1955 PENNYPACKER IRA REED ESTATE SALE

"I recently came into my possession of an almost unknown coin auction catalog. It is the estate of coin dealer Ira Reed. Reed was a major dealer in the Philadelphia area. He conducted 29 auction sales, including the 1941 ANA convention sale. I have all except two in my library.

This estate sale was held May 16, 1955 at the Pennypacker Auction Center in Reading, Pa. 16 pages. It is a mystery to me why the widow Reed would not have sold this collection in Philadelphia instead of sending it to Reading. I am sure it was a financial sacrifice to her. But, in times of death, people do strange things.

The items (lots) in this sale are not numbered, so I'm not sure whether the items were grouped or sold individually - it could have been at the whim of the auctioneer. About 3/4 of the items were graded. Some were listed and not graded with a sentence at the top, "VG to Uncirculated and proof ". Under the heading of Silver Dollars are listed dates of 1805-1826. Perhaps these were Half Dollars? More than 100 gold pieces including Commemorative Gold Dollars, and 3 Three Dollar pieces Unc & Proof.

This sale had to be a buyer's dream to be at!! I COULD have been there but I did not know about it. I was 18 at the time, and had been collecting coins for about 5 years. I was at a meeting of the Reading Coin Club on May 9, a week before the sale, but have no memory of this important sale being announced. The next day, May 17, I attended a country coin auction in Ephrata, PA.

Also at that time each month I read the Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine cover to cover, and saw nothing of that sale. So, I find out about it 65+ years later!"

"Better late than never" doesn't apply to one-time opportunities. I have a couple of the important Pennypacker sales of early coppers and U.S. tokens, but not this one. I hadn't even been born yet, but as a collector of U.S. Civil War encased postage stamps I would have enjoyed the offering of some 46 different pieces, including a few scarce issuers and a scarce denomination.

A real rarity, a copy of this sale was sold in a June 2012 Kolbe & Fanning mail bid sale - we discussed it in a May 27, 2012 E-Sylum article. Here's the lot description. -Editor

Reed685 Pennypacker Auction Centre. ANNOUNCING AN EXTRAORDINARY AUCTION OF COINS AND STAMPS, ALSO ENCASED POSTAGE, TOKENS AND INDIAN RELICS, FROM THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF IRA S. REED, DECEASED. Kenhorst, Reading, Pa., May 16, 1955. 8vo, self-covered. 16 pages; no lots numbers: fine collection of stamps; (48) lots of encased postage; 9 pages listing U.S. federal coins; 3 pages listing Indian artifacts, books and furniture. Fine. (150.00)

A previously unknown catalogue, unlisted in any numismatic bibliography of which we are aware. While most of the material is poorly described, the collection of encased postage is noteworthy, as is the provenance. Ira Reed was a Glenside, Pennsylvania coin dealer who issued a number of auction catalogues and other publications, including the 1941 ANA sale. He died in October of 1954. The fact that this sale apparently has been completely forgotten is really quite remarkable. Indeed, it is a month earlier than the earliest Pennypacker sale included by Gengerke.