But in 1965 Stack’s was excited to be awarded some
major collections to sell at public auction. Some of the concerns of the
previous year had abated and friends and clients once again looked to sell.
We started 1965 with the sale of the Dr. Moser Lyons
Stadium Collection, which featured splendid United States gold, silver and
copper coins. Following that sale, we offered
a collection of very choice and rare items formed by Eugene Gardner. Eugene had a wonderful eye for quality, and he
concentrated on well struck, lightly toned coins, which even today are considered
among the finest known.
In spring 1965 we held our auction during the Metropolitan Numismatic Convention. Featured was the
Grant Pierce Collection of United States gold, silver and copper coins,
including date sets and rare mintmarks. Grant Pierce, a great friend of my
father Morton, was the president of American Standard, one of the largest American
plumbing supply companies. He was an avid fisherman and hunter, and could be seen
in pictures in sporting magazines,
as he enjoyed his hobbies so much. The gold coins were highlighted by his collection
of $3 gold pieces mostly in glittering Proof. Pedigrees in the Grant Collection
could be traced to various B. Max Mehl sales of the 1940s and 1950s (including
the Renz Collection and the Atwater Collection) and to a number of Stack’s name
sales of the same period. We did not offer his sets of Indian Head and Saint-Gaudens
coins, as he gave those sets to his grandson who lived in the Midwest.
Later in 1965 we sold the George Sealy Ewalt
Collection of both foreign and United States coins, along with the Charles
Kenzie Collection and the Henry Kingman Collection.
All in all, everyone in the Stack family and those
who worked with us in the shop were kept very busy. Our Coin Galleries branch
specializing in foreign and ancient coins was expanding. There was always
cataloging to be done, buying and selling over the counter, as well as
traveling to shows and to gather consignments. Uncle Norman was a dedicated
cataloger and researcher, and he preferred to do his work in the office as
opposed to traveling. My father was still active in the office, cataloging,
overseeing operations, and dealing with clients. His health was failing, but he
still tried to be in the shop whenever we were open. My cousin Ben and I did
the majority of the traveling both to conventions and to meet with clients. Of
course, all of us at Stack’s were focused on building relationships with and
working closely with collectors.
One
customer we continued to work closely with was J.K. Lilly who was keeping
active building his gold coin collection. During 1965 we were fortunate to find a good number of world gold coins to enhance
the Lilly Collection. The number of coins he had acquired from 1951 to 1965 was
well over 6,000 different gold coins of the world! He enjoyed adding different dates
and mints from all periods that gold coins were struck. In early April, I made my
customary delivery to him, helped him place the coins in the special coin trays
designed for his growing collection. He told me, as he always did, that he was
looking forward to stopping by on West 57th Street in the fall, when
he was on his way back to Florida for the winter.
