THE JOHN M. STRAHAN, JR. COLLECTION

 

John M. Strahan, Jr. was born in rural Mississippi in the small town of Hazelhurst, leaving to join the military at age of 16 during the Second World War. John served several stints in the Armed Services, including in the Army, Navy, and finally Air Force. His service saw participation in World War II, the Korean War, and finally the Vietnam War, surely seeing some of the most momentous moments in modern American History. After retirement John went on to teach in the public school system in Florida.

John was a voracious reader with a keen interest in history, who needed to know as much as he could about the past and the artifacts people left behind, which drove his interest in collecting. He started small with coins, later moving on to guns, swords, and eventually antique fine silver.

Coins by their nature are small and easy to carry, so in the 1940s when John was stationed in Morocco and Tripoli he traveled through North Africa and into Italy and Spain collecting old coins along the way. In the 1950s John and his new British bride, Gladys, who he met in Rome, were assigned to Asia and based out of Taiwan with liberal RR into Hong Kong. The United States Government had newly opened bases on the north and south ends of Taiwan (formerly Formosa). The military ran buses north and south so John spent his free time riding the military bus as far as he could and then biking to villages off the beaten path where he would trade old Chinese coins for U.S. dollars. Once word got around the villages, people would often bring their coins to him to trade for American money.

In the 1960s John and Gladys were stationed in London and later returned stateside, first to Alabama and then Florida where they eventually retired. As a lifelong collector and trader, John gathered coins, fine antique silver, guns, and swords, filling his home with history and rare treasures. Though John passed away many years ago, his collections remained a testament to his travels and the burgeoning coin collecting hobby that became so popular in the post-War period.

Stack's Bowers Galleries is pleased to be presenting selections from the John M. Strahan, Jr. Collection in the December 2025 Hong Kong (SAR) Collectors Choice Online Auction. Notable highlights include a rare Gold Mace Pattern issue, dated Year 39 (1950) and graded AU-58 by PCGS. Dragon Dollars are well represented in this group; of note is a Year 23 (1897) Chihli Dollar graded AU-55. Republican favorites are seen, including a lovely MS-62"Birds Over Junk" Dollar and a 1912"Five Stars" Dollar. Perhaps the most intriguing piece from this group is a 1954 Edition Eduard Kann Book, and an original letter from Kann dated 1961. In this letter, Kann gives Strahan instructions on how to acquire his book, and they discuss a coin. This letter gives rare insight into the correspondence famous numismatists had with collectors in the mid-20th century and certainly is among the most exciting numismatic-related pieces of ephemera we have offered.

To read the complete article, see:
The John M. Strahan, Jr. Collection Features Chinese Rarities and Provides Insight into Post-War Coin Collecting (https://stacksbowers.com/the-john-m-strahan-jr-collection-features-chinese-rarities-and-provides-insight-into-post-war-coin-collecting/)

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