Like any other professional numismatist, I have had many mentors who have given me assistance and insight throughout my career. Most of their gifts I could never pay back, so I pay them forward instead.
Every once in a while, though, I get the chance to return a favor.
In Spring 1998 I was 12 years old, a member of the American Numismatic Association for just a few months and unknown as a coin geek outside my small town’s coin club.
The ANA’s National Money Show was held in Cincinnati that year, just a few hours’ drive away. So my parents took me to my first major coin event.
While several life-changing introductions were made for me there, the on-theme meeting was with noted coin dealer Stuart Levine. As usual, he had his cases well-stocked with rarities, including “pattern” or experimental coinage.
I “oohed” over what I thought was an Amazonian pattern, only to correct myself a few seconds later and say it was a Standard Silver coin instead.
Mr. Levine overheard, and as he rarely encounters unknown 12-year-olds in Snoopy T-shirts saying such things, he took an immediate interest in me.
When he learned that I didn’t have any of the main references for pattern coins, he went to a nearby coin-book dealer, purchased Andrew Pollock’s United States Patterns and Related Issues and gave me the beautiful blue hardcover on the spot.
I squeaked out a thank-you. When I was 12, I looked and sounded the part.
Fast-forward 15 years to early 2013. I’m a cataloger for Heritage. The first part of The Eric P. Newman Collection, focused on patterns, comes to my department. Mr. Levine is consulting with the Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society as it deaccessions certain items.
I am in the right place, at the right time, with the right knowledge – gained in large part from that Pollock reference Mr. Levine gave me.
The most expensive pattern I cataloged, an 1879 metric-system-based twenty dollar coin or “Quintuple Stella” struck in copper, realized $188,000.
There is no way Mr. Levine could have known in 1998 what would come of his kindness in 2013. He simply wanted to help a bright young numismatist on his way.
I’m glad he did.
By John Dale Beety