“Mr. Arkansas”…what a guy. This collection was purchased from his widow in a small town south of Little Rock, Arkansas. It was the middle of July and southern “hot” if you know what I mean. My guard and I stayed in a motel that had no phone but it did have a bathroom and I mean out in the wilderness. I’ve since learned that the southern part of Arkansas is big timber country and I guess that’s why the lady who was married to Mr. Arkansas owned a well-to-do saw mill operation related business. When we arrived at the seller’s house it was a very cozy and well layed out place with humming birds on the front porch near a cage. It was a beautiful “sight” seeing them suspend in thin air and making a melody that could put you to sleep. The collection was brought out by the thin and slightly frail widow on one of those steel bank carts. She could hardly move it so we helped her down a slight runway to the living/kitchen area of the ranch house. The first thing I noticed were Redfield MS65 silver dollar slabs. Then I saw a ton of GSA silver dollars, Franklin Mint silver packaging and one thing that really caught me by surprise: a gorgeous collector of United States silver commemorative half dollars. It was no coincidence this man had it all together and even though his selections were somewhat “retail” the fact he had it organized so well told me he loved his coins and the enjoyment he received from admiring them. At one glance I understood this man as evidenced by the packaging and meticulous writing on the labels. He had some really nice stuff as you’ll see from our offers.
A few hours after I started writing down prices the lady suggested she bring out some more stuff but needed help in moving it. My eyes lit up like a child when I spotted tray after tray of slabs – but couldn’t really see what they were. After more examination it was separated into one cent through silver dollars – with some medals, off beat merchandise like foreign, tokens and the like also slabbed and some were loose. I was a kid in the candy store looking at it all. I finally calmed down and started to work. I especially liked the CC dollars. Almost perfect packaging and white as snow coins. A few were gorgeously toned but in a good way. Just like they were 40 years ago!
Mr. Arkansas had a few secrets I learned about from his widow. He had collected for years and most of them he received unexpectedly from his father’s estate.. It seems that his dad didn’t trust the banks and in 1939 he hid away a considerable amount of silver walkers in those large dairy farm milk cans you see at antique shows. But the cans were never discovered by the family until after he died. Years later when Mr. Arkansas started construction on their present home the dozer dug up several milk cans that were tightly sealed but not welded leaving a small gap on the ledge where the lid made a metal to metal seal. Mr. Arkansas found the silver…and told his wife to make sure she always held on to the coins and not to deposit or spend them. When I left their farm – she asked me to stay and proceeded to negotiate the sale of the rusted and worn out canvas bags that had rotted out where the bags were in the milk cans. I made the deal and those treasures are in this collection. It will take months to list it all but I assure you – it will be worth the wait. Mr. Arkansas’s legacy was the great care he took of his collection and the fact he provided for his lovely wife with his love of those hidden coins.
Lewis Revels
CEO
Inventory to come soon. |
