West 57th street collection 2 2

[Wesley Bird]

I came across this at a coin show. It is slabbed obviously but in this case there is no grade assigned. Does anyone happen to know why?

[BlakeEik]

They did not pay to have it graded, only authenticated and pedigreed.  Chances are, its because it may have been cleaned, it's only AU, or something else was wrong with it.

Edited March 13, 2021 by BlakeEik

[World Colonial]

Sounds like it is from a hoard Stacks Bowers bought several years ago.  West 57th street is the old address of their shop in NYC.

[DWLange]

Yes, this was a hoard of thousands of coins from Stack's. I never inquired, but it may have been all the stuff that built up during 60 years at the same location. If so, it's just as well they sold those coins, because they recently relocated!

[RWB]

Stacks announced they were clearing out the backrooms, and odds 'n' ends several years ago. Never checked to see what that had although information was that it was all ordinary material bought as part of groups of coins. (The all or nothing offers.)

[GoldFinger1969]

1 hour ago, DWLange said:

Yes, this was a hoard of thousands of coins from Stack's. I never inquired, but it may have been all the stuff that built up during 60 years at the same location. If so, it's just as well they sold those coins, because they recently relocated!

Their headquarters is now in CA ?  And they moved from 57th to Park Avenue so I doubt they are saving much $$$ on the Manhattan rent.  Wonder why they moved.

[Henri Charriere]

51 minutes ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

Their headquarters is now in CA ?  And they moved from 57th to Park Avenue so I doubt they are saving much $$$ on the Manhattan rent.  Wonder why they moved.

The face of West 57th Street has changed dramatically. Many of the tallest high rise luxury towers have re-defined the area. The Pontiac showroom, Hoffritz cutlery, Coliseum Books, etc. are all long gone. Even the D.E.A. moved.  The real estate pressure was too intense.

Coincidentally, Brigandi Coins, Heritage Auction's New York office -- and Stack's are all within a block of each other from E 57th Street and Park Ave. though it is not clear to me whether they have resumed normal operations.

[World Colonial]

I went to the W 57th Street office once.  Thought it had a good atmosphere for a coin shop though I don't think of them as a retail outlet.

[Wesley Bird]

Thank you for all the info! I used to live in North East New Jersey and spent a lot of time in NYC. 57th Ave has changed a lot recently. I am still researching the hoard but the coin I got appears to be just fine to me. They may have seen something they didn't like so it got no grade. My next step is to email them and ask what happened since they have pictures of it...

[World Colonial]

6 minutes ago, Wesley Bird said:

Thank you for all the info! I used to live in North East New Jersey and spent a lot of time in NYC. 57th Ave has changed a lot recently. I am still researching the hoard but the coin I got appears to be just fine to me. They may have seen something they didn't like so it got no grade. My next step is to email them and ask what happened since they have pictures of it...

This is purely a guess but I assume it was done as a marketing tool by Stacks.  The coin may be eligible for a numerical grade but maybe the incremental grading fee was more than the incremental value add.  In other words, they made the same or more money marketing the coin without the grade through a bulk submission.

[GoldFinger1969]

1 hour ago, World Colonial said:

I went to the W 57th Street office once.  Thought it had a good atmosphere for a coin shop though I don't think of them as a retail outlet.

I want to check them out, along with Heritage, once Manhattan opens up again.

[World Colonial]

20 hours ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

I want to check them out, along with Heritage, once Manhattan opens up again.

I went for lot viewing, in December 2006.  The impression I have is that they do not function as a retail outlet for the general public but I do not know if this is accurate.

[GoldFinger1969]

3 hours ago, World Colonial said:

I went for lot viewing, in December 2006.  The impression I have is that they do not function as a retail outlet for the general public but I do not know if this is accurate.

Stacks wants you to call-in with an appointment.  Not sure about HA, I am a registered bidder for their online I get the feeling they are a bit more low-brow than Stacks and you can probably walk-in off the street.  

I'll know in a few months. 

[Hoghead515]

On 3/16/2021 at 6:50 PM, Quintus Arrius said:

The face of West 57th Street has changed dramatically. Many of the tallest high rise luxury towers have re-defined the area. The Pontiac showroom, Hoffritz cutlery, Coliseum Books, etc. are all long gone. Even the D.E.A. moved.  The real estate pressure was too intense.

Coincidentally, Brigandi Coins, Heritage Auction's New York office -- and Stack's are all within a block of each other from E 57th Street and Park Ave. though it is not clear to me whether they have resumed normal operations.

Wish I'd checked all that out when I worked up there. Back in 2000 I worked up there. First time I ever got to see a big city. It was pretty cool. We was way out of place. The company I worked for paid our hotel rooms. They had a bunch of us hillbillies shacked up at the Courtyard Marriott in Time Square. That crew didn't know what to think about us. They never heard our Southern accents before. We were up there for a few weeks. We made good friends with all the workers there though. I loved to see all the sights. Only got to see that stuff on TV before. I wish we would have checked out those big coin shops and things. 

