By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes …..
Coin collector. Born May 7 or 8, 1827, in Wilmington, Vermont. Died July 22, 1905, in Danvers, Massachusetts.
* * *
Lorin G. Parmelee was a 19th-century American collector of the first order.
Born in Wilmington, Vermont, he moved to Boston in 1849 where he established himself as a bean baker.
Parmelee specialized in Large Cents until 1873 when he purchased the George F. Seavey Collection before it went to auction. In that collection was an ultra-rare 1841 quarter eagle and the Seavey catalog was one of the first public sales of the coin. That collection was cataloged by William Harvey Strobridge and later published as A Descriptive Catalogue of the Seavey Collection of American Coins, The Property of Lorin G. Parmelee, of Boston. Cambridge (1873).
He purchased the J. Carson Brevoort Collection in 1876, as well as the “Cohen” 1804 dollar from the collection of Henry S. Adams of Boston for $500. Parmelee sold it two years later to H.G. Sampson for $600.
In 1882, he purchased the Charles Ira Bushnell Collection for $8,000 from Bushnell’s son. Parmelee then sold the collection through the brothers Henry and S.H. Chapman (who were Bushnell’s nephews), buying many of the pieces back.
Lorin Parmelee also bought a number of rare coins from numismatist Sylvester Sage Crosby.
Dr. George Heath, Founder of the American Numismatic Association (ANA), was said to have spread the rumor that Parmelee sold his collection to William Sumner Appleton in June 1892 for $75,000.
New York Coin and Stamp Co. offered part of Parmelee’s collection June 25-27, 1890 (Catalogue of the Finest Existing Collection of American Coins, the Property of Mr. Lorin G. Parmelee, of Boston, Mass). Among the 1,433 lots of that sale was the Parmelee-Reed 1804 dollar.
Notable Coins from the Lorin Gilbert Parmelee Collection
Parmelee’s collection was strong in all areas, with a particular emphasis on colonial and copper issues. He also focused on silver and gold issues from 1795 to 1876.
- PCGS MS65BN #30451156: “The Lorin G. Parmelee”, New York Coin and Stamp Company, June 1890, Lot 678; “The E.W. Ropes Collection”, New York Coin and Stamp Company, December 1893, Lot 419; Listed by Stack’s in January 1963 Fixed Price List; purchased by Joseph Brobston; Eugene H. Gardner; “The Eugene H. Gardner Collection”, Stack’s, February 1965, Lot 1109; J.L. Browning; “The Raymond Benson Collection”, Stack’s, October 1990, Lot 1585 (mis-identified as Cohen-3); “The James R. McGuigan Half Cent Collection”, Heritage Auctions, August 22, 2022, Lot 3018 – $252,000. Pedigree research assisted by Heritage Auctions.
Lorin Parmelee owned the finest-known Lettered Edge Wreath Cent (as of 1/2008, PCGS #10739381), which he purchased from the Cogan sale of the James E. Root Collection.
Parmelee owned a Gem 1808 Capped Bust Quarter Eagle. The coin was sold in the June 1890 sale and was later held in the John Story Jenks, Colonel E.H.R. Green, Ketterman, Hayes, and Pogue collections. When Stack’s Bowers/Sotheby’s sold the coin at the first session of the D. Brent Pogue Family Collection sales, it realized $2.35 million.
Parmelee believed that he owned a genuine 1822 $5 half eagle gold coin, but it turned out when his collection was being processed by the New York Coin and Stamp Co. for auction that the coin was a forgery. As the half eagle was one of the highlights of the sale, they listed Harlan P. Smith’s example instead. Smith was a backer of the firm and had no intention to part with his coin. Smith bought it back for $900.
Parmelee owned the finest of three known 1839/8 Liberty Head Eagles.
- NGC PF67UCAM #919538-001: “The Lorin G. Parmelee Collection,” New York Coin and Stamp Co., June 1890, Lot 1097; “The John Story Jenks Collection,” Henry Chapman, December 1921, Lot 5735; John H. Clapp; Clapp Estate; Sold en bloc to Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr., 1942; “The Louis Eliasberg, Sr., “Bowers and Ruddy, October 1982, Lot 662; Mike Brownlee; Unknown Intermediaries; Goldberg Coins and Collectibles, September 1999, Lot 1817; Bowers and Merena, August 2003, Lot 4042; Heritage Auctions, January 4, 2007, Lot 3657 – $1,610,000. Pedigree research by Heritage Auctions.
* * *
