The Dr. Frank Sedwick Collection of
Colombian Republic Gold Coins
The Dr. Frank Sedwick Collection of
Colombian Republic Gold Coins Auction Catalog
and Book.
Stand-alone Special Edition catalog only -
64 pages full color 8.5'' x 11'' 232 Lots
(very limited copies left)
This catalog was for the Auction conducted by Daniel Frank Sedwick,
LLC April 26-28, 2011
NOTE: While supplies last (not many copies) we are
offering this catalog TOGETHER WITH Frank's book The Gold
Coinage of Gran Colombia (Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela)
(1991)
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The
sale of the Frank Sedwick collection was a milestone in Colombian
numismatics for a number of reasons. Above all, it was the first-ever
offering of a collection of EXCLUSIVELY Colombian Republic gold
coins. Frank’s research notes during his collecting and writing
reveal that all previous sales of significant Colombian Republic
gold coins were small parts of general Latin American gold-coin
collections, sometimes from even larger world-gold agglomerations.
The big collections that have offered important Colombian Republic
gold coins after Frank’s time, like Norweb (Spink America, March
3-4, 1997),
Eliasberg (American Numismatic Rarities, April 18-19,
2005) and Millennia (Ira & Larry Goldberg, May 24-28, 2008), were
equally broad and diffuse, if not more so. Most likely this is due
to the fact that the field of Colombian numismatics is complicated,
fraught with ever-changing denominations and design schemes, but
with enough recognized rarities to keep the wealthy “trophy
collectors” happy. One wonders how much the big collectors who
happened to have the Colombian gold trophies really knew about their
coins.
Frank, on the other hand, was part of
a unique generation of true Colombian scholars, collectors and
dealers who brought the field of Colombian numismatics to
unprecedented levels of understanding and exposure. Foremost on the
academic side are Dr. Jorge Restrepo and Dr. Frank Sedwick, both of
whom published numerous articles and books on the subject. On the
collector side (concentrating only on Colombian Republic gold) are
other big names like Lía Meissner (whose collection is still
intact), Alberto Lozano (whose collection was stolen and presumably
melted) and again Frank Sedwick. And then on the dealer/auctioneer
side, at least since the 1970s, are Don Canaparo; Lou Collins;
Freeman Craig; Morris Geiger; Louis Hudson; Manfra, Tordella &
Brookes; Roberto Muhlenkamp; Art Smith; Steinberg’s; Almanzar;
Bowers & Ruddy; Christensen; Ponterio; Schulman; Sotheby’s; Spink;
Superior; Stack’s; and a host of others—all of whom you will see in
the pedigrees listed in the lots—including (again) Frank Sedwick,
who dealt informally in the 1970s and full time until his death in
1996. With his pulse on all three sides of the business, Frank was
uniquely positioned to assemble a world-class collection in a short
time—less than two decades, in fact—and on little more than a
professor’s salary.
Frank would
have been the first to tell you that his collection was far from
complete, even if he believed that such a goal was possible, as
previously unknown rarities and varieties kept surfacing (and
continue to do so today). But he knew that several of the obscure
pieces he picked up along the way were incredibly rare and worth
much more than he paid. Like any self-respecting collector, he
filled holes as opportunities arose, almost always with the
highest-grade specimens possible. And he did it with extreme
discipline: If something he needed was not the right price, too
heavily contested, or too low grade, he went without. Instead, he
kept meticulous notes. His revisions to the reference guides of the
1970s were nothing short of revolutionary, starting with his
landmark article “Colombia and Its Gold Coinage” in the January,
1982,
The Numismatist
magazine and
culminating with his 1991 book
The
Gold Coinage of Gran Colombia.
While Frank’s book was no bestseller,
surely it achieved his goal of making the complicated Colombian
series far less arcane and much more appealing to future
specialists. After all, it is these dedicated specialists, and not
the trophy hunters, who advance our knowledge of numismatic history. This auction catalog, with state-of-the-art color photos and current market values from the Prices Realized, serves as an update and expansion to Frank's book.
