HARLAN SMITH'S 1822 HALF EAGLE

In 2021, Stack's Bowers Galleries sold a record-setting 1822 Half Eagle for $8.4 million. This coin was previously offered in 2016 as part of the Pogue Collection. It is one of only three known 1822 Half Eagles and the only one held privately. The Stack's Bowers cataloger noted how Harlan Page Smith (1839-1902) owned his 1822 Half Eagle until his death and "was fond of telling the story of his coin's discovery, plucked from a bullion dealer's stock for $6.50." The Smith coin was donated to the National Numismatic Collection in 1967 by Josiah K. Lilly, "the pharmaceutical magnate." Also at the Smithsonian is the third known 1822 Half Eagle, the Mint cabinet specimen.

I recently discovered a fascinating newspaper article in the February 26, 1888 St. Louis Post-Dispatch in which Smith spoke candidly about how he obtained his 1822 Half Eagle. Seeing that Dave Bowers wrote "The 1822 Gold Half Eagle - Story of a Rarity" while promoting the Pogue coin in 2014, I asked Joel Orosz to check his copy (I knew, without even asking, that Joel would have a copy of this book in his extensive library!) to see whether Dave included the Post-Dispatch article's information. Joel reported that Dave had only cited Ed. Frossard's May 1884 Numisma account of the Smith discovery:

H. P. Smith, Numisma's "Coin Boss,'' is a lucky man. With a sagacious weather-eye constantly open, he rarely misses the opportunity to turn an honest penny. For $6 cash, he lately purchased an uncirculated 1822 half eagle, valued by him at $500, and of which only one other specimen is said to exist. Several so-called New York "coin experts" had the opportunity to purchase this half eagle at the same price, before Smith saw it, but all thought it was too high-priced!

In the Post-Dispatch article, Smith builds the story and provides more detail, giving us additional insight into the 19th-century coin-collecting scene in New York City. The reporter asked him, "What is the rarest coin you ever had?"

The rarest one I ever stumbled upon outside of a collection was a $5 gold piece of 1822. I had been down to the Sub-Treasury one day talking over coins with Mr. Atkins, when coming home, I happened to see a $5 gold piece of 1822 in Sweeney's, the money changer's window on the corner of Nassau and Ann streets. It made my heart jump in my mouth. It had always been said there were but two in existence—one in the Mint at Philadelphia and one owned by Mr. Parmelee of Boston—and I was afraid it might be counterfeit. I went in and looked at it and saw it was genuine. I asked him how much he wanted for it, and he said $6! I was so tickled I could hardly keep still, and bought half a dozen half-dollar gold pieces of him that I didn't want, and paid as much for them as they were worth. As I came out the door I couldn't help telling him that if he had asked me $50 I should have paid it just as quick as I did the $6.

As I came along up Broadway I went in and showed it to a friend, a shoemaker, who has some coins but doesn't know anything about them. As soon as he saw it he said: "I know where you got that. You got it down to Sweeney's and paid $6 for it." I asked him if he knew it was there why he didn't buy it. He said he looked it up on his list, and that only called for $5.75, while Sweeney asked $6 for it. I told him that he was a natural-born idiot and that he'd better overhaul his list. He got mad at first and said that was pretty strong language. When I convinced him of his mistake, however, he felt so bad about it the tears ran down his cheeks. He jumped up and down like a child and said, "You are right; I am a natural-born idiot. However," he reflected, "it wouldn't have made any difference if I had bought it for $6. Some one would have come along and offered me $8 and I should have thought I was making a big thing out of it. So I should have lost it, anyway." He comforted himself with that view of the case and I came away.

That afternoon I was offered $250 for it. Mr. T. Harrison Garrett, a brother of Robert Garrett, offered me $400 and $450 for it. Mr. H. P. Newlin of Philadelphia offered $600. I have since learned that Mr. Loring G. Parmelee of Boston, who has the only other one known besides the one in the mint, acknowledges his to be a counterfeit. I am holding mine for $1,000. I don't know as I ought to tell you this, though…

Smith added, laughing, "If folks get hold of it they go to looking over their old coins and some one will find another one and my bargain will be gone."

Besides the fascinating slice of life this story offers, we are also given a few names and people to investigate. I have not yet been able to pin down the identity of "Mr. Atkins" with whom Smith was discussing coins at the New York Subtreasury. The Subtreasury building was the U.S. Customs House, now Federal Hall at 26 Wall Street; from there, Smith headed north a few blocks up Nassau Street. The Sweeney brothers (John A. & William H.) were banker/brokers at 104 Nassau (corner of Ann).

The New York Times announced the failure of the Sweeney banking house in December 1882, but they must have reorganized, because "J.A. & W.H. Sweeney, money changers and brokers" failed again in May 1884. This would have been the same month that Numisma printed Smith's recounting of his visit there. In the December 13, 1882 New York Times article about the Sweeney firm, it told of how it was originally run by an elder brother, Daniel M. Sweeney, who had been robbed and murdered in 1872, while carrying a box of money home to Brooklyn. It was said that "At this time the principal dealings of the house was in stamps and coins, and Mr. Sweeney made considerable money."

Smith then continued his swagger north, up Broadway, and told us of the distraught shoemaker he visited so that he could continue to boast of his amazing score. It is this shoemaker that Smith, with a bit of artistic license, elevated in Numisma to being "Several so-called New York ‘coin experts'" who "had the opportunity to purchase this half eagle at the same price."

I believe this shoemaker could be Louis Bossuet (1800-1890), the Belgian-born shoe and bootmaker. Bossuet had a shop at 181 Greene Street, two blocks west of Broadway. If so, this would be Bossuet's second documented appearance in numismatic lore. "Bossuet the cobbler" is part of the legend of the Washington half dollar, Musante, GW-23.

Lot 239 of the Allison Jackman (Chapman) sale in 1918 tells of how A.B. Sage in "Recollections of a Coin Collector," (AJN, 1867) stated that "W.J. Howard obtained a very fine collection and I believe sold it to some gentleman in Boston. Mr. Howard was the fortunate possessor of the Washington half dollar described in one of Norton's Literary Letters. He obtained it for a very moderate price I believe from a shoemaker named Bossuet, doing business then and now in Green Street near Bleeker St., New York."

Catalogue of the magnificent collection of coins of the United States formed by the late Harlan P. Smith, New York City [05/08-11/1906] Chapman, S.H.

See also Joel Orosz' fairly extensive treatment on the Washington Half Dollar that Bossuet sold to Winslow Howard in his Associations column in The Asylum Spring 2023: "Charles Ira Bushnell's Flandin's Catalogue of Coins and Medals: Part IV, Installment 1: The Winslow J. Howard Sale, May 17, 1856"

To read an earlier E-Sylum article, see:
HARLAN PAGE SMITH (1839-1902) (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n43a15.html)