I want to open a topic for discussion. Who had the largest American coin collection? I don'tknow the answer. Perhaps E-Sylum readers can reach a consensus over time.

Start with an obvious distinction, the difference between a collection and a hoard. A collection isa systematic grouping of different items with some common theme. A hoard includes multipleexamples of the same things. An accumulation is just a bunch of stuff.

Along the way we should consider that different themes may include ancient coins, colonialcoins, American coins, world coins, currency, medals and tokens. Within each of those may belegitimate subsets assembled as important collections worthy of mention.

I contacted Joel Orosz to get the discussion started. He reported that the earliest American coincollections were formed by colonial clergymen.

The Reverend Andrew Eliot (1718-1778) was pastor of the New North Church in Boston and notthe Old North Church as stated in some numismatic references. He specialized in New Englandsilver coins but little beyond that. He acquired coins from silversmiths and sent them tocollectors in England.

Samuel Curwen (1715-1802) was a prosperous Salem merchant before the Revolution. As aloyalist, he fled to England in 1775, returning to Salem in 1784. William Bentley described hiscollection:

The Reverend William Bentley (1759-1819) of Salem mentioned coins in his diary. He wroteabout the coins that passed through his hands but not the extent of his collection. He was anagent for the collection of James Winthrop.

Judge James Winthrop (1752-1821) of Cambridge was librarian at Harvard from 1772 to 1787.The extent of his collection is unknown.

John Andrews (1743-1822) was a Boston hardware merchant. His collection passed to his sonHenry and was later acquired by the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Pierre Eugene Du Simitiere (1737-1784) had the first collection sold at auction in 1785. I don'tthink anyone knows the size of the collection but he had limited resources.

Robert Gilmor, Jr. (1774-1848) acquired some coins from Adam Eckfeldt at the PhiladelphiaMint. His collection of American coins by date was nearly complete.

Joseph Mickley (1799-1878) has been called He lost alarge part of his collection to a burglary in 1867. The extent of his intact collection is unknown.

T. Harrison Garrett (1849-1888) had a collection described as second only to Parmelee. After hisdeath in a sailing accident, the collection passed to his son Robert and then in 1919 to John WorkGarrett and later to Johns Hopkins University. The collection was sold at auction for $25 million,a record at the time.

Byron Reed (1829-1891) donated his collection to the Omaha Public Library including 6395coins, 474 patterns, 2136 U.S. notes, 607 Confederate bills and 1280 medals.

Lorin Parmelee (1827-1905) had a collection with an estimated value of $60,000 in 1883. Whenit was sold at auction in 1890, the sale realized $23,600.

John Story Jenks (1839-1923) had 11.000 coins which was a fine collection but dwarfed by theBrand collection of the same era.

Virgil Brand (1862-1926) was reported to have a collection of 350,000 coins. However, he had alot of duplicates. His estate was passed to his two brothers, Armin and Horace.

Waldo Newcomer (1867-1934) had a collection described as the greatest coin collection never tohave appeared at auction including about 4000 coins. Duplicates from his collection were sold byMehl in 1914 and 1919. His pattern collection and world coins were sold at auction by J. C.Morgenthau.

Edward H. R. Green (1868-1936) had a collection that required eight armored trucks to transportit to the Chase Bank. Some of the collection was sold through dealer Burdette G. Johnson to EricNewman.

Farran Zerbe (1871-1949) had a collection that was very large and diverse. It required more that athousand trays to exhibit. The collection was seen by more than any other at the ChaseManhattan Bank Money Museum. Eventually the 25,000 piece coin collection was donated tothe Smithsonian.

F. C. C. Boyd (1886-1958) had a collection advertised at the time it was sold as His collection was strong in patterns. He donated 13,552 pieces to theAmerican Numismatic Society.

Louis Eliasberg (1896-1976) is the only collector to assemble a complete collection of UnitedStates coins. How many coins was that? His total collection included more than 10,000 pieces.Were there larger collections with more world coins?

John J. Ford. Jr. (1924-2005) had an incredible collection of colonial coins and American tokensand medals that included everything except United States Mint coinage.

Eric Newman (1911-2017) wrote the book on 1804 dollars but never owned one. His interest ranmore to colonial coins and paper money than to more modern coinage.

Del Loy Hansen (1953- ) aspires to form a complete collection of American coins. He has notreported how close he is to completion in 2024.

Each of these collections has merits reflecting the interest of the collector. Collections wereformed from what was available and interesting at the time. There is no common metric that canbe used to establish quantity of coins or the value of a collection.

Ole Eklund (1873-1950) had more than 40,000 world copper coins which may have been thelargest for that subset of coins. I suspect there have been larger collections of world coins inAmerica that don't come to mind.

Amon Carter, Jr. (1919-1982) may have had the largest collection of world paper money. Howmany pieces was that? Who else had large collections?

My broad collection of tokens and medals exceeds 10,000 items. Within that are subsets that Ibelieve are the largest of their kind. However, I suspect there are many larger token collections.Who had the largest collection of transportation tokens? How about Conder tokens, Civil Wartokens, Good-for trade tokens? With the help of E-Sylum readers, I would like to answer thosequestions.

To read the earlier E-Sylum articleS, see:
ANDREW ELLIOT, 18TH-CENTURY COIN MAVEN(https://coinbooks.org/esylum_v03n38a09.html)
WILLIAM BENTLEY (1759-1819)(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n46a13.html)
OLDEST COIN COLLECTION RECORDED IN THE U.S.?(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v03n46a08.html)
REVIEW: DU SIMITIèRE AND HIS MUSEUM(https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n02a06.html)
ROBERT GILMOR, JR. (1774-1848)(https://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n23a14.html)
LONG-LOST JOSEPH MICKLEY LETTER REDISCOVERED(https://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n22a10.html)
BYRON REED (1829-1891)(https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n21a18.html)
VIRGIL BRAND ESTATE TOKENS AND MEDALS FOUND(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n04a09.html)
WALDO NEWCOMER (1867-1934)(https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n35a19.html)
JOSEPH FARRAN ZERBE (1871-1949)(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n13a13.html)
F.C.C. BOYD BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS(https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n07a13.html)
LOUIS ELIASBERG, SR. AND JR.(https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n33a16.html)
WAYNE'S WORDS: THE E-SYLUM NOVEMBER 15, 2017(https://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n47a01.html)
DELL LOY HANSEN SPEAKS ABOUT HIS COLLECTION(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n14a05.html)