Registry of 1884 Trade Dollars
1. Hester Specimen. PCGS PF65
•Mint official, possibly Col. A. Loudon Snowden (or, definitely Snowden, per description in the Quality Sale, November 1976, below; compare Carlson’s account above).
•William Idler
•Capt. John W. Haseltine and Stephen K. Nagy
•Unknown intermediaries
•Clint Hester. Sold in the following auction.
•Numismatic Gallery’s sale of the Adolphe Menjou Collection, June 1950, Lot 2040, $765. (Coin owned by Clint Hester)
•Benjamin Stack, Imperial Coin Company (48 West 48th Street, New York City; later moved to Las Vegas). Advertised in The Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine, March 1955, p. 384, with an 1885, for $6,500 the pair.
•W.G. Baldenhofer, Farish Baldenhofer Collection (Stack’s, November 1955), Lot 1039, $2,200. "This coin is a beautiful Proof with fine iridescent tone."
•Stack’s Fairbanks (Ben Koenig) Sale, December 1960, Lot 698, $6,500. "A gem brilliant and iridescent Proof. Sharply struck and superb."
•Stack’s Samuel Wolfson Sale, May 1963, Lot 1541, $8,750. "A gem brilliant and iridescent Proof."
•Dan Messer (New York City dealer; earlier a partner with Robert Jenove in the Franklin Square Coin Co.; later a partner with Joel Coen in the Coen-Messer Co.)
•Jack Klausen (Indio, California investor and dealer), Joel Rettew (California dealer). Coin advertised in Coin World March 10, 1976.
•Quality Sales (Abner Kreisberg and Jerry Cohen; California), Carlson-Shipkey Sale, November 1976, Lot 426, $52,500. Lot description by Jack Collins: "A beautiful BRILLIANT PROOF, with fields displaying full mirrorlike depth, splendidly contrasted by the frosted devices. Identifiable by a tiny inverted ‘question mark’ (sans period) adjoining left side of third star, which resulted from a piece of lint adhering to the die during minting.… This is one of the finest of exactly six authenticated examples known.… The pedigree of this specimen: Ex-Mint Superintendent Colonel Archibald Loudon Snowden.…"
•Danny Arnold Collection. Danny Arnold was and is a major figure in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles.
•Bowers and Merena Galleries’ September 1984 sale of the Arnold-Romisa Collections, Lot 2342, $37,400. "Golden choice Proof-65. 420.4 grains. An outstanding coin delicately toned in iridescent shades of light gold. With mirror Proof fields deep enough to get lost in! A stunning specimen of this legendary rarity. This example is without a doubt one of the finest." Sold to the following.
•John N. Rowe, III. Well-known Dallas, Texas professional numismatist (who supervised the sale of the numismatic properties in the Amon Carter, Jr. estate). Sold to the following.
•L.R. French, Jr.
•Stack’s January 1989 sale of the L.R. French, Jr. Collection, Lot 201, $72,600. "Brilliant Proof. The obverse is close to choice, the reverse has hairlines at the right side. Russet gold obverse, the reverse similar but lighter. The devices are frosty, and the fields are deeply reflective." Bought at the sale by the following.
•Anthony Terranova. Tony Terranova, of New York City, is a well known dealer specialist in high quality early United States coins.
•Larry Whitlow. Larry Whitlow started in the rare coin business in Harvey, Illinois in 1959 and joined the Professional Numismatists Guild in 1969. He has made a specialty of rarities and high grade coins. Sold to the following.
•Denver Coin Company.
Jay Parrino's The Mint
Superior Auctions - October 3, 2000. $264,500
The Legend Collection of United States Trade Dollars
Traded to Spectrum Numismatics - October 2002
Jack Lee
2. Dunham Specimen. PCGS PF67
•Mint official, possibly Col. A. Loudon Snowden
•William Idler
•Capt. John W. Haseltine and Stephen K. Nagy
•Unknown intermediaries.
•William Forrester Dunham, Chicago. Sold with collection to the following in 1939.
•B. Max Mehl (into his inventory, although few people knew this).
•B. Max Mehl’s 1941 mail bid sale of the William Forrester Dunham Collection, Lot 1150, $315. "Beautiful perfect brilliant Proof."
•Floyd T. Starr, Philadelphia numismatist.
