B. MAX MEHL'S 'A ROYAL SALE'

B. Max Mehl, a solo practitioner, held a whopping 116 auctions between 1906 and 1955. John W. Adams, in his indispensable two-volume United States Numismatic Literature, has examined — and graded for quality — every auction catalog issued by every major American coin dealer. One quarter of Mehl’s auctions earned an A-minus or better from Adams, mainly due to the quality of the coins cataloged within.

Mehl’s consignors comprised an all-star numismatic lineup: H.O. Granberg, James Ten Eyck, William Forrester Dunham, William Cutler Atwater, Will Neil and even King Farouk of Egypt.

No one could showcase a numismatic collection like Max, as the cover of “A Royal Sale,” featuring coins from King Farouk’s collection, amply demonstrates.

The cover also exemplifies Mehl’s resourcefulness, for the king had refused permission to use his portrait as the cover illustration, so Mehl used an Egyptian coin featuring Farouk on the obverse!

Mehl did not auction every collection he handled; some he bought intact and sold at fixed prices. Prime among them were the large cents of Dr. George French and the encyclopedic collection of Waldo Newcomer, for which Mehl paid a king’s ransom — $220,000 — in 1933, the worst year of the Great Depression.

Max could spend lavishly because he had deep-pocketed customers like Col. E.H.R. Green, son of the “Witch of Wall Street,” financier Hetty Green. Mehl sent catalogs to all four of Green’s homes for six years without a response, before finally cracking the colonel’s sales resistance. Green’s first order was for $1,800, which proved but a rehearsal for his second, which totaled $63,500! Remarkably, Mehl did not conduct a single public auction; all 116 were mail-bid sales.

To read the complete article, see: B. Max Mehl's 'A Royal Sale' (www.coinworld.com/Articles/ViewArticle/b-max-mehls-a-royal-sale)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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