More than 60 years in the making, the famous collection of Rhode Island numismatist Richard August will be offered by Stack’s Bowers Galleries in a series of auctions in 2025 and 2026.
August was a towering figure within the close-knit community of early American coin and medal enthusiasts. He was a pioneer in the fields of Betts medals and colonial paper money and an exacting builder of variety sets of most major pre-Federal copper series. Beginning decades ago, Richard was an early adopter of collecting colonial-era coins from Europe’s New World empires alongside coins more explicitly made for America. He came to focus on these coins with as much vigor as on their Red Book-listed counterparts, amassing important collections of coins from Mexico, Guatemala, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and the West Indies. Selections from August’s incredibly choice collections of coins from England, Ireland, and Scotland will be the first coins from the cabinet to be offered, slated for our January 2025 New York International Numismatic Convention (NYINC) sale.
Richard August was well known as a numismatist and was a fixture at shows all over the country for decades, particularly those in his native New England. Beyond his life in coins (a full-time passion since before he attended the University of Virginia in the late 1950s), Richard was a high-level math teacher and tutor, a distance runner and running coach, and a passionate practitioner of hobbies ranging from gardening to fish husbandry to shooting (he competed on the rifle team at UVA). His remarkable memory and knowledge base, as deep as it was broad, impressed his numismatic colleagues, but the collection his expertise allowed him to amass impressed his friends and rivals as well.
Dick’s pre-Federal copper collections are among the finest ever assembled, with unique varieties present in the Connecticut, New Jersey, and Fugio series. Along with his Vermont, Massachusetts, Machin’s Mills, and other notable copper subcategories, these collections include classic rarities and Condition Census examples, alongside interesting die states and contemporary counterfeits. These were gathered through savvy cherrypicking and participation at major auctions dating back to the 1960s. His participation in the famous 1966 C.H. Stearns sale resulted in not only the expansion of his Massachusetts silver holdings, but also the acquisition of most or all of Stearns’ early American medals in a private transaction. This formed the basis of his highly important collections of Betts medals and Washingtoniana, and both series are replete with notable rarities.
His world coin holdings are extensive, with particularly notable collections from Latin America and the British Isles. Focused on the era of American colonization, roughly 1492 to 1830, Dick’s collection comprised impressive date runs of coins in every collectible denomination of copper and silver, with some gold highlights as well. His coins of the British Isles are notable for their quality; selections focused on 17th-century coins of England, Ireland, and Scotland will be offered in the January 2025 NYINC sale.
Betts medals, Washingtoniana, and paper money are expected to cross the auction block in March/April 2025, followed by select Latin American, Fugio coppers, and more in Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ August 2025 Global Showcase auctions. A major offering of colonial coins is scheduled for the firm’s November 2025 official Whitman Expo Auction, held in cooperation with the Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4).
For more information on the Richard August Collection and other upcoming Stack’s Bowers Galleries auctions–or to inquire about consigning–call 800-458-4646 or email [email protected].
* * *