Outstanding Coin Dealers & Auction Houses
If you were a Mexican coin collector during the 1970s, 1980s or early 1990s you knew, or at least had some inkling of Superior and the Goldbergs because they were, beyond a doubt, the top auction house in the United States of America for Mexican material. Today, other than the name or address you wouldn’t recognize the place!
Isadore Goldberg started Superior Stamp & Coin Company in 1931, and it wasn’t long before a retail shop was opened in downtown Los Angles. As the Goldberg fame and reputation for fairness spread, their clientele grew and attracted many high-profile sports and Hollywood personalities. Their new customer base warranted a move from downtown LA to the high-rent district of Beverly Hills, California just down the street from the famous Beverly Hills Hotel. It wasn’t long before Superior and the Goldbergs became one of the most respected auction houses in the United State of America.
In the ensuing years Superior has seen at least six Goldberg’s involved in the business of buying and selling stamps and coins:
Grandfather Isadore Goldberg
Isadore's two sons: Marshall and Harold Goldberg
Grandsons: Marshall's son Ira and Harold's sons Larry and Mark
Ira, Larry and Mark Goldberg were members of the Superior Coin & Stamp team from the time they were teenagers until 1998 when Ira and Larry left to form Ira and Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectables, Inc. The Goldberg family has acted as consultants to many well-known collectors such as Buddy Ebsen, Joshua Heifetz, and Jerry Buss in the past. Ira’s expertise covers many fields from Ancient coins to all areas of U.S. coinage, while Larry is also an expert in Latin American coinage.
Over the last 50-plus years members of the Goldberg family have assisted many famous stamp and coin collectors in building and liquidating “World Class” collections. A few of the most notable include: Robinson Brown, Jr., Dr. Jerry Buss, Hoagy Carmichael, Moshe Dayan, Buddy Ebsen, Clarke Gilhousen, Jascha Heifetz, Wayne Miller, and Dr. Charles Ruby.
It is now apparent that with Superior’s first auction, in 1970, the Goldberg’s would achieve much of their early greatness in the area of Mexican Numismatics because this sale contained coins from three great Mexican collectors: Sol Alexander, Merrill Bothamley and Dr. A.J. Pradeau.
The Mexican material in this live auction began on the second (September 25th) day of the auction with lot #602 and continued until the last lot #1639 was sold on September 26, 1970. Never before had so much Mexican material been offered publicly by a U.S. auction house. The Goldberg’s did a “bang up” job for their first auction printing two volumes in a digest format, one with the coin listings and a second with black and white photo plates. By today’s standards both volumes were rather skimpy, but the coins spoke for themselves and opened the door for the Goldberg’s and Superior to become great.
The Goldberg’s created a new marketing technique for Mexican Numismatics; they didn’t sell all of the Bothamley and Pradeau collections in one sale! Two later auctions would attract and string out these Mexican collections and the Mexican coin collectors of the time, thus allowing individual collectors to gather and save enough funds to purchase more coins from these and other collections offered under the names of famous Mexican collectors. This marketing technique would serve Superior and the Goldbergs well over the next decades because they it used time and again in the 1970s and 1980s.
Before we leave this part of the Superior/Goldberg story, I’ve always wondered what happened to some of the Pradeau Collection, especially the many gold coins “reported” to have been in his collection. In the past I’ve asked countless dealers and collectors about these coins and most responses have been, “Pradeau didn’t really own many gold coins.” This isn’t a fact by any means, he had a wonderful collection of Mexican gold, but the entire gold collection was offered in private treaty sales to two of his close collecting friends in Mexico and these two collectors bought most of Pradeau’s gold coins!
The next big offering of Mexican material by the Goldberg’s occurred in June 1972 at the COIN’72 Sale when they offered over 130 Mexican Republic Gold coins. This auction secured the “top rung” of the ladder for a U.S. auction house selling Mexican material for years to come.
The following two years the Goldberg’s handled many interesting collections including some large US collections and a few smaller ones along with some fine Mexican Type Sets and other miscellaneous Mexican coins. Examples of these were the Charles Ruby Sale #2 which included Mexican material from the Fredrico Claveria Collection, Ruby #3, and the Floyd Wolfsen Sale in June 1975.
Then at the ANA Convention Sale of 1975 the Goldberg’s had another “blockbuster” Mexican sale containing almost 200 Mexican Republican gold coins. Some of the Mexican Republic gold coins in this sale were unbelievable for their rarity and condition!
Over the next few years the Goldbergs had several good Mexican coins sales such as COIN’76, and the Buddy De Sylva Sale, with over 550 lots of nice Mexican material, but the Goldberg’s best was yet to come …
In June 1980 the Goldberg’s had their first Miguel Munoz Sale and they would continue this series of four sales through 1982, even though many of the coins included in these sales didn’t actually come from the Munoz Collection.
January 1984 saw the Goldberg’s “1984 Premier Sale” and most modern catalogers still use this sale for valuing the minor silver from the Mexican Republic Period. The Robert Lawson Collection of Mexican coins was sold in January 1985 and again included many extreme rarities in multiple denominations.
Even after these “bellwether” sales the Goldberg’s continued to attract the “great” sales of Mexican material from collections like those of Frank Grove, The Moreira Collection, Fred Casterline, Paul Karon and finally in 1998 the J.B. Parker Collection of Republican 8 Reales that has become the standard for these coins.
Lest we forget, another unheralded accomplishment of the Goldberg’s; they helped collectors publish two of the standard reference books for different areas of Mexican Numismatics that are still unsurpassed today:
Mexican Revolutionary Coins: Mexican Revolutionary Coinage: 1913-1917
Today, if one takes the time to look back at the Goldberg Era of Superior and analyzes the many great collections of Mexican material they helped build and sell from that first sale in 1970, we can only wonder where Mexican Numismatics in the US would be today without them?
After several phone conversations, Ira and Larry Goldberg have agreed to tell Mexican Coin Magic about their many wonderful experiences during their years at Superior. They will tell us who the mysterious owners were for the great Mexican collections Superior handled, including probably the greatest Mexican coin collector ever ... who is completely unknown today. They will try to give us a snapshot look at the fun and excitement they had meeting and dealing with these people. And they will also tell us about some of the fabulous Mexican coins that never crossed the public auction block. So stay tuned, I'm sure you will enjoy the "war stories" of the the Goldberg cousins.
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