Harvey Stack loved to tell stories and his favorites were those about his family and the history of Stack’s. While he passed away on January 3 of this year, he had already penned his remembrances through 1999. We believe Harvey would want these articles to be read and enjoyed and so we are pleased to continue the story of his life in numismatics. ?
1993 presented a wealth of numismatic material for Stack’s to offer at public auction, 10 catalogs in total. It was a year when we were pleased to produce outstanding catalogs and sell important collections. We started the year in January with some additional high quality coins from the Floyd T. Starr estate — gold, silver and copper items that had not been included in the earlier sales. Some were duplicates, but even these included rare dates and mintmarks in extremely choice grades. This offered collectors who had not been successful in the previous presentations to acquire items pedigreed to the Starr Collection. There was much excitement and many a "floor fight" among those who attended the event.
Featured in our March 1993 was the Herman Halpern Collection of United States Paper Currency, built by a collector that Stack’s had had the privilege to serve for nearly four decades. Herman had started collecting after he left the Navy in 1955 and opened a number of saloons around midtown Manhattan. He had the afternoons free so he was a frequent visitor to Stack’s "clubhouse," where he met quite a few dedicated collectors and expanded his knowledge with what he learned from them and the Stack family. He became enthralled with U.S. paper money and built a major collection that included colonials, Demand Notes, Legal Tender Notes and Silver Certificates, Gold notes, Fractional Currency, Nationals and Federal Reserve notes. He also had a splendid collection of Confederate currency. He was attracted to the wide variety of paper money that circulated in the United States. He tried to find the best condition available and so many of his notes were full Mint State. The sale included 922 lots and was one of the largest and most popular offerings of paper money that Stack’s ever presented at auction.
In that same month Stack’s also offered a comprehensive assortment of United States gold, silver and copper coins that ranged from early type coins through later issues, including some scarce and rare dates, as well as Mint State and Brilliant Proof examples. It was another nice "something for everyone" Stack’s auction.
May once again brought our special sale in conjunction with the Greater New York Numismatic Convention, sponsored by nine numismatic clubs from New York, Brooklyn, Long Island, the Bronx, Westchester, Connecticut and New Jersey. This catalog of 1,500 lots was a broad offering of United States gold, silver, and copper as well as colonial issues. As always, we tailored our sale to appeal to the wide variety of people who attended the convention, so they were able to add to their collections while at the show. It was a highlight of the numismatic year for those who were able to attend.
Our first June catalog, dated June 14, 1993, contained over 1,500 lots of ancient coins and foreign gold , silver and copper, featuring superb collections of gold coins from Mexico and a specialized collection of gold and silver coins from Peru. This important offering brought in collectors from Central and South America seeking hard to locate coins from early Spanish Colonial days to the 20th century. It was a rare chance to add to specialized collections of Mexico and Peru.
On June 15 and 16 we offered several consignments of United States gold, silver and copper coins featured in a separate catalog. This auction included the collections of Dr. J. Marcus Koelle, Dr. Carlo P. Cabibi and Mrs. Cabibi, and the catalog was carefully blended to complement each collection. Together the consignments offered more than 2,500 lots and presented coins for average collectors as well as rarities for specialists. It also contained quantity lots of gold coins for investors and dealers – lots of five to 20 coins of the same date and mint, all in Mint State that had been saved from the melting pot years ago. In addition, there was a great selection of U.S. half eagles starting in 1795, the exceedingly rare $5 and $10 struck by Templeton Reid and, at the end of the sale, a large group of Mint State Morgan dollars presented in bulk lots and rolls. This large sale consisted of both day and night sessions, and it attracted so many bidders in person, by bid sheet and over the phone that each evening session took until after midnight to complete.