•Floyd T. Starr estate, Philadelphia.
•Stack’s sale of the Floyd T. Starr Collection, October 20-22, 1992, Lot 844. "Gem brilliant Proof. Finest of 10 known. Incredible iridescent blue, purple, rose, and pale golden brown on obverse; pale rose, golden brown, and gray toning on the reverse. Both surfaces fully brilliant everywhere. One or two minor darker toning spots on both sides. Linear planchet flaw in right obverse field beside 11th star." $176,000 to Jay Parrino's The Mint
Goldberg Sale - October 3, 2000. Reported sold at over $500,000, but the coin is still being offered for sale by The Mint.
3. Atwater Specimen. NGC PF66
•Mint official, possibly Col. A. Loudon Snowden
•William Idler
•Capt. John W. Haseltine and Stephen K. Nagy
•Unknown intermediaries
•B. Max Mehl’s 1946 mail bid sale of the William Cutler Atwater Collection, Lot 377, $800. "A perfect brilliant Proof, just as perfect as the day it was minted."
•Louis E. Eliasberg
Bowers & Merena's Sale of the Eliasberg Collection, April 6-8, 1997. $396,000.
Spectrum Numismatics Type Collection
The Legend Collection of United States Trade Dollars, October 2002
4. Newcomer Specimen. Proof-64
•Mint official, possibly Col. A. Loudon Snowden
•William Idler
•Capt. John W. Haseltine and Stephen K. Nagy
•Unknown intermediaries
•Waldo C. Newcomer (Baltimore collector). Consigned at fixed price to the following.
•B. Max Mehl (1931). Possibly not sold.
•Consigned from the Newcomer Collection to J.C. Morgenthau & Co. (the auction affiliate of Scott Stamp & Coin Co., Inc., New York City; Wayte Raymond, numismatic manager). Sold in its 384th Sale, May 9, 1935, Lot 431, described as follows: "1884 Trade Dollar. Brilliant Proof. Of the very greatest rarity. Not over ten specimens are known and we believe never before offered at auction. An opportunity to secure this coin may not occur again for many years." $350. Possibly sold to the following.
•Col. E.H.R. Green (Massachusetts and other addresses; heir, investor, and playboy). This ownership attribution not certain.
•Burdette G. Johnson (St. Louis dealer) c. 1943
•B. Max Mehl’s mail bid sale of the Jack V. Roe Collection, June 12, 1945, Lot 627, $665
•Jerome Kern Collection, B. Max Mehl sale, May 1950, Lot 896, $760. "A perfect brilliant Proof gem."
•Amon Carter, Sr. & Jr. Collection, Stack’s, January 1984, Lot 440, $45,100. "Choice brilliant Proof, iridescent toning about its periphery."
5. Farouk Specimen. PCGS PF63
•Mint official, possibly Col. A. Loudon Snowden
•William Idler
•Capt. John W. Haseltine and Stephen K. Nagy
•Unknown intermediaries
•King Farouk of Egypt
•Palace Collections of Egypt sale, 1954, Lot 1679, $984 (£325 Egyptian + 5% surcharge x $2.8825 per £). Catalogued as follows by A.H. Baldwin & Sons, Ltd.: "Proof. Extremely fine, extremely rare."
•Ambassador and Mrs. R. Henry Norweb, Cleveland, Ohio.
•Bowers and Merena Galleries’ sale of the Norweb Collection, March 1988, Lot 1847, $57,200. "Proof 60 to 63. 420.8 grains. A lovely specimen! Sharply struck and brilliant with very faint traces of golden toning. The fields are mirrorlike and the cameo devices are satiny. This example would be worth a much higher grade if not for the presence of some light hairlines on both surfaces."
•American Coin Portfolios (Dan Drykerman, California professional numismatist, who also bought the Norweb 1885 trade dollar). Sold to the following.
•Private New York collection
•Bowers and Merena Galleries, Inc. by private treaty, March 20, 1992
•Private New England Collection, private treaty, March 23, 1992.
•Legend Numismatics to the Legend Collection of United States Trade Dollars. August 19, 1998
Silverman Collection via Superior Galleries.
Heritage's sale of the Silverman Collection, April 2001
Weight: 420.8 grains.
