Coin collectors may not seem an especially reverent lot. Casual demeanor and good senses of humor are more commonplace than their opposites, from local coin shows to Manhattan auction galleries. The bourse floor is a leveler that puts experts and connoisseurs shoulder to shoulder with hobbyists of all levels. Proximity breeds familiarity, and most of today’s legendary collectors and experts are a coin-show handshake or an email away.
Our relationship to the great names of the past is more distant and less easily affirmed. We connect with the experts and collectors who have gone before us in three ways: the coins they owned or studied, the writings and photographs they left behind, and the still thriving numismatists of an earlier generation who knew them well. Their names are whispered. The books they wrote are prayerfully thumbed into disrepair or bound in rich leathers to preserve the words within. The coins they owned are cherished like talismans, their provenance extending a stamp of approval from the great beyond. Stories about their hijinks, or cabinets, or human foibles, are campfire tales wherever numismatists gather to break bread or find the bottom of a bottle.
The Rogers-Whitney-Pogue Gem 1796 Half Dollar with 16 Obverse Stars
This week I received my copy of Q. David Bowers new book, Treasures from the D. Brent Pogue Rare Coin Cabinet / A National Legacy. The book highlights 100 of the rarest coins from the Pogue Collection. The book is formatted with one coin for every two pages, with additional enlarged photos of the obverse and reverse for select coins. The coins were numbered 1-100 in the book.
In November 1995 I received my copy of an auction catalog titled, “Numisma ’95 / Numismatic Rarities for the Collector.” Numisma ’95 was a public auction sale held jointly by David W. Akers, Rarcoa Inc. and Stack’s Rare Coins. Stack’s offered Lots 1001-1751 in Session 1 of the sale on November 29, 1995. Among the Stack’s offerings were a number of coins from the Leland Rogers Collection. I reviewed my copy of the Numisma ‘95 sale catalog this week. Unfortunately, at the time of the sale I was unable to view the lots in person.
