United States Gold, Silver & Copper Coins

In Memoriam
Corrado Romano
1903 – 1984

He came here to assist with the paving of roads in gold, not to walk them — as he was promised, as we were told to do. He brought a simplicity of aesthetics to the collecting and marketing of coins. The prodigal son of a banker, he was misunderstood by his social peers who dis- played embarrassment over the thought of Andrea’s son operating his junk-dealerlike profession; the man spent much time contemplating and contextualizing the guaranteed hopes depicted on his new nation’s coins, promises he knew would only materialize if he mustered the devotion, the patience, the frugality of his life for past and future generations.

In his grandiose obsession with ethics and promise did he pursue, for many decades, the culmination of all that was good and honest, fair and viable, good yesterday and tomorrow — the 1792 Silver-Centered Cent: an artform of pragmatic beauty, simplicity and integrity, citing not alone but by itself, by the incorporation of a half-penny plug silver into a collar of like value of copper — that for the first time and for all time no man need worry for the international intrinsic value and appropriate acceptance of the coinage of these United States — praying that his children would have in excess of he, pridefully knowing that this was something to diligently devote a lifetime to, even in time of the most ostentatious growth this country will ever experience, not to give without trial, test, essay, assay, lest it be lost to immediate satiating pleasures.

In his love for and of numismatics, he overbought his “pets” to points of occasional liquidity-embarrassment. Offered a select Proof 1856 Flying Eagle Cent just prior to the birth of his first child, he purchased it using the funds so frugally put aside to remunerate for the medical services; his nephew and he rolled stock Indian Cents to convert to “spendable” cash to cover expenses incurred in the hospital. So pleasantly obsessed over both events, he retained the coin and nicknamed his child “Penny”.

His notes and stock contributed to the information and knowledge of Dr. Sheldon’s, Q.D. Bowers’, Valentine’s, Bolender’s, the Stack sons’ and others’ numismatic works, revisions and repricings; consigned stock to the larger retail houses of the times, and justified selling prices relative to availability confirmed by his guaranteed purchasing transactional responses from his famous “yellow-covered-catalog”, used for decades as a proven buying and selling price ledger by most of the dealers extant from the thirties into and through the mid-sixties, watching these and others adopting his philosophies of indignant dignities and complex simplicities.

His practical approach to numismatics for the aspiring middle class, and his commitment to establish norms for and of awareness, aesthetics, spectral grades and their standards, and consistent reference to supply-and-demand pricing has enriched the hobby and business for all — collectors and dealers alike. He loved and was loved; and now, he lies in friendly fields.

This sale took place on June 16-18, 1987.

Don C. A. Romano