FROSSARD, ÉDOUARD

The Red Skull and Crossbones found on Frossard's card were formed into a die and was a stock item among American 19th century printers.

This label above of druggist R. C. Mathewson, Boonville, Indiana dates to 1867, and serves as a good example to demonstrate this point.

In 1872 he began collecting Large Cents for himself and George W. Merritt, the son of the wealthy owner of the palace at Irvington, New York.

In 1875 he became the editor of the Scott & Co. publication Coin Collector Journal, a position he held from December 1875-December 1877.

David Proskey was hired by John Walter Scott to replace Ed Frossard as editor of the Coin Collector Journal, and cataloguer of the coin auction

sales. By January 1878 Frossard became an independent full time coin dealer, editor publisher. A donor, in 1878,to the ANS library. Between

1877 and 1892 he conducted over 100 coin auction sales and compiled catalogues for W. E. Woodward, Bangs & Co., H. G. Sampson, and others.

He cataloged the Montayne collection of 1,200 lots for H. G. Sampson in the course of only forty-eight hours.

He began publishing Numisma in 1877 after leaving the firm of Scott & Co. as editor of the Coin Collector Journal, and completing the first

13 issues of volume 1. Charles Davis described this publication as:

"An often acid, often scholarly, always entertaining journal with important, although sometimes axe-grinding observations on the business

practices of his competitors, and invaluable for reports on contemporary auctions with notices of over-grading and counterfeits liberally sprinkled

in. Arrows were shot at, among others, Doctor Woodward (the apothecary unable to sell the false talisman to the children of Knicker), Charley

Steigerwalt (the plagiarist with his big journal), Brother Mason (the only original Moses in the coin trade), J.W. Scott (the Fulton Street octopod),

the Chapmans (who produce quarto catalogues with margins sufficiently large for corrections), and David U. Proskey (with a level head and an

India rubber conscience)."

In 1879 he authored the Monograph of the United States Cents and Half Cents 1793-1857 illustrated by coins from the collections of his

long-time associates and patrons Merritt and Parmelee.

He traveled to England in 1880 reporting it in Numisma, September (1880). Mason says that others tell him that “he talks, writes and reads

modern languages in New York city in the day time, juggles coins in the evening, and snores to the happy midnight hours away at his delightful

retreat, “Irvington-on-the-Hudson.”

Frossard and William Elliot Woodward did not get along and feuding between these two mammoth dealers was fierce from 1880 to 1881.

(See bibliography below for several articles)

In September of 1882 Mason is unsure what his first name is and guesses it is Edward or Edwin, or perhaps Ed signifies Editor. Frossard

refused ads in Numisma 1884. (See Mason's Coin Collectors Herald, II, No. 1, June (1880) :5a)

He often sat in coin auctions held in New York and Philadelphia as the agent for several important collectors and private buyers. By the mid

1880's he appears to have developed a reputation for cleaning and polishing coins in order to command higher prices. On that note we discover

that Harlan Page Smith in his coin auction catalogue dated June 4-5, 1885, of the Douglas Steward Collection, wrote an invective against Frossard

as a coin cleaner : “None of these cents…have been scoured with Irvingtononhudson brick, to make them bright red.”

Between 1887 and 1892 he purchased for one special buyer, a prominent millionaire New York Banker, over $15,000.00 in choice specimens

forming the finest collection in the country.

In June, and September 1888 he conducted auctions of stamps at Leavitt’s. The June 28th sale, which was Frossard’s 84th sale, included

part V of the Sterling collection and also that of F. R. Richardson of Salem, Massachusetts. The September sale, which inaugurates the 1888-1889

On December 29, 1888 he sold the coin collection of Gerald E. Hart which three-day sale realized a total of $4,275.94. He claimed the sale

fetched $700.00 more than he predicted. Although the collection cost Hart more than $10,000.00. Heavy buyers at this sale were the coin dealers

Chapman brothers, Scott & Co., William P. Brown, Harlan Page Smith, Mr. Jenkins of Albany and private collectors Dr. Weiner, Mr. Barlow,

and C. L. Podhaiski.

