Few collectors of political Americana know the name Andrew C. Zabriskie. But numismatists (coin collectors) are more than familiar with that moniker -- and, more importantly, what it represents in the way of provenance. Zabriskie was one of the most prominent collectors of American coinage in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In fact, Zabriskie served as President of the American Numismatic Society at the turn-of-the century. The sale of his collection by Henry Chapman in 1909 is considered, even today, a seminal event.

    Ancient history... why then, should today’s Lincoln collector be concerned with him? For one thing, he amassed what will always be considered the single finest assemblage of Lincoln tokens, medals, and political badges. Second, in 1873, at the age of nineteen, he published -- at his own expense -- the very first catalog devoted exclusively to Lincoln medals: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Political and Memorial Medals Struck in Honor of Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States. A total of 187 medals (including metal varieties) were each assigned a number (a "Zabriskie" number). The sequence was based on descending order of size, with measurements in the "American scale" prevalent at the time. Only seventy-five copies were printed, each selling for $1.50. (A flawed copy of this scarce work recently sold in the Harry Bass sale for $300).

    Until earlier this year, no one outside the immediately family knew that Captain Zabriskie’s collection (he was quite proud of his military rank) of Lincolniana still existed. A good deal sold in the Chapman sale. Even more was gifted to the American Numismatic Society in Manhattan where it remains in their permanent collection. But a "core collection" sat sight-unseen in a box in a safe from the time of Zabriskie’s death in 1916 until rediscovered by family members in 1951. For reasons unknown, this blockbuster discovery was relegated to a closet shelf for an additional forty-eight years. Like the Paul Masson wine ad of years ago ("No wine before its time") – "No collection before its time"? Family members arranged a house call with Sotheby’s coin department and, with seeming nonchalance, consigned the collection for a sale. The idea of a numismatist collecting political items may now seem strange, but this was not always the case. Virgil Brand, a millionaire Chicago brewer, actively collected from the late 1870’s through the first two decades of the next century. Not without cause, he became known as "the world’s greatest coin collector." The collection remained intact until fairly recently and, when cataloged, was found to contain a total of 365,000 items. The last installments of his collection, auctioned by Bowers & Merena in 1990, included a modest assortment of election medals; the majority represented the 1860 and ‘64 campaigns of Abraham Lincoln. The "world’s greatest political collector," J. Doyle DeWitt, had deep roots in the numismatic community and, prior to publishing his own work on politicals, wrote several articles for leading numismatic journals. And it used to be the case that coin shows were considered productive sources for political items. With the demise of many of the old-time dealers, this is now seldom the case. Still, many items in the political series (hard times tokens, Civil War tokens, inaugural medals) have found a devoted following among segments of the coin collecting population.

    The symbiotic cord between coin collecting and political collecting has its antecedents in the mid-nineteenth century. Prior to the introduction of the photographic campaign badge in 1860, practically all campaign "buttons" were, in fact, tokens and medals. Just as silent movies reached their zenith as an art form concurrent with the introduction of "talkies," so did campaign medals reach a "golden age" just as the more popular ferrotype made its first appearance. From an artistic perspective, the medals produced from 1856 to 1868 are unsurpassed. But medals continued to be popular for quite a number of years -- large quantities were produced through the election of 1892 with examples of high artistic merit most often produced by veteran engravers from the ‘60’s. The introduction of the celluloid pinback button (our modern "campaign button") in 1896 was too much to bear, and put the final nail in the election-medal coffin.

    The greatest interest in the political series by coin collectors took place around the time of the Civil War. The first catalog of election medals was published in 1858: Charles I. Bushnell’s An Arrangement of Tradesmen's Cards, Political Tokens, Also Election Medals, & c. Current in the United States of America for the Last Sixty Years. This was followed in 1862 by Alfred H. Satterlee’s An Arrangement of Medals and Tokens, Struck in Honor of the Presidents of the United States, And of the Presidential Candidates From the Administration of John Adams to That of Abraham Lincoln. This compendium contained twenty-six Lincoln medals. The Bushnell collection was sold by Henry Chapman in 1882. The Satterlee collection was sold by W. Elliot Woodward in 1862.