6. Neil Specimen. NGC PF63
•Mint official, possibly Col. A. Loudon Snowden
•William Idler
•Capt. John W. Haseltine and Stephen K. Nagy
•Virgil M. Brand
•Col. Edward H.R. Green
•B. Max Mehl’s mail bid sale of the Will W. Neil Collection, June 17, 1947. Lot 296, $551
•Stack’s sale of the Robert C. Pelletreau Collection, March 1959, Lot 1054, $3,300. "A beautiful BRILLIANT PROOF with raised borders, sharp stars, and sharply defined eagle."
•Jerry Cohen (California dealer), who offered it for $3,800.
•Exhibited at Stack’s bourse table, 1974 ANA convention.
•Julian Leidman (Maryland dealer), Mike Brownlee (Texas dealer), and Hugh Sconyers (California dealer) in partnership. Sold almost immediately afterward at the 1974 ANA Convention with an 1885 for $180,000 to the following.
•Jim Halperin (Massachusetts dealer). Offered in fixed price lists of New England Rare Coin Galleries, December 1974 and February 1975, for $75,000.
•New England Rare Coin Auctions sale of November 9, 1975, Lot 630, $39,000. Sale held with the New England Numismatic Association Convention. "A choice, beautifully toned specimen.… Glittering Choice Proof."
•Mulford B. Simons (Pennsylvania dealer)
•Larry Hanks sale of April 1985, Lot 351, $55,000. "Choice original Proof-63+.… This specimen is acknowledged by most numismatic experts to be among the three finest known of the ten (or less) specimens minted. What is so nice about this coin is its total originality. It has never been dipped, cleaned, or plated which has been the fate of most surviving 1884 trade dollars. It is also virtually hairline-free! Both the obverse and reverse are spectacularly toned in shapes of golds, greens, and olive iridescence. It has a full strike and blazing mirror surfaces. The reverse is Gem Proof 65+. The obverse would also rate this classification, save for two (the only two) hairlines in the right obverse field and an odd toning streak in the left obverse field."
•Auction ’89, Rarcoa, Lot 327, $77,000. "CHOICE BRILLIANT PROOF, whose full brilliance is draped with lovely light toning. It has been examined by NGC and graded Proof-63."
•Jay Parino, who consigned it to the following.
•Auction ’90, Superior, Lot 1163, not sold. "NGC graded Proof-63. Lovely cameo contrast between highly frosted devices—Liberty, the eagle, the stars and lettering—and a miles deep mirror field. Adding to this marvelous effect is the appearance of those fields, as they’ve acquired pleasing ‘old silver’ toning with golden highlights (especially noticeable on the reverse). And because this is a Proof-63 it has few hairlines. Those present are so light and widely scattered as to be for all intents and purposes, invisible.…" Reacquired by the consignor.
Private Collection
7. Sprinkle Specimen. NGC PF63
•Mint official, possibly Col. A. Loudon Snowden
•William Idler
•Capt. John W. Haseltine and Stephen K. Nagy
•Unknown intermediaries
•Col. E.H.R. Green
•Burdette G. Johnson
•James Kelly (Dayton, Ohio jeweler and professional numismatist) circa 1943-4. Sold coin to Frank F. Sprinkle on July 3, 1944 for $375.
•Stack’s June 1988 sale of the Frank F. Sprinkle Collection, Lot 106, $61,600. "Brilliant Proof. Light hairlines and a granular stripe on the reverse from CA to the rim right of DOLLAR where heavy patination was chemically removed in the past. Rich light gold and russet toning, and the devices quite frosty and the fields still well mirrored."
•Larry Whitlow
•Dana Linett sale, October 1988, Lot 461, $55,000. "PCGS graded Proof-61. Attractive light gold and russet toning enhance this important American rarity. The fields display reflective sparkle which complements the frosty devices. The piece is lightly hairlined with a granular stripe on the reverse.… Also noted is a glue-like substance (it may be removable) on the rim edge above the word OF."
•Auction ’90, Rarcoa, Lot 845, $46,200. (Description from Sprinkle catalogue quoted.)
