For Part 4 of my series on Dr. Conway A. Bolt, I will begin to focus on some different areas ofhis collection, including his exciting cabinet of pioneer and territorial gold coins of America andalso his collection of early bank notes from before federal paper money was issued.

Both of these series were collected as a result of Dr. Bolt's interest in the histories of thecompanies that issued them, their importance to the advancement of commerce and their contributionto our national heritage. As the good doctor lived in the Mid-Atlantic States, the issues byBechtler in both Carolina and Georgia were appealing to him for the part they played in history ofthat area. He visited the museums where Bechtler coins were shown, and met the curators whoexplained to him the development of the Bechtler coinage, made from the gold found in the Carolinaand Georgia areas. Some of the history of the banking and commerce of these southern states couldbe told by the gold coins, (and of course the bank notes) which were issued in the area.

Also adding to the information he gained was his great friendship with George O. Walton, (seeearlier in this column for more information on Walton) who was a bank examiner and also worked forthe Federal Government in the mid-Atlantic area. Dr. Bolt learned a lot from George and gained fromthe knowledge the latter gentleman had gained in his working and collecting. Mr. Walton collected,bought and sold coins and currency to collectors as he passed from town to town (over the hills andvalleys as he used to tell it), and gathered together gold coins, antiques, and anything that wasof interest to him. When he visited Dr. Bolt, they shared the stories each had heard, traded coinsand currency and became profoundly interested in the monetary history of this pre-Civil Warperiod.

First I will review the extent of George Walton's and Dr. Bolt's Bechtler coinage. Whilegoing through the hoard that George O. Walton left, Norman Stack and I discovered some 27 differentexamples of Carolina and Bechtler coinage. In the Walton catalog we wrote a list and description ofeach variety and we gave them "S" numbers for "Stack's" as this was thefirst time all were listed and described. We consulted with Dr. Bolt and he reported that thevarieties we found of the Bechtler coinage, as of the time he worked with Walton on the collectingthis issue, were all that were known at that time.

A review of the Bolt Collection showed us among his 29 specimens, he lacked two that Walton hadbut had one that Walton did not have. So the S -27 became a new variety which was an A.BECHTLER1.00 GOLD, 27 G. 21 C., which had a unique reeded edge, instead of a plain edge as on the Waltoncoins. It was a "find" for Norman and me and became listed as such. Working on twoimportant collections of a series gave us the opportunity to examine all the coins carefully anddiscover the varieties. It is extra exciting for a cataloger to discover something new!

Dr. Bolt had other pioneer coins within his collection and I will continue to describe them inthe next part of my story of this amazing collection. I will also tell of the U.S. patterns heassembled and the federal paper money he possessed. This story has been a reminder of what a finecollection this was, the fun I had working on it and the great knowledge I gained. This was truewhenever I and others had the enviable task of producing an informative and attractive catalog.

To read the complete article, see:
Stack's Sells the Dr. Conway A. Bolt Collection in 1966, Part 4(www.stacksbowers.com/NewsMedia/Blogs/TabId/780/ArtMID/
2678/ArticleID/64778/Stack%E2%80%99s-Sells-the-Dr-Conway-A-Bolt-Collection-in-1966-Part-4.aspx)