Did you know Stack’s
Bowers Galleries is honored to present the Catherine Bullowa Moore Collection
in our upcoming official auction of the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Winter
Expo, November 8-10, 2017 in Baltimore, Maryland. To learn more about Catherine
Bullowa we hope you enjoy Q. David Bowers tribute to her in the catalog.
Remembering
Cathy Bullowa
by
Q. David Bowers
If anyone wants to define
a leading lady in the profession of numismatics, the story of Cathy Bullowa
would be a good place to start. I do not recall when I first met her, but it
surely was in the early 1950s when I was getting my start in the coin business.
In the middle of that decade I was a regular attendee at the Middle Atlantic
Numismatic Association, Penn-Ohio, and other shows in the East. Cathy was often
on hand, sometimes with a bourse table, other times moving around to visit.
She was always quiet,
always polite, and always ready to help me, a youngster, with basic questions.
I last saw her at the August 1996 American Numismatic Association banquet
where, with assistance, she was able to attend and enjoy the occasion. Her
table was next to mine, and we had a nice chat. She passed away on May 15,
2017, at the age of 97. She is missed by all, and a number of nice tributes to
her have appeared in the media.
Catherine Bullowa Moore
(to take the surnames of her husbands) was born Catherine Elias on July 21,
1919. She hailed from Larchmont, New York. In 1941 she graduated from Connecticut
College in New London with a degree in Zoology. She spent several years at the
Long Island College of Medicine, doing research and teaching in the Physiology
Department. She became interested in coins and began trading in them along with
antique jewelry.
In 1951 she met coin
dealer David Marks Bullowa and in May 1952 they were married. By that time
David was famous in numismatics, with his credentials including an early study
of commemorative coins, work with the Smithsonian Institution, and a stint in
the New York City office of the New Netherlands Coin Company, run by Charles M.
Wormser. I never had the opportunity to meet him.
When David passed away in
September 1953, Catherine continued the couple’s coin business in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. She learned quickly about numismatics through research and with
the help of old-time dealers such as Charles Wormser and Abe Kosoff. She became
well versed in coins and currency of the United States as well as ancient and
world coins.
In 1959, Bullowa married Earl
E. Moore, an autographs and manuscripts specialist who, by the way, was a
relative of Stephen K. Nagy, well-known Philadelphia numismatist who had been
prominent in many transactions earlier in the century. The couple attended coin
shows and conventions throughout the country and Catherine continued her coin
dealership, Coinhunter, in Philadelphia. In 1965 she served on the United
States Assay Commission. She would remain in the coin business for over six
decades, with her final mail bid sale held in 2003.
Cathy was a member of
many prominent organizations, including the International Association of
Professional Numismatists, which she served as a member of the Executive
Committee 1953-1971, and as 2nd Vice President 1972-1979. She also belonged to
the American Numismatic Association (Life Member #355), the American Society of
Appraisers (senior member), the Royal Numismatic Society (fellow), the American
Numismatic Society and the Professional Numismatists Guild (Charter Member #3).
Bullowa was the recipient of the first PNG Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997
as well as that group’s Art Kagin Numismatic Ambassador Award in 2013.
Professional numismatics
will forever be the richer for her presence.
It is humbling and an
honor to include her estate coins in our present sale.
