PCGS The Standart for the Rare Coin Industry

In 1975, while I was attending the American Numismatic Association's annual convention, held that year in Los Angeles, I received a hurry-up call from Mr. Eliasberg, who bid me to come to Baltimore as soon as possible, right away in fact. I left the business of the convention to others, and I boarded the next plane for Baltimore, whereupon I spent the next week examining all of the coins and discussing their possible sale through our firm, something which he planned to have happen at an unspecified time in the future.

Soft-shell crabs, a Maryland delicacy, are among my favorite things to eat, and each day my host treated me to a generous serving at his private club. In the evenings we would "talk coins," and I learned first-hand of the challenges and joys experienced by Mr. Eliasberg as he narrowed his want list down to just a few dozen, then to just a few individual coins, then to just one, before he completed it in 1950.

Several years elapsed, and I was deeply saddened when I learned that Mr. Eliasberg had passed away, for I had lost not only a client but a fine friend. A year or two later his son, Louis Eliasberg, Jr., contacted me and consigned for public auction sale the gold portion of his father's collection, the only complete collection of United States gold coins ever formed. As per usual procedure, I drew up an auction contract. Upon presenting it to Mr. Eliasberg, he politely handed it back to me, shook my hand, and said, "I will not sign any contract, for if I didn't have faith in you and your company, I would not have given you the coins."

The Eliasberg Collection, billed as The U.S. Gold Coin Collection, made auction history. The unique 1870-S $3 brought $687,500, and the only 1822 $5 outside of the Smithsonian Institution also sold for $687,500, the two highest prices United States gold coins have ever sold for at auction. Numerous other world's record prices were achieved as well, adding up to a total of $12,400,000, making the Eliasberg sale second only to the Garrett Collection in total value for a coin collection sold up to that time. Thus, the world's second most valuable collection was sold on an agreement consisting only of a handshake!

A contrast to my relationship with the Eliasberg family were negotiations leading to our selling at auction a large estate which had passed to the owner's son, a prominent New York City attorney. I sent him our standard auction contract, he revised it, we revised his revisions, and he re-revised our revisions. Countless telephone conversations, fax messages, and Federal Express shipments were needed to put all of the details in the order that the consignor wanted. The customer is always right, and what the consignor wants is what the consignor gets, if we can possibly accommodate it. Some want just a handshake. Others want every possible contingency covered in writing, signed, sealed, and delivered.