The Lakeview Collection

About This Set: For years, whenever I'd browse the PCGS set registry, one of the sets I would find myself gravitating towards over and over again was the Red Copper Collection of KGVI Specimen Cents. I would find myself wondering who it was that owned such amazing coins, and since none of them had TrueView images I would also daydream about how spectacular the coins must have looked. The only coin in the set I was familiar with was the crown jewel of the set; the 1944, since it had scans available on HA.com from the sale of the Belzberg collection.

As time passed, I learned who Stewart Blay was and began coming across stories of him and seeing his interviews with PCGS on YouTube. It was obvious that he was a true collector and master of numismatics. With all of the incredible US coins he amassed, I was surprised to learn that this man also had such a strong devotion to Canadian coins. I've read stories of Stewart visiting Canadian shows and auctions, but by the time I was involved in the hobby he seemed to have been just about done working on his Canadian collection, So I unfortunately never got the chance to meet him. It must have been quite a sight watching him buy up all of the most incredible cents during the Belzberg sale as well as at many other auctions.

I'm saddened by the circumstances that allowed me to acquire these coins from the Blay collection, but I'm very excited to be the new caretaker of such treasures. I'm thankful to Stewart Blay for being a wonderful custodian of so many Canadian rarities, and I look forward to caring for these numismatic treasures and enjoying them as much as Stewart did. My completion of this set likely wouldn't be possible if it weren't for Stewart's incredible work getting so many amazing coins together into one set, decades before I even had an interest in the hobby.