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B. MAX MEHL SALES

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:150.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 USD
B. MAX MEHL SALES
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Mehl, B. Max. SALE CATALOGUES. Fort Worth, 1921–54. Nineteen auction catalogues, including Adams Nos. 60, 69, 81, 85, 89, 91, 92, 97, 102, 103, 104, 106, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114 and 115, plus one promotional publication, Recognition of Fifty Years of Numismatic Service. Varying formats, original printed card covers. Somewhat more than half with prices realized lists. Dunham sale in original mailing box; Golden Jubilee sale inscribed by Mehl. Generally fine or nearly so. Adams page 55: “The career of B. Max Mehl was an impossibility. He had at least three strikes against him: 1) he was an immigrant Jew in a then-gentile hobby; 2) he was located in Fort Worth, Texas, at a time when 95 percent of the business was done on the East Coast; and 3) Lilliputian in stature and colorless in terms of personality, he adopted a business plan that relied on creativity and promotion. Quite obviously, Mehl did not realize that he was licked before he started. He just knew that it was a lot more fun to sell coins than to sell shoes. From there, he took it one step at a time.” Mehl solved his problems with a massive advertising program, the likes of which had never been seen before in the numismatic community. His advertising in numismatic publications was fairly routine for a major dealer of the time though his direct mailings to coin collectors were extensive. Mehl’s advertising in the most popular national publications, however, was unparalleled. He became the most famous American coin dealer ever and did more to popularize coin collecting among the masses than any other person, before or since. Of his numismatic publications, Mehl’s ubiquitous Rare Coin Encyclopedia provided a steady source of income, his Numismatic Monthly deservedly brought respectability, and his series of auction sale catalogues spanning fifty years allowed him to handle far more than his share of the great American coin collections of the day. This group includes a number of Mehl’s most important sales: indeed, 14 of the 19 auctions are rated A+, A or A– overall by Adams. Some of the most important include those of: William Forrester Dunham (1941); Albert A. Grinnell (1943); Belden E. Roach (1944); Frederic W. Geiss (1947); Will W. Neil (1947); King Farouk (1948 and 1951) and others.