MARY MARGARET RICH'S 1898 PROOF SET

On page 176 of Karl Moulton's Henry Voight and Others Involved with America's Early Coinage is a photograph of an empty presentation box for a proof set. The purple plush satin inside the top cover is inscribed with gilt lettering, "Mary Margaret Rich / AUGUST 9TH, 1898." The swirling script led Moulton to read Mary Margaret's surname as "Reich," he surmised that since the mother of the early nineteenth-century mint engraver, John Reich was Mary Margaret, perhaps this set belonged to Reich's daughter.

Yet, the golden surname is not Reich, it is Rich, and Mary Margaret Rich has her own story. Her story is unspectacular; some might even say it is not worthy of recounting in a numismatic publication. However, others may wish to reflect upon this somewhat disappointing circumstance, such that we, as advocates of a hobby motivated by preservation, failed to protect Mary Margaret Rich's proof set.

Moulton's book referenced lot 2803 from the January 28, 1990, sale of the Thomas S. Chalkley collection by Superior Stamp & Coin Co, Inc. The empty box later resurfaced in the collection of Eric P. Newman, sold by Heritage Auctions on November 10, 2018, as lot 15770. The Chalkley and Newman catalog descriptions do not trace the box before 1990. Both descriptions indicated the box's exterior was in poor condition; the Chalkley description noted that the hinge was broken.

 

 

Six-Piece Proof Set Case. Eric P. Newman Collection Part XI. Heritage Auctions, November 10, 2018, lot 15770

Once the surname is read as Rich, the box with its now missing coins can be found in earlier auction listings. On July 26, 1985, it was offered at Stack's as lot 1860, and on September 13, 1988, it appeared with Bowers and Merena at lot 3549 as part of the collections from the Estates of Philip M. Mann, Jr. & Glenn B. Smedley. The coins were described as "a gem original set," and "the silver coins are uniformly toned in deep silver-gray and iridescent blue and green." The nickel was "brilliant and untoned," and the cent "a deep fiery orange." The case's exterior was noted to be in poor condition; no mention is made of the hinge, though it appears to be firmly intact in the image.

 
Rare original 1898 proof set in a presentation box. Stack's, July 26, 1985, lot 1860

How this set came to Stack's in 1985 is not known. However, it seems likely to have been the possession of Mary Margaret Rich DeWaters (1898–1987), who had been a resident of Grasmere, Staten Island, from the 1930s until just before her death. Mary Margaret Rich was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on August 8, 1898, the day before the date on the box. Her parents were Georgine Clarke and George Pawling Rich, an influential Philadelphia attorney. In the announcement of her May 15, 1926, marriage to Walker DeWaters, a University of Pennsylvania graduate from Elmira, New York, and Miami, Florida, Mary Margaret was described as "socially prominent in Germantown and Philadelphia" and "a direct descendant of Governor Hiester of Revolutionary fame and of Sir John Pawling, who held one of the original grants in Pennsylvania [Elmira Star-Gazette, May 19, 1926]."

Before her marriage, Mary Margaret had been a real estate agent and notary. Her obituary stated that she attended the Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia and drove ambulances for the Red Cross during World War II. Mary Margaret Rich and Walker DeWaters (an insurance executive) had a son and a daughter and spent their later years as dealers and collectors of rare French paperweights [The Palm Beach Post, April 30, 1978]. Mary Margaret also had a collection of German bisque dolls [The Item of Millburn and Short Hills (N.J.), September 28, 1972].

It is regrettable that between September 1988 and January 1990, someone in the numismatic community chose to separate the coins comprising the 1898 proof set of Mary Margaret Rich from the presentation box, which had befitted them for nine decades. This article is but a small attempt to make amends.

Chris McDowell writes:

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