I am excited to share substantial news from The History Bank and the World’s Columbia Journal for the coming year. As you likely noticed or likely were aware from our newsletters and updates, my Fall was (and remains) challenging.
I spent six days in the hospital in mid-October and another month at home recuperating from heart surgery. As of Thanksgiving I was cleared to returning to “normal activities” per my surgeon, although on a modified schedule: of 4-5 hours per days rather than my past 12-hour days.
While successful triple bypass surgery was pretty big news for me and my family, I would like to share some substantial business news with you, too….but not before I thank the many dozens of friends and clients who took the time to send me good wishes before my surgery and after.
During the recovery time when I was unable to spend time in my office, I was able to accomplish a bit of paperwork—and also made an agreement for The History Bank to sell the Shaw Gold Collection for the Shaw family trust following collector Jack Shaw’s passing. The collection represents the largest consignment The History Bank has handled. While much smaller in number of items than the recently sold 6,000-item John Kennel Columbian Collection, the Shaw collection with some 600 one-ounce gold pieces, miscellaneous type coins and 1,000 Mexican silver onza coins, the total sale price should fall between $1.25-$2.0 million.
I’ve not only published a great many details here about the Kennel Collection, but also spent three years cataloging and selling the approximately 6,000 items in it. The Kennel Collection included a very long list of the finest rarities in Columbian medals and tickets, more than 100 of which were either unique or the finest known. The collection is forming the backbone of my third World’s Columbian Expo book, COLUMBIAN RARITIES.
Columbiana from several consigned collections as well as from The History Bank inventory will be paired with coins from the Shaw Collection for several sales and auctions during 2023. Highlighting the collection are PCGS and NGC slabbed and graded U.S. double eagle coins. Liberty double eagles are all slabbed as MS62 and St. Gaudens double eagles are all either MS63 or MS65. Modern bullion gold in the collection includes U.S. $50 liberty and buffalo coins, Canada Maple Leaf coins and a wide assortment of dates in South African Krugerrands.
I will be selling the Columbiana and Kennel gold on several different sites: Ebay, my own The History Bank Store, special fixed-price sales and auctions on one or more major sites. I am currently in discussions with both ICollector and Live Auctioneers to present as many as six 2023 auctions on each site!
While The History Bank has become the premier seller of Columbiana in recent years, I have also continued to grow my sales of U.S. coins, ephemera from other expositions and world’s fairs and also the U.S. Civil War. Much of The History Bank’s expertise in these areas has come from our sales of ephemera and historical items, as well as the publication of several award-winning books.
Among the 200 books published and produced by The History Bank since 1980 are the landmark histories of the Columbian Expo, the history of the fair published in both limited edition and hardcover editions by the National Trust for Historic Preservation for the centennial of the fair in 1993. The softcover edition was published nine years later by the University of Illinois Press, which in 2017 published my history of the world’s first Midway.
COLUMBIAN RARITIES will be an exhaustive catalog of fair collectibles and NOT a price guide per se; but it will include historical prices realized data so that for the first time collectors, archivists, historians and others will have the tools necessary to determine current values.
The History Bank’s other world’s fair publications include the catalog and prices realized for the Norm Bolotin Columbian ticket collection sold by Heritage Auctions in 2008 and Sixty Souvenirs published in 2022 by Porchlight Design to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Seattle’s Century 21 Exposition.
Our seven Civil War books include The Young Readers’ History of the Civil War from Dutton/Penguin and Scholastic Books which has won several awards and has sold more than 600,000 copies. All of the books noted here are available from The History Bank as are many of the others we have published.
An expanded collection of books we have produced as well as written, plus historical Columbiana books, periodicals and catalogs published in 1892-1894 will also be sold in our expanded auctions and sales in 2023.
Please watch our posts here over the coming months for further information on sales in The History Bank Store, on Ebay and on other auction sites noted above. The History Bank is also in the midst of selling several other consigned collections that will continue well into 2023 featuring material from the 1901 Buffalo and 1904 St. Louis fairs and a variety of other expo medals and So-Called Dollars.
