Remember When: Some Notes on John Allan

By Q. David Bowers, Chairman Emeritus

Shown here is a medal from 1859, issued by New York City jeweler and coin dealer John K. Curtis as a compliment to John Allan. The Latinized inscription, JOHANNES ALLAN, ANTIQUARIUS SCOTUS. NATUS FEB. 26, 1777, translates to: John Allan, Scottish antiquarian, born on February 26, 1777. Under the portrait are the initials G.H.L., for George H. Lovett, the pre-eminent die cutter in the field of tokens in New York City in 1860.

Curtis himself was from the British Isles, born in Surry in 1828, coming to America in 1841 with his parents. He began collecting coins as a teenager in 1843, and in 1857 hung out his shingle as a coin dealer, although jewelry and watch making seem to have been his main source of profits. The next year he caused a stir by paying $700 for the Siegfried Collection, in Easton, Pennsylvania, this at a time when an Uncirculated 1793 Chain cent might sell for $5 to $10!

Among Curtis’ colleagues in the city, John Allan was the longest established, having been in the trade as early as 1822, perhaps even before then. In 1820 he was one of just three American subscribers to Mudie’s set of National Medals, issued in London (the others were a Mr. Paine, New York; and Thomas Lyman, “United States”).

In the 1820s Allan’s customers probably included all of those known to have been active collectors in the city at the time, a roster with such names as Philip Hone (who served as mayor in 1826 and lived in a fine home widely illustrated in early prints; Honesdale, Pennsylvania, birthplace of the present writer, bears his name, although Hone never visited there), James Thornton, Pierre Flandin (whose collection was auctioned years later in 1855, to great acclaim), and to A.D. and Michael Moore. The last became prominent after the Civil War when he conducted the nationally known Rural Retreat, an idyllic lodge near scenic falls, a popular getaway for New Yorkers, at Trenton Falls in Oneida County.

In 1837 John Allan moved from Pearl Street, where he had lived for 25 years, to Vandewater Street, where he spent the rest of his life. As were and are most truly dedicated numismatists, Allan enjoyed the world around him, and collected other mementoes of history, including prints, autographs, and snuff boxes. While coin dealing and related activities no doubt generated profits, his main line of endeavor was the handling of estates, working with lawyers and other administrators. For a long period of time he was a leading practitioner in the city in this specialty.

Allan was an artist of some ability, and in 1838, with architect Ithiel Town, he designed the New Haven medal, which proved popular with collectors of that time as well as a later generation. The inscriptions included the sentimental, THE DESERT SHALL REJOICE / AND BLOSSOM AS THE ROSE illustrated in R.W. Julian, Medals of the United States Mint: The First Century 1792-1892, p. 250. Two versions exist, one from dies signed by C.C. Wright. At the risk of digressing, we mention that Ithiel Town was also a numismatist, and, according to Numisgraphics, by E.J. Attinelli, 1876, he offered “four or five hundred coins, medals, &c., in gold, silver, and copper” for sale in New York in 1842. Allan illustrated several books, including Washington’s Life and Burns’s Poems.

It seems likely that on December 10, 1855, he was the John Allen listed in papers as a partner with G.A. Leavitt and R.L. Delisser in the formation on this date of Leavitt, Delisser & Co., 377 and 379 Broadway, New York City. The auctioning of books, art, and antiques formed the firm’s business.

Allan died on November 19, 1863, and was widely mourned. Today, he is recognized as the first professional numismatist in America. He lived to watch the hobby grow from an acorn into a mighty oak. By 1863, thousands of collectors pursued coins, tokens, medals, and paper money.