    Although most coin collectors profess an interest in history, most are content to discover history through coins alone -- politicals are hardly worth the study. (Perhaps politicians are not deemed worthy of their attention.) But this was certainly not the case with Zabriskie. In his 1897 lecture entitled "United States History As Illustrated by Its Political Medals," Zabriskie explained his philosophy:

    As is well known, the fear of possible monarchical tendencies, in the days preceding the adoption of the Federal Constitution, prevented the use of any head, except that of the Goddess of Liberty, on regular issues of the coins of the United States. Looking back as we do, through a vista of more than one hundred years, it seems a pity that this phantom prevented the placing the bust of each President on the coins issued during his administration. This would have added an interest to the numismatic history of our country almost impossible to overestimate. We have, however, a series which in a degree can serve to make up this lack, and which in some respects is even more interesting than would have been a series of coins of the United States bearing the busts of the presidents. The series of coins bearing the busts of the presidents would delineate those candidates who were successfully chosen to rule over this country. The political series on the other hand not only delineates these successful candidates, but also shows us the features of those who strove in vain for the highest office within the gift of the republic.

    The seeds of the Captain’s fascination with the contemporary political scene were defined by specific memories:

    I can distinctly recollect, as a boy, playing with a small American flag which had stamped across it the words "Clay and Frelinghuysen." It was the sole surviving specimen of a number which had waved from my grandfather’s house at 618 Broadway, when the great campaign procession took place... My own personal reminiscences of Mr. Lincoln are of the briefest character. I remember, as a boy of seven, seeing him as he was escorted through this city [New York] on his way to Washington for his inauguration, and recall my surprise that so many persons should crowd the streets to see this unassuming man drive by in a barouche, and whose only escort consisted of a few policemen and committee-men in carriages. With boyish recollections of the splendors accorded in their reception to the Japanese Embassy and the Prince of Wales in the previous year, my wonder is perhaps quite excusable. I remember four years later how, with awe-struck face, I watched the slow progress up Fifth Avenue of that solemn funeral car drawn by sixteen somber steeds and surrounded by the gray files of the Seventh Regiment.

    Years later, Zabriskie would speculate on the popularity of collecting political medals:

    In the year 1857 the United States government abolished the old copper cent and substituted the small nickel cent. This event had a very important bearing on American Numismatics; up to that time collectors of coins and medals had indeed been very few in number and societies devoted to the study of the science were entirely unknown in this country. It seems, however, to have occurred to a number of persons that the old copper cents were interesting, that a complete set of them would be a valuable thing to possess, and consequently, many started to collect sets of cents and half cents, as the half cent, which had been issued from time to time up to this year, had been abolished also. Many of these collectors, starting in a modest way, soon increased the field of their labors and gathered specimens of coins and medals of all countries. Naturally the interesting series of political medals attracted their attention.

    Just why Zabriskie was attracted to collecting Lincoln is uncertain. The tumultuous events of the Civil War, to which he was an impressionable witness, were, no doubt, fertile ground. Current events often hold the greatest attraction for a beginning collector. Affordability and availability may have been other concerns. Accordingly, he came out with his "Descriptive Catalogue..." in 1873, devoted exclusively to Lincoln.

    In 1897, he declared, "Far be it from me to weary you with a dry catalogue of all the various medals of which I might speak. Such a catalogue comprising a full description of the campaign medals of the United States is greatly to be desired and doubtless may at some future time be forthcoming..." (It would finally come about in 1959 with the publication of J. Doyle DeWitt’s A Century of Campaign Buttons). In 1873, however, Lincoln was his exclusive focus.

    The preface to his inaugural work was simple and direct: "In the following pages will be found descriptions of one hundred and eighty-nine Medals struck in honor of Abraham Lincoln. No President or public man in this country -- Washington excepted -- has been honored with an equal number of medallic memorials. I believe very few pieces have escaped my observation, and they are probably those known as "mules." The infamous practice of muling, at one time carried to a great extent, tends to confuse any one attempting to catalogue political pieces. Those individuals who urge die-cutters to strike them, can be looked upon with contempt by any true student of Numismatics. I am indebted to the late Mr. A. H. Satterlee’s work on "Presidential Medals" for descriptions of some of the earlier politicals. Also, to several gentlemen, who furnished me with rubbings and information on the subject."

    For those unfamiliar with the term, "muling" refers to the practice of combining obverse and reverse dies that did not originate together, thus creating a new variety of medal. In spite of his aversion to mulings, several are listed in Zabriskie’s catalog. In addition, medals struck strictly for the purpose of selling to collectors are likewise listed -- and are not differentiated as such. It is quite possible that Zabriskie did not find these equally objectionable to mules that often contained totally illogical and incongruent dies.

