By Harvey G. Stack, Senior Numismatic
Consultant
I received an inquiry about the
collection of $20 gold double eagles known to have been assembled by Robert
Schermerhorn, which Stack’s acquired for Mr. Josiah Lilly of Indianapolis, CEO
of the Lilly drug company in the early 1950s. Josiah Lilly started to collect
with Stack’s in 1951, with a profound interest in early Spanish-American gold
coins. He desired to acquire examples of each ruler and mint of the
Spanish-American colonies prior to the 1820s, as he loved the stories and
history of the Spanish period in the Americas. The most talked about coin of
the period was the doubloon, the largest coin of the era, and that provided him
a goal.
In the beginning, Lilly wanted to
acquire just one of each ruler, country and mint. However, after reviewing
Wayte Raymond’s book on Spanish-American gold, he decided to expand and try to
get as many different examples. We worked on that part of his collection
virtually to the end of his life, as some pieces were rarely available.
In 1952, Lilly expanded his
interest to large coins of England and France of the same period. By late 1953
or early 1954 he decided to try for a complete set of U.S. double eagles.
Around that time we were offered a nearly complete set of double eagles formed
by Robert Schermerhorn of Texas and Mr. Lilly decided to buy it intact and then
seek out the missing issues. Among the coins that were not in the collection
was the 1926 San Francisco Mint issue. Despite searching at shows and in
private collections, we were unable to find a 1926-S for him.
In order to attract attention to
our search, in 1955 or 1956 we advertised offering a $500 reward to anyone who would tell us where
we could get an example for $3,000. Initially there were no responses.
Shortly thereafter, at a
convention, James Kelly came over to our dealer bourse table and dripped a coin
on a pad and said to my father, “Mort, I claim the $500 reward.” When we looked
it was a Choice 1926-S double eagle. My father asked Jim, “How much?” Jim said
$3,000 of course and we paid it, plus the reward. My father was furious at Jim,
but we got the coin. We sent a Western Union wire to Mr. Lilly to tell him we
had found the last coin he needed and were billing him for $3,500. We felt our
zeal had established a price beyond its value at the time.
Within two days or so afterward,
there appeared several 1926-S double eagles on the floor, offered to us at
prices ranging from $1,200 to $2,000. Naturally we refused, but did take an
option on one for under $1,500 and contacted Mr. Lilly to ask him to return the
original double eagle so that we could supply him one for less than half the
cost. He replied, “You have spent close to two years trying to find the coin
for me. I will take it at its original price as I feel you were taken in.” He
also said that we had surely already saved him money by bargaining with the
sellers when we found coins for him, and passing on those pieces that were
overpriced. He felt we had done our job in good faith. For 17 years we built
series after series of gold coins of the world for Mr. Lilly. The coins now
reside in the National Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.
After this incident we learned
that James Kelly partnered with Paul Witlin who had bank contacts in Europe and
while going through coins, found a small hoard of 1926-S double eagles. They
tried to sucker us in and make a killing, but in the end Mr. Lilly showed what
kind of man he was and his appreciation for all the work we had done with him
and for him.
This story is told from my
memory, as the transactions took place over half a century ago and many of the
documents are long gone or may have been sent to the Smithsonian.
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