BUILDING THE LILLY COLLECTION, CONTINUED

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V19 2016 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 19, Number 46, November 13, 2016, Article 17

We knew he wanted to finish his double eagle collection, but there was still one piece needed to do it. Our ad offering to buy a 1926-S had received no response, but we continued to mention it to the dealers who traveled overseas, and hoped that they might help us locate this missing link.

We had a visit from Mr. Lilly on his way home in the spring of 1956 and he was pleased with what we had accumulated. As we expected he asked about the 1926-S double eagle. We told him that we had not been offered one in response to our reward ad. We arranged a date to deliver what we had acquired to Indianapolis in the early part of May. Before that, in April of 1956, I went to the Central States Numismatic Convention with my father, Morton, to locate more items for Mr. Lilly. During the first two days of that event we were able to add some foreign and ancient gold, but the missing $20 gold piece was not offered.

On the third day of the show, James Kelly, together with his recent partner, Paul Witlin, a dealer-jeweler from New York, came up to our table. "Is your offer still valid?” asked Jim. My father replied that we still wanted one." Jim reached into his pocket, took out a 2 X 2 envelope, and placed the coin on a pad at our counter. "There it is,” he said. “I want my $500 reward!"

Morton replied, "You got it!" and said, "Now tell me where I can buy it." Jim responded, "From me." Morton wrote out two checks, one for $500 and one for $3,000. This was quite a good deal for Jim Kelly as he received not only the reward money, but also all the profit that came with selling the coin for $3,000 -- a price way above the current market price.

As soon as we could we sent a telegraph to Mr. Lilly, saying the double eagle collection was now complete! We would deliver the missing link with the other items in May and we would give the 1926-S to him at cost, as we felt we had paid a ransom price to get it. My father spoke to Mr. Lilly and received a wonderful "thank you" for completing that collection.

We returned to the bourse floor the following morning. Then the "sky started to fall." One dealer offered us a 1926-S for $2,500, while another had one for $2,000. Then we could get one for $1,500 or even $1,300, without the reward! We took an option on the $1,300 coin, as it was of equal quality as the one we got from Kelly, and were lucky enough to reach Mr. Lilly on the telephone.

We told him the whole story, and that we would buy the $1,300 piece, deliver it to him in May and consider the $3,500 not available. Mr. Lilly said: "Mort, let me tell you that what happened to you was surely not your fault or your company’s. You tried for about a year to finish my double eagle collection. You tried something different than I have ever seen in the hobby business, by tempting someone with a reward to find the coin. You may have been taken advantage of, but I will take the first specimen at the $3,500 you paid for it.” He went on to thank Morton and Stack’s for building his set at a fair market price, and felt that he had benefited from our experience and network of contacts.

Wow, that was a gentleman. In 1956 to give up $2,200 (the difference of the cost of the one we purchased from Kelly and the one we could have gotten for $1,300) represented a sizeable amount of money to lose.

So we continued our search, working to help Mr. Lilly build a world-class collection and in May 1956 I made my now familiar delivery trip to Indianapolis.

The main two coins that he still needed were the 1870-S $3 gold (at the time part of the Eliasberg Collection) and the 1822 $5 gold. I felt that since Amon Carter, Sr. who died who had an 1822 $5, that was the most likely one that could be acquired. That collector’s son, Amon Carter, Jr., liked paper money more than the coins, and had indicated to us that sometime in the future that coin might be made available. But he never set a time for it. Mr. Lilly said, "Rome wasn't built in a day, neither will my collection be!”

We discussed various other areas, such as Ancient gold coins and the extensive medieval series. Mr. Lilly asked that I prepare an outline and listing of how he should continue, and that we continue seeking more Spanish American gold coins, along with the few U.S. pieces needed to finish his set. He also asked us to work on expanding his English and French coin collections.

Mr. Lilly remarked that in the past five years he had assembled close to 2,000 different gold coins and that he had enjoyed owning these examples of monetary history of the world.

Mr. Lilly was pleased with what we had amassed and we discussed the various collections and I expressed how honored we were to be his sole dealer. We told him of the dealers we worked with. Often these dealers (as well as collectors) asked us, “Who is your client?” We of course kept it a secret, for Mr. Lilly wanted to keep private what he was doing. Of course we followed his instructions to the letter. We even had a story we used for a few dealers who made special efforts to assist us, telling them that we had several different clients, one who liked doubloons, another who like United States gold, another who collected Ancients, another who liked England and France, etc. It may seem a fantastic story, but it was believed, even though our want lists showed various forms of specialization. We did the same for other clients who desired anonymity. We kept their secrets and in that way kept the confidence of the collectors we dealt with.

Many $20.00 gold pieces were found in overseas banks after World War II where they were held instead of paper money. When the U.S. was settling debts after World War I, we paid in bars and coin. So they became the hidden treasures held overseas.

When the Central Banks and banks that started to settle their debts they allowed dealers and traders to go into their vaults and pick out rare dates of U.S. coins. In a trip to Europe Kelly found a hoard of 1926-S double eagles.

It was at the Central States convention that Kelly claimed his reward, and the $3000 we paid for one. He did not like Stack's as we captured a great collection from him, (which he thought he had). He claimed both the Reward and the Purchase price. The next morning Kelly flooded the show floor with 1926-S coins.

Once our bid was out of the market, the prices dropped like a stone and before noon, the dealers on the floor tried to sell theirs to us or others, based on our price, and no one wanted to own one at that figure, We could have bought quite a few at just over $1200 each.