Fig. Frossard's 104th Sale Circular, postmarked November 25, 1890, sent to stamp and coin dealer Luther Brown Tuthill,

South Creek, North Carolina. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library.

On December 22, 1891 he held his 109th coin sale, the F. B. Bennell collection.

He served as the first Counterfeit Dectector to the ANA. In the May 1892 issue of The Numismatist Heath humorously asked the ribald

question : “Brother Tatman to please make our friend Frossard, Counterfeit Detector, instead of Counterfeit Director.

In 1893 he, along with W. W. Hays, authored Varieties of United States Cents of the year 1794 which was reprinted by Thomas Elder in

1910. His collection of 1794 cents was sold in his auction of October 2-3, 1884.

On April 13th, 1892 he sold the collection of A. H. Saltmarsh of Haverhill, Massachusetts. The 1803/04 silver dollar in lot 290 was

withdrawn prior to the sale as an altered date.

On September 9, 1894 The New York Times ran the story on Frossard’s ownership of 160 pen and ink drawing purporting to be by

John Trumball, the famous American artist and painter. He claimed to have bought them from a gentleman of Virginia who inherited them.

Frossard was offering them for sale for $8,000.00.

In The Numismatist 1895 we read :

"Not far away along 14th Street is found a well known expert, Mr. Ed. Frossard, who, though of French origin, has an Anglo-Saxon stability

of temperament. He is a rather large middle aged man of smooth shaven, pleasant face. He has merely a desk and small fireproof in the office of

an insurance company and carries little stock, but generally has some choice pieces to show and often more or less of some collection entrusted to

him to be catalogued and sold. He issues at intervals a sheet entitled Numisma and has a wide correspondence regarding coins, curios, and objects

of historic interest.”

On Friday, January 24, 1896 he auctioned the collection of E. B. Crane of Worcester, Massachusetts, 530 lots.

His collection was cataloged in 37 pages contained 416 lots and auctioned off by the American Art Association, March 19, 1896.

Fig. Postal card sent by Ed Frossard, Jr. to the Chapman Brothers regarding the sales of Dr. Maris of Philadelphia. Note the date of this postcard is

exactly one month after Frossard, Sr.'s death. The Chapman auction took place when Ed Frossard, Sr., fell ill and suddenly died on April 12th. His

son apparently covered for him at auction acting as the agent for at least Dr. Maris, whom young Frossard immediately got paid as bidding agent

telling the Chapmans to collect their payment from him. The Chapman Brothers made it well-known that young Frossard stuck them for at least

$800. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive. Excessively rare -unique specimen,

and far more precious than the business card.

There are thirty-four pieces of correspondence from Ed Frossard in the Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, The Chapman Family

Correspondence Archive. There are an additional nine pieces of correspondence from Ed Frossard, Jr., in the Lupia Numismatic Library,

Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive.

He died on Wednesday, April 12, 1899 at his home at 221 Lexington Avenue, New York. In a letter sent to the Chapman brothers by Charles

Steigerwalt he commented how Frossard's death was sudden and unexpected. The funeral service took place at his home on Thursday, April 14th.

He is buried in the White Plains Rural Cemetery, White Plains, NY.

He was a member of the Solomon’s Masonic Lodge No. 196 of Tarrytown; U. S. Grant Post, G.A.R., the ANS, and charter member of the ANA.

He conducted 159 auction sales before his death on April 12th, 1899. The final catalog of the R. S. Robertson collection, sale no. 160, was held

on April 14, 1899 two days after his death. His son Edouard, Jr. took over his father’s business and conducted his first sale on June 27, 1899 with

sale no. 161. Among the notable collectors for whom Frossard acted as a personal agent was T. Harrison Garrett, the railroad and banking tycoon

of Maryland.

He was survived by his wife Anna Amanada Phillips Frossard and their daughter Edith, and a son Edward, Jr. Ed junior was a notorious thief

and owed many dealers hundreds of dollars totaling in the thousands.