•Mark Chrans
Stacks March 2002 sale, lot 795, $126,500. "Brilliant Proof or slightly finer. Extremely rare: only ten are believed to survive today. The obverse and reverse are both mostly bright silver white in the centers with a slight tinge of rich champagne toning in the fields and around the rims. The central devices are sharply struck and display pleasing, original mint frost. The fields are bright, full mirror proofs. Lightly hairlined with a granular stripe on the reverse to right of DOLLAR. This coin is accompanied by the original invoice from James Kelly to Frank Sprinkle, dated June 24, 1944, for $375, and Kelly's letter of July 3 giving the pedigree as ex Col. Green. The 1884 Trade Dollars were struck from dies officially made at the Mint, shortly before January 3, 1884, on which day they were delivered to the Coining Room. Proof 1884 Trade Dollars were officially struck on January 9 and the struck coins were delivered to the cashier on January 19. When the Trade Dollar denomination was discontinued in 1884, the vast majority of the Proof 1884's was melted. Only a handful escaped, to ultimately become delights in advanced collectors' cabinets." Later graded NGC PF63.
Bowers and Merena January 2003 Rarities Sale, Lot 569, $138,000.
8. Olsen Specimen. Proof-60
•Mint official, possibly Col. A. Loudon Snowden
•William Idler
•Capt. John W. Haseltine and Stephen K. Nagy
•Unknown intermediaries
•B. Max Mehl’s mail bid sale of the Fred Olsen Collection, November 1944, Lot 997. "A beautiful even light iridescent Proof." $650.
•Stack’s George Sealy Ewalt Sale, November 1965, Lot 42, $3,600. "This coin was struck as a brilliant Proof, however, due to either mishandling or improper cleaning at some point, by Mr. Ewalt or his secretary, the field shows rubbing on both the obverse and reverse. There are no signs of wear on the coin."
•Stack’s Dr. Calvert Emmons Sale, September 1969, Lot 814, $5,000. "Proof, as are all known specimens. This coin is impaired due to improper cleaning. It shows rubbing and hairlines on both the obverse and reverse."
•Private collection; sold in 1972 for $16,000
•Western Numismatics (Jan Bronson)
•1980 ANA sale by Steve Ivy, Lot 2643, $30,000. "Proof (60) Cleaned."
•Auction ’84, Rarcoa, Lot 1809, $27,500. "BRILLIANT PROOF, cleaned long ago and now retoned to an attractive even grey with hints of gold around stars, letters, and devices."
•Fred L. Fredericks. Consigned to the following.
•Superior’s Hoffecker Sale, February 1987, Lot 1446A, $26,400. "Brilliant Proof 60" plus description quoted from Auction ’84.
Eugene Worrell Collection
Superior - September 1993. Proof 60 $37,400
9. Brand Specimen. Proof-63
•Mint official, possibly Col. A. Loudon Snowden
•William Idler
•Capt. John W. Haseltine and Stephen K. Nagy
•Unknown intermediaries, possibly including Virgil M. Brand
•Private collection (late 1940s)
•ANA Sale, Stack’s, August 1976, Lot 723, an assembled Proof set at $34,000 the set. "The coin [the 1884 trade dollar in the set] is a lovely Proof, with delicate sea-green and blue iridescent toning."
Joel D. Rettew
Midwest medical doctor
Heritage Early Spring 96 ANA Sale, March 14-16, 1996. $50,600
Jeff Garrett, Mid American Rare Coins
Private Collection
10. Chicago Estate Specimen. Proof-63
•Mint official, possibly Col. A. Loudon Snowden
•William Idler
•Capt. John W. Haseltine and Stephen K. Nagy
•Unknown intermediaries
•Chicago estate (Brand?)
•Rarcoa (Ed Milas)
•World-Wide
•Steve Ivy
•Robert Marks Collection
•Bowers and Ruddy Galleries Rare Coin Review No. 15, 1972, $24,975.
•Bowers and Ruddy Galleries’ Herstal Sale, February 7-9, 1974, Lot 734, $30,000. "Attractively toned Proof." Sold to the following.
•Donald Apte and Mulford B. Simons. During the same weekend of the sale, Donald Apte sold his interest to Simons, thus making Simons’ acquisition cost $33,000.
•Mulford B. Simons. Sold to the following about two or three months later, for $42,500.
•Private Southern collection..
Estimated grade: Proof-63. Light rubber band mark from knee to 4th star.
