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by Wayne Homren, 27 Jan 1995
I've been doing a lot of traveling for my company. I've been shuttling to Wilmington, DE, which happens to be the hometown of noted numismatist Jules Reiver. Jules' specialty is die varieties of U.S. coinage, and he has probably the most extensive set of copper and silver varieties in the country. He told me "I completed the quarter set 3 times . . . each time I completed it somebody would find a new unpublished variety.."
I spent an evening with Jules and his wife Iona this past Wednesday (January 25). He told me an interesting story which I thought I'd share.
One day a friend of his called to say that his cousin was getting interested in collecting coins. Knowing that Jules was well versed in the subject, he asked if he would take his cousin under his wing and give him some advice on getting started. Jules readily agreed.
One piece of advice Jules gave him was to buy the rare pieces first, on the theory that the commoner pieces of a series would always be available, and that the rarest pieces would appreciate in value much faster. It's good advice, and something most of us experienced collectors learned long after it was too late to do anything about it.
Time passed, and one day in 1971 the new collector called Jules to excitedly announce that he'd bought his first coin. He wanted to come over and show it to him.
The coin was an 1804 silver dollar, the Davis specimen, one of the six known Class III pieces. The new collector was James H. T. McConnell, a cousin of the duPont family. He had purchased the piece through Stack's.
Wayne Homren
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