Spink Auctions Costa Rica Collection

Frederick R. Mayer Costa Rica Collection to Be Sold

One of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Costa Rican coins, stamps and banknotes is scheduled to be sold in less than a month. The offices of Spink Smythein New York and Texas have been hard at work cataloging a massive amount of material to be offered in three auctions in October.

Friend and numismatic cataloger Normand Pepin has been kind enough both to seek our advice and consultation on Costa Rican coinage, and to give us a nice insight into what the collection encompases. From the coin end it seems this collector was methodical in his persuit of die varieties and combinations. Silver type coins in the collection were compiled by date, with many examples of most dates present. Meticulous notes were made by the collector and this data has been watched closely by Pepin and Matthew Orsini, VP of Auctions at Spink Smythe. Most of the die study information will not be included in the sales catalog, but Orsini said that the individual flips do have such information, so that lot viewers will be able to pinpoint things very closely. For those who cannot view the lots, Orsini says that additional information will be made available on request.

Of course, the most significant rarities will offer die variety information when available in the lot write-ups. Some of the rarest and most wonderful coins to be offered in the sale include the following:

and some less expensive, but none-the-less tough to acquire silver pieces:

Some of the silver Tree Reverse denominations are impossible to find in nice condition and some of the individual dates have extremely low survival rates. Note that even this extensive collection did not contain an 1872 GW 50 Centavos.

Orsini has been kind enough to send me an electronic file of the Mayer auction catalog, so keep an eye out for more detailed information at Big Ideas, little worldand on NumisMaster over the next few days after I have had some time to look it over.

This auction will be sold in three parts between October 22-24. The first session on October 22 will be sold through Spink Shrevesand will comprise Mayers Costa Rican stamp collection. The second session, offering Mayer's Costa Rican coins will be sold by Spink Smythe on October 23. The third session on October 24 offers a mixture of consignors with all Latin American coins, banknotes, stock and bonds.

Orsisni tells me that this last session will have some nice selections from Argentina, Cuba, Chile and Uruguay, amongst nearly 500 lots.

Catalogs will be shipped this week, so contact Spink Smythenow to get on their mailing list. For more information on the sale or on specific lots or die state information, contact Matthew Orsini or Harvey Gamer, Spinks new Senior VP of Auctions.

For Costa Rico specialists this sale will be an real event. New collectors, staid family numismatists, museums and Central American hobbyists should all be competing for material and after the smoke clears everyone will need a copy of this catalog in their library for future reference.