    One result of the catalog’s publication was a controversy between the author and a Cambridge, Massachusetts collector named Henry W. Holland. They traded barbs in a series of "Letters to the Editor" that appeared in the American Journal of Numismatics in 1874 and 1875. Holland’s stated goal was the compilation of a complete list of Lincoln medals ? as such, it was necessary to deliver some criticism of Zabriskie:

    "Those of your readers who have had occasion to consult Zabriskie’s Catalogue of Lincoln Medals, have probably noticed that it contains some errors... I give below a list of one hundred and ten Lincoln medals not in Zabriskie... The mischievous practice of muling seems to have been carried to a greater extent than ever before."

    Zabriskie responded: "In the January issue of the Journal appears a communication from H. W. H., in which my "Catalogue of Lincoln Medals" is the subject of considerable criticism... He mentions as new varieties in metals some half-dozen medals in bronze, which I had already catalogued as copper. All collectors know that these pieces are identical. Mr. H. W. H. proceeds to swell farther his list by placing in the category of medals sundry pieces made from terra cotta, rubber, green clay, & c. These articles have no right to the title of medals, and I purposely excluded all such from my catalogue. I have a Lincoln piece made from soap, which has as much right in the list as the articles just mentioned!" But Holland got the last word: "Allow me to express my regret that the list of Lincoln Medals sent you should have so much annoyed Mr. Zabriskie... I am compelled to differ with him when he says that impressions from medal dies in terra cotta, rubber, & c. "have no right to the title of medals." Such pieces are usually classed with medals and rarely, if ever, described by any other term: and when Mr. Zabriskie’s collection is sold, I feel little doubt that even his Lincoln "article" (as he calls it) in soap, will be classed with the other Lincoln Medals, rather than with the snuff-boxes and stuffed birds, that under the name of "miscellaneous articles" may close his catalogue." Zabriskie’s "article" in soap no longer exists and was not included in the Sotheby’s auction. Don’t expect any snuff boxes or stuffed birds, either. Holland’s passing and the sale of his collection in 1878 by W. Elliot Woodward put an end to the controversy. (There are certain advantages to dying after your adversaries.) Zabriskie never put out a revised catalog. The quest for a definitive, complete listing would finally be realized with the publication of Robert P. Kingís "Lincoln in Numismatics" which appeared serially in The Numismatist issues of February 1924, April 1927, and August 1933. In the preface to his work, King reminisced about Zabriskie:

    I do not know of anyone quite measuring up to Capt. Andrew C. Zabriskie as a thoroughly kind and courteous gentleman, and I do not believe that I ever destroyed one of his letters, which were a great help to me in those days, as his collection was particularly strong in contemporaneous pieces, having been collected by him at time of issue or shortly after. During the early days of our acquaintance he presented me with a copy of his Lincoln Medal Catalog, the earliest of this kind and now quite rare, having an auction record of about $15. I have besides this many items in my collection presented me by him, medals as well as other things that somehow seem to appeal to a Lincoln collector’s heart -- photos, badges, etc., among the latter being a beautiful silk woven ribbon by Dreyfus, of Basle, Switzerland, which I value very highly.

    Zabriskie spent his remaining years writing papers and delivering lectures on diverse topics, often returning to his first love -- election medals and Lincoln. Comments made in his paper "The Medallic History of Abraham Lincoln," delivered before the American Numismatic Society on December 6, 1900, are worthy of our attention:

    ...in speaking to-night upon the Medallic Memorials of Abraham Lincoln, I am, as it were, opening to you one of the side galleries in the life of that great man, and am not guilty of the presumption of attempting to lead your steps along the well-known paths of his life, already made so familiar to you by the many excellent biographies that have appeared from time to time ... varying in value from what may be pronounced excellent and readable, to the somewhat scurrilous vaporings of Mrs. Lincolnís colored waiting-maid... Months before the action of the convention was known, the Republicans had begun the formation of the Wide Awake organization which proved such an important factor in the campaign ... In the hats of some of these campaign clubs was worn a tin badge [DeWitt AL-1860-1], bearing a hideous likeness of Mr. Lincoln. These are now rare, and how I came to possess this one may be worth relating. Perhaps twenty years ago, seeing it catalogued for sale at auction, I sent a bid of two dollars for it, and afterwards was astounded to hear that it had sold for forty-two dollars. Some years later the purchaser sold it with his collection, and when I repeated my modest bid of two dollars my patience was rewarded by securing it for the small sum of one dollar and twenty-five cents. And here is a badge which I, as a boy of eleven, wore during the fall of 1864. Little campaigning was done, and the Wide Awakes had disappeared, but such campaign organizations as were formed were known as War Eagles... My task is finished... Like shells which strew the beach after the retreating tide, these little pieces of tin, or copper, or silver are left to us to mark the career of Abraham Lincoln.

