Julian Leidman, Pete Smith and others passed along word of the passing of dealer Dennis Forgue. Sorry to hear the news. Born July 10, 1944, he died on April 12, 2025. -Editor

Dennis was an E-Sylum reader and occasional contributor. Here's his note from 2017 about selling Jack Freidberg's Brasher Doubloon. -Editor

"Reading David Alexander's story about the Apostrophe Sales brought back many memories. As the Vice President of Rarcoa I had an active relationship with the sales from the beginning. I also catalogued our section in the beginning and was the auctioneer for the major portion of the sales working not only Rarcoa's section but also for David Akers and Stack's until the end.

"While there are many stories about the sales, one stands out as the best. In Auction '79 Rarcoa sold Jack Freidberg's Brasher Doubloon, the first to be sold in over 50 years. The Doubloon's sale drew wide attention including live national TV coverage. This is the first I have talked about what happened during the actual sale. While many were interested in buying the coin, it came down to just two bidders, neither of which anyone in the room could know were bidding.

"Prior to the sale one bidder had told me he would be bidding as long as he had his pen in his shirt pocket. He sat at the end of the front row to my left with John J. Ford next to him. As the bidding progressed several bidders dropped out and two were left. The ultimate buyer, Walter Pershke, was seated in the second row directly in front of me and was bidding by only holding up a pen in his lap.

"No one could see either bidder, including Ed Milas sitting at my left on the podium working the book. He got very excited and kept asking who was bidding, even Don Kagin stood up on a chair in the back of the room trying to see the bidders. Margo Russell was standing behind the podium with a camera and was the only other person that saw that Walter was bidding. The underbidder finally removed his pen from his pocket and it was over with a new World Record price having been attained. It was the most exciting auction moment I can recall prior to the selling Leon Hendrickson's 1804 Dollar."

Here's a note he wrote about the Medal of Honor. -Editor

"Just as a sidebar to the Medal of Honor, I remember back in my days at Rarcoa. I ran the Orders and Decorations Department. We sold US medals and had virtually everything in stock. Trading on medals was somewhat confusing and many in the business used to advertise that you needed to send a stamp along with your payment in order to make it a "trade" not a sale. This really was not true.

"At one time we had a set (3 different-Army, Navy, Air Force) of unissued MOH's on display in the window. We got a visit from the FBI responding to a complaint someone had filed. They said they normally did not care about it but had to follow up on the complaint. We decided to eliminate US medals completely and donated a complete set of US medals to the ANA. The MOH's were Unissued, and how those became available was interesting.

"After the Vietnam Nam war we had a former supply clerk come in with a group of Navy unissued medals including a MOH. He said that the larger ships in the war had a stock of medals for field awards. At the end of the war when many ships were being decommissioned they were given orders to "deep six" all medals to avoid paperwork and shipping. Of course many went home in duffle bags instead of the ocean. Despite of a so called ban on the sale of all medals, many vets came looking for replacement of various medals for ones they had lost, carrying letters from the War Dept telling them they did not have them and to go to a dealer and buy them. Typical Government Confusion I suppose."

Here's a great story about a purchase of high-denomination banknotes. -Editor

"Back in 1989-1990 or so during my second stint at Rarcoa in their new offices in Willowbrook, an elderly man and his daughter came in. With them were thirty or so $500 and $1000 bills. The man's wife had died from Alzheimer's and they were clearing out the house to sell it. While packing up the library to donate, one of the bills fell out of a book. He had no idea where it came from. They carefully went through all the books and found the treasure trove. Other searching of the house found more under the runners on the stairs going to the second floor. Where the wife got the money was a mystery, but he figured she was careful with the butter and egg money."

And here he is visiting the Royal Mint. -Editor

"In the late 60's, Dean Oakes had some currency stolen at a Chicago show. Years later, the notes came into Rarcoa and Dennis remembered the serial #'s and was able to recover the notes. He received the Sol Kaplan award for this."

"Before Dennis came to work at Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., I was at a Michigan Avenue art auctioneer's sale trying to buy some coins for the house. They had received a numismatic consignment to sell, and it was obvious that they did not know much, if anything, about coins or paper money.

"One lot was a large bundle of old Swiss 1000 Franc notes that were no longer Legal Tender. Perhaps the executor or the consignor or the auction house had taken them to the Foreign Exchange window at the First National Bank of Chicago, the best Foreign Exchange desk in town at the time, and been told that they could no longer be exchanged, as the entire lot had a catalogue estimate of only $200.

"However, savvy people like Dennis knew how to exchange them through the central bank of Switzerland, where they were still worth about $60,000 U.S. There were two other bidders in the room who knew this and were there to bid on the lot.

"The lot opened at $200 and immediately went to $1,000, and then in $1,000 increments up to $30,000, where Dennis made a preemptive bid of $45,000. In the stunned silence that followed this bold bid, some amateur bidder in the back of the room wailed "But the Estimate is only $200!"

"Dennis stood up, turned to the back of the room and bellowed "SO BID ACCORDINGLY!" Nobody dared to bid against him after that, and he got the lot for $45,000. After he came to Berk's I reminisced with him about that glorious moment, and he confirmed that he did make about $15,000 on the deal.

"He was a professional who knew his stuff. He was also a great guy always willing to share numismatic information with friends, of which I was honored to be one."

Great career. Thanks, everyone. -Editor

AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS: Are your books carried by Wizard Coin Supply? If not, contact us via www.WizardCoinSupply.com with details.