During
the fall of 1955 and winter and early spring of 1956, Stack’s continued building segments of the J.K. Lilly Collection, keeping him informed
while he spent his winter in
Florida. We sent him some books on ancient and medieval gold coins, about collections listed
in the British Museum and in various reference texts. We also provided him with auction catalogs from
all over the world, and pointed
out which coins we were trying to acquire for him. We concentrated on finding additional doubloons
and beginning an ancient gold
collection.
We
knew he wanted to finish his double eagle collection, but there was still one piece needed to do it. Our ad offering to buy a 1926-S had
received no response, but we continued to mention it to the dealers who
traveled overseas, and hoped that
they might help us locate this missing link.
We
had a visit from Mr. Lilly on his way home in the spring of 1956 and he was pleased with what we had accumulated. As we expected he asked about the 1926-S double eagle. We
told him that we had not been
offered one in response to our reward ad.
We
arranged a date to deliver what we had acquired to Indianapolis in the early
part of May. Before that, in April of 1956, I went to the Central States
Numismatic Convention with my father, Morton, to locate more items for Mr. Lilly. During the first two days of that
event we were able to add some foreign and ancient gold, but the missing $20 gold piece was not offered.
On
the third day of the show, James Kelly, together with his recent partner, Paul
Witlin, a dealer-jeweler from New York, came up to our table. “Is your
offer still valid?” asked Jim. My father replied that we still wanted one.” Jim reached
into his pocket, took out a 2 X 2 envelope, and placed the coin on a pad at our counter. “There it is,” he
said. “I want my $500 reward!”
Morton
replied, “You got it!” and said, “Now tell me where I can buy
it.” Jim responded, “From me.” Morton wrote out two
checks, one for $500 and one for $3,000. This was quite a good deal for Jim
Kelly as he received not only the reward money, but also all the profit that
came with selling the coin for $3,000 — a price way above the current market
price.
As
soon as we could we sent a telegraph to Mr. Lilly, saying the double eagle collection was now complete! We would deliver the missing
link with the other items in May and we would give the 1926-S to him at cost,
as we felt we had paid a ransom price to get it. My father spoke to Mr. Lilly and received a
wonderful “thank you” for completing that collection. In U.S. gold he now had complete collections of $1
$2.50, $3, $4 and $20! He was
surprised we had been able to do it so quickly. All that was now needed
was a few $5 and 10 coins for
his regular U.S. gold collection to be complete. He congratulated us on our
efficiency. He added: “I look forward to placing the 1926-S $20 in my
collection. Thank you for your
efforts, and I will see one of you in May.”
But
the “sky fell” the next day at the Central States Show! That part of the story
will have to wait for the next installment.
