Just finished reading Jack Harpster's book about Redfield. That was one amazing man. He didn't have two dimes to rub together when he started out. He made his first million during the Great Depression buying beaten up stocks. Sort of like they do today but without the fed's crony jumper cables twitching the corpses. He was also the largest individual land holder in Nevada. And he liked playing very high stakes roulette. He lost 100k once on a single spin of the wheel. His estate had 407k silver dollars in it. One story goes that he placed an order with a bank for 10,000 silver dollars. The bank had two employees lug the bags out to Redfield's truck. But when the bank manager told Redfield there was a $40 handling charge for everything, he cancelled the order. Really? How many stackers today would be upset with a .004% premium on face silver? And this was the same Redfield that gave a guy $60 because he was playing Redfield's numbers at the roulette wheel and Redfield was having a really bad night. It was a really good book. R.I.P Grandmaster Stacker LaVere.
I bought a Redfield slabbed Morgan a while back...1897-S as I recall. Nice coin, but the red leather slab is terrible for coin preservation.
Redfield was a ruthless greedy (self-censored). He was a cheapskate in spite of his money, he wasted a lot of it gambling, regularly cheating on his wife, cheating on his taxes (and serving prison time for it). He wasn't a coin collector though, he was a silver hoarder. He didn't act or dress the part either. Flannels and boots were the norm. I kind of admire the guy - he wanted it his way and made it so. He did it being a burden to others sometimes. In the end, he was nuts!
He didn't drink or smoke. His main vices were other women (he was married) and gambling. He was very stubborn. He was mugged coming home from a casino one afternoon. The mugger hit him in the head with a brick an estimated twelve times before giving up and running away. Lavere would not give up his roulette winnings. He was still clutching the bag when they took him to the hospital. He did do things his way. He used to cut down Christmas trees on his land and sell them to a wholesaler. This was long after he'd gotten rich. When someone asked him why did it when he didn't need the money, his reply was: "Because I want to." Depart from the social script and live your own life and you will probably be labelled crazy.
