By Doug Winter - www.raregoldcoins.com

For most of the first part of the 20th century, branch mint coins were overlooked by all but a small number of collectors. Assembling specialized sets of coins from Charlotte and the other branch mints really did not begin in earnest until the late 1950’s/early 1960’s. One of the first collectors to specialize in high grade examples of Charlotte coins was Stanley Elrod from Matthews, North Carolina. Elrod began collecting coins from his “local mint” in the 1960’s and would go on to assemble at least three complete sets.

The last of these was clearly the finest set of Charlotte coins ever assembled. It included a number of finest known and Condition Census pieces. It was first offered for sale as a complete set in the mid-1980’s but serious negotiations regarding its sale did not begin until the end of that decade. It was eventually sold to a consortium of dealers who later sold it intact to California dealer/collector/investor Hugh Sconyers.
For the next few years, Sconyers added to the collection. He was able to include a number of coins that were significantly finer than the original Elrod coins but which, at the same time, were of similar quality and appearance to the Elrod coins that were retained. In the middle part of the 1990’s, Sconyers decided to sell the collection and it was purchased by Winthrop Carner, a New York dealer who specialized in rare gold coins. Carner proceeded to break up the collection and began selling coins to an eager audience of new collectors. The majority of the coins went to two collectors: William Miller from Michigan and Paul Dingler from North Carolina.

Carner later sold the remainder of the Elrod collection back to Sconyers who then quietly brokered the coins to other collectors through a small number of dealers.

In February 1999, some of the Elrod coins were offered for sale as part of the Miller collection in the Heritage Long Beach auction. The pieces in the Dingler collection remain off the market and the other Elrod coins are owned by a number of collectors and investors.

The Elrod collection was unquestionably the finest set of Charlotte coins ever formed. Elrod was fortunate to begin collecting these coins at a time when he had little competition and nice, original Charlotte coins could still be found from time to time.

The Elrod pedigree carries a great deal of weight among Charlotte collectors as it is an assurance that a coin is not only among the finest known examples of its respective issue but that it is choice and original as well.