The ‘Best Collection’ That Was Never Sold
The subhead of an article by Maurice Gould in the April 1965 issue of Coins magazine caught my attention. It reads, “It was a big day in Boston when they sold the famous Daniel Edward Groux collection, but today nobody knows who won.”
The story told by Gould dates to the early days of collecting in the United States. Namely it goes back to 1855 and a lottery planned by Prof. Daniel E. Groux, of Washington, D.C., to dispose of his numismatic collection.
Groux came to America in the 1840s and established himself as a self-proclaimed language teacher and a professor of numismatics. An advertisement that regularly appeared in the Washington (D.C.)
Sentinel reads: “Modern Languages – D.E. Groux, a native of France, teacher of modern languages, especially French, Spanish, and German. Translations made with correctness and punctuality. Professor of Numesmatics [sic], for the classification and explanation of medals and coins.”
Groux’s personal collection of ancient through modern coins and medals was heralded as one of the finest, particularly by its owner, whose overly generous valuations thereof were readily accepted in the general press.
“It will be interesting to our antiquarian readers to learn that there has recently been brought to this city one of the most extensive and curious collections of medals and coins, both ancient and modern, to be found in the country,” the Sept. 23, 1851, issue of the Alexandria (Va.)
Gazette boasted of Groux’s holdings in an article attributed to the Daily National Intelligencer. “They are the property of Prof. D.E[.] Groux, who has been engaged for many years, in various parts of the world, in making the collection. It comprises medals of the Greek Kings, beginning with that of Argos, some eight hundred years before Christ; Greek town moneys; medals of the Roman Empire, from the earliest times; coins, royal and republican, of all the nations of Europe, including the well-known gems in this line associated with Cromwell, John Huss, Wallenstein, the King of Bohemia, and other notable characters. The collection comprises, we are told, some eight to ten thousands specimens, many of them having cost the possessor, we are informed, as high as one hundred dollars each. They have been classified with great care, and are in a good state of preservation. The collection, including some three hundred volumes of choice illustrative books, is valued at $10,000, and we understand there is a prospect of its becoming the property of one of our District Institutions.” Awarding-winning author and researcher Joel Orosz graciously supplied page scans from his “Associations” column, “Charles Ira Bushnell’s Flandin’s Catalogue of Coins and Medals: Part III, The Daniel E. Groux Broadside Sale, February 15, 1856.” Orosz’s column, a thorough recounting of Groux’s grandiose and mostly ill-fated schemes, appeared in the Autumn 2022 issue of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society’s The Asylum and helps fill in gaps in Maurice Gould’s Coins magazine story. Orosz wrote that in 1852 Groux convinced congressman John L. Conger of Michigan to petition Congress to purchase the collection. The petition, according to the March 30, 1852, issue of The Republic, Washington, D.C., was presented in the House of Representatives on March 27 and offered 6,537 coins and medals to be purchased for the Library of Congress. Orosz notes the petition was referred to the Joint Committee on the Library, which was then bombarded by Groux with additional brochures and numismatic articles in his attempt to sell his collection. The Feb. 8, 1854, issue of the Daily National Intelligencer reported of Groux’s continued hawking: “We have been given to understand that, for the last time, Prof. D.E. Groux has offered his splendid and unique collection [of coins and medals] to Congress, and that soon a decision is to be passed upon that subject by a committee. We hear that the Professor has made arrangements, if Congress shall decline the purchase, to have the whole collection, including the rare books on numismatics, sent to London, where they will be sold at auction. Thus a splendid collection, the work of three successive collectors during a period of seventy years, will be broken up and dispersed.
“The perseverance of Mr. Groux in keeping his collection entire for nine years, ever since he brought it from Europe, in the hope that Congress would make it a national property, we trust will be appreciated and finally successful. Such an opportunity will very likely not happen again, and certainly not with such rare and select coins.”
This effort having failed, in 1855 Groux turned to a rather unique lottery scheme, which he laid out in a Nov. 17, 1855, pamphlet boldly titled a “Catalogue of Medals and Coins for the Disposal of the Best Collection of Medals, Coins, and Numismatic Works in the United States.” This is where Maurice Gould picks up the story.
“Lotteries were a popular method of raising funds during the early period of this country,” Gould wrote. “They were used for universities, canals, turnpikes, hospitals and churches, and by states, governments and private individuals as the most effective means of raising capital. “One of the most unusual lotteries ever held in the United States took place in Boston during 1855. It was called ‘The Grand Enterprise of the Disposal of the Best Collection of Medals and Coins in the United States; also, of Rare Works on Numismatics.’
“Most of the coins and medals included in the lottery were collected by a Mr. Lemner, who was curator of the Ambrosian museum in Innsbruck, Austria. This fine numismatic student collected coins for 40 years. Most of the Roman medals in his collection were found in Hungary and Transylvania. Mr. Lemner died in 1839 and his collection was purchased by Professor D.E. Groux of Boston, a teacher and numismatic scholar.
“The Groux collection was appraised at $7,549, a fabulous sum in this period. It was decided to sell the famous collection through a lottery, as there were no individuals known to be in a position to purchase the entire collection.
“The medals and coins were classified and, with the numismatic library, were left in the possession of Dr. Winslow Lewis of Boston, a leading collector. “Among the arrangements was a guarantee that no more than 450 tickets would be sold. Dr. Lewis consented to act as trustee, to keep the coins and books until the drawing took place, and to deliver prizes to the holders of winning tickets. “Evidently the more tickets or shares one purchased the lower the price became. The usual price per ticket was $10, but purchasers of six tickets paid $50, and 25 tickets cost $200.
