A. CHARLES GIES, NUMISMATIST

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V17 2014 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 17, Number 28, July 6, 2014, Article 19

I've submitted an article to The Numismatist about the upcoming 100th anniversary of the American Numismatic Association membership of the Western Pennsylvania Numismatic Society. My earlier research into the history and archives of WPNS proved very helpful. More should be said about one member in particular, A. C. Gies. While I found little information directly connecting him with the Society's relationship with the ANA, he is an important numismatic figure both nationally and locally. Here is an excerpt about Gies from my paper, The Early History of the Western Pennsylvania Numismatic Society. Gies joined the Society on January 31, 1879. -Editor

A. Charles Gies was a jeweler and optician, who began collecting coins in 1864. In a letter contained in the WPNS archives, he recalled the beginnings of his collection of "the war tokens and store cards of Pittsburgh." Gies stated that he "started to collect these momentoes of our Early Store Keepers when small change was very scarce. I knew where all these stores were. (I) was in some of them when I was a boy, and in after years got acquainted with some of those that issued these coins during the period of the Civil War, among which I mention Mr. Buffum."

Gies had built a collection of 95 varieties of Pittsburgh Civil War store cards in copper, brass, white metal, nickel, and paper.

Gies was elected a trustee of the A.N.A. in 1904. He attended the Chapman's Stickney sale in Philadelphia (June 25-29, 1907), taking a trolley excursion to Fairmont Park one evening with Dr. Louis Comparette of the Philadelphia Mint, Virgil Brand, Ben Green, Thomas Elder, Edgar H. Adams, Farran Zerbe, and others. In September of that year Gies joined 27 fellow numismatists for the A.N.A. Convention in Columbus, Ohio. He is pictured in the front row of the official convention photograph, along with Heath, Zerbe, Green, Elder, and S.H. & H. Chapman. Gies brought with him an 1816 half dollar, which he sold at the convention.

It was reported in the October 1911 Numismatist that while on a trip through the Rocky Mountains Gies acquired an 1861 Parsons & Company $5.00 gold piece (only 4-6 pieces are known today).

Gies collected all U.S. coins, but specialized in half dollars, discovering many die varieties not listed in the standard reference of the day, the Haseltine Type Table catalogue.

As reported in The Numismatist, Gies attended the 1924 Cleveland A.N.A. convention, where he and fellow Pittsburghers (and WPNS members) Gottlieb Kraft and Perley W. Locker "were inseperable conventionites. They are a long-time friendly trio of rivals for die varieties of the early United States half dollars. What they did not have on public display they had to show in private. Based on their combined table of varieties, a new 'type table' is in order."

George Clapp, in a letter to the Society written July 2, 1938 (in response to a letter notifying Clapp of his nomination as an Honorary member) stated "this is an unexpected honor and while I am the only living "Charter Member" I feel that the honor should have gone to "Charlie" Gies, the man who has held the Society together, and done the real work, in doing so, these past sixty years." At the time his half dollar collection was auctioned by Stack's in 1940, Gies was the oldest living collector in the United States.

A.C. Gies is a real hero. Did you ever see a listing or catalog of a sale of his Pittsburgh Civil War Tokens? I am especially interested in names of issuers of the paper/cardboard items.

Can anyone help? While Gies' Half Dollar holdings were documented, I don't recall seeing anything other than this reference to his Civil War collections. -Editor