(805c) Mexican Numismatic Profiles: Volume 2 Issue 8: Last Revision: 05/25/07
Mexican Numismatic Writers:
W. Larry Hanks: An Overlooked Mexican Scholar?
William Lawrence Hanks became a fulltime coin dealer in 1964 when he established W.L. Hanks Rare Coins in San Antonio Texas. After spending several years in San Antonio Mr. Hanks headed west, but only made it as far as El Paso, Texas where he landed in 1973. During the early years in El Paso Hanks was the president of Aztlan Coin Company and under this name he published his first book. Today Hanks & Associates, Inc. can be found at 415 N Mesa in El Paso. The company’s phone number is 915-544-8188 and their website is located at www.rare-coins.net.
Larry Hanks was a prime mover and shaker, both as a coin dealer and author, in Mexican Numismatics during the 1970s and 1980s. Mr. Hanks started his publishing efforts with The Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Modern Mexican Coins in 1976, and continued with a really great book The Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Republic Mexican Coins in 1977. Because of some unfortunate circumstances today’s Mexican coin collectors often overlook his books.
Larry Hanks: Coin Auctioneer
According to Martin Gengerke, American Numismatic Auctions 8th Edition, Larry Hanks, along with several different associates, produced seven public coin auctions. While the majority of the coins in these auctions weren’t Mexican, several auctions contained some nice Mexican coins.
While Hanks was associated with Norman Pullen as Pullen & Hanks they produced four public auctions:
The 1981 Texas Numismatic Association Convention Sale
The 1982 Craig Rose Sale
The 1982 Texas Numismatic Association Convention Sale
The 1982 Georgia Peach State Numismatic Association Sale
Hanks & Associates produced a single public auction:
· The 1985 Texas Numismatic Association Convention Sale
Hanks helped produce two other public auctions in association with Norman and Bill Pullen, and Dale L. Williams under the name of Vintage Auctions, Inc.:
The 1988 Arizona State Invitational Coin Convention Sale
The 1989 Suburban Washington Convention
Larry Hanks: The Coin Dealer
With over forty years in the Mexican coin business Mr. Hanks has handled many nice and rare Mexican coins and he still purchases some nice Mexican collections from his past clients. Occasionally you will see a full-page ad in Coin World or World Coin News with some unbelievable Mexican coins and paper money. However, it appears, to an outsider at least, that most of Mr. Hanks Mexican coin business and sales are handled through private treaty sales today.
Larry Hanks: The Educator
If one takes a moment to look back in time to 1976-77 and studies what books were available to Mexican Numismatists about Mexican Republic Coins you will see a gaping void for publications written in English. The 2nd Edition of the Buttrey & Hubbard Guide Book was last printed in 1971, Neil Utberg had published his last work, The Coins of the Republic of Mexico: 1823-1905 & Maximilian: 1864-1867 in 1966, and we were 20+ years away from the likes of Resplandores and Hookneck. While we can’t forget Pradeau’s great works and those by other authors in Spanish, they weren’t much help to Mexican Coin Collectors in the US who weren’t fluent in Spanish.
With these facts in mind Larry Hanks plotted a course for new books that would provide two volumes to help educate US collectors with the information needed to enter the wonderful world of Mexican Numismatics. I personally believe he did a yeoman’s work that is still not recognized for its originality and completeness even today.
Mr. Hanks was unfortunate in that several other authors had also noted and attempted to fill this void during 1976-1978. Hanks had some keen completion from several “better-known” authors:
· Dr. George Vogt entered the fray with an updated The Coins of the Republic of Mexico: 1823-1905 & Maximilian: 1864-1867 originally written by Utberg in 1966
· A new publication in 1978 by Dr. Vogt and Colin Bruce II Mexican Coins, Paper Money and Medals found wide acceptance
· And finally the 3rd Edition of the Buttrey & Hubbard Guide Book in 1977
The Mexican Numismatic book and catalog market was suddenly flooded with new material and everyone was trying to get the lion’s share of this newly discovered area of numismatics. It seems to me Mr. Hanks’ work was somehow overlooked during this short publishing glut.
But there are several items in The Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Republic Mexican Coins that are truly unique even today!
When I began collecting Mexican Coins, in the early 1980s, there was a single pictorial grading guide for Mexican Republic Coins and it remains the only one today ever published. It appeared in Hanks’ book. While somewhat limited in its scope and depth, The Hanks Grading Guide was a godsend to a neophyte collector (me) back then. At only ten and one half pages long it still has passable grading photographs of the Cap & Ray 8 Reales, 1 Centavos, silver Balance Scale 1 Pesos, and 8 Escudos that has never been bettered. Some complain that it is incomplete, but no one else has even attempted this task.
Another problem addressed by Hanks was contemporary counterfeits, made to fool the general public in years bygone, but he doesn’t spend much time on modern fakes produced in order to fool today’s coin collectors. There are even a few clear photographs of Balance Scale counterfeits that can be useful for novice collectors.
One thing covered in this book and none other, is a three-page listing of hoard dates. This is very useful information, especially for Type Collectors looking for extremely high-grade specimens. Hanks lists hoard dates for ½, 1, 2, and 8 Reales, the Maximilian Zacatecas 5 Centavos, plus several 5, 10, 50 Centavos and 1 Peso Balance Scale Pesos. He also lists two Guanajuato Republic Hand on Book 8 Escudos. While not a complete list today, it is still very useful.
Another intriguing thing done by Mr. Hanks is his attention and the way he lists varieties and their importance. He created a 12 page listing by denomination, year, mint & assayer and finally the variety. Fully understanding that his list isn’t complete he left his readers a blank page to insert newly discovered varieties.
Hanks next tried to establish a method whereby he tackles the two most difficult problems facing the Mexican Republic Coin Collector then and today. First is the question of rarity and second a comprehensive numbering system.
Mr. Hanks created several charts throughout the text of his book indicating the overall rarity of different denominations by mint. Today one might consider these charts as rudimentary, but for the time they were very helpful. Next he tackles the silver Balance Scale 25 and 50 Centavo minors where he lists the overall rarity by DAM (Date/Assayer/Mintmark) of each coin known by him to exist with a 15-point rarity scale. This scale has 1 as the rarest and 15 the most common. The only complaint I had with his system is that he didn’t cover the other denominations in this manner.
Next Hanks does a translation from English to Spanish of the most commonly used numismatic terms that is still very useful for collectors. Hanks also provided interesting items about the mints, some of the spurious coinage produced at Guadalajara and Hermosillo, and a crude hand-drawn map with the approximate location of the Mexican Republic mints.
Finally, as was the excepted method of the day, he lists all of the Mexican Republic Coinage by DAM with his values in varying grades with his simple numbering system. For a cover price of only $10, this book was (and still is in my opinion) a great addition to any Numismatic Library of Mexican Coins. Occasionally you will find copies of the 1977 Edition of the book on eBay or other website auctions, and you owe it to yourself to pickup a copy.
All in all this was a great book for its time and it still has some interesting information that appears nowhere else in print today. The only real drawback to his books are their binding which was rather poorly done and I have had to use a large metal paper clip to keep one of my personal copies intact.
In Conclusion
One has to wonder why Mr. Hanks never completed his anticipated three volumes about the Coins of the Mexican Republic? However, there is little or no doubt that Larry Hanks is an overlooked Mexican Numismatic Scholar of his time.
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