Have you ever bought a coin just because of provenance?

So there's an upcoming HA auction of many tokens from the Virgil Brand collection. I have to say that I'm tempted to buy a dog of a coin (probably all that I can afford) just to have something from that collection.
I know it's probably the equivalent of buying a doorstop from Babe Ruth's house but he is the Babe Ruth of numismatics.
Question is have any of you bought a coin, maybe one you don't even like, just because of provenance...
Yes I know it's folly, so not looking for anyone to point that out to me.

 

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I have one or two, but paid regular price for them

 

No, I have not. But then again I'm much more into getting US coins for face out of rolls than buying coins and I don't even touch ancients.

 

I bought a couple of low grade CC Morgans just, because.

 

I have never purchased a coin merely for its provenance, but I will freely admit that it is only because I cannot afford to do so. People buy: (1) furniture because it was owned (and apparently ultimately rejected) by the Royal Family; (2) costume jewelry because it was owned by Jackie O., although she would never have worn it; (3) books because they were merely in James Joyce's library; and (4) any article of used clothing Marilyn Monroe was sewn into. Given all of this, why wouldn't I buy a coin because it was owned by a numismatic demigod?

 

This is why it is illegal to sell human saliva.

 

Yes I have. Dan Holmes large cent collection was the most complete set ever assembled lacking only two varieties (Both unique, one permanently impounded in the ANS collection the other, an 1851 in a private collection and the owner wouldn't sell it.) I specialize in the early dates and I have from his collection a 1798 S-158 that was the final piece in the collection, the piece that finished the greatest large cent set ever. It is lower grade than the one I already had, but I paid six times the catalog value in order to get it. To me it is a piece of numismatic history.

 

I would never consider buying anything just because of who had previously owned it.

 

I didn't pay a premium for this store card, but I would have. As a Rarity 4 the token itself isn't a hard find, but the 2x2 envelope it came in is hard to find.

 

I bought this Maximian because it was from the John Q. Adams collection. It was bought more for genealogic reasons more than numismatics. JQ was a cousin of mine...

 

Wow! You must be older than most people here.

 

maybe this one, I do like old snickered silver dollars

 

I paid waaaay too much for a 1865 PCGS PR-66 3CN from the Eliasberg collection. I really just wanted something cheap from his collection, but there was no such thing as a cheap coin from his collection, and I needed a proof 1865 for my set. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was bidding against my local dealer who was bidding on it for me because I had a proof 1865 on my want list. I've always wondered how much I cost myself by not letting him know that I was going to the auction.

 

I have never heard that term before snickered silver dollars. Interesting now I got to go learn about it. Thanks. Something new.

 

Heh.

 

I have never bought something based on provenance alone, but for many medieval coins having a provenance at all, especially one that stretches into the early 20th or 19th century really boosts confidence that one has bought something ultra-genuine. No guarantees, of course, but anything helps these days.

 

My BC drachma is like that. the mere thought that it was in circulation at the time of the three wise men navigating by the Stars and that supposedly this was the coin of the realm that they would have been buying their food and water for their camels and their own lodging on the journey with envigorates the appreciation of the story...
for the same reason I enjoy collecting Civil War coins.I can connect to it.

 

I have quite a few coins formerly owned by well known collectors, including Dave Bowers and John J. Ford, but didn't buy them for that reason. I won't buy something that doesn't appeal to me because of who previously owned it.

Bruce

 

I didn't say how close a cousin...