MAURITIUS DAVID (1860-?)

David, Mauritius (1860-?), his first name Mauritius is Latin for the English Morris or "Moe", and he is known to have sometimes used the French Maurice and the German Moritz. He was a coin and medals dealer since at least January 1898. The Gnecchi brothers supplied the year of his birth as 1860, which, as all information they supply should be checked since there were many errors in their text.

Mr. David ran advertisements in The Numismatist from January through April, 1898 in a campaign to establish himself as an international dealer and buyer. His display advertisements published with the others in the back matter of The Numismatist sought European silver and gold coins and medals with the exception of copper. "Whole collections bought or taken care of and sold at auction, either in this country or in Europe". Obviously he had enough funds to advertise purchasing entire collections, which is most probably how he acquired the $5 gold pieces he sold to Virgil Brand a little more than a year later.

He seems to have moved annually at the end of a year's lease beginning in 1897 on giving the impression he is fleeing from landlord to landlord.

The earliest known correspondence with the Chapman brothers is dated August 8, 1898, eleven months after M. David's first appearance in The Numismatist. It is probable that earlier correspondence or at least some record of it may exist in the ANS Museum or in some other numismatic collection.

In August 1899 he applied for membership in the A.N.A. and is member No. 109. In August and December 1899, he placed orders for catalogues and coins, including a priced catalogue of the Chapman brothers auction held on December 22, and a new U. S. cent for 1900. Also in August 1899, on the 14th, Dave Bowers tells us that he sold Virgil Michael Brand high end $5 gold rarities including an 1815 for $200, an 1822 for $800, 1824 and 1826 for $60 each.

He was a donor to the ANS collection and Library from 1899-1901.

Sometime between April and October 1900, he published the English translation of the exhibition catalogue of European coins and medals in April 1900 at Frankfurt by Ferdinand Luthmer (1842-1921), director of the Kunstgewerbemuseums, under the title , The International exhibition of medals in the Kunstgewerbe-Museum in Frankfurt o. M., April 1900. A notice of this was published by George Heath in The Numismatist, Volume XIII, No. 11, November (1899) : 305, after receiving a gift copy for the public announcement.

To read the complete article, see:
DAVID, MAURITIUS (https://sites.google.com/site/numismaticmallcom/encyclopedic-dictionary-of-numismatic-biographies/david-mauritius)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web