalog No. GA90.J8 2003), set a and a fine selection of manuscripts, 0 0 2 price record for a copper pattern documents and autographs. The col- © : coin. Although Judd described it as lection later was sold for the library in S O T “Rarity 8” (two to three known), pro- 1997 by Spink America and Christie’s O H fessional numismatist Andy Lustig, New York. P N I an expert in these matters, believes The pedigree of the second known O only two exist. copper specimen is no less interest- C The pattern’s edge is plain. The ob- ing. It probably was made at the Mint verse is basically the same as that of in 1876 (at the same time as the first). the 1836 circulating coin, with some The piece went to collector Peter ᮡ Byron Reed’s 1838 proof copper minor changes. Seated Liberty is sur- Gschwend and later was auctioned dollar pattern brought $529,000 at rounded by 13 stars, and the de- by Thomas Elder as part of the a Stack’s auction in January. signer’s name is not on the base. The Gschwend Collection in 1908. Lustig reverse depicts a flying eagle against a speculates the coin subsequently went plain field, encircled by • UNITED oper and numismatist. He was born in to Chicago collector Virgil Brand, STATES OF AMERICA • ONE DOLLAR, Darien, Genesee County, New York, on then to Abe Kosoff and Egypt’s King similar to the first die used for regular March 12, 1829, and moved to Wis- Farouk. It was included in Sothe- coinage production in 1838. consin Territory as a child. by’s 1954 Farouk Palace Collection About the sale of this specimen, When he was a young man, Reed Sale and appeared in Joseph Rose’s Lustig notes, “This coin speaks volumes went to Ohio, and then to Leaven- Harmer Rooke auction in 1969. Har- of the potential for what a really rare worth, Kansas, as a correspondent for vey Stack sold it in a Stack’s auction in coin can bring at public auction when the New-York Tribune, just in time for 1994, and Q. David Bowers sold it there are two serious collectors who “Bloody Kansas,” a civil conflict that again in 1997 for $14,300. There is no really are determined to add it to their preceded the U.S. Civil War by four evidence of a third coin, which, in my collection.” The pattern was certified years. He left Kansas barely ahead of opinion, never existed. Proof-63 Red Brown by Professional a planned assassination attempt and [email protected] w w w . m o n e y . o r g A P R I L 2 0 0 8 • T H E N U M I S M A T I S T 27.

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