MICHAEL S. MACDOUGALL (1902-1996)

Want to flush out a crooked dealer at the card tables? Call on Mickey MacDougall, "The Card Detective." Want to expose a tall tale in numismatics? Perhaps MacDougall can help with that.

Michael MacDougall was born as Samuel Smiley MacDougall on October 22, 1902, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father was a grocer, William J. MacDougall (1870-1955). His mother was Margaret Jane "Janny" Belford (1870-1953). Both of his parents were from Irish emigrant families.

Slight in stature at age 14, he landed a job with Horace Goldin in vaudeville as the boy on the rope in an Indian rope trick. He studied magic and learned card tricks. He visited gambling parlors and watched the action. MacDougall made friends with some of the dealers. He taught them card tricks and they taught him gambling tricks. By age 18, he was one of the best card manipulators in the business.

A banker had been losing money at his club while another member was winning too often. The banker invited MacDougall to watch the action. He uncovered the secret and demonstrated to the club how they were being cheated. When he got a thousand-dollar gift of thanks, he decided to go into business and became known internationally as "The Card Detective." He was the best in the business, or perhaps, the only card detective in the business.

He wrote several books on card tricks and gambling and was a frequent speaker to civic groups. He claimed that 95% of gambling institutions were crooked. The exception was Las Vegas where gambling had been cleaned up and 95% of the business was honest. MacDougall served on the Nevada State Gaming Board.

During World War II, he worked with naval intelligence to expose crooked dealers and card sharks who preyed on servicemen.

He wrote a column for the weekly Sunday edition of The Newark Star-Ledger. "The Inside Straight" ran from July 18, 1948, to December 30, 1962. At the peak, he was syndicated in 103 newspapers.

I wrote an article for The Asylum on "An Incomplete Listing of Coin Columnists." I did not include MacDougall because his column was about gambling. At one time he claimed to have a stamp collection worth $30,000. Some of his columns were about fraud in philately. He also told stories from his experiences at coin shows.

He lived in New York City from 1954 to 1963, and was a member of the Brooklyn Coin Club. The Numismatist reported on exhibits of his collection at club meetings. In 1954 he exhibited a gold type set; in 1955, twenty crown size foreign gold coins and a Canadian Sovereign; in 1956, a set of Canadian devil bank notes; later in 1956, a set of world crowns beginning with the letter ‘S'; in 1957, gold coins from Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania; again in 1957, gold coins of Iran and Italy.

At the 1962 Penn-Ohio show, he entertained after dinner with his "Card Detective" act.

He was ANA member 22263, living at 7735-113th Street in Forest Hills, New York, in 1959. He was still living in Forrest Hills, Queens, in 1980.

He was world famous as "The Card Detective" but he was scarcely noticed as a coin dealer. There are a few reports that he had a table at coin shows during 1960-1980.

MacDougall died on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1996, in Hollywood, Florida. He is buried with his parents at Greenmount Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Several of MacDougall's columns were about coins.

For March 2, 1952, he wrote "Remember hoax of the 50-cent Ford cars?" There was a rumor that the letter on the back of 1909 dimes could spell F-O-R-D-S and a set of five could be traded in for a new Ford car. Unfortunately, only the letters O-D-S were actually on the dimes.

The column for July 5, 1953, was about "Spurious Doubloons Are Passed Off As Real Thing." This was about silver Maria Theresa Thalers that were gold plated and passed as gold coins.

A column published on December 12, 1954, was about the legality of owning gold coins. Yes, they could be owned but could not be spent.

An article published on March 1, 1959, was about "The Lincoln Cent Scheme." It was about a dealer selling coin holders for fifty Lincoln Cents and offering to buy the completed set for $35. MacDougall said a collector would need to look through ten million cents to fill the folder.

His column for May 17, 1959, was about "Copper 1943 Pennies Valuable."

The column for October 25, 1959, was titled, "Check Your Pennies." It was about Hannah O'Brien, who found a bunch of 1955 double die cents in Boston.

An article on July 31, 1960, was titled, "Lowly penny launches a new treasure hunt." It was about the 1960 small date varieties.

Some of his columns were printed under a sub-heading, "True Stories That Couldn't Happen—But Did." One of them was of particular interest. The title of this May 1, 1955, story was "Deaf Mute's Gyp Game Caused Change In Coin Design." The story appeared in other papers with different titles on different dates.

MacDougall told the now familiar story of Joshua Tatum who had 1883 Nickels gold plated to pass as $5 gold coins. I have been trying for thirty years to find the source of this story and others have tried as well. No other source has been found that predates May 1, 1955.

MacDougall was known to expose frauds in gambling. However, he told the Tatum story as if it were totally true. I suspect he made up much of the story.

I have read many of MacDougall's columns and see a pattern. He begins with a personal name and then tells their story. It may be about a rare coin, a counterfeit coin or a coin swindle. The numismatic part of the story is believable. However, it cannot be confirmed as relating to the name mentioned.

In 1883, there were stories of people charged with passing the new nickels as gold coins. That part of the story is well known. The name of Josh Tatum does not show up until 1955. I believe MacDougall may have added some Irish blarney and made that up. It remains speculation based on the best information available.

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