[World Colonial]

20 hours ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

Stacks wants you to call-in with an appointment.  Not sure about HA, I am a registered bidder for their online I get the feeling they are a bit more low-brow than Stacks and you can probably walk-in off the street.  

I'll know in a few months. 

Aside from potential security issues, I infer it's also a screening method to keep window shoppers away who aren't going to spend any money anyway.  They have a limited retail inventory for sale on their website but I do not know if this is only a small fraction, most, or all of it.

If you ever read Harvey Stacks articles on Coin Week, I don't think they are the same type of firm they were a long time ago.  I might be wrong about that but I infer they would have dealt with a lower budget buyer in the past.

[GoldFinger1969]

3 hours ago, Hoghead515 said:

I wish we would have checked out those big coin shops and things. 

I've worked on-and-off in midtown Manhattan since 1984 and I've never stopped in at Stacks or the other places.

On my "to do" list, though !! 

[GoldFinger1969]

2 hours ago, World Colonial said:

If you ever read Harvey Stacks articles on Coin Week, I don't think they are the same type of firm they were a long time ago.  I might be wrong about that but I infer they would have dealt with a lower budget buyer in the past.

Harvey wrote in for the Comments section of the 1933 Saints-Sotheby's Coinweek article earlier this month.

[Hoghead515]

22 minutes ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

I've worked on-and-off in midtown Manhattan since 1984 and I've never stopped in at Stacks or the other places.

On my "to do" list, though !! 

We mainly stayed around time Square when we weren't working. We went and saw the empire state building also. I got a picture of me 19 years old standing on top empire state building and the twin towers in the background. We literally flew out of LA Guardia Airport the day before the planes were hijacked to come home. I couldn't tell you exactly where our job site was. It was like a maze to me. We were four blocks from the towers though. I remember being on time Square and being on TV.  They was filming people from that MTV building. People were out in the street waving and hollering. We got in there and gave it a wave to. First and last time I ever been on TV. It was a pretty cool place. I remember the guys I worked with wanted to go to a bar called Hogs and Heifers. I was to young so I went back and chilled at the motel. They ended up getting to drunk and they pitched the one guy out into the street. Then he ended up getting mugged on the way back. The guys working at the motel were all really cool old boys. They treated us great. They patched our old buddy up after that guy rolled him and took his wallet. He had a bad night. 

[Hoghead515]

They could have probably made a movie about that if they would have followed us around. Throw a bunch of hillbillies out in Manhattan. Set us up in that fancy motel. We all got our own private rooms also at The Courtyard Marriott. We worked for Global Crossing. That company treated us great. They set us up in Toronto and Montreal also. Bought us tickets to a baseball game. First and only time I ever been to one. Watched the Toronto Bluejays. The Mariners beat them up there. We didn't cheer none cause there was mad fans all around us. We didn't want them to know we were Americans. Would have probably got beat down or something. All that kind of stuff excited me. I'd never been out of the holler before. Got to see things I'd only seen on TV 

[GoldFinger1969]

23 minutes ago, Hoghead515 said:

We worked for Global Crossing. That company treated us great. They set us up in Toronto and Montreal also. Bought us tickets to a baseball game. First and only time I ever been to one. Watched the Toronto Bluejays. The Mariners beat them up there. We didn't cheer none cause there was mad fans all around us. We didn't want them to know we were Americans. Would have probably got beat down or something. All that kind of stuff excited me. I'd never been out of the holler before. Got to see things I'd only seen on TV 

I managed money for Global Crossing in the late-1990's.  Drove me nuts with the 3-hour time difference or the Caribbean time zone they were in with the Fed Wire deadline at 3 PM !!  

[Hoghead515]

3 minutes ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

I managed money for Global Crossing in the late-1990's.  Drove me nuts with the 3-hour time difference or the Caribbean time zone they were in with the Fed Wire deadline at 3 PM !!  

I was a technician and installed fiber optics and equipment for them. Made very good money at the time. Wish I would have stayed at it in a way. Could have been doing good right now. But I ended up having a kid and got homesick. Then money wasn't as important as being with my family and being home. Was happy with being poor and creating memories. I sure had the time of my life the first couple years. Was young and single making all that money. Got to see the country. Seen a little bit of everything out on the road. 

[World Colonial]

1 hour ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

Harvey wrote in for the Comments section of the 1933 Saints-Sotheby's Coinweek article earlier this month.

I was referring to the series of articles he wrote about the history of his firm which I found really interesting.  It was a throwback to the past, back to when the firm started and long before I was born.

He wasn't clear in the articles and while I doubt they ever catered to collectors filling holes in Whitman folders, my inference is that it used to be more of a retail coin shop many years ago.  Now, I doubt whatever inventory they carry is often below four figures.