M. H. BOLENDER AUCTION SALE CATALOGS

I spent a few enjoyable hours last weekend looking through the Newman Numismatic Portal (NNP). I’ve collected M. H. Bolender auction sale catalogs for a decade or two. The NNP now has a long run of these sale catalogs scanned and online, from 1925 to 1960. The 1925 through early 1928 catalogs were printed in a small size format. The September 1928 catalogs and later were approximately the size of our John Reich Journal. At one point in the 1950s Bolender went back to the small format for these catalogs.

Milferd H. Bolender was a dealer and was originally from Freeport, Illinois. He eventually retired to San Marino, California. Bolender was the author of THE UNITED STATES EARLY SILVER DOLLARS FROM 1794 TO 1803; the first edition of this book was published in 1950. This book essentially updated and replaced the Haseltine Type Table sale (1881) as the primary reference for the early dollars.

As I paged through a fair number of the catalogs, I noted that the early U.S. silver dollars 1794 to 1804 were cataloged using Haseltine numbers from 1925 to 1949 or so, then Bolender numbers from 1950 on. It was fun to see half dollars attributed by both Haseltine and later Beistle numbers, and half dimes with Newlin numbers! As might be expected, early quarters and dimes seemed to appear much less frequently in these sales than the half dimes, half dollars, and early dollars 1794-1803.

Bolender’s sales offered a wide assortment of lots, including U.S., foreign, and ancient coins, currency, Colonials, tokens, medals, and Numismatic Literature.

What amazed me the most was that by 1959 Bolender stated he had over 16,000 names and addresses on his mailing list. By 1960 this number was over 20,000! I can only imagine the efforts and cost that went into printing the catalogs, typing the name and address, inserting the catalogs into envelopes, and mailing all of these in the 1955-1965 time frame!

I have a number of Bolender sale catalogs in the original mailing envelopes that I purchased years ago from Numismatic Literature dealer Charles Davis. I’ve attached a photo of the mailing envelope for the June 14, 1944 Bolender 159th Sale. Note that the address appears to be typed on the envelope, and Bolender had a postage permit coincidentally No. 159). I especially got a kick out of the “DATED SALE CATALOG / USELESS IF DELAYED” above the return address on the top left of the envelope!

W. David Perkins
Centennial, CO
www.davidperkinsrarecoins.com

To read the complete JR Newsletter issue, see:
JR Newsletter: 18 December 2016 (324) (http://us11.campaign-archive2.com/?u=74a0e3c37d154d935bdeb2daf&id=4bb9e499c4&e=9b1d009ea9)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web