[Notes concerning specimens of the silver 1884 trade dollar which are undoubtedly part of the above registry, but which today cannot be specifically attributed to one of the 10 individual listings]:
1. In The Numismatist, March 1914, Edgar H. Adams, New York newspaperman (The Sun), numismatic scholar, and rare coin dealer, offered at fixed prices Proof 1884 and 1885 trade dollars for $400 and $1,000 respectively.
2. John J. Ford, Jr., in a conversation with the author, told of an 1884 trade dollar and gave the background of its discovery: Wayte Raymond took over the Scott Stamp & Coin Company, Inc. rare coin business in New York City circa 1933. Around 1936 to 1938 Leonard Kusterer was one of the main employees there. Raymond did a lot of advertising under the Scott name. He was especially concerned about what he considered to be misleading advertising by B. Max Mehl and others, who suggested that one could find classic American rare coins in pocket change, and who derived the most profit from selling catalogues (not from buying rare coins from the public). Raymond wrote a booklet which told the truth about rare coins—an answer to B. Max Mehl's Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia. Raymond sought to buy coins himself, but on more legitimate, numismatic grounds. One day Leonard Kusterer bought over the counter an 1884 copper, nickel, and silver Proof set which contained an 1884 trade dollar which gave every appearance of having been with the set for a long time—the coins had matched toning and were all of the same quality. This was circa 1937 or 1938. What happened to the 1884 trade dollar in the set is not known today.
3. In The Numismatist, June 1944, p. 546, the Celina Coin Company, Celina, Ohio, a firm owned by brothers Ted and Carl Brandts (who also owned a hotel in the same town), advertised a complete set of Proof trade dollars, including these listings: "1884 Very Rare, $400.00," and "1885 Excessively Rare, $1,000.00." According to Eric P. Newman, who has the original sales invoice, these were sold by Burdette G. Johnson from the Virgil Brand estate to the Brandts brothers. Later in the 1940s, one of the Brandts brothers died suddenly, and the numismatic operations were put under the management of Robert F. Wilson, who moved the Celina Coin Company to Lima, Ohio, after which the firm faded from the scene.
4. In the early 1960s, Melvin E. Came, Dover, NH rare coin dealer, offered a set of 1873-1884 Proof trade dollars for sale as a group and displayed it in a plastic holder at an ANA convention.
Registry of Copper 1884 Trade Dollars
The following listing represents copper strikings of the 1884 trade dollar known to me. Some of the listings may duplicate others.
1. Anderson-Dupont Specimen
•A. Loudon Snowden, Philadelphia Mint.
•Unknown intermediaries.
•The 1884 trade dollar in Stack’s November 1954 Anderson-Dupont Sale:2652 at $2,500 was later discovered by Jack Collins to be a silver plated copper piece.
•It reappeared in Stack’s Dr. Calvert L. Emmons Sale, September 1969, Lot 813 at $6,000.
•Stack’s Winner F. Delp Sale, November 1972, Lot 761 at $15,000.
•Private collection.
•One or more dealers.
•Jerry Cohen and Abner Kreisberg, at $37,500.
•Private collector who paid $42,500.
•This coin, now correctly attributed as a copper trial piece, is in the cabinet of Edward J. Linkner, M.D. (1992).
2. Smith Specimen
•A. Loudon Snowden, Philadelphia Mint. 1884 Proof set in copper.
•Gift to A.M. Smith, author in 1881 of the Illustrated History of the U.S. Mint (published under the name of A.M. Smith; see below). "A.M. Smith got [the 1884 copper trade dollar and other copper pieces] from the superintendent of the Mint in 1884, and they have remained in the Smith Collection these 50 years, and have never been offered for sale" (from Bolender’s catalogue of February 8, 1936; see below).
•Single coin in the Milferd H. Bolender sale of October 15, 1935, "Part III of the Famous Collection Formed by the Late A.M. Smith, of Minneapolis, Minn." Lot 245. Description: "245. 1884 Trade Dollar. Regular dies but struck in copper. Not in Adams-Woodin. Uncirculated. Excessively rare." No other 1884 copper pattern coins were in the sale. Apparently, the coin was bought in, for Bolender’s sale of February 8, 1936 offered 13 copper strikings of 1882, 1883, and 1884 coins, including Lot 25 described as follows: "1884 trade dollar. Regular dies. Trial in copper. Proof." Bolender stated: "A.M. Smith got them from the superintendent of the Mint in 1884 and they have remained in the Smith Collection these 50 years and have never [sic!] been offered for sale." Interestingly, Bolender described the coin as Uncirculated the first time and Proof the second.
