I have been trying to get in contact with JB for over a month with no results. I hope something bad hasn’t happened to him. But I bet he and Carolyn are off in that big RV he purchased with all of his ex Mexican Coin Collection money. They usually take a month or so off during the summer to see the US. Therefore, this article isn’t as complete as I would have liked it to be. But here is what I can tell you about one of Mexican Numismatics greatest characters without his collaboration.
Most new collectors of Mexican coins have little, or no idea who JB Parker is. The only things most of them might know about him are: (1) the famous sale of his Cap & Ray 8 Reales by Superior in 1998 (2) that he is listed as one of the authors of Resplandores, ‘the book’ of the Mexican Cap & Ray 8 Reales. But JB Parker was and still is much more than that!
Parker began collecting Mexican coins in 1960s and continued until his entire collection was dispersed in 1998. Very few people realized the total scope of the many Parker collections of Mexican coins. But first let’s take a look at JB Parker the man.
JB was born in Corpus Christi Texas and has led a charmed life. He met his wonderful wife, Carolyn, and for the life of me I can’t understand how such a wonderful lady wanted him because she has stuck by him through thick and thin. JB and Carolyn have three children and a whole passel of grandchildren and today make their home just north of Corpus Christi Texas. Sometime, before the Ice Age ended Parker and a partner established Texas Office Supply Company in Corpus Christi and continued to run it until sometime during the late 20th Century when it was sold to a national chain of office supply stores. I remember Parker telling me a long time ago how a Mexican coin in his store’s cash register helped spur his keen interest in Mexican coins.
Parker is a very outgoing person with a wide smile, a quick laugh, and a very mischievous way about him. Parker was an avid bird hunter; he and Carolyn always had at least one German Shorthair birddog in training that always became their lapdog too. JB was a leading member of the old Corpus Christi Coin Club during its heyday and it was during one of the coin shows put on by this club where I officially met him even though I saw him the first time at the Christie’s-Norweb Sale II in Dallas in 1985. Parker latched on to me at the show, after coming up to introduce himself, and he took me around to all of the collectors and dealers present after he discovered I was interested in Mexican Cap & Ray 8 Reales. Later, we became great friends, collecting cohorts, and traveling companions to coin shows and auctions all over the US and Mexico.
When I first met Parker he was a DAM (Date/Assayer/Mintmark) collector of all large Mexican 8 Reales and silver 1 Pesos. He also owned an extensive collection of patterns and trial strikes, including many extreme rarities such as a full set of Caballito Pesos. Parker was on the “A” List of all of the big Mexican Specialty Coin Dealers; he was very close to Larry Goldberg who sold him many extreme rarities in private treaty sales including a lot of patterns and trial strikes.
After a short while, and exposure to my variety collection of Cap & Ray 8 Reales, Parker was hooked as a new variety collector too. One day I showed him my computerized list of Cap & Ray 8 Reales, and he was amazed. He told me he had to have one just like mine so we could compare our collections. I informed him he would need a personal computer and a new HP laser printer in order to accomplish this goal.
He said, “You are in the computer business aren’t you?”
I said, “Yes, but this stuff isn’t cheap.”
Parker replied, “I don’t care what it costs, just buy it for me and deliver it down here next time you come to the coast.”
JB was a great typist and soon he had all of this Cap & Ray 8 Reales up on the computer. Shortly after we were comparing what coins we had and one day when he said, “Hell Poucher … we have more data about the Cap & Ray varieties than anyone one in the world. Let’s write a book about them!”
And so it began. It would be many years before the task was finally accomplished because there were so many roadblocks along the way. I could write a very funny book about all of the trials and tribulations encountered during the writing and preparation of Resplandores, but it would make some people even more unhappy with me, so I won’t.
Like so many other collectors, Parker’s kids never became interested in Mexican Numismatics so JB elected to pass his collections on to other collectors well before he became too old or ended up in the pine box.
Boy I miss him! I miss his many practical jokes, his smiling face, the hours we used to spend going through our combined collections to discover new varieties, and then the hours we would just talk. Mexican Coin Collecting lost one of the greats, when JB Parker left the field!
Sources and Footnotes
Superior-JB Parker Sale; June 2, 1998 in Long Beach, California
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