    And we, the collectors of today, have people like Andrew Zabriskie to thank for his research, dedication, and diligence in preserving these "shells" from the sands of time. His legacy is inspiring.

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    David E. Tripp, Special Consultant and former Director of Sotheby’s Coin Department, cataloged the Zabriskie holdings. We asked him to recount how he personally "rediscovered" the whereabouts of that collection.

    In early January of this year, I received a call from an old acquaintance with whom I had worked years ago, and for whom I had recently given some informal advice on a completely unconnected issue. She informed me that her father had recently died, and that her mother had inherited a collection of medals relating to Abraham Lincoln. Would I be able to go and have a look and give her mother some idea of what the materials might be worth. Needless to say, I was more than happy to do what I could.

    "Oh, by the way," she asked, "have you ever heard of Andrew Zabriskie?" That stopped me. Of course, to a numismatist Captain Andrew C. Zabriskie’s collections of coins, sold by Henry Chapman in 1909, was one of the greatest cabinets of American coins to ever come to auction. It included an example of America’s most famous coin, the Brasher Doubloon. (Ironically that piece recently changed hands for nearly $1,000,000, and at Sotheby’s a few years earlier, as part of the Bloomfield Foundation Collection, we had sold another coin from Zabriskie/Chapman for $165,000). Chapman was a landmark sale.

    Over the weekend I looked at a tattered old copy of the Chapman sale catalog which I own, and noticed that while there was a great deal of political material, there was little if any material related to Lincoln. His Indian Peace Medals were virtually complete... less Lincoln. In checking the Lincoln Bibliography, I notice that he had published on the subject in 1873, and so was intrigued. I confess I had no idea that Captain Zabriskie was one of the early titans of collecting politicals, as well as coins.

    The collection was laid out in a few shoe-boxes. Many pieces were simply wrapped in tissue paper. Some had at some point been slipped into old plastic sleeves. As each piece emerged from its cocoon, the importance of the holding began to reveal itself. Certainly when the Lincoln Peace Medal was unwrapped, I was astounded. It was the most perfectly preserved Lincoln I had ever seen (and I have been reliably informed that it may well be the single most perfectly preserved Indian Peace Medal of any president). Even uneducated in the secrets of the politicals market, the array of 35 ferrotypes was memorable.

    As the extent of the collection became apparent, I idly asked if there was any more. Indeed there was, in the upstairs closet, in a suitcase. This, upon retrieval, contained many of the storecards from New York as well as the extraordinary run of Civil War tokens. In the end, the owner, a delightful lady, simply instructed us to take it away. As it was being receipted, I asked about how it had been retained intact for all these years.

    It transpired, that in 1951, the family gave Captain Zabriskie’s home, Blithewood, together with 1,000 acres to Bard College, up the Hudson River. The weekend before the closing, the husband of our consignor (Zabriskie’s grandson) received a call from his brother, and was told that the closing on the house was to be the following Monday, and that if there was anything in the house he wanted, to come up on Saturday and take it away. They went up to Blithewood and discovered the long-forgotten family safe, door sealed, combination unknown. They were confident that nothing of value remained in their grandfather’s old safe, but decided at the last minute to have it drilled to make certain that personal, family papers were not left behind. To everyone’s amazement, within was the collection, not only of Lincoln medals and the storecards, but also the Captain’s collection of Polish coins, which the family later donated to the Smithsonian Institution.

    While I had some idea of what we were into, the size and importance of the collection was a most pleasant surprise. When we had got it all into some order, several specialists came to have a look. I was delighted that their reaction was similar to mine. As some of the great rarities came to light it was as if they were gazing on the Grail. A delightful experience indeed.

    The Zabriskie holding is the rare survival of a wonderful "first generation" collection, and one can rest assured that the new owners will derive as much pleasure from their new purchases as did the Captain more than a century ago.

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    They began arriving an hour before the sale. A small group of dealers gathered in a corner, speaking in sentences inaudible to those seated only a few feet away. Within a few minutes, a Sotheby employee gave the signal that bidders could go upstairs and register. Passing by rows of European paintings stacked at all angles in preparation for an upcoming sale, the communicants slowly made their way towards the registration desk. This was the third session of the coin auction; many bidders were "making a weekend" of it attending the first two sessions the previous day.

