Harvey Stack, leading dealer in rare coins, dies at 93
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, November 5, 2024


Harvey Stack, leading dealer in rare coins, dies at 93
Harvey Stack, a rare coin dealer, right, at the coin store he owned with his cousin, Benjamin Stack, rear, in New York, March 18, 1976. Stack, the patriarch of the family firm that bills itself as the nation’s largest rare coin business, died on Jan. 3, 2022, in New York. He was 93. Tyrone Dukes/The New York Times.

by Sam Roberts



NEW YORK, NY.- Harvey Stack, the patriarch of the family firm that bills itself as the nation’s largest rare coin business, died Jan. 3 in New York City. He was 93.

His death was confirmed by his son, Larry.

Stack joined Stack’s Rare Coins as a teenager in 1947, 14 years after his father and uncle transformed what his great-grandfather had founded in 1858 as a foreign exchange house in lower Manhattan into a dealership devoted exclusively to collectible currency.

Before formally retiring in 2009, Stack, with his wife, his cousins and his children, helped turn what is now known as Stack’s Bowers Galleries into an industry gold standard.

He developed a standardized grading system for appraising coins, and he expanded demand among hobbyists by urging Congress to approve the U.S. Mint’s enormously popular 50 State Quarters Program, which, beginning in 1999, honored each state with a commemorative coin in the order in which they ratified the Constitution or were admitted to the union.

During his 62 years as his company’s manager of business affairs, Stack was said to have personally conducted more auction sales than anyone else in the industry. He and his son were instrumental in selling the collection of California numismatist John Ford Jr. and partnered with Sotheby’s in the record-breaking $7.6 million sale in 2002 of an extraordinarily rare 1933 Saint-Gaudens “Double Eagle” $20 gold coin.

He also steered several valuable assemblages to public institutions, including pharmaceutical heir Josiah Lilly’s cache of 6,150 gold coins, which is now in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Numismatic Collection.

The firm says it has sold at least one example of every U.S. coin ever made.

Harvey Gerald Stack was born June 3, 1928, in the New York borough of Brooklyn to Morton and Muriel Stack, and raised in the Bronx and in Jamaica, Queens.

After graduating from high school, he attended New York University and, in 1947, started working full time at the dealership started in 1933 by his father and his uncle, Joseph, at 690 Sixth Ave. His father was also an editor of Numismatic News.

“I had worked virtually every moment that I wasn’t in school,” he wrote in a history for the company.




The firm begun in the 19th century by his great-grandfather Maurice got into numismatics as a sideline, buying and selling collector coins and currency in addition to its primary function in foreign exchange. It later diversified into dealing in antiques and rare stamps.

In 1935, after converting the company to a rare coin dealership, Morton and Joseph Stack held their first public auction. In 1953, Stack’s moved to a gallery on 57th Street in midtown Manhattan. (It is now on 38th Street and has galleries in other cities.)

In 2011, Stack’s merged with Bowers & Merena to create Stack’s Bowers Galleries.

Stack was president of the Professional Numismatists Guild for two years beginning in 1989. In 1993, he was given the Founder’s Award, the guild’s highest honor.

In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife, Harriet (Spellman) Stack; his daughter, Susan; two grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. He lived on Long Island.

The Stack’s gallery was considered an inviting global clubhouse by many coin dealers and collectors. But Stack was not shy about promoting the company’s financial success.

“There are people who sell gold and silver bullion, and rolls and bags of coins, who call themselves coin dealers, and some of them probably do upward of $100 million business a year,” he told The New York Times in 1984. “When you say ‘rare coin dealers,’ though, and speak of firms that sell both directly and at auction, we’re the largest coin dealer in the United States.”

He drew a distinction between coin collectors, whom he courted assiduously, and investors.

“If a collector and an investor had to abandon a sinking ship, the collector would take with him the rarest and most aesthetically appealing pieces without regard to market value,” he told The Times in 1977. “The investor would try to take as much of his coins as possible, starting with the most valuable.”

“Over the long haul,” he continued, “history shows that rare coins of good quality have outperformed the Dow Jones industrials, real estate and almost every other form of investment.”

But he counseled patience, and he said returns depended on two other factors: quality and rarity. What he looked for, he said, were coins that “are a little away from what a fellow can ordinarily find in his pocket or in mama’s shoe box.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.










Today's News

January 27, 2022

Jehovah's Witnesses sue German museum for archive of Nazi-era abuses

Lucian Freud's 'Girl with Closed Eyes' offered at auction for the first time

Art Basel selected to stage new contemporary and Modern art fair in the iconic Grand Palais of Paris

kamel mennour announces exclusive international representation of Judit Reigl

Three massive 1,500+ pound amethyst clusters unveiled at Pueblo Gem & Mineral Show

$12M gift of Chinese calligraphy transforms Asian art collection at U-M Museum of Art

Gladstone Gallery presents a film and installation by Rachel Rose

£2M supports over 63 museums and networks across the UK

PMA, Reykjavík Art Museum, and Bildmuseet announce artists for "North Atlantic Triennial: Down Иorth"

Harvey Stack, leading dealer in rare coins, dies at 93

Goff Books to publish "New York Stilled Life: Portrait of a City in Lockdown' by Gregory J. Peterson

The first bi-annual Made in Mexico sale at John Moran Auctioneers is a festival of delights

Allie Haeusslein promoted to Director of Pier 24 Photography

A singer brings his authentic self to the Philharmonic

Reading Public Museum receives gift

Worried about the health of cinema? Sundance has good news for you.

A shorter 'Long Day's Journey,' now with N95s

Carvalho Park presents the debut New York solo exhibition of ten monumental new paintings by Brian Rattiner

'Pioneering' and 'breathtaking' new book casts a light on 20th century Indian art

Irvine's Military airfield becomes cultural hub

Collection of Vienna bronzes, five decades in the making, comes to Heritage Auctions

Frederick Holmes and Company opens an exhibition of works by Gary Logan

Melania Trump's auction of hat hit by plunge in cryptocurrency

Where to Learn Casino Games Gambling Without Wagering Your Money?

Cook Food Easily with Mixer Grinder

Art in Downtown Montreal

3 Strength Training Tips for Newbies




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful