Anyone remember Frank Spadone?

Just out of curiosity I was wondering if anyone remembers Frank Spadone. I've heard various stories but never gotten the full jist of why his book was never republished, what happenend to him,etc. I bought his paperback when I was a kid and had many of the cent "errors" that were listed but now I am hard pressed to figure if any of these cents were actual errors, varieties,etc? It seems he did a lot of work cataloging them but to no avail as someone else came along and claimed it was a lot of bunk. Did Dave Harper or Frank Hebert have anything to do with that or was this a lot of balderdash? Is there anything similar in print that could lead me in the right direction/ Thanks for any imfo anpe you are all having a great weekend.:goofer:

 

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I have the Spadone book, and some "errors" or "varieties" were what we would call now as damage. Gouges, marks, etc. would often seem like the largest of discoveries. Most error/variety collectors today ignore it mostly, almost never quoted or referred to. But, many books issued primarily before the vast reservoir of knowledge ( and sometimes just as erroneous ) suffered the same problems of what actually was being seen by the collectors. Print material was it, and much was out of date before it was published. Breen's encyclopedias are often criticized today as having unsubstantiated and "made up" data. I hadn't thought about the Spadone book probably for 10+ years. had to go see if I still had it. I don't know if there was any organized effort against the book, or people just stopped referring to it.

If anything, collectors have become more technical in their knowledge. I checked to see if Amazon still had it, and they have used editions for under a few dollars. But as we see more of ebay sensationalism, we might remember this quote from a book reviewer on Spadone's book :

Jim

 

I'm not familiar with Frank Spadone, or his book on US errors, but I keep John G. Spadone's Catalog of Modern Japanese Korean Manchukuo Coins handy for frequent reference. The pictures are much clearer than most of those in the Krause catalogs.

Were they related?

 

???

 

Spadone may have had a loty of problems in the book and there have been claims that he just popularized coins he had in quantity but he did popularize the fields of erreors and varieties. Even at the time there were those warning me that these weren't "legitimate" errors.

I believe his intentions were good and the results were great. But anyone who tried to collect the coins in his book would be in for a great disappointment when it came time to sell.

 

yup, I remember him, and his books.

I used his 1st edition as a kid.

Today, of course a lot of the listed items are junk...

but, he did a lot to popularize error collecting.


I have been trying to find out about him for years.

And I do have one of his books-- signed!

 

Thankyou for the replies. Of course at 55 I'm a whole lot more knowledgeable about true errors than I was when I bought that book and most of what I have learned is through the articles in Numismatic News. True, there were quite a few oddities more so than true errors. But were cents that had filled letters, numbers or blobs as they were referred to considered damage also? or things like the "bie" in liberty errors? Would my best bet be the Cherrypickers Guide? I've never seen this book but if it would help me I would definitly be intrested in picking up a copy. I also see a lot about die scratches and similar that appear to be errors but these also would seem to be production damage.

 

Go for Cherrypicker's but--
There are specialty books on nearly every coin type.

 

I've got his book and though dated it was a good book for it's time. We simply did not know the infromation we know now. I think him or his family is in Florida and still sell new copies of those old books and are advertised in N.N.
From what you have said concerning mostly errors I think "The Error Coin Encyclopedia" by Margolis would be a better choice as he covers everything both die varieties and errors though his focus in on errors it will give you more examples of "everything" than Cherry Pickers for now. Cherry Pickers Gulde is almost entirly about die varieties.

 

The Spadone book went through I believe seven editions and a great many of the varieties in the books were very minor or not errors or varieties at all.

 

does anyone know if Frank Spadone is still alive?

 

I believe I read that he passed on but as above, his family is selling his books and some or all are autographed. Thankyou for the replies and I will check into the margolis book also. Cheers!

 

Does anyone have a link to their site?

For Frank Spadone's books?

 

I've only seen it in the back of Numis News in an ad for mail order.

 

thanks, I guess that I'll have to watch for it.

 

Hi Tommy: Frank Spadone was the first coin dealer I met as a young collector in the late 1950's. As a young man he worked for A. C. Roessler and took over his coin and stamp shop about 1940 when he retired. Frank called his shop Ampere Coin Shop. I am briefly mentioning Spadone in a biography I am writing on A. C. Roessler which will run this Sunday, July 31st in the E-Sylum online.

 

@tommyc03
Hey someone responded again to your thread after over 6 years!

 

Certainly I remember him. He was a pioneer in the error-variety field. There's a lot of machine doubled stuff listed as "shift" and "micro shift" varieties and other stuff that is totally unexplainable (the 1954 quadrupled date 25c is one) but I wish I would have paid more attention to the 1916 "double date" nickel.

 

I believe that he had a brother names Jack or John...

Frank was also involved in making elongated coins...

 

Nice to hear this. Frank deserves recognition even after all these years. If not for him I never would have known about errors in general as I believe his book I purchased before my first Red Book. Best to you in your endeavor. Tom