MISSOURI CABINET OF HALF CENTS CATALOG AVAILABLE

The magnificent Missouri Cabinet of half cents is now viewable in full color online from Goldberg Coins. This has got to be a numismatic historical record for an auction catalogue being completed and physically readable seven months or more in advance of auction just prior to the 2014 January Long Beach coin and collectibles expo.

The plates are magnificent with every coin greatly enlarged and the many really important pieces having full page plates. The descriptions are highly detailed with the traditional McCawley-Grellman more conservative "EAC-standard" grades given in the text, often contrasting with the much higher PCGS slab grades, as much as 15 grading points difference in a few cases. And for this grading honesty, many collectors are thankful.

Extensive detailed pedigrees are given for each half cent.

The collection has been consigned by longtime half cent enthusiast "R. Tettenhorst" with whom Eric Newman was associated prior to retirement.

I noticed some interesting things while closely perusing the auction catalogue. It is supposed to be a complete variety collection of half cents but I noted a blatantly missing 2 star diebreak 1811 half cent.

Also noted was the presence of Fred "Freddy" Werner, a longtime and much-travelled Long Island coin dealer who passed away some years ago, in the pedigree lines of many of the best half cents in the collection, all ex-Willis DuPont to Werner.

We all know DuPont suffered a major home invasion which resulted in his coin collection including the Brasher doubloon and 1804 $ being stolen by organized crime figures and recovered by the FBI years later. Much of it reportedly buried in the ground.

I knew Fred Werner way back when he didn't have two pennies to rub together and visited his dilapidated Long Island home. This would have been in the mid 1960's.

So I wondered what connection Werner might have had with the recovery of the stolen DuPont coins and his apparent subsequent handling of the half cents. Does anyone have any more information on this? Logic would indicate "Freddy" became involved as a go-between and worked out an arrangement to handle at least some of the recovered coins - the half cents.

To view the complete catalog, see: http://issuu.com/goldbergcoins/docs/77small/1?e=1181641/3620382

Wayne Homren, Editor

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