Order of Sale:
Biography
page 6
Introduction
pages
7-12
Republic of Colombia, 1822-1838 Lots# 201-256
pages
13-23
Republic of New Granada, 1837-1858 Lots#
257-321
pages
24-35
Granadine Confederation, 1858-1862 Lots#
322-331
pages
36-38
United States of Colombia, 1862-1886 Lots#
332-388
pages
39-54
Modern Republic of Colombia (1900s) Lots#
389-423
pages
55-58
Proof sets (NCLT), 1968-present Lots#
424-431
pages
59-6
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The Gold Coinage of Gran Colombia (Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela) by Frank Sedwick (1991). Considered the most complete and accurate reference on post-independence Colombian gold coins (including Ecuador and Venezuela, as they were once part of Gran Colombia), with values and rarities for all known issues. Soft cover, perfect bound, 90 pages, illustrated with 224 black-and-white photos, press-run limited to 1000 copies, re-released for sale in 2008. This book, envisioned to be the most complete and accurate of its kind ever published, is for the collector of post-colonial gold coins of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela from 1822 to the present, hence it covers all the great rarities of the 19th century. all listings are by denomination and date, with an approximate dollar value in Extra Fine addined to each. Table of contents: Foreword, 5 pages. Historical Background, 7 pages. Commentary on the Coinage, 4 pages. How to Use the Book, 2 pages. Colombia 1. Republica de Colombia, 6 pages. 2. Republica de La Nueva Granada, 8 pages. 3. Confederacion Granadina, 4 pages. 4. Estados Unidos de Colombia, 20 pages. 5. Republica de Colombia, 19 pages. Ecuador, 7 pages. Venezuela, 7 pages. Bibliography, 1 page.
About Frank Sedwick: Numismatic pioneer Frank Sedwick, Ph.D, was born in 1924 in Baltimore, MD, and earned degrees from Duke University, Stanford University and the University of Southern California. After a wartime stint in the Navy, Frank became a career professor of Spanish and Romance languages, which he taught at the Naval Academy, Ohio Wesleyan, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and finally Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. At Rollins, while earning royalties as the author of several standard textbooks in the field, he took the position of Director of Overseas Programs and made frequent visits to Spain and Colombia, where his interest in Latin American numismatics began, although coins had been his hobby since childhood. In 1981 Frank left academia forever and became a full-time coin dealer. At first his focus was modern Latin American coins, but soon he realized that there was a niche in cobs, which had not been properly researched for the average collector to understand and appreciate. Thus was born The Practical Book of Cobs (now in its 4th edition, 2007), which was perfectly timed to satisfy new cob collectors generated by the fabulous Atocha find by Mel Fisher in 1985. For well over a decade Frank was considered the authority on cobs, his main area being gold cobs from the 1715 Fleet, thousands of which went through his hands. In 1991 Frank authored his second numismatic book, The Gold Coinage of Gran Colombia, in order to update the existing references in his own area of collecting interest. Frank's collection of Colombian Republic gold coins is still one of the finest ever put together.
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Affiliations, Memberships and Licenses:
IAPN (International Association of Professional Numismatists ) membership accepted June 22, 2010
ANA (American Numismatic Association) member #11440, member since 1981
ANE (Asociación Numismática Española) members #6511
FUN (Florida United Numismatists) member #9104 member since 1981
NLG (Numismatic Literary Guild) member in good standing
NI (Numismatics International) member in good standing
USMexNA (U.S. Mexican Numismatic Association) member in good standing
PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service) authorized dealer #734250
NGC (Numismatic Guaranty Corporation) authorized dealer #2700
Licensed Florida Auctioneer #AU3635, AB2592 (since 2007)
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Daniel Frank Sedwick, LLC
P.O. BOX 1964 | Winter Park, Florida 32790
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