Well known Central
American specialist and collector Richard Stuart passed away on June 20, 2016,
in California at age 90. Mr. Stuart began collecting in the late 1940s with a
broad interest in Latin America. From the early 1980s onward, Richard’s sole
focus was Central America as he sold his South American holdings. Most of the
latter series (although not identified as such and now widely known as the
“Americas” collection) were auctioned by Kagin’s at the 1983 ANA convention and
that sale catalog remains a reference in its own right. Over the years, Richard
was able to gather what will in all probability remain the greatest collection
of Central American coinage ever assembled. Richard was active at coin shows
and directly participated in many notable sales including H. Gibbs (H. Schulman
1966), F.C.C. Boyd (Superior 1975 ANA sale), Norweb (Christie’s Dallas 1985),
Eliasberg (ANR 2005) and Caballero de las Yndias (Aureo 2009). Exceptional in
both quality and comprehensiveness, Richard’s collection has anchored many
books and articles including Carlos Jara’s recent works “Historia de la Casa de
Moneda de Guatemala” (2010) and “Central American Provisional and Provincial
Mints” (2007). For any Central American coin, the Stuart provenance now
represents a more desirable pedigree than any of the aforementioned famous
names.
Mr. Stuart was known for
his extreme generosity in sharing his collection with fellow scholars and
collectors. Dozens of us have made the pilgrimage to Northern California and
spent many enjoyable hours with Richard, reviewing and discussing the coinage
of Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and British
Honduras.
Richard was born on April
23, 1926, to Gilbert Stuart and Sara Norwood in Medford, Oregon. Richard
obtained a B.A. and Ph.D. in Physics at UC Berkeley and served as staff
physicist for Lawrence Livermore Labs from 1952-77, and as a lecturer at UC
Berkeley. From 1978 on, Richard was a Consulting Physicist in accident
reconstruction. Richard is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, sons Paul and John,
daughter Amelia Schaller and six grandchildren. Richard is preceded in death by
his son Eric and sister Graecha. Richard will be fondly remembered by the
numismatic community.
