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V24 2021 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 24, Number 1, January 4, 2021, Article 10

Two members of my Northern Virginia numismatic social group Nummis Nova chimed in about the story of Dreifus-Rosenthal 1804 dollar said to have appeared in Alexandria, VA. First, Dave Schenkman. -Editor

"Pete Smith's comments about the black man who had an 1804 silver dollar reminded me of an article I wrote for the Civil War Token Society in 2017 on the life of Henry Clay Ezekiel. His obituary notice in the November 1930 issue of The Numismatist cites a 1911 biographical sketch in which he related that

"... he became interested in coins while living in Richmond and that he became acquainted with Edward Cohen, who was in the banking and brokerage business in that city. One day while in the banker's office (about 1860) a Negro brought into him a lot of silver coins among which he found an 1804 dollar. Mr. Cohen later sold the dollar to his uncle, Col. M. J. Cohen, of Baltimore, for $100. This dollar became the Colonel Cohen 1804 dollar, one of the dozen or so known specimens of this date that many collectors regard as originals."

Um, yeah. Pete was careful to note that "These discoveries do not prove that Dreifus owned an 1804 dollar, but they do prove there was a man and location that match the Bosbyshell story." Next up, Bill Eckberg. -Editor

This Dreifus story made me laugh. It has too much in common with the legend of the Collins hoard of 1828 half cents.

The following is excerpted from my book, The Half Cent 1793-1857. The Story of America's Greatest Little Coin.

Henry Chapman wrote the following in his 1918 catalog of the Jackman collection: [Lot 879, an UNC 1811 half cent] was discovered in 1884, being brought by an old colored woman of Alexandria, VA., to Mr. Benjamin H. Collins of Washington [DC], to whom she stated she had a bag of them! He, thinking there was not any mistake about the hoard, sold it to S.H & H. Chapman for $3! with the remark, "How many more will you take?" We said the lot. The woman subsequently brought him the bag, but to his astonishment they were all 1828 13 stars! and it has always been a mystery to me that an 1811 equally fine as the 1828s should have been in with the later date, and that her pick at random should have alighted on the only 1811 in the bag! It was subsequently sold in the Warner Sale, $67 and there bought by Mr. Jackman.

Walter Breen wrote about this hoard as did Q. David Bowers. Both of them "corrected" some of this information. Breen reported having seen a remnant lot of 140 red UNCs in 1955, making the 1,000-coin number most probable. Both wrote that Collins sold the 1811 to the Chapmans for $18, not $3, that the Jackman 1811 half cent was not from the Warner Sale, and that the woman brought the coins to Collins in 1894, not 1884, as they believed that Collins was not a coin dealer until after his retirement in 1894. Breen also wrote that Collins sold the coins for 40¢ each. "An old colored woman" brought the bag, which also contained the finest known 1811 1-A, to the Washington, DC shop of Benjamin H. Collins? In 1884 or 1894? Of course! That happens all the time. We can be sure there was a bag that came from somewhere. Whether it contained 50, 100 or 1,000 coins is uncertain; all three numbers have been reported, but it was most likely the latter, based on the number of high grade survivors.

Is it likely that "an old colored woman" walked into Collins' shop with 1,000 mint red half cents? Admittedly, they had a combined face value of only $5.00, but a bag of red fifty-six or sixty-six year old half cents when half cents had been removed from circulation at least 27 years before? If you're as skeptical of that story as I am, note that Collins worked for the Treasury Department in Washington, DC until his retirement in 1894, though he was a coin dealer at least from 1884. Where did she get them? How and why would an old woman, presumably not of means, have kept them in pristine condition for so long? And why bring them to Collins so conveniently close to his retirement? Could he have used insider information or connections to get these coins and created a cover story to hide the truth?

Indeed. Junk dealer Dreifus had a name and address. Conveniently, none of these three "colored" sources were given a name or address. We'll never be able to disprove their existence, but we'll never be able to confirm them, either. Colorful backstories are a fact of life in the coin business. But interesting as they are, we have to remain aware that many of them are likely untrue. -Editor