A West Coast Collector's Stately Collection
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Early Mint engravers chose to model the coins that followed the Con- tinental Dollar after the Libertas Early dollars provide hobbyists Americana medal (right). with a number of options in form- ing a significant collection. Shown this page is a 1795 Flowing Hair Dollar, Three Leaves, Head of ’95. With the silver plug coins, a Mint employee would drill a hole in the center of the planchet and add a silver plug to it to bring it up to the correct weight. The plug would flatten out once the coin was struck. Shown here is a 1795 Flowing Hair dollar, Silver Plug, Three Leaves, Head of 1794. Rules So he set out to learn more about it. them were people like Thomas Jefferson, s In an informational piece distributed George Washington and Alexander Ham- by PCGS, he wrote that most of his read- ilton. I found that fascinating.” ’ A ily available resources, such as the family These were the coins of our coun- encyclopedias and school library, were try’s founders, the men and women who of little help. It wasn’t until someone fought for this nation’s independence West Coast gave him an old copy of A Guide Book and designed its government. The tale l of United States Coins, the Red Book, about George Washington toss- All photos courtesy of the Car- that he found everything he was looking ing a silver dollar across the dinal Collection Educational Collector’s for—and more. Delaware River only add- Foundation. He said that in getting more informa- ed to the Cardinal Col- tion about his coin, he suddenly discov- lector’s excitement, them the best we can Stately ered that the United States made silver not to mention the during the brief dollars even older than his 1922 Peace coin’s history. time (in historical dollar. Collectors, even terms) they are in Collection In an interview for COINage, he said, collectors of the our possession.” “In getting more information about that, same series or He realized I learned about other things that were date, have vary- that any collec- by Marcy Gibbel available and how neat they were. So, ing opinions about tion of coins, re- ing to his own independent assessment of that’s really what got me started.” coins. Most tend to ally, is bigger than o your research, recognize its value and availability, he bid accord- He continued: “I can remember my agree, however, that any one collector, the importance of a particular ingly—or bided his time—and established first trip into a coin shop as a young boy, coins truly are just so why force his Dspecimen and come to your own assess- a new market price for his purchase. seeing this 1795 Flowing Hair dollar in that—small pieces of own personal name ment of its value. While adhering to the same prin- the case, in one of those 2x2 cardboard history and art. The dies upon them? Understand the financial perspectives of ciples may be the only similarity shared flips marked as Fine 12, tremendously were handmade and the de- Said the Collector: “Back Harry W. Bass Jr. and you’ll understand with Bass by the Cardinal Collector, it’s worn. I thought, wow, that’s amazing. To signs were “really beautiful.” in 1996, I was contacted about a the cardinal rules of coin collecting—and enough. It’s enough to have rekindled this get to see something like that …” In the PCGS account of his apprecia- grouping of coins I had acquired. There the rules of the Cardinal Collector, the West Coast collector’s love for coins and He was also fascinated with the tion for Bust dollars, he wrote: “I be- was going to be an article in Numismatic anonymous owner of the finest Profes- turned his love for Bust dollars into a col- historical value of the early lieve it was Q. David Bowers News. They needed to refer to a name sional Coin Grading Service registry set lection with a value currently estimated at silver dollars. who said that we, as coin or something, so I had to come up with of early U.S. silver dollars. $5 million. He told COINage: collectors, are not truly something. My business partner and I From the very beginning of his col- * * * “I think PCGS’ sta- ‘owners’ of the coins, were kind of bouncing names around and lecting career, Bass knew exactly what Even as a young child, the Collector tistics say that more but actually tempo- that, the Cardinal Collection, happened Cardina he was looking for when purchasing rare was always interested in finances, and his than 90 percent rary conservators to come up. coins and currency. He built one of the parents said he was thinking of going into of the ones they of pieces of histo- “The name Cardinal sounds kind finest libraries of numismatic books and banking or something similar. have certified are ry. We owe a debt of like royalty, sounds kind of impor- catalogs ever held by a private collector. “I was always interested in coins I’d get circulated. That’s of gratitude to the tant, and both he and I are from the At his death in 1998, his library embodied in change,” he told COINage. what the people prior conserva- state of Ohio, where the cardinal is the the caveat “Buy the book before the coin” Then, an aunt gave him a 1922 Peace at that time used. tors of the coins state bird. I didn’t put this in the PCGS with a collection that included more than dollar for his seventh birthday, and he It wasn’t some- in our collection, sheet, but my first entrée into mov- 10,000 items. was hooked. thing to be col- for preserving them ing into the state of California was The foreword in the Bowers and Mer- “At that time, there weren’t silver dol- lected, it was some- in the condition we because the professors of the college I ena auction catalog for the Bass Collection lars in circulation. You never even saw half thing to be used. That now see. attended in Ohio sent me as a recruit mentions how Bass realized that the price dollars in circulation—and to see some- was the normal thought, “Accordingly, we owe to Stanford University—and it’s the listed for a rarity was, in essence, only an thing like that, it just looked so amazing and the people whose a debt of conscientiousness Stanford Cardinal. So it all just kind of The estimate. After doing his research and com- that I really had an interest,” he said. normal thought was to spend to future conservators to preserve came together.” 100 www.coinagemag.com 101 The Cardinal’s Rules from page 101 After nine years in the making, the believes the registry process has more the diagnostics to identify the individual Cardinal Collection is still coming to- to offer. die varieties, and there are more than 110 gether and still evolving. Said the Collector: “I know a lot of different varieties. As a child, the Collector saw such people like it purely from the Type-A “Well, for me as a collector, the only coins as “wildly more expensive than I personality, competitive standpoint— difference between a 1795 Flowing Hair could ever afford,” but he always thought I’m gonna beat you! I’ll admit, I like a Two Leaf B1 variety versus a 1795 Flow- that someday—if he ever hit the lottery little bit of competition now and then, ing Hair Two Leaf B10 variety, which or earned some money—someday he’d too. Don’t get me wrong, I agree there’s a happens to share the same obverse side, be able to collect the regal early dollars. benefit to that. It feels nice to have other is the presence of an extra berry in the His someday came nine years ago, at people say, ‘Wow, that’s the best set in wreath on the reverse on the die of one of a time when Draped Bust dollars were the registry.’ them. The one that has the extra berry is rather overlooked by collectors. The “But I really see a value in sharing an R1 variety, the one that’s missing that self-employed CPA realized that nice information and educating other people. berry is an R7 variety. There are a dozen extremely fine Draped Bust/Large Eagle … I’ve met other people through the of them known, and they’re priced into silver dollars were available for around registry process—collectors who have the tens of thousands. $700 to $1,000 each, and about uncircu- also listed registry sets, or who have “The typical collector won’t be able lated specimens started at around $2,000. contacted me because of the registry to tell them apart without a book—can’t On that basis, he figured that he could set—that I share a sense of community tell them apart without a scoresheet, ba- put together a set of early dollars in the with, gained the ability to share informa- sically. So, as a collector, I like to col- following manner: Draped Bust/Large tion, and have found the registry sys- lect the ones that you can tell apart eas- Eagles in XF to AU, the Small Eagles in tem as another means, another mode, of ily. That’s why in the case, there are 57 XF, the Flowing Hair dollars in very fine, sharing that information. items instead of the 38 coins needed for and leave out the coveted 1794 dollar.