The year 1999 was the final installment of his Numismatic Family story that Harvey G. Stack submitted before he passed away in January 2022. We at Stack’s Bowers Galleries will miss him greatly, not just for his exuberant personality and welcoming presence, but we will also miss his many stories of the nearly three-quarters of a century he spent in the numismatic hobby.
Stack’s auction season in 1999 would offer nine separate catalogs that brought to market United States and world coins, including some very important name collections.
The January 1999 Stack’s Americana catalog featured nearly 2,100 lots of colonial and federal coins, medals, and currency, with many interesting and diverse offerings. Of note were items recovered from the H.B.M.S. Feversham that sunk in 1711, including Massachusetts silver coins as well as cob two-escudos coins and cob silver pieces. In March we had another offering of U.S. gold, silver and copper coins, 1,164 lots that featured pieces from the collections of Dr. Alfred R. Globus and the estate of Ben Corson.
Our May auction in 1999 offered two important name catalogs. The first was the Herman Halpern Collection of 18th, 19th, and 20th Century United States Coins, over 1,000 lots in total. Mr. Halpern had been a client at Stack’s for nearly half a century and we had previously offered his large cents, gold coins, and paper money in public auctions from 1988 to 1993. Once again, this consignor chose Stack’s to present more of his fine cabinet to the collecting community.
Our second May catalog was an extremely important, specialized collection, built by John Whitney Walter – known as “Mr. 1796.” Within the appropriately numbered 96 lots of this sale was an incredible offering of the coins of this one year – a collection that Stack’s had worked closely with Mr. Walter to build and that he had exhibited widely over the years. These two “name” catalogs once again demonstrated Stack’s ability to help numismatists on all parts of their collecting journeys, from researching and buying to the presentation of the items to a new generation of collectors.
Our June sale brought to the auction block more items from the Dr. Alfred R. Globus Collection — three days of auctions that offered nearly 2,500 lots. These were separated into Part 1 that contained Ancient and Modern Coins and Medals of the World and Part 2 that featured United States Coins and Paper Money. In September we were able to offer 1,679 lots of United States coins and paper money in a sale that featured selections from the Lone Star Collection. In October we celebrated our 64th Anniversary Sale, a presentation of United States coins that featured selections from the Robert Dombrowski Collection and the William R. Orwen Collection. With more than 1,200 lots, over half of which were gold coins, this was another important offering.
We closed out 1999 as we had in many recent years with our sale in conjunction with the International Numismatic Convention in early December. This catalog presented a wide variety of coins from both the United States and around the world and included further offerings from the Dr. Alfred R. Globus holdings. As always in such a situation, we wanted to be sure that there was something included for all attendees of the convention, as well as our clients who sent in their bid sheets by mail. With over 2,300 lots spread across two days, this auction certainly filled the bill and was a great way to not only close out 1999, but also to lead us into the new millennium.
The year 1999 was the final installment of his Numismatic Family story that Harvey G. Stack submitted before he passed away in January 2022. We at Stack’s Bowers Galleries will miss him greatly, not just for his exuberant personality and welcoming presence, but we will also miss his many stories of the nearly three-quarters of a century he spent in the numismatic hobby.