Born Anders Madsen Schmidt, in Knudsbol, Parish of Jordrup, Denmark, on February 4, 1841, Andrew Madsen Smith (as he came to be known) emigrated to the United States, arriving in Philadelphia on May 1, 1859. In 1861 he was in the business of selling chickens. Subsequently he served in the Union Army and Navy, and traveled extensively and lived throughout the West. In 1875 he returned to Philadelphia, and in that city was a dealer in wines and in rare coins at 6th and Chestnut streets through the year 1886, when he moved to Minneapolis. In 1885 his biography, Luck of a Wandering Dane, appeared under the nom de plume Hans Lykkejaeger. His updated biography was published in 1890 in Minneapolis, and gave 249 Hennepin Avenue as his address. Bearing the name of A.M. Smith as author, it was titled Up and Down in the World, or Paddle Your Own Canoe. In 1886 he published the Encyclopζdia of Gold and Silver Coins of the World. For a number of years he operated the California Restaurant at 247 Hennepin Avenue, decorated with sets of coins and medals framed high on the walls. Smith joined the American Numismatic Association in 1901. In August of that year he advertised in The Numismatist and offered Proof trade dollars of the 1879-1883 years for $2 each. The Minneapolis Journal, December 5, 1908, printed the following:
The silver dollar of the date of 1884, that sold in Chicago [a silver 1884 trade dollar in Ben Green’s auction] for $280, is what is known as the "trade dollar," and it is doubtful if more than a few hundred people have ever seen one of that date, as there were only five struck in silver and a few in copper, and these are in collections, closely guarded. A.M. Smith of Minneapolis has one of the copper Proofs in his collection of coins, others are in private collections in the East and in the United States Mint Collection. When the story of the Chicago sale appeared, hundreds of persons of Minneapolis made the mistake of thinking that it was the ordinary standard dollar of 1884 that brought the high premium, and many thought they had a small fortune in their grasp, when, in hunting through their pockets and cash registers they discovered several of that date. A.M. Smith has been kept busy for the last four or five days informing people that they did not have any of the valuable coins. In one day he answered over 100 telephone inquiries on the subject.
Smith died in Minneapolis on July 20, 1915.
•Private collection, apparently still with certain other 1884 copper strikings (information per Walter Breen).
3. Kreisberg-Schulman Specimen
•A. Loudon Snowden, Philadelphia Mint.
•Unknown intermediaries.
•The April 1936 issue of The Numismatist, pp. 283, 284, noted that at the February 18, 1936 meeting of the Westchester County Coin Club a Dr. Cobin exhibited an 1884 trade dollar. Carl W.A. Carlson states that this coin was a silver-plated copper piece.
•Apparently, this coin passed to George Blake, who had one at the February 26, 1936 meeting of the Bronx Coin Club, and who exhibited a specimen at the 1938 American Numismatic Association Convention.
•Abner Kreisberg-Hans M.F. Schulman "Waldorf Sale," May 20-21, 1966, Lot 1302 at $2,235.
•Collector, subsequently to his estate.
•Superior Stamp & Coin Co.’s ANA Sale, August 19-23, 1975, Lot 1218. Catalogued as a regular issue; withdrawn when it was discovered it was a silver-plated copper impression.
•Bowers and Ruddy Galleries, Inc., 1977. Jack Collins writes: "Identifiable by a small edge nick between first and second stars, also by a pinpoint copper stain in field right of date."
4. Breen Specimen
•A. Loudon Snowden, Philadelphia Mint.
•Unknown intermediaries.
•Specimen seen by Walter H. Breen c. 1958; apparently, but not absolutely, not one of the foregoing. Owner’s name not remembered. May be Specimen No. 3 above. This also may be a specimen reported to me by Dale R. Phelan in a letter dated April 4, 1992: "I was offered for $2,000 in 1969 an 1884 trade dollar silver plated copper pattern by the late Leo Young in California. At first glance it appeared like a silver Proof."