The U.S.-based bookseller Kolbe & Fanning will offer the Richard Cooper Library, one of the finest collections of Canadian numismatic literature, in its Sept. 23 sale.
The collection includes important manuscripts and correspondence from seminal Canadian numismatist Robert W. McLachlan.
Leading the way is Lot 190, an extensive gathering of correspondence with McLachlan comprising more than 300 letters received from 140-plus correspondents. It’s estimated at $1,500 US (about $2,000 Cdn.).
Auctioneers called it “an extraordinary archive of letters received by … Canada’s greatest numismatist.”
“This large lot of correspondence, being almost entirely numismatic, is of considerable importance for the snapshot it gives us not only of McLachlan himself but of active Canadian numismatists during McLachlan’s life. In lieu of a biographical synopsis of McLachlan, what follows are comments on a small number of correspondents whose letters to McLachlan particularly struck us. A 1916 letter from the American Numismatic Association informs McLachlan that ‘Your name has been placed in nomination for the office of President of the American Numismatic Association.'”
Lot 189 offers 82 handwritten letters from Canadian collector Thomas Wilson to McLachlan with an estimate of $900 US (about $1,200 Cdn.).
Lastly, Lot 210 offers McLachlan’s original handwritten manuscript, “The First Paper Money,” published in 1910 as Canadian Card Money, one of his most important publications. It’s expected to bring $750 US (about $1,000 Cdn.).