    Past a narrow corridor lay the main sales room. The scene was a familiar one, comprised of neatly-arranged rows of folding chairs, banks of telephones, and a pulpit-like auctioneer’s podium. Draperies were drawn around the sides and rear of the staging area, creating a private enclosure void of distractions. An electronic display board was operating with instantaneous displays of the current high bid for each lot, along with foreign exchange conversions in most major currencies. The board, and its unseen master controller, sometimes would fall in arrears. This was brought to the attention of auctioneer David Redden who discounted the glitch, wryly commenting that "we all speak English here."

    After a great deal of anticipation, the "Zabriskie Sale" began. Those attending made up what is considered a "large" audience for a coin sale... only thirty-five people. Not all would participate as bidders. Some were companions. There were individual collectors, dealers, agents, and consultants. While many people worked to bring this event to fruition, the person most responsible was an elderly lady in a blue sweater ? the consignor of the Zabriskie Collection. She was accompanied by her daughter and nephew.

    A composite of the audience: an elderly man and his grandson who apparently did not do any bidding; a gentleman who was bidding as agent for Q. David Bowers; Seth Kaller; the "big guy" from Tannenbaum & Rossi Numismatics (we can never remember who is Tannenbaum and who is Rossi!); noted numismatist Harvey Stack; collector Saul Finkelstein; former Congressman Jimmy Hayes and his dealer-consultant Anthony Terranova; dealer Bill Anton; Mike Hodder (a Stack’s associate who was bidding as agent for four collector-clients); and various others who tried to get their paddles in the air when the heavy-hitters weren’t going full tilt. The "hidden audience" was comprised of countless unknown absentee bidders who submitted their offers in advance, and the equally inscrutable and anonymous live telephone bidders.

    Even though it came as no surprise, the strong across-the-board prices were bewildering to several seasoned collectors. The blockbusters lived up to their advance-billing. The perpetual calendar sold to an absentee bidder for $35,000 plus ten-percent buyer’s commission, a record for a ferrotype portrait Lincoln campaign badge. Auctioneer Redden disclosed he had four absentee bids at the $11,000 level. The Lincoln-Hamlin doughnut which one collector disparaged because it lacked its suspension loop, sold to someone more discerning for $10,000. The largest size Lincoln ferro from 1864, which a savvy dealer thought to only take to the $3,500 level, soared to an astounding $17,000.

    Considered one of the choicest examples of an Indian Peace Medal extant, the Lincoln specimen in silver went within estimate at $24,000 -- quite a surprise given how few items went at anything near the estimates. The Wide Awake hat badge, the "star of the sale," attracted a winning bid of $11,000. One can only imagine what it would have realized if the disfiguring tarnish was not present. The only other specimen we know of (cataloged as Sullivan/DeWitt #1) was stumbled across in a Civil War show by a lucky -- and astute -- Wisconsin politicals collector. A Major Robert Anderson-Fort Sumter award medal in silver, one of only two known, was hammered down for $20,000 (the underbidder made the rather unsportsmanlike comment -- at a very audible level -- "What’s he going to do with it?"). The George F. Robinson Life Saving Award medal in silver, given to the hero who thwarted the assassination of Sec. Seward the night of the Lincoln murder, also one of only two known, was less appreciated at $13,000. Proving time and again that provenance and the Zabriskie name carried huge cachet value, the Rail Splitter-Progress medal in copper sold for $2,250 -- despite a comparable example selling in Joe Levine’s sale of the McSorley collection last year for a healthy $400. A Lincoln-axe brooch made the "cut" for $3,250 (this is only the fifth appearance of an authentic example in the past twenty-five years). The 1864 campaign badge that Captain Zabriskie "wore as a young boy of eleven" evoked a winning bid of $5,500. Although a pristine specimen, it is typical of badges that routinely sell for $800-1,000 in the political market.

    It appeared that five "players" won 90% of the lots. The four major buyers in attendance were the agent for David Bowers, Hodder, Hayes/Terranova, and Tannenbaum & Rossi, who had their own private phone line in a "box seat enclosure." An unidentified phone bidder was likewise a major purchaser. Tannenbaum & Rossi was overheard to say "We bought a lot of stuff for ourselves ... for inventory." Mike Hodder indicated he was buying as agent for collectors interested in political material, not coin collectors per se, and that the Zabriskie provenance was not a factor in their buying decisions. He further stated that, although prices were strong, "...we’re happy with what we bought. This is a unique opportunity. By not buying now, we will just wind up paying more at the next sale."

    At sale’s end, the consignor exclaimed "We’re delighted!" She expressed pleasure that the items in the Zabriskie Collection will go to appreciative collectors, and not reside in a museum. The three-session sale netted $2.5 million which, even by Sotheby standards, constitutes a success. It was a memorable event, never to be duplicated.

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