Description
Bowers and Ruddy Galleries, Published 1973. Wraps, 146 pp.; 28 cm; illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs of coins.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
112
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Very Good condition. Orange, black, and white illustrated paper covers with light bumping and creasing to edges and corners, and fading to spine. Mild shelf and edge wear with a hint of soiling. Binding tight. Previous owner's signature and date in ink at head of page 3. Pages mildly toned along edges but otherwise clean and unmarked. Fixed-price sales catalog for August and September 1973, the regular customer magazine of the Hollywood firm founded by Q. David Bowers and James F. Ruddy in 1971. Hundreds of United States and world coins are individually described, graded and priced, from 1652 Pine Tree shillings and colonial tokens through half cents, large cents, bust halves and silver dollars to British crowns and Latin American issues. Featured are coins from what the firm calls "the fabulous Ray Collection, an old-time grouping assembled many years ago." The issue also carries an illustrated report on the Terrell Collection sale held by the firm's auction arm, the American Auction Association, in Hollywood on 18 and 19 May 1973, with prices realized quoted lot by lot across 1,570 lots and more than $600,000, alongside market commentary arguing the case for rare coins as an investment. The timing mattered: private ownership of gold bullion remained illegal for Americans under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 until 31 December 1974, but rare and collectible gold coins were expressly exempt, making numismatic gold one of the few legal routes to the metal in a year of accelerating inflation, a devalued dollar and the October oil embargo. Bowers went on to serve as president of both the American Numismatic Association and the Professional Numismatists Guild, the only person to have held both offices; Ruddy is the author of Photograde. The Rare Coin Review ranks 66th in the Numismatic Bibliomania Society survey of the hundred greatest items of United States numismatic literature. Laid in is the original owner's file of correspondence with the firm. Two letters on Bowers and Ruddy Galleries letterhead, the second dated 28 February 1974, welcome her to the Collection/Investment Plan, both carrying a facsimile signature of James F. Ruddy as president. With them is the firm's four-page brochure Successful Investments in Rare Coins, copyright 1974, printed with a Coin Investment Comparison Graph plotting rare coin prices against the Dow Jones Industrial Average and a five percent savings account across 1948 to 1973, and with both Gold Coin Purchase Plans marked in pen. The owner kept her account notes in ink on the first letter. The mail-in coupon has been cut from the brochure, leaving a loss across pages 3 and 4, and the letters are toned and creased at the folds. Together they record a single mail-order coin investment account opened in the spring of 1974.