There are currently 17 pieces of correspondence from Geoffrey Charlton Adams catalogued in the Lupia Numismatic Library. When the digital catalogue is completed 1909 to 1939 the updated total report shall be posted and a few photographs as well.
The Grunewald Hotel was a newly built hotel in 1893 by Louis Grunewald (later renamed the Roosevelt Hotel). Adams was apparently a traveling salesman or traveling engineer consultant as he avers in his publications.
As John Weston Adams (no relation) points out Geoffrey Charlton Adams emerged as a coin dealer out of the blue in 1903. At that time he resided at Creston Avenue, Bedford Park, New York City, New York, and later kept an office in 1905 at 608 Flat Iron Building, New York City, New York Coin. He was not only a coin dealer but in 1905 the owner-editor of The Coin Cabinet, and publisher of thirty coin auction catalogs from May 1903 to October 1906 as a numismatic cataloguer and auctioneer. He was also a book auctioneer of both numismatic literature and rare books. (New York, 1903-1906). In January 1904 he advertised a book auction in the New York Times. He is well-noted for his September 2, 1904 paper delivered to the Chicago Numismatic Society with his critique of the 1804 Silver Dollar as a later restrike based on his opinion as an engineer that these coins were all later struck with a steam press engine between 1836 to 1860 and postulating they all date to the latter. Early in 1906 he donated numismatic literature to the ANS Library. At the March 15th, 1906 meeting of the Royal Numismatic Society, London, which he attended, he was elected a Fellow member to the RNS. Farran Zerbe wrote a complimentary piece about Adams in The Numismatist, August, (1906) : 272. The Numismatist, October 1906 issue, page 344 lists him as expelled from the ANA. There is no record held by the ANA explaining why Adams was expelled. In the June–July 1907 issue, The Elder Monthly, reprints an obviously fictitious and vituperative letter from “A Reader,” titled “Where is Geoffrey” and reading in part: “Have any of your readers seen or heard of Geoffrey ‘Charlatan’ [Charlton Adams], member R.N.S., etc., etc., etc.? he who formerly held a ‘suite’ in the famous ‘Scrapiron." The accusation of his being a Charlatan, i.e., an impostor suggests he used either a fictitious name or assumed the identity of someone else. A decade later Thomas Lindsay Elder capitalized on this silent mystery making acid comments about him in one of his catalogues implying he either absconded with several collectors coins or their money. Was Elder telling the truth or just being Elder the infamous rival of Farran Zerbe?
At the October 1909 meeting of the Royal Numismatic Society, London, he was removed as a member for non payment of dues having been in arrears for two years. In 1910 he resided in Riverside, Bergen County, New Jersey, with his second wife and in-laws Walter F. and Anna Macy, married to their daughter Letitia (1874-1968). That 1910 Census says they were married for 12 years making the wedding take place in 1898. He is listed as an engineer but accordingly never attended school. Hence contradictions about him abound.
In 1915 he married Marion J. Adams (1895-). In 1930 he was in New Orleans, Louisiana working as a Civil Engineer Consultant. He and his wife Marion moved to San Francisco, California in 1933, residing at 2360 Mission Street. On May 23, 1939 he died in San Francisco Hospital, San Francisco, California.
Adams was a member of the Nantucket Historical Society and Royal Numismatic Society while married to his second wife.
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Work :
“The 1804 Dollar,” The Numismatist, Vol. 17 (1904) : 273
The History of the American Dollar (1905)
Catalogs (30):
1903-1906 --- 30 coin auction catalogues
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1903 - 5 Coin Auction Sales
May 2, 1903
June 11, 1903
September 16, 1903 J. Thernley Wilson claims 890 copies distributed
November 24, 1903 H. E. Crawford
December 12, 1903, Henry J. Crosby, David Armstrong
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1904 - 10 Coin Auction Sales, monthly except January and August
February 2, 1904 Pt. 1 : Charles A. Graeber
March 12, 1904, Pt 2 : Charles A. Graeber
April 16, 1904 N. Crank
May 21, 1904,
June 18, 1904, John Tonnenwald
July 16, 1904, D. L. Zeigler, Martin W. Farris
September 10, 1904, E. Hoyt Landon
October 7, 1904, Pt 1: W. R. McColl
November 30, 1904, Wolf, Kane & Prescott
December 29, 1904, Pt 2: W. R. McColl
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1905 - 9 Coin Auction Sales
January 31, 1905, Morgan H. Stafford
February 28, 1905, George H. Wilks
March 31, 1905, Stafford, Mix, Gibson & Rode
March 31, 1905, Catalogue of the Collections of Coins, Medals, Autographs, Books, etc., The Properties of M. H. Stafford. Messrs., Mix, Gibson, Cramer and the Late Geo. W. Rode. Sold at Auction on March 31, 1905 by Geoffrey Charleton Adams.
April 29, 1905 Joseph A. Temple
June 20-21, 1905 Frank O. Anderson
July 14, 1905 History of the Dollar (donated copy to Princeton)
September 27, 1905, Henry C. Ezekiel, Charles P. Nichols
October 28, 1905, Compass Collection (assigned ANA Member No. 494)
December 21, 1905, F. R. Prentice
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1906 - 6 Coin Auction Sales
February 27, 1906, Coast to Coast
April 26, 1906 Henry T. Dawson, Magnus Orr
June 5, 1906, G. C. Adams, Robert G. Fuller
July 13, 1906, J. A. Campbell, Wun Hi Gin
October 9, 1906, H. P. McCoy EXPELLED FROM ANA
November 13-14, 1906 Dixie Land Collection beautiful plates. Only known example Kolbe & Fanning sale January 12, 2013. Discovered in September 2012.
http://www.coinweek.com/auctions-news/discovery-of-geoffrey-charlton-adams-catalogue-with-photographic-plates/
NOTE
Special thanks to Henry Lythe, Administrator, Royal Numismatic Society, London for his very kind assistance. Also, to Christine Robitaille and Kay Olson Freeman for their contributions in genealogical research.
Bibliography :
1880 U. S. Census- trenton, Kentucky
"$1,100 for 1804 Dollar. Brought that Sum in New York--Authenticity Discussed," State, (Columbia, South Carolina) Sunday, October 23, (1904) : 19
New York Times, Saturday, December 10, 1904, page 62, ad for book auction
The Numismatist, Vol. XVIII, No. 2, February (1905) : 65 ad; No. 4 April (1905) : 122; Vol. XIX, August (1906) : 272
1910 U. S. Census- Riverside, New Jersey
New York Times, Friday, July 13, 1906, Chinese coin auction at the Bartholdi Hotel.
1930 U. S. Census
1939 Death Certificate, San Francisco, California
John W. Adams, United States Numismatic Literature, Vol. 11 : 50ff.
Clain-Stefanelli 180; Sigler 22-23;
Index; ANA Library Catalog 643;
Asylum, Vol. 1, No. 1 : 2;
Gengerke, Martin, American Numismatic Auctions, 8th edition (1990) : 1;
Remy Bourne, American Numismatic Periodicals 1860-1960 (1990) Vol. 1, 1900-19 to 1900-20.