“Information on the lottery said: ‘When the lists shall have been filled up, a soiree will be given to the holders of the tickets, and a committee formed among themselves shall preside at the drawing and superintend the whole transaction. It is proposed that a drawing shall take place towards Christmas if all the chances are taken. These prizes would be most acceptable to many as a holiday gift.’
“The collection was divided into several series: Greek medals for kingdoms and cities; Roman consular and imperial medals; coins of the middle ages to modern times; triple, double and single [dollars], also half-dollars; medals of silver and bronze and so on.
“Dr. Groux said that in order to form such a collection it would be necessary to scour Europe. Travel expenses alone would amount to four times more than the prices estimated, he said.
“The prizes were to be award as follows: First prize, Roman medals, very fine and rare, 456 pieces with a value of $1,971; second prize, French coins from 814 A.D., 385 pieces with a value of $740; third prize, the celebrated Carraria medals
which were made in Italy about 1435 and which for 200 years were the property of the Maltese knights, from whom they were bought in 1837 for 2,000 francs, six pieces with a value of $600; fourth prize, Austrian coins, 291 pieces worth $459; fifth prize, papal coins, coins for bishops, 224 pieces, value $396; sixth prize, English coins beginning 1066, very rare, 411 pieces value of $368.
“There were 20 prizes in all, the ninth prize being rare books on numismatics, 69 volumes with a value of $300.
“The 15th prize was rare American coins, including American coins struck before the Revolution, and American tokens, including satirical pieces – a total of 241 coins with a value of $178. Just imagine what a lot of this type would be worth today.”
“The 17th prize was rare American dollars and medals, all in excellent preservation. “Groux also said he was preparing a descriptive catalogue listing in detail each section of the collection. The catalogue would contain 150 pages and would be available at 75 cents.
“It would be interesting to find a list of the winners so the collection could be traced and pedigreed, but so far no list has come to light.
“Appraised at $7,549 in the 1880s [sic, 1850s], the Groux collection today probably would bring more than a million dollars. Many of its pieces probably would be unobtainable, however, since it’s likely they have long since been presented to museums.
“At any rate, the Boston numismatic circle must have shared a great deal of excitement in that pre- Christmas season of 1855, an excitement now reserved for the major auctions and the busy conventions of our time.” Despite Gould’s enthusiasm, it’s believed the lottery never took place. Orosz wrote that on Dec. 20, 1855, Groux issued another pamphlet. This one was titled “Additional Arrangements Made for the Interest of Ticket Holders.” In it, Groux claimed to have sold 57 chances between Dec. 1 and Dec. 15 to 13 named purchasers, most of whom were from Massachusetts. Orosz added of Groux, “He crowed that ‘the above names … are sufficient to demonstrate that this enterprise is under the patronage of the higher classes.’ Perhaps this was fortunate, for the ‘higher classes’ could afford to lose their subscriptions when Groux’s lottery scheme, after staggering on a few months into 1856, inevitably collapsed.” Writing in the September 1915 issue of The Numismatist, R. W. McLachlan noted “we have no record of the complete disposal of the collection in the manner stated.” McLachlan also observed that Groux overvalued his collection, observing with obvious sarcasm, “In comparing the values at which the coins are estimated with prices realized at sales today, we can only conclude that foreign coins were much more valuable sixty years ago, than at present.”
In 1874, when The Messrs [George] Leavitt, Auctioneers sold what it billed as the Groux collection, “Now the property of a lady in Washington,” cataloger William H. Strobridge, declare:
“The ‘Groux Collection,’ which has had a name in American numismatology for the last quarter of a century, is now before the public, with the veil removed. The black-letter mystery that has so long enveloped those quaint old boxes – erst seen in Boston, as we all have heard, but whose habitat was the City of Washington – is in the following pages gradually unfolded, and, we trust, finally dispelled.
“The fond old dreamer whose name it bears has himself passed away, and the fate that befalleth all collections is about to come also upon the one with which he had freely mingled his very life.” Thus, “we are constrained to exclaim: What a most curious, most remarkable, and most valuable Collection was his! Rich, not so much in the accumulation of gold and silver coins of much weight, as in rare and precious examples drawn from the most obscure and remote times; full of suggestions of profound study and antiquarian lore ... The dispersion of this Collection, around which so much glamour has existed, will be an event in the chronicles of our times, and the writer sincerely hopes will satisfy the reasonable expectations of the public, and particularly of those friends to whose kindness he is indebted for this opportunity to subscribe himself.”
The sale, held from April 7-9, 1874, in New York, comprised of just 1,173 lots. Groux also planned to issue a three-volume set of books titled Numismatical History of the United States that never came to fruition. The Aug. 8, 1856, Boston Evening Transcript noted of this endeavor: “The indefatigable Prof. Groux, whose labors in collecting and arranging coins and medals, are known and appreciated by all historians, is engaged in publishing a thorough history of all the coins and medals ever struck in the United States, with accurate engravings[.] The Chronicle of this morning says: ‘It is to be comprised in three elegant volumes, one of them devoted wholly to engravings. It will exhaust the subject we have no doubt, and be indispensable to every good library.” By 1858, the money-plagued Groux, still planning to publish his opus and dispose of his coins, medals and books, apparently again turned to selling chances. The Washington (D.C.) Union of Jan. 19, 1858, recorded:
“We learn that Professor D.E. Groux, who for some years past has resided in this city, intends to leave in a few weeks for Europe, to conclude his arrangements for the publication of his ‘Numismatical History of the United States,’ which will contain engravings of all the medals and coins ever struck in this country, with their histories. Before leaving, the Professor intends offering his large collection of coins and medals in a raffle, a few chances in which yet remain untaken.” Groux died in 1871, and by one account was heavily in debt.